Dungeon crawlers have been on the rise, especially on the Nintendo Switch, as the console is starting to become the new home to niche JRPGs. And thanks to companies like NIS America, fans are getting the chance to play some really great games, some for the first time even since they have never been published outside of Japan, others a second chance since the storefront that it originally launched on is on the verge of closing for good. This is the case with Saviors of Sapphire Wings and Stranger of Sword City Revisited, two games that NISA brought together in one package to offer fans. Is this a case of killing two birds with one stone, or should have they been left alone? Let’s find out.
Story
As the title suggests, there are two different games packed in so that means two different stories. Let’s start with Saviors of Sapphire Wings first.
From my understanding after a bit of research, Saviors of Sapphire Wings is a localization of the 2019 Japanese exclusive title Azure-Winged Chevalier, which in itself is a remake of the 2010 game, Students of the Round, which just happens to take place in Experience Inc.’s Demon Gaze and serves as that game’s prequel. Any more connections and it’ll somehow connect back to Kevin Bacon. Joking aside, Saviors of Sapphire Wings has players take on the role of the hero Xeth Landlight, a Knight of Light, and members of The Knights of the Round (your party members). As the game starts you and your fellow Knights are battling the Overlord of Darkness Ol=Ohma (remember this name for later) to save the world from darkness. As you and the two other remaining Knights, Pyros and Eraste, battle and defeat Ol=Ohma, it turns out that it was a shadow decoy and the real Ol=Ohma attacks from behind killing you, Pyros and Eraste and kicking off an era of Darkness. However it seems that your soul has been reincarnated a century later to once again rise up and fight against Ol=Ohma. You soon gather allies to reform the Knights of the Round to defeat Ol=Ohma once and for all.
As for Stranger of Sword City Revisited, which is an updated version of the PS Vita version, has players take on the role of a survivor of a plane crash that has taken you to a strange place called Escario, the Sword City. You are approached by a strange old man who helps you get to the surface. As you make your way to the top, it turns out that he was going to feed you to a giant monster as some sort of sacrifice.You are saved by a girl named Rin who brings you back to her Guild, the Strangers. Here she explains that she and others like you have been transported to the world by some mysterious force and have banded together in order to find a way home by gathering an item called Blood Crystals. As you make your way searching for Blood Crystals, you encounter two other factions: the de facto government Kingdom and a merchant shop with ties to a criminal organization Medell Co. These two factions also for some reason want Blood Crystals too.
Both stories do start off a bit slow, but once your start building up your party and getting to know them and learn more about each of the games’ worlds, things start to get more interesting, especially with the three possible endings of Stranger of Sword City Revisited and bonding with party members in Saviors of Sapphire Wings.
Gameplay
While both Saviors of Sapphire Wings and Stranger of Sword City Revisited share basic gameplay aspects (both are turn based crawlers, have standard fight, defend, skill/magic, use item and run functions, and are both first person) they each have mechanics unique to each game.
For Saviors of Sapphire Wings, the game has a trap system. Here you and your party can lay traps for monsters who are carrying powerful items and at times treasure chests. Defeating them as fast as possible will grant players the treasure and items that the monsters were carrying. Another mechanic that Saviors of Sapphire Wings has that is unique from Stranger of Sword City Revisited is a bond system called Soul Ranks. As you journey across the land to defeat Ol=Ohma, you will gain party members aka squires. The more you interact and level them up, the higher their bond with you grows. The higher the bond, the more dialogue options and skills open up, some of which can be used to pull off double team attacks with you.
As for Stranger of Sword City Revisited, its unique mechanic is the ambush system. The ambush system let’s the player’s party hide from passing by monsters and attacking them from behind in certain areas of the map. Oftentimes these monsters are transporting valuable and rare items. Once you spring an ambush, you have a limited amount of time to defeat all the monsters and earn the treasure, if not they will run away. But there is some caution to using the amush spots: if your party passes on more than five ambushes then the chances of you and your party getting ambushed instead increases. The game also has received new content in the form of three new classes, three new dungeons, and deeper control of creating your party members, making this version of the Stranger of Sword City the definitive version.
Other than these two mechanics and new content for Stranger of Sword City Revisited, both games play pretty similar to each other, which is great for fans of these kinds of dungeon crawlers. Do note that both games are a bit on the harder side than most dungeon crawlers and also feature perma-death, ie once a party member dies, that person is dead forever.
Graphics
The 2D art for both games, while completely different from each other style wise, is awesome looking. Saviors of Sapphire Wings art steers towards the fantasy anime art style with its party members and NPC designs while Stranger of Sword City Revisited uses a more medieval fantasy/modern style to the party members and NPC designs. As for monster designs, they do share a couple of designs between each other but since the games are from the same developer and share the same lore it makes sense. As mentioned before, Stranger of Sword City Revisited gives players more control of their party creation, which includes their character portraits. So in addition to the character portraits from the previous version of Stranger of Sword City, Stranger of Sword City Revisited also has character portraits from Saviors of Sapphire Wings to choose from.
Music/sound
Music for Saviors of Sapphire Wings and Stranger of Sword City Revisited has a very orchestral and mystical feel to it. It can be bombastic and epic during boss battles and yet soothing and familiar when taking time out to talk to your party members. Music in dungeon crawlers tends to get overlooked in my opinion since most of the focus is on the combat and exploration, but Saviors of Sapphire Wings/Stranger of Sword City Revisited really put care into the music to help pull players more into each world.
The Saviors of Sapphire Wings/Stranger of Sword City Revisited pack easily fills that dungeon crawler itch for Nintendo Switch owners. Not only does it come with a game that is seeing a release in the West for the first time, it also comes packed with a definitive version of a game that was released years ago. Even though gameplay is similar to many other dungeon crawlers, it is still satisfying to explore each games’ world battling monsters and leveling up. Plus each game has their own unique mechanic to spice things up. The art for both games is really amazing, with Stranger of Sword City Revisited being my favorite of the two even though they do share some art assists. The music is also a treat to listen to, with various bombastic and soothing tracks. Saviors of Sapphire Wings/Stranger of Sword City Revisited are great pick ups for fans of dungeon crawlers, especially since that this is the first time that fans in the West can play Saviors of Sapphire Wings in English. If you’re looking for great on the go, portable dungeon crawling action, then these games are ripe for the exploring.
8/10
