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Hey everybody! Wanna see the worst character design in the world? I'm Adam I'm Cat I'm NessaAnd we're playing Magna Carta : Tears of Blood.  what. Magna Carta Tears of Blood (aka Magna Carta Crimson Stigmata) was released in late 2004 in Japan, and late 2005 in North America. According to Wikipedia, critics praised the game's story, environments and character design, the latter meaning critics were clearly on ecstacy. IGN's review of the game slammed its combat system, giving it the lowest possible score: a 6 out of 10. And now we're going to go through this bad boy and see what it's all about! The backstory starts 600 years ago, where there was a disease that turned people into stone. With the continent ravaged by disease and war, some humans fled across the ocean where they discovered Efferia, a bountiful land occupied by the Yason. Though the humans and the native Yason kept their distance, eventually war broke out between them. Experienced in the ways of war, the humans drove the Yason away. It was not to last though, and the physically superior Yason learned their tactics and drove the humans back. They have been fighting for 30 years now. So far, the game is a mixed bag. The combat is well-designed but poorly executed. Every attack and spell uses chi from the environment, which is consumed by your moves and regenerates automatically. That means that instead of having to manage MP, everyone (friend and foe alike) draws from these shared chi pools. If the chi in a region is strong it regenerates quickly, allowing you to use many attacks with that element. If the chi in a region is weak, it is easily depleted making you (or the enemy!!) unable to use certain moves when it's empty. You can change the background chi levels in every location as far as I can tell, allowing you to influence the environment to your advantage. The combat also runs on a "morale" system. High charisma and healthy party members will give you more turns, and likewise for the enemy. This turns most combats into a steamroller where things go so well that you get all the turns and mop up, or things go poorly early on and the enemy gets all the turns and you're struggling to move. I see what they were trying to do but it turns most battles into a rush to get the first kill. Fortunately, the AI is poor and can be abused. While the combat is well-designed but poorly-executed, the characters are the exact opposite: poorly designed anime fanservice schlock, but well-executed and different enough to be interesting anyway. Let me introduce some of them (click for huge):  Calintz is one of the main heroes of this game, and everything we've seen so far has been through his eyes. He leads an elite team known as the Tears of Blood, and specializes in a fighting style called Fuget, which consists of attacks that cut people a bunch. Critics praised the game's character design.  Reith is the other main character of the game, featured heavily on the cover and in the art. She's a mysterious girl in a yellow dress who loves all living creatures and has amnesia - she can only remember her name and her healing arts. Critics praised the game's character design.  Eonis is another member of the Tears of Blood. She's level-headed and very smart, and specializes in magical arts.  Haren is the martial artist in the Tears of Blood. He's built like a mountain and tough as one too. He flies off the handle easily, and seems to hate the Yason more than anyone else in the group.  Azel is the rookie of the group, and doesn't despise the Yason the way the other Tears do. He looks up to Calintz in admiration, like a puppy or a particularly friendly bird. He fights a lot like Calintz does. Anyway, that about wraps up this OP. One thing I will mention is the spoiler policy: no spoilers for any part of this game later than the videos. Even though the videos are heavily edited to keep the game moving, nobody in the group has played through it before, so anything that happens after the first couple hours is a complete mystery! If you haven't played the game, speculation is fine and we do that a lot. Spiffo fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Apr 10, 2014 |
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Jan 14, 2014 21:45
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 Part 1 - Introductions (~12 minutes) Part 2 - Commence Mission (~15 minutes) Part 3 - Aftermath (~16 minutes) Welcome to Magna Carta : Tears of Blood! The war against the Yason has been raging for over thirty years, with the Yason gaining ground for a while. However, we have our trump card ready: a group of powerful magicians are going to use The Forbidden Magic to rain death upon the Yason capital and win this war for good. It is up to Calintz and his unit, the Tears of Blood, to ensure that the mages remain undisturbed until the ritual is complete! In this update we're going to meet the main crew of the Tears of Blood, as well as General Agreian who's responsible for giving Calintz his orders. We're also going to check out the basics of combat and how it works.
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Jan 14, 2014 21:46
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Isn't this game Korean, instead of Japanese?
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Jan 14, 2014 22:27
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What the hell is happening to that woman's breasts on the box cover?
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Jan 14, 2014 22:29
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It was developed in Korea yeah, and came out on that side of the Pacific in 2004. Fortunately, the anatomy isn't nearly as hosed-up in the game. It's just the drawn art that was drawn by Korean Rob Liefeld.
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Jan 14, 2014 22:32
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FrantzX posted:Isn't this game Korean, instead of Japanese? Yes, it's by Softmax. They're mostly known for their War of Genesis games as far South Korea is concerned. However, Magna Carta is their most well known series outside of Korea. Dusseldorf posted:What the hell is happening to that woman's breasts on the box cover? The character design is by Hyung-tae Kim. Think of him as Tetsuya Nomura's older brother but with kinkier fetishes (and Akihiko Yoshida's penchant for rear end-less chaps). He's done done some great work for the War of Genesis series but his work for the Magna Carta series and the Blade and Soul MMO isn't very inspiring.
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Jan 14, 2014 23:54
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About drat time! I've been waiting with bated breath for this. 
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Jan 15, 2014 00:43
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Dusseldorf posted:What the hell is happening to that woman's breasts on the box cover? They're trying to escape. I know I'd try to escape if I was drawn that badly. They look like two yellow onions pinned to her chest. I don't really have much to say on the game at this point except that it's terribly voice acted with horrible character designs and I can barely comprehend the battle system. Nessa fucked around with this message at 06:17 on Jan 15, 2014 |
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Jan 15, 2014 06:10
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I actually like the main character's design, even if it anime as balls. I guess I should go turn in my cool kid badge?
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Jan 15, 2014 06:20
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Endorph posted:I actually like the main character's design, even if it anime as balls. I guess I should go turn in my cool kid badge? Nah, I do too. It's weird, but I kinda dig Afro Samurai meets a goose-down factory look. But that pose he has is awkward and dumb. VV Like I said, Afro Samurai! 
Seraphic Neoman fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Jan 15, 2014 |
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Jan 15, 2014 06:32
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SSNeoman posted:Nah, I do too. It's weird, but I kinda dig Afro Samurai meets a goose-down factory look. But that pose he has is awkward and dumb. *edit* D'oh. Beaten to that witty comment by Sunning. Bugger.
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Jan 15, 2014 07:03
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I don't think I've ever played this game, but I watched my brother play. Should be interesting!
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Jan 15, 2014 07:59
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Spiffo posted:Critics praised the game's character design. D: Yup, that was about my reaction to the game. I was in an EB Games years ago looking for some sort of RPG to whittle away time as I lived my dull existence and found myself choosing between this game and SMT: Nocturne. Needless to say, it was the character design that drove me away from Magna Carta. Thank goodness, too, in retrospect, as Nocturne was awesome. It's going to be interesting to see what kind of bullet I dodged.
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Jan 15, 2014 08:31
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Endorph posted:I actually like the main character's design, even if it anime as balls. I guess I should go turn in my cool kid badge? Give it here. I'll also need your gun; you're off the force. Blind Sally posted:D: Quoted above: the right goddamn choice. Nocturne owns. I'm going to be doing a proper catpost some day! I've got some esoteric stuff to talk about, and I'll also be keeping track of the mysteries so we can properly observe the approaching plot twists. Safely. From a distance.
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Jan 15, 2014 08:41
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I love Legend of Dragoon. I kinda see some similarities, but I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out.
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Jan 15, 2014 08:49
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I always wind up getting this confused with Stella Deus, except that was a spiritual successor to Hoshigami with reasonably sane character design. Never did get around to buying this, though I saw it all the time for some reason.
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Jan 15, 2014 09:25
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When I got out of class, I found this in my shoe locker, in a little envelope with a heart on it. I thought "Could it be from Senpai?" and my heart started pounding. But then I opened it. 
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Jan 15, 2014 10:26
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The burning village opening just reminded me of Xenogears. Especially when it followed up with a man saying 'Do you desire power?'
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Jan 15, 2014 10:41
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Polsy posted:The burning village opening just reminded me of Xenogears. Especially when it followed up with a man saying 'Do you desire power?' It also smacks of White Knight Chronciles, which came years after Magna Carta but also features an implacable knight in black armour torching the heroes's home town. So this trope survived well into the 'aughts, at the very least.
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Jan 15, 2014 11:04
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The designs for Calintz and Azel go right past androgynous straight over to "that lady has a man for a VO." And the mercenary company has a member that uses his fists for combat when there's perfectly good lengths of two foot or longer metal blades available. I'm also going to guess there's going to be guns present in either one nation's army (or mercenary troupe if there are more than one) and they're going to not be as powerful as sword techniques as to show the superiority of blade skill over the unwashed peasant hordes wielding rifles. Edit: Either that guy in the black coat is  , or he's one of those super cool assholes who wants nothing to do with our hero.There gonna be a checklist of japanese fiction tropes? I think we can get a couple of bingos from what's shown thus far. Ulvirich fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Jan 15, 2014 |
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Jan 15, 2014 12:55
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I tried this game briefly years ago but I seem to recall it being chock full of infuriating load screens. May be remembering it wrong though.
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Jan 15, 2014 17:46
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I find it disturbing that no matter how hard I try to squint my eyes, I can't tell the genders apart in this game.
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Jan 15, 2014 17:48
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Sloober posted:I tried this game briefly years ago but I seem to recall it being chock full of infuriating load screens. May be remembering it wrong though. You are not remembering it wrong. The load screens are agonizing, and there's also a "chi chargeup" that happens before any attack that often takes 3-4 seconds, during which I assume it's loading some attack animation. Needless to say I clean all that poo poo up in the LP. I wonder if the game is a lot better to play on a modded PS2 on a hard drive...?
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Jan 15, 2014 17:57
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citybeatnik posted:I'm more concerned by the fact he's apparently wearing assless chaps. All chaps are assless. Otherwise, they wouldn't be chaps.
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Jan 15, 2014 19:32
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Oh man, I must admit to my eternal shame that I preordered this. I'm having flashbacks to a very, very frustrating summer. I had forgotten how incredibly  the voice acting in this game is, though.
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Jan 15, 2014 20:13
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I wanted to rent this from Gamefly years ago, but never got around to it. I did get to do Magna Carta 2 though. Any chance you'll do that? That one is so anime you'll bleed sushi!
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Jan 16, 2014 21:02
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I couldn't stand Magna Carta 2. It was my first MC game and completely turned me off from playing the rest of them. I hate to say it, but this game already has better character designs than MC2 (except for maybe that lion guy, or whatever it was). That said, it's not much of an improvement. I too, am curious to see what sort of RPG this is, that I missed from the PS2 era. Load times are forgivable if the rest of the game is fun enough.
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Jan 17, 2014 01:12
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Digital Jello posted:Load times are forgivable if the rest of the game is fun enough. No way, this game is somewhere between 25%-50% loading. Long loading screens between every area. Long chargeups before every attack. Noticeable pauses when talking to people. I want to see the plot of the thing though, I'm being driven by  curiosity and wonder
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Jan 17, 2014 02:55
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Digital Jello posted:I couldn't stand Magna Carta 2. It was my first MC game and completely turned me off from playing the rest of them. I hate to say it, but this game already has better character designs than MC2 (except for maybe that lion guy, or whatever it was). That said, it's not much of an improvement. I too, am curious to see what sort of RPG this is, that I missed from the PS2 era. Load times are forgivable if the rest of the game is fun enough. How many Magna Cartas are there? I heard one of them was actually a pretty solid game, no idea which though, I've never played them (which is weird, I usually like quirky JRPGs, hell I played through Star Ocean 4, must be the dumb art style).
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Jan 17, 2014 03:37
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goldjas posted:How many Magna Cartas are there? I heard one of them was actually a pretty solid game, no idea which though, I've never played them (which is weird, I usually like quirky JRPGs, hell I played through Star Ocean 4, must be the dumb art style). There are 3 of them, according to my poor internet research (read: I could be/probably am wrong). I only played the second one for the 360...and never finished it. Honestly, I'm not too picky with the art style, but the story was terminally anime. I don't mind quirky RPGs either; in reference to your Star Ocean, I seem to be one of the few who thought Star Ocean 3 was friggin' awesome.
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Jan 17, 2014 05:06
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Digital Jello posted:There are 3 of them, according to my poor internet research (read: I could be/probably am wrong). I only played the second one for the 360...and never finished it. Honestly, I'm not too picky with the art style, but the story was terminally anime. I don't mind quirky RPGs either; in reference to your Star Ocean, I seem to be one of the few who thought Star Ocean 3 was friggin' awesome. Star Ocean 3 was awesome... Until it had a bout of random explosive diarrhea 3/4's of the way through it and never recovered.
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Jan 17, 2014 05:09
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Digital Jello posted:There are 3 of them, according to my poor internet research (read: I could be/probably am wrong). I only played the second one for the 360...and never finished it. Honestly, I'm not too picky with the art style, but the story was terminally anime. I don't mind quirky RPGs either; in reference to your Star Ocean, I seem to be one of the few who thought Star Ocean 3 was friggin' awesome.
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Jan 17, 2014 05:11
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nine-gear crow posted:Star Ocean 3 was awesome... Until it had a bout of random explosive diarrhea 3/4's of the way through it and never recovered. Naw, it occurred about 1/4 of the way in and never recovered. And yet I put in 100+ hours into that game because I was young, had spent a lot of money on it, and had developed some sort of Stockholm Syndrome around that game. Now that I am free of it, I can begin the healing process.
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Jan 17, 2014 06:43
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You're all wrong. SO3 was the best. The only problem is everything (plot-wise) that comes after the screen turns to static when the final boss' HP hits 0. I'm trying to say that SO3's ending was terrible. All of them. I think you all hate it because you're data. Nothing more than data  No, but realtalk. Star Ocean is much better if you treat it like Final Fantasy, each game is different with common themes and shoutouts. It's when people try to connect it all together that it all goes to poo poo. SO3 was the worst offender in that regard.
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Jan 17, 2014 08:07
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Unless I'm terribly confused, I tried this game out when I was working at a Gamestop back when it came out. I...was not impressed, and honestly can't remember much more beyond that. I think I finished the first area of the game and said "gently caress it." Pretty hard to recommend to a customer, for me at least.
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Jan 17, 2014 15:52
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I vaguely remember being slightly hype for the game for reasons that are completely lost to me. I seriously do not know what I may have liked about the game.
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Jan 17, 2014 19:31
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Well for me it was because I had somehow discovered War of Genesis and had been trying to learn all I could about it. The partial translations gave me just enough information to fill in the gaps and think they must have been making some cool poo poo in Korea that I would never get. Also, I found the art they were using pretty cool (as I recall it's a lot less balls-out-anime in War of Genesis than in Magna Carta, at least at first.) So knowing they had a game coming to the States really got my attention. But once I had it, well... sometimes first hand experience doesn't actually improve things.
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Jan 17, 2014 20:09
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I actually bought Magna Carta because the whole limited edition box set was on the resale rack at my local game shop, and I was too young and dumb to know what that meant. All I saw was a glossy anime-style game, the kind that gets box sets, for waaay cheaper than I expected! Score! I thought! What a great deal! I learned an important lesson about the resale rack that day.
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Jan 17, 2014 21:37
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 Part 1 - Escape from the cave (~15 minutes) Part 2 - Journey to Lester (~20 minutes) Having barely survived the encounter with that big beast Yason, we counter the game's alternate protagonist: Reith! A magical girl with amnesia and healing magic! In her art she reminds me of a blowup doll, and in the game she reminds me of a duck. She's Reith! Together, Reith and Calintz make their way on foot towards Lester, where the rest of the group is waiting. Unfortunately, there are Blast Worms (Yason soldiers) all over the place. So far Reith is one of the most useful assets in a battle. In most fights you have to grab an advantage quickly, but Reith's healing and the Environmental Chi system allow you to win a war of attrition. With Reith in your corner you could theoretically fight forever (which is approximately how long it takes for boss enemies to fall down). All her healing is AoE so with Reith, you're indestructible. This is also the episode where we realize that the battle system is based on the elements of the I Ching, which is an elemental system that we'd never seen ANYWHERE, and something that Cat can probably post about at length when she gets to a computer.
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Jan 23, 2014 20:43
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I keep getting peoples gender mixed up. When guys have hips, it isn't just androgynous any more.I can't wrap my head around the male design in this game. I mean, females make sense because of fan service, but th guys? ...why?
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Jan 23, 2014 23:19
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