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Sword of Rapier is a fantasy doujin soft created by Ikumo vDog. The game was developed for the Xbox 360 using the XNA Game Studio framework and released through the (now-defunct) Xbox LIVE Indie Games service on August 26, 2010. It has been subsequently re-released on Windows Phone in 2012, ported to the PlayStation Mobile framework for Play Station Vita and PlayStation TV in 2013, remastered for Android (through Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore) and iOS devices in 2015 using the Unity engine, and finally ported to Windows PC through
Steam in 2018.
The story centers around Katharine, an amnesiac woman who finds herself waking up in the middle of a forest with no recollection of her past or her identity. Lost and confused, Katharine soon finds a shocking discovery as she found a bloodstained rapier in her hands. Amidst her confusion and panic, she was suddenly ambushed by soldiers from the Heristal Empire whom threatened to arrest her. Out of desperation, Katharine frantically arms herself with the rapier and fought back against the soldiers. She fled to a ravine beyond the forest after the fending off wild monsters, but moments before she could escape for safety, she was quickly surrounded once again by the soldiers along with their commander, a knight named Sara who knows something about Katharine and harbors a grudge against her. Katharine tries to defend herself from Sara as she tries to get some answers from her, but as they crossed swords, Sara pulls out a gun and shoots her, leaving her for dead as she fell off the cliff and into the river below. A few days later, Katharine reawakens in the house belonging to a girl named Denise and her older brother Ares, whom looked after her and threated her injuries after discovering her washing up by the valley. With their help, Katharine explores the vast world of the Heristal Empire in search of her lost memories.
Gameplay-wise, it is described as a "Sky High" Action RPG where the player can use Katharine's rapier and a variety of magical spells that she can learn to fight against her enemies, but rather then using a straightforward combat system, Sword of Rapier's gimmick revolves around launching enemies in the air and stringing combos together while airborne. The game not only encourages players to juggle enemies high into the sky as possible, but also mixing up their attacks to raise their hit counter before culminating with a Thrust attack in order to maximize damage when striking launched foes back to the ground, which also rewards extra experience points and gold upon their defeat. For defense, players can block to reduce damage taken, however, the player can perform a block the moment before their opponent's attack connects, the attack will be a parried instead, not only nullifying the damage, but also recovers a portion of MP and potentially exposes enemies for a counterattack.
Sword of Rapier's official website can be found here and vDog's development blog can also be found here (Japanese). A trailer of the game can be seen here.
Soar high in the sky with these tropes!
- Amnesiac Hero: The protagonist, Katharine, has amnesia and cannot recall who she is or where did she came from. Towards the game's climax, it was revealed that her memories was stolen by the demon lord Eldlars, who once possessed her to assassinate the King of Heristal.
- Asteroids Monster: The first boss, Gel, is a gigantic slime that breaks up into smaller Slimes as the player damages it. Jellies, the purple variants of Slime, also split into multiple duplicates as Katharine attacks it.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Some of the bosses in the game are gigantic compared to Katharine, such as the Gel, Assault Bear, the Ancient Guard, and Earth Shaker.
- Attack Reflector: By equipping the Monocle, some enemy projectiles can be redirected back at the attacker with a well-timed parry.
- Auto-Save: The game uses a dedicated auto-save slot to save progress at checkpoints after entering an area or before a boss battle.
- Bears Are Bad News: The game's second boss, the Assault Bear, is a gigantic blood-thirsty bear armed with sharp metal claws and battle armor.
- Big Bad: Eldlars is a powerful demon lord who once reign terror upon the Heristal Empire with an army of demons, but he was eventually sealed away by the Queen at the end of the war. He eventually broke free as the the seal one the bracelets weakened ten years later. Eldlars used the opportunity to possess Katharine who was gifted one of the bracelets that he was sealed in to make her kill the King and steal her memories, then he hopped into Jasmine's body through her bracelet while ruling over the Empire under his control and manipulated Sara into killing Katharine. He was eventual forced out of Jasmine's body and finally banished for good by the hands of Katharine.
- Bittersweet Ending: Although Katharine was able to free her sister from Eldlars's possession, banish Eldlars once and for all, reunite with her long lost mother, and regain her lost memories, without Eldlars's powers to keep the Floating Continent afloat, the place began to collapse and fall, and Katharine used so much of her magic powers from earlier that she wasn't able to create a portal to leave with her mother in tow. Queen Angelina instead used what was left of her magic powers to create a portal for Katharine to save her daughter. The game ends with not only leaving Denise and Ares without their adoptive stepmother, but also Katharine and Jasmine without their parents.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: The game's text in the post-Xbox 360 versions of the game was translated by a third-party translator, which resulted in many instances of typos, poor sentence structure, hokey dialogue, and poor grammar due to the translator's lack of understanding of the English language.
- Blob Monster: The game has featureless slime monsters as some of its enemies.
- Books That Bite: One of the later enemies are the Living Book, animated spellbooks that not only cast a variety of spells at the player, but will also try to bite them if they get close to one.
- Boss Rush: The PlayStation Vita and PC versions have the Boss Rush mode as an unlockable for beating the game for the first time, while mobile versions have a special Boss Rush only version of the game as a separate purchase. In the Boss Rush mode, players can battle against the game's bosses for the fastest time. Players have 10 Potions they can use to replenish health, and in between battle, players can choose up to four of the available spells and they increase in level with each fight.
- Checkpoint Starvation: Averted. Players are free to save at almost any point, even in the middle of a battle outside of bosses as long as they're not dead. The game also has an auto-save checkpoint when entering areas or before boss battles.
- Combos: Players can launch enemies into the air by slashing them or using spells with launching properties like Ice Wall or Tornado, then string to together a chain of Stab attacks with other spells to keep enemies airborne as long as possible and finally striking them back down with a Thrust.
- Clothing Damage: Discussed. After Katharine's run-in with Sara and falling down into the river, she later found the hem of her dress was torn while talking with Denise, who offered her late mother's clothes to Katharine.
- Cycle of Hurting: Through a combination of chaining rapier stabs and launching spells with MP recovery items, it is possible to continuously juggle an enemy for absurd lengths of time and then capping it all off by spiking them back down for massive damage.
- Death from Above: Katharine can invoke this by launching enemies into the air with her rapier and magic attacks, then striking them back down and damaging other nearby enemies from the impact. The Thunder Volt spell strikes enemies with lightning and launches them upwards.
- Demonic Possession: Eldlars possessed Katharine and used her to kill her father, the King of Heristal, then stole her memories when she was being pursued by Sara as he jumped to possess Jasmine through her magic bracelet. Upon meeting the possessed Jasmine, he tried to use her to kill Katharine for good, but she manages to snap her sister out of Eldlars's control.
- Difficulty Levels: The game features the standard Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty levels at the beginning. There is also an unlockable Nightmare difficulty level.
- Double Unlock: In order to unlock Light and Dark magic, players not only have to spend 10,000 gold for each of their respective spellbooks, but they also need to spend SP from leveling up to learn those spells.
- Elemental Powers: As the player level up in the game, they can spend points to unlock elemental magic that Katharine can use in battle. By default, Katharine has access to Fire, Ice, Lighting, and Wind magic. Light and Dark magic can be unlocked by purchasing their respective spellbooks from a merchant.
- Blow You Away: Air Thrust and Tornado.
- Casting a Shadow: Demons Lance and Abyss Fall.
- An Ice Person: Ice Wall and Freeze Lancer.
- Light 'em Up: Twinscle Star and Crescent Moon.
- Playing with Fire: Fire Ball and Explode.
- Shock and Awe: Thunder Volt and Plasma Sphere.
- Emergency Energy Tank: The Potions, Ether, and Elixir items serve as this. Potion, Hi-Potion, and X-Potion respectively recovers 20%, 50%, and 100% of HP, Ether recovers 100% of MP, and Elixir fully recovers both HP and MP.
- Escape Rope: Roc's Feather allows the player to escape a dungeon or field areas to Denise's and Ares's house.
- Essence Drop: Slain enemies drop HP and MP orbs to respectively recover lost health and mana as well as gold coins to spend at the merchant.
- Evolving Attack: Spells not only become stronger as the player levels them up, they also gain enhanced properties such as extra projectiles for Fire Ball, an extra wave of ice pillars with Ice Wall, and launching enemies higher with Tornado.
- Face Death with Dignity: During the game's ending, Queen Angelina willingly accepts her demise as she sacrifices herself to save Katharine from the collapsing floating landmass and bids her a sorrowful farewell to her long-lost daughter.
- Feathered Fiend: The Desert Eagle enemies introduced in the Izeria Desert area of the game.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Three of Katharine's starting elemental affinities are Fire (Fire Ball and Explode), Ice (Ice Wall and Freeze Lancer), and Lightning (Thunder Volt and Plasma Sphere).
- Finishing Move: The purpose of the Thrust attack for launched enemies. When performed at short heights and a low combo chain, the damage output is about the same as your basic attacks with a smaller impact radius, but if the player initiates a Thrust while stories above ground with a high combo chain, it can result in a devastating amount of damage and leaves a larger blast radius.
- Gatling Good: Gatling-No-So-Good for Katharine when dealing with the Ancient Guard which uses a magic-powered rotary gun from its underside.
- Golem: The last enemy type introduced in the Floating Continent are the Metal Golems, animated automatons that are slow but they can withstand Katherine's attacks, fire a laser from their eye, and slam the ground with their arms with great force.
- Graphics-Induced Super-Deformed: The in-game models for the humanoid characters are presented in this fashion with blocky chibi proportions.
- The Grim Reaper: The Wraith enemies are ghostly hooded enemies that are armed with a Sinister Scythe and can ambush the player teleporting behind them for a sneak attack.
- Harder Than Hard: On Nightmare difficulty, enemies are not only even stronger than ever, but players also cannot regain MP anymore from using rapier attacks while airborne or block enemy attacks from simply guarding and instead must parry them to avoid damage. On the upside, their MP gauge is doubled and parrying attacks recovers 3x the amount of MP than usual.
- Heroic Sacrifice: During the game's finale, Queen Angelina sacrifices herself to save Katharine by using the last once of magic she had to create a portal back to safety from the collapsing Floating Continent after destroying Eldlars, whose immense magical powers was keeping the continent afloat.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: Katharine is not only capable of launching enemies of many times her size high into the sky, but she can also deflect various projectiles such as such missiles from a mech and send it right back at it by parrying it.
- In a Single Bound: After launching an enemy upwards with a slash or casting certain spells, Katharine can soar in the air in order to chase after launched foes to attack them repeatedly with her rapier and spells.
- Insistent Terminology: In the game, "SP" not only refers to the player's own mana pool to cast magic, but it's also used to refer to another kind of Skill Points in the Skills menu that can be used learn or upgrade spells.
- Instant Runes: Hexagram runes can be seen beneath the caster when casting a spell.
- It's Personal: Sara's motiving motive early in the story to bring Katharine to justice and have her executed for an unspeakable crime she committed that she cannot remember whether or not she actually did. It later turns out that Katharine was posseted by Eldlars through the magic bracelets and made her assassinate her father, the King, then he later hopped bodies to possess Jasmine and manipulated Sara into trying to kill Katharine to rule the Empire. Sara eventually realizes that she was being played like a puppet as Eldlars was possessing the two princesses for his nefarious deeds and dropped the criminal charges against Katharine.
- Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Sara tries to arrest the amnesiac Katharine and then kill her on the spot for an unspeakable crime the latter committed at the beginning of the game. She was however being manipulated by Eldlars through possessing Jasmine but she eventually learned the truth behind the King's death.
- "Just Frame" Bonus: Performing a block just before the enemy's attack connects will parry it, not only nullifying the damage but will also recover a small portion of her MP.
- Killer Rabbit: In the La Moonyu Mountains there are Wild Rabbit enemies, small rabbits that are capable of somersault kicking the player and charging into them if they're far away.
- Knockback: Taking a hit will result in Katharine staggering back from the damage, which can lead to her getting stunlocked if many enemies attack her at once. The Blue Crystal can however reduce the hitstun from attacks.
- Launcher Move: Katharine's slash attacks will launch enemies high into the air where she can pursue them to attack them with her rapier and magic spells. Some spells like Ice Wall, Thunder Volt, and Tornado can also launch enemies upwards.
- Load-Bearing Boss: After defeating the game's final boss, the final dungeon itself begins the collapse and falls to the earth. Justified as it was Eldlars's powers that was keeping the convenient afloat.
- The Lost Woods: The Virgin Forest, the game's starting area, is a lush green and deep forest.
- Magitek: The Ancient Guard is a autonomous guardian mech that is powered by ancient magic. It was also guarding the magical bracelets that Eldlars and Angelina were sealed in.
- Magic Knight: Katharine is not only a skilled fencer, she is capable of using powerful magic to attack enemies from afar, pull them into her, or launch them into the air.
- Meteor Move: The Thrust attack, which slams launched enemies back into the ground and results in a explosion upon impact. The damage it deals and the impact radius are calculated based on the amount of hits landed and the height of the Thrust.
- Mirror Boss: The boss battle with Jasmine is this as she can use many of the same fencing tricks and magic spells as you do. Justified as she's Katharine's older sister, was also raised as a fencer, possesses the other magic bracelet that allows her to cast magic, and under the control of Eldlars.
- Missing Mom: Ten years prior to the events of the game, two orphaned children, Denise and Ares, were adopted by a woman who raised them as her own. A few years afterwards, she was drafted to take part in a war to save the Empire from a legion of demons, and while she helped to win the war for the Empire thanks to her ability to use magic, she died at the end of the war. The adoptive stepmother turns out to be Queen Angelina, who once tried to adopt Denise and Ares in the castle, but the King refused to accept them, so Angelina went her separate ways and lived a life outside of the kingdom to raise them. She didn't die after the war, but rather was sealed away along with Eldlars in the magic bracelets. Unfortunately, Angelina didn't return home after being freed from Eldlars, and instead gave her own life to save her daughter, Katharine, in the finale.
- Mr. Exposition: Sara plays this part as she reveals some of the game's critical plot points towards the later half of the game's story. She divulges how she witnessed Katharine killing the King, and after being freed from imprisonment by a possessed Jasmine, explains the history of the war between the Empire and Eldlars to Katharine, Denise, and Ares, as well as who Queen Angelina is towards the end of the game.
- Nice Guy: Ares and Denise, whom looked after and nursed Katharine back to health after she washed up from the rivers from her run-in with Sara, and they helped her along the way in her quest to rediscover her missing past.
- Quest for Identity: The game's plot revolves around trying to piece together Katharine's missing past and lost identity.
- Palette Swap: The Jelly enemies are magenta palette swaps of Slimes.
- Protagonist Without a Past: Katharine, whose central conflict revolves around her missing identity and past. She eventually finds out that she is a princess who unwittingly killed the King thanks to a demon lord named Eldlars who stolen her memories just before he jumped ship to possess her sister Jasmine.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Two of the bosses, Assault Bear and Earth Shaker, have glowing red eyes with no pupils.
- Red Is Heroic: Katharine is a redhead (at least in the cover art; in-game, she's considered as a blonde) clad in a red dress and stilettos; in later versions of the game, she dons a similarly colored battle dress and cape after the introduction area.
- Remaster: The 2015 mobile versions of the game and onward were rebuilt with the Unity engine under the moniker of "Sword of Rapier HD". The game's graphics was updated with higher resolution textures, added environmental details and foliage, an improved lighting system, and depth of field effects. The Steam version of the game also went on to improve the texture resolution, visual effects, and lighting even further.
- Royal Rapier: The princesses of the royal of family ruling over the Heristal Empire were raised as fencers and each received a specially crafted sword known as the Eris Rapier. Only two Eris Rapiers have ever been forged: one is used by Jasmine and the other by Katharine.
- Ruins for Ruins' Sake: The aptly-named Regnia Ruins, an ancient underground ruins.
- Save-Game Limits: The game only has three save slots plus an auto-save slot, but the manual saves can be deleted from within the Save/Load screen.
- Scratch Damage: While many attacks can be blocked by simply guarding (for difficulties below Nightmare at least), a small fraction of the damage is still inflicted to Katharine.
- Shifting Sand Land: The Izeria Desert, a barren desert with an oasis further into the area which also leads into the Rhen Var Canyon.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The La Moonyu Mountains area, is a snowy mountain region, which also follows with the icy La Moonyu Cave.
- Spin Attack: One of the attacks used by the Ancient Guard by tucking its legs in sideways while spinning and sliding across the arena.
- Super Title 64 Advance: The later mobile versions of the game were given the moniker "Sword of Rapier HD" due to being ported to the Unity engine and having its graphics updated in the process. The Steam version, although is based on the later mobile ports with further graphical enhancements, lacks the HD suffix.
- A Taste of Power: In the demo versions of the game, players are given Fire Ball, Ice Wall, and Plasma Sphere at the beginning of the game whereas in the full version players can only access spells after the game's opening act.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The aptly-named Floating Continent, a series of flying landmass being suspended by Eldlars's immense magical powers.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The game not only encourages players to dish out as much pain to their enemies with aerial combos, but they are also rewarded with extra experience points and money if they can defeat enemies with devastating Thrust attack.
- Unlockable Content: The game has an unlockable Nightmare difficulty level after beating the game for the first time, and in some versions, also an unlockable Boss Rush mode.
- Updated Re-release: After the Xbox 360 and PlayStation Vita/TV versions, the later mobile and Steam ports of the game were rebuilt using the Unity engine. Along with the engine changes, the game received some visual enhancements compared the previous releases, especially in the Steam version. The post-Xbox 360 versions of the game also has support for other languages.note
- Warm-Up Boss: The first boss, Gel, is a giant slime monster that only attacks by ramming into the player.
- Word Salad Title: The game's title, "Sword of Rapier", is not only redundant, but makes it also almost impossible to distinguish itself from real swords and rapiers in Internet search results.
