I’ve learned the hard way that the best relationships don’t always start off on the right foot. Take my time with Summon Night for example. She was decently attractive, but nothing to secretly ogle from the corner of your eye. She was also childishly naïve at times, and a little innocent for my taste. If one thing had the power to seal the breakup, it was the conversation.

She rambled into the night about the origins of the orphaned duo, Reiha and Aldo. Reiha was a girl with extraordinary magical aptitude, and Aldo was the humanoid Summon Beast she brought into existence during a government experiment seven years earlier. The makeshift siblings were secretly left in the hands of humanity’s bitter rivals – the spiritual beast-like Kascuza. Now, the spirits of the world are being corrupted and, as these stories go, Aldo, Reiha, and their Kascuza friends must travel to the human lands to solve the problem.

Nearly two hours later, I had barely squeezed a word into the conversation, let alone make a move of my own. I was sure the relationship was doomed for failure, but I hung in there and I’m happy to say that every date since has been better than the last. Summon Night is an adventurous girl full of surprises. It simply takes time to know her.

The game had all the makings of a traditional JRPG – orphaned heroes with the world on their shoulders, a linear journey filled with swords and sorcery, and a cast of premade friends to collect along the way. The only thing missing was a dose of amnesia. If not for the combat system, it would have fallen to the wayside of predictability. Action/RPGs tend to neglect one side or the other with either lackluster combat or a throwaway story, but Summon Night blends the two into a powerful mixture that gets stronger as you near the bottom.

You choose to play as the melee-heavy Aldo or the magical Reiha, but this only determines the perspective of the story. All combat is real-time and switching between the two characters is seamless, if not wholly unnecessary at the outset. The rare battles during the initial hours felt like tutorial nonsense. The first ‘boss’ fell with a single swipe of my blade, and the second only fared marginally better (though I do give extra credit for games with giant squids as bosses). When the third one arrived, the learning curve shifted to a roof-shattering vertical line. It was like teaching a kid how to punch and tossing him in the ring with Floyd Mayweather.

Carelessly wading solo into a pack of monsters only works in the early stages. This is a game of teamwork. If Aldo’s getting pounded, it’s up to Reiha to put the baddies to sleep or toss out some heals. When the monsters turn to the fragile Reiha, Aldo better swing with all his might. Since the fights are real-time with overwhelming odds, you will learn to act fast, strategize on the run, and memorize your character’s Command Palettes. The palettes are your loadouts of skills and items, and choosing the correct ammunition is a key to survival.

As the siblings rise in experience, they gain points to spend on new skills. Some are passive, like elemental resistances, while most are special attacks and magical abilities. Everything is set on skill-trees with prerequisites for prior skills, levels, and in Aldo’s case, what type of weapon he is using. There are over 30 skills per character and I never found a useless one among the lot. Since you can’t buy them all, the possibilities for customization are staggering to say the least, and we haven’t even gone shopping yet.

The shops are more than places to pick up supplies for the road. By fulfilling your crate-smashing duties as an RPG hero, you will scavenge the raw materials needed to craft armor, weapons, and stat-enhancing jewelry. You can buy them as well, but there’s no sense in paying for what you can make. As if that weren’t enough, you can imbue weapons with special powers via scrolls, and create flasks that conjure beasts to aid you in battle. They aren’t the most useful creatures, but you can’t argue with free help.

At the risk of sounding like a game show host—that’s not all. You often get to choose which one of the six side-characters will round out your trio. Although they are computer-controlled with individual traits, like Nassau’s tendency to charge ahead in battle, I wanted more insight into their abilities. It was fun having independent teammates for a change, but it would have benefited me to know exactly what they were capable of doing Just what was Ticah casting on me every few minutes?