Stranger of Sword City Revisited / Savior of Sapphire Wings Review
Release Date: March 16th, 2021
Developer: NIS America
Platforms: Nintendo Switch (Reviewed), PC
Price: $49.99
No matter how big of an RPG fan one may claim to be, there's no denying that Dungeon RPGs in particular where players find themselves moving in a grid-like format and usually visiting a plethora of underground and ancient areas typically finds itself divisive among fans for many reasons. Whether done in a first person or third person format, dungeon RPGs as of late tend to rely on rogue-like mechanics that further divide the userbase, so games like Omega Labyrinth, Vaporum, and Shiren the Wanderer are already targeting a very specific audience in a very specific niche. Because of the growth of these games, however, it's hard to see them as any more than a challenge of "how far can you go" where story typically takes a huge backseat and the RPG nature of them - which naturally would require a lot of grinding - becomes even more tedious and arduous experience that ultimately feels like a test of patience than any reward of time spent on a particular game. On the other side of the coin, titles like Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey, Mary Skelter, Etrian Odyssey and The Lost Child that wonderfully create these unique dungeon environments with an actual set of mechanics, gameplay, and design to deliver a dynamic playthrough that can become borderline addicting, wanting to come back time and time again and actually have incentive to play through their 30+ hour experiences. Ever since its initial release in 2014 with an updated version to follow in 2016, Stranger of Sword City has seen a 'Revisited' enhancement as well as a sequel by the same team, Savior of Sapphire Wings, which never saw a release outside of Japan on the PlayStation Vita - where the games garnered a following - until now, giving old and new fans alike an extremely accessible yet deep enough experience for both newcomers and veterans to enjoy. It's far from being dungeon crawling excellency, but both Stranger of Sword City Revisited and its newly localized sequel rest on the side of the coin where dungeon RPGs are their strongest and with good company.
Stranger of Sword City Revisited has seen itself ported quite a few times with a few changes, primarily to the Xbox One version of the game that saw it get new art renderings, and while that game will be discussed over the course of this review, this will mostly focus on the title that remains new to all of us: Saviors of Sapphire Wings. The games share a lot of the same ideologies and design, so it'll be easy to get a feel for the other even after almost exclusively reviewing one. Even with these similarities, however, and them being set in the same general universe, they remain completely standalone features that can be played in any order you see fit, so once the game is booted up there's no need to decide where to start first as if one is the prequel or sequel - you'll get a unique story and setting in each one to be enjoyed. Both contain an evil you're basically looking to rid of in their respective worlds, and in doing so the journey there will have you come across other warriors of all classes and backgrounds that you'll train up in more ways than one, as not only experience is needed, but bonds that further strengthen their capabilities and loyalty to the cause. The enemies are mostly shared between the two titles, though there are some distinct differences in the more mechanical and design aspects that Savior of Sapphire Wings undoubtedly feels like it had a lot more of a lower budget compared to Stranger of Sword City Revisited before it, as there are no voice lines recorded outside of the usual grunts and yells to help amplify some of the strikes and certain messages, and other visual directions such as a huge lack of portraits compared to Stranger of Sword City, as well as the inability to fully hide the UI when a beautiful art piece is displayed to either get a better look or simply for screenshot purposes. Similar to titles like Operation Abyss, the party is always displayed at any given moment in the bottom 1/3rd portion of the screen, while the other 2/3rd are dedicated to backgrounds and character portraits. It's unfortunately further made apparent with its first impression as once the dual package is booted up, both Stranger of Sword City and Savior of Sapphire Wings have introductory menus that look like RPG Maker splash screens - the latter more so. Regardless of the differences in budget and presentation, however, both games provide a stellar experience to the dungeon crawling RPG genre that, while by no means revolutionary, stand out to provide an incredibly fun time that keeps the game consistently engaging.
With a variety of classes to choose from, both games will start you out powerful to some degree to get the hang the combat and whichever setup you choose to go with as to not feel pressured by enemies when they bombard you in big numbers (and they will), so it's a nice way to get the player comfortable and have fun with a plethora of options and skills to use at your disposal - though not too much to get spoiled with a class's full loadout - as you go through the introductory dungeon. Eventually, however, you'll reach a point where that comes to an end and the story has you back on your own and at a much lower level, working your way back up to face formidable foes and an overarching doom. Combat is set up typically with a party of six, though you'll acquire much more throughout the course of your playthrough, and all members will be out on the field at once with a formation consisting of three in the front and three in the back. Enemy formations are similar, and some will have chests in the background with them that can be accessible once defeating them, but some enemies can also get startled or after a certain duration flee, which causes the treasure to disappear along with them. The formations are set up in a way to add a layer of strategy where the members in the back are of course less vulnerable to incoming attacks, where their only real concern is any attack or class that may have or specialize in ranged skills to accommodate for the distances between them. Of course because of these formations, some classes will prefer certain placements, even sometimes preferring an area towards the middle or sides given the setup in place, and usually you'd want to put the tanks in front to help provoke and take the bulk of the damage focused on them to keep those with less defense a higher survivability rate as they take care of more passives and buffs through spells and other means. Even to those that aren't used to this perspective of RPGs, it's extremely easy to adapt to the differences as a lot of the philosophies are the same, and rather than moving around from city to city all over the map you'll be in a sequence of hubs where you'll basically be doing a lot of inventory and menu management, selecting the various places you'd like to go to such as the typical traders to buy and sell, areas to conduct any alchemical and melting processes to increase stats of items and create recipes and concoctions to help you on your journey, and of course designated locations to acquire your quests. Other areas and more features will naturally unlock as you progress, giving way to party enhancements, customization features, and more to make the most of your trek through darkness.
The dungeons themselves look and run well on the Switch, though their form factors aren't doing anything substantially different from your typical dungeon RPG, where a lot of the map layouts and structure of the dungeons themselves are very square to fit in with the grid-like movements. They do, however, match with the theme of every area you find yourself in, and each area will have a fair amount to uncover as you form the map that is otherwise empty with each new visit you make. Outside of combat where you'll acquire chests and various drops from those you've slain, you'll find the occasional puzzle, obstacle, traps (both in your favor and against you), and events that will take place in certain locations within a map both key and complementary. To make things a bit more lively, party members will occasionally talk to each other in certain areas and talk about a vareity of things, and the dialogue is well written enough that it never feels like it becomes a nuisance and is rather entertaining as each of their personalities seep through to give a distinct feel of comradery, envy, uncertainty, and whatever else a scene would call for. It's a small thing, but it's worth mentioning again how apparent it is that Savior of Sapphire Wings takes a big back step in the art department compared to Stranger of Sword City Revisited, so even the more intense scenes don't have nearly as much flair or tonal excellence in the newly localized title compared to its predecessor, and because of this tends to lose its impact over time, and I'd imagine most people probably won't end up seeing credits roll as the repetition and lack of a clear-cut vision this time around gives not nearly as much to look forward to as it hits its story beats. Even so, both Stranger of Sword City and Savior of Sapphire Wings provide an accessible dungeon crawling experience that doesn't ever feel overly ambitious, and this actually works in its favor more than it hurts it, as it relies on other areas of its design to stand out amongst the rest in the genre.
The package of Saviors of Sapphire Wings and Stranger of Sword City is an incredibly solid duo of one of the fondest experiences when it was mainly calling Vita its home next to its PC and Xbox releases, and thankfully some of its biggest issues have been addressed and polished between its interfaces and structures, though odd little omissions like the lack of an options menu in Saviors of Sapphire Wings certainly make it questionable as to why it wasn't touched up further, but at the very least the horrendous font abnormalities that's plagued it for quite some time has been taken care of and given something much more legible. Obviously when comparing it to its Vita version, you'll see enhancements like better performance and higher resolution so that way you have a better look at some of the great art that's been illustrated for both of the games, but the port, outside of being packaged, has seen minimal enhancements, though some of the tweaks that are here have undoubtedly been for the better, and for anyone who's a big fan of dungeon RPGs - while I wouldn't say these are some of the best - they're certainly some of the most unique, and being able to have two solid experiences packaged together - and even more enticing is that they're standalone so you're not forced to stick with one or the other - makes it a good fit for a Switch owner's library looking to delve into a grid-based RPG system with party management that doesn't try to overly complicate itself and try to do more than what is necessary like in Operation Abyss and Operation Babel.
PROS:
Stunning art that puts the dual package in a league of its own
The gameplay is familiar but dynamic enough to remain addicting and captivating to those that want to spend a lot of time with the games
Arguably one of the best packaged titles on the Nintendo Switch to date
Having an already great dungeon RPG ported to the Switch alongside the never before localized Savior of Sapphire Wings makes this an enticing and must-have package for any RPG fan looking for some turn-based dungeon goodness.
CONS:
The overall presentation for Savior of Sapphire Wings is a big step back from Stranger of Sword City Revisited
A lack of options can make accessibility a little tough outside of difficulty settings
A huge thank you to NISA, Experience, and CodeGlue for graciously providing us a copy of Strangers of Sword City Revisited / Savior of Sapphire Wings for the purposes of this review!