History VideoGame / StrangerOfSwordCity

* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Despite the butterflies very clearly holding the souls of vanished people, the Strangers' Guild has cruelly taken to slaughtering these butterflies on sight for their useful properties - mostly their wings which can teleport you safely home from the dungeons, and their legs which can disarm traps. There are also magic clothing, rings, and other equipment made using the butterflies. For what it's worth, the Strangers' leader, Riu, detests this practice but she doesn't do anything to stop the other Strangers from taking advantage of it.

* FinalDeathMode: While vanishing is possible for all characters, any character who is 60 years old or older has only 1 life point maximum, meaning they can never be revived if they die, ever (unless, of course, they're the main character). The tradeoff is that they get a whopping 10 bonus stat points minimum, with a higher chance for more than the minimum. Elders with 15-20 bonus stat points right off the bat are not unheard of, in a game where most adult characters can expect 5-10 at the most and teenagers (who have the full 3 LP) are lucky to see 4 bonus points.

* {{Crossover}}: Charon from ''VideoGame/StudentsOfTheRound'' makes an appearance.

* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Despite the butterflies very clearly holding the souls of vanished people, the Strangers' Guild has cruelly taken to slaughtering these butterflies on sight for their useful properties - mostly their wings which can teleport you safely home from the dungeons, and their legs which can disarm traps. For what it's worth, the Strangers' leader, Riu, detests this practice but she doesn't do anything to stop the other Strangers from taking advantage of it.

* BloodIsPower: Lineage monsters are immortal and powerful because of their blood crystals. These crystals can also be implanted in human bodies to gain power - a common practice among the elite gang leaders of the slums - or they can be offered to a vessel to gain divine power. Lesser monsters also carry lesser crystals called blood gems, which are used as currency in Sword City.

* EnemySummoner: Some enemies have the ability to summon others of their own kind. They can do this ''endlessly'' and will often wait until ''just'' before they're about to die and suddenly summon a replacement. Most annoyingly, enemies carrying items can use this tactic to bide time the few turns it takes them to run away. Getting items from kunoichis in the Valley of the Ruined is extremely annoying for just this reason.

* TheChosenOne: What the player is. In practice, this means their job is to kill Lineage Type monsters, because only a Chosen One is capable of handling the monster's blood crystal and preventing it from reappearing.

* EnemySummoner: Some enemies have the ability to summon others of their own kind. They can do this ''endlessly'' and will often wait until ''just'' before they're about to die and suddenly summon a replacement. Most annoyingly, enemies carrying items can use this tactic to bide time the few turns it takes them to run away. Getting items from kunoichis in the Valley of the Ruined is virtually impossible for just this reason.

* ArtStyleDissonance: As mentioned above, character portraits were designed by both Yoko Tsukamoto and Oxijyen; both styles are available for player characters, and a button in the options menu allows you to choose between using Yoko's or Oxijyen's graphics for NPCs. The problem? Oxijyen's cuter and more stylized portraits really clash with the dark tone of the game (though that may be a plus depending on your personal tastes). What's more, all of the backgrounds and enemy graphics are done in Yoko's dark and realistic style, making Oxijyen's designs stick out like a sore thumb.

* ArtStyleDissonance: Oxijyen's cuter and more stylized character portraits, as nice as they are, seem tremendously out of place in this dark-toned game. It isn't helped by the fact that Yoko also drew all of the battle backgrounds and enemy graphics, so Oxijyen's graphics clash with them too.

* NeverSayDie: Averted, mostly. Player characters who die are definitely said to be dead, but then again DeathIsCheap to some extent. Strangely played straight with enemies defeated in combat, which the game describes as having "run out of energy."

In ancient times the Fallen One fought a terrible battle against the Creator. This battle tore a hole in the fabric of reality, through which the Strangers came. Who are the Strangers? Why, we are.

You are the newest [[TheChosenOne Chosen One]] in Sword City, and the sole survivor when your plane falls through the gate and crashes into a dungeon called the Mausoleum of Metal. Far from a FishOutOfWater, you find yourself possessing strange powers that allow you to battle and destroy the monsters that plague this land. Along with your fellow Chosen your job is to hunt down [[BossBattle Lineage Type monsters]], take the blood crystals that give them life, and take them to Vessels, who will pass them on to the divine. Hopefully, with enough divine grace you will find a way to return home. If not, you will vanish into nothing like so many others.

* HumanAliens: The Strangers, at least as far as the people of Sword City are concerned. Notably, there ''is'' a race of humans already living in Sword City, which apparently bears no common ancestry with Earthlings.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Despite the butterflies very clearly holding the souls of vanished people, the Strangers' Guild has cruelly taken to slaughtering these butterflies on sight for their useful properties - mostly their wings which can teleport you safely home from the dungeons, and their legs which can disarm traps. For what it's worth, the Strangers' leader, Riu, detests this practice but she doesn't do anything to stop the other Strangers from taking advantage of it.

* EnemySummoner: ome enemies have the ability to summon others of their own kind. They can do this ''endlessly'' and will often wait until ''just'' before they're about to die and suddenly summon a replacement. Most annoyingly, enemies carrying items can use this tactic to bide time the few turns it takes them to run away. Getting items from kunoichis in the Valley of the Ruined is virtually impossible for just this reason.

* HumanAliens: The Strangers, at least as far as the people of Sword City are concerned. Notably, there ''is'' a race of humans already living in Sword City, which apparently bears no common ancestry with Earthlings.

* HumanAliens: The Strangers, at least as far as the people of Sword City are concerned. Notably, there ''is'' a race of humans already living in Sword City, which apparently bears no common ancestry with Earthlings.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Despite the butterflies very clearly holding the souls of vanished people, the Strangers' Guild has cruelly taken to slaughtering these butterflies on sight for their useful properties - mostly their wings which can teleport you safely home from the dungeons, and their legs which can disarm traps. For what it's worth, the Strangers' leader, Riu, detests this practice but she doesn't do anything to stop the other Strangers from taking advantage of it.

''Stranger of Sword City'' {{Dungeon|Crawling}} RPG developed by Experience Inc. and published by Nippon Ichi Software for the PS Vita in 2014, and later rereleased for the XBox One in 2016. It made a few changes to the standard DRPG formula, such as a reimagined [[FinalDeath Perma-Death]] system, and a deeper emphasis on character creation and customization. It was most well known for its character graphics featuring the work of Yoko Tsukamoto and Oxijyen.

* FinalDeath: Every character has from 1-3 life points depending on the age the player sets when making them. If a character's LP ever reaches 0 that character becomes a butterfly and vanishes. Otherwise, the character can be revived and lost LP can be recovered by resting for a while. The tradeoff is that older characters get fewer LP but more bonus stat points. The sole exception is the main character, who has LP as normal, but they never go down no matter how many times the player dies.

** Fairy: Ney, [[ALittleBitBeastly the cat people who are super agile and make good rogues]]. They also have the "Wild Eye" trait that lets them point out interesting spots in the labyrinth that might otherwise go undetected. Naturally, Elves could also count as the Fairy race, but Ney do it a little better.

** Cute: Migmies. They have [[ALittleBitBeastly adorable puppy dog ears]], look like cute children even when full grown, and are said to be more in touch with the gods, having a naturally high piety stat. They also have the Intuition skill, which gives them a bonus to identifying traps.