Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 (サモンナイト クラフトソード物語2) review?

Recently, I've been playing this game seriously; after finishing the first game, I was quite curious to see what kind of things Banpresto had in store for the other games. As the easiest to get was Swordcraft Story 2 (pre-remake, indeed, that means it's the one for GBA), I decided to try my hands on it.

Unfortunately, I got more than what I had hoped; a lot of moe ikemens and major heartaches, amongst everything else.

...major heartaches.

*By the way, spoilers under the cut as usual!

Basically, in this game, just like the first one, we got to chose which gender we want to play as. Aera Colthearts (the female one) is most likely the main character though, considering the box art:

Playing as Edgar doesn't really change much of the plot, though. The dialogues may differ, but it doesn't change the main story.

Like the first game, we can choose between four guardian beasts! However, in this one, it's free for all, meaning we don't have to answer questions/interrogation/personality tests (chokes) or what have you; just pick whatever suits you most.

There's Arno (the green one--he has a very endearing character! A bit heta, but yeah), and then Loki (the oni from Silturn [most headcanons are that he is Pratty {the fem!Protag of the first game} and Rasho {the oni king guardian beast from the first game}'s kid. I like that heacanon actually, even though I love Varil and Sakuro as much]), EX-e-LD (robot automaton guy from Loreilal), and Dinah (half angel/half demon, sleazy-clothed (´･ω･`；) girl, from Sapureth).

On my first (failed playthrough), I chose Arno. He made me squeal alot, I definitely want Arno as my idiot little brother. I was about three steps away from finishing the game when my save file corrupts, so I had to restart again ( ´_ゝ｀).

I guess that wasn't really a bad thing, since I could try out Loki. He's a p fine guy, arrogant and bratty, but kind of cute, too.

Anyway, Swordcraft is an RPG-slash-dating sim hybrid, with dating sim as the secondary element. I played as Aera, so most of the things here will be in Aera's perspective.

Basically in this game we're jumpin' in to the cliches; our protag is an Edge Fencer (people with ~*special powers*~) people who've been guarding Goura's seal since long ago. It is later revealed that the Edge Fencers are the descendants of one of the people who summoned Goura (apparently the strongest, most evil summon creature), but then had a bit of Goura's spirit fused into him due to a summoning accident.

Basically Aera's mission is to seal up Goura back (because apparently someone had to be an ass and destroyed the seal) we need to find the Daemon Edge, later revealed to be four swords, which was hidden by Aera's father, Graham.

Let's head on to moe love interests characters first.

First you have Orin, your under-one-roof osananajimi who's obsessed with anything machinery (he plays a huge role during the sudden gundam sequence). Since you're an orphan, you've been taken in by your master/teacher slash your father's good friend, Blaire, and you've since lived with him, Orin and Tatiana, Blaire's kids (his wife dies during Guren's attack).

Orin's weapon is a drill (figures) and we get to fight him twice!

So Orin is similar with your staple teasing oniitan and he's a very nice man!!  He often teases Aera and tell stories about the past, especially Aera's embarrassing moments. He cares deeply for both Aera and Tatiana, but he's also had hints that he loved Aera (of course, this is a reverse harem game). Aera tends to try and get him back for his teasing, but she always lost in the end ＼( ^o^)／

Basically in the dating event, he invited Aera to go to the pond(?) where you could go fishing and asks Aera if she wants to go swimming with

gundam (ahem, GUNVALD) because why not?

him to clear up her mind  (/▽*＼)～♪ ｲﾔｧﾝ he then proceeds to tell you a tale about when he, Tatiana and Aera were young and stuff, and then the event ends as Aera said "Well? Shall we go and swim?" with Orin blushing and spluttering "W-what are you saying now?!" the hell Orin, you were the one who invited Aera! (；´∀｀) 

And then there is Ryouga, your cheeky but-of-course-love-you tsundere osananajimi who's a huge moe. He's basically a blob of cute. Loki calls him a girly-haired jackass and he lashed out in rage, ofc. Aera came into his rescue by cooling down the situation and Ryouga is like head over heels for Aera that everything he does is basically for Aera.

Loki, that's not how you handle people.

The story starts with Aera losing against Ryouga in a fight (although we didn't get to see the fight) and had to take him to some ruins that seals Goura who was sealed there by the Edge Fencers before Aera's generation.

Because Swordcraft Story 2 is full of cliches, of course we gotta have him be a half-hearted antagonist who basically screams "I STILL LOVE YOU BUT I NEED TO DO THIS DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND" in all of his dialogues ／(^o^)＼ﾅﾝﾃｺｯﾀｲ.

Ryouga baby

He's a summon creature too basically (like Loki, Arno, etcetera), but ofc 'cuz he's cool he's been able to join the society like a normal human along with his sister, whose name is Lynn.

Apparently Ryouga wants to revive Goura (obviously that means he's on the 'bad guy' team) and so he cut off his ties with Aera, but ofc he still loves her 'caz when we meet him he always says Aera's name as if he was longing for her. He made me go ﾟ+o｡ﾄﾞｷｭ―(*ﾟωﾟ*)―ﾝ｡o+ﾟ but then CAN U NOT GIVE ME HEARTACHES because damn this kid is like a jar of angst.

Ryouga's sister is a very beautiful, kind, sexy yet manipulative oneesan whom Ryouga doesn't stand a chance against. Apparently, Lynn hits on the protag, whether it be female or male and always tries to kiss him/her //sekuhara much??

She's also a good housewife. She usually takes care of Sick!Blaire when we had to go do our rad job getting those Daemon Edges to re-seal Goura (whose seal was almost broken by Ryouga).

And next in line we have Gabriel, a stray summon (summon creature who doesn't have a master) from Maetropa who was a hybrid wolf-human who's very dere towards Aera. Later he was revealed to be that one mysterious knight you always run into in the game and had to beat three times. He also beats the highest losing record, as he lost five fights all-in-all.

Gabriel is a dream man, guys. Obviously a husband material. So he's always with his mecha plane friend Xeride and they are almost always seen together. He wants to get back to Maetropa and that's why he helped Ryouga as that one mysterious knight.

When he lost the third time against Aera, his identity was revealed and he just ran away like the wind after saying stuff like "how could you still fight for the village people... Nina... Xeride... and me, even after you were betrayed by the villagers?!". Apparently he felt so ashamed about what he'd done that he wants to go somewhere far away where he wouldn't be able to hurt people.

Gabriel, not even Lynn had ever said that.

 In an event, of course Aera'd be like "NONONO please I need you ｳﾜｧｧ━━━━━｡ﾟ(ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡━━━━━ﾝ!!" and further angst 'caz Aera's scared of her own powers (she thought she killed Ryouga) and she said stuff like 'I thought so, my power only brings sorrow'. When Gabriel heard this, he quickly said that he was the one who was so egoistic that he ran away from Aera and his problems.

He's so dere that he's probably the only one who explicitly said that he'd 'protect Aera forever' and that he ;wouldn't ever leave her' cause he doesn't want to run away anymore (ﾉ´∀｀*)ﾉ. Dear God, Gabriel you don't propose to Aera before the osananajimi could do anything.

Yeah basically those are probably the only guy routes you could get, and all of them are sweet and some bitter that I had to save before the daily night walks (in which we could choose who we wants to go with) to get all of the events.

And then we have this chick who's in love with Ryouga (she's also his underling), so much that when Ryouga supposedly 'dies', she fused more with Nina Nina's body.

Yeah, she's actually a summon creature who's got no actual body so she stole Nina Nina's when the latter fell asleep in the woods. When we first met her, she's gonna lie to Aera that she's Ryouga's gf but ofc she's not cuz Ryouga got dokis for Aera. Her character is basically that bitchy rival next door character but she actually has ~*real*~ feelings for Ryouga cuz when Ryouga's momentarily gone she's like angry and attacked Aera's party and all that jizz.

And then we have Nina Nina, the REAL owner of Passeau's body. She's a moe gurl and she likes to brag about herself apparently but in a way that makes you think "Uh... yeah, and?"

instead of "U JERK".

She thanks the protag a lot cuz in the end (with the help of Master Onmyouji Toumei) she got her body back.

Nina lives in the underground dungeon along with Borgrim. She's actually an apprentice summoner from the Cerulean Society, a group that researches summon creatures and those stuff, who has to get something for her master but then she got lost and ultimately ends up on the forest near Cliff Village. What a dork <3

So yeah Nina's basically something like a ghost before we get her body back and she could fly past dirt and walls and stuff yeah.

So the RPG aspect of this game is the usual dungeon exploring and the sidescrolling, realtime battle. You could put in 4 spells/items in your tab and use it in battle, though the limit of using magic/spells only six times in each battle kinda kills it.

Since the glorious game's name is Swordcraft, of course we gotta craft our own stuff. Just as Blaire said, using other people's weapon is like wearing their panties! Yuck.

Unlike the first game, to make weapons now you need a 'Shapestone'. Likewise, there are sword, axe, spear, fist, and drill shapestones that you could get via fishing or in dungeon treasure chests. It's pretty frustrating if you don't want to fish for 530 points--especially since Toumei (an onmyouji--seems like he's stuck in the wrong game) asks for two swords later on to exorcise evil spirits in Nina's body and Borgrim if you want to continue the story.

Yes, you can't use the swords anymore if it had a spell casted over it.

In this game, you can create, disassemble, upgrade and repair weapons. If you upgrade with the rigth materials, your weapon could get special effects or special attacks. Disassemble means that you disassemble your current weapon and get the shapestone back. Don't forget, the earlier material except the shapestone cannot be retrieved.

Repair weapons when their DUR is 0 or close to 0; other alternatives are Rubstones, Whetstones, and Grindstones, which adds 30, 90, and 180 DUR respectively (cannot repair broken weapons, though).

Also, when fighting with Bosses who has DUR (human characters), you should try to get DUR-kill instead of HP-kill since you could get rad materials. To get easy DUR-kill, try to upgrade your weapon three times (you need high swordcrafting rank for this) with Hard Shell. The informant in Fire Fortress will tell you that and give hardshells for you for 1800 boam later on, if you visit him.

For each adventure, I recommend you bringing at least 15 heartleaf potion (if you're high leveled enough) since you can't use Heal infinitely. Also, 5 Anywhere Diary is good to have, since you're gonna meet up with bosses in some places that doesn't have save stones.

This is a pretty light and easy to understand game, with very unique cast. Flip side is that because the game's universe is pretty small, you had to go around the same areas for more than three times. But this game is a nice pass time, so I definitely recommend it, if not for the laughs and pretty art.

I bet my bias towards this game is as clear as hell right now.

Anyway, picture treat for you all just because.

Here we have Blaire, the stepfather of the protag.

And then there's Tatiana, Orin's imouto who's almost always v uzai and she likes to cook horrendous stuff

Magna is the PS2 male!protag and down there are the PS2 kids cameos in SN:SS2.

dis megane

what a cute

this is Magna's summon creature in SN:SS2

THIS FREAKING MERMAID AND THAT GUY BELOW IS A FREAKING BAKAPPURU AND

BASICALLY OUR ADVENTURE GOT LENGTHENED JUST 'CAUSE OF THEM GDI

There's ninjaboy Kuuya who got cursed along with Kohina, his sister. He's a siscon ofc.

what a loud mouthed sister. She accused Aera of being a peeping tom/voyeur and we got to fight this mendokusai onna and her bro up there gdi. GET DUR KILL. Their DUR is VERY low and it's easier than trying to get HP-kill.

and we have the master onmyouji toumei who almost destroyed Goura's seal 'cause he's very strong and he forgot to take care of his powers! Toumei is a huge moe-uzai.

and here we have Gedharm Camcarossa the only REAL antagonist in the series. He's weak as hell and Ryouga apparently trashed him. He was Ryouga's underling/partner/what have you before his spirit got taken over by Goura.