Summon Night: Swordcraft Story

"A great RPG, a great story, and... A Pokemon feel?"

Summon Night is one of my favorite GBA games ever, up there with Pokemon and Fire Emblem. It's got good graphics(for the GBA at least), a great story, great battles, good humor, and yes... It kind of feels like Pokemon. In this review I will be scoring 6 sections. These 6 sections are visual, audio, gameplay, story, replay, and overall "feel". I will then score each on a scale of 1-10, 1 being a complete waste of my time(equivalent to the ET game on the Atari 2600) and 10 being completely amazing and perfect in practically every single way(in other words, if God created a video game, this would be it). Now I will briefly explain each section.

Visual: This section is mainly graphics. Why don't I call the section graphics? Because I give an "overall feel" of each section at the end of my review of the section. Therefor, the graphics could be utterly horrible, but the effect the visuals give off, could be amazing. Things like special effects and cut scenes go into this category as well(although Summon Night doesn't really have traditional "cut scenes")

Audio: This is section is the music to the game, voice acting (if any[not Summon Night]), sound effects, and again, the overall feel of the sound. A game can be great and have no sound at all. Ever played Pokemon without the sound? Point made.

Gameplay: This sectoin reviews the gameplay of the game. This includes controlls, the actual GAMEPLAY(IE, in a sports game, I would review the quility of the game compared to the actual sport, or if its an RPG[like Summon Night] I would review how the battles take place and the RPG-ness of it), and again, the overall feel of the gameplay. As in, how the controlls and gameplay work(or don't work) together. Also things like camera angle go in this category, but thats only if it applies(where it does not here).

Story: This section includes things like script, flow of the story(is it confusing?), and my overall approval of the Story. This section is straightfoward and sort of self explanatory

Replay: This section is different. This section explores the amount of times you will want to replay this game, or even if you want to play through it. I also feel like I have to explain the rating system for this section, so here goes: A 1 out of 10 means you won't even want to finish game. 2 means you may actually finish, but you will probably instantly sell it. 3 means you will finish, but probably not considder playing it again. 4-6 means you will finish it, think about playing it, and may play it again.7-8 means you will play it, love it, play it again. 9 means that you will play this game a lot. Like you will never grow tired of this game. 10 means this game will never get old. You will never stop playing it. Tens are rare. Tens are like Pokemon... Pokemon never gets old.

Overall "Feel": This is the conclusion to my review. Here I discuss how the other sections add up and average out. Replay is not included. I then will finish off discussing how amazing or crappy I think the game is. And now, for what you really want, the review:

Visual: The game has pretty good graphics. Nothing less than what you see in Pokemon or Fire Emblem, or even something like Metroid. All gameboy games have kind of the same graphics though. Summon Night doesn't have cutscenes. Just people talking(which are just regular scenes). There are no special effects in the game, so nothing to give it a really high rating. However, the graphics don't effect the game, so the overall feel pushed the score up a little.
Visual Score:7/10

Audio: The music kind of gets boring, as its just those annoying polytonic sounds, but again, what else are you going to find in a GBA game? There's no voice acting in Summon Night, but again, that doesn't hinder the gameplay. Sound effects are kind of corny(like when you're guardian beast helps you out.) The audio in this game isn't geat, but its not bad either.
Audio Score: 5/10

Gameplay: The controls are really simple. On the overworld map, you use the D pad to move, and A to use your hammer. For battles, you move with the D-Pad, guard and use your Guardian Beast with B, and Attack with A. L and R are used for cycling through the Guardian Beast attacks. This is where the game feels like Pokemon, because you're contsantly being bombarded with random attacks by wild guardian beasts(no you cannot catch them like in pokemon). This game also focuses on the "Forge" where you create your own weapons. Forging litterally takes nothing but a couple of A button presses to decide the type of weapon and which style... I honestly think a little "mini game" on forging would have bumped up the gameplay rating on this game. The controlls and the gameplay work well together. Theres no time when you're frustrated that the controlls aren't working with what you're trying to do.
Gamplay Score: 7/10

Story: I love this story. It's a story of corruption in the government, and another one of those Deity stories. No not Diet... DEITY. It's about this city that lays on top of the "labyrinth" that holds the holy fire-being Parista. Unfortuneately the corrupt government officials what to take power of this Deity, but you're they're to stop them! It's a fun story, which also includes a little bit of love and friendship. Plus the script is amazing. You will probably chuckle a few times at what people say(usually you laugh at your guardian beast), and you may get some looks from the people around you. The story is never confusing, and it's great how the story just unfolds onto you. Beautiful writing in this game.
Story:9/10

Replay: Summon Night can get a little repetitive, so you probably wont be playing this game over and over and over again with no break in between, but you may want to play it maybe once or twice more. If you're like me and you absolutely love the game, you'll play it like 5 or 6 times. But you're probably not like me, so you'll play it 2 or 3 times.
Replay: 5/10

Overall "Feel": The overall feel of this game is great. All the things I have so far talked about come together amazingly. The visuals tie in with the audio and both tie into the gameplay. The story just seals the package. This game is great.
Average Score of above sections(excluding Replay) 7/10
My overall score of the game: 8/10

Since there's more in this game than what I can actually categorize, I'm going to tell you all here. The game lets you choose what kind of fighter you want, be it all around with swords, or quick with knuckls. The game lets you choose how some things end up, like you're guardian beast, which effects the script, but not the overall story of it. There's also a lot of different character development availiable in this game. There's lots of characters, and it's good to know each and every one of them! Overall I loved this game. It's fun and has good gameplay, and its witty and has a good story. This game is awesome.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/11/09

Game Release: Summon Night: Swordcraft Story (US, 07/26/06)