MagnaCarta 2

This game unlike say "Final Fantasy XIII" came out with very little fanfare. I am honestly surprised it was released in the United States at all. I bought it and I was not disappointed. This is a very fun game as the story was interesting and the fighting was sweet. a boy named Juto living a peaceful existence on an island community is about to be brought into a full civil war type confrontation. A mad man named Schuenzeit has murdered the former queen and now her daughter Zelphie leads the counter sentinel unit on the opposing side. Juto is soon part of this team and things start out simply enough as you perform missions to help the side opposed to Schuenzeit gain ground in their struggles, but you will soon find out there is more to this conflict than anyone could imagine. Sure there are the obvious villains and those you just know you can not trust, but overall the story was very entertaining. Equally entertaining was the fighting system. Action based and really packing a punch once you get the hang of it and learn some of the games more powerful moves. I would get into more detail, but you really must experience it to fully appreciate it. The characters are rather good and they all have a special move that can be done when a prompt appears on screen. This ranges from a nice counter move that reduces the enemies attack power to simply absorbing damage and turning it to hit points. The best one though easily belongs to a character named Rue, who can perform an instant kill attack that is just awesome. The characters also have two weapons they can equip and their special move changes depending on which weapon you have equipped. I also have to say the strategy guide for this game has to be one of the better ones I have ever gotten as it infuses the optional quests within the main storyline rather than simply confining the optional quests to a special section in the back of the book. This makes it so much easier to complete every quest. So all in all a very fun role playing game, so fun that I special ordered the first installment in the hopes it too will be a nice change of pace.