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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.

Bad sequel

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 8
Date: November 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I played the original three times and did every side quest. This new one I played for a couple of days and got fed up with. I just cut the CD into little pieces. Frustrating controls. I'd never have bought this for the console if it were coming out on PC but no such luck. Way too complicated in the control department if you want to make use of all the fighters abilities. I don't have time to memorize that many different combinations for that many characters. The voice acting sounds like a bad British stew and the Goddess Reborn has a big wide booty and looks really strange jumping around. I wish you could rely on a sequel to be mostly like the original. Played the battle in the Imperial Sepulchre a dozen times and still couldn't beat it. This game is meant for somebody with younger fingers than mine.

Couldn't get into the game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: December 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I got this game used for $6 bucks plus tax at Electronics Boutique. My expectations weren't high, and I bought it partially based on other reviews I'd seen online.

I like RPGS and I like fighting games, so I thought for sure this would be a hit with my tastes. Instead this game manages to take the worst of both genres and combine them into annoyance and frustration. I dislike RPGS that make use of a ridiculous number of buttons and menus, and I hate the cheap-out combos in fighting games.

I didn't get too far into the game, only into the second location area. The battle on the ship was ridiculously easy, to the point where I wasn't taking much damage if any. Then on the jungle island there are these weird plant things on both sides of the path that shoot these energy balls sort of like those little enemies missiles in a shooter game. There are a lot of them, and they slaughtered me. I turned into this big Summoning demon-thing that looks intimidating, but managed to kill only one plant-thing before tons of little pollen energy missiles led to a 'game over' (for both my characters).

Can't recommend this game; it isn't as good as some PS1 RPGs. The controls are clunky and the action elements weren't fun.

Not even worth renting.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 7
Date: May 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I'll admit it. I was excited to play Summoner 2 at first, it being recommended to me by my cousin. After the first time I failed the first mission, I decided that I didn't want to admit that the camera angles sucked[were bad]attempts later, i was incredibly frustrated that I had died so many times due to simply the jerky camera. This aside, the anime like graphics and unrealistic attacks, I almost felt forced. And I thought comboes made you vulnerable for a moment! The final guy on the first level with the flaming sword attacks me with a double combo and pauses so as i go into attack he unleases the third part of the combo. The game is jerky and inconsistent. Summoner fans, I beg you not to play this game, or you will be spending the next few weeks in a dark corner of your room, wondering where your game had gone.

First time I've finished an RPG and not replayed it.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: March 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

It's prettier than the first one, the battle system has a lot more variety, the characters are well-drawn and capable, and enough of the original approach was preserved that it still feels like a "Summoner" game.

But I never got excited about this one.

The first one didn't really grab me until a plot twist about a third of the way into the game, but that twist really ramped up my desire to play the game, to finish it, to explore every corner available to me. Summoner 2 has nothing like that--there is no truly compelling plot, very little real drama among characters...it's all pretty standard fare. The most exciting things in Summoner 2 were the hints dropped about Rosalind and Flece (characters from the original Summoner), and the appearance of a mysterious, chilling woman who was once a mysterious, chilling little girl (anyone who thoroughly played the first game knows who I'm talking about).

Maia's story just doesn't thrill me that much.

Maybe it's just that the game has so much in it and I don't have the patience to do it all properly. The business of sitting on the throne and running a kingdom is great, and good decisions result in character-boosting events, but you can only run the kingdom X amount each time you go there. Generally, you have to finish the next big plot point before the home scenario will continue.

I love the large number of quests, but they frequently got in the way of the story--if not for the Quest sub-menu, I don't think I'd have known which assignments were main story quests and which were sub-quests...some of the sub-quests really skate the line in terms of their apparent importance.

In the end, I felt as though I was meandering through the whole thing, not entirely sure of what I was doing, often having to go on solo missions without any support from the other player characters, which is probably my biggest complaint about the game.

I love having to think my way through battles rather than just hacking and slashing, but a lot of the solo missions put you in the middle of large groups of enemies with little to get you through but your sword and your store of health potions (I always keep at least 50 on hand). The combat system felt innovative at first, but quickly deteriorated into an exercise in button-mashing: the game includes many, many special maneuvers for the characters, but a well-timed hit from an enemy can interrupt the maneuver prior to completion. I found that so frustrating that I never bothered with anything but the most basic attacks, meaning I rarely pressed anything but the square button. Hack, hack, heal...hack, hack, heal.

After my wonderful experience with the first Summoner, I'm finding myself wishing I had enjoyed this one more. In fact, take the first game and upgrade the graphics to Summoner 2's level, tweak out a battle system that combines the best from each game, and you'd have one of the greatest RPGs ever released.

Bah toe

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 8
Date: September 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

its a ok game but theres betta games then this like FFX or even kingdom hearts

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.

Destined To Be Lost In The Shuffle

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: January 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Would be a pretty fine game, if not for the fact that in the last year I beat Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age and Champions Of Norrath. S2 is okay, but I would start elsewhere for your RPG needs.

The set-up is your basic hack-and-slash game. Run around, pound pound pound on enemies and find items that help advance your quests. Gameplay allows you to equip characters without too much hassle and switch among characters (a necessity!) with ease.

My big hangup with gameplay were the summons. Due to the way spell points are set up, you can only summon once in a great while. But the creatures you summon aren't noticably better than just using the main characters, and they take FOREVER to conjure. Several times, I saw enemies ahead and cast my summon, only to have them dispatched by my other characters by the time the summon worked. For a game called "Summoner", this is unforgiveable.

Graphics are average, but so what? Gameplay should be the reason you choose games, not pretty pictures (with a few exceptions). If you are a fan of the hack-and-slash and haven't tried this game, I'd have to recommend either Balder's Gate title or Champions of Norrath first.

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.

Better than I expected

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: June 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I gave the first Summoner two thumbs down: lets face it, it sucked. I thought I might as well give this a try, since I could buy it for only 2 bucks. I began to play, and was amazed at the difference. Much more colorful, better looking characters, with lots of diversity and many ways to attack, instead of just constantly hacking at something in front of you as if it was fire lumber! Spells weren't much different. Music stunk, basically made of bongos. :( :( But the voices fit the characters, and the story line was interesting. The only thing that really bugged me was the fact you could only summon four summons, whereas in the other Summoner, there was multiple summons, such as the Blue Imp. But you might just want to pick it up for the weekend and try it out. The game wasn't terrible...but it was lacking a lot also.

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