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good but not too good

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I wanted to write this to vent how fustrated I am with this game. I'm not a novice at games by far but this is the first time I was beat by the first boss. The controls are really sluggish and the enemies far out match the character. This improves when you get two more characters to back you up. Then and only then does the fighting become fun. You can set the AI on different settings (for a bit of strategy). Its when a character goes solo that it becomes irritating. Especially when your up against three or more enemies. They can pumell you with out you being able to respond. You can't use heal spells because your stuck there healing while they knock all they points you just restored. Healing potions don't have this problem but you have to wait to use another. Sommoning is another problem. while your seeing the animation your friends are getting slaughterd. Fighting is easier with the blood sommon cause he heals when he hits the enemies but time runs out way too quickly. The other problem is the graphics. They are pretty mediocre. They are alright but compared to other games they don't come close. The mouths move sometimes but most of the time they're shut while speaking.

There are some cool points about the game. One is where your at the palace and you can make decisions on the throne. This was a cool idea and unique. you could also donate money to different officials for extra xp. There are tons of side quests that keep it interesting and some cool minigames. In the arena you can buy a monster (gladiator) and have them fight and gain levels till they lose then they're gone. The other characters you can choose are pretty cool Like sangril and Neru. Sangril is an assassin and can use stealth tecniques and Neru does martial arts Taurgis is useless.

This could have been really spectacular if they just worked out the single character quests to a resonable level. The graphics look good in some places but terrible in others. I played Red Faction so I expected better from volition. This is worth getting through the fustrating parts and the subpar graphics. If you don't mind those this will be worth it but stock up on controllers.

Excellent sequel

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: April 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is a very worthy follow up to the original Summoner. The action is more fast-paced and intense, the characters are more interesting, there are a huge number of quests to do and, like it's predecessor, the game does a very good job of creating a highly immersive, well-realized world.

Life...what life?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game wanting something to do over a long weekend with no better plans in mind. Weeks later, I'm in a Playstation coma completely addicted - the game is huge!

I have an affection for RPG's that give you a real landscape to explore and this game did not let me down. The side-quests are worthwhile if a little numerous and the replay value is great. The story line is fairly good; what I really enjoyed is that that you feel like you are making real choices instead of just being shoved from one cut scene to another. The artwork between levels is gorgeous.

The skills development and character menus are well done, giving you some good reasons to make sure you have a bit of space on your memory card so you can go back and change your mind from time to time and the battle system is SO MUCH FUN! The battles are dynamic and sometimes quite tough, so much the better if you like strategic play.

It's pretty and shiny and nasty and I like it.

Pretty satisfied...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: October 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Summoner 2, not bad at all. Has good playability, but if you've played Summoner 1 on the computer, then you're in for a few surprises in Summoner 2. The interface is fairly simple, and the controls arent' half bad either. Pretty intense at times, and the difficulty is good. All in all, Summoner 2 is a good buy.

An OK RPG in a world of stellar competition

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: November 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Ever wonder why RPGs always start you as a cowmaid or a floor sweeper? In Summoner 2 you are the Queen of Halassar - and you're on a mission!

The game is an RPG and is very Final Fantasy-like. You have a group of people in your party, going around talking to everyone you meet, taking on quests, learning lore about your land. The things you do affect what they say and move the plot along.

The graphics are a bit blocky, with repetitive textures and not-quite-smooth objects. The sounds are reasonably OK. You buy things from shop, gather up needed items, and your Queen's special power is that she can turn into various summons as needed.

With all the really great RPGs out, I think there just wasn't quite anything in Summoner 2 that stood out as super. The graphics were OK. The sounds were OK. The plot line was OK. The combat system gets a bit tedious after a while.

If you've already played the recent Final Fantasy games, and Elder Scrolls Morrowind and NeverWinter Nights, then you might fall back to this game. But there are definitely better RPGs out on the market right now that are amazingly fun to play for months and months. This just isn't one of them.

Good Game With Minor Flaws 4.5 Stars.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

this is a great rpg it has a few flaws but nothing to cry over the begining is action packed and finds you figthing for your life. Real time combat is a plus for any rpg this game has fairly good graphics {not FFX quality} but still good. the gameplay is good and the story is off the chart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! not to brag but I am the rpg master and this almost almost topped FFX. Legaia 2 and Suikoden 3 are the only games that could top this awesome game.

Some Initial Impressions...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have only spent a limited amount of time with "Summoner 2," but my initial impressions speak of a vast improvement over the original (though some would argue that the reverse is true). I loathed the combat system from "Summoner," and I am very glad indeed that it has been scrapped in favor of something more akin to an action/adventure game (see "Drakan: The Ancients' Gates" for example). I also like that instead of summoning creatures this time around, you shapeshift INTO said creature and control it as you would control your normal hero character. The plotline, on the other hand, is needlessly confusing thanks to some ridiculous place and people names that go out of their way to twist your tongue into knots, though the characters themselves are quite memorable and interesting. The controls can be confusing, and manipulating the menus can be tedious, but, in the end, this game mixes some of the best elements of PC RPGs and console RPGs, and comes out on top. Even if you didn't care for the original, you may enjoy this one.

Better than the first!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The first Summoner, although hindered by glitches and the like, was a great game with an awesome storyline. Summoner 2's storyline isn't as powerful as the 1st one, but the much improved combat system more than makes up for any problems in other areas. The voice acting is some of the best i've ever heard in a game too. I recommend this game to pretty much anybody looking for a fun RPG.

A huge dissapointment

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 12
Date: November 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I really loved the original Summoner. It was a console RPG moving in the direction of the superior and more innovative PC RPG's. Combat innovations and a clever story line defined this game and made it, in my mind, the best console RPG ever in many ways.

Summoner 2 takes a step or two backwards. Combat became more action than thought and tactics, the very innovation that made the original so fun to play. Volition also tossed out realistic looking combat, replacing it with silly looking kiddie-anime moves; exagerated slashes, sweeps and hacking leaps.

The story is already known before you even begin playing, and the graphics are rather poor and as uninspired as the story.

Some parts of the game are good, but they are only parts. On the whole, the game was a move away from the innovations of the original. Summoner 2 had a real chance to grow up along with PC RPG's by building on its predeccesor. Instead, Volition threw out the very things that made the original so good.

Sooo many sidequests. . .

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: August 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

One of the things that makes Summoner 2 so interesting, so ultimately re-playable, and yet, at least the first time around, so frustrating is the truly bewildering number of sidequests (or "Optional Quests", as they're called here) you are assigned in this game. I'm a fairly straightforward gal. If someone has an assignment for me, I'm going to focus on it; or, if I can't, I'm going to wander around anxious and frustrated until I at least know exactly what I'm supposed to do and how to do it. Also, if someone asks (or tells) me to do something, I assume that they expect me to go and do it. Maybe not instantly, but with some degree of urgency. But Summoner 2 is full of sidequests which not only don't have to be finished right away, or even within game-hours of right away, but which are actually impossible to finish until your party has given up and gone several assignments and locations further into the story, at which point the solution or the person or the item you were told to find suddenly pops up out of nowhere. And, which is the kicker --you are never told which quests these are. So you never know if you're failing to finish a quest because you failed, or if you can relax and not worry about it until later. And the quests keep on piling up. There are some areas in this game where every time you talk to somebody, they have another assignment for you. I thought Maia was the Queen of Halassar --when did she become everybody's errand lady?

So it's a little confusing, and it's one of the reasons why, at only 13 hours and change on my first serious go at this game, I'm only giving it a 3 on the "fun" scale. The other reason is my relative detachment from the characters in this game. I started my PS2-playing career on Final Fantasy X, which I guess kind of spoiled me for character/story involvment (not to mention graphics, which I agree with everybody else that the characters in this game all have a very primitive, stiff and strange aspect to them, which is disappointing but doesn't bother me intensely). So far, while I'm interested in the story for the challenge that it's giving me, I don't really care so much that Maia fulfills her destiny or that Sangaril and Taurgis resolve their differences (okay, I take that back. I like Sangaril and hope that she gains acceptance somewhere by the end of this story. I just don't care what Taurgis thinks of her). But the various challenges, both in combat and through the never-ending sidequests, that this game throws at me are, so far, more than enough to keep me playing this game and wondering what comes next. And hopefully, it will eventually feel like more than a very complicated mental exercise. With monsters.

** And here's an update from several days later, now on 25 hours plus of gameplay: Okay, this game is t-r-i-p-p-y. My main character, Maia, is currently stuck in a weird parallel universe, which she entered through a portal in the Tree of Creation, where everyone is dressed in black robes and wears a mask. And they won't talk to her unless she's wearing a mask too. They've dismembered one of her companions and made a bomb out of her, which they say will blow up the whole of that universe (at least). They've brainwashed her mentor and combat instructor and have the rest of the party imprisoned in torture devices or on trial for their lives. Maia is supposed to save them all. On the plus side, I've found several items in this area that I've been looking for to complete sidequests since Gameplay Hour 2 or so. Now if I can only find a way out. . .

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