Summoner is a party-based CRPG that launched on PS2 in 2000, and it was recently given a new lease on life thanks to a re-release on PS5 and PS4 via PlayStation’s Classics push. Developed by Volition (later Deep Silver, of Saint’s Row fame), the studio’s ambitious and expansive effort was marred by a lack of polish and technical issues despite shooting for the moon with its storytelling, world-building, and relatively unique chain combat system. Summoner remains quite rough. Still, it’s never been more accessible, and the standard suite of quality-of-life improvements like save states, rewind, and display options make playing it a more palatable exploration for gaming archaeologists.
Players are cast as the titular Summoner, a humble villager named Joseph, and thrust into a surprisingly gritty world of demons, dragons, and warring empires. Born with the mark of the Summoner, Joseph awakened to his powers during an invasion by the Orenians in his childhood. He brought forth a mighty demon but quickly lost control, resulting in the deaths of his friends and family, as well as the attacking soldiers. Now an adult, Joseph finds himself again having to call upon the power of the Summoner as the Orenians are on the march, and dark powers begin to align.
Throughout a lengthy, 30+ hour adventure, Joseph will gather a party of companions who will fight by his side, adding texture to events and allowing for more mechanical flexibility. Flece is a quick-witted thief from the capital city of Lenele with a mysterious past, employed to do the work of the shadowy King of Fleas. Rosalind is a student of the language of Creation with links to Joseph’s childhood and a powerful spellcaster in her own right. Jekhar is a soldier with unfinished business of his own with Joseph but is compelled to help him by circumstance and his oath of allegiance.
Summoner shines in the depth of its game world and the lengths Volition went to fill it with characters and backstory. In addition to the main quest, players can undertake numerous side quests to further pad the playtime. While mainly of the most basic variety (Summoner did come out over two decades ago), they add additional flavour for those who want it and reward you with gear and experience for your efforts.
Combat is where Summoner differentiates itself most from its contemporaries. It employs a relatively bizarre blend of real-time CRPG mechanics and chaining inputs rhythmically, like a chimaera made from pieces of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Legend of Dragoon. When you order the controlled character to attack an enemy, they’ll automatically continue to do so. Just before each blow, a chain symbol will appear above the character’s head, and inputting one of four commands (which correlate to equipped skills) will allow the chaining of multiple attacks together. During this time, the enemy cannot counterattack, and the window for the next grows shorter after each successive input.
It’s a pretty engaging system (at least initially), albeit one that can feel fiddly, especially as encounters grow in size and complexity. Characters can increase their skill with a specific weapon through continued use and improve their base statistics after accumulating enough XP. You can pause the action to cast spells (which will then play out in real-time), growing in effectiveness through repeat use of these powers.
Unfortunately, Summoner falls down in its execution and the game’s generally unpolished feel. The moment-to-moment gameplay has a fair bit of jank to it, with frame rate issues (especially in Lenele, which is admittedly pretty impressive), fairly forgettable music, and graphics that, even in 2000, weren’t considered especially aesthetically pleasing. The resolution and generally muddy textures have not benefitted from the passage of time, either.
While innovative and interesting, the chain combat system sometimes frustrates and somewhat falls apart when encountering multiple enemies simultaneously. Since the way you unlock new chain attacks is by repeatedly using those unlocked previously, combat gets monotonous until additional options open up. Compounding matters is the AI of companion characters, which is pretty basic, and you’ll need to babysit each party member to come through more challenging encounters. Puzzle and combat sections that require party members to split up and operate independently don’t help matters.
You’ll also be constantly battling with the camera, which is unruly at best and downright awful the rest of the time. Pulled back as far as possible, the angle still doesn’t allow you to see much, and anything else is far too close to be very useful, especially in combat. Moving the camera at all results in some slight slowdown, so even interacting with the game world in this minor way eventually starts to feel like a slog. These issues extend to the game’s draw distance, which is shockingly short, and you’ll often be surprised by geometry that seemingly appears out of thin air, especially in its more populated areas.
Conclusion
Summoner was clearly an ambitious attempt by developer Volition to create an interactive RPG world of considerable scale, but it’s undercut by some glaring issues that make the experience largely frustrating. With an often struggling frame rate, uncooperative camera, archaic inputs, and a combat system that frustrates when put to the test, it’s a hard game to recommend to any but the most dedicated retro gaming enthusiasts.