Summon Night: Swordcraft Story

Summon Night Swordcraft Story

Developer:	Flight Plan
Platform:	Game Boy Advance
Release Dates:	April 25, 2003 (JP) July 26, 2006 (NA)
Genre:	Action RPG

Summon Night: Swordcraft Story is the first Summon Night game released on the Game Boy Advance. It is an action-RPG.

Ootsuka Shinichirou was in charge of the character designs.

Story[]

Three years ago, Shintetsu, the Craftlord of Iron (one of the seven Craftlords), gave up his life to protect his wife Amariss, their son/daughter (dependent on which gender the player selects at the beginning), and the whole of Wystern. He was recognized as a hero. Three years have passed and the remaining Craftlords have organized a tournament to replace him. In this tournament joins the child of Shintetsu, determined to take his/her father's place as the Craftlord of Iron. Little does he/she know about the connection between his/ her father to Parista, the Spirit of Swords that lies 50 levels beneath the ocean. Uncover the truth about the player's father during 10 days full of adventures!!!

Gameplay[]

Summon Night: Swordcraft Story progresses through the story on a day-by-day basis. The entire game consists of 10 days, where the player traverses through the town of Wystern and the Labyrinth Dungeon. Each day, more levels of the Labyrinth are unlocked and the player is required to travel deeper to complete mandatory quests. A day normally ends after a tournament or boss battle. During the night, the player can choose who to spend the night with, which will control the following cut-scene.

Apart from the story quests, there are multiple side-quests, offered by re-occurring NPCs. The rewards of these quests are usually enchanted weapon techniques. Often, they are simple fetch quests.

Smithing[]

One of the main focuses of the game is to forge weapons for fighting. To forge a weapon, the player needs the weapon technique and the materials to create it. Sword techniques are given once every day by Bron and are impossible to miss. Other weapon techniques can also be received from Bron, but the preceding weapon must already have been crafted in order for him to teach the next technique. Also, as with swords, Bron will add to the number of techniques by each day. After the main game is completed, the player will receive techniques by finding them in treasure chests or monsters, and completing special tasks.

Summon Night divides materials into four elements: fire, water, lightning, and wind. Materials can be obtained by sacrificing items or weapons. The amount and type of materials received will depend on the items being used. Also, any weapon sacrificed will only return half of what was used to forge it. When the player has the technique, as well as the materials necessary, they may forge the weapon at their workshop.

Weapons can also be enchanted. Depending on what guardian beast was selected, different types of weapons may be enchanted without having to obtain the enchanted technique. Creating an enchanted weapon will require that the original form of the weapon was already forged. In addition, the player must have the proper amount of mystic ores. Mystic ores can be obtained by defeating a special group of enemies, which take the form of possessed armor and equipment. When the player selects to create the weapon again, the option of using mystic ores will be given. Enchanted weapons have increased statistics in comparison to their original form, and they are also endowed by one of the four elements. The weapons that cannot be enchanted by the guardian beast will require the completion of a side-quest.

Battle[]

The battles in Summon Night take place inside dungeons. They are initiated as random encounters. On the battle scene, the player will be placed into a small side-scrolling area with one to four opponents. They are able to walk, run, jump, guard, attack, summon their guardian beast and use items. Up to three weapons can be equipped, and up to four different items and spells can be placed onto the Guardian Beast. This must be set up before a battle begins. If no weapon is available or equipped, the player will be forced to battle with their hammer. During the battle, the player can switch freely between their equipped weapons and use any of the selected items and spells. A battle is won when all opponents have either fled or have been defeated.

The character has three statistics which determine his or her ability to fight. Strength controls the amount of damage they inflict. Defense controls the amount of damage opponents will inflict. Agility controls speed while moving, and jumping height. These stats can be increased by equipment or leveling up. The game also uses a health point system, which will be increased automatically upon level up. Hit points are also gained in varying amounts depending on which stats were selected to increase.

Each weapon also has a score akin to hit points, called durability. Each attack will decrease the duration of the weapon very slightly. If duration of a weapon hits zero, the weapon will break and will no longer be usable. When a weapon breaks, it leaves behind a weapon shard and cannot be restored. Durability is refilled after every battle. The rate which a weapon's durability decreases is proportional to the weapon's TEC score. TEC can be increased by fighting with the weapon more often.

Some enemies also wield weapons with their own durability score, and breaking these weapons earns the right to forge them for your own use.

Characters[]

List of characters from Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1

It doesn't matter if you choose to play male (Cleru) or female (Pratty) as your character in the game; other than slight text changes (such as Amariss saying something about Pratty attracting boys if you play as Pratty), and slightly relationships with others.

Cleru

Pratty

Summon Night: Swordcraft Story features one of four "Guardian Beasts" that assist the hero with magic and items during battle. A Guardian Beast is acquired at the beginning of the game, where the player answers a series of questions that determine which beast they get. The beast is identified as the same one Shintetsu had, no matter which is received. There is another Guardian Beast, Kuhyra, which is available to be swapped with one of the original four beasts after the main storyline is finished. The four beasts are: