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Immersive storyline

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 26
Date: December 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I have completed this game, and I felt I had to give it five stars because of the storyline. This is the only game I have ever played that I thought of almost as a book in that I was always anxious to see what would happen next. It is the only console game that has kept me interested enough to the very end to enable me to finish it--with all others on any system I have gotten bored partway through.

The game has some interesting but perhaps little-noticed features: The particular armor, weapons, and clothes you equip your characters in, for instance, show up not only as they walk around, but also in the full-movie sequences!

The main negative about this game is that it starts out very slowly. In fact, when I first started the game I really hated it and wouldn't have kept playing had I had another game to pop in. However, once the backstory and tutorial are covered and you gain your first extra character, gameplay and plot pick up enormously. It's well worth the wait. I did feel that the characters could have been more attractive (they are very ashen-looking), but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the plot.

There is a lot of entertainment value here; I clocked over 70 gaming hours (probably over 100 real life)playing the game and still did not complete every quest, though I believe I missed very few. The game can be completed much faster, though, if you choose not to do the side quests.

I enjoyed this game.

good first effort

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 20 / 21
Date: November 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

In 6 months I hope to be ashamed of this 4 star rating, but for now this is way above the launch average of the 7 games I've played.

Graphics are good enough. Sound doesn't offend. Story is pointless. Gameplay is interesting (this is good). Advancement keeps me hooked.

Given that the story would have been better off with the (graphically amazing) minimalist effort of a Diablo II then trying to pretend depth, this is still a very fun game. You can summon things. To start with they sort of just die and cost you points from your max hits, but the idea of a nice big guy fighting while you watch...well, it's why I started with the Necromancer in DiabloII. You can develop your character as a fighter, spell caster, or "summoner" and you get a thief, mage and fighter to join you eventually.

The most interesting thing is the "chaining" attack mode. During an attack you can pause to pick specials like spells, thief backstabing (get behind and hit that skill button, it won't light up if you aren't close enough AND behind them already), etc. Or just let them attack. Each time your character swings you'll see a chain icon and you can hit a directional key to "pile on" some damage and make the next attack come very quickly. Chain 5 or 10 attacks in a row without miss timing your button press a few times and you can kill the bad guy without much damage to yourself. It's harder than it sounds and it gives you a huge reason to pick a faster weapon over more damage.

I found it a very refreshing balance between the pure (boring) roleplay of hitting the attack button until something dies, and the oppressive complexity of trying to merge in a fighting game.

All in all, I'm not at all ashamed to say that this is title gets most of my play time despite not being as visually impressive as Madden or SSX. Will I say the same in 6 months? No, probably not. But for now, i'm very happy they released Summoner when they did.

The bad reviews are accurate, but so is mine

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 16
Date: February 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I thought this game was great, for the same reasons that other reviewers hated it.

I'm a father now, mid thirties, and frankly, I'm too old to judge a game by dazzling graphics. I don't care if this PS2 game has graphics that are at a PS1 level of quality. Although I must admit, the main character does look a bit like a corpse. :) So other reviewers can complain about dated graphics, but it doesn't bother me.

And other reviewers have made mention of the long, lesiurely plot, overly big areas to explore, and over-abundance of NPCs. Again, the reviewers are accurate -- those things do exist, and if they hate them, that's fine. But for me, a guy who likes games like BG1, BG2, and Arcanum, it was sooo nice. I get home late from work, I'm tired, and I don't want to play a game that requires lots of button mashing. I enable the options for auto-chaining my attacks, sit back, relax, and stroll through the game world, chatting with random characters, taking out a few bad guys, and working on my character's stats and inventory so that the next battle will be even better.

Of course, a few times the game's size did annoy me. I probably talked to each merchant in the Lenele market twice, just because I couldn't recall who was who. I looked online for a full complement of printable maps but never found anything. It would have helped me a lot to just have printed maps with each NPC flagged. But for some reason, that really didn't bug me that much.

What did bug me was the locked camera view in the cities. Out in the open, you can set the camera to high (overhead) view, or low (over the shoulder) view. But in the Lenele market, for example, the camera locks to high view. And since I couldn't pull the camera back far enough to see a lot of surrounding buildings, I had a horrible time getting oriented. If I had been able to use the low view, I could have at least used the horizon to know my general direction and place. This alone caused me to knock 1 star off the review.

Anyway, to conclude: Summoner has lots of characters, tons of dialogue, joinable NPCs with a little bit of party banter, plenty of stats and inventory management, lots of areas, many non-linear quests, and dated graphics with a (sometimes) annoying camera angle. And battles are very configurable -- you can button-mash with chained attacks and turn-based play, or you can do like me and set the battles to continuous mode with auto-chaining. Since I care less about graphics and more about story, this is a great game for me.

I cannot believe some of the complaints of other reviewers

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 27 / 34
Date: November 14, 2000
Author: Amazon User

while Summoner is not the greatest of games, it's getting a lot of flak for things that are at most minimal annoyances, not fully blown problems.

First of all, the load times are not that horrible, if you optimize your load times via the browser screen. And why are there PC styled load times? For god's sake, it's a console port of a game that was in development for the PC; and it was released a full month or so before the PC version... Yes, it could have used a couple of months more to polish its edges, but then what would you have been stuck with: Orphen???

As for the graphics: they are on par with the rest of PS2 games I've played, which is to say, they are no better or worse than any other RPG that was released at launch. I cannot believe people complaining that the graphics are on a par with the Dreamcast: is that supposed to be a bad thing for a first generation title? Some people must have bought into the "PS2 is a wonder machine" hype... Well, it's just that: hype.

I also liked the story, and thought it didn't have the greatest depth, it had enough plot twists to keep me interested.

If you want an RPG now, this is the best title to buy. If you believe nothing more than a new FF title will do, then by all means, wait until next summer and quit whining.

A Fun RPG

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 16 / 18
Date: December 14, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is a good, solid RPG for the PS2, though don't be expecting anything too revolutionary. The game looks like a PC game in many ways (tons of colors, tons of texture maps), and plays a lot like Final Fantasy VII. The experience points you get to spend on skills will be familiar to almost any gamer, and experienced gamers will quickly recognize the difference between useful and pointless skills.

As for game play, it's pretty straight-forward wander-around-and-trigger-events style play (people you need to talk to are easily identifiable, etcetera). The story's pretty cool, though, so it's not too obnoxious. As for combat, it's a little different - you select a target, and then you automatically hit (or miss) it with your weapon. You're given the chance to "chain" attacks, which consists of hitting a button at the right moment to inflict multiple attacks/affects on the target. You can cast spells at any time, after which you automatically resume your regular attack. Switching between characters in your party is fast and easy, and the AIs you get to assign them (just like in "Baldur's Gate") are pretty good.

As for the summoned creatures, the two I've got so far are pretty swell, and make up some of the prettiest objects/graphics in the game. They're treated like regular party members, so you can switch to them and use their abilities in fights - wandering around as a Mist Elemental is actually pretty cool.

If you're a fan of fantasy RPGs, definitely check this out - it's got almost everything the fantasy gamer could want (be sure to check out the "Easter Egg" too!) I'd give this game four stars, but the fact that it does seem so...familiar...has left it with three.

Almost a AAA title but falls short.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: November 03, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This could have been a better game and with the Playstation2s' capabilities it should have been. The graphics were good but not better than the Dreamcast titles. The gameplay was very good. No annoying movements like in Resident Evil. The menus are very helpful too. But the loading times were almost unbearable. Wow. I had to go do other things while waiting. If you are okay with all of that so far then you are in for a great story and lots of sidequests. Character progression is based on how you expend points at each level increase. I have put in around 1 hours of actual gameplay and I am totally engrossed in the game. I would recommend renting this one for a day or so and then making your decision on a purchase.

This game summons a good RPG experience

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: January 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I am shocked by how much I have enjoyed this game despite mediocre reviews. And let me say right now that I am a RPG connoisseur, and have played and finished the best of them. Granted, the draw-in is horrendous, and even the most insignificant NPC has enyclopedias of text to throw at you. But if you are somewhat selective in who you talk to (as is aided by the game's indicating who has something important to say with an icon above their head), and you relax and enjoy the wonderful architecture of the environments as you undergo the sidequests, you will find an extremely immersive RPG experience. Also, I really did enjoy the battle system. THQ has made several daring innovations in combat, including random encounter locations, rather than individual battles, and giving you control over one character at a time in battle with the ability to switch on the fly. Yes, there is some Vagrant Story derivative chaining, but nowhere near as much an integral part of the battle system. The story is very well written, and the voice acting is some of the best. I am not a huge fan of the gaunt character design, and Jekhar looks like he has a mullet, but the spell effects, and battle animations are decent. People protest that the graphics could have been done on the PS1, but that is not true. While the characters do not look the cleanest, the texture mapping of the environments, and the architecture of the world is astounding, which is where the power of the PS2 is evident. I agree that this is not a must own RPG like FF9 or CC, but it is an excellent foray into the potential of a PS2 RPG until FFX reaches us.

RPG Innovation...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 22
Date: October 31, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is indepth and graphically amazing. The fight scenes are Zelda like, while experience growth points can be applied according to the player's wishes, rather than assigned level-ups in Final Fantasy type games. An awesome option in this game is a quest journal. It keeps track of all the quests your player is sent apon. Encounters are fun also. You run around in a mini-map covered with 20 or so enemies. You can fight, or leave...if you can find a yellow line.

Any negatives...a lot of loading, but it is worth it. If you can find a memory card, this game is a blast.

I hope there's a sequel!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Summoner is not without its faults, but I fell in love with this game nevertheless! The characters are well developed, the storyline is complex and involving. Lots of political and religious intrigue make for plenty of twists and turns. Within the first hour of the game I had about 7 side quests! This game isn't half as linear as most RPGs out there, which is quite refreshing. I didn't always know what to do and had to figure it out myself.....not as non-linear as the Ultima series, but still preferable to being lead around by the nose!

For gamers sick of endless "pop-up monsters", you'll find the field battles more pleasing. When a "pop-up" battle does occure, you end up in a battle field you can walk around in, or run out of if you don't wanna fight! Dungeon's and towns do not have "pop-ups", it's all action fighting! The battle system is a cut above most RPGs---real time fighting, complete control through pause menus and an arcade-like combo system. The characters do beautiful spell effects, fight with intricate moves...as hands on or as computer controlled as you wish. Joseph, the summoner, can choose between several different monsters to call on during battles. The summoned monster will join the party and fight for the duration of battle. They suffer damage and power up just like the other characters. You can easily switch from one character to the next (even summoned monsters!) during battles, which makes it easier to heal, more interesting to fight.

Here's the downside. While characters and towns look pretty good, the graphics could have been improved upon for the PS2! The characters look no better than the latest Tomb Raider on PSone. More "blocky" than I expected. The towns are huge, lots to explore, but the camera angles can be annoying! You can only see so far ahead of yourself at times, which ticked me off. The dungeon maps are OK, but the world map is absolutely horrendous! Towns aren't even marked (except this one castle), it's difficult to find your way around, hard to tell if you're going N or S at first (not even that is marked!), just follow that little snaking road until it dwindles off. Then hope you find the place you need to go!

Despite these shortcomings, I found Summoner to be an overall enjoyable experience. Thanks to the storyline, characters, battle system and cool summoned monsters. There are two endings (depending on how you answer a certain question) and so many side quests you could never finish the first time, so the game has some replay value.

Summoner - best of PS2 launch RPGs.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: November 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Even though Summoner is kind of weak in the looks department, it is definately one of the best RPGs ever. It has a great story line with lots of side quest. The summoning creatures are really cool and being able to controll them is even cooler. This game has alot of suprises and alot of treachery. How many other games come to mind when one of your own party members betrey your character and then the traitor has to go alone to rescue the hero? If your into RPGs and have a PS2 Summoner is a great game to start with. That is untill Final Fantasy X debutes on the new system.

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