Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Since there have been more than enough chances for people to whine about the OPTIONAL art style selection for the localized release of this game, in this thread that type of posts which literally add nothing to the conversation will not be tolerated. You dont like something that is fine, but when there is an option to select whatever art style you prefer any time in game by accessing the options menu, makes crying about it pointless and just derails the whole thread.
Other disclaimer:
A lot of the content in this OT was reused from the JP release so just ignore small things like character names differing from the exact localization and such. Will try to see about switching out the videos as more become available. Didnt bother to add in the new character portraits either.
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Visual Style select is the main new addition to the localized Western release of the game. Basically you can set the character art style to the original Yoko Tsukamoto artwork or the redone Oxijiyen artwork. This can be changed at any time when you can access the option screen, so its not as if you will be stuck with just one style upon selection.
Since it seems the JP version starts with the Oxijiyen style selected, I would imagine the Western release will be the opposite with the Tsukamoto style on as default. - Life Points is the system that keeps characters alive, when you lose all life points your character can be lost or basically permadeath. Life points can be recovered but cost money, though older characters with a single life point, once you lose that, you lose the character also. So beware. Seems that also characters who will be recovering life points need rest time within the guild, so they have to be taken out of the party as they recover. There is a way to instantly recover, but it costs a lot more than the normal recovery process. At the start of the game it is pretty much impossible to afford the costs to do instant recovery and such. So it is far better just to have backup characters to act as replacements in the event if someone goes down.
There are items that can recover life points, but usually has negative effects, such as you permanently lose 1 life point container. I think? there was an item that does not do that, but it is very rare and not something you want to be wasting early on.
- Age system ties into the Life Point system, the young characters have more Life Points but their stats increase during level ups are lower and less max cap for rolling stats points at start. Older characters have less life points, but their stats increase when leveling is much higher along with the initial bonus points you have to roll for at the start of the game.. Characters will not age as in other Wizardry type of titles with an age system, so everything is preset from the creation choices.
- Players can level themselves up at any time as long as EXP requirements are met. There is no automatic leveling or having to sleep in an inn to raise your level. You will only gain bonus stats point for when you level up your highest level class in the event if you had class changed.
- Sub members who are not part of the main adventuring party will gain EXP. Therefore its highly suggested to make all of your sub characters ahead of time. Also small amounts of money will be earned.
- When the main Party (PT) is eliminated its game over. There is no recovery system as in other Wizardry type of titles, Elminage being one example where you can send out another party to recover the bodies of the first.
- There is no Thief / Rogue type of class. Skills for treasure hunting can be used for all classes if selected, allowing for people to focus more on a party selection that suits them better than always having to be forced to have a single rogue type of character in the party at all times. Though the related skills will take up a talent slot, so careful consideration needs to be made.
- Magic will be un-usable again underwater, such as what was seen in Demon Gaze.
- Dancer is the new class introduced to the series. Though possibly taking on the role of being one of the more important characters as its class specific abilities allows for recovery of morale. For those who plan on doing long treks through the dungeon having a dancer in the party will allow for that with its morale recovery skills. Can also use multiple items at once, which makes them highly useful for underwater dungeons where magic is unable to be deployed.
- Similar to Demon Gaze and Operation Abyss, the Store in Stranger of Sword City will also have a limited stock of items. What that means is basically if you buy out all of a certain item it is sold out for good. I don’t recall the game restocking things? Or if it does might only be a 1 time thing. This is a more crucial thing for certain items sold within the store, so you need to be careful not to waste certain items. Otherwise you will be stuck trying to rely on the RNG Gods to give you drops from random treasures spawns in the dungeon or drops from battle.
- There are no save points in the dungeon spells to exit the dungeon quickly. There are items such as the butterfly wing? I think it was, but they are very expensive and highly limited in numbers. Butterfly nests that appear at specific locations in the dungeon also can warp the player out of the dungeon if used.
- All characters start off with 2 skill slots, from lv 13 you will gain another and keep doing so till you have 7 total. Each time you change into a new class, once you get to lv 13 with it you will earn another skill slot.
- Rare Items can be fed to the Mumic to give the player another chance at a "re-roll" of the same unique item in the future. The purpose of this is, if you are unhappy with the + stats on your Unique Item (Bishoptl's Hammer of Banning +2) then you can feed it to the Mumic if you come across it in the dungeon, allowing for another chance for it to redrop with better stats. Though its all up to chance if the stats will be better or worse. Just as with Demon Gaze you only pick up rare items once and if you sell it or discard it by accident its gone forever.
- Fighter
- Knight
- Samurai
- Wizard
- Cleric
- Ranger
- Ninja
- Dancer
1st Official Trailer - Narrated by Anna
2nd Official Trailer - Yoko Tsukamoto Style
2nd Official Trailer - Oxijiyen Style
3rd Official Trailer - Yoko Tsukamoto Style Opening Movie
3rd Official Trailer - Oxijiyen Style Opening Movie
Character Portraits - Yoko Tsukamoto, Raita Kazama
Character Portraits - Oxijiyen, Toridamono, Mogeo Fuji
Entaku no Seito - Character Portraits - Satomi Murakami
Stranger of Sword City (Vita) video preview! :: Michibiku
*recordings from the 360 Japanese version.
#0:
A: It's minor stuff such as certain lineage species are different and the end dungeon I think. Like one example is one particular boss on the vita version is a Minotaur, while the Xbox (360 / One) and PC it is some sort of Giant. In regards to the dungeon White vs. Black dont remember if there were any actual design differences with the layout. Might have to ask Dorarnae.
#1:
A: Its a first person dungeon crawler, based off of the Wizardry series. The developer Experience Inc. specializes in Dungeon RPGs and has quite the long history of working on them, both within Experience Inc. and their past work history also.
#2:
A: This game will be slightly harder than other dungeon crawlers, the reason being is that there is perma-death for your characters with the life point system. Though for those who want a more serious story and not filled with fanservice, this title might just be what you are looking for in a DRPG. But once again expect the game to not hold your hand as this title was made specifically for the more core audience is what the company itself had stated.
#3:
A: Yes the official word from the Exp Inc. Twitter is that apparently the Japanese physical version of the game will contain settings in the options to change the game text into the localized English.
#4:
A: The official statement is that the game itself is Japanese voices with localized English text.
#5:
A: Do not believe we ever got an official statement on that. Though one can imagine it would be using the same text as the NIS America Vita version, otherwise it would be a waste of $$$ in terms of budget and discrepancies between two localized versions could cause image issues between both involved parties. Since they have not answered directly, that must mean that it is sharing the NIS America done localized text, otherwise am sure we would have gotten a direct answer.
#6:
A: The world itself is connected with the same one that appears in both “Entaku no Seito: Students of Round” and “Demon Gaze”. Timeline wise it would follow Entaku no Seito: Students of Round -> Stranger of Sword City -> Demon Gaze.
Also some folks are calling this an indirect relation to Students of Round due to the characters that appear in the game. Although if you have not played it due to having been only released in Japan you are not missing out on anything so do not worry.
#6:
A: Official word says around 30-40 hours for the main story depending and to get full achievements / platinum can take from 50 to 100 hours depending on ones luck.
#7:
A: Yes there is one, though to warn everyone in advance it the list contains spoilers as the hidden trophies are all displayed which are related to the main story progression. So highly suggest against looking at the list ahead of time. I think? the trophies between the XBO and PSV versions should be the same, since all we have right now is the trophy list for the Vita version.
The trophy list follows below but once again it CONTAINS SPOILERS
For those who want the JP physical Xbox One version use the following import sites below.
AmiAmi
Nippon-Yasan
CD Japan
For those looking for the Vita version will just leave the NIS America store links for NA / EU
*You people should be smart enough to find alternatives if you do not want to use the official store.
NIS America Online Store
NIS America – Europe Online Store
Steam Store Page
*Disclaimer: Neither GAF nor myself has any sort of affiliation with the following sites above. These are just the most common ones members frequently speak of when it comes to online import shops and these links are for the convenience of the members who are still interested in importing the Japanese version of the game. Mods if you feel this is inappropriate let me know and will remove this section.
Thanks goes out to Experience Inc. for the resources used to make up the graphics in this OT.
Thanks to the dafont website for having an awesome selection of fonts to download and use, plus to the creators of the fonts used.
Scott Aneloski for his Cartographer Font
http://www.dafont.com/
Special Thanks goes out to NeoGAF's very own freelance translator Pepsiman for helping me out bigtime with taking a bunch of the load with translating stuff off my shoulders from the crazy schedule Ive been under. His handiwork is within the "About, Prologue, Strangers Guild, Royal Knights and Medel Company" Really appreciate it and thank you! Also for his great work with the subtitled trailer for the game.
