Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes

Did You Know?

• A sequel titled Guns n' Souls featuring Song Summoner was announced by Square Enix in December 2013.
• In the sequel, Ziggy powers his magic sword with cards representing different characters, each possessing unique musical instruments.

Gameplay

The player generates unique Tune Troopers by analyzing their iPod or iPhone music library. A listening point system causes characters to grow in strength when the songs used to create them are listened to. There are 50 characters across five job classes: Soldier, Mage, Archer, Knight, and Monk. Troopers and their skills are named or modeled after songs, albums, and musicians. Each Trooper receives a rank of bronze, silver, gold, or platinum, plus a secondary letter ranking. Higher-ranked Troopers can be deployed fewer times, but additional deployments called rewinds can be purchased. Pitch pearls, obtained by defeating monsters or in the rehearsal room, allow Troopers' ranks to increase.

Plot

The game begins as Ziggy and his little brother Zero flee from Full House, a Stargazer in the mechanical militia. Full House takes Zero and is about to kill Ziggy when the Soul Master appears, using Ziggy's cube pendant to summon Her Majesty, a soldier-type Tune Trooper. After driving the robots away, the Soul Master explains that Ziggy is a conductor who can summon an army through the music on his iPod. After five years of training, Ziggy sets out to find his brother. He travels to Oppenheimer, where he rescues a robot deserter he names Z.E.R.O. because of the many zeros in its name; the cube pendant resonates when they meet. He defeats Full House and rescues Golden Wing, a Superstar who joins him. Ziggy climbs the Joshua Tree, sees the Ship of Fools, and discovers that Mechanical Militiamen are created from humans via a conversion machine aboard the ship. He defeats Stargazer Straight Flush and rescues archer-type Superstar Seattlite. The party heads to Metropolis, meets Seattlite's daughter, and defeats Stargazer Great Artist, who hacks the network to ensure he cannot be rebuilt and dies human. Finding no Superstars in the tower, they return to Metropolis and encounter a Superstar named No Future, who had been hiding there.

Reception

Ars Technica gave the iPod release a 'buy' recommendation for players who enjoy tactical strategy games like Final Fantasy Tactics. Eurogamer praised the click wheel controls and unique troop generating mechanism but called the gameplay simplistic. RPGFan did not recommend the iPhone version, describing the story as 'childish', the graphics typical of other iOS games, and the controls reminiscent of the original iPod release. Slide to Play praised the game's unique take on a strategy RPG but noted 'hit or miss' touch controls and a lack of clarity about what music produces what character units.