PS VITA STRANGER OF SWORD CITY

The game is most similar to Demon Gaze and just as enjoyable, but also resembles Dungeon Travelers 2 and Operation Abyss. Having played all of these games, based on the first couple of hours, this game is a happy compromise that I find much superior to Operation Abyss, and lacks most of the annoying dynamics of Dungeon Travelers 2. It also has several quality of life improvements over Demon Gaze.So far, I find the story more interesting than that of Demon Gaze, and am curious to see what happens next. There are choices you can make that will, presumably, affect the ending right from the get go, involving maintaining the balance of power (or not) between three different factions.Though I'm still only in the second area, the dungeons so far are enjoyable and made interesting with more NPCs, side quests, locked and lever-activated doors, and other dynamics and secrets to discover. Several areas become available at once so, at least in theory, you're not stuck following the same linear path. In practice, however, I have not tested how difficult the other areas are yet or if they're even feasible at this point in the game.Your characters, except for the main character, can die permanently if you're not careful, although this is difficult to do unless you're reckless. I had a choice between two difficulties at the start, normal and easy, and there is a way to lower the difficulty if normal is too hard. I chose normal and it feels just right.There are several classes to choose from, with many of the same or similar abilities to those in Demon Gaze. Several changes have been made that do make the system feel different. I chose Ninja for my main character and am greatly enjoying it. The remainder of the party can be created from scratch, and the names, portraits and voices (combat grunts) of your characters, including the main character, can be changed at any time.There is also a way to dual class, with rules similar to DND, where you must reach the same level as your previous class before you can reap most of the benefits. I'm still too early in the game and have not tried this yet.The combat is turn-based and strategic, and you will die right away if you're not careful. A nice option has been added allowing you to repeat the previous set of attacks you selected without any animations, making killing fodder you've outgrown instant.While all items you find must be identified, you can do this through a character talent (with a chance of failure causing the item to become unidentifiable until you return to town), or it is done instantly for you upon returning to town, saving you from having to go to a vendor and click through every single item manually.No complaints about the graphics as long as you know what to expect. The art for the backgrounds and monsters is amazing as always. If you are new to this type of game, I suggest you go on YouTube to see how it plays as it has classic, block by block type of movement.There are two art styles for the NPCs and your character portraits. One is what you see in the screenshots (more realistic, darker CG type of style), and the other is anime-style. You can switch between the two as much as you like and pick your favorite. You can also mix and match the two for the character portraits.Finally, the game has English subtitles with Japanese voices, although most of the dialogue is unvoiced.

I don't want to leave a long-winded review but this game has a scant few reviews and deserves to have itself recognized for the great title it is.Made by the same people behind Demon Gaze, if you loved that game then you'll love this one. It's a very straight-forward old school dungeon crawler like the Wizardry series of old and it's quite possibly the most beautiful one I've seen since Wizardry: Tales of a Forsaken Land. Even though that's a very old game now, the art style and design overall still stands out as one of the best because of the amazing Wizardry style characters and world. Etrian Odyssey does a great job with it's world as well, but there's something about this heavily illustrated characters and the world that they inhabit that really draws me in.This is a pretty large game with many varied zones with a steady stream of environmental puzzles and maze navigation. They do a really good job at keeping them somewhat fresh and different enough to remain interesting beyond simply having different backgrounds. The combat is what shines though. It's very simply in execution with a touch of diversity thrown in with the special abilities you unlock via Blood Crystal's, the game's main treasure you'll be hunting down. It's still all about party build and development and follows the basic Fighter/Mage/Ninja/Cleric/etc. design. Many comment on how hard the difficulty of the combat is in this game but if you play on "Beginner" you won't have nearly much trouble. Don't get me wrong, it is entirely possible to die without constantly maintaining your parties health, but nowhere near as often will this happen if you play on the higher difficulties. That also brings up the other feature that is unique to this title. Permadeath. You must make a very conscious choice when creating characters to either start with more bonus stat points and less life points (if you lose all your health you lose one life point, lose them all and the character is gone forever) or less bonus stats and more life points. Playing on beginner you can take a lot more chances and go for the bonus stats which will help keep you alive, but you need to be extremely vigilant if playing on anything higher. You will die and you *will lose characters*.Simply put this game is gorgeous and the perfect type of JRPG for the Vita. The story isn't anything to write home about but there's enough to keep you interested while killing hordes of foes to find that Chain Mail +8. I mean, that's really why you play this type of game anyways right?

I am into dark fantasy such as Valkyrie profile (PSP). After a week of searching, I finally came across this cool looking game. I love its art direction and style. I wont go into the gameplay itself as others had already done so here.However, I just want to share two major differences of this original version vs the Revisited version.1) 'Stranger of sword city revisit' has a few additional new jobs and battle adjustment.2) However, one straight thing is that the revisit version has REMOVED many of the original anime style character portraits (for character creation).Personally, I got the revisit PS Vita version (only available digitally on Playstation store) because of the new job and a bit more forgiving on its difficulties. However, if I know I am missing almost half page of characters portraits...I might have just stuck with the original version. Yes, I am into those big tits ninja things. lol

This is a decent game where you make a party and dungeon dive. The enemy artwork is very impressive and it's a good mix of old and new play mechanics. To me what holds this game back from being great are that it has a lot of clichés from the genre and sort of a "been there done that" feel to it and that there is no quick save/bookmark feature in the dungeons. If there is something like that I haven't found it yet, but I recommend playing this on the PSTV instead of the Vita because there's nothing more frustrating than getting far and having to put your system to sleep to pick it up later and hoping that the battery don't die at some point during the day. It looks great on TV and I've been enjoying it so far, but know going in that it's nothing ground breaking, just a fun entry in a genre that doesn't see a lot of new games anymore.