Magna Carta: Crimson Stigmata is a role-playing video game developed by Softmax and originally released for the PlayStation 2 in South Korea by Softmax and in Japan by Banpresto in 2004. It is the second installment of the Magna Carta and a sequel to the 2001 game Magna Carta: The Phantom of Avalanche. The game was later released as Magna Carta: Tears of Blood in the United States and as simply Magna Carta in Europe, also for the PlayStation Portable.
The game's battle elements borrow from Shadow Hearts and the Star Ocean series. Up to three characters may move around the battlefield in real time. The player can only control one character at a time and can only attack after the character fills its "leadership meter" by remaining still. Once filled, the character can initiate an attack by performing a series of three timed button presses (known as the "trinity ring"). If the attack is unsuccessful, the leadership meter empties, and the player must wait for it to refill again.
The game takes place in the land of Efferia, where a seemingly endless war has raged between the continent's two species: Humans and Yason. Humans and Yason are similar in appearance, but Yason have lighter skin and differently shaped ears. The protagonist of the game, Calintz, is a high-ranking leader of the Tears of Blood, a mercenary squad hired out by the Human Alliance to deal with problems they cannot, or will not, touch. Since the group is not part of the official army, the mercs are disliked by the Alliance soldiers.
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