Atlus announces Summon Night: Twin Age RPG for DS

As is the way with lorry-loads of other RPGs, the Summon Night series hasn't ever really caught on in the west. In fact, the franchise wasn't even released here until Summon Night: Swordcraft Story on Game Boy Advance in 2006 and there'd already been about five games prior to that one.

But publisher Atlus is clearly hoping Summon Night: Twin Age for DS could be the game to successfully break the west and has announced a release date for the game here of May 20th. The stylus-driven action RPG takes place in the Summon Night universe and is promising to deliver precise controls – hopefully that'll rival Zelda: Phantom Hourglass – and beautifully animated graphics.

The game's story – every RPG needs one, after all, and the more fantastical the better – follows a human girl called Reiha who has discovered she's pretty good at the magical art of summoning. Along with a young 'Summon Beast' called Aldo, she learns to communicate with Nature Spirits. Then, one day, the spirits start acting a bit off so the pair go off to investigate. Cue the start of your adventure.

You get to swap between both Reiha and Aldo during the game, with other characters joining your party throughout as well. The DS stylus is used both for moving around the world, and also in combat where attacks are triggered, characters healed and beasts conjured using all touch-based controls.

There are alternative story paths to explore, side quests, multiple endings, tonnes of dungeons and a variety of ways to play them all. You can collect and craft items and weapons which are then tradeable over local wireless with other players, too. Essentially, it's all promising to be packed to the rafters with RPG goodies of every description. Which is something to look forward to if you've finished Final Fantasy XII by that point and are looking for a new 40-hour long replacement. Look out for it in May.