Summon Night: Swordcraft Story for Game Boy Adv Reviews by Gamers

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Anytime somebody shows the GBA a little love, I'm happy. The latest effort to keep the system alive is a little RPG called Summon Night: Swordcraft Story. You'll play as a boy or a girl, depending on who you choose from the outset (it doesn't change the story apart from some minor dialogue differences). Your character is a "craftknight," a sort of fighter who also makes their own weapons. During the course of the game, you'll explore one gigantic labyrinthine dungeon to collect materials to forge your weapons, and then use the weapons to participate in tournaments to become a "craftlord" like your father. You'll also be paired with one of four "Guardian Beasts," which is decided by a series of questions at the beginning of the game. Yeah, the story's no Pulitzer winner, but it's good enough to keep you interested. That's a success in my book.
The combat is much like a dumbed down, but faster paced, Tales-esque interface. There are no additional AI controlled party members and no pop-up menus. You equip four support actions, either spells or items, and you can also have up to three weapons (Swords, axes, spears, drills, or knuckles) equipped that can be cycled mid-combat. Battles are usually over in seconds, which is good, because random battles happen way too frequently. Tournament battles, on the other hand, are a blast. Too bad there's only a handfull.
There are a couple of other short dungeons in the game, but the bulk of your time will be spent in the horribly drab fifty level Labyrinth. The floor designs are so boring; if I didn't know better, I'd swear they were randomly generated. There are no puzzles, and only a couple of bosses. Also, It's a shame that the supposed main draw, weapon crafting, is so simple. There's just four types of materials that are broken down from items, and then it's as simple as having enough to forge the next weapon. If you have the right item, you can also choose to infuse it with a random element.

I tried the game. At first it looked like a really good RPG. But once you lose the first match GAME OVER and you have to start all over again. Whats with that?! And you can only save when you leave the game, but when you come back it auto deletes the save :-(. If you are a really really hard core RPG fan rent it, if not don't even look at.