Stranger of Sword City

Stranger of Sword City opens with a plane crash, after which the hero wakes up in the world of Escario, where people transported from our reality end up. Surviving outsiders gain supernatural abilities here and become monster hunters, since that is the only way to keep a place in the fragile human settlement. The story is told sparingly, through conversations in the city and scraps of notes, and it doesn't try to hold the player's hand. What matters is building your own party, since the main character can't manage alone and can't get by underground without a well-assembled group.

The game is a classic first-person dungeon crawler with grid-based movement and a map that reveals itself through exploration. Alongside ordinary battles there is a trap system: the player picks a spot to wait for a rare enemy, positions the party, and tries to catch it off guard to obtain the crystals needed for further progress. Characters have a limited number of lives in the form of spheres, and once these run out, they disappear for good, forcing the player to weigh every risky decision. Each class has its own role within the formation, where the difference between the front and back row really matters, and character growth is slow and tangible. Returns to the city serve to hand in loot, restock supplies, and rearrange the party before the next descent.

Visually the game leans on a dark, faded palette and character art that gives it a grim, weary tone matching a world with no hope of returning home. The music is understated and mostly deepens the sense of dread underground. On the Vita it's an ideal title for short play sessions, since exploring the dungeons breaks down nicely floor by floor. Reviewers praised the honest difficulty and thoughtful party management, while criticism targeted the repetitive environments and terse storytelling. Today Stranger of Sword City ranks among the best Experience Inc. delivered on the Vita, and among the pillars of the entire handheld revival of dungeon crawler RPGs.