by Jay "THE FLEA" Wade
A common farm boy summons a demon to save his town, only to find it destroying everything he loves.
Years later the farm boy is thrown into a quest that will fulfill his destiny as a summoner.
That’s the basic story line to THQ’s Summoner. PS2's first RPG.
The game play is basic RPG. Wander, battle, talk and search. The real time battle system requires you press button combos as symbols appear above your character, or turn it to auto combo and the computer does it for you. The combo system takes some timing but isn’t hard to pick up.
In your quest you’ll find many side quests. Find people who have problems and help them to get money or special items.
You’ll find other characters who join your in your quest, each having their own strong and weak points of course. Each character has weapons and armor of all kind that only they can use. (Like most RPGs)
You can dress your characters from head to toe. And the game graphics show your hero wearing his/her armor of your choice.
This game is huge, there’s so much to explore that the side quest alone will keep you busy for some time.
You can even separate your party. Have one stay behind and go ahead solo. Many puzzles require you to do so. You can also switch party members at any time. Can’t open a door? Switch characters and pick the lock. When your not playing a character the computer plays him/her even in battles. Unless you go solo that is.
The graphics are great but do have some draw backs. The cut scenes while well voice acted, they do have a look of death appearance. They almost look like zombies. I’m not sure if this was the programmers intentions or not.
And the biggest problem is the horrendous pop-up. You’ll walk into a town and all of a sudden a castle will appear in front of you. You’ll walk down a straight corridor and out of no where a wall will appear.
The control is simple but the battles and combo system do take a little getting used to.
Overall if you have a PS2 and need a RPG and don’t mind a few flaws I do recommend Summoner.
While not the best RPG it’s still worth your time.
PUBLISHER: THQ
GRAPHICS: 8 MUSIC & SOUND: 9.5 CONTROL: 8
SECRETS: 10 ORIGINALITY: 9 FUN & REPLAY: 8.5
OVERALL: 8.5