A Japanese role playing gaming gets a UK release on Xbox 360?

Andrew reviews Magna Carta II…

To westerners, Japanese roleplaying games can seem like an odd proposition.

Its like hes saying, My gamewillbe your life, and youll like it, because I say so.

In other senses, though,Magna Carta IIbears a great many of the dubious hallmarks of the genre.

Well, they look much like the women, apart from the lack of breasts on show.

Some of the outfits they wear might manage to convince you theyre smuggling a pair down there, mind.

Still, these curious aesthetics are a fairly minor hurdle to get over.

And they actually did after a handful of hours.

However, its sadly tripped up by the fact that the actual telling of the story is downright amateurish.

Thankfully, it’s possible for you to button mash to get through the more tedious bits.

Theres certainly an at least half-interesting story under the surface, though.

Perhaps even more crucially flawed is its approach to explaining the game dynamics.

Heres the strange part, though.

This is the strange contradiction posed byMagna Carta II.

Youll generally be controlling a group of characters and can switch between them with a press of the D-pad.

However,Magna Carta IIhas a very active approach to what might be called stamina management.

Attacking fills up your stamina bar.

When this is full, you go into overdrive mode, making your attacks do more damage.

Switch between characters after executing a special move in overdrive mode and youll start a chain combo.

Fire off another special move with this new character and both characters stamina meters will be reset.

So, each battle becomes a juggling match as you switch between characters.

This kinetic approach to battling givesMagna Carta IIsomething of a brawler vibe, which is no bad thing.

Its this decent battle system that sustains the game through its many fairly pedestrian side missions.

These quests will generally involve killing X number of Y creatures for inconsequential story motive Z.

What does this hotch-potch of good and bad amount to, though?

Youll probably be used to the sort of dodgy scripting and questionable character design here anyway.

Magna Carta IIisout now.

Rating:

3 out of 5