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PS2 | RPG | Summoner 2

Boxart for Summoner 2
Summoner 2 42 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 3.0
  • SOUND: 4.0
  • CONTROL: 4.0
  • FUN FACTOR 4.0
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.5
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 3.9

Review: Summoner 2

Review by STARDINGO | 10/07/2002 | 13:48:58 PM PST

Meet Maia the goddess-queen and her seven surreal friends. Look past their flaws, won?t you? Beauty lies beneath.

Sometimes grand ambition and great ideas can make you turn a blind eye to a game?s more obvious flaws. Such is the case with Summoner 2, a technically defective but compellingly textured RPG with a distinctly non-Japanese aura. Anyone willing to dive past Volition?s flawed presentation will be duly rewarded.

The Dream
Summoner 2?s most obvious strength?the strength of any great RPG, really?is its superior story. This smart, surreal science-fantasy epic is unique among console RPGs and one of the best-written, too, as you follow Maia (Queen of Hallasar and ancient goddess reborn) and her seven-weirdo crew as they struggle to unite governments and figure out what?s gone wrong with the fabric of the universe. The characters are bizarre and extremely memorable (like Morbazan, the strangely fungal-looking gladiator who eats souls, or Iari, the mechanized ?weapon? constructed by the mysterious Unseen), and the imaginative, hallucinogenic settings (City of Masks, anyone?) are on par with the weird goodness you?d see in a Final Fantasy title.

Well, in theory anyway?

The Reality
Despite the imagination brimming under the surface, Summoner 2?s most glaring flaw is its superficial graphics. The slow animation and jittery frame drops distract you from the detail. Additionally, characters are simply modeled, and cities are messily constructed from a patchwork of rather primitive textures. Still, the game somehow manages to look cool at nearly every turn?a testament to the fine conceptual artistry that lies beneath the sloppy technical layer.

The Depths
One thing that sets Summoner 2 apart from the rest of the standard RPG pack is the real-time combat system. Often times, in a real-time RPG, the ?real-time? part tends to outweigh the ?RPG? part, meaning traditional stat-building and character customization are shirked and simplified. Here, the two work together in harmony. Each of the eight playable characters has a wide set of unique skills and spells to learn?some based on button combinations, some accessible from an alarmingly easy-to-access menu that temporarily pauses the action. The game?s skill-point-based level-up system lets you determine which traits to ignore and which ones to improve based on your play style. Summoner 2 also boasts an extraordinary amount of side-quests, well above the norm for a console RPG?what?s more is that these quests are actually individually hand-crafted and often abundantly clever (think Baldur?s Gate for the PC), requiring actual thought instead of the simple monkey ability required to take Farmer Ruki?s magic knick-knack from Point A to Point B.

The Shallows
Try as Volition might, however, real-time combat by its very nature leaves little room for strategizing and few opportunities for toying around with your more impressive skills. While ?real-time? certainly makes things move along at a muuuch quicker pace than your standard menu-driven RPG, you?ll find that in most battles you can just mash the attack button to victory, despite your growing arsenal of clever death-and-dismemberment spells. While a few key battles (mostly with bosses) require you to think a moment before casting a poison spell, throwing up an energy shield, or transforming Maia into one of her summons to survive, most spellcasting is done by your support staff?i.e., the two characters you?re not currently controlling?rather than you.

The All-Thing
Anyone willing to dive into this science-fantasy swirl will be duly rewarded with one of the more memorable and unique RPGs to ever grace the PS2. Unfortunately, it?s a plunge most will be unwilling to take?on the surface, Summoner 2 looks a little too cold.


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