After the fall of developer Neverland, the team behind Rune Factory didn't take long to start a new project. The first game they did was Forbidden Magna, and it was quite a departure from their previous works. Swapping out Farm-sim/Action RPG mechanics for a more tactical combat system, the game is finally available in the West under the new name, Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven. While the game has some nice ideas, it doesn't exactly execute them as intended.

The story of the game is about a young man named Luchs who runs an inn, despite not getting customers. The real reason is that he's supposed to be waiting for a particular group of people to give them a home. But this truth only really exists as a promise which is revealed later as to it's vague meaning. In the meantime, he scavenges for Mana Crystals to sell to the townsfolk as a livelihood. During one of his hunts, he comes across a chamber containing a bracelet. Having been attacked by monsters and being backed into a corner, he comes into contact with the bracelet. This awakens a girl encased in one of the crystals who comes to his rescue. You learn that she is one of seven faeries that are bound to servitude to the one who posses the bracelet. It's also revealed that the bracelet emits energy that the girls need to live. So after this incident, the girls are then given a place to live at the inn. Luchs friend Bart has the rather otaku idea of making them work as maids to manage the place. This is where one of the game's entendres comes from. 

The girls are kind of like Valkyries, as they all posses a capacity for combat. Combat itself is done from a top-down perspective, with a tactical focus. The big difference here is that the game's maps are grid-less, with many attacks or skills having an area of effect. The enemies generally consist of weak fodder that usually only deal one hit point of damage, and can be felled in one hit. They do often get knocked back into other units to rack up chains. If you get a chain of over ten, your character gets an extra turn. The real enemies to beat are the leaders, which will use their own HP to spawn more units. Killing lots of smaller units also increases your tension gauge, which let's you use special skills that don't consume AP. That's assuming that you activate the affection events with the girls to unlock them. The Tension Skills are typically underused though, as the costs for the later skills are too high, and it's hard to build up the gauge at most times. Add to the fact that most base skills are sufficient for taking out enemies. This is where the game begins showing it's weaknesses.

There are plenty of skills to use, yet many of them need to be either bought or synthesized. And the costs to buy many of them are high, and require lots of grinding. But like I mentioned, such things are largely unnecessary. Most base skills will suffice, so you are better off investing in AP plus skill chips. The larger leader enemies tend to have loads of HP, so most fights become battles of attrition, and any semblance of strategy gets thrown out of the window. It's already easy, so lowering the difficulty typically only results in less time spent taking them down. There are achievements that can likely be had on higher difficulties for completionists, though. The game's idea of new game plus is strange though. You can only make two characters retain their levels, but their tension skills learned through affection events carry over. But you can also carry over all your money, but only five items into the next cycle. And there is only one ending, so repeat playthroughs are only good for seeing the rest of the affection events. The plot of the game isn't all that interesting, and character development is a bit weak. The voice acting is also very minimal, making it feel very selective at times. The game might have been a bit better with a larger budget afforded to it. The art style is interesting, taking on a chibi and almost hand-drawn style, despite the game still using 3D models. The music is pretty decent too. But with the previously mentioned shortcomings, it might be a good idea to wait for a sale to bite on the title. It's still enjoyable despite these problems, but it's a game that's a bit lacking in content and substance.     

The Bottom Line: The game has some interesting mechanics that are often wasted on the fact that most fights become battles of attrition. Not a bad time, just lacking a bit in content and forethought.

Acquisition Method: Code provided by XSEED Games.