Entry 4: The Summoning (PC)

Picked by Zeph

5/20/28

In 1993, Young Zeph acquired a new PC game called The Summoning. He didn't know at the time that it was the sequel to an older PC game called DarkSpyre, and he didn't care. All he cared about was the promise of a lengthy adventure through a treacherous labyrinth, filled with puzzles to solve and enemies to fight. That's exactly what he got.

The Summoning begins with a bit of plot and exposition. The world is under siege from a fearsome character named Shadow Weaver. A council of mages convenes to summoning their "chosen one", and the first thing you do in the game is scroll through the faces available to choose which one will represent you for the majority of the game (there are some items in the game that can change your appearance permanently, though they're rare.) You name your character, and then comes one of the most cruicial parts of the game - the initial distribution of statistics. You're given three options - a completely random distribution, a random distribution with a small pool of points that can be allocated, or complete control over point allocation. The last option is the one that most people should pick, and then comes the first example of tedium in the game: the rerolls. The game will assign you a number of stat points to be distributed, generally anywhere from 50-120 or so. The first time I played the game, I got 80-some points, which seemed reasonable. It wasn't until hours later that I realized I just didn't have the stats to efficiently proceed through the game. At minimum, you need 100 or so, though anything above that will make it notably easier in many ways. If you try to play through the game with fewer stat points than that, you're only making life unnecessarily harder on yourself.

The distribution of the stat points plays a huge part in how your character will play, but there are a few stats that are crucial no matter what build you hope to use. Unfortunately, the game itself does nothing to explain these stats. If you don't have the manual for the game, you might dump all your points into a relatively useless stat. ... I'm not talking from experience, no, of course not. ... Look, Young Zeph saw a stat category called "Power" and said "Well, yeah, I want as much power as I can get!". That was a poor decision. For reference, here are the six stats and their general purpose:

• Strength: Strength influences three things. First, the amount of damage you do when you successfully hit something with a physical attack. Second, the number of hit points your character has. Third, and most importantly, the amount of weight that your character can carry before becoming encumbered. It is crucial that your strength be at a 20 (max).


• Agility: Agility primarily affects how quickly your character can move, though it also affects how quickly you can perform various actions (such as swinging a weapon, casting a spell, and so on). The Summoning is a large game. You will spent a LOT of time walking through hallways. You do not want to be walking slowly. Get this up as close to a 20 as you can.


• Endurance: Endurance is kind of a tricky stat. It influences your character's hit points, but it also affects how long your character can do strenuous actions before becoming fatigued (running around encumbered, pushing blocks, and such). Endurance is important, but not as important as some of the others - around 15 in this skill is fine for the most part, though the closer you can get it to 20, the better.


• Accuracy: This statistic, according to the manual, affect projectile weapon accuracy and damage. That's true - but it ALSO affects your ability to hit whatever you're swinging at with melee attacks. Young Zeph didn't put many points into accuracy because he wanted to fight everything up close with a sword. Young Zeph missed a lot of attacks at crucial moments and died a lot. Don't be like Young Zeph. Put at least 15 points into this skill, preferably more.


• Talent: Everyone wants to be talented, right? Well, in the Summoning, Talent only matters for spellcasting. Talent affects how quickly your character levels up the various types of spells (through casting them), and how many spells of a type you can have prepared at a single time. Both of these things are good, but neither of them are as vital as the other statistics. This can easily be a dump stat if needed, sitting in single digits.


• Power: Ah, power. So misleading. Of course you'd want maximum power for a character, right? But much like Talent, Power only affects spells in the Summoning. Power influences the strength of the spell, or the duration of effects that happen over time. So casting a spell to freeze enemies in their tracks with a power of 1 will last nowhere near as long as casting it with a power stat of 15. You WILL be casting spells throughout the game, so you don't want this to be too low - but with a limited supply of MP, you can't rely solely on magic use to get through the game. This should be at least 10-15 - if you can get it higher, great, but it also won't hurt you TOO much if it's lower than that.

If you put the maximum of 20 points into every skill, you'll need 120 points available. I have to assume that it's possible to get that many, but I've never seen it myself. The most I've ever seen is about 110 or so, and it's much more common to see totals in the 80s and 90s. If you can get triple digit points, you're probably fine for the most part. After you distribute your stat points, your character is summoned to the council chambers, where your training begins. The actual training plays out in cutscenes, but you are presented with four basic options concerning your weapon and magical proficiencies. Essentially, you're getting a free level in one type of physical weapon, and one class of magical spell. Unfortunately, the game doesn't give you any kind of info about some of the choices, and you can absolutely make the game easier or harder on yourself by picking the right (or wrong) options. I'll briefly touch on the various categories here:

Weapon Categories:

• One-handed Weapons: Essentially, the majority of swords you'll find will be one-handed weapons. There are a handful of other weapons that will fit into this category, but it'll mainly be swords. This is the most common type of weapon that you'll find. They do average damage and have a relatively quick recovery time between swings. If you want to give yourself the easiest time possible, this should probably be your choice for your initial level.


• Two-handed weapons: Axes and larger swords (like claymores) fill out this category. They generally do more damage than one-handed weapons, at the cost of a lengthier recovery time between swings, and an inability to have anything in your empty hand while using it. Generally speaking, to me, this isn't worth the damage increase, but if you like to kill stuff as quickly as possible, it might be for you.


• Polearms: Spears. That's about it. You're not going to find many of them in the maze of corridors and rooms, and they're relatively underwhelming in their performance. Only choose this as your initial skill if you want an unnecessarily challenging existence.


• Projectiles: Mostly a bow and arrows, though you'll also find throwing knives as you progress through the game. You can do some solid damage with these, and the game helpfully gives you the option of having a quiver on your back for arrows, allowing you to go through up to 12 arrow shots. But once you're depleted of arrows or knives? You have to run to where they lay on the ground and pick them back up (and in the case of the knives, re-equip them) to use them again. This isn't too much of an issue early in the game, when enemies are slower and sparse, but later in the game, when you're dealing with swarms of fast-moving enemies, you're not likely going to want this to be your primary weapon class.

And, Magic Categories:

• Wizardry: Offensive spells, designed purely to either deal direct damage or increase what you deal on your own. From fireballs to globes of acid and lightning bolts, the only spell that doesn't directly deal damage is the Battle Rage spell, which will be a late-game acquisition to increase your attack speed tremendously. Taking this as your initial class isn't a bad idea, but I prefer a different option.


• Sorcery: These spells generally affect the environment in some way. You'll use these spells often, particularly the Kano spell, which opens some doors without locks. You'll also use these spells to create magic walls, teleport yourself around the map, or even open a portal to another realm. But you'll mainly Kano. You'll use Kano enough to level this spell class quickly, so it's not usually worth spending your free level in this category.


• Enchantment: Truth be told, I rarely use this spell class. The most common spell is the Freeze spell, which freezes enemies until you hit them (or the spell wears off). There are also spells to shield yourself from physical or magical damage, and a couple of crucial spells that you'll find late in the game. But you won't likely be using a ton of enchantments throughout the game, so taking your level in this class is only for those looking for a particular challenge.


• Healing: There are only four spells in this class, but the starting spell is vital to your success. The Liquify spell will turn precious gems into magical potions, that will be of aid in your adventure, but more importantly, casting this spell without a gem in hand will make a healing potion. You will be drinking a lot of these healing potions as you explore the world. A LOT of them. Putting a skill point in this class will make your potions restore more health, reducing the amount of MP you'll need to use in crafting them. A solid choice, and the one I usually make.

With character creation complete, the plot continues, and.... oh no! Shadow Weaver's army is invading! How did they find you? No time to find out! After watching your trainers fall in battle, the head of the council shoves several items into your hands, insists you ask a character named Malachi about "the coins", and transports you away from the massacre. Here's where the game starts. A stone wall cracks down the center and splits apart to reveal your inventory and character menus, slides down the screen, and as an adventurous tune starts, you're off! You start with a basic weapon, a spell in your chosen class, an apple to restore some hit points, a magical map, and the weight of the world on your shoulders.

A note about the game's music - what little there is, is quite good. I note the quantity because, as far as I can remember, there are about four times total that the game plays music - during the introduction, as you enter the outermost dungeons, and then in the ending cutscenes. That's it. You're gonna be running around in near-silence most of the time, with only the repetitive thud-thud-thud-thud-thud of your footsteps to listen to. If you have a favorite soundtrack to listen to, I highly recommend listening to it while you play this game.

As you get your bearings, you find yourself standing in front of an older man. This is Malachi, and he warns you about the Citadel and the dangers of the areas surrounding it. This is where you're introduced to The Summoning's conversation system - at regular times, you will have the chance to either click an underlined word to ask for further information on a topic. But there are hidden keywords, as well, that you can manually type to an NPC to open dialogue options that wouldn't otherwise be present. Remember how Rowena reminded you to ask about coins? If you type "coins" to Malachi, he will sheepishly hand over a sack containing coins that will prove essential. If you don't ask about the coins, you don't get them. This system had a ton of potential - it would have been so cool to be able to keep a list of topics to ask every NPC about, and potentially open up a wide variety of side quests or alternative methods of progression. Sadly, it's not implemented to anywhere near that level of detail. There are a few instances throughout the game where you'll need to ask an NPC about something you heard from a different NPC, but generally speaking, all the information you'll need will come from the information present in their normal dialogue. Missed opportunity, sadly.

After talking to Malachi, you'll have two options. To the west is a shortcut into the advanced sections of this area, with dangerous enemies that can deplete your health quickly. It's conceivable that you could fight your way through that path, but the amount of time and effort it would take you is insanely higher than if you take the other path. To the east is the passageway to the beginner levels, where you'll gradually be introduced to many of the game's systems, including spellcasting, item usage, resistances, runes, and many other things. What's more, going through the beginner levels will get you the opportunity to fill out your inventory with weapons and other items, which is essential, because... weapons break in this game. That's right, 25 years before Breath of the Wild infuriated gamers everywhere with weapons that break, The Summoning was treating it like no big deal, and PC players just accepted it. ... Gaming really was different back then. Anyway! You'll find a variety of weapons as you progress through the game, and it's a good idea to spend some time early on getting up to at least a basic level in all of them. After all, you never know when you might find yourself in a situation where you only have a weapon other than your favorite class to use, and if you're at a low level with that weapon type, you're gonna be in for a rough time. You'll also quickly learn at least one spell for each of the four classes of spells, but honestly, you won't need to worry about leveling those up like you do the weapons (and the way some spells burn through MP make grinding levels in magic prohibitive anyway). Most people should go through the Beginner stages.

.... I've written a lot more than I intended and we're barely into the game. Oops. Please take that as a sign of just how much I love this game. For the sake of this post, though, I'll try to summarize things a bit more in the last parts of this post.

As you progress through the levels, you'll find yourself needing to fulfill a variety of main objectives. The game doesn't keep an objective list for you, so I highly recommend keeping notes on what you're supposed to be doing, because if you forget, you might have a hard time finding NPCs to remind you. In the first part of the game, you'll need to find six pieces of a broken seal to proceed further into the maze of areas leading, eventually, to the Citadel. In the next part, you'll need to find three magic orbs to do the same, and in the following part, you'll need to acquire special tokens from five different knights. From that point onward, you're on the doorstep of the Citadel proper, and your quest will see you venturing both below the ground floors and climbing to its highest towers. The various areas making up the maps for each of these quests are BIG. Your magical map will come in handy, showing you where you've been, the location of traps, and other features of interest. In the MS-DOS days, you could print a paper copy of the map, which was amazingly helpful - unfortunately, that function doesn't work anymore, so I recommending using a screen capture tool to paste a screenshot into Paint or otherwise, so you can refer to the map as often as you need. This is especially important for later levels, when the layouts become incredibly confusing.

There are plenty of side quests in the game, and almost all of them are well worth doing. If you explore every level fully (and you really, really should be doing that), you'll have plenty of coins to use in bartering, and plenty of equipement and weapons. This is where your strength comes into play - if your strength score is too low, you'll never be able to carry everything you need to. Weapons breaking means you need to have a supply of backup weapons available - but those tend to be the heaviest things you'll carry around. If you have to choose between carrying a spare sword or a key vital to progression, which will you pick? The Summoning seems designed to force you into hard choices about what to take with you and what to leave behind, but it's unnecessarily brutal at times in forcing you to manage your inventory. Eventually, you'll get magical bags of holding that negate the weight of things placed in them, and they definitely help, but you'll be doing without them for most of the game, and you'll need to always be mindful of how much weight you're carrying. I recommend finding an efficicent place to use as a storeroom of sorts - enemies will never pick up items left on the ground, so if you can find a safe, convenient area, you can drop unneeded items and return for them as needed. It can be a pain to run all the way back to get them, though, so try to pick a good location if you do this.

Combat in The Summoning is pretty straightforward. When it comes to physical attacks, you need to position your character close enough to the enemy, and facing the proper direction, and then swing your weapon (either by clicking an icon or pressing the corresponding number on the keyboard). The game uses automatically generated dice rolls to determine whether your attack hits and how much damage it does, and your weapon goes onto cooldown regardless of whether it hits or not. Once it's back up you can swing again. At the same time, the enemy will be attacking you, either with melee or ranged attacks (or sometimes both depending on the situation and enemy). Repeat this process until one of you dies. Skilled players can duck into range and attack an enemy before running out of range of their own attack - although this isn't effective against every enemy, particularly faster ones from mid-game onward, it can save you a lot of unnecessary healing early on. Magical attacks work a bit differently - you cast the spell, the projectile flies, and if it hits the enemy, it hits the enemy. Damage is determined by your stats and the enemy's stats, and you can cast the same spell again immediately if you have the MP for it, and another charge of the spell prepared.

Ah, let's talk about The Summoning's spell system! It uses a pretty fun mechanic when it comes to preparing spells. Each spell is made up of anywhere between 2-8 hand gestures. When you open your spellcasting preparation menu, the game world pauses and you have as many attempts as you wish to prepare your spells. Earlier, I noted that Talent was a relatively useless skill, and this is why. At any point during the game, you can pause the game and prepare whatever you need. It might be slightly more convenient to be able to prepare five uses of a fireball spell, but you can also just prepare two, cast them, prepare two more, and repeat. You'll find scraps of parchment throughout the game world that will give you a spell's name and the gestures required to prepare it. It costs nothing to prepare the spell - the MP is expended only when casting it. Now, I know what you're thinking. Why can't you just look up the list of the spells and prepare the most powerful ones right from the start? The programmers thought of that. You only have access to the gestures that you have seen for yourself from parchments during your playthrough. So even if you know the gestures you need for a spell, if you haven't seen those gestures, you can't use them. This helps to prevent overpowered spells from making the early game trivial. That said, once you've seen the gestures for a spell from any source, you can use them - so even if you haven't discovered a particular spell, you may well be able to prepare it. You'll definitely find yourself using some spells more than others - but I'll admit that during my most recent playthrough, I tried to use other spells more often. I had a couple of fights where I poisoned a dangerous enemy, locked them into a room, and simply waited for them to die. It worked much better than I'd anticipated it would!

MP is limited, and although it does replenish itself naturally over time (at the rate of something like 1 MP every 45-60 seconds or something ridiculous like that), your primary means of restoring MP will be nightshade plants you'll purchase and find throughout the dungeons. You have to be careful with these plants, as they're good for a single use only. Mistakenly using nightshade for a second time will see your character eating the meat of the plant, which is poisonous, as opposed to the MP-restoring berries of a fresh plant. Nothing feels worse than accidentally posioning yourself in a crucial situation and having to deal with that alongside enemies trying to kill you. On that note, let's talk about the inventory system! You access the inventory by either physically dragging it up from the bottom of the screen (with your mouse), or pushing a button to raise it (on your keyboard). You can see the first couple rows of your inventory at all times, but everything below that will need you to pull up the full screen. When you drag it up, you'll be able to see all of your inventory slots, as well as your character model with its equipment and some other stats. But here's the thing - when you have your inventory screen up, you can't see the game screen, and unlike the spell preparation screen, the game does not pause while you have your inventory open. Are you in the middle of a tense fight and your weapon breaks? You need to run to safe spot so you can get the inventory open and equip a new one. Did you get poisoned? If you don't have a spell prepared to cure it, hopefully you can navigate to a rune or potion and take care of it before it kills you. Dealing with a real-time inventory is stressful, but it's honestly much more enjoyable that way than having the game pause while you fiddle in the inventory. The latter would make the game far too easy.

One last note before I wrap this up. The single most frustrating thing about The Summoning is that it relies heavily on key items, but the game won't always tell you what it considers key items. It is entirely possible to softlock yourself in the game if you use or miss an item that you need to progress. What's more, the game doesn't auto-save, so it's entirely on the player to save their game. The game gives you about as many save files as you'll need, and it's crucial that you use multiple of them. There's no worse feeling than reaching a point where you can't proceed because you missed or used a key item, and you don't have a backup save. This happened to me during my first playthrough of the game. It hurt. Badly.

So you've got the basic idea about how to play now! Navigate through the various areas of the game, talk to NPCs, get new and better equipment, make your way toward Shadow Weaver's Citadel, and save the world. It's a pretty basic premise, but it's a big game. Even with a pretty decent idea of what I needed to do, my recent playthrough of the game took me over 30 hours to get through. A big part of it was figuring out the most effective way to get through some of the puzzles, and I honestly could have made it through much more quickly if I hadn't hoarded a bunch of items and weapons (but I always hoard stuff in RPGs, don't ask me to change because I won't ._.). The story is non-existent at times and the game can get confusing quite frequently, but it's still a fairly solid game that's worth a playthrough for people who enjoy RPGs. I'd been thinking of replaying the game and was trying to remember where my external floppy disk drive is (because I still have my physical copy of the game, including the box and the 3.5" floppy disks), when I discovered that the game is actually available on Steam! I got it on sale for about $5 and it was well worth that price. But if you decide to play it via the Steam version, please be sure to read this: The game will sometimes glitch out and crash. Oftentimes, you'll get warning signs of this approaching via garbled text, particularly in the inventory menus, but the risk of a crash is ever-present and you shouldn't rely solely on those signs. Save your game often, but remember to keep multiple save files.

Part of the reason my playthrough took so long is because there simply aren't a lot of good guides out there that provide solid walkthroughs for what you need to do, step by step. I'm thinking of making a full walkthrough for the game myself at some point! But that will take a lot of time and effort. So for now, if you want to watch my playthrough, please feel free to click here: Zeph Plays The Summoning