Magna Carta 2

 MagnaCarta 2 is a JRPG from Banpesto and is the follow up to the unplayable mess that was MagnaCarta. This time around they've addressed the issues from the first game and come up with what is an enjoyable if somewhat generic RPG. All the old JRPG cliches crop up, the main character has lost his memory and doesn't understand this “power” he has and so he sets out on a journey of self discovery and all that. While the story isn't original it's well told and is more than enough to keep the player interested. The main protagonist comes across as the usual sulky teenager type and isn't likeable at all, he does mature though and over the course of the game does become a lot more interesting. Your party can contain a total of six characters with three being playable at any time, you can also switch and control any of the characters whenever you like, even during boss battles you can change your party. The characters are quite good and to be honest I didn't find any of them to be annoying, although a few appear that way early on.

The combat is real time and to be honest is a lot more complicated than it needs to be, You have a bar that is used up every time you attack, when the bar is full you go into “overdrive” and stand a good chance of “overheating” if you don't switch characters. If you “Overheat” you cannot attack for a period until you cool down. Sadly it tends to get in the way of having fun, just when you get going you have to stop. Special attacks use a thing called “Kan”, this is built up doing standard attacks and is also affected by the environment, the problem is the good moves require a lot of kan and you just don't get the chance to build up enough to use them or it takes so long your better off sticking to lesser special attacks or standard moves. So once again a combat feature limits the player and removes some of the enjoyment. That said once you get the hang of chaining moves together there is still a lot of fun to be had with the combat.

Graphically is varies between good and a not so good, the Unreal engine once again can't load textures in a decent time and like Mass Effect you have to wait for some to load. I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would use an engine that has such an obvious design flaw. The art direction is good and the environments varied enough to keep things interesting, the game world isn't exactly huge but you'll never tire of the various locals. The voice acting is good in some places but on the whole pretty average. The music does deserve a mention, some of it is very good and it never feels repetitive, worth playing though a decent pair of speakers.  

Would I recommend this?

I would to anyone who likes JRPs, it doesn't break any new ground and won't convert those who don't like them but for those of us who do will find a pretty solid game with characters that'll grow on you, combat that's involving if and when you get the hang of it and a good enough story to tie it all in.