Square Enix just released Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes in the iTunes store today for the affordable price of $4.99. The game is compatible with 5th gen and above iPods with video capabilities, but not the iPhone or iPod touch. I bring my iPod with my just about everywhere, so the idea of having anything more advanced than Parachute or Solitaire is pretty damn exciting.

The game focuses on a song summoner by the name of Ziggy who befriends a robot whom he names ZERO. The two set out to try and save Ziggy’s brother from the Mechanical Militia, an evil force stealing souls from the world of Melodica.

Song Summoner has some awesome features that really take advantage of the fact that the game is for the iPod. I know it may seem limiting to have only a turn-wheel and a select button, but Square Enix really used their imagination.

The game’s battle system is tactical in nature, the player will more units around a grid based map attack, use magic, etc. Units are created by selecting songs that are on your iPod and morphing them into warriors called Tune Troopers. God damn that’s cool. If you listen to the song you used to make the Tune Trooper outside of the game, that unit will gain Play Points, which can be used to power up that unit.

The game features a ton of different Tune Troopers designed by many different character designers. The main characters however are designed by Yosuke Naora and Roberto Ferrari. I am just guessing, but I believe Ferrari may be an Italian name. Anyway you can really see the difference in the character design, it’s a bit refreshing after Tetsuya Nomura kind of had a monopoly on their games.

If you happen to have $4.99 and a newer generation iPod definately pick this game up. For more info here is the Square Enix press release and here is the game’s official website as well as a link to download it. I sure hope this is the beginning of quality RPGs appearing on iPods.

Roy iPod, square enix 2 comments