Retro Review: Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2

Atlus released the original Summon Night: Swordcraft Story, for the Game Boy Advance during a time when many developers had written off the GBA. Summon Night: Swordcraft Story took a rather generic setup and used it as the jumping-off point for a solid game, full of inventive combat and sparkling wit, with minor issues of sound quality and some gameplay conventions that occasionally hampered an otherwise enjoyable experience. Atlus then released a sequel, which said to have many refined elements that improve the overall gameplay. But did these changes really improve the game for the better?

Once again, you play a Craftknight apprentice (and can choose a male or female character). You ultimately are charged with a quest to reseal a prison that is the resting place of an ancient demon, lest the world be consumed. Why entrust such an important task to some Craftknight newbie? Well, before your father mysteriously disappeared, he entrusted you with a mysterious artifact... and it turns out there's a lot of things, from alliances to artifacts, that aren't what they appear to be at first.

Graphics
The graphics are much improved from the first Summon Night; the animations are more fluid, the level design is more varied, and the colors are bright and vibrant. Each area of the game has its own distinctive color palette and makes a good break from the visual monotony that plagued the dungeons area of the first game.

The Mono Shift transformation sequences are handled quite well, showing off just what sort of pixel-pushing the GBA is capable of, and the spell animations are handled uniquely depending on the Guardian Beast you have.

The graphics are stunningly gorgeous for a GBA game, and there is lots of attention to detail. Every character and enemy is animated and crafted with the same attention to detail as the main character and boss battles. The graphics are, bar none, some of the best I've seen on any GBA title.

Gameplay
The gameplay of the original has been streamlined, allowing for a much more straightforward combat experience. On the minus side, this means that the gradually easing into weapon crafting is gone. On the plus side, you aren't required to forge new weapons to advance the game story. In fact, the whole crafting system has been reworked.

In the original game, you had to create every weapon type in a given level before they could move onto creating a stronger set of weapons. Here, you quickly earn the option of choosing to disassemble a weapon and recreate it using stronger elements, reinforcing it and making it a more effective tool. Every time you disassemble and recreate a weapon, you'll gain experience towards your craftknight level. As you increase your proficiency, you'll be able to upgrade your weapons with the various items you find throughout your adventure, adding special attacks and properties. This is a welcome change: now you're free to go nuts and make one single weapon completely tricked out if you want. This change in focus allows you to concentrate on making one or two really outstanding weapons, instead of a group of mediocre ones just to advance the story.

Just about every individual element of the game has been re-worked, with a few elements that really stand out. If you forget just where you're supposed to go next, or need a gentle push in the direction of the clue, hit Select, and courtesy of a conversation with your Guardian Beast, you get a little help from the game. You still have the ability to save the game anywhere, but now you have to buy or create an "Anywhere Diary" to do so. The disadvantage of having to pay for the privilege is outweighed by the fact that you can buy multiple copies.

Objectives themselves are rather plain, consisting of the standard RPG fetch-quests, requiring you to pick up parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 to assemble Noun Y to accomplish goal B. The early portion of the game does require a lot of backtracking, giving you a lot of familiarity with the area. The puzzles in the game revolve around the weapons that you can create: axes chop down trees, drill open up caved-in passages, spears knock down fruit from trees or open hard to reach boxes, etc.

The battle system offers up the same mechanics of the original: side-scrolling hack-and-slash action, with A for attacks and B used for secondary actions. The default secondary action is guarding, allowing players to block incoming attacks. You can assign other functions to your summon creature, whether it's using items or casting spells for healing, offensive and defensive actions. A new game mechanic/item you receive is something called the Daemon Gem. When used, the gem initiates a "Mono Shift," transforming the hero into an "Edge Fencer." When in this form, the hero becomes a super-powered and super-spiky warrior, able to inflict massive damage in a single sword swing. Though the Edge Fencer form does make you a formidable warrior, the limitations placed upon it force you to be cautious as to when and where it should be used; you can only do so once before needing to recharge the gem, and the Edge Fencer form only lasts a limited time, for a single battle.

The multi-player weapon-swapping and battles from the first Summon Night didn't make it into this game, which was a bit of a letdown; however, the richly detailed play experience helps lessen the sting.

Sound
The sound quality is much improved over the previous version. There are extensive uses of voice-over samples during battles, during spells and in victory sequences after boss battles. The music itself hasn't changed much, but the tunes are more cinematic sounding and more atmospheric than in the previous title. Some more character-specific or event specific themes would have really added to the overall feel and enjoyment of the music and game's atmosphere, though. Sound effects make the same carryover from the previous game, from the whirrr of a drill to dramatic fanfare and close-up of the Craftknight Master's steely gaze.

Creativity & Fun
Aside from all the different Guardian Beast options that you can choose, as well as different genders for the hero character, there are also 5 different bonus modes available after you beat the game, including a New Game +.
Throw in another 3 different modes that become available after you've maxed out your crafting level or created every weapon, and you'll have plenty of reasons to come back for more after you beat this game the first time

Much like its predecessor, Summon Night 2: Swordcraft Story takes what could have been a generic story and trappings, and made it enjoyable via lush graphics, engaging gameplay, and the same snappy dialogue given to NPCs as well as PCs (My personal favorite being the old man who was constantly upstaged by the Mayor in his youth telling the hero how he now gives the Mayor the slimiest, smallest fish he can, concluding with "Revenge is best served on a hook, heh heh!").

With the variety in weapon customization, your fighting style is truly what you decide to make of it, making for an incredibly fun experience. There is a lot of fun to be had in creating your own ultimate weapon just the way you want it, as well as various side quests and mini games (the fishing game, a staple of RPGs as late has been strangely addictive).

Summon Night 2 not only manages to improve upon its predecessor, but is a must-have for GBA RPG fans. The game has what it takes to satiate the average RPG fan, with an engaging story, fast-paced battles and entertaining gameplay and weapon systems that provide enough to appeal to a broad audience and the hard-core RPG fan.