Many years ago, humans sailed to the land they named Efferia in order to find a new place to live, and founded four kingdoms here. However, natives of the continent, the Yason, formed the kingdom of Yason-Roven, and attempted to drive the settlers out. Now humans, on the verge of defeat, attempt to strike a decisive blow to the Yason by using the Forbidden Magic. In order to guard the mages, a mercenary group known as the Tears of Blood is hired.
However, the Forbidden Magic fails. While covering the retreat, the captain of the Tears of Blood, Calintz, is wounded and falls in a river, only to be found and healed by a mysterious amnesiac girl named Reith. Calintz, assuming that the girl is a priestess, attempts to return her to the temple, only to be met with a fierce resistance from the Yason, who seem to know exactly who Reith is.
Magna Carta:Tears of Blood provides examples of:
- Action Commands: All skills in the game require you to correctly input a three-button long sequence of X and/or O buttons. The exact sequence depends on the element of the skill, with each of eight possible combinations tied to its own element. Counter mode makes you input the same sequence blind, while Combo mode requires a style-specific input up to 12 buttons long. Messing up an input resets your Trinity Drive meter and skill string for this character.
- Almost Dead Guy: When Reith is sent to Amabat and her escort gets attacked at Mt. Rhyde, one of the soldiers manages to escape, reach Tears of Blood's base and tell Calintz about it seconds before dying.
- Background Magic Field: Chi exists everywhere, and without it there's no life. However, its various types are present in different amounts depending on the place, and it's possible to exhaust some types of Chi, and be left with loads of others. It also regenerates over time.
- Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": Most items have weird names, though usually somewhat related to what they do. For example, the basic healing item is "A Small Thank You", ATK raise is "High Spirits", and Confusion cure is "Flawless Execution".
- Calling Your Attacks: The names of Combo mode attacks are spelled out loud when characters use them.
- Combatant Cooldown System: There's an auto-filling "leadership" meter that allows a single character to act once it's filled enough. That's right - only a single character, meaning that it's entirely possible to use only one character through a battle, while leaving everyone else just standing around. The meter, however, allows the party with a numerical advantage to act earlier. You can move characters regardless of leadership meter, but it halts its progress while you move.
- Elite Four: The Four Warriors are the best warriors of the Yason, and one of them serves as a Hopeless Boss Fight early on.
- Fantastic Nuke: The Forbidden Magic has the potential to wipe out an entire city. It requires a prolonged ritual performed in a specific place, and it's, well, forbidden, so leaders of human kingdoms choose to use it only when they are losing badly. The Yason queen manages to deflect it, but it was noted as an exceptional feat, and even its backblast wrecks heavy destruction.
- Half-Human Hybrid: It's mentioned that despite (or maybe even because) of the war, there's an increasing amount of half-Yason running around. They lack Yasons' pointy ears, and look human except for having a Vindi.
- Ki Manipulation: Every combat skill in the game consumes a specific Chi from the surroundings. When there's no Chi of a certain type, skills that rely on it can't be used.
- Limit Break: The Trinity Drive meter fills up by 5% for every perfect Trinity Circle input, and can be used once it reaches 30% to make the next skill more powerful. Thus, it's best used alongside powerful skills or Combo mode attacks. However, it resets to zero if you mess up even a single input.
- Our Elves Are Different: The Yason have many traits of elves. They have long, pointy ears, that are pointy both from the top and the bottom. They're also adept with magic thanks to their innate Power Tattoo - Vindi.
- Power Tattoo: All Yason have a Vindi, a sort of innate tattoo which helps them better absorb Chi.
- Relationship Values: You can talk to party members at save points, and choosing options they like temporarily increases their Trust, making them perform better in battles. Some options may raise one party member's Trust, but lower another's.
- Stance System: Twofold.
- Styles give the user a set of skills that belong to two, or, rarely, one or three types of Chi. Each style also has a different amount of "shields" - the amount of hits in an enemy skill that will have their damage reduced when hitting the wielder. Each character starts with a style, and can be taught new styles with "Scroll" items, though only if their weapon type matches. Styles can be switched only when the leadership meter is full enough to attack, but do not consume it. Style switching makes the character actually change their stance.
- Modes become available when the style is "mastered" (all skills are learned). The Combo mode replaces normal skills with a single input sequence that deals a long series of powerful attacks. The Counter mode allows the player to cancel enemy attacks and counter-attack as long as they correctly guess the input for the enemy's attack (hint: all skills of the same element have the same input). However, both of these modes disable shields, making the user more vulnerable. Modes can be switched just like styles, but do not change the user's stance.
