Summon Strike

Summon Strike (サモンストライク) is a fighting game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2, as one of the console's launch titles. It tells the stories of Kite's Summon warriors before they formed their ties to the Azure energy. This game is the prequel to the Kite the Summoner series, as well as the first game to introduce the fighting aspect of the series, which will then be carried over to the main series (although some games tend to abandon that feature).

Gameplay
Summon Strike 's gameplay is inspired by the likes of Squaresoft's Tobal No. 1 and Capcom's Rival Schools, but it has a fighting system reminiscent of a hack-and-slash type of game. It still has the basic gameplay of a 2.5D fighting, where the simple goal is to fight the opposing character and to win by reducing their health to zero. Characters also have their various special abilities unlike from the main Kite the Summoner series. To use these attacks, however, the player must have the required azure as indicated by the "azure bars" located under the players health. Using the technique drains the azure bar (which can be regained through various methods, including special, character specific methods for some characters). These special techniques are not performed in real-time, however; once successfully executed, a cinematic takes place, where the player either has to fill a bar to a specific level or hit buttons illustrated in the corner of the screen faster than their opponent to assure the attack is at its full strength.

Story
Two years before the events of Kite the Summoner, a man named Lemmet has traveled across the galaxy, searching for the variants of Azure. In the past he was known for starting tournaments called "Azure Grand Prix" in which he chooses the descendants of the most strongest warriors and forces them to fight various opponents in order to prove which of them is worthy of becoming an Azure warrior (or, in a later case, a Summon). He does a similar event after discovering the blue Azure, and now warriors from across the galaxy must fight to become the Azure heroes of the future.