Delving into Saviors of Sapphire Wings / Stranger of Sword City Revisited

For those unfamiliar with dungeon-crawling RPGs (DRPGs), Saviors of Sapphire Wings is a forgiving entry point to the genre. The first area of the game uses its narrative as an excuse to tutorialise the player, without over-explaining or losing momentum. You explore labyrinths, grid-based maps that represent dangerous areas of the world. You view the labyrinth in first-person and have the ability to take a step in any cardinal direction. Each step you take moves you one grid square and permanently reveals that square on the map. There’s a small chance with each step that you’ll trigger a random combat encounter, forcing you to engage in turn-based combat with numerous foes. You may need to choose the Investigate action from the menu to search for hidden levers or secrets on a particular grid square, and some squares contain triangular markers that indicate a signpost, Trap Point, or boss encounter will trigger on entry.

Combat is decidedly fast-paced thanks to the excellent “Fast Apply” option that allows you to skip individual turn animations, instead summarising each turn in one swift motion – a godsend for fights against multiple enemies. With a full party, you’ll have six allies that can each take an action – three in the front row, three in back. Weapons, spells, and skills are affected by range. For example, enemies in the back row may be attacked with a Fire Bolt spell, while allies in the back row may need a spear or bow to hit their foes. Party members, or “Squires” as the game calls them, perform different roles in battle depending on their class. These range from the traditional Fighter and Wizard archetypes, to the more unusual dual-wielding Samurai and light-based Valiant classes. Each class prefers a specific row position in battle, and its effectiveness is affected by the Squire’s “Soul Shape” which is a nice stand-in for racial bonuses. You can change class at any time between dungeon trips, but keep in mind that levelling up only provides minor stat bonuses, so you can limit your Squires’ potential by levelling inefficiently if you’re not careful.

The crafting systems even filter into the party system: creating a Squire’s preferred food or drink and gifting it to them will increase their Soul Gauge immensely. When the Soul Gauge is full, you can increase that Squire’s Soul Rank, a measure of how much they trust the protagonist. Each Soul Rank gained provides a number of benefits including increased experience point earnings, resistance to Charm attacks, new Union Skills, and access to new sub-classes. It’s quite a cute system that feeds nicely into the story: you befriend your Squires by inviting them to your room at the floating fortress and dining with them, with the level of their trust affecting your party’s resistance to the evil Ol=Ohma’s corrupting influence. The higher the Soul Ranks of your party, the more chances you have to use special Union Skills that deflect Ol=Ohma’s powerful attacks. It’s an excellent example of using the game mechanics to reflect progression in the narrative.

Stranger of Sword City Revisited is built on the bones of Saviors of Sapphire Wings, but takes a much edgier approach. When your plane crashes through a mysterious portal, you’re transported to a Mad Max-esque modern fantasy apocalypse where you and your fellow Strangers are tasked with changing the fate of Sword City. Gameplay-wise, the basics are the same: you’ll explore labyrinths, complete quests, and slay monsters. However, the tone and difficulty are definitely on the more brutal side. You’ll have access to a bunch of different party members right from the start, and extra challenges task you with defeating vicious Lineage monsters in a certain number of turns. Also, dead party members are no longer automatically revived when leaving a labyrinth, making defeat much more punishing as healing them will drain your limited resources. Sword City also introduces the concept of time passing, with characters’ age affecting their health and stat bonuses.