The topic of why JRPGS have fallen from the mainstream in the West has become a popular one lately, with many sites and even developers discussing why the genre is failing over here and how it could be fixed.

Well, it looks like Magna Carta 2 sums up what many people believe is the problem with the majority of games in the JRPG genre. (Okay, it's a KRPG, but the point still stands.) Go to the source for the full review...

The writing and the voice acting are both over the top melodramatic, and the characters are more like caricatures of common RPG archetypes than anything else. Juto, for one, is an amnesiac with a terrible power unknown to him, just like three generations worth of RPG heroes before him, and for a large part of the game, his motivation is the oldest one of all: revenge. Argo is the tough wise man, a character type which once existed to counter an older archetype: the tough dumb guy, but has since probably overtook its elder in popularity. Argo is like a Kimahri Ronso with more lines. He is like X-Men’s Beast. Crocell is a jerk with a soft spot and unyielding loyalty to Zephie. That is how he is described in the manual, and that is how he continues for forever, clashing with Juto, and later Celestine.
Celestine is the youngest of the team, she is not even in her teens yet, and she has double Ds. Yes, she is of a different race from humans, although the differences are extremely minimal. She speaks in a high pitched voice and is in love with Argo, and it is just like Eiko’s crush on Zidane in Final Fantasy IX. Except imagine if Eiko had a voice actress, and she was terrible. And Eiko had double-Ds and remained a six year old. Better yet, don’t. Credit goes to Zephie, the princess in the story, who remains mostly stoic and tolerable throughout and not completely succumbing to the clichés of the role that she was given.



Magna Carta 2 is a game that does not seem to be aware of the shifting paradigms of RPG structures. It is deeply set in using extremely old clichés, character archetypes, and plots which we have seen time and time and time again over the last twenty years. The lack of good voice acting take the cliché storm even further from a possible nostalgic trip to a level that lies between obnoxious and criminal. Magna Carta 2 is a definite miss, with very little to show for it outside of pretty box art.
-Ivan Taran

Miss Razz via rpgland.com »