Magna Carta: The Phantom of Avalanche

Magna Carta: The Phantom of Avalanche (마그나카르타: The Phantom of Avalanche in South Korea) is a CRPG released in 2001 in South Korea by Softmax, and is the prequel to the PlayStation 2 title, Magna Carta: Tears of Blood. It is the first installment in the Magna Carta series. Though not officially having been localized outside of South Korea, The Phantom of Avalanche retains a somewhat sizable fan-base of non-Korean players.

The Phantom of Avalanche
Calintz, once having been a high-ranking royal guard, left his home of Shudelmir many years ago to seek adventure elsewhere. Though having left his home in a peaceful state, Calintz decided to return home years later only to find Shudelmir in chaos. The sheer growth of monsters, as well as the rise of two important factions, have left Calintz with no choice but to join the Schwarz Strum as the 7th Squad Leader.

Many rumors have surfaced about the origin of the monsters. Particularly, the monster growth has been attributed to the enthroning of the new Emperor, Shulenlord. Many people believe that Vermillion, one of the two rising factions, is releasing the creatures in hopes of dethroning the new Emperor, and that the Emperor is retaliating against Vermillion in this same fashion.

Amidst this conflict, political struggles between the fallen Princess, Juclecia, and the new Empress, Leona, have contributed a fair share to the chaos of Shudelmir. Having lost her mother to a senseless crime of murder, Juclecia was stripped of her royal authority and cast out into the rural district to conscribe to the lifestyle of a mere commoner. Though Juclecia was entitled to inherit her mother's throne, she held no say in the enthronment of the new Empress nor the Empress' decision to abolish Juclecia's royalty. Rallying the support of other nobles, Juclecia hopes that she can achieve Empress Leona's dethronement and restore peace to her kingdom.

Vermillion, and Krios' Tears of Blood
Cliave, father to Princess Juclecia and Emperor Shulenlord, invaded and destroyed the prosperous Kingdom of Krios many years ago. This invasion was thought to take place in order to preserve the integrity of Cliave's power, as he feared that Krios had grown too strong. Ironically, Krios was Cliave's homeland, and his own uncle was its ruler. Still, Cliave would regard his own family as a political enemy and carry on his back the shame of hailing ruthless destruction against Krios.

Krios' remaining citizens, reduced to mere slaves, had risen up against their adversity and formed the Vermillion faction. Heading up this group were two mysterious figures—the ominous Ferenan, and the strange outsider, Tristan. Though Vermillion intently sought to rebuild Krios, their violent methods were often put into question, and have earned the group a fearful reputation with the public. Focusing their attention on Shudelmir's political presence, Vermillion has met much resistance from the Schwarz Strum.

Characters
Calintz Jerevinan Voiced by Kim Yeong Seon (Korean) Protagonist and adopted son of King Helios. Originally from Shudelmir, Calintz served to protect his home against invading monsters. However, he departed from Shudelmir sometime in his early youth, pursuing instead the land of Sirat. Upon his return, he is plagued by the ever-climbing rate of invading monsters, as well as an uneasy wavering within Shudelmir's political alliances.

Calintz is often known as "The Phantom of Avalanche" by many who've witnessed his fierce technique in the snow-covered mountains of Sirat. In the game, he joins Shudelmir's military and becomes a commander of the division called "7th division."

Calintz, around the age of 6, often played with Estell in a garden. Calintz's past with Estell pains him because she was killed and he loved her like his own mother. Because of the shock of Estell's deaths, he tries his best to forget his relationship and memory with Estell. However, he often dreams of Estell.

Adora

Adora is a energetic, easy-going and beautiful girl that follows Calintz whenever he has a mission. Adora first encounters Calintz at a garden that Calintz and Estell used to play in their earlier days. The garden that Adora first meets Calintz is restricted to any commoners. Thus, it is fenced. Regardless, she is able to trespass. Cailntz finds her in the garden and questions her. Adora reveals her name in a stuttered manner. Adora, being friendly, asks for his name. Calintz coldly refuses to give his name. Calintz decides to move on to the next topic; he asks how she trespass. She states she came here because the scent of the garden was attractive. Calintz, infuriated by the answer, states that he has no time to babysit her. Adora, feeling offended, says that "it was mean." Out of the blue, she says she needs to go. Adora states that she likes him and she thinks that Calintz likes her too. She tells Calintz not to forget her. In a frigid attitude, Calintz states that he will forget her name very soon. Adora comes closer to Calintz—almost like 10 centimetre away from each other—and says "maybe this will prevent you from forgetting me" and kisses Calintz. Later on in the game, Adora keeps appearing during Calintz's missions and leaves whenever the mission is accomplished. The 7th division members asks how she is able to find them so easily. According to her, she says her intuition always brings her to Calintz. That brings about the reason why she is being suspected as a spy for Vermillion. However, her personality, lack of common sense prevents the 7th division member to classify her as a spy.

Because of Adora's similar personality to Estell, Calintz usually mistakens Adora for Estell.

Juclecia Sebine Re Elcritian Due to the tragic murder of her mother, Princess Juclecia was exhausted of her royal position to Shudelmir and exiled into the rural district. Because of the nature of this tragedy, Juclecia suffered a bout of amnesia, forgetting much of her own identity. However, the details of her mother's murder are soon brought to light by man named Marhakatte Orakhan Willight...

Chelsea

Chelsea is a noble. Her brother is apparently the commander of the divisions that Calintz and the other division officers are in charge of. She had been in a different division. However, after fighting against monsters alongside with Calintz, she approves of Calintz's method of operation and decides to join the 7th division. She is often found quarreling with Roffma over the matter superiority and inferiority of class rankings, intelligence, and lifestyle of themselves. She often criticizes Roffma for his stupidity, his bulkiness and the quality lacking in those of a gentleman.

Roffma

Roffma is a bulky, well-fit, blockheaded, low-ranking soldier in the 7th division. He is born into a poor family with many siblings. Because of the money shortage crisis his family is facing, he takes his employment in the military service—the military pays more than other jobs--. He if often found arguing with Chelsea over their class ranks and the life they have due to their class ranks. He is often fighting the losing side of the argument. Roffma prefers a battle where it requires no thought process whatsoever; in other word, he prefers the battle where it only requries muscles and brute strength.

Ferenan Antagonist and rebellious leader of Vermillion. Having witnessed the tragedy of Krios' destruction at a very young age, Ferenan was fueled with rage against King Cliave. Now leading the Vermillion faction, Ferenan plots to overthrow Shudlemir in hopes of restoring Krios to its previous state.

Rose

She is a member of the Vermillion Factor. She had been a very close friend of both Joker and Ferenan in their childhood. Whenever she is assigned to a mission to accomplish, she is interfered by Calintz and fails. Due to her tendency of failing Tristan's missions, she is often seen trying things without order to impress Tristan.

Unwetter Currently aiding the Vermillion faction with inside information, Unwetter remains a rather shady character to both Vermillion and Schwarz Strum. No one quite understands his intentions, or why he has such an interest in the affairs of Vermillion. It has been disclosed that he disappeared for almost a decade—presumed to be dead—but he suddenly appears in front of Ferenan and Rose. After his sudden appearance, Ferenan unhesitantly gives up his role of leader and allow his former leader, Unwetter, take over the charge of Verillion's affairs. Rose and Ferenan questions Tristan's sudden reappearance and his hasty personality and judgements.

Joker

Joker is a member of the Vermillion Factor. His father was supposedly be killed by Tristan. Yet, Joker works for Tristan.

Felicia

She is an abnormal human altered to become killing machine for the Vermillion Factor. She is a strong type of abnormal human that has higher level of carta than any person could achieve. She is very quiet and barely talks. She is often found talking whenever she sees Adora. Felicia mostly asks Adora about if she found the "real her."

Estell

Estell is a very beautiful lady who is the mother of Juclecia and the wife of the previous emperor of Shudelmir. Apparently, she often played with the young Calintz in a garden and talked with him as her best friend. Unfortunately, she was killed. The most likely reason for her murder was because she was a spy for Vermillion.

The Carta System
The Carta (眞名) system relies on the usage of hanja (Han characters) to represent various energy patterns. It is believed that every living thing carries a distinct energy pattern and may rely upon the use of Carta to manipulate this energy for various purposes.

In application, these patterns are individually assigned to each character attribute to directly affect character growth. Some Carta may be more effective when assigned to a specific attribute due to the compatibility between the character's own personal energies in compliance with the Carta's unique energies. The available stock of the particular Carta also plays a role in determining its effectiveness.

In comparison, the Carta system takes on a similar method as Final Fantasy VIII's junction system, and may be better understood by gamers who are familiar with this concept. Otherwise, a lack of translation can overshadow a clear understanding of its function.

Battle system
Magna Carta employs a turn-based battle system based on the conditional usage of TP. (Turn Points) When a character achieves his or her turn, the player is given the options of moving the character around and / or executing a skill. (The turn automatically ends upon executing a skill, regardless of any other conditions present.) Both the movement range of the character, as well as any skills she or he executes, costs a specific amount of Turn Points to be accomplished.

While moving, free roaming is allowed around the battle field during one's turn, but within a limited range which is indicated by an aura. The size of the aura, like many elements of battle, may be affected by the turn range, so characters who have TP left over from previous rounds may find a slight range advantage in the next.

There are three types of attacks:

The first type is just a plain melee/range attack. The character simply uses his/her weapon to attack his opponent with little damage.

The Second type is an ability attack. The type of attack requries at least 2 TP to activate. Stronger attack of this type requires 3 TP. This type of attack is much stronger that the plain, ordinary melee/range attacks. However, Roffma would be a different case. His ability is mostly consistent of healing. His healing TP usages can be varied on how much healing power Roffma uses.

The last type of attack is called a Final Crash. In order to activate this attack, one must find a specific rhythm and use plain ordinary attacks 4 times in a turn according to that rhythm. What it means by four times, it means to click space four times during a turn. The rhythm is dependent on which character is used. The rhythm begins when the three orange rings surrounding the character merges. If the Final Crash is achieved three times, the player goes into "Crazy Mode." If Crazy Mode is achieved three more times, "Over Crash" is activated. These moves are extremely deadly to opponents. Nonetheless, if the attack and the rhythm are not synchronized to create Final Crash attacks, it could be proven to be a disadvantage because all it would have done is attack the opponent with weak melee/range attacks when the opponent could have been heavily damaged with ability attacks.

In the case one is frustrated fighting weak monsters and want to finish it quickly, press the number "9" on the keyboard. This is a bug that the game came with. Anyway, this method allows one to defeat all the monsters in each of the characters' attack range in one turn.