Monster collection and combat are the name of the game in Monster Kingdom Jewel Summoner, due out in February.
Players enter a world which formerly saw humans and monsters coexisting peacefully. Because catastrophe is great for an RPG story, one happened here. This caused the moneters to vanish, leaving behind jewels which held their essences and could be used by those with special skills to summon them. This comes in handy when the bad monsters, called "Abominations" show up. Taking a page from the Pokemans playbook, humans will summon one monster from its jewel to battle another. (Yes, part of that sentence was just an excuse to say "Pokemans.")
Main character Vice is on a hunt for an Abomination that killed is mom. He can summon monsters, but he's received no formal training, which astounds folks at the summoning academy. After some story and character introduction, players really get into the capturing and battling aspects of Jewel Summoner.
This is where the game gets pretty fun. When one of the turn-based fights start, each party member will automatically summon his/her top monster, as determined by the player when arranging each's equipped jewels. Players can switch different monsters in and out of battle on a given character's turn, and when an opposing monster gets weak enough, there's a chance it can be captured. These monsters can be traded amongst players or pitted against each other via the PSP's ad-hoc multiplayer function.
Battles divide the screen in half, the player party being displayed on the right, the enemies on the left. The division line will shift to make different side bigger, depending on what's happening. For example, when a player is selecting a monster's move, the team's portion of the screen will be bigger. Then, after the attack is unleashed, the left side will expand a bit to show the effects. It's a little weird, but functional.
Roaming the game's dungeons feels a lot like a Shin Megami Tensei game, which perhaps comes as no surprise, since Monster Kingdom Jewel Summoner was developed and produced by Cozy Okada, creator of the SMT series. In the early stages of the game that have been played for this preview, the dungeons so far seem moderatley interesting.
What hurts Monster Kingdom Jewel Summoner is the slow, terrible presentation of the story. It's presented similarly to Fire Emblem, where the people talking appear on scren in the form of an illustration, which is fine, but it's accompanied by awful, awful voice acting. One can attempt to skip it by pressing X, but there is a little bit of lag in doing so, and it makes plot scene progression pretty painful. With the voices on, it's like watching a slow-moving middle school play. Sadly, the best option is to turn that crap off.
Atlus USA will ship Monster Kingdom Jewel Summoner on February 13, 2007. Watch for a full review at that time.
