Play That Music

Even though I’m an avid gamer, I’ve never purchased a single game for my iPod.  For gaming when traveling, I go with my DS or PSP.  And since I walk to work, I just listen to podcasts and music on my iPod because trying to game while navigating the NYC streets sounds like a really bad idea.

I’ve also never heard of anything too special in the realm of games for the iPod.  I did consider Peggle, but since I have that on the PC I just couldn’t justify it.  Well, now that everyone else has moved on to the iPhone, I am officially an iPod gamer!  I may be behind the times, but I’m enjoying it.

And it’s all thanks to Song Summoner.  Well, Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes, to be precise.  After playing this game I am absolutely amazed at the lack of buzz and even reviews surrounding it.  This is a Square Enix strategy RPG playable on an iPod.  Did I mention it has some very creative features like making your song library part of the game?  Did I mention it’s only $4.99?

My mind is officially boggled.   It’s not like there is a ton of competition in the iPod gaming world.  I suppose the issue is that everyone is so completely taken with the iPhone right now that no one cares about an iPod game.  I probably would be iPhone obsessed as well, but, as the waits are longer than ever, I still can’t get my greedy hands on one.

Well, Song Summoner will keep me busy until then.  There is absolutely no question that it is worth the price.  I do warn you, I happen to be a special fan of tactical or strategic RPG’s.  And this game definitely falls into that category.  So if, like me, you love Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea or Jeanne D’arc, you will enjoy this game.  If you’re more into the traditional RPG, like any of the regular Final Fantasy games, be aware that this is a different beast.

Anyone who has played SRPG’s will be very familiar with how things work here.  It is about as traditional as it gets in terms of gameplay.  If anything, it is a bit simplified which is not a bad thing since you are using the iPod’s click-wheel.  I do admit that some may find it easier than they would like.  But I feel you can always challenge yourself by not over-leveling your toons (or tunes).

The one semi-unique thing in terms of game strategy is the presence of special items or “groove boxes” on the battlefield.  Getting one of these benefits your entire troop and can change the tide of the battle.  Of course, the converse is true if your enemy gets to one.  This isn’t much but it does add some additional tactical considerations to the otherwise straight-forward fight scenarios.  As in most of these games, you receive items after battle (”pitch pearls”) which can grant your troops additional skills.  It is worth noting that each troop can only be used in a set number of battles.  This number is assigned when the troop is created, although you can use special items called ”rewinds” to extend it.

But let’s get to the creative and fun part.  Square Enix didn’t just do a random SRPG for the iPod.  They actually put a lot of thought into making the game revolve around music.  And I’m not talking about all the corny musical puns in the game. No, what I thought was really inventive is that you summon your troops by selecting actual songs from your music library.  There are different classes and ratings for troops and there are even rare units.  This is crazy fun.

I’m not sure how the game determines what type of troop each song will be.  From what I can gather I think the same songs will turn out differently on different iPods.  Many people have theories of varying degrees of craziness about how the game assigns a troop type to a song.  I’m not sure but I feel like it is not completely random.  Even if it is, until you play you don’t realize how fun it is to take a favorite song and find out what it will become and then do battle with it.  When a song you love nets you a rare troop it is a great feeling.  I sat around for an hour just trying various songs to see what would happen.

Sometimes, the archetype of the game, the Soul Master, will make a little comment when you are summoning a troop.  For instance, he could say, “Hope is a lucky word today!”   So that tells you that you need to find a song with the word “hope” in it.  If you do this, you will see that summoned troop will have a greater chance of being a better unit.

The use of the iPod’s music in the game does not stop there.  Another inventive feature is the ability to level by listening to your music.  Once you summon a troop with a particular song, each time you listen to that song from that point onwards will increase the power of the unit in the game.   So play with songs you like!  Of course, there is an obvious way to abuse this system.  You just put together a 3 second song, create a troop with it and then put it on repeat.  But this potential for cheating doesn’t bother me. I like the way this game integrates with the iPod.

The graphics are colorful but average in quality.  The music is just fair, but you can listen to your own music while playing.  I was surprised at how easy it was to use the click-wheel to control the game.  Your progress is auto-saved all the time, which is handy.  It is especially handy because playing Song Summoner will kill your battery.

The load-times seemed a bit long at points and I really dislike long load-times.  However, I’m not going to pick on this game for it because the load times for many PSP games are absolutely horrid.  And that is a dedicated gaming system.

I’ve been saving the worst for last.  If you noticed, I haven’t mentioned the actual plot or story of the game.  That’s because it’s not worth mentioning.  They might as well just say, “Generic RPG Story: Something bad occurs.  You are a hero!  The end.”  That would at least save time.

What’s worse, the dialogue is absolutely atrocious.  I’ll be harping on this issue quite a bit on this site.  Why do game companies still not realize that having good dialogue is important?  Why do they not realize that awful writing can drag down a game?  Why spend all that money on developing a product and then not fork over the funds to get a half-way decent translator or writer.  This game is a bad offender.

I still think this is a very good game, especially considering it’s on the iPod and costs five bucks.  The tactics are not revolutionary but they are engaging.  And the song summoning aspect of using your own music to create troops really adds to the fun.  You know you want to see what units your massive Miley Cyrus song collection produces.  Don’t worry, Song Summoner won’t tell anyone about your embarrassing musical tastes!

If you are interested in an iPod game and you enjoy SRPG’s you really can’t go wrong with Song Summoner.  And if you never played an SRPG, this is actually not a terrible place to start due to the relative simplicity.  If you ignore the horrible writing and make up your own story, you will have fun with this title.

Ah, just make sure you have the correct version of the iPod required to play.  And remember, that’s iPod (seems almost ancient now doesn’t it?) and not iPhone.  I can’t see any reason why Square wouldn’t port this over to the iPhone at some point.  I’d love to see a sequel with better writing and improved correlation between song choice and troop.

Hmm, that just made me think.  Are there any iPhone games which use the iPhone in the same way that Song Summoner uses the iPod?  For example, wouldn’t it be fun to see what units the various people on your contacts list became?  And each time you called a friend, it could “level up” that unit.  I could see it: “Hey, buddy - no nothing important, just needed to level up your mage in game.”  Texts could add skills.  And perhaps if that person left a voicemail for you the game would grant a new item to the character.  Of course, there’s so much games could do with location/GPS stuff, but I better save that for another post…