The Blue Fox Alley

03 June 08! Guess what day that is!!! ITS THE EXAMINATION DAY. After a 4 hour long paper, I believe its time to chuck all those medical stuff into my subconsciousness and indulge myself in a game that has only be released in Japan on the nintendo DS!! Did I say only in Japan? YES! ONLY IN JAPAN, BUT NOT ANYMORE!! FOR THE FIRST TIME ON THE DS, SUMMON NIGHT IS GOING TO BE RELEASED IN USA IN ENGLISH!!

Anyway, since we already have details about the Japanese version of the game, eager fans can read about it just before the release date!! P-Meister ikkimasu!

Whats so Special About an English Summon Night Game

 For those who don’t know, several versions of Summon Night has already been released on the PS, GBA and PS2. However, most of these are Japanese titles and only 2 of them, on the GBA are in English and are Swordcraft Stories(different system). To finally get summon night in English on another console is a BLESSING!! This version’s style is much like the one released on the PS2

Anyway, the adaptation will be by Atlus Co., which has successfully translated many Japanese anime like games into English ones. Famous titles are the Trauma Centre series on the DS and Wii and Rondo of Swords on the DS. These games rely heavily on anime art and have generated great reviews by me, other gamers and lovers of anime.

Gameplay

Anyway, I’m sure most of you would have heard about one of the BEST BESTER BESTEST DS games out there, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Finally, there’ll be a game that will BE similar to this. However, this time, there’s more than one character and the AI controls the other characters so you don’t have to. The gameplay is RTS, so you will have to think while u act.

1) HIGH SPEED EXCITING RTS GAMEPLAY – There’s no time to pause and calculate your next move. This playstyle is not for everyone, especially those who cannot take pressure, but given the success of Phantom Hourglass, I’m sure this will be a big hit.

What is RTS you say? Its Real Time Strategy. Isn’t RTS in C&C and war games like kinda thing? Yes and no, as this has much less units to control. Things however move faster and your one unit HAS TO do things NON-STOP or YOU WILL DIE. Thankfully, there’s two screens on the DS. There’s the upper screen to guide you with map and stylus movements.

2) HIGH PRECISION STYLUS CONTROL!! - Basically, you have items to place in slots, skills and etc. All you need to do is to drag things on your character, click on enemies, move the stylus in a certain pattern to use skills. Almost 100% of the game will be via stylus, much like the other RTS u have played before, except faster. Sometimes i wonder why they didn’t put C&C onto the DS.

3) PARTY PARTY – Its also an RPG, which means play as another character and u got a party etc… There are only 2 characters you can play but u can choose your party members. The way you treat them will affect the storyline too.

Somehow, i think Reiha’s the prettiest.

4) LOADS OF FEATURES – Battle, collect items, craft weapons, earn and improve skills, conjure beasts and MORE!! The system of the game is deeper than any common games. This skill system below reminds me of the one in Diablo 2!

There’ll be a lot to explore. Trust the GREAT P-Meister on this.

NOTE: This is not Summon Night: Swordcraft Story like the GBA one, hence the gamplay will be much different. Here’s a small video on what it’ll be like.

It looks pretty good but I kinda thought zelda was faster. Working with the stylus is wonderful, I like clicking enemies to hit them and linking up the attacks. Multiplayer wise, there’s only item trading sad to say… I’m not a person fancy to trade online using Wifi FCs. But its easy to find some FCs of people willing to trade at gamefaqs.com message boards.

Sound and Graphics and Storyline

We all know what happens when 3D enters the DS, look at Gundam 00 etc. It will never win the PSP. This one, is 2D thankfully. The artwork looks pretty ok. I find Reiha so moe. Anyway, conversations take place showing words and larger images of characters. This shows the expression on the character faces.

Also, conversations come with voices. The storyline itself, although basic has alternate paths to take. There will be different endings. Worth replaying!! Additionally, replaying nets you EXTRA DUNGEONS. I’m not a fan of extra dungeons, so I’ll stop here. Lets move to the conclusion.

Conclusion

No time to conclude yet, lets just wait and hope the English version does well. However, prepare to get shitty dubs in the English version. It always happens. WAHAHAHA. Japanese voices are nice though.