GaijinWorks has been neck-deep in localization work for an English-language version of Bandai Namco’s Summon Night 6: Lost Borders since the beginning of the year. The latest and greatest chapter in the mainline Summon Night saga takes everything that players loved about Summon Night 5 and makes it even bigger and better.

In Summon Night 6: Lost Borders, each of the the three main characters has a single companion, a flying sidekick with an amazing special power, and they are all surprised when dozens of strangers begin to suddenly appear—literally falling out of the clear, blue sky. Lost Borders can be played and enjoyed without any knowledge of the previous games in the series, but fans will recognize that the mysterious strangers are actually returning characters from all of the mainline Summon Night games.

GajinWorks is gearing up for a unique “Prize Summoner” promotion that will put games, consoles and other exciting prizes into the hands of the company’s biggest fans. Starting today, North American fans can qualify for weekly prize drawings by re-tweeting specific Tweets from GajinWorks' official Twitter feed with the #SN6PS hashtag.

Among the many prizes to be won are PlayStation TV consoles and copies of the Summon Night 6: Lost Borders Wonderful Edition, a sold-out run of lush, feature-packed box sets that include the game along with bonuses like a plush figure, hardcover art book, soundtrack CD and much more. Each week a Wonderful Edition winner and a runner-up PlayStation TV winner will be chosen at random from all eligible retweets of the official tweet. At the end of the promotion, one lucky winner chosen from all eligible retweets during the promotion will receive a grand prize package that includes a 55-inch HDTV, a PlayStation TV console, a copy of the rare Wonderful Edition box set and an assortment of savory snacks and sweet beverages. Anyone can get one prize entry weekly with just a retweet of the Prize Summoner tweet for that week.

GajinWorks president Victor Ireland sees the weekly giveaways as a way to reward fans for keeping the faith as he and his dedicated staff labored to complete the English localization, voice recording, testing and production of the biggest game in the company’s history. “If you missed the opportunity to lock down a Summon Night 6: Lost Borders Wonderful Edition before the presale window closed one year ago,” he adds, “the ‘Prize Summoner’ promotion is your last chance to score what is sure to be one of the world’s most desirable video-game collectibles before it hits the secondary market.”

Released in Japan as a celebration of the series’ 15th anniversary, Summon Night 6: Lost Borders offers gorgeous widescreen graphics presented in high definition, a first for the series. The fully 3-D battle system allows Chain Attacks that happen automatically when an enemy is surrounded by two or more allies; in these situations, each ally can hit the enemy without risk of counterattack. In addition to the Summons that are a hallmark of the series, two allies can team up for a breathtaking “Summon Burst” attack that invokes a devastating magical strike from one of many giant fantastical creatures.
Combat is only one part of the Summon Night 6 experience. The series is well known for its “night conversations”—one-on-one encounters where various characters confide in one another, leading to a web of elaborate, emotional storytelling with many different branching paths. Lost Borders also includes several charming mini-games: One has you fishing for different types of aquatic creatures, while another involves cooking power-up meals using the bounty you’ve caught with your fishing pole.

The game features more than a dozen endings, many of which have sub-endings that can change depending on the player’s affinity level with a particular character. “Summon Night 6 is one of our biggest projects to date,” Ireland explains. “It has enough text to fill about five novels—over 50% more than the huge volume of text that Summon Night 5 had.” Adding to the enormity of the localization task is the fact that the English-language version of Summon Night 6 will feature voice acting: All key events will be voiced, as in the original Japanese version. Recording of the English voice begins this month.

Summon Night 6: Lost Borders will be downloadable in North America, South America and Europe, with physical retail copies planned for North America