I've been playing a lot of MagnaCarta 2 lately, and I'm getting ever closer to completion. Despite having only 280 of 1240 after 25 hours of play, I'm closer than it seems due to how badly this game back-loads its achievement points. The biggest story-related achievements all come near the end of the game. I still haven't unlocked all the coop attacks yet. I need to do a few more quests to unlock everyone's hidden abilities, and then the skill tree mastery motherlode will fall (30 points per character, x2 branches per character, x6 characters = 360 points). I already have enough skill points to finish it, just not the quest-earned abilities. Of course, the 30 points per character for all weapons doesn't come til near the end of the game, nor does all quests. Honestly, once I get a little farther in, the achievements will fall down like a house of cards on a windy day.
It's a shame so few people have heard of or played MagnaCarta 2, as it's one of the better JRPGs on the 360. All the characters may be genre-standard archetypes, but the story definitely doesn't go where convention would lead you to expect. Each character has their own storyline that develops as the game goes on, and the combat system is simple yet provides good depth of customization. Lost Odyssey remains my favorite JRPG for story and characters, but MagnaCarta 2 is a solid second. I'm liking it better than Infinite Undiscovery, Blue Dragon, or Eternal Sonata by a good stretch. If you're into JRPGs at all, you owe it to yourself to check out MagnaCarta.
Last night I did a little boosting in Wolfenstein, which really benefitted me more than anyone else. I got my revives and veil strike kill achievements, and Derek got his revives, but that was all we did. Nobody else got anything, so I smell some IOUs on my end for everyone the next time we have a session. Something tells me few if anyone wants to go all the way to rank 50, which kind of sucks, as I would still like to 1k the game if at all possible. We'll see. Maybe I can work with whoever does have the interest.
January is pretty much in lockdown as far as reviews go. Jackanape and Webb are trying to go all Super Saiyan and conquer everything between the two of them, which leaves nothing for me to do on this end of the ocean LOL. I was considering doing Divinity II: Ego Draconis for a while, and still might, but with 3 days of work coming up, and then my brother spending the next 9 after that at my apartment, I don't see that happening anytime soon. It all depends on the timing and if I really want to review that game, I guess. February is an unknown month at this point, but I'm sure I'll find something to do.
I got a little backed up in my blogging goals these last few days (blame general laziness) and haven't yet done the research for the opinion piece I want to write, so that'll get pushed back a while (sense a theme?). My general announcement on the happenings of this blog should be coming sooner rather than later.
Well, I think it's time to spend a couple more hours with MagnaCarta, read for an hour, and go to bed. Gotta work tomorrow...
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