Holy Crackers! A New Carpe Fulgur Release!
Carpe Fulgur, the guys who brought us the English translations of Recettear and Chantelise and permanently added “yayness” to my daily vocabulary, announced their new release today: Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone, a game where you play as a young girl who lives in an item shop and helps fight monsters… wait a minute. This sounds familiar. Whether Japan has a whole genre dedicated to games staring little girls in item shops, or these guys specifically go after a VERY niche genre is beyond my realm of knowledge, but I have played their two earlier releases, and spent a few hours with the demo of the new one today.
- Huzzah!
Despite some similarity, Fortune Summoners isn’t Recettear. It’s more of a side-scrolling action/RPG with beautiful pixel graphics, fluid combat, and a strong emphasis on companions helping you out in mid-battle. Your main character is a young girl named Arche who has just moved to a new town with her parents, and is starting magic school. I’d make some Harry Potter jokes here, but I’ve never read the books or watched the movies, so feel free to add your own. I’ll give you a minute…
Like their previous release (and most platformers), the game plays best with a controller (360 preferred on a PC). Though the animation and combat movements are smooth, complex, and fun to watch, the controls can be a tad unwieldy at times. For instance, rapid attacks can lock out your character’s turning ability, leaving you swinging at mid-air while a monster tears into your back. It’s by no means a deal breaker, but it can be mildly frustrating. I mention that now because it’s essentially the only complaint I have for the game. The thumb-stick controls were annoyingly jumpy in the game’s menu until I turned on the “analog controller” feature, which took care of that minor problem.
Otherwise, the game seems to offer a great deal of depth and complexity for a platforming-based RPG. As far as what was available on the demo, Arche is a sword-using melee character who jumps around the screen, rolls, tumbles, jump-kicks, and has a whole bunch of neat attacks. Her shy, magic-using companion Sana lobs ice spells while you fight, helping with crowd control and watching your back. You can switch between characters with the press of a button, allowing for a change in combat style should you find you prefer magic over melee. Not that you’ll need to, though, as the AI is surprisingly good for both companions and monsters. 
I say surprisingly because I can’t think of another side-scroller where the AI seemed so aware of the player’s movements. Saya was always where I needed her, and a great help in the boss battle near the end of the demo, doing the bulk of the damage while Arche held the fiend at bay. And the monsters are no different. They’ll dodge and feint, waiting for you to be in between swings before attacking, and flying out of reach when you try to retaliate. All this combined makes for some very action-heavy combat that’s a joy to behold.
- So hard to take action screenshots when I’m holding a game controller.
The game has the usual JRPG content: shops, NPCs with one-line responses, and plenty of menu navigation. It’s all handled in a refreshingly smooth manner though, and despite my being more-or-less over JRPGs, I can’t wait for the full release of this game. The demo is a hefty package, allowing for a few hours of gameplay, and only hints at the complexity I think the full game will have. There is a fair bit of “cuteness” here as well, so if you don’t like anime, or adorable little girls beating up monsters (thankfully, this isn’t sexualized in the least), or a talking bunny/cat thing that sounds like a three-year old with a lisp, then just avoid the game and don’t bother complaining about how and why you don’t like JRPGs. No one cares. For everyone else, go check out the demo! This game has a lot of promise!
You can get the beefy demo here.
The game is slated for release on January 17, 2012, and will be available on Steam and Gamersgate for 25 USD/20 EUR/16 GBP. This may sound expensive compared to most indie games, but the potential here seems to suggest it will be worth it.
