Summon Night: Swordcraft Story

July 24,2006 -

After a ponderous 2 years of life in Japan, Atlus has finally brought Summon Night: Swordcraft Story stateside. Summon Night creates something more abstract than the standard RPG fare, omitting many conventions like an over-world map or an epic globe-spanning adventure.

The main character of the game is setting out on his or her quest to become the next Craftlord, the protectorate of the realm. To do so, the hero must train in crafting his own weapons to use in a tournament to prove his worth. While training to make his weapons and fighting in the tournament, the hero must also discover the truth about his father, a former Craftlord who mysteriously died 3 years prior to the events of the game.

From the onset, players are given access the town of Wystern. Built as the top three levels of an otherwise underground tower, Wystern is one of the major cities of the world. As the hero, players will move the character around town, interacting with townsfolk, shopkeepers and other major characters to progress the plot.

Given a laundry list of creative reasoning, our hero is constantly prompted into the lower levels of the Wystern tower, where he will encounter random battles while searching for new materials to use in crafting. Materials can be gathered from killing monsters and by breaking open boxes, barrels and chests strewn about the labyrinth.

The crafting aspect of the game is less tedious and more rewarding than expected. The hero learns new recipes for 5 weapon types; swords, axes, spears, gloves and drills. Each weapon type has its own stats and abilities, and the hero learns new recipes as a part of the ongoing plot in addition to optional recipes.

Summon Night may sound a bit more like a dungeon-crawl rather than a modern RPG. And be sure, the jaunts into the labyrinth are numerous, though made markedly less annoying by the inclusion of teleporters, save spots and even healing zones every few levels of the maze. But the monotony of the Labyrinth is broken by the engaging tournament battles and side plots of the game. Locked doors and other obstacles require plot advancement before the player can progress deeper into the labyrinth, and a similarly limited system keeps players from obtaining weapons much stronger than their current competition in the tournament, so the challenge level remains steady.

In addition to leveling themselves, players will be given one of four different guardian spirits to assist in battles throughout the game, each a bit cute and speaking in a nonsense language that only their human counterpart can understand. These guardians act as a companion, an advice giver, and a battle partner. While the hero focuses on swinging swords and drills at foes, guardians focus on magic. As guardian’s level up, they learn more magic spells which can be used in battle, or learn to use a spell more times before needing to heal.

The actual battles in Summon Night are closer in style to the Namco's "Tales" series than any kind of traditional roleplaying game. The hero starts on the left side of the upper half of the screen and the enemies appear towards the right side. The bottom half of the screen displays information about hitpoints, spells, available weapons and each weapon’s durability. Players use variations of spells and attacks to create combos and eliminate all of the foes in order to win the battle. Hits and blocks lower a weapon’s durability, and if a weapon deteriorates too much it breaks permanently. To stop this, or if a situation calls for more reach or speed, the player can switch between up to three equipped weapons at any time using the shoulder buttons.

The differences in the weapons create a tangible sense of tactics and strategy in Summon Night. Swords act as the primary moderate weapon in the game, with average reach, damage and speed. All of the other weapons in the game build off of that approach, with faster gloves for punches with less power, axes for slower attacks but a higher probability of breaking an opponent’s weapon, spears for longer range and the ability to attack flying foes without jumping, and drills which combine faster attack speeds with the weapon-damage of an axe and the ability to perform charged attacks. As the game progresses and new opponents are met in the tournament, it becomes increasingly beneficial for players to improve all of their weapon types, as foes may vary in attack style from fast to powerful. In addition, as a player’s weapon-crafting becomes more and more complex, weapons begin to take on magical effects which play against enemy weaknesses.

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