"A new Age is upon is...is it for the better?"

This is my first review for GameFaqs, and I'm happy to do it for my favorite series, Summon Night. In this iteration of the world full of spirits, humans, and Summon Beasts, our protagonists Reiha and Aldo take it upon themselves to get to the bottom of what's upsetting spirits all over the world. Can they handle the secrets and suffering they are about to uncover?

I'll break the game up into a few categories.

Gameplay: Probably the most important aspect, I was worried that the battle system wouldn't be as fun as it was in the Swordcraft Story [SS] series. I was wrong. Everything in the game is controlled with the stylus, and once you get used to the interface battling becomes quite intuitive. On each side of the screen you have two command palettes that you can customize with whatever items, skills, and weapons that you want. The icons are a little small, but it's easy to adjust to. The main map is pain free to navigate.

Twin Age doesn't follow the Swordcraft Series, so there isn't as big of an emphasis on crafting. Don't get me wrong though, crafting is still important, as well as collecting materials, it's just not the main emphasis of this iteration. The price of crafting your armor or weapons is at least 1/10 of the price it would cost to buy, and some items you have to make before you can purchase them. You can upgrade your weapons as well with elements and skill-enhancing powers. Also, there is no true weapon design as in SS, the only difference are the stats, and this is a big negative. All in all, crafting isn't quite rewarding as previous, but it's necessary.

Combat: The basic concept is you tap on an enemy with the stylus, and you'll begin auto-attacking. You can use Area of Effect skills as well by tapping on a skill and then an enemy. Running around is simple; drag the stylus along the direction you wish to go, or slide it in the direction you want to auto-run toward. You can swap between Reiha and Aldo to control them and their powers with the touch of a button. It's helpful when the AI is being stupid and not doing its job. You'll definitely need to learn to multi-task. There is also a third party member you can have to join the fray, although you don't have an option to control them, you're responsible for keeping them alive in low-health situations.

The skill system is also refreshing, although not much of a challenge to figure out. It is level based for the most part. Each level you gain, along with certain events, will award you skill points. Aldo has the option of obtaining skills for swords, axes, and spears, while Reiha is solely magic-based. There is limited space to use the skills, but you can usually swap them out with ease through the menu.

Graphics: While colorful and vibrant, the graphics aren't anything great and are probably the biggest weak point of the game. Animation sequences for your most powerful attacks aren't that awe-inspiring, they could have used more flair, although they are an upgrade from the past. The dungeons fit the mood quite well, albeit they didn't vary much from one room to another. I was highly disappointed that weapon design was essentially absent. Twin Age didn't quite match the charm that Swordcraft Story managed to pull out, even with lesser graphics on the Advance.

Audio: Nothing impressive in this category. The music did its job, although not with much passion. The tracks are generally short and repetitive, though a few I liked listening to over and over, especially the BGM for the last dungeon. There's also small portions of voice acting. Nothing too memorable, but it doesn't hurt the game in any form.

Story: Here's where Twin Age shines, in my opinion, aside from the gameplay. It's nothing groundbreaking, but the most important concept to note is how different the perspective of the world is from Swordcraft Story. I don't want to spoil much, but it's quite a 180 from the Summoner/Summon Beast relationship in SS. Flowing over from SS, though, is the multiple storyline paths you can take. There are 7 others who you have a chance to talk with to progress the story, as well as choose to fight alongside them. I wouldn't go so far as to call the plot engrossing, but I was genuinely interested. The theme is a bit childish, but there is plenty of darkness and depth. If you played through SS, you'll appreciate it a bit more than a newcomer to the series.

Challenge, Length, Extras: I died a few times, I'll admit, but I was never worried that I couldn't beat a boss. The game does start out pretty easy with a 20 to 30 minute learning curve, and if you follow it without doing anything extra for about an hour or so, you come across a really tough boss. I went back to a dungeon and gained a level or two, and I was fine for the rest of the journey. I ended at level 57, in case you're wondering, and wound up putting about 12 hours into Twin Age. There seem to be extra dungeons beyond the main story, but I have yet to explore them.

To sum it all up, if you're a fan of the series then this is a definite buy. If you like Action RPGs in general and need an enjoyable game for your DS library, this is for you as well. I felt my time was well spent, but this adventure could have been a bit more fulfilling. A little more could have been rolled over from Swordcraft Story series, especially weapon design and recipes. There's room for improvement, but I'm satisfied enough until the next one (hopefully!) makes its way over to the USA.

If you'd like to know anything else about the game or have questions and comments, feel free to get in touch with me at SummonBeast (at) gmail.com. Thanks for reading!

Final score: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/09/08

Game Release: Summon Night: Twin Age (US, 06/03/08)