Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner is the latest RPG to hit the PSP. While the genre has had a difficult time gaining traction, Jewel Summoner manages to gain some ground by basing its gameplay on what is arguably one of the biggest portable RPG success stories – Poke’mon.

Visually, Jewel Summoner is a mix of 2D and 3D. Dungeon sequences are in 3D while villages are static maps where you drag a cursor around to travel to different locations. While in villages, you can talk to locals or visit shops. Dungeons look good, though they lack detail and resemble dungeons you might see in a PSOne RPG. Story sequences are told through 2D overlays that show each of the characters. Monster designs are nice and range from basic designs like snakes to unique monsters.

Jewel Summoner’s audio is notable for two reasons. Nearly all of the game is voiced, which is unique for PSP RPGs. The quality of the voice work bounces between good and not so good. For the most part, the voices go well with the character’s personalities, though some – namely Vice – seem a little out of place. The soundtrack is excellent and does everything you want a good soundtrack to do; it is there when you want to hear it, but it is very easy to let it just melt away into the background.

Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner is a turn-based RPG that comes about as close as any game has come to reproducing Poke’mon. You play as a young hunter named Vice who has a bit of a chip on his shoulder. His journey eventually leads him to “The Order,” an organization that trains special monster summoners known as “Jewel Summoners”. While on his visit, The Order takes an interest in Vice since he is able to summon monsters with no training. While showing off his ability, his summoning jewel becomes embedded in the Monolith (a large structure at the center of The Order’s base). Without his jewel, Vice reluctantly allows The Order to train him as a summoner while they work on a way to retrieve his jewel.

The gameplay behind Jewel Summoner is basic, consisting of static village sequences and dungeon crawling. Villages play a small part in the overall scheme of things and are mainly there to help move the story forward or as a place to restock your supplies. It isn’t among the game’s more exciting aspects, but it does what it needs to do.

Most of the game consists of dungeon crawling. These sequences play out like any other RPG; you wander around looking for the next story event, solving puzzles and encountering random enemy encounters every couple of feet, at which point the Poke’mon aspect kicks in.

Battles are turn-based and begin with your party calling their monsters to the battlefield. During their turn, party members can order their monsters to attack, guard, escape or use an item. Monsters can also be swapped out at anytime. If a monster is defeated, they leave battle.

Similar to Poke’mon, you can capture wild monsters once they are weakened using prisms. The rub to the system is that monsters can only be trapped in prisms that correspond to their alignment. In other words, a water-aligned monster can’t be trapped in a fire prism. On one hand, the system adds a strategic element, though at the same time it also feels like it was something that was thrown in just to add something different. Most times it feels an unnecessary complication.

Overall, Jewel Summoner is an interesting spin on the whole monster-capturing genre. While some of the mechanics, like the prism system, get in the way the main problem facing the game is its pacing. There are several long, drawn-out story sequences that take way too long to get to the point. Most of the first half-hour is mainly dialogue with two or three short, easy fights thrown in. On a home console this is forgivable, but it really doesn’t work for a game that is meant to be portable. Once it gets going, the story is interesting, but it takes awhile.

Jewel Summoner also includes a multiplayer mode where you can challenge your friends in monster battles.

Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner’s basic gameplay is simple and easy to just pick up and play. Even some of the more complex systems, like Amalgamy and the dynamic turn system, are easy to pick up once you’ve seen them in action a few times. New elements are introduced slowly, so there’s never a sense that you are being overwhelmed. However, the slow pacing also hurts since it takes a while for new elements to be introduced. There are times where you simply feel like you are stuck in the mud and not going anywhere.

Battles are challenging, though the level of challenge depends on the types of monsters you bring into battle. Both the evolution and level systems leave a little room for experimentation (and mistakes), though it is usually a good idea to think before committing yourself to any changes.

Battles are fought using multiple monsters at a time. In addition to playing as Vice, you can select two other characters to join you on your journey. During battles, each party member summons one monster (each summoner can also hold two monsters in reserve), who then take turns attacking. A small meter at the bottom of the screen indicates the monster’s attack order, which can be used for forming strategies. All monsters belong to an elemental type and follow a paper-rock-scissors relationship with other types. Fire is weak against water and so on. Hitting a monster’s weak spot deals more damage and brings with it the chance to delay an attack. However, always going after a monster’s weak spot isn’t a smart move since they will become enraged, which can increase their attack.

Because of this wrinkle, your initial monster order becomes important. Having too many of one type could result in several skipped turns. At the same time, it could also mean a supreme beatdown if your opponent is weak against that type.

The more monsters fight, the more experience they gain, eventually leveling up and gaining new abilities and better stats. Jewel Summoner takes the process of evolution even further by adding other ways to change your monsters using a system called Amalgamy. By fusing your jewels with quartz, you can add new abilities to your monster’s repertoire of moves. Eventually you can add enough quartz that your monsters will evolve into a new type based on what you added to it. Amalgamy can also be used to pad your monster’s stats and abilities, making them stronger.

All in all, Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner is a fun game, especially for fans of monster collection games. However, the game’s slow pacing, as well as a few more minor issues, hurt its replay value, as well as its portability – making it good for a long road trip, but not good for quick play.