Summoner: A Goddess Reborn

Fulfil Your Destiny

NA release: 4th February 2003
EU release: 11th April 2003
NA release: N/A
Developer: Volition, Cranky Pants Games
Publisher: THQ
NGC Magazine: N/A
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

For a story heavy RPG, it’s very important to introduce the world and characters. In Summoner: A Goddess Reborn, it feels like you walked in mid-conversation, just nodding and going “aha” as you pretend you understand the context. By the end of the tutorial and first level, you have no idea what the world is like. At the end, there’s a conversation about a flying pirate ship that’s so dry that you have absolutely no idea if it’s supposed to be something astonishing or if it’s just something that’s normal in this universe.

Part of this might be because this is a sequel, and was just called Summoner 2 on PlayStation 2. The rename to A Goddess Reborn seems like an attempt to hide it being a sequel to GameCube owners, yet no attempt has been made to fill in any blanks – that said, good writing would negate this anyway.

The gameplay is also quite tedious. It’s an action RPG, but you’re limited to one attack button and one item/spell button. You have to use the D-pad to scroll through your spells and then press A or Y to assign it to Y, close the menu and then press Y to use it, which is very clunky to do during combat. Even keys work in this manner, making unlocking doors needlessly faffy.

A key element of combat is the “summons” mechanic. Throughout the game you’ll unlock monsters that you can transform into. I’m not entirely sure why they’re called summons when they’re transformations, but I guess they wanted the name of the game to be Summoner.

On top of the tedium of both the dialogue and combat, the levels themselves are bland and difficult to navigate. Interactive objects are so unintuitive that they all have to be marked out on the map. This is just an extremely dry game.

Fun

Naturally, this isn’t going to appeal to everyone. There’s plenty of backtracking to be done, along with a fair share of wandering about wondering what the hell you’re supposed to be doing next. True, there’s a wide range of locations – but no matter how atmospheric they are you can’t shake the feeling that this looks like it should have been on the last generation of consoles. The voice-acted sections are sporadic while the FMV storytelling is as graining as an ex-rental Dario Argento movie.

Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #79

Remake or remaster?

The first game is on PC, so it would be nice for this game to finally get a release on PC.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Summoner: A Goddess Reborn.