Summoner

Moby ID: 3501
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Joseph was a simple boy living in the village of Ciran. One day, a mysterious man gave him a magical ring containing the power to summon demons. When Ciran was attacked by raiders, Joseph used the ring, but could not control its power, and the demon devastated the village. Joseph vowed to never use the ring again. But things change when soldiers from Orenia, a continent ruled by Emperor Murod, attack the town Joseph has settled in, looking for a boy born with the mark of a Summoner. Joseph has to flee and find companions as he realizes that the Emperor must be stopped at all costs.

Summoner is a 3D story-driven role-playing game somewhat influenced by the Japanese variety of the genre, having a linear plot progression and random enemy encounters. The player controls a party of characters who join the protagonist as dictated by the plot. Combat flows in real time, with the player actively controlling only one character. The others can be given general orders regarding their usage of spells, melee or ranged attacks, etc. The controlled character can execute combo chains if the player presses a key at the right moment. At some point in the game Joseph gains the ability to summon powerful monsters to help the party in battles. The game also features side quests and skill-based character development.

Spellings

  • 召唤者 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

99 People (79 developers, 20 thanks) · View all

Additional Design
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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 74% (based on 44 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.1 out of 5 (based on 38 ratings with 4 reviews)

Absorbing RPG that almost lives up to the hype.

The Good
Summoners story is good. It has a rich and full history with much to learn and explore. The main quest is fairly epic with some great cut scenes to help move it along and if that wasn't enough for you, there are also numerous sub quests that you can embark on if you wish. These are not essential to the games completion but contain rewards for those who choose to do them. The combat system is very simple, yet effective. Your characters attack and defend automatically but by clicking the right mouse button at the appropriate times, you can chain combos together for maximum damage. The quests involve many numerous game types such as puzzle solving and stealth missions. These rarely become dull and are interesting enough both visually and in terms of gameplay to keep you going. The graphics are good, at times they are beautiful such as in and around the palace in the first town and the music is equally epic. Finally the speech is very nice and suspends disbelief quite effectively.

The Bad
There is an awful lot of running around to do which can become quite tedious, especially when you have a lot of quests to perform since it's easy to lose track of where you need to go for each one. It's not uncommon to find yourself unaware of where you need to go and thusly running around until you stumble upon the answer. Some of the quests are also rather obscure and it's not always apparent what you need to do even when you're supposed to know. The characters look a little average graphic wise, often having a pasty gray color about them. The cameras are also quite good at leaving you blind while you run right into a pack of enemies and once you get several characters in your party, it can be difficult managing them in the heat of battle.

The Bottom Line
Summoner is a great RPG with a lot to do but has a few niggles that keep it from being at the top of the heap. Fans of the genre should definitely take a look.

Windows · by Sycada (177) · 2001

For a Windows game, it's a half-decent console title.

The Good
This should have been a fun game, with the innovative ideas for a magic system and story. While playing through the initial area I was pretty excited, it was oddly reminiscent of Dungeon Siege but much more interactive.

The Bad
Sadly, once you leave the initial encounter you find that you've been saddled with a bad port from the consoles.

The world map is so low-resolution and visually hashed that you can't read anything but the main city location and a vague idea that the terrain north of there is different from that in other directions. Worse, you will be given quests that depend on being able to read that map - "go to the hill northwest of town".

The quest journal is incomplete and spotty, so if you want to remember what you've been asked to do you need to keep pen and paper handy. There's no automap, so you are on your own trying to remember where a given shop or person was.

Too many of the quests involve trudging back and forth across zone loading boundaries, and (I'll mention it again) trying to remember where you found that shop that you've now been asked to visit.

Combat, even granting that this is an "action RPG" is too dependent on reflexes and button control - what you might expect on a console with a gamepad but out of place in a PC game; even if you have a gamepad for your PC it's too much like Mario and too little like Diablo.

The Bottom Line
It might have been a good console action RPG a la the more recent Zeldas, but the port is terrible and the game itself is too reflex-oriented and shallow to compete on Windows.

Windows · by weregamer (155) · 2003

A very linear but entertaining RPG

The Good
The first thing that hits you is that the graphics in this game is actually very good for a three year old game. It's Dungeon Siege style with fully 3D-rendered backdrops and characters. It contains lots and lots of small, simple and quite entertaining and rewarding quests, a few big maps and some interesting NPC's. If this game had been (much) less linear and allowed the player to do as he wanted it would have been a really great game. For some strange reason it never worked completely for me,as it began to run very slowly after about 30 minutes of playing, to the point where I had to restart it to get more than 3-5 FPS.

The Bad
Some technical problems and a completely linear story made this game more of a chore than a joy to play for me. But I guess most console-RPG'ers wouldn't mind this style of play.

The Bottom Line
An entertaining RPG, totally console-like in its looks, feel and gameplay. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to play a fun RPG though.

Windows · by Mattias Kreku (413) · 2003

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

Funny easter egg: Click on the credits button, and after they all scroll by (or after you skip them) you'll see a pretty funny movie of the summoner characters playing traditional pen&paper D&D with a guest appearance from Volition's Red Faction. It's hilarous and it's also quite long, not just a 2 sec. skit.

The clip was produced by the Dead Alewives, an improv/comedy group from Wisconsin, and written by Dan Harmon. You can also find the movie in the game's directory as (appropriately named) geeks.bik. In the PS2 version, the movie is named geeks.pss.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

PlayStation 3 added by Charly2.0. Macintosh added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: Zovni, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Drolsmurf, Evil Ryu.

Game added March 27, 2001. Last modified October 4, 2023.