Customer Reviews

Magna Carta: Tears of Blood - Deluxe Box Set

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Despite what the other reviews here maybe have you believe, Magna Carta does have a lot to offer. It's true the game may be hard to get into, but trust me, once you do, it becomes a lot of fun.

This is not a game for the traditional RPG inclined. It's a game which looks typical on the outside but has a lot of depth under the surface and beautiful graphics and music to go along with it. Speaking of the graphics, they're beautifully rendered (even making the trees/water/grass in the enviroments swing and sway, along with your character's clothing) with very natural movements of walking and running on the map. The battle graphics aren't as big as what you may have seen in Final Fantasy but aren't horrible either. The CGI, if you could say that, is mostly just in the opening sequences, the rest of the game using buffed up cut-scenes to good effect, even coloring flashbacks in grainy sepia-tone. The music is also well done, understated but not forgetable, catchy but not annoying.

Now, onto the battle system. If you want a simple explaination, the system is a cross between the Judgement Ring from Shadow Hearts and the more action style of Star Ocean 3. It takes a bit of getting used to but once you do it becomes pretty easy. My only complaint is with the "Chi" system of energy each character draws from for their power (whether it be attacking or magic); it just limits a very unique battle style, weighing it down unecessarily.

Some people seem to have complaints with the voice acting but besides a bit of stilted (read: odd, dramatic pauses in sentences) I found the voice acting pretty good; nothing to write home about but, like Star Ocean 3, listenable and at least decently acted.

The storyline, as it goes, seems to draw from a different place than most war-oriented RPG plots do. It focuses on the individuals on both sides (including the enemy) and makes war out to be more realistic, where both sides have something to lose and in the end, are just protecting themselves and their land. It raises a lot of questions about who is really the good side in battle, which I found a lot more intriguing.

My only other complaint besides the "Chi" system is with the character designs. Sure, they're gorgeous and unusual but with the kind of time period the game is set in, they seem too bright and out of place, as if they're outfits you know they really wouldn't wear into battle but I quickly forgot about them getting caught up in the mix of the story, they just blend in with the characters themselves, who are also different and unique.

The game runs a lot like Star Ocean 3, in that to get to one town, you must cross through winding roads and through other towns to get where you need to go. Along the way you have a stealth-like system for detecting enemies on the path: A orange ring surrounds your character, small usually, allowing you to run quickly, but at the risk of heading blindly right into an enemies path, though you can widen the ring significantly with the push of a button to see ahead of you, causing a walk instead of a run so that you can sneak up on opponents or avoid them alltogether. Also, when you're playing during a key event in the game, the roads/dungeons you travel in, will not respawn monsters once you have killed them all, which leaves you, usually, at just the right level to defeat whatever boss you have to fight.

Lastly, the game is pretty linear in style, the story unfolding and taking you along with it, only allowing for a side-quest (usually to obtain items for a special weapon) every now and then, even going so far as to stop you from entering places that have no bearing on your current mission, which may bother some who like more freedom.

I have not played all the way through yet but here my list of Pros and Cons so far:

"Pros"
-Beautiful Graphics
-Subtle but memorable Music
-Unusual Character Models
-Unique Combat System
-Interesting Storyline

"Cons"
-Combat Weighed Down by "Chi" System
-Slightly Overdramatic Voice Acting
-Mostly Linear Gameplay
-During Key Events, No Monster Respawn

Just to clarify, I have been waiting for this game since the first incarnation (Magna Carta The Phantom of Avalanche) was released in Korea years ago. I too am a big fan of Hyung Tae Kim's artwork so I will not be discussing whether or not the character designs and art style are appropriate enough. You either like it or you don't. I wanted this game to be better than it was but crippling gameplay has soured me to the whole experience.


First, let's start with what I was expecting. What I was looking for in a game this time around was a good story to tide me over until FF 12 will be released. I have previously played Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time and Radiata Stories which had excellent battle systems but slightly less satisfying story lines. This game is probably the complete opposite of those two because it excells in story telling and character developement but completely massacres itself in the battle system. Even reading the directions and going through the useless in game tutorial, this battle system will punish you mercilessly. Once, you've messed up i.e. missed a button or let a character die, you're pretty much screwed even in regular enemy battles. In fact, regular enemy encounters can be tougher than boss fights for the sheer fact that there are more enemies and if you are suprise attacked and your characters don't love your leader, you won't even get a turn in to correct any mistakes. A status effect will handicap you to the point of rendering the rest of your party useless as the enemy's attack bar gets shorter and yours gets longer. Once things have gone bad, they will probably stay that way. That said if you always get the first attack, your characters love you, there's the right kind of chi in the area, etc. then you will go through the same repetitive botton pressing series that you've done in nearly every other fight. You cannot customize the order of your moves so oyu will do the same lame attacks in order to get to the stronger ones. I will admit, this is the first button pressing trinity drive game I've played myself. After I got used to it, the only mistakes I've made is when switching between characters and styles.


There is no open ended gameplay to be had. Trivial sidequests for getting weapons by fighting more enemies in your area just about covers it. Also, it is hard to just go out and level up because enemies don't regenerate unless you reload your game. Plus, there aren't enough different enemies in the game to prevent this from just becoming a chore. Basically, gampeplay is just the vehicle for propelling the story without being an end in itself. Maps are simplistic and don't invite you to explore much besides just getting from point A to point B.
Basically, I just thought I would suffer through the battle system to get to the end of the story because it is very engaging and I would like to see the conclusion. However, the Counter mode has now made that hope impossible. At one point near the end, you are forced to use the Counter mode, which I have never used in regular battle because I have found it too bothersome, to advance in the storyline. Well, even with help from the guide, I keep missing button presses because they fly by quickly. There is no in depth tutorial either in the books provided or in the game itself to tell me what I am doing wrong and how to correct it. Right now, I am at a complete standstill and don't think I will ever finish the game because of this. I will admit that I am not very good at Judgement Wheel type controls but for me to spend 70+ hours on a game that frustrates me at every turn and to get stuck like this, is just wrong.


As much as the story itself is well thought out and enthralling, I just can't reconcile the fact that I should be frustrated like this over a game that is supposed to be fun. I'm giving it two stars because of the story and collectable art extras provided but I would recommend for any consumer to try this game out for yourselves before buying it. $55 is still a lot for a poster and a mini artbook.

Magna Carta is a breath of fresh air when it comes to your every day RPG. This game, to me, is something I look for in all my role-playing games. It's not "cute-sy" and has more of a mature look to it. Despite the fact that the main character looks oddly like a woman, the story, visuals and concept are worth the money.

The main character, Calintz, is part of a mercenary group known as the "Tears of Blood". Tragically (gasp!), his past haunts him as the Yason (the enemy kingdom) did something terrible to him, which empowers him with this need for revenge. The game starts out with a simple enough mission to go and protect some Wizards as they meet and prepare for this "Ultimate attack" that will save the Humans from the Yason. Unfortunately, it goes bad and the attack back fires. This is where the story... sort of... begins. Together with your cadre of mercenary buddies, you complete quests, fight monsters and do pretty much the same thing as you would do in Final Fantasy, Star Ocean, or any of your other run-of-the-mill RPG's.

The thing that seperates Magna Carta from the rest is the use of a "timed" battle system. A wheel, presenting a combination of different button presses, forms when you wish to attack a target. Once the first button has been pressed, you need to time it correctly for the other button presses as the wheel turns at a reasonably fast rate - creating the desired effect. The bad part about it... well, if you mess up and miss a button or time it incorrectly, the attack fails and you lose your turn. This change from your ordinary turn-based fighting style lends to the uniqueness of Magna Carta, as its presented well, but requires practice - making the whole combat thing and defeating enemies more enjoyable as well as rewarding. Other fighting styles are default for certain characters, but many more must be learned and they can be mixed and matched to your character, since only 4 styles can be used in a battle - each with their own up's and down's. It's also important to note that battles are also run by "Leadership". Whether or not a character likes your main character, which is determined by socializing at save points, determines how fast that character can attack. Every character runs off this Leadership system, and as more enemies are present, the Leadership is lower. Think of it as morale. Your characters can attack more often if their morale is high and you are winning the battle, but if you are losing, you'll lose attack chances - enemies also use this Leadership system.

Magna Carta also makes use of this "Chi" system, where opposing "Chi" deal more damage to eachother, and complimentary Chi aid eachother. In battle, its crucial to plan ahead and determine what type of "Chi" each enemy possesses, as well as whether or not they are more or less vulnerable to your attacks. As a character attacks, whatever Chi he is strong with will deplete. If the Chi is gone, the character is unable to attack until the Chi regenerates.

The only thing that irks me about Magna Carta is that you control one character in battle, but 3 can be present. Magna Carta likes to use something similiar to a "paper-rock-scissor" effect - giving you the option to use whoever you want in battle, but sometimes requires you to switch to another character as the "Chi" depletes itself or an enemy just happens to be strong to the type of "Chi" your character uses. While it sounds impressively imaginative, whatever characters you aren't using just stand there and look pretty. This knowledge comes in handy, as you'll now be prepared to use every character, every chance you get since you will want to make sure he levels up his styles and isn't a wuss when he is really needed in a battle.

The visuals, simply put, are outstanding. While men and women are tough to distinguish from one another sometimes, don't let that discourage you in the least, as Magna Carta is full of vibrant and interesting local's and characters.

The music is also well done, and whether or not the intro song turns you off, it grows on you after awhile and you'll find yourself wanting to listen to it again. The background music and battle music is also well done, but isn't anything out of the norm when compared to other RPG's.

Magna Carta is a breath of fresh air to the RPG world, blending a myriad of different gameplay ideas into one impressive game. While it suffers from some tiny things, the game by itself is fun and compelling enough to keep you interested.

Last year, I bought tears of blood and played about one third of the way through it before running into a bug when the game allowed me to do several things out of sequence. I wasn't all that thrilled with the game and put it aside for some day when I would feel more motivated. It only took a year for me to come back, invest some 80 hours in game play to realize that not only was I not thrilled, but I disliked it intensely.

Let's start out with the good things. The general level of animation and graphics is very good. Although there is not nearly as much CGI as the trailer promised. The story, which is about a long conflict between humans and elf-like race galled the Yason is a good one, with complex characters who have many sides. So - a pretty face, an interesting plot, and, unfortunately, a director (Yeon-Kyo Choi) from hell. This is the first game that I can honestly say feels like the development staff was dedicated to irritating the player. The game suffers from interface woes, in particular, a live mapping system which often shows the player moving in the opposite direction from the camera shot. Something to which I never quite got accustomed. And the story is full of those strange moments when characters do something that makes no sense.

The story is interesting, but the flow through the game is forced. There is a level of parallelism, since there are usually two teams in the field and you can switch between them, but the progress is really inexorable - there aren't any alternative branches. For example, you can kill a boss who is supposed to beat you - the game just ignores the whole event and continues on. On fault of the two party approach is that you are often forced you through exactly the same paths twice, complete with the same tired monsters.

Many of the characters are unlikeable. Antagonistic streetfighters, bossy, paranoid priestesses who dress up as eight-year-olds, and starry-eyed, overdeveloped waifs complete for your attention. The star of the show is Callintz, a cross-dressing mercenary, and Captain of the Tears of Blood, consumed with hatred for the Yason. Don't get me wrong, the Yason are just as bad as the humans - everyone gets demonized equally. To top this off, the voice acting is positively wooden. The battles are full of little phrases that, after a while, will drive you crazy. That and several not quite hidden Bronx accents.

Most of the blame for the game's failure is due to the battle system, which depends on the mix of eight powers (or chi) in the area of the battle and uses a fight wheel which requires that you enter a combination of X and O buttons at specific moments. This is a little like Shadow Hearts, but Tears of Blood carefully varies the timing to throw the player off stride continually. In addition to this standard mode there are two alternative modes that have you combining moves (12 keystrokes and up), or guessing what your opponent is doing to counter it. Both of the latter require a lot of finger coordination and hours invested into getting them right. Unfortunately one of them is required to progress through the game and it was only the discovery of a line of instruction in a downloaded walkthrough that kept me from giving up on the game for the second time.

The game simply lacks the magnetism to make you want to overcome all the difficulties that the Choi throws in your path. Which is one of the reasons it has never sold very well. There have been a lot of good RPG releases in the past two years. Unless you have lightening reflexes and the patience of a saint, save your money for one of those - you'll be happier for it.

Magna Carta is game I've been eagerly anticipating for some time now. It comes from ATLUS, who have a great track record when it comes to localizing niche RPGs for the dedicated player. It features fairly high production values with its detailed environments and 3D character models. The CGI is gorgeous. Unfortunately, this is one of the most sluggish, frustrating games I have ever played. I hear Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu declared Magna Carta: Tears of Blood to be one of the worst RPGs on the PS2. I wouldn't go quite that far, as for all the teeth nashing I did, I still was able to play it until the very end.

The story of Magna Carta focuses on Calintz, leader of the Tears of Blood, a mercenary group with the corniest name ever. The Tears are helping to fight a long running war with the Yason, a magically elf-like race. Things go wrong during a mission, and Calintz meets Reith, a mysterious girl who can't remember anything. They strike up a rather awkward romance- awkward in the sense that Reith is the goody-goody peace-loving type, and Calintz, while dedicated to peace in his own way, peace to him meaning destroying the Yason. Reith tries to discover her mysterious origins and Calintz searches for the Magna Carta, a legendary super-weapon that can flatten the Yason. Despite the fact that this description features a ton of story cliches, the story is actually pretty good, even though it unfurls at a snails pace. This story is not shy about presenting the unpleasant consequences of war and is refreshingly lacking the black and white morality of most fantasy stories.

While the world of Magna Carta is quite the visual treat, the same can't be said of the aural experience. The background music is adequate but unmemorable. The game opens with a terrible song called Tears of Blood. The lyrics on this thing are really embarassing and cheesey. Voice Acting is usually a nice touch, unless its done wrong. Here its done really really wrong. This stuff could curdle milk.

While story is a very important factor in these types of games, Magna Carta drives home the point that you also need a good battle system to carry you through 50+ hours of gameplay. This is were Magna Carta gets really sluggish. It uses a quasi-real time system were you can move freely about the battle screen. A meter fills up and when it reaches a certain point you can attack. There is no such thing as simply bashing a monster with your sword. You must correctly time a series of three button presses, then the character will glow, say some line like "I have been trained to kill!", and then launch into a complicated looking attack. Sure it looks cool, but after the first few hours you'll wish things would move faster. Did I mention you can only control one person at a time and the others stand there like fools?

This system is also effected by a myriad of other things like how much the characters like you at the moment, which is effected by things like what sort of gifts you give them and what the local fortune-teller said, the number of enemies and allies currently on the field, what kinds of chi is currently available, and how many times a friend or foe can block attacks. All attacks are based on one of eight types of chi. If your attack is based on a chi type that isn't available you can't do anything unless you happen to have a chi restoring talisman. The system is not difficult, but sluggish and cheap. A normal enemy encounter can last well over 30 minutes. That should not be!

Adding to the sluggish battle system is a sluggish system of exploration. You can explore in detect mode, where you roam at a snails pace but can surprise or avoid enemy in encounters, or run mode, where you move faster but will miss treasure chests and will be surprised by the enemy, effectively letting them pound you into Game Over. In Magna Carta, if you have to go somewhere it will be by foot. It takes a long time to get anywhere, because the world is expansive and you will be traveling the roads at the speed of a turtle. Couple this with the slow battle system, and it takes forever and a day to get anything done. More than once I wanted to rip my hair out.

Magna Carta is a game only for people with extreme patience. I imagine the vast majority of people who pick it up, will throw it down after a few hours. When I saw the end credits role, I for one was filled with great relief that it was over. Games should fun. Magna Carta just isn't.

Magna Carta... A world full of prejudice people. Yep that's about right.

Okay, your reading this because you want to get an idea as to if you should get this game correct? Well I'm here to try and help guide you in the right direction and not give a bias opinion.

First off, what is Magna Carta about? Magna Carta is basically what my first line states: A world full of prejudice people. Seriously, if you can't see this, you are blind. There are two races here at war over land and much more. You can think of it as the white man versus the red man (Native Americans). In the game white man is the human race and the Native American is basically the race known as the Yason. Now don't get the wrong idea that Softmax used that event in history to cash in; oh no, the story is way more complex than that. That is basically just a shell but that is all that I can give without spoiling the story. There are many MANY plot twist and turns in this game.

Now the characters; you play as Calintz a 23 year old pretty boy who is the leader of a mercenary group called Tears of Blood. Okay, a lot of people complain about the character designs. The most complaint is on some the guys in the game feminine looks. Okay I too that Calintz was a female until I heard his voice, but I didn't ran around and bleat about it like a little wench. Another complaint is the women's busty bosoms and how unrealistic they are. Last time I check this was a fantasy game.

Gameplay; okay this is where the love and hate comes in. Gameplay is what killed the game for some people. First off, the game is very VERY linear. You've no control over the world map (not even moving the cursor key to a dot). If you leave a town or an area, there will times when you cannot go back to them. So, yeah you will follow the storyline pretty much beginning to end without any sort of side quests (expect for blacksmith quests which are not much of a side quest). Now when you are in dungeons or areas with enemies, you'll be able to see them, however the only way to see them is to be in detect mode. Detect mode is when Calintz have his sword out and walking around he will be able to see enemies. He then will be able to surprise them by slashing them from behind to engage in battle for first hits. You'll be in this mode for most of the game. Yes you'll walk and not run majority of the game. If you run in a dungeon, you'll not be able to see the enemy and thus the enemy will have the surprise attack and will be thrashing on you and you don't want that with the time of battle system this game have.

Now as for the battle system, it is a rather interesting one. It is rather hard to explain but I'll do my best. First off the world of Magna Carta is base around chi (basically energy/elements). There are eight types of chi: celestial, wind, ice, water, mountain, earth, fire and lightning. Each character learn different styles base on different elements. In order to attack there have to be a certain chi in the area that corresponds with the element of the style the character is using.

Ex: If Calintz is using a style that uses wind, there have to be wind chi in the area for if there is none he will not be able to attack.

Also for the battle system only one character can act. Everyone uses a leader bar that fills up (think Grandia). So that was like a `wtf' for some people. To other it brought in strategy. Last but not least, there is a trinity circle (think Shadow Hearts' judgement ring) which you have to time your button presses in order to complete an attack. So if you miss a button press you lose a turn meaning your leadership bar goes back down and have to refill again.

In conclusion, Magna Carta is not the best rpg out on the market. There are better, but I wouldn't pass it up if you're pretty hardcore in to rpgs. The story is great and one of the best I've come across on the PS2 in an rpg. The battle system is not that bad. I actually like it, but I won't deny that it did get a little repetitive after 50 hours of game play. I would recommend it if you're very deep into rpg and want to play them all; if you are looking for a deep and complex story and something different than the tired turn based systems.

PS: Another flaw in the game is its load times.

Magna Carta: Tears of Blood is a good RPG. The soundtrack is good, minus the opening song. Voice acting good although sometimes it isn't as good as it could be. The battle system is intersting. It depends on the Chi, how much your allies like you, and leadership (and some other things as well) which will effect the timing bar. However, you are only able to use one character at a time, causing you to think strategicly. It also requires you to push the buttons on time. Too late or too early makes it so you cannot attack and you have to wait for the bar to refill. It's a good RPG and I reccomend it.

I've been waiting for this game to be released domestically for almost three years now. Not for the artwork in my case, but simply because the game sounded incredibly intiguing. So when it was finally released I made sure to preorder it. What I've found has been quite the enjoyable game.

Now I'm not sure about some of these complaints. Slow loading you say? I ahven't really noticed, about the same as all the RPG's who demand to put in battle transition screens these days. And I have not even heard a single one of these ear drum shattering "beeps of doom" others seem to mention. (You may want to check your PS2 real quick.)

The battle system meanwhile, is extremely tough, I think I failed 6 to 8 out of 10 times in attacks for the first half an hour of play and it took me several hours of gametime to even feel comfortable with starting to use combos, let alone the extra few hours it took to master them. But keep this in your mind, I don't think I've played a non-strategy or RPG game in almost a decade so I'm not exactly our resident button mashing master.

As for the graphics and sound and other less than important issues; the graphics are great, with cut scenes being very very nice looking and just quite impressive to me. The music itself is also very good and really fits into the game's experience.

Finally, I gave it 4 stars in fun only because the fighting system was difficult to get used to and it did cause some frustration at first, but that was the only thing for me and barely reason to lower the stars. Anyway, try the game only if you are also the same type to give a game more than 30 minutes to prove itself, or read past the first 50 pages before chucking a book out. This game has some growing pains, but it will definately repay you a hundredfold for the investment you put into it.

Magna Carta has some flaws (as with all games), but most of the flaws are very dependent on the person playing, not the actual game.

I recently began playing the game, and ran into many different aspects of the game that have been troubling to some: confusing battle system (the big one), graphics, and slow loading times.

The battle system is highly dependant on the user. I found this system very rewarding and challenging since it is so involved and requires a lot of strategy and technique. There are many RPGs that would be great games if the battle system was more than just pushing a couple of buttons in a combination and that was the end of the fight. In Magna Carta, placement of characters (since its not turn-based), proper usage of Chi (knowing which characters should be put into play), and hitting the combinations for attacks at the right time make the game more challenging and invokes some thinking. Final Fantasy Tactics is QUITE more difficult than Magna Carta, and they are both fun and rewarding games if one is interested in putting forth that kind of effort. A game shouldn't be so easy that it is just a stroll. It would just be boring.

The graphics are on par if not better than Final Fantasy X, and considering the fact this game was way overdue for its release, they are beutiful. There is no choppiness in the way the graphics are displayed and characters move very smoothly across the map/screen.

The slow loading times are something I felt irked by. I don't know the story behind the reason this is so, but since the screen always takes about 20 seconds or so to load between maps/story scenes, it is my guess that the loading times are due to too much information on the disk itself, not poor coding of the disk. Either way, its not something most people like to wait on, and it would be nice if ATLUS would fix this issue.

Overall,

Pros:
-Excellent Plot - very involved
-Excellent Graphics
-Fun interaction between characters
-A challenging and involved battle system
-Incredible music

Cons:
-Slow loading times between some scenes
-Slightly overdramatic voicing of characters

magna carta is an amazing RPG, there are flaws... yet the great things about this game greatly outweigh the flaws, i myself as of now am playing this game and enjoying it an insane amount, but i digress... on with magna carta tears of blood!

okay first off let me speak about the graphics...the cutscenes are nothing short of unbelievable...they are on the lines of let us say FFX?...maybe not that FFX but close. The other game graphics arent usually as good... kind of choppy but deff. good nonetheless. I find the backgrounds in this game great, the citys have deep design but it is the wilderness that you must fight through that surprises me, i enjoyed this very much. You get the feel of where you are and can see yourself there with calintz, (the lead character), running around and beating on odd little creatures. Speaking of creatures the monster designs are very creative, you will see cactus monsters....lizards with wings...and tigers with spines going down there back. Over all i will give the graphics a 3.7/5...very good sometimes...but other times not so good. Now on to the sound.

Okay something bad. The voice overs arent that well done... there are these random pauses in the sentences that seem to make the characters seem to have downsyndrome...it also takes away from the main story, suffocating most personality and deepness within the characters. This is the biggest flaw in the game if you ask me. On the other hand the music for this game is great...it is very soothing and puts you in the mood for whatever event is going on at the time it is playing. Overall i give the sound a 3/5..the voice acting comes up very short of good but the soundtrack is outstanding.

Now we will talk about gameplay...this game is set up very differently from other RPG's...i think that is what attracts me to it. In areas where battles with monsters are you have different modes of walking...when you alk slow you can sneak up on enemies and your point of view is far out so you can see the creatures from a distance...when you run your point of view is very very limited and the monsters can attack you easily if you accidently get close enough...this means they get the first attack wich you do not want, trust me, but when running there is a lot more speed. There is also an ability that lets you rest while on the battlefield. This regains every characters health varily rapidly...i found this awesome and very helpful...but if you are attacked while in this state the creautres get first strike. The fighting on this game is very very wweird. You can have 3 people in your attack groups at a time but during battle you can only control one at a time...the other 2 will just stand there. It is also sort of a turn based fighting...your meter charges when you stand still and when it reaches certain points then you can attack. You have a range of motion on the battlefield so you must move toards the enemys if they do not move toward you. Also chi is a big part in the fighting on this game. Chi is almost the same as elemental aspects in other RPG games. you get different styles of fighting during the game and every style has a different chi (element), each area has different chi and so does each style, creature, etc. If you are in an area with lts say lighting only...and you have water style on...you prolly wont get that many attacks. This is something that can be a problem. So you must be conscience of the areas and the chi all around you. Or you could really mess up. Overall with the fighting, at first it is hard to understand... but after a while it gets easy and very fun. This is a very linear game and often you cannot go to places that do not involve the story line at that point in time...most have a problem with this...but the thing is if they would have opened it all up you would never finish the game. The missions and certain things you must do arent really explained out too much so you kind of rely on randomly guessing where to go. I think that it being so linear makes this game 100% better than it would be if it was all open and expanded...noone likes mindless running around. Another problem people seem to have is that monsters do not respond aftr killed...this i semi true. See when you go to an area and kill the monster if you com back without continueing with the story they do not respawn...but later in the game when you must go through this area again they are back. Most say you cant level up to be much stronger than enemies so it seems you are always at the right level to fight enemies...but if people would just try to explore because usually there are certain areas not associated with the story line that you can fight creatures on... and gain a lot of experience from. I myself have leveled up above par...so it is possible.Another very cool thing about this game is you may talk to your party members at save spots to make them either like you more...or hate your guts. You can give them gifts and pick between options to talk to them about. I love this feautre...because if you arent careful they will hate you and not fight that great when you battle. You need leadership when battling or your teammates will fight poorly and things of the sort...i love it, it brings the point of actually thinking to a game! Not just random butting mashing or guessing on what you can do. You must actuallyt have things planned out and fight with your mind...not your muscles. This is what i have always wanted very badily in an RPG. overall i give the gameplay a 4.5/5 i find this game very very fun, and very very addictive.

okay last but not least is fun factor...this game is very fun if you actuall give yourself a chance to get into it. Just give it a chance...it gets so damned addicting it is all you will want to do. It is all i want to do as of now HAHA i give the fun factor a 4.6/5.....very very fun

i hope this review help you out...and with a price tag of 55$ i am sorry to say... THIS GAME IS TOTALLY WORTH IT, also you get a poster and an amazing 100 page booklet...complte with profiles and a stategy guide...killer deal...seriously fi you are an rpg fan buy this game...dont just rent it...BUY it. i did and i love it sooooooo much. So what are you doing?...stop reading this! go buy the game already!
thanx a lot i hope i helped ya out