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The Official Magna Carta 2 Thread of Sorry Duckroll

Hello. I am here to give a lame attempt at an official thread (my first one, no less). Welcome to the thread.

137620e.jpg

Game: MagnaCarta 2 (originally, this series was called Magna Carta, but Namco Bandai decided to make it all one word. Must be a marketing strategy that us folks are too dumn to figure out.)
Developer: SoftMax, a game company in South Korea.
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games America
Players: 1
Release date: October 13th (US) [Although most Gamestops don't care about selling this before the date; that's how I got mine]; a little bit later [UK]
Engine: Unreal Engine 3, which was presented...*load*...very well...*load*...in Lost Odyssey and...*load*...The Last Remnant.

Summary shamelessly taken from Amazon.com:

"Magnacarta 2 introduces an original new storyline driven by intense themes of love, hate, politics, betrayal and the ultimate question of choosing one’s own fate. Players are immersed in the world of the Lanzheim Continent, a conflict-ridden land deeply divided by a fierce civil war. Powered by the Unreal Engine3 and featuring character designs by famed Korean artist Hyung-Tae Kim, the game bears a striking visual style unlike any other RPG through its blend of photo-realism and Japanese manga influences. The deeply emotional story is driven by beautifully rendered CGI cut-scenes featuring fully voiced dialogue to draw players into the immersive experience. Delivering more than 40 hours of gameplay, Magnacarta 2 features a unique battle system which combines strategic turn-based battles and real-time gameplay, creating a fresh twist on the traditional RPG formula. The game seamlessly blends world navigation and battles as everything happens in the same environment with no load screens or abrupt changes in the action when a fight begins or ends. Players can utilize objects found in the environment to their advantage and likewise, creatures and field objects dynamically react to the player’s actions. A free roaming camera further adds to the unrestricted interaction with the world. Players are also given flexible control over their party with the ability to pre-assign attributes for each AI character and freedom to easily switch control between all the characters at any time."

Reviews:

Play: 9 http://playmagazine.com/index.php?fuseaction=SiteMain.Content&contentid=1867
IGN: 6.8 http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/103/1034355p1.html
Game Informer: 8.25 http://gameinformer.com/games/magnacarta_2/b/xbox360/archive/2009/10/13/review.aspx
OXM: 7.5 http://www.oxmonline.com/article/reviews/xbox-360/m-r/magna-carta-ii
NowGamer: 4.4http://xbox-360.nowgamer.com/reviews/xbox-360/8750/magna-carta-ii?o=1#listing

Screens (thank you Team Xbox, sir):

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1254868355.jpg

1254868354.jpg

1254868485.jpg

1254868487.jpg


Voice People, thanks kiryogi
"Johnny Yong Bosch - Juto
Michelle Ruff - Zelphie
Kate Higgins - Rue
Yuri Lowenthal - Crocell
Jaimeson Price - Argo
Stephanie Sheh - Celestine
Dave Wittenberg - Igton
Wendee Lee - Melissa
Crispin Freeman - Alex
Travis Willingham - Raus
Steven Blum - Schuenzeit
Laura Bailey - Claire
Liam o'brien- Huaren"

Achievements (1240), thanks Xbox360Achievements.Org:
Battle of Highwind Island 10
Complete the battle of Highwind Island.
Battle of Oldfox Canyon 20
Complete the battle of Oldfox Canyon.
Battle of Cota Mare 30
Complete the battle of Cota Mare.
Battle of Dunan Hill 40
Complete the battle of Dunan Hill.
Battle of Ruhalt Basin 50
Complete the battle of Ruhalt Basin.
First Quest Cleared 5
Clear the first quest.
10 Quests Cleared 5
Clear 10 quests.
50 Quests Cleared 10
Clear 50 quests.
80 Quests Cleared 20
Clear 80 quests.
All Quests Cleared 30
Clear all quests.
Co-op Technique: Juto & Zephie 10
Learn Co-op Technique for Juto & Zephie.
Style Master: 1 Handed Sword 30
Master Juto's 1 Handed Sword skill tree.
Style Master: 2 Handed Sword 30
Master Juto's 2 Handed Sword skill tree.
Style Master: Hammer 30
Master Argo's Hammer skill tree.
Style Master: Axe 30
Master Argo's Axe skill tree.
Style Master: Rod 30
Master Zephie's Rod skill tree.
Style Master: Fan 30
Master Zephie's Fan skill tree.
Style Master: Fireball 30
Master Crocell's Fireball skill tree.
Style Master: Knuckles 30
Master Crocell's Knuckle skill tree.
Style Master: Aroma 30
Master Celestine's Aroma skill tree.
Style Master: Bow 30
Master Celestine's Bow skill tree.
Style Master: Katana 30
Master Rue's Katana skill tree.
Style Master: Shuriken 30
Master Rue's Shuriken skill tree.
Weapon Enhanced 5
Use Enhancements on a weapon.
Obtained Item Recipe 5
Obtain an item recipe.
Obtained 6 Item Recipes 10
Obtain 6 item recipes.
Obtained All Item Recipes 30
Obtain all item recipes.
100 Chain Breaks 10
Complete 100 chain breaks.
300 Chain Breaks 30
Complete 300 chain breaks.
500 Chain Breaks 50
Complete 500 chain breaks.

Secret Achievements

Secret Achievement 60
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
Secret Achievement 70
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
Secret Achievement 80
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
Secret Achievement 10
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
Secret Achievement 10
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
Secret Achievement 20
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
Secret Achievement 20
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.

DLC Achievements:

Viewed Live Drama 1 20
View Live Drama 1 "What's Wrong With Her?!"

Viewed Live Drama 2 20
View Live Drama 2 "Does Anyone Want Seconds?"

Viewed Live Drama 3 20
View Live Drama 3 "Celestine's Pet Adoption Agency"

Weapon Collector: Juto 30
Collect all of Juto's weapons, including downloadable content.

Weapon Collector: Zephie 30
Collect all of Zephie's weapons, including downloadable content.

Weapon Collector: Argo 30
Collect all of Argo's weapons, including downloadable content.

Weapon Collector: Crocell 30
Collect all of Crocell's weapons, including downloadable content.

Weapon Collector: Celestine 30
Collect all of Celestine's weapons, including downloadable content.

Weapon Collector: Rue 30
Collect all of Rue's weapons, including downloadable content.

Is it cool?
Tough to tell at this point. I have only invested a few hours into it, but it is better than Magna Carta. In case you haven't heard, Magna Carta featured an unplayable, disastrous battle system. This seems to have a functional one, at least. Beyond the battle system, it supports some awesome music, a decent art direction, and typical JRPG stuff.
Will this sell well?
Probably not, no. One day before release, MagnaCarta 2 sits itself at an impressive #276 on best-selling videogame list at Amazon.com. :(
duckroll
Hates this series, and probably hates me for actually making an official thread to it.

Contributions are welcomed.

GAF Impressions
FateBreaker said:
At least: better than Magna Carta
At most: a decent RPG.

kiryogi said:
Alriight quick and dirty as I'm still in the middle of playing. I was going to say at first the game was pretty mediocre if not plain and boring. But it took a little time to warm up. Most of the combat details have been explained, but it really feels like playing FF12 without the gambits or some MMO. Especially since there's the status updates in the upper left corner in terms of quests, xp gained, etc. Things finally pick up a bit once you get a full party since you gain the ability to do chains, which spices things up in terms of the normal combat.

- Story's pretty basic so far, nothing special. The dub is pretty solid though. In fact, I'd say that Ruff makes a good opposite to Hirano for Zelphie. Some of the npcs/villagers are cringe worthy though. JYB is JYB :shrugs:

- If there's one thing that Magna Carta did nail previously, it's the music. It's certainly as enjoyable as the first. A good variety of nice melodic tracks and very epic themes.

- On the the technical side: Visually the game isn't a looker by any means, but they managed to make pretty solid representations of Kim's characters in 3d. The world itself is vast and nearly seamless, though loading is still around, it's pretty minimal with install.

Wilsongt said:
Since we have an official thread:

Impressions ahoy!

I picked it up and Friday and have put about 3 hours into it. It starts out standard RPG fair; amnesiac hero with female friend. Thankfully, as opposed to some RPGs, you only have to do two or three fetch-quest type jobs before shit hits the proverbial fan. The early missions basically just teach you about the systems. It's best to ignore Melissa as she rants about them. It's really a system that you learn as you go as you do it.

Story hasn't really gone anywhere so far, so I can't focus on it too much. Juto lives on an island, island gets invaded, Juto seeks revenge. Pretty basic.

So far, I've enjoyed the battle system. You do have to put a little more thought into it as opposed to button mashing, because you will quickly go into Overheat in the beginning and that puts you out of the battle for a few seconds. Once you are able to have a party, though, you can quickly heal this status. It would have been nice if chaining attacks was just a little bit quicker. As it stands, there is at least a couple of seconds lag between doing a special attack with your first character, chaining to the next, and then being able to special attack with the next. Effectively doing this and then breaking the chain recovers stamina, which is good because you can attack, special, chain, special, break, heal stamina and move along. However, you do have a few second grace period to do these chains and as long as you don't do anything other than move or do a special after the chain has started, you're golden.

The game has the standard missions that are storyline based and then you have various people you can chat it up with and do missions for, gaining items, EXP, and Gold. These are pretty simple and range from killing x number of baddies to finding and saving someone.

As per a lot of RPGs these days, there are an element of item crafting, which makes you have to utilize Zephie in order to steal souls, or Kamond, from monsters. Also, it seems like characters have special abilities that are unique to them. Juto kicks things on the field to break them open for items, Argo has the ability to break the exteriors of armored monsters, and as I mentioned, Zephie steals Kamond in order to make accessories.

There is a skill system that's pretty easy to grasp, but I believe requires some planning. Characters have two "styles" of fighting, which means that they have two basic weapon types they use. They also have Skill Points that they gain upon leveling up. Due to this, Skill Points are limited, and it's up to you to decide how you want your characters skills to grow. Each weapon type has its own particular abilities and skills. For example, Zephie uses rods and fans. When she is equipped with a Rod, she gains a healing ability. However, early on, if you equip her with a fan, she can no longer use that ability. Also, Argo can only break shells if he is using an axe. Given how early I am in the game, I can only assume at this point that you might have to switch Styles on the fly given the situation.

Voice acting is solid given the general cast of people that was already listed. Graphics are... okay. Nothing stellar. You have your cutscene every now and then, but most conversations are presented kind of like they were in Enchanted Arms where two character models face each other and their lips flap and arms move. The dubbing seems decent, so the lipsyncing is good. Also, despite the art, there is a distinct lack of shiny tits and women-men (With the exception of Elgar so far) using the ingame engine. So, no horse nipples.

Let's see... Music is good, actually. It's very atmospheric and areas are nice and open. Monsters are on the field, ala FFXII and others, so no battle transitions. The only problem I have with the battle system (which is something that was carried over from the first Magna Carta) is that while in combat mode, you move slower. You have the option of dashing towards your opponent, but yeah. So, be prepared to switch a lot between combat mode and movement mode while you are in battles.

I think that is all I have to say... I am willing to entertain other questions.

Edit!

Loading times! They are actually pretty small. They are noticeable sometimes, but others they are quick. Also, from what I have seen so far, transition between different areas of the field are pretty seemless.

FateBreaker said:
Yeah, the music is even better than the first--and I really love the soundtrack to that (the only good thing to come out of that game). This is possibly my choice for soundtrack of the year.

On that note, the game is really pretty. The art direction is excellent (outside of some characters), the graphics are good (though nothing that rivals Lost Odyssey), and, best of all, very short load times. Some of the towns and dungeons are just really cool-looking.

The voice acting is surprisingly decent, the script and translation are typical, though.

The battle system! It is, contrary to the original's, inoffensive. It is not that exciting, but it gets the job done...it is like a simplified FFXII system or, perhaps more appropriately, a hack-and-slash with a few mechanics to make it a little unique (good and bad). The overall idea of the battle system is a little irritating at times, and that produces some concerns with battle tactics; however, most of what is here is decent. I repeat: the battle system as deep as Lost Odyssey's or The Last Remnant's, or fast and constant like Tales of Vesperia or SO4, but it's playable and, especially if you're in a mood not to think and take it easy, enjoyable.

methos75 said:
Not going to lie, I bought this game today purely because I am a spazz and buy every RPG released good or bad, I fully expected it too be shovel ware much like the PS2 game was before and too find out that its above average is a shock. This is seriously a pretty good game, I like the graphics very much and find them better than SO4, the music is great, the characters are semi cool, the story is great so far, and combat is pretty fun outside the lame stamina bar. I have to say its my third favorite XB360 (K)JRPG after TOV and LO, not bad company at all.
 

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
:eek: I didn't know about this. Do you need any knowledge of the first to play this? I loved UE3 in LO. At least when it was installed to HDD.
 

Wilsongt

Member
Since we have an official thread:

Impressions ahoy!

I picked it up and Friday and have put about 3 hours into it. It starts out standard RPG fair; amnesiac hero with female friend. Thankfully, as opposed to some RPGs, you only have to do two or three fetch-quest type jobs before shit hits the proverbial fan. The early missions basically just teach you about the systems. It's best to ignore Melissa as she rants about them. It's really a system that you learn as you go as you do it.

Story hasn't really gone anywhere so far, so I can't focus on it too much. Juto lives on an island, island gets invaded, Juto seeks revenge. Pretty basic.

So far, I've enjoyed the battle system. You do have to put a little more thought into it as opposed to button mashing, because you will quickly go into Overheat in the beginning and that puts you out of the battle for a few seconds. Once you are able to have a party, though, you can quickly heal this status. It would have been nice if chaining attacks was just a little bit quicker. As it stands, there is at least a couple of seconds lag between doing a special attack with your first character, chaining to the next, and then being able to special attack with the next. Effectively doing this and then breaking the chain recovers stamina, which is good because you can attack, special, chain, special, break, heal stamina and move along. However, you do have a few second grace period to do these chains and as long as you don't do anything other than move or do a special after the chain has started, you're golden.

The game has the standard missions that are storyline based and then you have various people you can chat it up with and do missions for, gaining items, EXP, and Gold. These are pretty simple and range from killing x number of baddies to finding and saving someone.

As per a lot of RPGs these days, there are an element of item crafting, which makes you have to utilize Zephie in order to steal souls, or Kamond, from monsters. Also, it seems like characters have special abilities that are unique to them. Juto kicks things on the field to break them open for items, Argo has the ability to break the exteriors of armored monsters, and as I mentioned, Zephie steals Kamond in order to make accessories.

There is a skill system that's pretty easy to grasp, but I believe requires some planning. Characters have two "styles" of fighting, which means that they have two basic weapon types they use. They also have Skill Points that they gain upon leveling up. Due to this, Skill Points are limited, and it's up to you to decide how you want your characters skills to grow. Each weapon type has its own particular abilities and skills. For example, Zephie uses rods and fans. When she is equipped with a Rod, she gains a healing ability. However, early on, if you equip her with a fan, she can no longer use that ability. Also, Argo can only break shells if he is using an axe. Given how early I am in the game, I can only assume at this point that you might have to switch Styles on the fly given the situation.

Voice acting is solid given the general cast of people that was already listed. Graphics are... okay. Nothing stellar. You have your cutscene every now and then, but most conversations are presented kind of like they were in Enchanted Arms where two character models face each other and their lips flap and arms move. The dubbing seems decent, so the lipsyncing is good. Also, despite the art, there is a distinct lack of shiny tits and women-men (With the exception of Elgar so far) using the ingame engine. So, no horse nipples.

Let's see... Music is good, actually. It's very atmospheric and areas are nice and open. Monsters are on the field, ala FFXII and others, so no battle transitions. The only problem I have with the battle system (which is something that was carried over from the first Magna Carta) is that while in combat mode, you move slower. You have the option of dashing towards your opponent, but yeah. So, be prepared to switch a lot between combat mode and movement mode while you are in battles.

I think that is all I have to say... I am willing to entertain other questions.

Edit!

Loading times! They are actually pretty small. They are noticeable sometimes, but others they are quick. Also, from what I have seen so far, transition between different areas of the field are pretty seemless.
 
A thread! yes! I want details please! I would have named it The Official Magna Carta 2 thread of balloon boobies and yummy drum stick legs :D
 
Thanks for the impressions; I put them in the OP. I mostly agree with your impressions...and yes, the music is really quite excellent.
 

KAL2006

Banned
So whats the verdict on this game. How does it compare to other RPGs such as ToV, Lost Oddyssey, Last Remnant, SO4, Blue Dragon, Infinite Undiscovery. Note I only enjoyed ToV and Lost Odyssey out of those.
 
KAL2006 said:
So whats the verdict on this game. How does it compare to other RPGs such as ToV, Lost Oddyssey, Last Remnant, SO4, Blue Dragon, Infinite Undiscovery. Note I only enjoyed ToV and Lost Odyssey out of those.

so far it is not as good as Lost Odyssey or Tales of Vesperia, though I wasn't really expecting it to be. It is a decent, unoffensive RPG (contrary to the first one) that doesn't WOW me, but it just does enough to keep me progressing. So, it's pretty good, though I fear that this battle system could get very boring and simple very quickly. Hopefully I'm wrong.
 

duckroll

Member
Wait, hold on, what the hell do I have to do with this game?! All I did was play the demo and say it just wasn't that hot. Wtf?! :(
 

KAL2006

Banned
FateBreaker said:
so far it is not as good as Lost Odyssey or Tales of Vesperia, though I wasn't really expecting it to be. It is a decent, unoffensive RPG (contrary to the first one) that doesn't WOW me, but it just does enough to keep me progressing. So, it's pretty good, though I fear that this battle system could get very boring and simple very quickly. Hopefully I'm wrong.

So its just average, even Lost Odyssey didnt excite me much and if it isnt as good as Lost Odyssey I doubt I can tolerate this game. For some reason this gen I am off JRPGs, so I guess I'll just wait for the hight quality ones like ToV and FFXIII
 

Wilsongt

Member
KAL2006 said:
So whats the verdict on this game. How does it compare to other RPGs such as ToV, Lost Oddyssey, Last Remnant, SO4, Blue Dragon, Infinite Undiscovery. Note I only enjoyed ToV and Lost Odyssey out of those.

ToV is on an entirely different plane than this game.

ToV >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Lost Odyssey = Blue Dragon >>>>>> Magna Carta >>>> Infinite Undiscovery >>>> SO4
 

Durante

Member
Wilsongt said:
Namco-Bandai.

I think that's all I need to say on that subject.
Eternal Sonata? (I was really sure they'd keep it up after that :/)

Anyway, the PS2 Magna Carta is probably the worst RPG I ever bought at full price. There will need to be a staggering amount of positive buzz in this thread for me to consider part 2.
 

Wilsongt

Member
Durante said:
Eternal Sonata?

Anyway, the PS2 Magna Carta is probably the worst RPG I ever bought at full price. There will need to be a staggering amount of positive buzz in this thread for me to consider part 2.

Part 3, actually. ;)
 
Man this game fails at capturing Hyung Tae Kim's art style. It's almost as if the 3D modelers said fuck the art! :lol

But I heard the game is pretty good overall.
 
Wilsongt said:
ToV is on an entirely different plane than this game.

ToV >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Lost Odyssey = Blue Dragon >>>>>> Magna Carta >>>> Infinite Undiscovery >>>> SO4

I have not really played SO4, IU, or TLR (in terms of big-budget 360 JRPGs), but I otherwise agree here, except I'd put LO = TOV.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
I actually picked this up in one of my TRU Buy 2 Get 3rd Free sets.
But since I have yet to play the original (backlog, ahoy!) and tend to tackle RPGs in order, I don't know when (or if!) I'll ever get to this!
 
duckroll said:
Yeah I wanna know why I got dragged into this too!

It was my perfect time to place revenge!
Just kidding. I couldn't think of something clever, and I recall you always killing hype for this game, so I just said that.

As Urban Scholar suggested, The Official Magna Carta 2 thread of balloon boobies and yummy drum stick legs is a nice alternative. You do, after all, have the powahhh to change it. :p
 

B.K.

Member
Mejilan said:
But since I have yet to play the original (backlog, ahoy!) and tend to tackle RPGs in order, I don't know when (or if!) I'll ever get to this!

Don't play it. It's horrible.
 

Anony

Member
Mejilan said:
I actually picked this up in one of my TRU Buy 2 Get 3rd Free sets.
But since I have yet to play the original (backlog, ahoy!) and tend to tackle RPGs in order, I don't know when (or if!) I'll ever get to this!
the price of the game would probably drop down to really 'low' by the time u play it, if ever
u probably should have gotten something else that u know u'd play
 

zoku88

Member
FateBreaker said:
Don't sugercoat it: it's the worst RPG ever created.
Nah, there are worse RPGs out there. (probably that N64 game everyone always brings up.) It's just one of the worst :p
 

duckroll

Member
FateBreaker said:
It was my perfect time to place revenge!
Just kidding. I couldn't think of something clever, and I recall you always killing hype for this game, so I just said that.

As Urban Scholar suggested, The Official Magna Carta 2 thread of balloon boobies and yummy drum stick legs is a nice alternative. You do, after all, have the powahhh to change it. :p

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to call my lawyer. You'll be hearing from him soon! :(
 

Phthisis

Member
Wish I could get excited for this, but the first one was easily one of the worst games I have ever played in my life, there is no way in hell I get duped again.
 

methos75

Banned
so far its ok, the graphics are about as good as SO4's, the music is pretty good, the voice acting is passable, not great, not bad.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Anony said:
the price of the game would probably drop down to really 'low' by the time u play it, if ever
u probably should have gotten something else that u know u'd play

I'm pretty caught up in my purchases, actually. That's why I felt it made for decent fodder for the TRU deal.
 

Einbroch

Banned
I don't know the main character's VA, but he's in everything and it's annoying. I don't need to know it either, I'd just IMDB it if I cared enough.

Other than that, though, I'm really digging this game. Everything is above average, and for a jRPG, I'm happy with that.
 

Wilsongt

Member
Einbroch said:
I don't know the main character's VA, but he's in everything and it's annoying. I don't need to know it either, I'd just IMDB it if I cared enough.

Other than that, though, I'm really digging this game. Everything is above average, and for a kRPG, I'm happy with that.


Fixed that for you.
 
Einbroch said:
I don't know the main character's VA, but he's in everything and it's annoying. I don't need to know it either, I'd just IMDB it if I cared enough.

What's wrong? Too much teen angst and fiery passion in Johnny Yong Bosch's voice work for you?! :lol
 
I had it as my second game in my gamefly queue because I forgot uncharted came out.
Needless to say, they sent me this thing instead of brutal legend, no questions asked. Going to get it tomorrow. Will post impressions if I get around to it.
 

Kasumi1970

my name is Ted
i am going to be selling my Suikoden III, Suikoden IV ,Suikoden Tactics and Digital Devil Saga 1 on e bay soon so i can get Magna Carta 2 and Tekken 6 for the 360;
by the way is there a demo up for the USA yet?
 
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