Summon Night EX-Thesis: Yoake no Tsubasa ("Wings of Dawn") is an action RPG similar to Ys or Secret of Mana. While it's always great to see more entries in this under-represented genre, the result isn't quite up to par with its brethren. The heroes are a man and a woman who share the same body, and also happens to have amnesia.

Characters

Leonus

The male protagonist.

Ainna

The female protagonist.

Nova

A strange boy who appears to know of Leonus' and Ainna's past.

Belfraw

A wise old lion who aids the two on their quest.

Although you can choose one of two main characters, it only affects the story, as you actually switch between the two during combat. Some enemies can only be hurt by Leonus, while others can only be damaged by Ainna. It's about as annoying as it sounds. Each character has their own life bar and levels up independently from one other. You can also find little summon creatures to carry out small tasks, like digging into small tunnels.

The graphics seem to use the same engine as Summon Night 3. In still shots, it looks pretty decent - the backgrounds have a colorful, artistic feel, and the high resolution sprites look fantastic. This is, until you see them move, as everything is quite poorly animated. Each area is broken up unto small chunks, which hover over a static background wallpaper. All of this looked fine in a strategy RPG, but it looks cheap as an action game. And furthermore, even the action isn't done right, as fighting is extremely clumsy and unresponsive. It's not as bad as the Taito's Ys remakes for the PS2, but it reeks of a game that was just kinda thrown together.