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> Results: Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2
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What GamerDad says about the ESRB Content Descriptors:
Mild Cartoon Violence: battle are action-packed but separate from exploration and GamerDad found the action more fun than violent. Mild Language: GamerDad found that the words used were mild, but the intent was occasionally more harsh. Suggestive Themes: GamerDad saw girls flirting with boys, other girls and monsters, but nothing beyond suggestions. Yes ﾖ I did say that there is homosexual flirting here. Use of Alcohol: GamerDad saw taverns in towns which were populated by adults. The original Summon Night: Swordcraft Story was only released three months prior to this sequel, but that is a product of translating the Japanese games rather than actual product development time. Indeed, playing Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 I am reminded of the game/toy "Bop It Extreme", which occasionally rewards your failure by saying "Do it the same ﾖ but BETTER!" And that seems to be the theme for the game ﾖ it takes an already solid game and improves it slightly in every way. The story is unrelated to the first game, but again tells the tale of a young boy or girl who is destined to become a Craft-knight and play a great role in vanquishing evil. The exploration and combat systems are largely unchanged ﾖ you travel the world in a top-down perspective until coming to a random battle ﾖ then you are thrown into a real-time side-scrolling battle system. You still have a guardian beast to aid you, and you create your own weapons as before. But there is much more to this game ﾖ there is a new fishing mini-game that rewards you with some excellent items as you progress. The crafting system has been greatly enhanced to include gaining ranks as a craft-knight, the ability to repair and upgrade weapons, and the ability to undergo a special in-battle transformation after a certain point in the game. The tons of weapons you can make and the additional interactivity with the weapons and the environment make for a much more interesting time exploring the world. Overall the game seems familiar in several ways ﾖ the combat system is reminiscent of the ﾑTales' series and the rest of the game shares many plot elements and structures with the original. Yet it feels very fresh and original ﾖ it isn't a strict dungeon crawl like the first, and there are just tons of extra things to do, even after completing the game. It is perhaps two or three times the size of the original game, with a well balanced combat system that is always challenging but not overly difficult. That is a pretty amazing thing ﾖ tweak a bit, add a bit, and end up with another GBA role-playing gem.  
I played the original Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 as the male character, thereby getting some nice flirting but never anything more, as noted in the review. Had I played the female prior to my review, I would have noted that my guardian beast gave me a big kiss and declared her intent to be my wife ... even if I was a girl. I'm sure there is more, but this game arrived before I got too far. So naturally I played the female character this time around ﾖ I just had to see where things went before assigning a kid factor! Fortunately, nothing goes beyond flirting and suggestive dialogue. This time you can choose a female demon for a guardian beast, and she alternates between flirting with you and wanting to kill everything in sight. There is another character named Lynn whose dialogue and attitude makes you think she is losing the battle to control her raging hormones.
I have decided to leave the GamerDad Seal at 10+ because the addition of ﾑuse of alcohol' is innocuous ﾖ this isn't drunken rowdy behavior like in The Bard's Tale, but merely visiting taverns were adult characters drink alcohol. The other issue ﾖ explicit homosexual flirting ﾖ is done in a way that would be considered cute between a boy and girl and isn't therefore implicitly inappropriate for the 10+ age group. But it is something I wanted to bring up because for some parents it is an issue they feel strongly about. Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 |
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