Summon Night: Twin Age – Review

Summon Night: Twin Age is an Action RPG designed that delivers several hours of quality gaming on the Nintendo DS. Like any game there are some features/flaws that inhibit its playability but the only thing that really holds this game back is it lack of difficulty.

I'll try to be as spoiler free as possible. That being said, on to the review.

Graphics- 8/10: The graphics for Twin Age aren't astounding, they don't push the DS to its limits, and by no means is this the first game to take this certain style of art/graphics. That still doesn't detract from the fact that this game does indeed look very nice. As a whole the game is very colorful and looks great all around. The sprites and animations look nice the attacks (especially the special ones near the advanced ones near the end of the game) look great and are fun to watch. Some might argue that this makes the game look "kiddy", however, I would describe this style as "refreshing." True that there are many more graphically capable games out there, but the developers of Twin Age never intended to make this push the limits, simply to create an enjoyable environment thats easy to appreciate, which is exactly what they accomplished. One other minor note about the graphics that really stood out to me for some reason is the two-screen character animations seen when you meet a new character. I dunno the just looked very well done.

Sound- 7/10: The sound in Twin Age matches the environment created by the graphics exactly. Its usually very up-beat and cheerful and sounds very nice. The quality is good and the sound effects accurately convey the actions that caused them. I will say that, while enjoyable, the music isn't very memorable. I didn't go around humming some of the tracks days after completing the game like I did with some games past. Though that still doesn't deter the mood or environment of the game, and to its credit, the music never really got repetitive. One other thing that surprised me when I first encountered it is the voice acting. For a handheld game, its quite good. There's not a whole lot of it but it is a nice addition.

Story- 8/10: First of all, a disclaimer, This is my first Summon Night game so I have absolutely no idea about the "continuity" of the series or whether or not this game sticks with the usual Summon Night story lines. With that out of the way, the premise in Twin Age is decent. Its nothing really new as far as RPG's go. You know the normal "Epic Quest to save the world with a few minor plot twists and twirls along the way to keep things interesting." However, the story itself (without spoiling anything) is interesting and stays true to the environment created throughout the game with its "feel-good" and positive attitude. Don't let people throwing around words like "kiddy" and "childish" deter you from trying this game. Its got a solid story that keeps things interesting.

Gameplay/controls- 9/10: Here is where Twin Age really shines. The gameplay is reminiscent of old school dungeon crawlers with touch-screen controls. The action all takes place on the bottom screen. You have two command bars on either side of your screen that contain skills, items, summons, the menu button, and a button the switch between the leading characters. You use the commands by tapping enemies and allies. Movement also takes place by tapping the touch screen and having the characters move toward the direction you tap. All in all this is a very fun system to use but it also holds one of this games biggest flaws. The skill system here is ridiculously over-powered( specifically because of the fact that upper-level skills are given to you very early in the game). This is only the case in the American version but it detracts a little bit because of the simplicity. All said, though, this is still one of the best touch screen based games I've played.

Difficulty- I'm not going to give this section a separate rating because while the core difficulty (or lack thereof) is still there, there are things you can do to reduce the watered down difficulty that we get over the Japanese version. The things that cause the easiness at the beginning are the above mentioned high-leveled skills, 50 of two high-leveled healing items, and several advanced summons. All that is necessary to accommodate these un-needed items is to sell them off immediately. Or in the case of the skills, to simply not use them until you SHOULD have gotten them. To be honest, this really isn't that big of a deal. Some people don't mind the easiness and those that do can reduce it.

All in all, this is a great game that is well worth the price. I got several hours of quality gaming time and thoroughly enjoyed al of it. Hopefully this review was helpful to you and your decision about whether to purchase this game. Thanks for reading!