The combat can get pretty intense at times, but it generally requires little more than button mashing and maybe a special attack here and there. The enemies get a lot tougher over the course of the game, and some may require you to rely just on your magic or just on your weapons, but that's about as complex as it gets. All the foes you'll face act simply but effectively, either running up and hacking at you or hanging back and firing away with ranged weapons or magic. It gets to be predictable. If Summoner were purely an action game, it wouldn't have been very good. Fortunately, it's not purely an action game. As you defeat foes and complete quests, your characters will gain experience levels and skill points to spend on various abilities. There's a great variety of different abilities available to each character, and while you'll find that some of them are pretty useless, you'll still like being able to customize your characters as you go along. In particular, Maia gains an unusual ability to transform into a wide variety of ghastly creatures, and you'll likely enjoy seeing the young queen change into these hulking monstrosities to gain the upper hand in a pinch.
You'll get to visit some unusual locations later in your journey.
Maia's quest sends her to many different kinds of places. Some of the best of them are the ones that don't involve fighting, but rather focus on talking to some of the locals and investigating certain mysteries. Actually, some of the best points in the game are when Maia gets to stop at her castle in between her various excursions. Here she'll be able to engage in some queenly duties, such as listening to petitioners ask for the aid of the royal court. You'll get to make some tough choices in your role as the nation's ruler, and you may later reap the benefits of your calculated decisions. Those used to RPGs that are purely linear will more than likely be caught off guard--and be particularly impressed--by these bits. Notably, Summoner lets you save your progress just about anywhere (just don't forget to do so every now and then), so it can be fun to save at certain junctures to try out all the different options available.
As noted, the graphics aren't Summoner's strongest point. The game generally runs more smoothly than on the PS2, but the frame rate still bogs down when the action heats up and even sometimes freezes outright for a split second. And though many of the characters themselves are interesting, the 3D character models used to portray them tend to be simple. Maia's character model as well as that of her fatherlike guardian, Taurgis, have both been redone for the GameCube, but the improvements aren't dramatic. The game's various environments are often poorly lit and range from looking pretty generic to occasionally looking rather impressive. Once in a while, the graphics shine, such as during some of the in-engine cutscenes, which are animated much better and feature more detailed character models than the actual gameplay. But overall, Summoner's visuals are probably its weakest trait.
You'll also join forces with some memorable companions.
For better or worse, the game's audio is less consistent than its graphics. Summoner uses lots of canned, generic sound effects that you've more than likely heard before in other games. The musical accompaniment usually consists of ambient tribal beats that are serviceable but forgettable, and during the game's occasional prerendered cutscenes, all the sound is muddled. On the other hand, the game's voice acting is uniformly great, and virtually all the game's speaking characters deliver strong performances. Not all the dialogue in Summoner is spoken aloud, but a lot of it is, and it's often through this well-written, well-acted dialogue that the game becomes so appealing.
Summoner offers a lengthy quest with a good deal of optional stuff to do along the way. Though the combat isn't great, the fact that you can often choose whom to bring to the fray and how to develop each individual character makes Summoner feel open-ended without compromising the game's emphasis on storytelling. This adds up to an all-around good game, one with an engaging story and an original mix of action and role-playing elements.
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