Summoner
Summoners have toppled empires and challenged gods. They are venerated as saviours and feared as destroyers. With rings crafted by the ancient Khosani, the gifted can call forth demons, dragons, and elementals, but only the strongest can control the forces they unleash.
Summoner is a rpg, action and fantasy game
developed by Volition
and published by THQ Nordic.
Released on March 12th 2014 is available only on Windows
in 2 languages: English and German.
It has received 499 reviews of which 421 were positive and 78 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.9 out of 10. š
The game is currently priced at 4.99ā¬ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Summoner into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8
- Processor: 1.8 GHz Processor
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Graphics: 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 9.0c
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Storage: 800 MB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c or better compatible sound card
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Summoner is an action RPG I first played on the PS2 shortly after its release. Although I didnāt finish it back then, I finally completed it on PC over 20 years later. The game requires some adjustments to run properly on modern systems though. It runs too fast, so I locked the frame rate to 60 fps using RivaTuner. The story follows Joseph, a young summoner bound by prophecy, as he journeys to fulfill his destiny. Along the way, three companions join him, and the fifth party slot is reserved for summoned creatures. The story is solid, with enough lore and twists to keep it interesting, though a few sections felt a little slow. Combat is in real-time with a pause function, and the chain-attack mechanic is a nice addition. You can also assign roles like melee, ranged, caster, or healer to your characters, which helps reduce micromanagement. The game does come with its share of "old-school-game" problems. The draw distance is minimal, and the camera is quite limited; it canāt be tilted and only allows for rotation and zooming. On top of that, the camera adjusts automatically based on the location, which can sometimes make navigation frustrating. In caves or on stairs, the ceiling frequently blocks your view. The resolution is low by default (though thereās a patch to change it), and the controls canāt be customized. Camera rotation being tied to the arrow keys is especially frustrating. Summoned creatures have their issues as well. Companions normally attack only when provoked, but with a summoned creature, they constantly charge at distant enemies. This often pulls more enemies into fights and creates unnecessary chaos. Even using the sheath weapon command doesnāt stop them for long, as they tend to restart their attacks after a few seconds. The environments are large but feel empty. You revisit the same locations multiple times, sometimes three or four times, and even the path to the final boss is identical to a route you took earlier, with the same enemies and layout. The quest log provides some guidance, but youāre often left to figure out where to go on your own. Traveling between areas is done on a world map with random encounters. These encounters vary; some are tied to quests, while others are just random battles. The sound design is minimal, with decent effects and music, but youāll often hear little more than the sound of footsteps. Spoken dialogue is limited to cutscenes and level-ups; the rest is text-only. I would have liked a little more dialogue, especially after significant story developments. There are a few moments where progress requires specific skills or weapon types. If you donāt have the right skills or equipment, you might have to reload an earlier save and grind to prepare. The game also doesnāt warn you when advancing the story will make side quests unavailable, which happens multiple times. Despite its flaws/imperfections, I still had a lot of fun with Summoner. The game has a certain charm, even if the graphics look dated; especially compared to titles from the same era.
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TL; DR One of my favourite lesser-known RPGs, it does not have the complex narrative or interactability of a CRPG, but it is an adventure, and the over-the-shoulder view puts you closer to the world, and its people. And what a world, filled with biblical and borderline Gnostic inspirations, and demons of all shapes and sizes. Summoner is great for what it is, but it does suffer from a lack of encounter variety and repeat dungeons, however, it more than makes up for its faults provided that you like the combat or enjoy the story. Note this is an old game, there are points of no return, and some annoying bugs, keep multiple save files. Story A vagrant arrived at the village, he told a young boy of his destiny and handed him a ring of power, and so the village was massacred. Two vagrants left the ruinsā¦ Near a decade has passed, Joseph is now a simple farmhand, haunted by what he has done, but now he is being flushed out of hiding, the Emperor Murod has discovered him, and he will not suffer the Summoner to live, but destiny cannot be denied. Joseph bears the Mark of the Summoner, he is the Sahugani and like every Summoner he brings doom and suffering to his people. Joseph has already had a taste of this sour fate, yet his failures pale in comparison to his forebears, such as Armun who waged war on a god and petrified his people to save them from the waves, even now the Rings of Stone is on his rocky handā¦ You must walk in the shadows of yore, collect the Rings of the Summoner for without them you stand no change of opposing the Usurper-Emperor Murod, his legions and his quest for Godhod. While the premise of Summoner is largely questing for the McGuffins they manage to make it interesting by mixing up environments, introducing more characters, and exploring the backstory and lore more and more. The story in and of itself is not bad, it has a dysfunctional party, an approximation of courtly intrigue, grand stakes, while also putting your boots on the ground and exploring everyday life, but it feels a bit limited by its technology and age. This has some interesting consequences because the lack of details in certain aspects is evocative in ways that modern games rarely are. I found the worldbuilding especially intriguing because it has these biblical proportions, and I imagine, takes a couple of notes from Gnosticism. The Tower of Babel is a literal thing that the creator gods built to dethrone their father, humans are the angelic children of Urath who lost their wings when he was slain by his sister, and these are just the basic things you can learn at the very start of the game by visiting the Hierophant at the Temple of Urath. Less interesting are the dialogue options, because they are not really options, are they? At times you can solve quests in different ways and maybe haggle a little bit for a reward but most of the time you only press a dialogue option to progress the conversation, simply repeating the last word your interlocutor said, and that feels extremely artificial. It is an issue that could have been easily avoided by having fewer ādialogue optionsā or by changing our options to be sentences, that way there would be some semblance of a conversation. Presentation Summoner features two regions prominently, Medeva, and Orenia, inspired by Europe and Orientalism respectively. This offers some variety from the get-go, but the different architectural styles and aesthetics are hardly the main appeals. Take Lenele, the bustling City of the Gods, it is a sprawling metropolis, capturing the scale of a city which games rarely even attempt to do. Then there is the Island of Iona, a convent, and it also prioritises the scale, making it feel like a crowded, secluded monastery, home to but a few monks and their apprentices. However, my personal favourite is the sunken kingdom of Ikaemos, ancient beyond measure, a town consumed by the swamp, all that remains are the petrified citizens, and the ruins of the royal palace. It is haunted by its denizens, the citizens frozen mid-errand, and it feels lonely in a disconcerting sort of way. Unfortunately, Orenia did not get the same treatment, but at least the introduction is stellar. While the voice acting, and the cutscenes are few and far between, what we do get is pretty good, atleast when judged on the merits of the time, the characters get emotional and sometimes you can even believe they are people, which is all I can ask for. The OST is also there, but it does not feel like a fantasy score, it is best described as unconventional, but in a good way, regardless Summoner has a number of good tracks, again, I am quite fond of the additions in Ikaemos since those themes helped solidify it as my favourite area, but there are other great tracks as well, such as the themes for Wolong, and Liangshan. I appreciate that the music has a cohesive style while also changing things depending on the region, or cultures you are interacting with. It gives off the appearance of scale. Gameplay Summoner is a party-based RPG focused on the Summoner, his summon, and his three companions, it is also Realtime with Pause, but do not be alarmed ye of little faith, because they are aware of some of the issues with RTwP and they strove to mitigate those problems. Did they succeed? Maybe, nevertheless, their solution, the āchain attacksā are enjoyable, it gives you something to do in-between skills, and they give you powerful bonuses while chaining strike after strike after strike. It gives you a sort of free-form combat style, since as long as you keep your chain up, they cannot retaliate making it a powerful tool in your arsenal, and with chain attacks like Silence, Drain Life, and trip you can learn to dominate the field without a single skill. Unfortunately, it can take quite a while to learn new attacks, but that gives you a chance to try-out your different party members, and to check out the different rhythms each weapon has. And it is worth keeping in mind that the equipment of each character does matter, because at times you will be separated from the rest of the party, and there are times when you will not have access to Joseph, effectively losing two party members at once. One thing that I thought was quite annoying were the side-quests, not the normal ones, but the ones reliant on random encountersā¦ It takes a long time to find any encounter, which is usually great because you are not interrupted every few steps, but not when you have to find them, and not when you need to cycle through three different encounters to find the one you are looking for. It is not great. There is also the fact that a number of dungeons are boring, and repetitive, they have the scale of large dungeons but not the content to match. You keep fighting the same few enemies throughout with hardly a single puzzle to halt your path, and you rarely have enough optional paths to keep you entertained. Certain dungeons are literally just corridors, which is boring, but there are also places like the Ikaemos Palace which is the best delve in Summoner . So when you first reach the sewers in Summoner you might think it is a difficult game, which is what I thought initially, but that is not exactly true. It is punishing if you are not prepared, but if you have the correct skills, and appropriate equipment it is quite easy, provided you do not pull a dozen enemies at once because that will kill you. If you make good use of Healing spells and buffs you are largely fine, but if you also focus on blunt damage, and backstab combos, yeah you will easily deal with most enemies in the game. It is not difficult to one-shot bosses with a well-placed backstab, so it feels overpowered while also being a near necessary tool to even unfavourable odds. More importantly, it just feels good to backstab your enemies.
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This game captures that magic of old games. Sure engine is clunky and graphics suck....but it has that x-factor that today's number chasing games seems to miss...
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Writing this in SEP 2024 after beating it for the first time. I tend to stick to games from "my days" which is basically the late 90's and early 2000's. It's an old game, and I didn't play it back in the old days, but I enjoyed 90% of it. The story and the characters are great, however it takes 30+ hours of investment to start really enjoying it. The grind for experience is insane, but mostly worth it in the end. I put 66 hours into one play through and most of it was spent grinding experience and exploring the levels looking for items on the ground. I still enjoyed the game and think most folks from the classic days of gaming would enjoy this classic title. Have fun!
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I played this game back when it was on the PS2 and now they re-released it on PS with trophies... Needless to say I platinumed both ps4 and ps5 versions, not to gloat but to show how much I love this old nostalgic gem. Simple, yes, outdated, yes. Still good? Oh Yes.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 18 November 2024 21:11 |
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| SteamSpy data | 20 January 2025 10:27 |
| Steam price | 23 January 2025 20:44 |
| Steam reviews | 22 January 2025 19:58 |
