Summon Night Sword Craft proves to be a compelling Game Boy adavnace role-playing game, despite the fact that it follows many of the mainstay convemntions of role-playing games coming out of Japan for this system. Summon Night Sword Craft Story is the first of two Game Boy Advance titles in the series coming out of Japan, and offers players a lot of role-playing in a tiny package. If you enjoy gathering resources to craft weapons, summoning your own "" (based on questions you answer) or choosing from two different charcters (both offering their own plot paths), and constant random battles, the Summon Night is for you. Let's get into the thick of it.

The Summon Night titles are developed by Flight Plan and published by Ban Presto in Japan. Atlus has has once again brought a solid role-playing brand to America, something we would have bitched and moaned about happening ten years ago. In this first Game Boy Advance title in the series, players take on the role of one of two Craftknights in the service of a master swordsmith, who teaches them the art of being a Craftlord. While the game opens in the early throws of this service, things quickly pick up and our heroes find themselves vying for the prestigous position of being one of the next of Wystern's seven Craftlords. To do this they'll have to be the best of the best in a tournament that begins with enterting a vast labyrinth beneath the sacred city's tower. But the sad truth is they'll begin unarmed, first having to retrieve the material neccesary to create a weapon suitable enough for battle. This kicks off the opening salvo in this game filled with random battles up the wazoo, weapon crafting and a special little friend called a Guardian Beast that will offer you all kinds of support buffs offensive attacks and more.

while crafting weapons is a must in this game, the real meat and potatoes of the game is combat - and lots of it. You'll encounter a lot of battles as you walk through the myriad of different levels as you go, because the game uses a random encounter system. This isn't anything new to old school RPG fans that grew up playing games like Final Fantasy Dragon Quest, etc. Summon Night really does come off as feeling old school in every way - from the aesthetics and level design, to the character art and storylines. It's a light role-playing game experience with a very simple character building system that works pretty well.

Combat is pretty straightforward in Summon Night: encounters are random, and when they happen, the view is quickly shifted to a simple 2D side scrolling combat screen. From there players can use their Guardian Beast's magical powers and weapons they have equipped. The combat is a button mashing frenzy and each weapon has a certain number of button clicks to for a combo. You'll run into all kinds of encounters along the way, which will in turn earn you lots of cash and experience that you can use to buy supplies and other important resources. You'll also collect a raw material to use in crafting weapons, so collecting all kinds of junk is perfect for filling in any material deficiencies you might have.

Players can have a maximum of three weapons equipped at any time along with one defensive or support item. The player can cycle through these at will by clicking the right shoulder button on the GBA, and can also cycle through whatever support items or magic is equipped as well. Attacks are used by pressing the A button rapidly to do combos, while support spells are used by pressing the B button and calling forth your Guardian Beast to do a selected spell (or consume an item you have equipped). There's also one slot for an equipable support item that enhances your stats like a pendant or a ring.

The basic functions of combat include attacks and support spells, the ability to block (if you aren't currently utilizing a support spell), and the ability to jump. Movement during combat is confined to left, right and up. The combat is a lot of fun but gamers that don't want to fight every five seconds will find there are items available to halt encounters completely - for a limited time. Since I'm a fan of the old school combat flavor found in this and thousands of other games, I didn't have a problem with all of the randomness, but obviously some players might find it jarring or agitating.

As we mentioned earlier, in Summon Night players get the chance to choose their beast based on a handful of questions they answer near the beginning of the game. There's a chance to get one of four different beasts with vastly different bonuses. Add to that mix the two playable characters and that means that you can hypothetically play through 8 different storylines. While the storylines don't fluctuate too dramatically by your choices, the variety is there for you to enjoy.

The whole point of all this dungeon dwelling is to find exotic ( and yes, common) forging materials to create hundreds of different weapons. There are six weapon types you can forge in Summon night, and all of them offer vastly different attacks. These include Swords, Axes, Spears, Knuckles, Hammers and Drills. But the game doesn't just let you forge whatever you want whenever you want - first you'll have to find a technique that lets you create a new weapon and then you'll need to gather the necessary resources to do accomplish the task. Techniques are blueprints of sorts that are handed out by your master, given by other NPCs and occasionally found in the dungeons you'll traverse.

In the end Summon Night is a very solid Game Boy Advance role-playing game that delivers countless hours of dungeon dwelling, real-time monster bashing, weapon crafting fun. The backstory is light, the characters are sometimes charming (and sometimes goofy) and the world is everything you'd expect to find in a Japanese RPG. Go out and buy it if this sounds like your cup of tea.