Hey, all!
We’ve got big news today, if you haven’t heard already: STORY OF SEASONS will be out in North America on March 31st! You’ll soon be tilling your farms and flirting with the ladies and gentlemen of Oak Tree Town like the best of them.
We’ve also announced a brand new project which fans have been eager to get their hands on for a while. Introducing, Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven! This 3DS title is from the team behind Rune Factory, but this time, the team decided they wanted to try something a little different. I’ll try my best to give you a nice rundown on Lord of Magna’s story, so perk up your ears and get ready to dive into a world of foul fiends, enigmatic faeries, and mysterious powers that lead you into a world of new discoveries.
Lord of Magna features Luchs Eduard, a young man who whose family has been running the Famille Inn for generations. Unfortunately, they haven’t had a single guest stay at the inn since its foundation, but Luchs takes it all in stride and eagerly awaits the day when the inn will be bustling with people. He’s got a big heart, and firmly stands by the family motto that’s been passed down from father to son: “When our cherished guests finally arrive, think of them as nothing less than family.”
Because there are no guests to think of as family, however, Luchs makes a living by excavating and selling the most valuable fuel source around: crystals. It’s during one of his routine excavations that he encounters a young faerie, Charlotte, sleeping inside of a massive crystal, as well as a bracelet with mysterious powers called the “Lachryma.” It’s unfortunate for Charlotte that her memories are a little foggy, but she’s just as fortunate that Luchs happened to be the one who found her—he’s not the type to turn down someone in need, and she could use all the help she can get on the quest to recover her memories.
Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven is a strategy RPG, where your goal is to line up enemies within your attack range and “bowl” them over so they’ll take down enemies out of your attack range in the process. It requires carefully deciding where to place your allies on the field not only for positioning’s sake, but also to best take advantage of a myriad of elemental skills that can potentially inflict nasty status ailments. Your home base is the shabby-but-cozy Famille Inn, and when you’re not there interacting with and strengthening your bonds with your party members, you’ll be choosing new locations on the World Map in order to progress to the next battlefield and advance an engaging story told through a mixture of beautifully animated sequences and event cutscenes rich in dialogue.
One of the things that struck me immediately about Lord of Magna—outside of the gorgeous graphics, of course—was the soundtrack. In fact, while we were evaluating the title, that was something each XSEED employee who played the game noticed. Tomoko Morita, the composer for the Rune Factory series (and many other wonderful titles!), really pulled out all the stops for this one. There were even times when I’d pause the game just so I could listen to the BGM that was playing. From somber nocturnes to rocking, energetic numbers featuring guitars and violins to ethereal, enchanting battle themes, this game’s soundtrack features a little bit of everything in the best ways you could possibly imagine. You’ll get a preview of one of my favorite battle themes in our first English-language trailer (which can be viewed on our official Facebook page at www.facebook.com/XSEEDLordofMagna), but I can’t wait to share more with you! Heck, that’ll be half the fun of making more trailers for you guys!
Another thing I appreciate is how the relationships between Luchs and the many heroines of Lord of Magna progress. A lot of stories with one male protagonist and a group of heroines involve the heroines instantly falling in love with the protagonist, regardless of whether or not their personalities are compatible. I’d say this game succeeds in avoiding that; Luchs forms bonds with each girl that both contextually and emotionally make sense, rather than force anything overly romantic where it’s not meant to be. His romantic chemistry is stronger with certain heroines, while with others, it’s clear that he sees them more as friends or as family. I love how his relationships with the girls are custom-tailored to feel more honest, intimate, and real.
Another thing that’s worth noting is that every heroine has a nickname. For example, Luchs refers to Charlotte as “Lottie” or Elfriede as “Frieda” instead of their given names. To have the characters refer to each other with such familiar nicknames really drives the concept of “family” home to me. It felt cozy and warm, and I hope everyone who will eventually play Lord of Magna gets that same fuzzy feeling whenever they see the characters interacting with each other so closely.
There’s so much more I want to share with everyone about this game, especially since it’s the very first title we’ve revealed where I’m the lead editor—I’m practically bouncing out of my seat now that we’ve finally announced it!—but I’ll save the rest for another blog on another day. For now, I’ll just say that I hope I’ve done the game’s lively cast and heartwarming story justice through my localization choices, and I absolutely can’t wait to share more with you in the future.
– Brittany
P.S. Here’s a preview of the girls and their English names. Enjoy!
