Lord of Magna: Smooth sailing

Six done, two to go! This whole grinding affair is working much, much better than even I dared to expect. I only have to bring Francesca and Adelheid up to the lofty 90s, and then I'll have a whole crew of overpowered characters ready to use for any subsequent playthrough of Lord of Magna. Life is sweet!

I'll explain in my final post about Lord of Magna why having overpowered characters is so important to me in that particular game. For now, I'd like to focus on the romance mechanics present in the game and on the function of said romance mechanics, which is more crucial than it seems to be at first sight. But first, let me get one thing out of the way: the term "romance" is absolutely misplaced here, for there is not the slightest shred of actual romancing in Lord of Magna. Although Luch's conversations with the girls often have a mild flirtatious edge, there are no genuine romantic developments to speak of and no specific romantic endings for each girl. What we get instead are innuendos, declarations of love that are taken back right away under the pretense of being joking (yes, that does happen) and a general coyness that is certainly quite endearing yet will very likely leave romance aficionados deeply unsated.

That's not to say that the misnamed romance in Lord of Magna has no purpose whatsoever, because it does. The most obvious purpose of the so-called "Heart Events" is to unlock specific fighting abilities that will be most welcome during battles; and then, there is a deeper, more secret purpose that can only be unearthed if you clear the game several times in a row. I learnt about this arcane purpose the hard way, and I want to spare other fellow gamers the pain of seeing a whole playthrough go down the drain due to a lack of understanding of the game's most secret gameplay mechanics. (Yes, that did happen.)

We're talking level preservation between playthroughs here, and the basic rule in the matter goes as such: the game lets you carry over the levels of two characters to your first New Game +, then lets you add one more character to the fold with each subsequent playthrough you clear. While the gist of this proposition is true, there is actually a hidden condition for it to take effect. That hidden condition is that the girl that is chosen to become a Goddess at the end of Chapter 12 must be one that has not been chosen before. If you end up with a girl that has already been elected in a former playthrough like I did once, the game won't let you add another character to the lucky crew that can hang on to their levels and your whole playthrough will have been for naught.

Now, here's the golden rule regarding that pivotal event: the girl that is chosen as a you-know-what in a given playthrough is the girl with whom you've played the most Heart Events in that particular playthrough. Each girl partakes in three Heart Events over the course of a playthrough, so secure at least two Heart Events with the girl of your choice and you should be in the clear. In the case of a tie, the game requires you to choose between the two involved girls at the end of Chapter 12. A tie is actually unavoidable in the case of Diana, Francesca and Adelheid, who come so late in the game that their third Heart Event takes place in Chapter 13.

Now that the arcane rules of level conservation are laid bare, I will go back to my grinding and give the final push to raise my whole crew to lofty levels. I'm nearly there! Each playthrough is smoother and faster than the one before thanks to the increasing number of overpowered characters, and I'm enjoying this more than I would ever have anticipated. I'll come back to wrap this up with a final post, and very soon at that! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!