Jewel Restore
Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner breathes life into the stagnating PSP RPG pool, but it's not quite a killer app.
Published: February 22, 2007
Kouji (or Cozy if you prefer) Okada has, in a round-about way, come full circle. After creating the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series with Atlus (which he helped co-found), he strode off in search of his own gig, which he found at Sony Computer Entertainment Inc -- or rather the new Gaia development studio they created for him -- yet the first game to come out of the studio, part of the new Monster Kingdom universe, isn't being published here in the States by Sony Computer Entertainment America but rather Atlus USA.
Granted, it's not a complete return to his roots, but it's close enough that I could use it as a lame lead-in to talking about Jewel Summoner while still referencing his MegaTen days like every other review of JS probably will. Different but the same!
Jewel Summoner, then, shouldn't shock anyone when it's learned that there are monster raising elements, but rather than it being sort of an addendum to the regular gameplay, rearing things that go raaarr in the night is actually the whole focus this time around. It's an approach that will doubtlessly draw comparisons to stuff like Monster Rancher or Pokemon, but there's a level of depth here that goes beyond simply capturing and leveling up monsters.
On the surface, though, things are similar. Aloof quasi-tool Vice is a monster hunter, sworn to find and destroy the Abomination that killed his ma, but when he hooks up with some up-and-coming jewel summoners from The Order, a church usually called upon to deal with Abominations, things get a little more complicated. Actually, that's not true, they get entirely more complicated, both for Vice and his quest to nix the beasty what killed his mama, and for the player learning the ropes. Shortly after a little trial run, the combat system and monster-capturing aspects start to reveal themselves. Let's take a peek, shall we?
Like most monster capture/raising games, actually amassing an army of creepy crawlies to do your bidding isn't terribly hard; smack the baddie around a little with your monster until they look visibly weakened and then toss out a crystal to suck 'em up. Aha, but there is a small catch: you need to use a crystal imbued with the same element as the monster. The elements are terribly important as you'll see if you check out our preview that goes over that whole mess in painstaking detail.
Learning all this is fairly intrinsic to anyone who has dealt with this sort of thing before, and with all this under my belt, I delved into the game's deeper parts: Amalgamation. Simply put, it's not that hard to level up any monsters you have on hand, but the catch is that you can only have three jewels at a time (the rest go to a Jewel Bank back at The Order). Whatever monster is summoned at the end of a battle will pocket experience and then, naturally, will grow more powerful. However, it's not the only (or even in some cases preferred) way to bulk up your beasties.
By taking the jewel they're trapped in and cramming tons of quarts or elements you can force an increase in things like available skills or even evolve the monster into something new. Now this can only be done using an Amalgamy Meister -- specially trained folks that go to school to learn how to cram tons of elements and quartz into jewels -- and in JS' world, they come in two flavors: independent, sassy female Mikaela or crotchety letch grandpappy Jerro. Though they can both accomplish the tasks at hand, they go about it differently. Jerro is quick, but fails his Amalgamy often. Mikaela takes longer, but rarely botches a job. Now for that fancy new-gen scent: all of these Amalgamy things happen in real-time -- even when the PSP is off/asleep -- so you can queue things up while, say riding the train to work and then on the way home you should have the results. This also extends to monster evolution, which can depend on time of day for success. Mmmm, minty!
Granted, it's not a complete return to his roots, but it's close enough that I could use it as a lame lead-in to talking about Jewel Summoner while still referencing his MegaTen days like every other review of JS probably will. Different but the same!
Jewel Summoner, then, shouldn't shock anyone when it's learned that there are monster raising elements, but rather than it being sort of an addendum to the regular gameplay, rearing things that go raaarr in the night is actually the whole focus this time around. It's an approach that will doubtlessly draw comparisons to stuff like Monster Rancher or Pokemon, but there's a level of depth here that goes beyond simply capturing and leveling up monsters.
On the surface, though, things are similar. Aloof quasi-tool Vice is a monster hunter, sworn to find and destroy the Abomination that killed his ma, but when he hooks up with some up-and-coming jewel summoners from The Order, a church usually called upon to deal with Abominations, things get a little more complicated. Actually, that's not true, they get entirely more complicated, both for Vice and his quest to nix the beasty what killed his mama, and for the player learning the ropes. Shortly after a little trial run, the combat system and monster-capturing aspects start to reveal themselves. Let's take a peek, shall we?
Like most monster capture/raising games, actually amassing an army of creepy crawlies to do your bidding isn't terribly hard; smack the baddie around a little with your monster until they look visibly weakened and then toss out a crystal to suck 'em up. Aha, but there is a small catch: you need to use a crystal imbued with the same element as the monster. The elements are terribly important as you'll see if you check out our preview that goes over that whole mess in painstaking detail.
Learning all this is fairly intrinsic to anyone who has dealt with this sort of thing before, and with all this under my belt, I delved into the game's deeper parts: Amalgamation. Simply put, it's not that hard to level up any monsters you have on hand, but the catch is that you can only have three jewels at a time (the rest go to a Jewel Bank back at The Order). Whatever monster is summoned at the end of a battle will pocket experience and then, naturally, will grow more powerful. However, it's not the only (or even in some cases preferred) way to bulk up your beasties.
By taking the jewel they're trapped in and cramming tons of quarts or elements you can force an increase in things like available skills or even evolve the monster into something new. Now this can only be done using an Amalgamy Meister -- specially trained folks that go to school to learn how to cram tons of elements and quartz into jewels -- and in JS' world, they come in two flavors: independent, sassy female Mikaela or crotchety letch grandpappy Jerro. Though they can both accomplish the tasks at hand, they go about it differently. Jerro is quick, but fails his Amalgamy often. Mikaela takes longer, but rarely botches a job. Now for that fancy new-gen scent: all of these Amalgamy things happen in real-time -- even when the PSP is off/asleep -- so you can queue things up while, say riding the train to work and then on the way home you should have the results. This also extends to monster evolution, which can depend on time of day for success. Mmmm, minty!
