Official Review PlayStation Vita Updated

Stranger of Sword City (PlayStation Vita)
Official GBAtemp Review

Name: Stranger of Sword City
Item: Stranger of Sword City
Rating: 8
Author: Prans

Product Information:

Release Date (NA): April 26, 2016
Release Date (EU): April 26, 2016
Release Date (JP): January 22, 2015
Publisher: NIS America, Inc.
Developer: EXPERIENCE, Inc.
Genres: Dungeon RPG
Also For: Xbox One

Game Features:

Single player

Local Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Co-operative

Plane crashed and stranded on a peculiar land with monsters, sounds familiar? Yes! This is indeed the setting of Stranger of Sword City, released for the Xbox One last month, and soon available for the PSVita. It’s a dungeon RPG that brings a fresh addition to the platform.

attachFull45253

The Game

Following a plane crash, you find yourself stranded on a peculiar land. As you look around the ruins you’re in, you meet a surprised elderly man who guides you out… only to come face-to-face with a giant wyvern and a snake-like monster! It’s a trap!

attachFull45293

But in the blink of an eye one of the wyvern’s necks is slashed clean by a girl called Rui who chases off the old man. She briefly explains that like you, she got stranded on this land called Escario, the city of swords and here you are called “Strangers”. She then guides you to the Stranger Base for further explanations.

It all boils down to this: make yourself at home and team up with the Strangers Guild to protect the city of swords, where the average human stranded there can wield more power and become a mighty city-defending hero

Stranger of Sword City offers several features that makes it a unique and captivating experience. From customization, story telling and gameplay, your memories of the game could almost trick you into thinking you’ve experienced an interactive novel.

Customize, with care!

Regarding customization, the game surely doesn’t fall short. Right from the start you get to customize your character’s avatar, race, class and even voice from the vast choices made available. However, these are just related to aesthetic since these choices won’t affect the gameplay. Another nice customization that the game offers is the choice of changing the NPC art, which basically modifies the look of the whole game since you’re interacting with NPCs the whole time (and the title screen art changes accordingly too!). Although being solely aesthetic, these customization possibilities are a nice addition.

However, your character’s age has some direct influence on his performance. Younger characters heal quicker but older ones come with more experience. You’d better create your character carefully for the best balance.

attachFull45279

A game or an interactive novel?

As I wrote earlier, you could easily relate this game to an interactive novel, which makes it a beautiful experience. Sure there’s not many cutscenes and the NPCs don’t show much motion but the narration is done in an engaging way, partly narrative, partly descriptive, setting the mood and leaving room for your imagination to picture the scenes. The soundtrack also perfectly help to set the mood in the various situations you find yourself in. However being heavily dependent on narration might not be to the taste of everyone and if you’d rather get into action a.s.a.p, then you’re in for a wait and might get irritated quite often. Definitely not for casual or quick playing or you’ll miss the game’s core experience.

attachFull45281

However, the labyrinths are not too varied, with repetitive textures and few variations between maps. Although the characters' and creatures’ art is unique the environment does not compliment it. Being the only hands-on part of the game, it does not make for a visually appealing experience.

attachFull45284

Crawling through the Gameplay

Concerning the gameplay, other than interacting with the other characters during the narrative parts, it revolves around exploring unmapped labyrinths in a dungeon crawler mechanic to face off boss creatures (Lineages), collect blood crystals and unlock abilities. As you advance in a labyrinth, it gets mapped automatically and you encounter creatures which you can evade but some are mandatory to face with your guild. The latter has to be strategically built and the members positioned depending on their abilities and class for the turn-based combats.

attachFull45288

As you win battles, your guild members level up, learn new abilities and you may even acquire additional items, all for strengthening your team. Getting used to the gameplay might be challenging, especially at the beginning as you get to learn that you can’t carry on slashing your way through monsters to level up, grab loot and still have enough HP/MP for the current quest. A lot of times running from random encounters is decisively helpful. And with the perma-death feature, you’ll have to be ever more careful about your choices and compromise. You can still revive characters but it will take time (time passes as you win battles) or a ridiculous amount of money. The game definitely lives up to the traditional challenge expected from dungeon crawlers.

attachFull45291

Verdict

What We Liked ...

Fresh addition to dungeon crawler genre
Engaging narration
Challenging labyrinths, requiring planning and strategy
Wide range of customization

What We Didn't Like ...

Lack of varied environment textures
Depends heavily on narration, which can feel to long at times

Gameplay

The game relies on the story and navigating through the labyrinths to complete given tasks. Simple and effective, which the game masters, although it might not be to the the taste of everyone.

Presentation

The game sets the mood with its unique and beautiful art style and soundtrack. However the labyrinths could be made more varied to make for a more visually appealing experience.

Lasting Appeal

The labyrinths are challenging and require proper planning to complete. This is experienced even at the first "training" session, which could however be a turn-off for some.

out of 10

Overall

Stranger of Sword City comes as fresh dungeon RPG with a captivating story and challenging labyrinths that will get you hooked from the start. Although not perfect, it offers a highly recommended experience.

Reactions: evening, T-hug and nxwing

FAST6191
Apr 11, 2016

Seems the Vita has taken the PSP's job of having all the dungeon crawlers, maybe with a slight twist.

I imagine I am going to have a hard (and expensive) time in a few years tracking this sort of stuff down when I pick up a Vita.

Reactions: Prans

Prans
Apr 11, 2016

FAST6191 said:
Seems the Vita has taken the PSP's job of having all the dungeon crawlers, maybe with a slight twist.

I imagine I am going to have a hard (and expensive) time in a few years tracking this sort of stuff down when I pick up a Vita.

The Vita is almost solely comprised of JRPGs of all flavours from 3rd parties. Sadly, it's the only genre that keeps the console floating.

Prans said:
The Vita is almost solely comprises of JRPGs of all flavours from 3rd parties. Sadly, it's the only genre that keeps the console floating.

Sadly, even that genre is sorely lacking.

T-hug
Apr 12, 2016

Game looks great, just what I like. I thought it was another Kawadoka games title as it looks so similar.

Prans
Apr 12, 2016

T-hug said:
Game looks great, just what I like. I thought it was another Kawadoka games title as it looks so similar.

This one's from the same devs. It will definitely be of your taste if you want a challenging dRPG with a dark theme.

Reviews

Hardware
MelGeek CYBER01 Magnetic Switch Rapid Trigger Gaming Keyboard

Today for review, we’ll be taking a look at the latest gaming keyboard from Meltek, the CYBER01 magnetic switch offering!
Hardware
GEEKOM XT12 Pro Mini PC

Claimed to be the world's most cost-effecient i9 Mini PC, we check out the latest from Geekom.
Hardware
Kospet Tank T3 Ultra

Tough enough to navigate and conquer the rugged wilderness.
PlayStation 5
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants

The Turtles are back for their umpteenth game outing, but is this one worth it?
PlayStation 5
Alone in the Dark (2024)

Alone in the Dark is a Survival Horror game available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X and PC.

More reviews

Product Information:

Game Features:

The Game

Customize, with care!

A game or an interactive novel?

Crawling through the Gameplay

Verdict

Overall

MelGeek CYBER01 Magnetic Switch Rapid Trigger Gaming Keyboard

GEEKOM XT12 Pro Mini PC

Kospet Tank T3 Ultra

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants

Alone in the Dark (2024)