I'm a bit late to doing this, and I should have done this while the game was still on sale. But it is better late than never. Don't worry, I won't be too biased about this game, even though I greatly want you to buy it.

Fortune Summoners certainly isn't a perfect game. And you can't expect too much from such a game. But for what it is, it is still pretty great and the creator certainly deserves and needs your money.

The good of Fortune Summoners, is that anyone who wanted more cute, anime style gaming with a female protagonist ala Recettear and other Carpe Fulgur games, is definitely in for a real treat. Fortune Summoners certainly manages the par for the jRPG starved PC and Steam market.

The dialogue is great, and the characters are heartwarming. Something sorely lacking from the video game industry, in my opinion. The English version and text is every bit as funny and fun-loving as Carpe Fulgur's previous titles. And it really brightens the mood to behold. Your mother may hate Dead Space, but your grandmother loves Fortune Summoners. And so should you.

The gameplay itself is obviously another thing worth discussing. And this is luckily, another thing that shines pretty well about this game. Especially for its means. It may be slightly less innovative than Recettear, avoiding combat and dungeon crawling as a focus of the game altogether, but is nonetheless unique in its own ways. The game may be a "jRPG", but it is by no means turn-based. It is a completely real time video game. And is one of the few games in the RPG genre to be nearly equal parts platformer AND fighting game.

This game is not only a "j"RPG, but a side-scrolling platformer. The mechanics are also anything but hack and slash. Which rates the game more highly to me. Instead of simply button mashing, one must learn how to control the characters and learn sets of moves. Battles take not only coordination, but strategy. The enemies have very well done AI, and may almost feel as if they are reading the minds of inexperienced players. Even the easiest difficulty can offer a degree of challenge. And there is a Nightmare Mode. This makes battles a genuinely engaging, if frustrating experience, instead of a mindless hack n' slash that leaves one dying to end the combat.

The dungeons themselves are also fairly expansive. With one giving a more realistically limited inventory(when did having 99 of an item in your inventory ever make sense?), one must strategically enter and choose where to go in many dungeons. And with the game's combat difficulty, it essentially punishes you for relying too much on items instead of your own ability. I think this is a benefit of the game, in that again, it makes you try and there are limits in various areas, forcing you to work the best you can with what you have. And be good and planning and fighting.

All of this makes for a very rewarding, "diamond in the rough" experience where you know what you're playing is this cute little gem for what it is, at the very least. ... Did I say diamond in the rough? Onto describing the shortcomings of the game.

For all the game itself is wonderful, the game is a bit on the short side, and could use from being much, much longer. And indeed, that seems to have been the intention of the game, to be much, much longer. But Lizsoft the developer is broke, and got a job other than games. Lizsoft simply seems to have not raked in enough funds to properly continue the project. And it shows. The game, while you resolve several major conflicts and goals introduced in the beginning of the game, the game can easily be completed in 20 hours or less. And those hours fly by.

Furthermore, much of the plot and areas of the world meant to be developed are left alone. The level cap is 23, many areas implied to be a part of the world and frequently talked about, are left unexplored by the three protagonists, and several conflicts are left unanswered by the end of the game. If anything, by the time one has finished the game, there are ten times more questions than when one started. The game is clearly made to be longer and have a sequel. And so by the end of the game, one probably feels more want than average.

And we will get exactly that, surely, if this game sells better. It would be nice if the game were longer, if all the plot pieces were resolved, there were more NPCs to talk to, and more terrain to cover, but that is the limitations of one person, that is Lizsoft, as a "struggling artist", so to speak. And considering their position, they have made a very good game. And would expand and make another if given the profits for this game, surely.

I'm not going to give this game a number, because rating numbers are overused to begin with. But this game is certainly a worthwhile, if compact experience that leaves you wanting more. And as a whole, I think deserves your money. Fortune Summoners, is a short, yet unforgettable experience that will warm your soul. And that kind of experience, however brief, is priceless.

Great review! Maybe a picture or two to brighten up the place, but otherwise a fun, informative read.

I love this game but it's playing hard to get. It's kawaii as fuck, in an almost tooth-rottingly cute way, but then the monsters consistently hand me my ass on a silver plate. Which I like, but still. Those few sections where you have to use solo Sana or Drillhair are murderous if you've gotten used to Arche, and I've found it annoyingly unintuitive as to who I need to talk to in order to trigger the various cutscene to move the plot along.

There's actually a story behind Lizsoft being broke: the director guy wanted to pull out all the stops on this one, so he hired some of the leading voice actresses in Japan to do the voices for the deluxe version...which turned out to be prohibitively expensive and ended up causing the company to go bankrupt. Which is why Carpe Fulgur got the rights to the un-voiced one, otherwise it would've been unsellable.

So if this thing sells well enough, they might just resurrect Lizsoft from the grave.