Summoner’s War Chronicles: A Hidden Gem

Having played Summoner’s War Sky Arena (SWSA) religiously for several years, I stumbled upon Summoner’s War Chronicles (SWC) recently. Oh boy, what a pleasant surprise.

Chronicles is essentially Sky Arena 2.0. With the same strategic complexity and improved graphics, and a hero to lead my team of summons, this game sunk its’ hooks into me instantly.

Summoner’s War Sky Arena has long been considered to be the godfather of modern hero collector RPGs, and with good reasons. The level of complexity and creativity in challenging game play, exciting boss fights, and frustrating yet rewarding real time PvP are things that few other games in this genre can offer.

Unfortunately, the game has not been very popular, which explains why I never heard about it until recently - well after its 1 year anniversary celebration. Part of the reason, I believe, is the immensely steep learning curve for anyone that isn’t already familiar with the game mechanics of Summoner’s War universe. The depth and complexity of this game is simply overwhelming. Depth and complexity are usually good things, but only if players stick around long enough to learn them.

In this blog, I’ll be reflecting on both the highs and lows of Summoner’s War: Chronicles based on my personal experience with the game.

The Good

Best Strategic Team-Building Game on Mobile

At the core of Summoner’s War: Chronicles is a deep and intricate team-building mechanic. Assembling a team of three monsters alongside your chosen Summoner requires careful consideration of strengths, weaknesses, and synergy. This forces the player to make tough trade-offs: do you prioritize a team with high damage output but little sustain, or balance it with healers and tanks at the cost of lower burst damage?

This constant balancing act makes it one of the most strategic mobile games in terms of team composition, offering both satisfaction and complexity to those willing to dive deep into the meta.

High Skill Ceiling Combat

Chronicles’ combat system offers a high skill ceiling, with lots of actions available to the player. Each Summoner has five active abilities, and managing these alongside your monsters’ skills creates plenty of room for tactical depth. Unlike auto-battle gacha games, Chronicles makes you responsible for movement, ability timing, and positioning.

A good example of this is in raid content, where dodging boss mechanics while ensuring your monsters are hitting their marks requires precise timing and quick decision-making. This gives the game a sense of flow and engagement that many mobile RPGs lack, catering to players who crave more active involvement during combat.

Dynamic Combat with a Balance of Chance and Control

One of the more impressive aspects of the combat system is how it manages to maintain a balance between chance and control. There’s enough randomness with critical hits, buffs, and debuffs to keep fights feeling dynamic, but not so much that you ever feel like you’re at the mercy of pure RNG. You have room to adjust your strategies based on the battlefield situation.

For example, I’ve had battles where a timely stun from my support unit turned the tide in my favor, but it didn’t feel like luck was my only chance. Instead, I had planned my stuns around the boss’s mechanics, giving me that satisfying “earned” feeling when it landed perfectly.

Unique Hero Units with Distinct Identities

Each Summoner in Chronicles plays differently, and their distinct identities make experimenting with different units feel rewarding. Orbia, for instance, focuses on magic-based damage, while Kina specializes in healing and support. This makes playing as each Summoner feel like a completely different experience, and it extends the game’s replayability as you swap between them to tackle different content.

Five Skill Sets for Flexibility

The five weapon set system is a standout feature. With five weapons, each with it’s unique skill sets, available to each hero unit, players have a variety of combat tools at their disposal. This gives you more flexibility and strategic options during battles, allowing for more thoughtful and nuanced combat strategies.

Challenging and Rewarding Boss Fights

One of the game’s strengths lies in its boss encounters. These fights are far from a simple “damage check.” They require awareness, coordination (especially in multiplayer), and tactical use of your monsters’ abilities. Boss mechanics often demand perfect timing on dodges or interrupts, which keeps these encounters engaging. The rewards for these fights are equally satisfying, offering players a sense of accomplishment for their efforts.

Quick and Simple Farming

One area where Summoner’s War: Chronicles shines is in how it handles farming. Resource collection for upgrading your monsters and gear is relatively quick and streamlined compared to other games in the genre. Auto-battle modes allow for background grinding, and Com2uS has wisely implemented fast farming systems that don’t demand hours of repetitive gameplay to gather the necessary resources.

Generous Freebies and Events

Com2uS has been notably generous with free resources and summons. The game features frequent in-game events, making it easy for new players to catch up with veterans. The developers consistently hand out freebies, allowing you to amass a strong roster of monsters without feeling pressured to spend real money. I found that in the early game, I rarely felt deprived of resources, as the developers continually pushed out rewards.

Catch-Up Mechanics for New Players

New players won’t feel left behind thanks to a plethora of catch-up mechanics. For instance, players can jump straight to level 90 and connect multiple Summoners to share levels, allowing you to level one and apply the progress across all Summoners. This eliminates the grind of leveling each character separately, which is a huge quality-of-life boost for both new and returning players.

Opportunities to Get Strong Light/Dark Summons Without Paying

One of the most attractive features for free-to-play players is the availability of Light and Dark summons. These highly coveted monsters are often the most powerful, and in many gacha games, acquiring them feels like a pay-to-win situation. However, Summoner’s War: Chronicles provides multiple opportunities to get these summons without requiring any real-money purchases, offering hope for those who don’t want to break the bank.

The Bad

Clunky Hero Movement and Camera Control

As much as the combat system is engaging, the movement and camera are frustratingly clunky. I’ve encountered numerous situations where my heroes simply won’t move if the auto-attack feature is toggled on. This becomes a major issue during PvP content or difficult raids where precision control is necessary. It’s an annoying bump that detracts from what should be a smooth combat experience.

Additionally, the camera angles can be awkward, making it difficult to navigate complex environments. Playing on mobile, it is difficult to move, activate skills, toggle summon actions and spin the camera.

Steep Learning Curve

This might be the Achille’s heel of SW Chronicles.

Unlikely most games with basic attack power, magic power, and defense stats, this game has a huge number of nuanced, less straightforward attributes like accuracy, evasion, resistance, and precision. On top of that, there are hundreds of buffs, debuffs, active skills, and passive skills across hundreds of summons. Each hero has 5 sets of active skills, and three sets of passive skills for a total of 48 skills per hero.

Then there’s the equipment system (gems, effect stones, combining, succession, refining), monster skill system, rune system, crafting system (alchemy, processing, blacksmithing, cooking, guild crafting), melting and alteration system, transformation system, symbol system, evolution system, awakening system, hero skill system, account traits, ascension bonuses, cosmetic system (which gives actual bonuses), and the artifact system - just to give you an idea of the complexity and depth.

This is A LOT for a new player to take in. People who have played SWSA would have a basic understanding of the monsters, skills and runes, but almost everything else is new.

Inventory Management Nightmare

Inventory management in Summoner’s War: Chronicles is a mess. The sheer number of different items (from crafting materials to runes and consumables) makes keeping track of everything a headache, especially when you’re juggling items for dozens of monsters and multiple Summoners.

Upgrading and managing runes gives me anxiety, so I actively avoid it, which most certainly impacts my in game performance.

Far Too Many Types of Currency

The game suffers from an overabundance of currency types, which complicates progression unnecessarily. There’s gold, crystals, arena coins, guild points, magic dust, and many more, each used for different purposes. This excess of currencies leads to confusion and clutter, forcing players to track too many resources at once. A more streamlined system would make the experience far smoother.

Too Many Upgrade Systems

Summoner’s War: Chronicles bombards players with upgrade options. You’re constantly leveling up, evolving, and enhancing your monsters, runes, equipment, weapons, and accessories. While having progression systems is great, Chronicles goes overboard. The sheer number of upgrade mechanics is overwhelming, and keeping up with all of them can be exhausting. It adds a layer of complexity that doesn’t necessarily enhance the game but instead bloats it.

Tedious Crafting System

For players who don’t enjoy crafting, Summoner’s War: Chronicles might become a bit of a chore. Crafting is required for upgrading gear and acquiring materials, but the process is tedious and time-consuming. It feels more like a requirement than a fun side activity, and for someone who doesn’t like crafting (like me), it’s an element I’d rather avoid.

Guild Content Lacks Social Element

Guilds are an important part of MMORPGs, but Summoner’s War: Chronicles drops the ball in fostering a truly social guild experience. While guild content exists (guild wars and raids), the lack of engaging social features makes it feel transactional. I’ve found that the interactions between guild members are sparse, and there’s little incentive for meaningful communication or collaboration outside of coordinating for guild events.

Heavy Pay-to-Win Mechanics

Like its predecessor, Summoner’s War: Sky Arena, Chronicles has a heavy pay-to-win element. While you can play for free, staying competitive—particularly in PvP—requires spending money. Those willing to drop cash on premium summons and gear have a clear advantage over free players, making it difficult to rise in the ranks without investing real money. The power gap becomes more evident as you progress into the later stages of the game.

Small Player Base

The player base for Summoner’s War: Chronicles is fairly small compared to other MMORPGs, and this has a noticeable impact on group content and community engagement. In dungeons that require multiple players, finding a group can sometimes take longer than expected, especially during off-peak hours. Additionally, chat can feel slow and inactive, reducing the sense of being part of a bustling online world. While the smaller player base doesn’t ruin the experience, it can make certain group activities less dynamic and more tedious than they should be.

Final Thoughts

Summoner’s War: Chronicles stands as one of the more ambitious mobile MMORPGs in the market today, successfully blending real-time combat with the strategic depth that fans of the Summoner’s War series have come to love. The game offers a satisfying and complex team-building experience with plenty of viable units, challenging boss fights, and a well-balanced combat system that rewards tactical thinking. Its generous freebies and catch-up mechanics make it accessible to both new and veteran players, while the availability of top-tier Light/Dark units without spending money adds value for free-to-play users.

However, it’s not without its issues. Steep learning curve, clunky controls, an overwhelming number of currencies, and a heavy reliance on pay-to-win mechanics hold the game back from reaching its full potential. The tedium of inventory management, crafting, and overcomplicated upgrade systems further dampen what could be a smoother experience. Additionally, the small player base and lackluster guild interaction can detract from the MMORPG feel, making the world seem less alive than it should be.

In the end, Summoner’s War: Chronicles is a game that will appeal most to players who enjoy deep strategy, monster collection, and high-skill combat, but you may find yourself hesitant to dive in too deep unless you have time to get past the initial learning curve. For fans of the franchise and those who enjoy complex mobile games, there’s plenty to enjoy here, but it comes with its fair share of trade-offs.

For me personally, this is still one of the best strategy MMORPG available on mobile, so I’ll be sticking around for a bit longer to see where this ride takes me.