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Blacksmiths go to war

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 15
Date: August 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The story in Summon Night: Swordcraft Story revolves around a tournament aimed at deciding a new Craftlord for the city of Wystern. Although you can choose to play the game as a male or female character, the premise remains that your chosen character (whom you can name) will aim to follow the footsteps of your deceased father - himself a great Craftlord for the city. This begins an adventure that, while being generally short and simple, still packs in a measure of solid gameplay, and a lot of fun.

Swordcraft Story is essentially an old-school RPG that encompasses most of the ingredients that make the genre works. It has its share of random battles, dungeon-crawling and boss fights, as well as some tedious experiences in items collection. The incentives for collecting items, however, are perhaps more important than that of most other RPGs in the market right now. You see, in this game, you're a Craftsman. This basically means that you make your own weapons instead of buying them. And to make them, you'd need materials. As a result, gathering items becomes the only way that you can forge or upgrade weapons. To make things more complicated, you'd also need to learn the different techniques in forging these weapons. It's not uncommon, therefore, to find yourself spending a large amount of time learning techniques, and ploughing through dungeon levels in search of materials, just so that you can keep up with the more powerful enemies as you progress. This may sound drab in theory, but it actually turns out to be rather interesting simply because of the large amount of weapons (over 150) that you can forge.

The game features five weapon categories: Sword, Axe, Spear, Knuckles and Drill. Each of these has their own strengths and weaknesses. Sword type weapons, for example, are fast-attacking tools, but the amount of damage dished out by them is comparatively lesser than those by Axe types. Axes, on the other hand, are very much slower to wield. Spears provide long range attacks at a slower pace, while Knuckles pack an explosive punch at the expense of reach. Drills are perhaps the most interesting category of the five, as its purpose is to wear down an opponent's (usually a boss) weapons quickly. Breaking a boss' weapon has a great bearing on your own arsenal, because you can learn his or her technique, and therefore forge the same weapon for your own use.

You'd need these weapons too, because the enemies will become quite challenging as the game goes. As with most RPGs, the number of random battles in Swordcraft Story is annoyingly aplenty. However, early in the game, you'd get to partner a Summon Beast, who'll act as a typical mage partner commonly found in other RPGs. The beast can add to your attacking prowess, heal your wounds, and help you guard enemies' attack. These supporting powers, however, must be learnt as the beast levels up. So, apart from levelling up your own character, you may just find yourself fighting more often just to garner more supporting powers from your partner.

Before a fight, you can assign your weapons into the various weapon slots (up to three initially) in your menu. During a battle, you can switch them on the run by simply pressing the L button. Similarly, the supports of your Summon Beasts can also be assigned (up to five), and cycled through during a fight using the R button. This switching feature encourages a more tactical approach than mere button-smashing, although it's undermined by the fact that a high-stat drill can break almost any weapons.

The battles in Swordcraft Story are also different from the turn-based affairs found in other RPGs. An action-style battle system is used here, which essentially allows you to attack your enemies in real-time. This is a refreshing change to the typical RPG approach, because it allows battles to finish quickly. On top of the usual health bar of the parties involved in a battle, you'll also get to view the condition of the weapons used during a fight. If you manage to break a boss' weapon, he or she loses by default - it's not necessary to deplete his or her health completely. As mentioned earlier, breaking a boss' weapon also allows you to learn the technique of forging that particular weapon. So, if you intend to forge all 150+ weapons in the game, you may have to spend more time upgrading your drills for maximum weapons-breaking effect.

The game also attempts to up its difficulty level by limiting the number of save points throughout the game. You can only save at specific sword statues at various locations, which may frustrate players who prefer to play on the go. Thankfully, a "suspend" system is also in place to perform a one-time quick save of your current status. Once you retrieve a suspended game, however, the quick save is gone forever. The sword statues are therefore still your best bet for taking a rest from the game.

Swordcraft Story was first released in Japan almost three years ago. Understandably, its graphics look a little dated. The anime-styled drawings are also typical RPG fare - spiky-haired hero; dole-eyed girls and the likes. Nevertheless, it's still an acceptable effort for the GBA, especially when the animated details on the fight scenes look explosive enough to generate some excitement. The music scores in the game are catchy, and blend with the in-game situations rather well. However, they do get dull after a while, mainly due to of a lack of selection. The sound effects are ok though, especially when used to complement the fight scenes.

Swordcraft Story may not be an epic RPG like the Final Fantasy series, but it's a nice little game that should provide more than a quick-fix of RPG goodness. The need to forge your own weapons provides depth to the gameplay, and the real-time battles make random battles easier to swallow. Despite it's relatively short story, additional dungeon levels that will be added after your first playthrough also add to the game's value.

Flawed, But Totally Worth Getting

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: December 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you think the GBA is dead, think again! Atlus continues to bring us some very cool games from Japan, and they have made many good choices in selecting titles, Summon Night: Swordcraft Story being one of them. It's about time this series made its way over to the North American region!

This is a neat little RPG that is quite fun, despite having its flaws. But first its good points. If anyone has ever played the "Tales" series (Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Destiny, etc.) then you may have an idea of how this game's battle system works. If not I will explain that it's real-time fighting, and you look at your character from the side (like you would in a 2D fighting game) rather than behind or overhead, and physical attacks and blocking are done with the A and B buttons. During the real time action, you can hold any number of weapons, but you can only bring 3 into battle, and you can switch between any 3 weapons you're holding (weapons can be elemental, so naturally you wouldn't want to use, say, a wind weapon against a wind monster) or have your Guardian Beast cast a spell or use an item for you that you choose with the shoulder buttons. Likewise, your Guardian Beast can only hold a limited amount of items or spells in battle, so you should set things up ahead of time. Once you're in battle you can't change the set-up. If you're really getting pounded on, calling up your Guardian Beast for a spell might get interrupted a few times. This is a pain, but it doesn't happen enough to be all that annoying. Battles, even major ones vs. a rival, or with bosses, aren't very long or drawn out, or even particularly difficult. All through the entire game it is just you and your summoned Guardian (monsters in this game are referred to as "summons"), and even though you interact with a LOT of other characters, you never actually fight side-by-side with any of them, only your monster buddy. You can chose between being male or female in the beginning, and customize your name as well as your Guardian Beast's name. I've only played the female one, so I'm not sure if there is anything majorly different in the story for chosing male, but I suspect any differences are probably minor. I'm not sure if gender effects what Guardian Beast you can choose, either. There are several you can get as your partner and I don't know if your character's gender has anything to do with that. Once you have your beast, s/he's with you for life.

The best aspect of the game is that the storyline is very involved, and the characters are interesting and more fleshed-out than most NPCs in RPGs. You actually will start to feel for them, and you will make many friends who join up to help as the story progresses. The story isn't complicated; you're the typical son or daughter of a dead hero, trying to live up to your father's name all the while discovering more and more about how he died, who was involved and what it was over. It begins to tie in with a mess of foul play that's going on in the present, so your adventure is multi-faceted. Yet because the characters are so interesting, it shouldn't matter much if the story is a little rehashed. For newer gamers they might not notice, but for old school RPGers it will be blatantly evident. But I'm an old schooler and it really didn't bother me that the story wasn't exactly new.

One of the focal points of the game is that you're a Craftknight-in-training on his or her way up the ranks, and as the game progresses you acquire more and more techniques. A technique allows you to manufacture your own weapons; you will get most of them from Master Bron, but you get a few special techniques in other ways. However, you can't just make a weapon out of thin air, so you must spend some time exploring and killing stray summons in order to collect items and ore to melt down for materials. Only when you have the technique and the required material can you forge a weapon in a furnace; you will use the one in your own quarters the most, but there are other places in the game where you're allowed to use a different furnace, although it does exactly the same thing as your own. You can even melt down old weapons for materials. There is a possibility your weapon can break in battle from use, but there is a meter that shows you if your weapon is near breaking point, and all you have to do is switch over to another weapon before the meter's gone. It only happened to me once, and from then on I just kept an eye on the gauge, but battles rarely last long enough to have to worry about it. Besides, all you have to do is forge a new one. The break meter is fully restored by your next battle.

Instead of wandering around a map of the world, you are instead given free-reign to roam around the town you live in and the underground dungeon in order to collect experience, money, and materials. The dungeon is 50 levels deep (then an additional 50 levels open up after you complete the story), and THANKFULLY it is NOT randomly generated. You cannot blast through the whole thing in one shot, as the levels get progressively tougher, and at certain points you will be blocked so that you can't continue until you do a certain event. The game basically guides you wherever you need to go, but even if you forget, you can just push the Select button and you will be clued in as you character converses with his/her summon partner. In that sense, people who like to figure out what they must do next might find the game easy...I don't think I was ever at a loss where to go or what to do next. In between trigger events, you're free to do whatever or go wherever you want, but 90% of the time you're confined to your hometown and the dungeons beneath it. You must leave town at certain points via boat to travel to other towns, but to be honest, this activity is very minimal and restricted. While all this is happening you are also competing in official tournament (exam = battle vs. another Craftknight) to make rank. At some points you are given the option to pick your reactions, or who you want to talk to, and outcomes are different depending on what you choose (since I made a save and redid some parts, picking the alternate, just to see), but in general the story stays on track and the decisions you make seem only to effect small side-quests. More decisive to the ending is what people you choose to talk to when you go out for your occasional night walks. You are given a list of your friends and you can pick one (and only one) at that point to have a visit with. There are more than an adequate number of save points and health restore stations throughout the game, and you can easily enough find a warp point and return to your own room to rest and save as well. I think I died only twice during the whole game, and only once in the dungeon, and that's because I was careless. You can temporary-save anywhere in the game if you have to stop playing suddenly.

Now for the bad points...my main complaint is that the random monsters (er, "stray summons" I mean) are rather lackluster. They're all basically the size of your character, although there are a few bigger ones, and only ONE large boss. In the beginning you run into a lot of those blob/slime-type monsters that show up in just about every RPG in existence, and then you run into yet more later on, that are tougher and merely a different color. In fact all the monsters have tougher, differently-colored counterparts, which is just a cheap way of making a "different" monster without having to design one. I believe there are 70 monsters in total...considering each monster has an alternately-colored higher level version, that's only 35 original designs. Battles involve 1 to 4 monsters of (typically) 2 different types. There are a few that fly, that you must jump to hit; nothing difficult. There are some monsters that are cool, like ghost armors and such, but random encounters come fast and furious, and after fighting 1000 of the same thing, you might feel more than a twinge of repetition. You acquire a "bestiary" type log that keeps track of what summons you have encountered, and I didn't even really bother looking at it all that much, only at the end to see how many I was missing. Which brings me to my 2nd complaint, the frequency of random battles. You barely take 10-15 steps and you get hit with a battle. The battles are fast and over quickly, but they can get annoying when you're trying to make some time getting through the dungeon, like if you want to just backtrack quickly to a teleporter. If you don't remember what a room was laid out like, you will probably feel frustration as the random battles constantly distract you from trying to figure out where to go and you end up backtracking by mistake. At least after the battle is over, your character will still be pointed in the direction he or she was heading. You CAN reduce the frequency of random monster encounters, for a certain amount of time, with an amulet item (one time use) you can buy at any time from a shop; however until you're higher level and have a bit of money, the item is expensive and you probably won't be able to afford more than one, if any at all. You can run from a battle fairly easily, but if you try to do it repeatedly, the random encounters become increasingly more frequent, so that trick only works for so long. And on the higher levels when you can afford the amulet, it barely seems to reduce the encounters at all.

The other thing that kind of sucks is that you can equip up to 3 weapons and ONE item to wear on your person, but nothing else. There is no armor or anything you can wear. There are various rings, bracelets and shoes you can wear that give some nice bonuses to your attributes, but you're only allowed to don one at a time. Just because you're wearing a ring, why can't you also put on a pair of shoes? Logically that doesn't make sense, but oh well. You can choose what techniques (spells) your summon buddy can use during battle...basically he has a certain amount of slots and those slots can be either items or spells or any combination, and he does collect quite a variety of abilities in time (leveling up along with you, but at his own pace), but it's a shame you can only take 4 of them into battle. I only used heal and 3 of the most powerful attack spells; I tried a few of the stat-enhancing spells, but they were a waste of time and proved pointless. No battle was lasting or difficult enough to warrant needing stat boosts. As long as you healed yourself and did a steady attack-attack-guard pattern, you had nothing to worry about at all. The other thing that kind of bugged me was that you never have a party. I really like controlling NPCs, and while they ARE a detrimental part of the story, when you go into battle they're never there. There are times when you or your friends shout, "ok! let's fight them together!" and it goes into a battle that's just you vs. the enemy...I guess you are to assume that you're just seeing your part of the bigger fight going on.

The weapons you forge are of a great variety, and you can opt to use your favorite ones, but for the most part the elemental aspect didn't much come into play. There were only a few occasions where I found my weapon ineffective and needed to change because of element, and most of the time I used a sword. The sword is the most versatile as it does the most damage the fastest. There are other weapons that are faster, but don't do much damage, and other weapons that do more damage but are much slower, so there was never any NEED to use anything but the sword. There were only a few enemies that I didn't want to get to close to, and resorted to using the sluggish spear, for its extra reach. Why use an axe that does the same exact amount of damage as the sword, but only gets in one hit when the sword can do 2-3 hits before needing to guard? Why use knuckles or a rotor that are faster, but even if I do 5-6 hits before needing to guard, they only add up to what one hit of a sword would do? The weapon variety looked interesting, but in use, proved pointless. Some weapons improved other things, like defense, but only so minimally that it didn't make using that weapon worthwhile. The best line of attack was to simply use the best sword you could forge, most of the time, and keep your best spear on hand and then maybe an alternate sword or axe. Only once do you get a particularly powerful weapon (a special rotor) early on.

But here is my biggest complaint. The game was over for me at exactly the 24 hour mark, and I wasn't particularly in any hurry. That is way to short, for me. Depending on how much time you take messing around to collect stuff and level up, and forge weapons, you MIGHT stretch it out to 26 or 27 hours . Personally I like RPGs to last around 40 hours, and I like being challenged with puzzles, having vast areas to explore, and really needing to contemplate what I need to do next. It is not just a hack-n-slash dungeon crawler, but it's no puzzler, either. If you liked Golden Sun, this game would be disappointing. There are some hidden treasures but no puzzle-solving to do, and everything is basically very obvious. As long as you level up properly, you will not have any problems with monsters or stadium battles. Getting the opportunity to go somewhere else besides your hometown and the dungeon underneath did not happen frequently enough. You do get to borrow your master's boat a few times to run some errands, but you are never allowed to just go out and explore anywhere. The short trips to other towns are just that: short trips, and once you accomplish your "mission," (usually just delivering some weapons to a shop) it's over and you have to return home. Your hometown isn't all that interesting, either. Most buildings are just homes, there aren't that many of them, they're not all populated, and the townspeople haven't got much to say. In addition, there is nothing to look at or discover. You can't open any chests or barrels (only the ones in the dungeon) so there's really no point venturing into homes anyhow, there are no items to be found. Some of the things people say change after some events, but they are not detrimental to the story. In the few cases that they are, you are told where to go and who to talk to.

Regardless, I still had fun playing the game, and I did want to see it to the end. There are 2 save slots, and 2 (slightly) different endings, so it's best to alternate between save slots just in case you want to go back and make a different decision to see the other outcome. The "bad decision" ending is considerably shorter than the "good decision" one, and you might not realize which one to pick at first, so save carefully. Once the game is over and you have achieved the highest status you can get, 50 more levels open up to explore in the dungeon, so you can work on collecting a few more techniques, equippable items, and filling out the rest of your bestiary. In fact that's when you get all the best stuff. So it has a bit of potential even after the story is finished, plus you can always replay it as the opposite gender to see any differences.

This game is awesome!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: August 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I just got this game, and finished it in a couple of days because I was playing it nonstop. It's definitely the best game I've played in a while.

For starters, the fighting is really fun. It's real time, so instead of something like Pokemon where you trust to luck, you have to actually do your best. I was amazed to realize that not only were my character's stats increasing, I was actually getting better and dodging and blocking and switching weapons (swords and spears are my two favorites.) It's fun enough that the dungeons never get boring... which is good, because they're not very innovative design-wise. Forging your own weapons is fun, but not particularily exciting.

Secondly, the storyline is great. The basic plot - fight your way through the tournament so that you can take first place and become a Craftlord - is just the beginning. While you work on that goal, tons of other stuff pops up - from fun trips to other cities with your friends to the hints of a much deeper plot. In the end, you even have a choice - fight the final battle against your rival, or help rescue your friend, even if it means possibly losing the chance to compete. The game is full of choices, which actually have an impact on your actions. Why fight your way through a dungeon to find your friends when you can just let the guards capture you and take you straight there? It's up to you. But the downside is that if you're like me, you'll always wonder what you might have missed...

Most importantly, the characters are great. You quickly develop a group of friends who accompany you on excursions (but sadly, never actually help you in battle...) and get to know all the adult Craftlords who help you out. Every night (time does indeed pass in this game - but don't worry, it has nothing to do with how much real time you spend) you get to choose a character to go talk to. The time you choose to spend with your favorite character (in my case, Master Sakuro =D) will affect the ending. Exiting or sentimental scenes throughout the game brought tears to my eyes. I only wish that there was even more character developement, since everybody in the game seems so cool.

I'm really glad that I got this game, and I can't wait for the sequel!

a really good gba game...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

i hadn't heard much about this one before i bought it, and it pleasantly surprised me. the only possibly negative i can give to it is that you get attacked a lot in the dungeon, but that's ok at first because you want to gain levels; later you can buy potions so that you won't get attacked for a couple of minutes or so which makes this problem go away altogether. the pluses are many: the graphics and sound are good, the game design is good, the crafting is fun, the hunting is fun, the story is good and sometimes funny...all around a really fun game. if you are looking for a good gba rpg game don't pass this one up. plus it's successor just came out so you jump right into it as well.

Not amazing, but better than average....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: October 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game has been out for sometime in Japan and as usual this sort of RPGs take a while to reach other regions. The settings and gameplay are relatively simple for an RPG as if it is directed to newbies or less experienced gamers. The core of the game is the "syntesis" system, in which you are given new techniques to build yourself the weaponery of your choice. The system itself is fairly interesting and adds more depth to the gameplay.
The major setback to this game is its length. I myself, along with many other RPG gamers, would prefer our quests to be relatively longer than 30-40hrs. You could easily complete this game in less than 20.
Apart from that flaw, I think the game is a good entry to the GBA library.

Better than expected

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: October 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There's not many new games coming out for the GBA these days, and there's even fewer that are anything close to above average. Now I know what you're thinking, another RPG on the GBA? Yes, the only difference is that Summon Night is incredibly easy to get into and pick up and play, even if you're not usually into RPG's. It's been out for a while overseas, and thanks to Atlus (who also recently brought over Super Robot Taisen for the GBA, and the sequel to that is well on it's way) this return to the roots of classic RPG gaming can be enjoyed on the GBA. Graphically it's nothing special and looks like a first generation Super NES game, but the involving and lengthy story, innovative battle system, and addictive gameplay set Summon Night apart from most of the pack of RPG's that populate the GBA. It's better than expected and definitely worth picking up for RPG fans still holding on to their GBA's, and even some DS owners may want to give it a look.

My new favorite game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: March 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've only played, finished and enjoyed a few RPG's before this one (Chrono Trigger and Seiken Densetsu 3 being the best), and I REALLY LIKED THIS GAME.
A lot of games out there are just boring, uninspired rehashes, featuring mind numbingly stupid plot devices and endless grinding and leveling (I would put Golden Sun in this group). I lose patience with that sort of thing quickly. This game isn't terribly original either... but somehow the pieces are just pulled together the right way. The dialog is funny. The side quests are amusing (and sometimes pointless). The characters have relatively believable personalities.
Most of these other reviews seem to have (excessively) described the plot and gameplay, so I won't.

Save your money!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 10
Date: May 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The kids couldn't wait to get this "great" game. We used their hard-earned cash to buy it and it TOTALLY stinks! Amazon was fine in delivery (super-fast), but the game itself is so poorly designed. Every time you stop playing the game, you must completely start over....there is no way to save your progress. Ugh!

Game for Girls

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: May 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Personally, I enjoy games that allow you to choose the gender of your main character. While I enjoy playing RPG games where I only play a male, I for one support games that try to appeal to a female audience which this game did with the ability to choose the playable characters gender.

There are many things I found appealing such as story development as well as battling. The aspect of the Guardian Beast partner and relationships with various characters made it more enjoyable for me to play. There was also a good deal of character empathy created making some points of the game difficult. Yet for all the choices I thought I could make, they did not seem to affect the game, just the cut scene. My choices did not have a lasting affect to the game it seemed.

I enjoy the fact that I made my own weapons to use in the game instead of buying them at the shop.

As far as battling and gameplay goes, there is nothing terribly unique save for the weapon creation. The animation and graphics are simplistic and anime style, but still pleasant.

Personally, I thought it was a great game which was also like a great book. Playing it felt like reading through chapters and I could not wait to get to the next one. However, if you are interested in action packed game play I would not recommend this particular game. It is fairly slow paced. It was good enough to make me buy the sequel summon night 2.
I imagine younger teenagers or more casual console gamers would enjoy this particular game. There are some instances of language but not much more than the "d-word".

It's short and sweet

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It's short and sweet with the graphics looking like their from an old snes game. but the story is so good

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