Summon Knight: Twin Age

Rating Everyone 10+ Genre action Publisher Atlus External Links Official Summon Knight Website

Another wonderful summer day as I lie here resting in my hammock waiting for something to do. Browsing the internet wirelessly, thanks to Al Gore of course, looking at worthless and worthwhile websites. Oh snap, it’s the mailman. Hopefully he'll bring me something thats not a bill for once. Foul messenger of bad news and bills. What's this? A DS game? Well, that’s different. Time to dust off the ole DS and prepare it to play Summon Knight: Twin Age. The cover of this game looks cute enough and if you know me (which you don’t), you know I'm all about cute games.

The original idea of this game was a turn based strategy game, comparable to Final Fantasy Tactics or even, dare I say it, Shining Force. The story of this game follows this girl by the name of Reiha and her companion/brother Aldo, a monster to whom which she summoned. They are on a search for the reason why the spirits who run around their local area have all of a sudden decided to assault people. You can choose to use Reiha, a summoner and a powerful magic user, or Aldo who is a powerful fighter who also has the ability to summon. With your powers combined you do not call forth Captain Planet, but instead you call forth a flurry of attacks and monsters to kick Evil’s butt. Sounds like beyond a fun time!

This game quite easily has some of the best controls that I have come across on this dual screened system. Everything seems to respond accordingly and there are no silly ill timed glitches. This game does have a very addicting aspect to it. I’ve oft found myself wanting to put it down but I couldn't because I figured I could clear the next act with ease. Which I could, only because the game felt a little easier than it should have been. Other than a low difficulty level, I had almost no other serious complaints. The graphics were quite average for the DS, nothing too out of the ordinary. Aside from normal gameplay graphics, conversations were held by anime depictions of you and the conversee. The sound effects are incredibly reminiscent of Disgaea, especially when playing the game. The same battle cries can be heard over and over again. Fortunately, their sound dies out over time while listening to the in-game music.

I as of recent have rarely seen a game that offers serious replayability after completion. This is not the case with Summon Night: Twin Age. I know that I will be playing this one over and over, and I will try to preach the sweet sermon of “play this game” to my friends worldwide. If you have a DS and you have time to dedicate, then I would suggest that you burn some hours killing some evil spirits with the monsters that you have summoned.