An RPG with enough action and extras to keep you playing for a long time.
GAMEPLAY ~
Everything is basically the same from SN1. If you want a run-down of the buttons during battles and how to play the game, either read my SN1 review, or read the instruction manual. I am going to delve into some of the newer game options presented in SN2.
The first new aspect is a more simplistic forging system. In SN1 you had to collect mass amounts of junk and than incinerate them and hope that you had enough of a certain element to forge the weapon you want. SN2 simplified this by giving you a base material (shapestone) and mixing that with another sub-material to form the weapon of choice. Just as before you have 5 different weapons to create (sword, axe, spear, fist, drill) with over 100 different forging form for each weapon.
But instead of just using them in battle, you now have access to each base weapon on the over-world screen. Which means you can poke fruit from a tree with the spear, punch a rock and drill through a wall. An the hammer is now primarily used to move ahead through the many given puzzles throughout the game. SN1 had one puzzle. SN2 has many puzzles, mainly ground effecting puzzles, like conveyor belts or ice fields, stuff like that, it adds a bit of challenge to a basically easier title.
The next thing to bring us involves the battle system. Linear is the name of the game and you now have a new trick up your sleeves if the going gets rough, and it's called MONO-SHIFT! Mono-Shift allows the hero to transform into a special being which deals out double the damage to your enemies. This form makes all beast bosses (non-weapon breaking battles) a breeze. Bringing down the difficulty to almost nothing.
An there is the downfall, the game is pretty easy to start off with, and without the weapon forging aspect this game will get repetitive really fast, but it holds out longer than SN1 because the game has different areas to explore, over the two different areas SN1 gave you.
So overall, SN2 kept what it needed from SN1 and added in a whole lot more which was needed for longer play. At least you can now decide on a Summon Beast without all the guessing the first SN game made you go through.
STORY ~
Can't say I paid attention to the story in reality it had a bunch of predictable twist but it did give you a large cast of characters to interact with and some nice humor was thrown in as well. The story runs the same way no matter what you say or who you choose, so enjoy it for it's action and overall creativity!
GRAPHICS ~
first thing I want to bring up is after the initial GBA title, SN2 decides it wants to plug the Gameboy Player system. Not saying it's a bad idea, because it isn't... until you actually try to play this game on your GBP. An realize it looks terrible all stretched out and distorted. So I placed it back inside my DS Lite and played from there.
The game shouts color and brightens up every area you enter, even in the darkest of industrial labyrinths, it's nice an bright! The basic sprite design is almost flawless representing each character nicely an with an accompanying hand-drawn image of them when they are speaking.
Enemies, thought repainted alot, have a good anime-esk look to them and have an almost unique blend, warping different animals into vicious (yet cuddly) creatures in need of decimation. Battle sprites are fantastically done for main characters and weapon wielding bosses, but I won't sell short the beast bosses, they are huge and take a good leap to make it over them. Battle actions are swift and there are no slow downs to mention in game. Mono-Shirt is the real winner, with a great cut-scene build up and overall presentation, it's worth the price all alone!
Magic spells are the secondary attribute to awe inspiring graphics! from basic gale barrages to specialty attacks each one is nicely down and the super special abilities of your summon beast even come with a small cut-scene to spruce it up a bit.
The game, like it's predecessor is built around the battle system so it's where most of the game engine runs, but at least in SN2 they give you a bit more to look at whilst wandering around the many different dungeons given to you. Good job ATLUS!
SOUND ~
The music isn't going to get much better than it is on SN2. You get the same 16-bit arrangements and each one has an accompanying sound that goes with the chosen level. So the bay has a Caribbean sound whilst the factory has an industrial beat to it. Very fancy.
Battle SFX aren't that impressive with bland slashes and bashes when weapons collide with beast heads, and the main characters voice-overs get tiresome real fast.
Again, since it is a portable title I don't expect miracles for this soundtrack, but I couldn't ask from much more with SN2. It gave all it could.
REPLAYABILITY ~
This is where Summon Night 2 really shines!
With an initial 25 hours of game play and if undertaking the side-quest tack on an additional 15+ hours you have alot to do when it's all said and done for.
Initially the game gives you now quick save option which really bummed me out until I progressed a little further an realized they did something a bit more creative! Expendable saving items called Anywhere Diary! (I would called them journals for the male hero) Yes! A great idea! But I would have still placed a few more save-swords around, just so I know when a boss is near. This instantly bumped the replay up a bunch, then comes the real extras!
The game offers you a few little side-quest to be completed during game, like cat finding, lost item retrievals, rare medal collecting and the always interesting "trading game" sequence. Each one starts off giving you a lame item than eventually gives out the good stuff. But these are all in game which means if you miss one day, you don’t get the good end-prize...
Than we have fishing, which is just a rhythm game. You begin casting and when the bar (which is constantly moving rainbow) gets to your desired location, you can let it fly! Than you wait ‘til a fish shadow swims past and your bobbin bobbins, press B quickly, than it's FISH ON!!! (which made me sing the Primus song of the same name each time) than you reel them in, attempting to hit the button on the same rainbow bar at it's very end and eventually reel in a big fish. Get enough fish (5 maximum) and you get a score. This score allows you to purchase a prize from the fisherman, which is normally either rare materials or a shapestone.
The best repayable option by far is dungeon expansions and the New Game + feature. Dungeon expansions allows you to go deeper into the transverse dungeons and lets you take on the hardest of enemies and the highest HP bosses I've ever encountered. These dungeons also fill up the final pages of your bestiary and lets you collect those oh so rare final materials.
New Game + brings over your bestiary, weaponry, stored weapons (in the flame shrine) and a few other goodies to a new game. Pick a different lead character and a new summon beast and you have a whole new game without all the hassle. Too bad the bestiary doesn’t store boss info, but at least you start with the bestiary, unlike SN1, which you get it halfway through the game!
There is also a few other awesome extras that you can only experience by playing, I won't ruin much more.
So play on!
OVERALL ~
One of the best RPG's I've owned for the GBA in some time. It entertained me with several hours of initial game play, and eventually I'll pick it up again and play the second main characters quest. It's one of the more involving RPG's out there, but is one of the more limited runs. I Believe there is only one more GBA title to be released stateside and that is in the air as well.
ATLUS! RELEASE IT!!! I HAVE FAITH IN IT‘S SUCCESS!!!