Like many other titles from Atlus, Summon Night: Swordcraft Story quietly sailed in under most gamers' radars (and in low quantities), but its quirky charm swiftly earns it a warm spot in the hearts of those who discover and play it - usually via word-of-mouth. It's nothing revolutionary or world-shattering, and the box art and unwieldy title might actually turn some gamers away; it's simply a solid (if brief) action-ish RPG with some interesting twists that make the game feel unique enough to stand out from the usual crowd of Square-Enix cookie-cutters or Pokémon-style collect-a-thons. The graphics are the typical Atlus standards with detailed sprites (that always remind me of Camelot's designs in the Golden Sun games) and anime-styled portraits of the major characters with various expressions; the music is also nothing terribly impressive (being designed for the GBA and its one speaker) but not annoying, which is as much as most players could hope for. Still, very few gamers care about the graphics or sound in a handheld RPG, so let me turn my attention to the story.

Your character (of the gender and name of your choice) is the heir of the great Craftlord Shintetsu, who tragically died three years ago. For some reason, perhaps out of general mourning, his position as one of the seven Craftlords in Wystern, the City of Swords, has remained vacant until now. A tournament of young (all 18 or younger, per the rules of both the tournament and RPG clichés) apprentice craftknights is being held, with the winner stepping up to claim Shintetsu's position as Craftlord of Iron. Naturally, your character is entered in this grand event as you try to follow in your father's footsteps.

Of course, if you want to climb the somewhat cutthroat ranks of young craftknights, then you better learn how to craft some actual weapons. All of the weapons you use in this game will be forged by your own hands (with some assistance, which I'll get to in a second) rather than purchased in a shop or found in a treasure chest secreted away in some dungeon. The dungeons in this game, which include a 50-level Labyrinth underneath your home town as well as four smaller areas outside of it, are primarily where you find the raw materials you need to create these weapons. (They are also the sites of the standard leveling up/money farming/storyline progression.) You generally acquire these by smashing open crates, barrels, and chests with your hammer, but some items are also dropped by vanquished monsters, called "Stray Summons" in this game.

All craftknights have a "Guardian Beast" to assist them. These creatures are summoned according to the personality of the would-be owner; when that owner dies, the summoned creature sort of goes rogue, and there's your explanation for random encounters in this game. In your case, you answer a brief series of questions shortly after the beginning of the game and the game assigns one of the four available GBs to you. Each GB has its own personality (although two of them don't offer much in the way of conversation), specializes in two of the four non-sword weapon types, and is associated with one of the usual four elements (fire, wind, water, and lightning). In addition to helping you in the workshop, your GB will also be an invaluable asset to you during combat. Each GB has four slots to which you can assign either a combat item (like healing potions) or one of the GB's spells; you may call upon your GB a maximum of five times per combat by pressing B and cycling through the five options (the four slots plus "guard") using the R button. This is an interesting feature that forces you to plan accordingly, especially during boss battles. If you call upon your GB to unleash a magical attack or enhancement, that's one less time that you can ask it to heal you during that fight. A GB's magic also has a certain number of "charges", which are replenished whenever your character recovers HP via sleep or a recovery point.

Your other combat-oriented assets, obviously, are your weapons; there is no armor in this game save for one lone equip slot for accessories, but your defense rating increases as you level. So it's not really an issue. The weapons come in five flavors: swords, axes, spears, knuckles, and drills. As you progress through the game, you will learn new techniques for crafting better weapons from both your master and from other craftknights in the town. Your GB can also teach you new techniques if you have a sufficient amount of "mystic ore" handy when you attempt to forge a known item of one of their favored types (or a sword, which any GB can enhance). These techniques imbue the weapon with an elemental force that increases its attack power against most opponents (although it seriously reduces its effectiveness against like-aligned foes).

Each weapon type has its strengths, weaknesses, and special maneuvers. The latter of which are never actually told to you in the game; be sure to check the manual before starting play so you'll know what you're doing! You can have a maximum of three weapons equipped for your exploring needs; you are restricted to only one weapon while directly participating in the tournament, however. So plan accordingly. You can switch weapons on the fly using the L button during combat, allowing you to fine-tune your assault to the stray summons you're facing.

The combat (and general gameplay) itself is very similar to that in Namco's "Tales of" series, where your top-down RPG adventuring is replaced by a 2D fighter-style environment whenever you enter combat. You can dash and jump around your opponents while wielding your various armaments, gaining a bonus to damage if you manage to hit them from behind (which, along with your Guard command, is also a good way to avoid taking damage yourself). Generally, you win if you deplete your opponents' HP as usual, but against human opponents you have another option: you can break their weapon. Each weapon has a "durability" rating in addition to its attack, defense, and agility ratings, and each swing depletes some of this durability. A weapon is also weakened when used to deflect blows, and different weapon types can be affected in different ways. When that DUR score reaches zero, the weapon breaks and your opponent surrenders, being rendered defenseless. Apparently no one else brings more than one weapon with them outside of the tournament, or they use their forge hammer as an unbreakable (if uninspiring) default weapon like you're forced to do at the outset (and perhaps again later if you're careless). As a bonus, you will learn the techniques to forge the weapons of your opponents if you break them. If your own weapons are broken (outside of the tournament), you can recover some of the materials invested in their making by completing the battle with one of your others. Finally, don't be turned off at the thought of weapon maintenance like you might have experienced (read: "suffered through") in other games; your weapon's DUR rating fully recovers automatically after every battle. So it's no hassle at all.

As is the case with most RPGs, you eventually stumble upon a plot against everything you hold dear and wind up doing what you can to thwart it. Of course, exactly how you go about doing this is somewhat up to you, as the game seems to have a bit of leeway with its narrative. Your GB, along with your gender and some of the choices you make throughout the story, determine which of several endings you will ultimately earn. This allows for some additional replay value beyond the extra 50 levels of Labyrinth and other extras that open up after you complete the main storyline. This is good because it shouldn't take you much longer than 20 hours to accomplish that task. (I've heard of some people blasting through in 10 hours.) Even at that brief (by RPG standards) duration, this is still a solid title and worth the purchase price... if you can find a copy.

One final point I wanted to address: as the title might suggest if you look at it hard enough (probably after you play the game and wonder where the heck it came from, as there's very little summoning going on and most of the action takes place during daylight), Swordcraft Story is actually the latest installment in the Summon Night series. Until now, the series has never reached American shores. I don't know how much it resembles its ancestors (or even what defines the series, aside from probably the general gameplay), but I do know that I wouldn't complain if we saw more from this franchise in the future... whether still on the GBA or on a more advanced system/console.

Aug 25, 2006 | 0 comments
Chris Ingersoll