I just don't understand what happened here. Atlus' Magna Carta: Tears of Blood should have been one of the most impressive role-playing games of the year... but ended up as one of its most arduous instead. The amazing thing is, that on paper, Magna Carta has a number of qualities worth rooting for -- an original battle system, a high profile character artist, excellent graphics, and a visual style that's all its own. But despite that promising build-up, Tears of Blood sadly falls short of its grand potential... way short.In all fairness, Magna Carta is a beautiful-looking game if nothing else. The Landscape and Concept designer In-Jung Jang did an excellent job in his portrayal of the world of Efferia and has taken a lot of RPG clichés (desert town, mountain kingdom, floating castle, etc) and somehow made them unique and interesting. Moreover, these appealing designs have translated well into digital form with sharp backgrounds and impressive environments ranking among the elite in terms of detail. The spellcasting effects and monster concepts are almost as notable, and there's even an undocumented progressive scan feature unlocked by holding X and Triangle as the game boots up (be warned, though... this feature wasn't translated into English -- so press circle to accept).
For the most part, Magna Carta has strong visuals all the way through.
If Magna Carta does have a graphical weakness, it's with the characters themselves. Though there's nothing wrong with the models or their animations directly (they're decent enough), the character designs are way out of place. Don't get me wrong, character artist Hyung-Tae Kim is one of my favorite contemporary artists, and much like the KOF master Falcoon, uses a superb level of detail in his designs. Unfortunately, they just don't work in Tears of Blood. Nine times out of ten, it's incredibly difficult to tell what gender your characters are (nobody in the office believed that Calintz was a dude until I could prove it with cutscene voice-overs) and most folks were robed far too elaborately to fit their personality. There are a few exceptions, of course (Lehas and Reith come to mind), but not enough to really wow you.Luckily, Magna Carta has a respectable storyline. As the aforementioned androgynous hero Calintz (first introduced in the Korean-only PC role-player Phantom of the Avalanche), players are thrust into the middle of a full-scale war that's been brewing for hundreds of years. As it turns out, the human race was forced from its homeland because of a serious plague before washing ashore in the land of Efferia. From the moment the humans arrived, they were at odds with the tribes of Yason (magical beings with strangely-shaped ears) and eventually went into battle against them. As Calintz, users are the captain of the "Tears of Blood" -- a deadly mercenary group hired by the government to help bring an end to the bitter feud. They're just the people to do it too, as the band was formed out of hatred for the Yason...as its members have all had loved ones killed by them.
Reith is a living mystery... with one hell of a body.
Naturally, the super secret battle-ending mission undertaken by the Tears of Blood doesn't go according to plan, and after some swift ass-kicking, Calintz meets up with a mysterious priestess that's lost her memory (Reith). This sets up the rest of the storyline as Calintz takes off with his new companion and several others to find out who this woman is and how they can work together to stop the Yason. Happily the tale is told with a modicum of sophistication and some pretty cool plot twists, but does seem to drag on a bit in the beginning before it really gets going. Expect plenty of dialogue.
