In one of his first articles as a new team member, Forgottenlor dived into Stranger of Sword City and returns to tell us why the Wizardry-esque JRPG hits all the right notes.

Like in the classic Wizardry games, you have two rows in your party. The back row is only susceptable to ranged, magic, and some special attacks, while the front row takes the brunt of the damage. There are four front row classes: the defensive knight, the tough but not particularly accurate damage-dealing warrior, the more fragile ninja who specializes in killing single targets, and the more fragile samurai who can damage large groups of opponents. In the back is the ranger who specializes in taking down single opponents, the wizard, the priest, and the dancer, who is the only class that can use melee weapons at range and can use multiple consumable items each round. You can go without any of these, since the dancer can be as effective a healer as the priest, though this certainly costs more in terms of gold. Each class gains skills as they level up. Skills can be active, passive, a weapon proficiency, or the ability to use multiple spells. Each time you switch classes with a character you can "equip" skills from the former class. Each character starts with two slots, and gains an additional each time they reach level 13 in any class. The only downside to switching classes is that you start your new class at half of your old classes's level and class level determines hit and dodge chance to a great degree, as well as what level spells you can cast. This makes for a very interesting system that gives character development a lot of depth, allowing you to build all kinds of unusual characters (including ones that are pretty useless.)

Experience is planning a sequel to the astonishingly good Stranger of Sword City. It's still early on, so no word about a western release yet, though considering the success of the first game, they'd be foolish not to.

Experience is planning to create a sequel to Stranger of Sword City, director Motoya Ataka confirmed in a Twitter Q&A session.

Get all the interesting tidbits below.

Stranger of Sword City 2

• Stranger of Sword City 2 is in planning and will feature artwork by Yoko Tsukamoto. (Tweet) Nothing has been set in stone regarding its release in the west. (Tweet)

Motoya Ataka

• Ataka would like to make a horror game. (Tweet)

Wizardry V is Ataka’s favorite entry in the series. (Tweet)

Experience, the developer behind Stranger of Sword City, is holding a Twitter Q&A in English on June 20 and 27.

Experience, developer of dungeon RPGs like Stranger of Sword City, Ray Gigant, and Demon Gaze, will hold an English question and answer session with its president, Hajime Chikami, and director, Motoya Ataka, via Twitter on both June 20 and June 27, the company announced.

Here are the times:

• June 20 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. JST (find your local time here)
• June 27 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. JST (find your local time here)

Fans will be able to ask questions through Twitter @PR_Experience, which Experience will answer in real time. Due to the amount of questions the company expects to receive, which questions it answers will be chosen at random.

GamingUnion reviewed Stranger of Sword City:

Stranger of Sword City Review

Games on the PlayStation Vita often fall into one of two camps. Either you have a title that’s suited to short-bursts of with a pick-up-and-play mentality, or a title that has a lot of complexity to it that demands your full attention for hours on end. Experience Inc. and NIS America’s latest title, Stranger of Sword City, falls into the latter camp. And for good reason, as not doing so means you can…and will die.

If you haven’t played any of Experience Inc.’s previous releases before, they’re a Japanese developer who was responsible for the niche hits Demon Gaze and Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy, two other Vita dungeon RPG entries that NIS America helped localized and bring over to western audiences. Operation Abyss in many ways felt like an extension of Demon Gaze with its similar anime-inspired visuals and mechanics, but Stranger of Sword City feels very different as it has a much more darker Western-inspired tone and feel, making it feel much more unique.

In Stranger of Sword City, you take the role as the nameless player who’s on a flight to Alaska when suddenly it crash lands into strange fantasy realm inhabited by elves and other similar fantasy creatures. After realizing you’re the only survivor of the crash, you end up getting rescued by a person who leads up to a guild of people who also turn out to be people from Earth who were transported to this unfamiliar new world.

[...]

Score: 7

Plus:

•  The unique ways you need to hunt for the Lineage Types made for rewarding time spent.
• Due to the perms-death system for your party members outside the main character, it makes you think twice before taking actions.
• The Western-inspired design aspects are a welcome touch, considering most of the Japanese-inspired designs the Vita normally receives.

Minus:

• Some of the character presets clash badly with the new Western-inspired design aspects.
• The Ambush mechanic is a nice touch, but outside of a few key uses it's not that useful.
• The localization seems a bit lackluster when compared to previous NIS America works.

RPGSite checked out the PC version of Stranger of Sword City - the game has been released today:

Stranger of Sword City PC Review

We've covered Stranger of Sword City quite thoroughly this year. We have a full review for both the PlayStation Vita and Xbox One versions from separate reviewers, and we have a discussion video on our YouTube channel. Now, the dungeon crawler lands on PC this week and I'm taking just a quick look at what this version of the game offers. To get a full set of impressions, check out one or more of the above links.

[...]

The game can be played with keyboard and mouse as well as a controller, and the controls are intuitive. In fact, the game also seems to be playable only using the mouse by using on-screen interface items and by clicking near the screen edges to move and turn, although it's markedly more cumbersome.

All in all, the PC port is simple but sufficient for a first person dungeon-crawler. Performance at windowed resolutions might be problematic for some but hopefully NISA can investigate those issues. Picture Gate implementation is a fun addition that probably should have been explained better.

Score: 7/10

Gaming Age has reviewed Stranger of Sword City for XBox 1 and PS Vita:

There's a simple test to determine whether you're going to like Stranger of Sword City: do you like dungeon crawling? I mean, do you really, really, really like dungeon crawling? If you do, then odds are very good that you're going to love this too.

After all, you'll be doing a lot of that here. In fact, you'll be doing little else. And when you're not grinding your way through labyrinthine dungeons, you're getting ready to go back into them, whether you're managing your party, buying new weapons, getting party members healed, or chatting with various characters about gossip related to the dungeons and your party. This game is nothing if not very focused on what it wants you to do.

[...]

Grade: B

The PC-version will be released in June.

The challenging Wizardry-like Dungeon Crawler Stranger of Sword City will be released in June on Steam:

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After your plane flies through a strange rift and crashes, you awake under an unfamiliar sky. This is Sword City, a dark fantasy world that combines magic and technology. Explore, level up, make a perfect team, and slay monsters. But choose your allies carefully if you want to find a way home.

In Stranger of Sword City, you must perfect your DRPG skills and navigate your way through Escario, a place of fantasy races, fierce monsters, and treacherous labyrinths. Explore labyrinths to slay the powerful Lineage Type monsters within and take their Blood Crystals to increase your power. Who you decide to trust, be it the Kingdom, Medell Co., or the Strangers Guild, is entirely up to you. But choose wisely. Your fate depends on it.

Destructoid has reviewed the console version:

[...]

Even with the slow grind, I have no reservations saying Stranger of Sword City is a damn fine dungeon crawler. It's challenging, it's beautiful to look at, and it kept me on my toes throughout the adventure as I walked the fine line between playing it smart and playing it dangerously. If this game can make a believer out of me, imagine what die-hard dungeon crawler fans will think of it.

Score: 8/10 - Great