Developed by the Korean company Softmax in 2002 for the PS2, the second RPG in the “Magna Carta” series, “Tears of Blood” (AKA, “Crimson Stigmata) just saw an English release towards the end of last year under Atlus’ name and now, the PSP version reaches the shores of Japan as “Magna Carta Portable”. It’s always good to see new RPG series appearing in the market. I’ve never played the prequel “The Phantom of Avalanche” for the PC or the PS2 sequel so lets see what this game has in store.


Set in the land of Efferia, the scene opens with a burning village and a young silver haired boy trying to get away from the chaos. A dark figure catches up with him and just before the boy gets killed off, a shaggy haired man steps in to save him, making quick work of all the dark enemies. He tells the boy to go to the nearest village where he’ll be looked after but the boy couldn’t accept what happened to his home. He wants revenge and the man offers to help him.

Years later, the little boy Calintz has grown up forming his own band of mercenaries known as the “Tears of Blood”, each with the same goal as Calintz himself which was to take revenge. For a long time, the native race of Efferia known as Yasons have been at war with the humans who had shipwrecked on the continent many years ago during a storm. Now the two races fight hard against one another trying to claim the land for themselves.


Reith and Calintz.
As the humans prepare to launch another massive assault on the Yasons, Calintz’s “Tears of Blood” joins in the battle to help protect the mages while they prepare to cast the “Great Magic”. After the attack fails, Calintz is separated from his comrades during a fight with the Blast Worms and waking up, he finds a young girl by his side named Reith. Learning that she was the one that healed his wounds and that she had amnesia, Calintz decides to take her to Amabat paving the way for the rest of the story.

As you play through the game, you’ll notice how it’s pretty much a “one way” environment most of the time. Whenever you’re going the wrong way into a new area, your character will turn back and tell you that there’s no need to go that way. You’ll also find many invisible walls that prevent you from exploring the beautiful environments making the role playing feel restrictive at times. For example, in nearly every RPG I’ve played you can always explore the comfy room you end up resting in at the inn but in MCP, your path is blocked off by a bunch of boxes.