Stranger of Sword City (Vita) Review

Dungeon crawlers aren't a genre that are exactly well-known, although attempts by many publishers and developers in recent years have hoped to change that. Atlus has the Etrian Odyssey series, which is probably the most known ones, but an experienced (heh) developed, aptly named Experience Inc, have thrown another contender into the ring, Stranger of Sword City. How does it fare against the plethora of games already out there and is it going to make the genre stand out even more?

The game begins with your character, who is nameless, on a plane that ends up mysteriously disappearing into another dimension and crashing. Everyone else on board has been killed, but you somehow have survived. Alone and in an unknown place, you are guided to the surface, only to be betrayed by the person guiding you, who turns out to be a monster. Thankfully, you are saved by someone clad in armor, who ends up calling themselves a Stranger.

In this world, you are not the only one who has been brought to the titular Sword City, with the people all calling themselves Strangers (as mentioned above). This group of people seem to be able to equip heavy armor and have the ability to use weapons, which can be used to fight against special monsters, called Lineage. The "Chosen Ones" must collect the crystals left behind by these Lineage, or else they will regenerate. While the story is nothing special, it does do a decent job at explaining why you're in this setting.

Of course, one of the first things players will notice about Stranger of Sword City is that the visuals are extremely well done. The character portraits for all of your party members, as well as the NPCs, are detailed. This also extends to the monster sprites, from the small ones to even the insanely large ones that fill the screen. One might think that this should be standard for these types of games, as there isn't much else going on in terms of graphics, but it's always nice to see artwork done right.

As already mentioned in the opening paragraph, Stranger of Sword City is a dungeon-crawling RPG, similar in nature to other games like Demon Gaze and Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy, both games made by the same company and also released on the Vita. The basic gameplay is about the same, as you explore dungeons and fight monsters in a first-person point of view. You get to choose the classes of your characters, including the main, as well as possibly create them if you should choose to do so.

One of the few things that Stranger of Sword City does differently than other dungeon-crawlers is that characters can be permanently killed, with the exception of your main character. Every party member will have Life Points, ranging from one to three, that is determined whenever you assign a character's Age (an important factor in this game). If their HP is reduced to 0, then that character will lose a Life Point, but they can be revived at your base. However, you can recuperate lost Life Points, but it will take a few in-game days to do this, meaning you won't have access to that character.

Using the knowledge above, it's important to have back-up characters, in case you need to sideline a character you use a lot. The game can be quite challenging in that regard, as you need to be careful when exploring dungeons and you'll want to bring along proper provisions, should something unexpected happen to your party. Thankfully, you can have up to 16 party members, although you can only bring along 6 when you go out into the labyrinths (three in the front row and three in the back).

While exploring the various dungeons in the game, you have the basic and usual functions available to you. Sometimes, monsters will be encountered and there will also be chests, some of which will have traps. One additional feature in this game is the ability to set up ambushes. These will make it so monsters with treasure will pass by while waiting. One of the nice things is that you can actually view the treasure before you ambush the enemies. However, the downside is that if you decide to wait, there is a greater chance that you will get ambushed yourself.

If you're a fan of this genre, it's a no-brainer that Stranger of Sword City should be on your buy list. For those that actually care about this sort of thing, it will be available both physically and digitally. Should you have never played a game in this genre, then you may have trouble adjusting to the somewhat difficult nature, but don't let that fool you, as Stranger of Sword City is a solid entry in anyone's collection.