Разработчик: Volition
Описание
The Story:
Born with the mark of the Summoner, Joseph possesses a power greater than emperors and gods. As a child, he summoned a demon to save his village, and watched in horror as those he loved were destroyed. Nine years later, the armies of Orenia invade, and Joseph must confront the prophecy he was born to fulfill.Key Features:
- Traverse a beautiful, completely original world spanning two continents.
- Up to 16 different creatures to summon and control in combat, such as minotaurs, golems, dragons, and original fantastical creatures.
- Cast spectacular spells. Wield an arsenal of weapons. Clad yourself in the armour of a warrior.
Поддерживаемые языки: english, german
Системные требования
Windows
- OS *: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8
- Processor: 1.8 GHz Processor
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Graphics: 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 9.0c
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Storage: 800 MB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c or better compatible sound card
- OS *: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8
- Processor: 1.8 GHz Processor
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 9.0c
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Storage: 1 GB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c or better compatible sound card
Отзывы пользователей
Wasn't for me.. the combat was horrible.
Enjoyable progression and story. A couple of frustration points are very limited camera, and fighting party AI when doing party management in tight spots. Takes some time getting used to.
Not sure if these *very positive majority* reviewers are even playing the same game....sweet baby jebus why can't I hold all this Jank
TL; DR One of my favourite lesser-known RPGs, it does not have the complex narrative or interactability of a CRPG, but it is an adventure, and the over-the-shoulder view puts you closer to the world, and its people. And what a world, filled with biblical and borderline Gnostic inspirations, and demons of all shapes and sizes.
Summoner is great for what it is, but it does suffer from a lack of encounter variety and repeat dungeons, however, it more than makes up for its faults provided that you like the combat or enjoy the story.
Note this is an old game, there are points of no return, and some annoying bugs, keep multiple save files.
Story
A vagrant arrived at the village, he told a young boy of his destiny and handed him a ring of power, and so the village was massacred. Two vagrants left the ruins…
Near a decade has passed, Joseph is now a simple farmhand, haunted by what he has done, but now he is being flushed out of hiding, the Emperor Murod has discovered him, and he will not suffer the Summoner to live, but destiny cannot be denied.
Joseph bears the Mark of the Summoner, he is the Sahugani and like every Summoner he brings doom and suffering to his people. Joseph has already had a taste of this sour fate, yet his failures pale in comparison to his forebears, such as Armun who waged war on a god and petrified his people to save them from the waves, even now the Rings of Stone is on his rocky hand…
You must walk in the shadows of yore, collect the Rings of the Summoner for without them you stand no change of opposing the Usurper-Emperor Murod, his legions and his quest for Godhod.
While the premise of Summoner is largely questing for the McGuffins they manage to make it interesting by mixing up environments, introducing more characters, and exploring the backstory and lore more and more.
The story in and of itself is not bad, it has a dysfunctional party, an approximation of courtly intrigue, grand stakes, while also putting your boots on the ground and exploring everyday life, but it feels a bit limited by its technology and age. This has some interesting consequences because the lack of details in certain aspects is evocative in ways that modern games rarely are.
I found the worldbuilding especially intriguing because it has these biblical proportions, and I imagine, takes a couple of notes from Gnosticism. The Tower of Babel is a literal thing that the creator gods built to dethrone their father, humans are the angelic children of Urath who lost their wings when he was slain by his sister, and these are just the basic things you can learn at the very start of the game by visiting the Hierophant at the Temple of Urath.
Less interesting are the dialogue options, because they are not really options, are they? At times you can solve quests in different ways and maybe haggle a little bit for a reward but most of the time you only press a dialogue option to progress the conversation, simply repeating the last word your interlocutor said, and that feels extremely artificial.
It is an issue that could have been easily avoided by having fewer “dialogue options” or by changing our options to be sentences, that way there would be some semblance of a conversation.
Presentation
Summoner features two regions prominently, Medeva, and Orenia, inspired by Europe and Orientalism respectively. This offers some variety from the get-go, but the different architectural styles and aesthetics are hardly the main appeals.
Take Lenele, the bustling City of the Gods, it is a sprawling metropolis, capturing the scale of a city which games rarely even attempt to do. Then there is the Island of Iona, a convent, and it also prioritises the scale, making it feel like a crowded, secluded monastery, home to but a few monks and their apprentices.
However, my personal favourite is the sunken kingdom of Ikaemos, ancient beyond measure, a town consumed by the swamp, all that remains are the petrified citizens, and the ruins of the royal palace. It is haunted by its denizens, the citizens frozen mid-errand, and it feels lonely in a disconcerting sort of way.
Unfortunately, Orenia did not get the same treatment, but at least the introduction is stellar.
While the voice acting, and the cutscenes are few and far between, what we do get is pretty good, atleast when judged on the merits of the time, the characters get emotional and sometimes you can even believe they are people, which is all I can ask for.
The OST is also there, but it does not feel like a fantasy score, it is best described as unconventional, but in a good way, regardless Summoner has a number of good tracks, again, I am quite fond of the additions in Ikaemos since those themes helped solidify it as my favourite area, but there are other great tracks as well, such as the themes for Wolong, and Liangshan.
I appreciate that the music has a cohesive style while also changing things depending on the region, or cultures you are interacting with. It gives off the appearance of scale.
Gameplay
Summoner is a party-based RPG focused on the Summoner, his summon, and his three companions, it is also Realtime with Pause, but do not be alarmed ye of little faith, because they are aware of some of the issues with RTwP and they strove to mitigate those problems.
Did they succeed? Maybe, nevertheless, their solution, the “chain attacks” are enjoyable, it gives you something to do in-between skills, and they give you powerful bonuses while chaining strike after strike after strike.
It gives you a sort of free-form combat style, since as long as you keep your chain up, they cannot retaliate making it a powerful tool in your arsenal, and with chain attacks like Silence, Drain Life, and trip you can learn to dominate the field without a single skill.
Unfortunately, it can take quite a while to learn new attacks, but that gives you a chance to try-out your different party members, and to check out the different rhythms each weapon has.
And it is worth keeping in mind that the equipment of each character does matter, because at times you will be separated from the rest of the party, and there are times when you will not have access to Joseph, effectively losing two party members at once.
One thing that I thought was quite annoying were the side-quests, not the normal ones, but the ones reliant on random encounters… It takes a long time to find any encounter, which is usually great because you are not interrupted every few steps, but not when you have to find them, and not when you need to cycle through three different encounters to find the one you are looking for. It is not great.
There is also the fact that a number of dungeons are boring, and repetitive, they have the scale of large dungeons but not the content to match. You keep fighting the same few enemies throughout with hardly a single puzzle to halt your path, and you rarely have enough optional paths to keep you entertained. Certain dungeons are literally just corridors, which is boring, but there are also places like the Ikaemos Palace which is the best delve in Summoner.
So when you first reach the sewers in Summoner you might think it is a difficult game, which is what I thought initially, but that is not exactly true. It is punishing if you are not prepared, but if you have the correct skills, and appropriate equipment it is quite easy, provided you do not pull a dozen enemies at once because that will kill you.
If you make good use of Healing spells and buffs you are largely fine, but if you also focus on blunt damage, and backstab combos, yeah you will easily deal with most enemies in the game. It is not difficult to one-shot bosses with a well-placed backstab, so it feels overpowered while also being a near necessary tool to even unfavourable odds.
More importantly, it just feels good to backstab your enemies.
This game captures that magic of old games. Sure engine is clunky and graphics suck....but it has that x-factor that today's number chasing games seems to miss...
Great game!
I love this game but I hold onto the pipe dream that they'll port the superior (in my opinion) Summoner 2. Regardless, absolutely solid, worth your five american sheckles.
x
Recuerdo haberlo jugado en mi infancia era un buen juego no llegue a terminarlo. Ahora pude darle su tiempo de terminarlo y estuvo tan bueno como lo recordaba.
this is an old school game i use to play this a long time ago i really enjoy it someone should re do this game it would make lot of money for who ever did it
Played this game since i was a kid. Fantastic story and Setting. Lots of detail and fleshed out lore. only downside for me is that it ends. That and the occasional funny glitch.
I played for a NICE amount of hours. I love this game, so nostalgic
very good game. only thing it needs is controller support.
Writing this in SEP 2024 after beating it for the first time. I tend to stick to games from "my days" which is basically the late 90's and early 2000's. It's an old game, and I didn't play it back in the old days, but I enjoyed 90% of it. The story and the characters are great, however it takes 30+ hours of investment to start really enjoying it. The grind for experience is insane, but mostly worth it in the end. I put 66 hours into one play through and most of it was spent grinding experience and exploring the levels looking for items on the ground. I still enjoyed the game and think most folks from the classic days of gaming would enjoy this classic title. Have fun!
I like how this game has come back since I last played it on my PS2. I dislike how there is no controller support despite there could be being, as i said, it was for the PS2. This should be fixed, just using the mouse to play feels off, i did beat it, but controller support would make this game so much better.
All these positive reviews and I am still stuck on the tutorial area. Someone please tell me how to leave or pass the area after the burning house at the beginning. Killed all enemies but still can't leave.
Brilliant game, one of my favourites ever! So glad it's available on STEAM
Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | Volition |
| Платформы | Windows |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 18.01.2025 |
| Metacritic | 78 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 86% положительных (315) |