Parent's Guide: Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven sees you stepping into the shoes of Luchs, a young man who's inherited a struggling inn from his parents. But one day, while he's out scouring the local ruins for crystals to sell to help make ends meet, things take a turn for the weird when he gets ambushed by enemies and saved by a mysterious pink-haired amnesiac girl. Before long he finds and befriends more maidens, taking the fight to the fiends in the ruins and trying to get to the bottom of his mysterious past - maybe even finding love along the way.

Part story-driven read-a-thon and part turn-based role-playing game, Lord of Magna is definitely one for the readers out there - while some sections are voiced, many are just text, and with reams and reams of story to go through, this is one best suited to those who prefer their games with a more gentle pace. Battles themselves are comparatively few and far between, playing second fiddle to the story scenes, as players take it in turns to move their party members around a battle field and attack enemies.

One of the more unique elements of the game's battle system is the ability to bowl over weaker enemies, sending them flying into other nearby bad guys and so on, in what can be a domino-style effect of destruction, if you line it up right. Enemies come in two main types - the weaker, easily fling-able underlings and stronger leaders, who tend to place themselves in the centre of a scrum of weaklings and summon more and more with each turn that passes. This means you need to fight your way to the centre, through the hordes of weaker enemies to take out the leader, trying to take out as many underlings on your way through as possible.

In terms of accessibility, the game itself isn't all that tricky, with little that newer players should stumble over - but with so much reading here, this is definitely one best left those who like their reading.

Sample sentences include

• "Listen closely Luchs. The men of the Eduard family have protected this inn for generations."
• "Buuut, since you apparently managed to bring back such a cute girl in the process, I'm in the mood to believe just about anything!"
• "Uh... huh. So, you needed a maid that badly? I'm sure you'll be happy to fill me in on all the details surrounding this little epiphany later, won't you?"

Generally speaking, in terms of questionable content, Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven is a lot less dodgy than it's title may suggest. There's little in the way of blood, guts or gore, with violence limited to hitting colourful soldiers, wind up bears and gargoyles with swords, guns and magic spells, accompanied by explosions, flashes of light and impact sounds, while defeated enemies simply fade away. In terms of bad language, the game's pretty safe too, with the only 'dodgy' words being the occasional utterance of 'oh crap'.

Of course, the titular maidens make appearances, sometimes being shown in mildly titillating poses, such as a shot of one in a maid costume, with the skirt billowing out to reveal a fair amount of leg and a hint of a suspender. And, as with a lot of Japanese role-playing type games, Lord of Magna has it's own hot baths you can hop in and gain special effects from - as well as watch the traditional bath scenes, which show exposed buttocks, partially obscured breasts and the girls cleaning each other. Dialogue during these sections, there's a few obligatory breast size comparisons and discussions too, but nothing particularly risqué.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Nintendo 3DS