song summoner
Latest
TUAW's Daily App: Voice Fantasy
Voice Fantasy is a weird little app from Square Enix, creators of the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series of role-playing games. You may remember Song Summoner, the original RPG created for the iPod a while back (that later came to the iPhone as well). That game had you creating soldiers with songs. Voice Fantasy has you creating heroes with a different audio source: your voice. Just pull up the create-a-hero screen, speak or sing into the iPhone's mic, and the game will create a custom-made hero just for you from whatever auditory groans or screams you can come up with. Unfortunately, unlike Song Summoner, there's no RPG element to this one. Instead, the game is just a short series of arenas, with your heroes fighting their way up to and defeating the Demon King. You don't actually control the heroes -- they just fight for you, and you can pit them against friends' heroes as well to see whose voice is stronger. If it sounds like a gimmick, it kind of is, but the graphics look great, and the game is just interesting enough to play around with for a while. There is supposedly more coming, including some characters from a favorite series (perhaps the final part of a fantasy series?). There's also another game mode on the way, and hopefully it's a story mode of some kind, because what's currently there isn't very deep. But it is the latest in a series of interesting experiments by Square Enix on the iPhone, and for US$2.99, it's almost worth supporting just to give the classic game makers a vote of confidence in providing original games for the platform. Voice Fantasy is a strange one, but especially if you're a Square Enix fan, it's worth checking out. And if you're not enticed by this, go get Chaos Rings. That's the full-featured Square Enix RPG for the iPhone that you're looking for.
Song Summoner and sequel coming to iPhone
I actually did buy Song Summoner, the strange, out-of-nowhere tactics RPG from Square Enix that was made for the iPod last year. Yes, that's right it was made for the iPod -- at a time when everyone was waiting to see pro apps on the iPhone and the iPod touch, Square released a game controlled with a click wheel that used your iPod's songs as characters in a tactical RPG. And now, we've heard that Song Summoner is returning -- this time as a touchscreen based iPhone app. I have to say -- especially if you like Square Enix RPGs in the style of Final Fantasy Tactics, and you're intrigued by the "song conversion" engine (you choose a song in your mp3 playlists to import into the game, and then it becomes a character with specific stats), it's definitely worth a look. And for Song Summoner completists, the game comes with a sequel as well, unreleased due to Apple's dropping support of clickwheel games (which makes sense, given the App Store's popularity). It'll be in the App Store on December 3rd. No price listed yet, but there will be a lite version to try as well.
Song Summoner mining iPhone playlists this week
Buried within Square Enix's TGS lineup was an iPhone/iPod Touch version of the company's clever iPod strategy RPG, Song Summoner, which had the hook of generating units from the songs stored on the device. Producer Takehiro Ando just sent word that Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes - Encore will be summoned to the App Store on December 3. A Lite version is also on the way, pending approval by Apple. Rather than being a simple touchscreen-enabled port of the original click wheel game, the iPhone Song Summoner contains both Song Summoner and Song Summoner 2, which was never released due to Apple ending support for click wheel games.
TUAW Hands-On: Square Enix's Song Summoner for the iPod
Square Enix dropped a huge bomb at E3 a few weeks ago with the fact that their latest Final Fantasy title, number 13, was coming to Microsoft's Xbox 360. But a week before, they dropped another piece of surprise news on iPod owners: that they had released a game for the music player, and that not only was it an RPG, but it was actually a tactical RPG that used the iPod's own songs as characters.If you're a Squeenix fanboy, your mind is probably just blown by the idea, and as we reported last time, our Nintendo-biased friends were thrilled to hear about the game. But how does it actually play -- is it worth picking up if you're not a Square fan, and/or you just want to hear music on your iPod?Short answer: Probably not. While Square Enix's Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes is a pretty amazing game for the iPod, the iPod is meant to be a music player, not a game platform, and a few hardware drawbacks keep Song Summoner from shining as a game just for iPod owners. Square fans will enjoy it very much, RPG gamers will probably get their money's worth (the game is only $5, cheap by any estimation), but anyone looking for a pick-up-and-play iPod game will likely get mired in the slow pace.
Square Enix E3 lineup loaded with sequels, remakes
With 2008's edition of E3 just days away, the role-playing steam engine that is Square Enix has revealed what titles that it will spring on press types as they shuffle past. Of the eleven titles on display, the company's lineup this year is noticeably remake and sequel heavy, with over half of the games representing a return to the well for another drink. Boasting "simultaneous global releases for several platforms," the company has also re-confirmed dates for much of its lineup as well, with the following games also noted as being playable during the show: Chrono Trigger (DS; Holiday 2008) Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS; September 16) Final Fantasy IV (DS; July 22) Infinite Undiscovery (Xbox 360; September 2) Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes (iPod; Now Available) In addition, the remainder listed below will be shown in non-playable form: The Last Remnant (Xbox 360, PS3; Winter for Xbox 360, TBA for PS3) Star Ocean: First Departure (PSP; October 21) Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PSP; January 6) Star Ocean: The Last Hope (Xbox 360; 2009) Exit DS (DS; October 7) The Legend of Kage 2 (DS; October 7) And coming soon to a grocery store near you, Star Ocean: Whole Wheat Clusters.
Square Enix releases iPod RPG, Song Summoner
Square Enix has a surprise RPG for the handheld gamer. No, it's not on the PSP or DS. Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes is an iPod exclusive RPG with a rather unique twist. You'll be able to transform your music collection into "Tune Troopers" that you can use in battle. Even cooler: you'll be able to level up your "Tune Troopers" simply by listening to the same song you created them on your iPod. You'll need the help of all your best MP3s, as you fight the Mechanical Militia and save your brother.The iTunes download, available today, will retail for $4.99. The game will be controlled exclusively through the iPod click wheel and will be compatible with iPod nano with video, iPod classic and fifth generation iPod. While we haven't had a chance to play the game ourselves, we're certainly itching to give it a try. If you download Song Summoner, tell us what you think. Update: Trailer embedded, after the cut.%Gallery-27049%
Square surprises us with Song Summoner for the iPod
Square Enix has released their new game for the iPod, called -- wait, hold the iPhone. Say what again? Square Enix has apparently been hiding a huge secret, and the word is out already in iTunes. They've developed an iPod classic game called Song Summoner, and if the video above is any indication, we don't actually have to wait for the iPhone's App Store to come out, we might have a new winner right here.For a mere $4.99, you apparently get a full-scale Square strategy RPG, and that's not all -- the characters in the game are created from your iPod's songs. And every time you listen to a song, the game levels up. This sounds incredible, and so it's no surprise that our sister site, DS Fanboy, has already written up five reasons why this might be the new Square game to check out, even compared to the more established Final Fantasy series.This bodes very, very well for the future of original iPhone gaming -- if Apple has Square-Enix and Harmonix building games this innovative for the iPod, imagine what they'll be able to do with the iPhone. We'll get our hands on Song Summoner as soon as we can, and let you know what it's like when we do.
iPod's new Square Enix SRPG better than FFTA2?
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Square_Enix_s_new_iPod_SRPG_might_be_better_than_you_think'; Out of nowhere, Square Enix has simultaneously announced and released Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes, a new SRPG exclusive for the iPod challenging players to rescue their brother from the Mechanical Militia.The game has you controlling Ziggy, a Conductor that can create Tune Trooper warriors out of your iPod's music tracks, similar to Monster Rancher's CD-generated creatures. Further integrating your All-4-One MP3s, Song Summoner will boost the "groove level" of your Tune Troopers every time you listen to the songs that birthed the units. Now you actually have an excuse for listening to "I Swear" several dozen times a day!So, why are we talking about this iPod game on DS Fanboy? We thought it would be interesting to compare this new title against the other portable strategy RPG Square Enix recently released (in the U.S.), Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift.As we're sure you'll let us know, there are some features that Song Summoner can't compete with, such as FFTA2's 400+ quests and other multitudinous offerings, but, for the purpose of outlining what publishers can learn from a game release such as this, let's look at the five points in which the iPod title outshines the DS epic.%Gallery-27035%
