Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2
| Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Flight-Plan |
| Publisher(s) | Banpresto (JP) Atlus (NA) |
| Series | Summon Night |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Genre(s) | Action role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 (サモンナイト クラフトソード物語2) is an action role-playing game by Banpresto for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance system. It is part of the Summon Night series of games and the sequel to Summon Night: Swordcraft Story. Atlus handled the English translation of the game.
Gameplay
Field
The player explores the world from a top-down perspective. In areas containing enemies, groups of foes will randomly appear to confront the player, switching the game to combat mode.
A variety of objects are placed in the areas that the player explores. The player may interact with these objects by striking them with a weapon. Most of these objects are breakable, and the player will randomly obtain helpful items from them. These objects will reappear once the player leaves the area and returns. There are also normal chests, which contain a specific item and can only be obtained once. Different weapon types also have unique uses, such as the ability of knuckles to move boulders and drills to break down walls, and proper use of weapon types is needed to solve the game's puzzles.[1]
Combat
Battles in Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 are 2D sidescrolling affairs. All action takes place in real-time.
Players may have up to three weapons equipped and may switch between the three at will during a fight. Players may also choose from a pre-selected set of spells and items to use as well. As the player fights, they durability of their equipped weapon will go down. When durability is fully depleted, the weapon breaks and is not usable until repaired. If the player has no more usable weapons equipped, then the player is forced to switch to the hammer.
The health of all enemies is constantly displayed at the top of the screen with numbered red meters. Players defeat enemies by reducing their health to nothing. Some enemies carry weapons like the player. When fighting these enemies, a Durability meter for their weapon will appear in addition to their health meter. These enemies may be defeated by depleting either their health or weapon durability. In the case of the latter, the player will receive the same crafting material their opponent had in his/her weapon.
Crafting
Creation
In this game, players create their own weapons though a crafting process. To create a weapon, the player must first have an item, called a Shapestone, of one of five varieties – sword, axe, spear, knuckle , or drill. A craft material is added to a shapestone to create a usable weapon; which material is used determines the strength of the weapon that is created.
Upgrading
After obtaining a certain skill level in crafting, the player will gain the ability to upgrade weapons with additional materials. This may result in the weapon gaining special qualities.
Disassembling
Players have the option to disassemble weapons they have created to retrieve the Shapestone used to make it. The Shapestone may retain some of the power of the weapon it was disassembled from. Any materials used to create or upgrade the disassembled weapon are lost.
Repairing
Repairing is the most important of all. It recovers all the lost DUR from all the weapons you have. It can also repair weapons which has already a 0 DUR.
Story
In Summon Night: Swordcraft 2, the player is an orphan from Colthearts clan raised by a Craftknight (a smith/warrior). The character aspires to be a Craftknight as well. The player character, either Edgar or Aera Colthearts, who are Edge Fencers, find themselves at the site of an abandoned ruin where a violent Summon Beast named Goura is awakened. In order to protect their new family, Edgar/Aera is bound to a wild Summon Beast, and embarks on a journey to reseal the ruins.
Played Characters
Edgar Colthearts (エッジ・コルトハーツ, Ejji Korutohātsu): is very thoughtful of others and tries his best to be useful; Edgar is the main male character. His mother and father died, leaving him in the care of his father's close friend, Blaire. Unbeknownst to him, he is part of a family that for generation after generation has protected the seal of Goura with the Daemon Edge. Now a power has revived Goura and it is up to him to find the Daemon Edge and reseal Goura's forever. Blaire will help him as much as he can, but it will be up to Edgar's crafting abilities to get the Daemon Edge and seal Goura. For some reason, he has a problem with machines, and is infamous among his friends for breaking mechanical objects upon handling.
Aera Colthearts (エア・コルトハーツ, Ea Korutohātsu): is bright, kind, and just a little bit of a scatterbrain, Aera is the main female character. Her mother and father died, leaving her in the care of her father's close friend Blaire. Unbeknownst to her, she is part of a family that for generation after generation has protected the seal of Goura with the Daemon Edge. Now a power has revived Goura and it is up to her to find the Daemon Edge and reseal Goura's forever. Blaire will help her as much as he can but it will be up to Aera's crafting abilities to get the Daemon Edge and seal Goura. For some reason, she has a problem with machines, and is infamous among her friends for breaking mechanical objects upon handling.
Guardian Beasts
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 features four "Guardian Beasts" that assist the hero with magic and items during battle. A Guardian Beast is acquired at the beginning of the game, where the player answers as to what he/she sees lying in the road injured. The chosen Guardian Beast then acts as the player's partner throughout the game, and cannot be changed. The choice of Guardian Beast affects much of the dialogue in the game, but the general plot remains the same for all Guardian Beasts.
EX-e-LD (イグゼルド, Iguzerudo) is a "long-range combat support automaton". It believes in logic above all else, and is frequently frustrated when dealing with the flighty main character. When it is teased too much it begins to overheat, resulting in a system restart. EX-e-LD is from the Mechanical Realm of Lorilal.
Loki (レキ, Reki) This brash young demon is constantly trying to make himself stronger through combat. He has an abundance of self-confidence – perhaps too much – and violence is almost always his first (and only) option. He sees himself as the player's protector and strives to improve his sword skills at every turn. Loki is from the Oni Realm of Silturn.
Dinah (ディナ, Dina) is a devil who shares her body with an angel. The devil side prefers to be sarcastic and controlling, while the angel side abhors conflict. The devil controls the body most of the time, but in times of stress the angel is able to take over Dinah's body and speak out (usually to apologize for what the devil side was doing). Dinah is from the Spiritual Realm of Sapureth.
Arno (アーノ, Āno) Arno is a half-beast from the world of Maetropa. A self-proclaimed "child of the wind" of indeterminate gender, Arno can hear the wind's secrets and claims to be able to fly. It is very gentle and peaceful, but sometimes its peaceful nature and lack of tact gets in the way of helping others in dire situations. Arno can speak with the wind and seems to change its personality with wind.
Other Characters
Blaire (ベルグ, Berugu): Blaire is the player character's adoptive father. He is Cliff Village's resident Craftknight, and he has trained his children Orin and Tatiana, along with the player, in the ways of Craftknighthood. He is generally upbeat and optimistic, but is always deadly serious when it comes to crafting weapons.
Orin (オルカ, Oruka): Son of Blaire. He is very skilled with machines, and often comes to the player's rescue in the course of the game when something needs to be fixed. He is intelligent and a powerful Craftknight, and is generally humble. He loves to tease his little sister Tatiana and the player. He is also a great cook.
Tatiana (タタン, Tatan): Daughter of Blaire. While she has some training as a Craftknight, Tatiana is still young and has taken to the role of housekeeper (since nobody else in the family seems to care). She is innocent and looks up to her brother Orin and the player. She is a terrible cook but is always willing to show off her culinary skills, much to everyone else's dismay.
Ryouga (リョウガ, Ryouga): is the protagonist's best friend. He is not originally from Cliff Village; he and his sister Lynn moved in from the wilderness several years ago, but have become respected members of the community. Ryouga is the player character's best friend, and is revealed to be a Summon Creature, who cooperated with Gedharm to revive Goura. He's a good guy at heart and doesn't really want to hurt you but he has no choice. In the end it is revealed that he did all this so he could protect you and he does care about you although he'll never admit it.
Lynn (リンリ, Rinri): is Ryouga's sister. She has great influence over the main characters, using her charm and sex appeal to get favours at times. Also Lynn always tries to kiss the main character regardless of gender. She searched high and low for Ryouga, pretending to be on the main character's side but really she's been deceiving you and has planned to betray you since the beginning. It is revealed later that she is also a Summon Creature, who is trapped in a bond with her master Guren to revive Goura.
Gabriel (ガブリオ, Gaburio): Leader of the Wind Brigade. He is a Summon Creature from Maetropa, like Arno. He has wolf-like qualities: incredible sense of smell, and only feels relaxed in a pack. He desires going back to his world, and met Gedharm, who convinced Gabriel to join him, and in return to send him back to his world. He then created trouble for the main character in black armor, and was known to them as the Black Swordsman. This explains why whenever the Black Swordsman appears, Gabriel is nowhere to be seen and Xeride covers up for him. His identity is revealed later.
Nina Nina (ニーニャ・ニーニャ, Nīnya Nīnya): A ghost-like girl who dwells in the Roaring Cavern. She was a novice summoner from another island, but being horribly bad at reading maps, ended up at that island while finding ingredients for her teacher. She ended up in a boat and dozed off, and woke up as a spirit. She found out a Summon Creature named Passeau had stolen her body, and often comes back to taunt her with it. She had tried unsuccessfully many times to take back her body. She's a caring person and tries to be as helpful as possible to the main character. Eventually, with the help of the main character, she gets her body back from Passeau.
Passeau (トウメイ): is a Summon Creature who took Nina's body away from her. Sometimes she taunts her with it just to make Nina feel bad. Passeau is loud and acts tough but actually she is a complete coward and can't be bothered doing things that are too difficult, the complete opposite of Nina. She claims that she is Ryouga's lover and will try to defeat you to steal his heart, of course it doesn't actually work. She is obsessed with Ryouga and nearly always talk about him when you see her. Passeau is later defeated by the main character and is driven out of Nina's body.
Toumei (トウメイ, Toumei): is a Summon Creature. He is from the Onmyoji Temple, and is his own master, calling himself a Vagrant Summon. He entered Cliff Village one day, proclaiming that he was to bring peace to the world, and expel the evil spirit surrounding the village. In the beginning he was thought to have a motive for entering the village, but he really wants good to come for them. He is quite obsessive but helped out the main character a lot throughout the storyline, helping him/her expel Goura's spirit from Borgrim and Passeau out of Nina's body. He likes swords, and conversations with him do not always make a lot of sense.
Critical Reception
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
Reviews for Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 have generally been positive. Reviewers have commented that the game feels more refined than its predecessor, Summon Night: Swordcraft Story.[1] Reviewers have praised the quality of the graphics and the humor of the dialogue. It has been criticized for a lack of depth in its story and having excessive backtracking through only a small number of areas.[4][3]
References
External links
- Review at DGEMU.com
- Summon Night Official Web Site Template:Ja icon - The official site for the entire Summon Night game series.