Summoners War - The Must-have Mobile RPG

Mobile games have spawned aplenty over the past several years ever since Android and iPhones entered mass-market around 2008. Since then, games have evolved from Bejeweled-tier and Y8-esque pastimes, to full-blown magnificent social experiences for every genre imaginable.

Mobile games have spawned aplenty over the past several years ever since Android and iPhones entered mass-market around 2008. Since then, games have evolved from Bejeweled-tier and Y8-esque pastimes, to full-blown magnificent social experiences for every genre imaginable.

As time passed and entered into the 2010s, the best of the best of every genre is one-by-one decided upon by the millions of casual and hardcore players catered to these experiences. Citing examples, being Clash of Clans as a natural evolution to the dying Base-building RTS Genre, Vainglory serving the MOBA community on mobile platforms, and recently Hearthstone and Clash Royale duking it out on the Mobile TCG battlefield. 

To get to the point, Summoners War has been for two years, THE top-of-mind for the congested Mobile RPG Genre. 

I'm sure if you're browsing thru mobile games on your App Store or the Google Play Store, you've seen it time and again. It has always been on the Recommended Apps section for video games, and with 50 Million downloads strong, it's no slouch on what it promises to deliver.

Gotta Summon Em All!

Summoners War is a Turn-Based RPG which players of the old Final Fantasy games will be very familiar with. It also has a mix of Pokemon into it as you collect various mythical beasts and warriors (and scantily-clad chicks, which is pretty much industry standard). 

The goal is to train them, evolve them by fusing other monsters into them, and making them stronger thru adding various runes.

This isn't gonna be an easy task, as you have so many monsters spanning 5 elements (Water, Wind, Fire, Light and Dark) totaling over 900 different monsters!

Wizardry of Summoners War

This game is mechanically and aesthetically pleasing. The chibi art-style of the sprites helps reminisce ye olde days of Secret of Mana in full 3D. The environment is also rendered in 3D. To give you a better idea on how good this game looks, it looks like a smooth PS2 game. Not to mention it runs nicely too. It runs at 60 FPS most of the time, and it does so even on older and cheaper Android Smartphones and 4th generation iPhones. Most games don't allow that luxury anymore.

That beauty is complemented well with a warm helping of standard RPG fare that works wonders. Plenty of game modes allow for you to deploy 3, 4 or 5 units at a time. Your enemies can either be as small as 2 monsters, or a huge mob of 10 at a time, depending on the dungeon. The turn system is a modified version of the Active Time Battle, also getting inspiration from SNES RPG fanfare. Basically, you have a blue meter below your health bar and whoever gets that bar filled first gets to act. The bar fills over time and fills faster if your character has better speed stats. Also adding to the fine layer of the battle system is that your enemies have the blue bar as well, so you'll know when they will attack, allowing you to strategize a little more on the encounter.

Adding another layer of strategy is the elemental rock-paper-scissors that is trending as of late. A monster can belong to one of 5 elements, Water, Fire, Wind, Dark and Light. Water monsters deals stronger damage to Fire monsters, Fire beats Wind and Wind monsters beat water monsters to complete the circle of weakness and resistance.  Light and Dark monsters deal increased damage to the opposite element. Fire Emblem veterans should be familiar with this setup!

Summoners War has single player and online multiplayer, which are quintessential nowadays.

Single player puts you in the boots of a summoner and allows you to have your own little town that will help you make the game easier as it offers defenses, mines that provide you with in-game currency and much more! You need to be online to get playing by the way, so yes, it's one of those Always-Online games.

Friends With Benefits

Multiplayer though is the meat of the whole block. You can add friends and they can add you back. This is actually significant in playing the various battles in the game. Adding a friend allows you to use one of their “ace” monsters, on one battle each day. If you have a very strong friend, you can use that to your advantage by bringing in a super rare monster to fight for you. Arena battles allow you to fight other player's designated party. A ranking system allows you to earn points and compare you to other players all over the worlds. Guild battles are also in this. Earn guild points and spend it on various rewards.

The Hardcore on Casual

Summoners War, like all mobile games out in the virtual market, offers a forced tutorial to get you a leg up, but unlike most other games, the difficulty spikes up rather quickly, and forces you to grasp on all the information that you will need to get ahead and to see what you should prioritize between getting a stronger monster, leveling up your current ones, and awakening these monsters to their full potential.

Regarding monster summoning among other things, the game isn't a very kind soul. The drops aren't very good, the experience given to your monster isn't huge at all. You might think that's a-ok, but the game does have an energy system, in which you won't be able to participate in any kind of battle for the day if you run out of that. You will feel the Korean spirit of grinding here. Working hard rewards you, but don't expect to be paid immediately,  which can be a selling point or a quitting point for casual and rpg nerds alike.

The Not-So Magical Side




Though I've talked about the game as mystical compared to other mobile trite out there, Summoners War is not without its flaws.

The game has a story mode. I don't want to delve with that cause it's not good. It's generic, it's boring, and filled with unlikable characters. Play the game and you'll see what I mean early on.

The musical score and sound effects leave much to be desired. It just felt like it was just downloaded off royalty-free music sites and slapped it on whatever feels slightly appropriate for the battle or area.

The chibi and simplistic graphics can be a plus, but it may turn off people expecting far better looks off their smartphone games, which we have been spoiled by Western developers as of late (looks at Gameloft)

Pay-to-win is a problem, especially since the game is grindy as I've warned you. The packages don't look like good deals at all! Whether you pay for summoning scrolls or not, the chances that you get a good monster is very slim. Only positive here is that the packages and offers aren't too in-your-face like Mobile Strike.

Simplicity is Beauty

It sounds like your average turn-based game from where you read this from, but the way Summoners War is separated from the thousands of other games out there is that it is indeed, SIMPLY DONE RIGHT.

From the Silky-smooth 60 frames per second presentation, wide array of monsters to summon, a plethora of multiplayer options, serviceable 3D aesthetic from a 2014 mobile game that runs on ancient smartphones without fail, easily-accessible user interface, and a pretty challenging difficulty, Summoners War does everything basic seamlessly.

I have tried so many mobile games, but they all excel heavily in one thing but fall flat in so many areas. This one does all the basics excellently. Depends on what type of consumer you are, you will enjoy a feature more than others. For me, I enjoy the collecting aspect and the pokemon-like bond I get from spending tons of time leveling them. I've been playing this for 6 months, so that attests the replay potential of the game.

Com2us has been known to make lots of mobile games even before Summoners War was released, but it's definitely one of their flagship titles, and it's not hard to see why.

With all things said, Summoners War is THE RPG to play on your mobile device. It just does so many things right despite the glaring flaws the game (and the mobile genre itself) presents. Millions of people have summoned this on their phone, and it's your turn to cast.