Provided by Com2uS and released in 2014 on both iOS and Android platforms, Summoners War is an online mobile game with a strong role-play feature as well as other elements including action, strategy, real-time battles and decorations. Players can obtain this game for free on App Store and Google Play while further in-game purchase is available. The general game play is established on a role-play ground. Players choose one of the eight characters to play as the so-called “summoner”. They need to recruit and train monsters from a large catalog known as the “scroll”, and train them to fight other monsters led by enemies in those turn-based battles. There are altogether twenty episodes in Summoners War with seven stages in each episode. The game offers an extensive collection of monsters for players to discover and obtain. All the monsters have their own grade ranging from one to five stars. Higher star level means higher ability. Players can obtain new monsters or they can upgrade their existing ones whose final grade shall not exceed six-star. Players can upgrade or evolve their monsters by taking them to battles where their experience point (XP) grows. Monsters have their own defining attributes too. The game uses five elements to categorize monsters and those elements may go against one another. For example, water monsters can curb the force of fire monsters. Players can constantly check the stats of their monsters and find out the capability and weaknesses of monsters in defense/offense, health and support. Apart from increasing XP to boost up monster upgrading, players can also transfer or “awaken” monsters, which means they change the elements/attributes of the awakened monsters into something different to boost the monster stats. The awakening power is provided by “essence” which can be acquired from Cairos Dungeon. This is a core location in the game because players farm the runes there too. Runes are important artifacts of monsters who can be equipped with six runes in battles to boost their stats. Players can also customize and decorate the place with items from a large collection. The role-playing featured game is also packed with action element. Although single player mode is in the main storyline, multi-player mode is also available. Players can form a 3-player guild to battle against other guild in PvP style. They can also assemble team of 3 players with 6 monsters to fight against 3 bosses. This is the so-called raid mode. What’s more, players can even join the real-time massive multiplayer game and battle with people from all over the world. Those features show the social and interactive considerations of the game. 

Game Review

Summoners War is a fusion of many game elements, including RPG, strategy, actions and real-time battle etc. Such game play is a creative design in enhancing the playability as well as the richness of contents, although it might cause certain confusion or loss of game focus for some players. For new players, there are plenty of extensive guides and walkthroughs for them to get a hang of this game. Once they are familiar with the mechanism of the gameplay, they have more flexibility and freedom in choosing their own gaming paths. Thanks to the comprehensive game modes and contents, players can switch from one task to another, moving around different locations and interacting with extensive amount of resources. In short, players can always find something to do in this grand mobile game with multiple elements. One issue of the game is the difficulty level of upgrading monsters. Although there are two “free” approaches to boost their stats, realistically, either XP accumulation or rune upgrades is very grinding and complicated for higher level players.