Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

"DRPG" Stranger of Sword City

duanth123

Arcane
Joined
Mar 22, 2008
Messages
822
Location
This island earth
A challenger (after the middling experience that was Operation Abyss) to the Vita's reigning dungeon crawler appears!



The game is currently set for release in the NA territories on 03/22/16

http://nisamerica.com/games/stranger-sword-city/

And for you collectorfags out there...

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2015/12/03/stranger-of-sword-city-limited-edition/

And lest you be concerned that this will be some weaboo romp through lolicon romances...

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/763155-stranger-of-sword-city/72920853

Personally, I'm getting strong Strange Journey vibes, although the gameplay will be more akin to Demon Gaze
 

Courtier

Prophet
Joined
Aug 12, 2015
Messages
441
Release date for EU is 03/25, three days after NA. Physical and digital.
Our man Nostaljaded already gave his impressions on the game here - http://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/screenshot-thread.72409/page-649#post-4255047

Gameplay:


Art and screens:
a0COwKC.jpg


iIGNEZm.jpg


DuLMgg5.jpg


h155eQC.jpg


rZodqez.jpg


FR6avxR.jpg


Y0Sooak.jpg


fSMpZVH.jpg
GET HYPE
 
Self-Ejected

aweigh

Self-Ejected
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
17,978
Location
Florida
i youtubed this and this looks very very good!

sweet, sweet PIE...
 

flyingjohn

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2012
Messages
2,945
Now only if there was a dedicated group willing to translate the psp elminage series and it would be one hell for a time for dungeon crawler fans.
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
Any info about the possibilty of fully create your party (I can't find anything, it seems that it's full pre-made except for your first character :cry:)?

It looks like Demon Gaze, but with actual good art design and PC steam release. Nice.
 
Last edited:

Zetor

Arcane
Joined
Jan 9, 2003
Messages
1,706
Location
Budapest, Hungary
what is a DRPG?
It's the nu-skool way to say "dungeon crawler"/"blobber".

I'm cautiously optimistic about this... while I liked Code Hazard a lot, I feel burned by its sorta-remake Operation Abyss, which was a huge letdown in many aspects and is probably a good poster child on how to NOT streamline your systems. Essentially they dumped the original multi-class character system in favor of a boring single-class system, neutered hybrids, turned the Vancian spellcasting system into some hybrid monstrosity that's worse than the typical approaches (pure Vancian / pure spellpoint system), imposed level limits on crafting just because, removed much of the combat difficulty by doing the usual banal "scale player and enemy HP/damage to infinity" approach, and ultimately the game became a dull and formulaic experience. The only improvement it has over the original game is the dungeon auto-move function, and even that's just a QoL thing.

But yeah, EXP/Team Muramasa or no, I don't see this as d1p material just yet. Hopefully I'll be proven wrong!

e: Demon Gaze was also rather uninspiring. Not a fan of having essentially a 4-character party where 2 of them need to be a tank and healer anyway, and using the same 2 abilities in 95% of the fights...
 
Last edited:

Courtier

Prophet
Joined
Aug 12, 2015
Messages
441
Any info about the possibilty of fully create your party
You can create characters freely. Read the old NeoFaG thread for all the information you need. Unlike the rest of that shit site, the handful of blobber threads by moonrunes-reading weebs are pretty chill. Dorarnae, a youtuber that uploads gameplay of pretty much every Jap blobber ever made (including the vid posted in this thread), also posts there.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=828454
 

Nostaljaded

Savant
Joined
Jun 4, 2015
Messages
359
Will give more impressions when I'm further into the game.

Due to Vita's lower resolution (544p vs PC/Xbox360 720p), Vita's UI will be slightly cramped/less ideal.
rjSaUGx.jpg
Expect steam release to be at least 2 months further down due to Vita's (traditionally) higher pricing.

Choose your poison wisely.
 

Drudkh

Learned
Joined
Nov 2, 2015
Messages
111
Very pretty to look at, but who could trust this company after Operation Abyss.
 

Nostaljaded

Savant
Joined
Jun 4, 2015
Messages
359
Pasting my initial impressions here with additional info in yellow.

Incline:
- Recovery time and cost on death (there's also permadeath mechanics, easily avoidable though)
- Varying monster levels (fleeing is often a mandatory matter)
- Preemptive strike and surprise attack
- Downed members fall to back row, remaining party members will be pushed to the front row (same applies for smaller party)
- 2 sets of weapon-pair for in-battle swap
- Pseudo-smart repeat of previous turn battle commands
- Instant battle animations option :double incline:
- Auto-move on explored tiles
- Mini-map On/Off
- Unique items can be 'returned' to the wild/item pool in order to have a higher + or banished forever
- Weapon & Item scarcity (fixed shop quantity, no restock; have to rely on RNG drops and caravan raids)
- Single bonus morale gauge for caravan raids (increasing cost for the same area during dungeon run) and divinity skill usage
- Choice in divinity skill selection (good to save on a new slot on before each new selection)

#:
- Mana pool, not spell-based restrictions
- 8 Classes (no race restrictions), 5 races (stats and base value variation)
- Fixed class skill learning & free stat point assignment on level up
- Max 5 class change (new class level will be halved of previous class level) with limited skill slots swapping for previously-learned-other-classes skills
- Experience required to level up based on current class level
- New character starting levels will be half of the protagonist's highest class level
- Gender & age set in stone on character creation; name, voice and portrait are switchable thereafter

- Weapons are damaged-based, no strong-weak relation; a few enemy races requiring enchanted weapons
- Simplified elemental relations - Thunder > Water > Fire > Earth; Earth being the weak element
- Simple chest trap detection; the higher the open lock ability is, the lower the potential number of trap options to pick from
- Slow dungeon exploration curveballs ramp up; Single introduction in each new dungeon area before combinations start appearing in mid-game
- No custom map annotations
- No item crafting


Decline:
- No meaningful C&C quests, just a different few-liners response
- You are the chosen one, with the divinity skills. Cannot be swap out of party
Due to this, be prepared for a game restart after familiarizing with all the divinity skills, class skills and subsequent class changing modifiers & limitations.
Recommended to do so only after attaining 40 morale

hhI3uAL.jpg

The lolis and 50-year-old me on a bird-watching excursion
 

Nostaljaded

Savant
Joined
Jun 4, 2015
Messages
359
You should have lead with that screenie.
Nah, Haniko (ハニ子), female versions of Hanny, was way too big, thereby blocking Rance screen estate.
Anyway, everyone in front row are all supposed to be leading and hannys are aplenty.
Planned to post 1 or 2 more shots when nearing vita release.

NISA's vita release will let you switch between the original PC and the xbone character sprites.
Not sure who would switch to that ugly sprites.
Xbone sprite is blurred due to the video frame, for a raw frame comparison use the picture further down.
C0kd6g1.png

It's an option so can't complain much.

And their current translation...
MB2kOqN.png

It's probably only the 1st pass by a native japanese.

s42qTPV.png

Some hanny's love and Rance having nail fetish...
 

Courtier

Prophet
Joined
Aug 12, 2015
Messages
441
It was the success of Demon Gaze that prompted Experience to stay with the same style in their recent games, and even slap it on rereleases (or in this case the console version). 200k+ sales is nothing to sneeze at. But Exp and Starfish SD have been making similar titles before EO even existed.
I'm sure all the ants reading this thread will appreciate your image
 

duanth123

Arcane
Joined
Mar 22, 2008
Messages
822
Location
This island earth
It was the success of Demon Gaze that prompted Experience to stay with the same style in their recent games, and even slap it on rereleases (or in this case the console version). 200k+ sales is nothing to sneeze at. But Exp and Starfish SD have been making similar titles before EO even existed.
I'm sure all the ants reading this thread will appreciate your image

Yes and what do you think the art style of Demon Gaze was inspired by?

Btw

I know they have been making games for a while. My comment entirely concerned this turn in art style.
 

Courtier

Prophet
Joined
Aug 12, 2015
Messages
441
Yes and what do you think the art style of Demon Gaze was inspired by?
Tetsu Kurosawa has a pastely style that's entirely unrelated to Yuji Himukai's distinct designs, and has been working as an artist in the industry for similar games for quite a while. Compare the detailed and functional armor on those Protectors with the flashy and impractical costumes of the DG/OA characters, and the complete difference in proportion.

I don't recall them ever citing EO as an inspiration since while concieved in 2007, the series only became as hugely popular as it is after the release of EOIV, which was in development in tandem with Demon Gaze, the former being released July 2012 and the latter in Jan 2013.
 

duanth123

Arcane
Joined
Mar 22, 2008
Messages
822
Location
This island earth
Yes and what do you think the art style of Demon Gaze was inspired by?
Tetsu Kurosawa has a pastely style that's entirely unrelated to Yuji Himukai's distinct designs, and has been working as an artist in the industry for similar games for quite a while. Compare the detailed and functional armor on those Protectors with the flashy and impractical costumes of the DG/OA characters, and the complete difference in proportion.

I don't recall them ever citing EO as an inspiration since while concieved in 2007, the series only became as hugely popular as it is after the release of EOIV, which was in development in tandem with Demon Gaze, the former being released July 2012 and the latter in Jan 2013.

Atlus made three games by that time, all of which were taken stateside - it was popular and defining enough.

What's more, I never meant to imply their art style was exactly similar; it would then simply be a rip-off. I'm referring to the general moe style, which, regardless, would have been the dictate of the developers, not the artist.

Whether or not they cited EO is irrelevant, as they would have had equal reason to avoid mention of it, assuming the question was even asked.

Regardless, I'm glad to see they attempted a more mature, realistic look for SoSC. As much as beggars can't choose , I would support this game for that reason alone.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom