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Dark Summoner is a free RPG card game app that is available in both iTunes and Android developed by ATeam. Many top designers were gathered together in order to create a nightmarish dark fantasy world. In the game you'll be able to go on missions to collect monster cards, treasure, and gold. Form teams of monsters to battle with other players. Summon more monsters to complete your army and sacrifice the useless ones to strengthen the leaders. Choose your guild and your clan and lead them to victory.

For those who have played Rage of Bahamut, the gameplay is very similar to theirs. As a result, I'll sometimes compare the two apps in this review. I don't know which came first so I'm not trying to say that one game ripped off the other.

At the very start, you'll have three guilds to choose from: Tyranny, Sin, and Rancor. I'm not sure whether or not it matters which guild you choose in the end. For one thing, many players end up filling their decks with monsters from other guilds along the way.

The graphics for the cards can be very frightening. You'll see zombies with peeling rotten flesh and monsters with no eyes. They are all extremely twisted and nightmarish. Certainly not for the faint of heart or the young. Personally, I like the graphics in Rage of Bahamut better. However, Dark Summoner has much better animations as compared to the random screen flashes in Bahamut. Each monster has a different level in the form of an alphabet letter.

You can get new monster cards by either Summoning them or acquiring them through quests. You are allowed one free Summon each day. By connecting the game to Twitter, Facebook, or openFeint, you'll be able to get more free Summons for each site that you connect to. If you are a new player, you're allowed to do a Rookie's Summon, which will give you a Rank A monster card, thus giving you an advantage in the game. However, the summoning costs 100 Soul Points and Soul Points can only be acquired by spending real money in their in-game store. So if you're unwilling to part with your money, you'll end up missing this chance. Also, this type of Summon can only be used within the first 72 hours after a player signs up. There are different types of Summons and each will give you different levels of monster cards. For example, some Summons are more likely to turn up higher level cards than others. All at a costlier price, of course.

Completing missions requires Energy points and each mission requires multiple attempts before completion. Each attempt will require you to spend a certain amount of Energy. As you progress through the missions, the cost will rise. The good thing though is that your Energy will recharge over time, about one Energy point back per minute. There's a nice little countdown timer below the Energy bar so you know exactly how long you need to wait before you get another point. However, if you're impatient, you can always fully recharge it through the use of costly potions. Regarding the missions themselves, they have a much clearer progress bar than Bahamut, but there are a few things that Bahamut does better. For example, Bahamut quests have a much better general storyline. The storyline of missions in Dark Summoner is reported purely in the form of tasks to complete. Also, in Bahamut, you'll always end up with some sort of reward after defeating about three to four monsters. In Dark Summoner, on the other hand, the reward system is not so rigid. There were times when I went through three missions consecutively but there was not a single reward in sight. After about every five missions, you'll be able to take on the boss to move onto the next area.

Like in Bahamut, you can also battle other players. However, you won't be able to seize treasure from others  through battles like Bahamut allows. So if you're missing a few collectibles for your collection, you'll have no choice but to replay the missions until you get all that you need. You can get a max of three different monster cards or collectibles. You'll never receive potions or gold as rewards though. Anyways, back to the battling system. The battle page will give you a list of different opponents to fight from, telling you the player's level, a picture of their leader monster cards, and their Battle Points. Battling other players cost points and these points are determined by the total number of BP of your monsters in your current formation. You'll be able to edit your formation on your home page, and you'll even be able to ask the computer to generate a current best deck for you. You can either view the battle where your monsters will deal damage to your opponent one by one or directly skip to the results. The battle can go by very fast so unless you're very quick at reading you won't be able to analyze the battle's log. However, the next screen will allow you to see your battle log in more detail. Winning the battle will earn you gold, exp, and honor points. Losing the battle will result in you losing gold. Even if you do not have enough BP to support your full formation, you'll still be able to battle although some of your monsters might be missing. In general, as long as your opponent's BP is less than yours, you will usually win the battle unless your opponent has really strong monsters or good combos. By having certain conditions you'll be able to unlock various combos that will increase your attack. For example, having monsters from the same guild or having all your monsters be the same level are combos.

Collectibles: Collectibles are Dark Summoner's version of Bahamut's Treasures. As mentioned before, you can only gain them through missions. Every set you complete will earn you a Dark Crystal. These Dark Crystals can then be used to unlock boss battles. Defeating the boss will give you a copy of the boss as a card which you can add to your formation. Killing a Raid Boss requires multiple hits and each hit will cost 10 Energy Points. There is also a time limit of around two hours to defeat the boss. The strength of your attack is determined by the total attack power of you and your allies so it's crucial that you stock up on allies before taking on a Raid Boss. Allies can be gained by sending friend invites to other players. Collecting multiple set copies will allow you to battle the Raid Boss again.

You can increase your monster's level and stats by sacrificing other monsters to enhance it. Each sacrifice will cost gold and will get more expensive as the monster's level rises. Unlock in Bahamut, you will not be able to evolve your monsters so there's no point in hoarding multiple copies of weak monsters except to sacrifice them at a later date.

You can only have 30 monsters in your deck, a much lower number than in Bahamut. This limit can actually be quite annoying as it quickly forces you to determine which monsters you want to keep in your formation. All the rest of the monsters need to go as sacrifices. Through missions you can gain more monsters but if your deck is full they'll go to your gift box where they'll disappear after an hour if not collected. If there's a certain monster in your gift box that you want to keep, you'll again have no choice but to keep sacrificing. The constant need to sacrifice monsters has become a hassle. Of course, you could always sell your monsters if you are low on gold, but that seems to be a waste considering that you could have powered up your other monsters to earn more gold. I wish that Dark Summoner would increase the monster limit of the deck.

Clans: Clans are Dark Summoner's equivalent of Rage of Bahamut's Orders. You can either join another clan or make your own. You'll be able to donate gold in order to increase your clan's power. Unfortunately, you can only donate in multiples of thousands. Of course, upgrading your clan to the next level can be very expensive, and most clan leaders might even kick you out if they feel that you haven't been active enough (i.e. posting in forums and donating). The nice thing about joining a guild though is that you'll gain Ally Points when your clan goes to battle, and these Ally Points can then be used to summon more monsters at 200 Ally Points each.

In conclusion, Dark Summoner is a very addicting game as you try to collect as many monsters as you can, complete the missions, and complete all the treasure sets. The monster cards are a little scary but thankfully not enough for me to have nightmares after playing. My main complaint would be the constant need to sacrifice monsters to make room for new monsters. Although the waiting time to replenish your Energy or Battle points can be annoying, it does give you a break in between each play. One nice thing about Dark Summoner, as compared to Rage of Bahamut, is that it does not rely as much on forcing players to tweet or post things to Twitter or Facebook in order to get goodies. There certainly is, but not as much. Also, it's easier to get potions that you otherwise would have had to spend real pocket money than in Bahamut.However, both games still rely heavily on "forcing" players to use real money in order to gain goodies. While very similar to Rage of Bahamut in gameplay, it also has many fresh takes. I rate this game 4.5 out of 5 stars.

For those who are interested, I have provided links to the iTunes and Google Play and the game's official pages:

Official Website: http://www.darksummoner.com/
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.darksummoner
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dark-summoner/id480950048?mt=8
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/darksummoner.us

UPDATE:  Upon further inspection, I found that you can indeed increase the maximum number of cards allowed in your deck using a Monster Limiter potion. However, getting more potions can be very costly.

Pet Shop Story is a freemium simulation game app developed by TeamLava Games and is available both in iTunes and Google Play. In this game, you own a pet store. You'll be able to purchase various pets (dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, reptiles, and aquatic) for your store and take care of them. Collect from pets to earn money so that you can buy more pets or decorations from your store. You can even add neighbors and go visit their stores and play with their pets.

Pets: Since this game revolves around pets, I'll start with them first. The assortment of pets available for purchase focuses mainly on dogs and cats. There's only about two or three fish and birds available and only one bunny available for purchase. Then half the other pets aren't even really unique because they're just the same common dogs and cats only in some sort of costume (mainly bunny costume). If you're looking for any exotic pets such as pandas you're out of luck. Also, most of the pets you are able to purchase require you to pay Gems, which you can only get by paying real money.

If any of you have played The Sims Social on Facebook, the system that the game uses is very similar to theirs. You have goals that you need to accomplish. Some can be easily done while others require multiple steps. Most of the time you'll be rewarded with coins but there are times when you can earn pets. The tasks are usually simple, such as collecting from your pets a certain number of times, breeding a certain number of pets, buying a certain number of decorations, or visiting your neighbors. At other times, the tasks will be somewhat more complicated because you will be required to ask for things from your neighbors. These types of tasks have always seriously annoyed me, because I hate having to rely on other people to help you finish your tasks. It can help if you added some good neighbors, but most of the time my neighbors either ignore my requests or give me something completely different. Unfortunately, a good number of tasks and pets require you to do such things. Of course, you could always skip the task using Gems, but the option is very costly. Thankfully, Pet Shop Story encourages you to post your Storm8 IDs on their Facebook page so that others will be able to add you.


Earning Money: The only main way to earn money is to collect from your pets. Each pet has a different duration of time before you'll be able to collect again. After you collect, you must feed them and they'll give you EXP to upgrade your level in return. Other ways of earning money, as mentioned above, are to complete tasks or to visit your neighbors and play with their pets. There is an option for you to convert your Gems into coins but I wish the option was the opposite. While it's not impossible to earn Gems from playing the game, the opportunities are rare and the amount earned minimal. 

Breeding: Before you can begin to breed, you must have two pets of the same type. When you first purchase a pet, you're only given one, so you must buy another mate for the same price. After that, you'll be able to start breeding babies. Breeding each type requires you to wait different amounts of times. For example, breeding a Fuzzy Lop Rabbit will require 12 hours while breeding a Shorthair Cat will only take a couple of minutes. Don't wait too long to place your new baby pet after it is finished breeding though. Wait too long and your baby will become sick. Curing it will require 10 Gems and, if you don't have that much, you'll be forced to abandon it, thus making you feel heartless and cruel. You can only breed two babies of the same type as four pets (two adults and two babies) will create a complete family. Once you have a complete family, you'll be able to upgrade your pets' playpens. Doing so will allow you to earn more money each time you collect. Unfortunately, it won't shorten the duration of collecting time.


Crossbreeding: You'll also have the option of Crossbreeding your pets, so you'll need two pets of different types. Crossbreeding will usually take several hours but it's fun to experiment what new pets you will get. For example, crossbreeding a Labrador and a Poodle will give you a Labradoodle.

Decorations: All of the rest of the items that you can purchase are merely for decoration purposes only. However, there are a number of items whose purpose I don't understand. For example, you can buy a barrel of doggie treats or a stack of cat pillows, but these items serve absolutely no function. In that case, what's the point of buying them? It would have made a lot more sense if I could interact with these items, such as grabbing a treat and giving it to one of the dogs. You can run the game without buying any decorations, except if you want to complete tasks.

Customers: When I first started this game, I thought this would be more like a time-management game where I would have to serve customers. However, the actual gameplay was completely different. Sure, there will be customers roaming around your shop, but they're just background animation. You'll see customers playing with your pets or buying them, but these actions don't influence gameplay at all. You won't earn money from them and your pets' happiness will not increase as a result (though the animals never had a happiness meter in the first place. Unless they become sick, they'll remain forever happy.). So really what's the whole point?

Technical Issues: While playing, I've noticed that the game can be rather buggy. For example, the game keeps disconnecting on me and having to refresh, forcing me to collect everything twice. Also, the graphics will often "freeze" in certain areas. For example, even though you had just collected from your pets, the Collect bubble still hovers over the pet. If you tap the pet again, it will show that you had already collected from it, but the bubble still remains.

Gifting: As mentioned above, you can either send your neighbors gifts or ask your neighbors for help in accomplishing tasks. You can only send gifts to neighbors once a day and you can only ask for their help once a day. When sending gifts, it can easily be seen which neighbors you have already gifted. However, this is not the case when asking. The window does not show which neighbors you have already asked and unless you remember which, you might end up having to select all of them only to later realize you can't send.

Conclusion: This is a great game for kids to play. It doesn't require a lot of attention so your kids won't have to go into tapping-frenzy mode in order to keep up with the gameplay. It's also a very nice and relaxing game for adults to, though it can become very addicting. The animals are all very adorable, even if the selection can be somewhat limited. However, the game is still updating so it's constantly churning out new pets every now and then. The tasks list also gives you something to do while you're looking after your pet store. I would say that my main complaint is the number of things that require you to ask your neighbors or spend Gems in order to complete. As a result, the freemium status of the game can make gameplay very limited if you aren't willing to shell out money from your pockets to buy Gems. Thus, I will give this app a rating of four out of five stars.