Summoners War: Lost Centuria is one of those games that gets its complexity out of the way before you’ve even got to the action. It’s a strategic, team-building RPG that’s all about walking into the arena with the most powerful monsters at your beck and call. While you’ll definitely have seen a lot of what it has to offer before, it serves up a few novel twists to keep things fresh.
There’s a story here about conquest, creatures, and evil forces, but –for the most part – you likely won’t pay a whole lot of attention to it. The game’s single-player portions aren’t its focus; in fact, it takes a few PvP battles to even unlock any solo content at all.
Instead, your focus here is placed on collecting and equipping the most powerful team of fighters you can. You can fill many roles, including heavy-hitting attack characters or support characters. There is also a need for HP-packed giants that are capable of taking down damage. Balance is the key, as you can see.
Your units attack automatically, but they’ve got special moves that roll around as cards in the bottom-right of the screen. These costs you mana. The charging bar is the symbol of this. When you’ve got enough mana, you can tap a card and cause that character to throw out their most powerful move.
Many of these target single foes to do massive damage. Other targets the entire opposing team, or one row within their battle formation. Your support characters buff or heal you crew and give you better chances of defeating them. The card system is also where one of the game’s most interesting ideas comes into play.
If you play a card just after your opponent, you’ll perform a counter. This triggers your move before theirs and inflicts some extra damage. Time things right and you can sometimes kill a character before they get a chance to act, or heal up your squad so they’re in a better position to withstand an oncoming onslaught.
Summoners War – Lost Centuria is always giving you something to do
You will find counters more engaging and interesting than other similar games. You’re almost urging your opponent to play something so that you can swoop in and mess with their plans. You can also take three spell cards into battle with you. These aren’t associated with a specific character, but you can only use them once per scrap. It’s another layer of things to consider before you’ve even hit the battlefield.
You can also craft skill stones and runes to equip your characters. These toughen up your characters’ stats and moves, or add new abilities into the mix. As you fight, you’ll earn new hero cards, which you can combine with some currency to level up your fighters, as well as gems, player XP, and other such goodies.
An alliance can be formed to help you pool your resources, improve your fighting skills and make it easier for others. There are also quests and challenges as well as regular events and single-player games. You can even send your entire team to idle missions. You will never run out of things to do in Summoners War: Lost Centuria.
There’s more than a little character juggling here as you try to develop the best possible team, which can be a little daunting at first. Plus, unlike other games in the genre, there’s no button you can press to auto-equip your most powerful fighters.
There’s a granularity to the learning curve that forces you to take in and remember a lot before you can get to grips with things. Jumping in and playing blind is possible, but as soon as you come up against a better-prepared opponent, you’re going to get your arse handed to you.
If you’re coming to Summoners War: Lost Centuria expecting something soft and fluffy that you can play mindlessly, you’re in for a bit of a shock. But if you’re willing to put the time and effort in, you’ll find an experience that’s much deeper than other games of its kind.
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