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Summon Night: Twin Age Stateside In May

The Summon Night RPG series has quite a few faces, from the strategy RPG feel of the original games to the Tales-ish action combat of the GBA versions. Get ready to see yet another face as Atlus brings Summon Night Twin Age: Seireitachi no Koe stateside this May. Simply titled Summon Night: Twin Age for its North American release, the DS title feature action RPG combat more akin to the Ys series than anything previously featured in the series, promising a rich story, item crafting, beast conjuring, and the ability to forge relationships with your party members. The story revolves around a young summoner named Reiha and her summon beast friend Aldo, who embark on a quest to discover what mysterious force is corrupting the nature spirits. If you ask me, I blame society. Summon Night: Twin Age is due out May 20th for the Nintendo DS.

ATLUS CONJURES SUMMON NIGHT: TWIN AGE(TM) FOR NINTENDO DS(TM)
Unsheathe Your Stylus and Vanquish the Enemy this May 20th

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 18th, 2008 - Atlus U.S.A., Inc., a top 5 publisher in 2007 for overall game review scores*, today announced Summon Night: Twin Age for Nintendo DS, a fully stylus-driven action RPG set in the popular Summon Night universe. The stylus is your key to the world of Clardona, whether as your swinging sword or your shimmering wall of fire. Summon Night: Twin Age is currently scheduled to bring its precise controls, beautifully animated graphics, and addictive action RPG gameplay to the Nintendo DS on May 20th.

About Summon Night: Twin Age
From a very young age, the human girl Reiha displayed great aptitude for the magical art of Summoning. While still a child, her powers caused a terrible accident during a major Summoning experiment. It was reported that Reiha had died as result, but she survived, along with a young Summon Beast named Aldo that had been pulled into her world...

Following the accident, the two children grew up together as brother and sister on the tropical island of Jarazi, among a race of people with beast-like features. There they learned to commune with the Nature Spirits that surrounded them. One day, the Spirits began acting strangely, prompting Reiha and Aldo to investigate. Their quest to find out who or what is behind the corruption of the Spirits will lead them back to the human lands where the cataclysm first brought them together...

Key Features
- High-precision stylus control - Unleash the power of your Nintendo DS as you wield your stylus to attack foes, heal allies, and use items. Navigate your way around menus and maps with a responsive touch-based interface.
- Packed with gameplay features - Immerse yourself in a lavish gaming experience that lets you do battle, collect items, craft weapons, earn and improve skills, conjure beasts, build relationships with party members, trade items via local wireless, and much more.
- Choose the way you play - With alternate story paths, loads of battle options, side quests, and multiple ending sequences, there is a wide variety of ways to play. Replay the game and challenge yourself with extra dungeons.
- Richly woven tale of adventure - Two playable characters and several widely varying party members provide different views of your journey through the world of Summon Night.

Summon Night: Twin Age has been rated E10+ (Everyone 10 and older) with Mild Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes by the ESRB.

11:20 AM on Tue Mar 18 2008
By Mike Fahey
3,885 views
39 comments

Comments

excel_excel at 11:30 AM on 03/18/08
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I love Atlus so much!
Menolly at 11:33 AM on 03/18/08
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I have a feeling you aren't the only one who feels that way about Atlus, atm. ;-)
Vau at 11:34 AM on 03/18/08
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Excellent! I've been looking for a new RPG to munch on my DS! Gotta find something to tide me over 'til may then....
excel_excel at 11:36 AM on 03/18/08
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@Menolly: except for 360 only owners, who are like "whats an atlus??"
futurebiblehero at 11:39 AM on 03/18/08
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It looks a little like Children of Mana, minus the horrible. I could definitely go for that.
blackadvent at 11:40 AM on 03/18/08
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I loved Summon Night: Swordcraft Story.

Summon Beast: MARRY ME!
You: WTF?!?
Konstrix at 11:40 AM on 03/18/08
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hopefully this comes out on time. looks excellent.
Menolly at 11:42 AM on 03/18/08
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@excel_excel: hehehe, guess it sucks to be them. My bf has EVERY console that's ever been created, it seems.
While I'm an admittedly casual gamer, I have watched him play some AWESOME games. Coming here has me even more excited about a few games that are coming out. I may become a hardcore gamer by the time fall rolls around.
I am a little familiar with Summon Night, and look forward to giving this a go!
zensatori at 11:53 AM on 03/18/08
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Man oh MAN! I am very excited about this. I'll have to get a pre-order in this weekend. I am a little sad that the combat is not the same as the GBA games since I loved them. Still, deep story and great sprites sounds good to me.
I though I was going to have to import.
goliathvv at 11:56 AM on 03/18/08
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Society, I'm sure...
elementary at 12:09 PM on 03/18/08
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I have never heard of this game or series. I watched the video, I read the article, and in May I will buy this game.
Madeira at 12:13 PM on 03/18/08
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@excel_excel: Kotaku readers who own a 360 most likely have other systems and know who Atlus is. Besides, they're publishing on the 360 so there goes your point anyway, jackass. 'whats an atlus'... gtfo
CockroachMan at 12:20 PM on 03/18/08
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Looks good.. but what's wrong with the music on that video!?
Akari-Ryo at 12:20 PM on 03/18/08
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Wait wait wait!...

I'm not saying that I'm not looking forward to this game because I seriously am (been playing the import copy for ages), but why are they giving us this game when we haven't seen Summon Night Swordcraft Story 3 here in the states? 3 was undoubtedly the best game in the swordcraft story series!

Oh well, can't wait to play this game! COME ON MAY!
SpishackCola at 12:35 PM on 03/18/08
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Atlus, I love this company so damn much. Outside of Nintendo (and maybe Blizzard) I'm sure the biggest percentage of games I own are from this publisher.
LunarTakiro at 12:41 PM on 03/18/08
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LIke....Ys!?

*explodes*
TomSkylark at 12:49 PM on 03/18/08
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Atlus is the one company that I will never feel bad about loving. Seriously, how many of my comments over the past two months (weeks, even!) have been about how great they are? Answer: Not enough. Subscribing to Atlus Faithful is like having joy pop up in my gmail inbox about once a week.
jayntampa at 12:51 PM on 03/18/08
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Connectedness Index: 385

Atlus is, indeed, amazing ... I love the Summon Night series -- one of the few GBA games I'll never get rid of.
jayntampa at 12:51 PM on 03/18/08
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Connectedness Index: 385

@excel_excel: Atlus has games coming out for the 360! Yay!
evening-aura at 01:03 PM on 03/18/08
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@TomSkylark: I didn't realize Atlus had an email newsletter. As soon as I saw your post I went to their site and joined.
I always get a warm fuzzy feeling when Atlus is mentioned :)
Dyslexic_Alucard at 01:41 PM on 03/18/08
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This is great news! I imported this from play asia a long awhile ago. Granted it didn't last very long, but while it did the game was pretty fun. The Diablo-esque gameplay is played exclusively with the stylus, which was handled surprisingly well. You can switch between the two main characters at any time, with a third NPC in the party that you can give general orders to (there are a handful of characters to choose from for that). IMO, the best part of the game would be the skill/spell activation, in which you can apply via different ways and patterns with the stylus (for example, the melee character can unleash this wicked slash combo by tapping on one enemy after another). All in all, for a game that hasn't gotten much attention over here in the US for no reason, this is a very good game that warrants more coverage before its release.
Morphine16 at 02:00 PM on 03/18/08
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This game looks pretty good. Now Atlus get back to work on some RPGs for PS3, like Persona 4
Neonlare at 02:19 PM on 03/18/08
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Aldo is an anogram of Adol, the main character in the Ys series. Deliberate? Hum, hum...
Trowble (XBL/PSN) at 02:25 PM on 03/18/08
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The battle system and in-game art style reminds me more of the first Secret of Mana for SNES rather than Ys. Definitely a good thing. Now I'm just trying to figure out why the main character looks like a boy.
AdmiralNelson at 02:27 PM on 03/18/08
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Holy generic anime-derived character designs. Which is really the only flaw in Atlus' releases.
Zhemos at 02:34 PM on 03/18/08
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Awesome.

I got an email from Atlus announcing this game. And apparently next week they're gonna announce a new title. Hopefully It'll be Luminous Arc 2 or something about Persona 4 and how they're already translating it! Maybe! Hopefully! C'mon Persona 4!!!!
Onizuka-GTO at 02:57 PM on 03/18/08
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@excel_excel: Me too!

I love <3 Atlus!!! yay!
yanipheonu at 03:05 PM on 03/18/08
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"Richly-woven story?!" Psh, I have mold growing on bread which had more enthralling stories. Combat's alright though...
Pyro Jack at 03:35 PM on 03/18/08
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I like the summon night games, but I don't know if I like the sound of "fully stylus-driven". I guess I'll have to wait and see if it all works out.
SDreamer at 03:38 PM on 03/18/08
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Yessssssss... I'm finishing up the 2nd one on the GBA right now, can' wait for this. Wish they'd bring the 3rd one over stateside. Good thing these series aren't really tied together or I'd go balistic.
RedHotFunk at 03:40 PM on 03/18/08
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Haven't played many good RPGS on the ds lately, perhaps this will change that fact? Atlus, yum
Furious_Liver at 04:20 PM on 03/18/08
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@blackadvent: That depends which beast you have. ;)

I was very excited when I read a new Summon Night game was released, but I felt a little confusion after watching the video. Then again, I've only played the GBA versions.

But yeah...that doesn't look like the Summon Night I remember! D:
quen at 04:38 PM on 03/18/08
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@AdmiralNelson: Not startlingly original, sure, but the character designs are at least fairly decent (just based on the picture up top).

Suggesting that something's 'anime-derived' is basically step one in the requirement for good character design, IMO... (Western RPG art tends to look like shit. Oblivion's landscapes are beautiful, but its characters... I like the concept art for Fable but let's see whether it makes it through into the actual game.)

Anyway I look forward to seeing reviews for this game, not sure whether to get it or not at this point.
Lyner at 05:34 PM on 03/18/08
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Summon Night! Yay! I actually like these games, with the exception of grinding for materials, that is. :-/
Hyperfludd at 06:18 PM on 03/18/08
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BOUGHT.
DranzerKire at 07:05 PM on 03/18/08
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Sad to see the combat has been changed from what the GBA versions had, I really liked that. Hopefully this is still good.
Ansaga at 09:03 PM on 03/18/08
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... I was playing the Japanese version on my friend's DS and I told him it was really good and I bet it would come out in America. He told me no way. Got to rub this in his face :P
tiltnkirby at 10:30 PM on 03/18/08
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I was playing the little flash game of it on the jp site not too long ago, it seemed pretty cool.

However, I don't know if I'll pre-order this one, the scar from Summon night: SCS2's last dungeon still stings.
pigz0011 at 08:45 AM on 03/19/08
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news but . . . .

This game borders on unplayable. Graphics? Nice. Music? Classic RPG fare, yet enjoyable. Compelling? Actually, yeah, it kind of is. Gameplay? WRETCHED!! The stylus control is truly horrible. I never return my games and this one didn't stay on my shelf more than a week. I really wanted to like it but in the end . . . ok I guess it was unplayable after all. And I liked the GBA games. And I'm a strong Atlus supporter as well, however everyone slips up sometimes. This one is a pass.