Genre: RPG
Developer: Volition
Publisher: THQ
# of Players: 1 player
Memory: 19 blocks
ERSB: Teen
Released On: February 5th, 2003
Also On: Playstation 2
Features: No freakin’ clue
Introduction:
The RPG genre is one of my favorites, and the fact that the GameCube’s RPG library is finally shaping up brings joy to my empty soul. In all honesty, Sega’s latest and greatest GameCube offering, Skies of Arcadia Legends, is enough to satisfy my RPG gaming needs for the next few years but it’s always great to have some filler titles on the side. Perhaps, if Volition’s Summoner: A Goddess Reborn wasn’t released neck and neck with Skies of Arcadia, I’d be a bit more lenient, but that’s what it is, a filler RPG.
Playstation 2 fans might recognize THQ’s Summoner franchise. The original Summoner game was the first RPG to ever be released on the console. The original wasn’t the best of games, but it sold enough for a sequel to follow it shortly after. Summoner: A Goddess Reborn for the Nintendo GameCube is a port of Summoner 2 which was released on the PS2 just last summer. Summoner 2 was highly acclaimed on the PS2, but how does it stack up on the GameCube? Is an “enhanced” port good enough, or do GameCube gamers crave more? Time to find out…
Presentation:
Even though Summoner for the GameCube is an RPG, you can tell it will be unlike most traditional RPGs from the moment you turn on the screen. At first that turned me away, I mean c’mon after two weeks of non stop game time with Skies of Arcadia you would be scarred just as bad as I am. I’ve been so accustomed to the happy setting of SoA that Summoner’s dark world was like a hard bitch slap in the face; not everything in this world is how you would like it to be. After some time with the game you become adjusted, and Summoner’s world becomes like gust of fresh air into SoA polluted lungs of happiness and joy. It’s obvious that this game is based on Viking folklore and mythology, fans of the Conan movies should feel right at home (Krum!).
For some reason it came as a surprise to me to find out that this game featured tons of FMVs, and with quality voice acting to boot, on the GameCube it’s harder to come across a game whose story is progressed by a nice assortment of FMVs. But let’s say that you hate those damn things, and all you actually want to do it actually play the game instead of just watching a high priced movie. Well, Summoner 2 gives you the option to skip every damn one of those things, and it comes quite handy at areas you had to repeat from dying the first time. The FMV quality itself is a bit sub par compared to the quality of its PS2 counterpart, and the game’s menus are too dull for my own liking, actually the menus, yes the menus, almost made me dub this game as being crappy before spending a single second of gameplay with the title. What can you do? I’m a picky bastard.
Gameplay:
Summoner: A Goddess Reborn takes the term RPG, stretches it, twists it up, and throws it back in our faces all mangled; in a form that not too many of us are familiar with. Summoner is not a turn based RPG, but instead a hack n’ slash dungeon crawler that’s involves little to no strategy or skill.
Call me biased, call me a jack ass, but despite it all Summoner for the GameCube leaves most RPG fans empty inside. This can be blamed to the lame battles found in the game, sure they are real time, and not strategy based, but unless this game is called The Legend of Zelda, chances are that it will fall flat on its ass. The battle system in Summoner, does feature a numerous amount of attacks, whether it is with swords or magic, but since the game doesn’t enforce the gamer to use a variety attacks, the simplest way to win a battle is to defend, press the B button three times, heal yourself, then rinse and repeat. This strategy, created by yours truly, is the most effective way to win any battle, being some lifeless goon in your way, or some boss that’s supposed to pose a threat.
The aspect of Summoner that had to piss me off the most would be the game’s horrendous, and I mean horrendous, camera. Never, ever have I played a game that features a camera system that is so ball breaking, that it just made me want to toss my GCN pad across the room and shatter it into a thousand pieces. The camera for the most part is controlled by the gamer himself, but for some odd reason the camera tends to look downwards, this cuts off your viewing distance of approx. 5 feet, that is if you were actually in the game.
Aside from the game having a decent storyline there isn’t too many good words to be spoken about Summoner for the GameCube. It’s too westernized for my own taste, luckily for those who can actually withstand overlooking all of this game’s faults it will easily last you a long 30 hours of gameplay. For me 30 hours of Summoner: A Goddess Reborn was pure torture, now back to Arcadia!
Visuals:
You have all these PS2 fans who try to defend the their beloved console with practically everything they’ve got, but we all know that the PS2 is the most inferior out of the 3 consoles currently on the market. Yes, you have games like Metal Gear Solid and FFX that practically push the PS2 to its limits but the majority of the titles on the console, wouldn’t impress me even if I was stoned beyond belief (Well, maybe REZ but that’s a different story). Summoner 2 for the PS2 might have looked decent on the Playstation 2 but the visuals in A Goddess Reborn in my opinion, excuse my French, look like a pile of horse shit left out in the sun to rot for a few hours. Everything in the game from, character design to geometric structures, look bland and lifeless. The only thing that impresses me in this game, visually, is the monstrous size of Maia’s ass, which tends to bounce ever so lifelike while running.
Audio:
Compression issues haunt yet another PS2 to GameCube port. Honestly, with games like Metroid Prime and Resident Evil Zero pushing the envelope for GameCube games in the audio department you’d think that developers would realize that gamers want the best they can get for their hard earned cash, instead of having a feeling of regret hang high above their heads, because they just flushed their money down the toilet where it could have been spent much more wisely on novelty Hockey Jersey that said “Kiss me I’m Irish”, but we all no that no one wants to kiss someone who’s Irish. With that said, the compression isn’t as bad as I have made you think, honestly the only sound aspect that the compression issues of the GCN optical discs cause are scratchy voices, the music and, for the most part, everything else is superb. The game’s soundtrack itself is excellent and, believe it or not, I love it. It fits the game’s atmosphere very well; I’m especially fond of the jungle-like beats in the game. Though unfortunately, the game doesn’t feature a particular tune that will stick out in you head, they’re just good enough for you to take notice of them.
Final Thoughts:
I don’t even now how I finished the game on my own, especially without some sort of narcotic to send my brain to the astral plain, so the mental trauma of playing Summoner wouldn’t be too much for me to handle. Skies of Arcadia Legends is the Messiah, whereas Summoner: A Goddess Reborn is the modern day anti-Christ.
