Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Summoner 2

Written by Chris Reiter on November 01, 2002

Full Review: "What happened to Pava?" Oh, she's just a fruit.

Myself, and many others included the world round could say for a fact that they were displeased by the to be RPG wonderment Summoner two years ago when the PlayStation 2 launched. Unlike most everyone else though, I still saw some merit in Summoner's bringing. The game offered the player an enormous world brimming with lush visuals, a unique gameplay system akin in ways to the Diablo series on the PC, and most of all an imaginative storyline about a boy -- how he was born with the mark to call on the power of a beast, and ended up bringing his own town to ruin in an effort to save it from dark forces. Even with all of Summoner's good intentions, there were a number of flaws that contributed to the resulting mediocre title the game deserved. In Volition's eyes however, there's always room for seconds.

Ages ago the goddess Laharah planted a tree that was the source of all creation, was worshipped by wise kings, and promised to restore the tree to its fullest once a terrible storm brought it to destruction, before leaving her kingdom of Halassar. Those same wise kings turned evil in her absence, forming a clan that was abolished by the first Emperor of Halassar's neighboring empire, Galdyr. This is all but a tale of the past to some, but to others, it is still a reality. Twenty years before Maia's birth, it was foretold by the high priestess of Halassar that a child would be given birth to, and as so, she would be named the incarnation of the goddess Laharah reborn. Galdyr at this point was not as friendly as it once was. Its present ruler fought to turn people's minds on the idea that Maia is the rightful heir to the throne of Halassar, but also to accuse her of not being the goddess recreated. A war was fought. At the age of four, Maia became the youngest Queen to be placed at the throne of a defeat against an uprising of her kingdom. Now it is 16 years in the future. Now the two empires are enemies. Now it is your destiny to fulfill your prophecy.

When it comes down to it, the first Summoner's gameplay system was a toughie. Those being one of the major contributions to why the game would otherwise be significantly better. Fortunately Summoner 2 disposes of that flaw quickly, even though to an extent you will find it to be greatly challenging. Where the first game had you assign up to four special abilities to your directional keys, the second one now forgets that and allows you to press either the left or right directional keys to bring open a window that sorts out everything you'll need right away in combat. Here you can access health potions, lists of magic spells and scrolls, and even handy collectible quest items for purposes like using a key to open a door, or a music sheet to hand to a piper that will pipe you a special song, and in return you'll receive experience points for it.

I say the gameplay has been improved because you have much less to worry about, as with before where you needed to pay attention to every single menu aspect there was in order to fight large groups of enemies by heavily relying on the computer controlled allies. Before is again done now similarly in an action based RPG, where you must head into battle with a small list of allies to aid you. The good thing about Summoner 2 is that your friends in arms aren't all the same as you are, and all carry a personality of their own through preference in weapons and abilities. The bad thing is that your party is still in a way useless if being manipulated by the computer's control work. Now only able to carry up to three individuals at once on screen, you can guide any one of your characters at any given time simply by a flick of the R2 switch. In the game's menu, you can manually set a destination to what your team's ideal position is in helping you out -- from support tactics, to casting or healing (if they're a magic user), or simply using their own melee method. It doesn't really matter that much which option you pick, because you can be ahead of the game the entire time by disposing of the enemies yourself quicker and better than the computer ever could.

There are ways around this tiny nuisance though, and that is to gain more experience points. Throughout the adventure, you'll earn experience in both combat and completing mini quests you may optionally choose to endure within. Some quests are very easy, like one where you need to pay someone a certain amount of money for one usage, while others can be time consuming, where in the town of Munari you'll have to figure out a way to convince a blue skinned inhabitant of the area to let a business partner of yours (after losing 3,000 credits) have the right to sell goods in the city. And not every quest can be done in a simple matter; there's an entire logic to many of which will have you using your head and patience for quite a long time. When you do have enough experience however, your character's icon on the bottom of the screen glows. This lets you know you can opt to upgrade your character in only a few different ways (depending on the number of skill points earned). Here you can distribute the points amongst the character's different attribute levels of whether or not they can block well, attack with a certain weapon better, if they're able to comply with a specific skill, and of course if when they're computer controlled, how capable the AI can perform with their puppet...which turns out most of the time it looks as though they're not.

Since the upgrade of gameplay has been introduced, the controls with it now differ. The battle system is also easier in a way that you won't have to face as many enemies as the original threw at you. Still, there are instances where an area is cleared out and the same group you once defeated will re-spawn if you return to the last location you were in, but that's not always the case. Your character can also automatically lock direction to face any one enemy at a given time. Pretty much all you need to worry about with the controls are blocking with R1, attacking with the square button, moving with the left analog stick, and if it comes down to it, scrolling through your list of goodies to obtain a scroll of lighting or fire, and let the elements take aim. Everything is put the test fairly easy, except for the awkward camera angle. Using the right analog stick will zoom in and out of the screen. However, it will remain to a close distance near your selected character. This way the perspective blocks off the view of attacks coming from behind (ones you can't see or block). Just as well, turning the camera to the sides is a little slow in having to face it one way, and then advancing towards the specified path. Because much of the action calls for you to be facing forward, you may experience a few nasty hits before you can officially say you're ready to brawl -- and that's not a good thing either.

Maia's story is one that is entirely different from the protagonist Joseph seen in the original Summoner. So instead of calling forth a beast of immense power to idly play a separate role as one of your battle teammates throughout exploring various dungeon areas and such, Maia will soon discover, that like Joseph, she too can beckon the will of magical beings -- only she becomes one with it, as it becomes one with her. The few disappointing things about the decision to not make the creature a separate entity is that for one, Joseph was able to attack foes at the same time his summon would. Another is that there's now a time limit given out, counting down half a minute before the transformation reverses itself. What is sad to see is that in order to shift into the creature, you first must to dish out 50 AP (Attack Points). While the AP does regenerate itself back to normal (or with the help of a restoration item), you'll either have to sit around for a few minutes to take shape again, or must choose to waste an AP vial only to buy more with what little money you can scrape up.

One thing that's for certain: Summoner 2's world is as huge or maybe more so than its predecessor. There's many a shop in which to purchase or sell the latest goods you have gathered from enemy defeats, or from secret entryways within the belly of a level. Ranging from swords, axes, maces, hammers, crossbows, staff weapons, daggers, shields, jewelry, gloves, health and status aids, and much more, you'll find that there's a lot of useful and useless items to measure their worth with. Some of the weapons may come prepared with their own batch of magically induced spells, while others could carry a slower speed property. The quicker, stronger, and more enchanted your tool is, the better the chance survival will be waiting for you at the stage's end.

Visually, Summoner 2 isn't too close to the top of already other fascinating spectacles the PlayStation 2 has to offer. Sure, the game's been given a little of a facelift since the previous encounter with Summoner in areas like more curved character modeling. But save that fact for the NPCs (Non Playable Characters) -- who have turned out simple, pasty, and roughly textured and modeled -- because with a lot to look at in character models other than your own team, mediocrity reigns supreme. Animations in the characters fare better though, where you'll see quick and slow swings of weaponry depending on how able the tool is. Loose clothing will flap in the wind behind you as you run with it. The Limbs of Maia even spin and twine around gracefully as she goes into a state of creature formation only to come out of it with a fluid moving gargantuan in her place.

In through massive environments of a candle lit cavernous dungeon lair, a palace scaled big and tall, outdoor cities and paths surrounded by plant life and running water, there lies variety to each and every locale. However, while these areas are represented well enough, the look of them just doesn't cut it enough. You may find a little interactivity in some places, like armored guards inside the palace walls that when you walk past them will upraise into their formatted protective position, or falling leaves under a group of trees in the garden. Take a look closer, and many of the surfaces and designs in the levels are nothing more than commonly uninspiring and overall forgettable. If it's razzle and dazzle you want, that lies within Summoner 2's magic system. Each spell light during or after its cast state shines, flares, and in the process looks great. The spells themselves are quite cool; ones of fire, lightning, ice, amongst others. If only the lighting effects handed out affected your characters greater than a small trace of barely noticeable bright and darks, THQ would have something cooking here.

Sound was one of Summoner's high points. Starting out with the voice work in the previous adventure, that trend continues here. There are all styles of admirable languages pertaining to the quantum of character races Summoner 2 has to bear. Maia's voice for example is a touch of a soft-spoken British, reminiscent of Lara Croft's own. Much of the rest of the cast carry a British following themselves, but each to their own, they all do a fabulous job at bringing their character to the game's world. Elsewhere, the soundtrack to Summoner 2 appears to be, once more, something to cherish. A theme of Mediterranean drums and strings fixes in on your head, which plays along well with the experience of Summoner 2's RPG world. Interchangeable, the music also shifts from area to area in a good sense of cultural taste.

Aside from both voice and music, the audio effects are about the one aspect of Summoner 2 that may leave the customer desiring a bit more. Not that they're the worst the gaming world has ever heard, but the sound effects are relatively soft in certain areas, and louder in others. Walking or running across different surfaces emits a tiny clank or crunch, while the clash of swords or the whiz of magic casting pumps up on the volume scale. And the quality of each effort put into this spot isn't over the top in any way. Overall though, they work, just not exceptionally enough.