Ramblings of a Crowe

Magna Carta: Tears of Blood

Okay, I'll be honest, I haven't finished this game yet. I'm getting close to the end, but I got mad and stopped playing. Forever? No, I don't think so. But just until I develop a strategy that won't make me start over from the beginning...

First of all, I love this game. The artwork, designs, game play, and story are excellent. The voice acting is pretty good too, though I really do get irritated watching the lesser players (NPCs) open and close their mouths like goldfish when you talk to them.

The battle system is fun too, based on a ring system similar to Shadow Hearts. The big difference is you can move your characters all over the battle field and choose which attacks and styles you want to use; there is no turn based fighting so to speak. You pick who you want to move and move them, after this little bar (called the leadership bar) fills up. I'd call it a semi-active battle system. *laughs* I would prefer the other characters handle their own affairs, as this game moves extremely fast when it comes to battling, and it's really hard to keep an eye on three characters and however many monsters they're throwing at you all at the same time. Needless to say, some of the battles can be really tough (and VERY, VERY long), but once you figure out a strategy that works well, you can come out ahead...most of the time.

Characters can learn different fighting techniques. Sometimes you find a scroll that teaches them, other times you train at dojos--for a hefty price. Three skills can be equipped at once. Skill require 'chi'. There are a handful of various chi available. Some of it is natural, other times you'll need to use talismans to boost the chi for whatever skill your using. Chi are Fire, Earth, Mountain, Air, Water, Lightening, Ice, Celestial...I think that's it...Anyway, the more powerful the chi of whatever sort, the more powerful those attacks based on the chi will be and visa versa.

Game play is fairly linear. There's not a lot of side questing and the game pretty much guides you to where you need to go. Maps are locked down until you complete missions, so you can't stray away into another place and forget your objective (or level up, but more on this later). Only later in the game do you get more freedom to wander about. If you're like me, I enjoy a lot of side quests. They're fun. Which makes me sad for this game. However, the really fun characters make up for it, as does the story line.

So, if there's no side questing, how is it I've logged 60 some hours on this game already (other than being unemployed and having nothing else to do)? And how is it I haven't finished it yet? Let me tell you. Walking. You WALK everywhere! If you run, the monsters surprise you (which sucks) and you miss the treasure chests, which are pretty important in this game since buying armor/weapons/accessories is a pain in the ass. You have two modes of travel: Dash mode, which lets you run at the usual RPG character's pace; and Search Mode, where you plod along, seeing all the monsters and treasures. So yes, walking is the bane of my existence right now...

But you want to fight all the monsters you can anywhere. I mean it. Kill them all. Every last one of them, except those blue guys in the mountains. They'll kill your ass. The rest, destroy them. Why? Because you need to level up--and that is FRIGGEN HARD TO DO in this game. There is no rhyme or reason to the distribution of EXP given after you defeat a monster. Some of the weakest monsters give the most EXP. Many of the hardest give you almost nothing. Monsters DO NOT return after you leave a screen. They're gone. For lord only knows how long. Nothing pisses me off more than fighting three big ass hairy bastards with swords, nearly dying...just to get one measly point added to my EXP bar.

I have spent hours chasing down monsters, clearing entire dungeons; and at this late point in the game, wandering all over the map killing everything in sight. My characters are between level 50 and 65 right now. My goal is 75 for Calintz. I cry tears when I think about how hard that will be.

Why level 75? Because I don't want to have to use that horrible "Counter Mode" to fight the final boss. Back to the styles you can learn--you see, each style has a different mode: Counter, Standard, or Combo. All styles come with Standard. That's nothing fancy. That circle you use to attack spins at a regular rate and you punch in the buttons for a hit or miss. HOWEVER--the counter and combo modes spin at such a blinding rate your eyes about pop out of your head. I thought maybe I was just getting old, so I asked my 11 year old and he said, "No, that's nuts." Not only that, in those modes you cannot guard--at all. So if you get hit--bye bye HP. This only happens when you miss a button though (sarcasm). BTW, if you even miss ONE button in the sequence, YOU LOSE YOUR TURN! Better hope your buddies fighting with you like you a lot so that leadership bar fills up fast.

See...this is why I'm angry. I'm one of those people who levels up and just cuts through the game. I can't do that here. Now I'm forced to use some insane 'technique' to finish, and I'm pissed about it. If I spend 30 minutes killing a monster, I want some big EXP. I don't want to wander all over the place for three hours killing whatever I can find to gain a few levels, regardless of my obsession.

The game IS fun. Some of these little bothers make it challenging. However, the leveling up system really does suck, and there could be some better tweaking with the battle system's ring (or Trinity Circle, as they call it). The game has so many avenues to branch out--side quests and such, which would really add to the fun factor. The best I can explain it is that if you like character and story driven games, play this one. It won't let you down in that area. Just be prepared to get really annoyed at the loose ends that are flapping in the breeze (with the battle system and leveling system designs).

Posted by Zoso at December 27, 2005 08:11 PM