Development on Magnacarta 2 (formerly known as Magna Carta 2) first began about 4 years and eight months ago. Up until recently, there were no news, videos or screens about the game, and it also failed to meet its expected release date (2007) which made us believe the game has turned into vaporware.

Now Banpresto has announced the game will release this year which begs me to ask: what took it so long?

In a recent interview with Siliconera, Banpresto’s Yoshihisa Kanesaka explained one big reason Magnacarta 2 took so long to develop is because of the battle system.

“One of the biggest reasons as to why it took so long to develop this game is we wanted to build a new battle system from the ground up. This game has a completely new battle system.”

Another reason is that illustrator Kim Hyung Tae wanted to make sure the models resembled his character design. “We put a lot of energy into these two things from the ground up which is why it took so long,” Kanesaka added.

Magnacarta 2 is scheduled to release this August in Japan while North America has to wait until Q3 2009.

Source: Siliconera