"DRPG" Stranger of Sword City

[Emmanuel2]

I've seen you guys talking about Xulima, so let me ask this: How is the game divided in terms of story/gameplay? Do I have to care about the story to enjoy it or is the game good enough to keep me going?

It's a combatfag game, you can enjoy the game without caring for the story. The game itself is great but story so far is so-so.

 

[hackncrazy]

I've seen you guys talking about Xulima, so let me ask this: How is the game divided in terms of story/gameplay? Do I have to care about the story to enjoy it or is the game good enough to keep me going?

It's a combatfag game, you can enjoy the game without caring for the story. The game itself is great but story so far is so-so.

My type of game then. Thanks

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

I've seen you guys talking about Xulima, so let me ask this: How is the game divided in terms of story/gameplay? Do I have to care about the story to enjoy it or is the game good enough to keep me going?

It's a combatfag game, you can enjoy the game without caring for the story. The game itself is great but story so far is so-so.

My type of game then. Thanks

It's an open-world blobber (though world movement is top-down, mechanically it plays the same). If you liked Wiz 7-8 or the M&Ms, chances are you'll lose some nights over this too. One of my 2014 top picks.

 

[Celerity]

Deepest Dark

I just tried Deepest Dark and got rightfully rekt. Maybe I should finish my first run so that I understand the game better . But from what I've seen so far, it looks/plays great and I'm interested in how you made the Mage viable.

Provided you picked a Mage you can start seeing the differences immediately. I'm not sure that'd reallly help though as every vanilla combat past level 20 is a formality so you'd just learn bad habits. Meanwhile Deepest Dark is deliberately designed as a very organic tutorial. For example even the very first area, the rat cave shows you a few of the different possible encounter types and when you quit dying in 1-2 hits from them that's a strategy you'll need later.

And yeah, Xulima's for combat fags. Story's just kind of there, music and art's alright but you don't buy games for that anymore than you buy burgers for the pickles. Mid and late game vanilla balance is shot but despite what some butthurt Derpest shills claim I'm actually very patient with design flaws as long as they are not deliberate and malicious and there's a good reason for them (like not having enough testers).

 

[Miner 2049er]

Just starting out with SOSC. Does a cleric profit from points in Int and a wiz from Pie ?

 

[Haplo]

A little. It provides more MP.
However it's not a bad idea to multiclass both into each other (for wizard double/triple cast and cleric Mana Heal 2). Many strategies are based on stacking multi-cast cleric buffs/debuffs, like Evade/Hit. So then it's best to start a future cleric as a wizard and a wizard as a cleric.
And also to include Dancer in some combinations. High Piety particularly benefits a Cleric's Mana Heal 2 and Dancer's Morale Song.

It is purely optional though. And a case can be made for maxing a single class instead for all spells ASAP and max SpE.

 

[Miner 2049er]

Cool. That's all I need to know. Thanks.

 

[aweigh]

jungl

my translation of wizardry empire 1 for PC, as well as elminage 2 for PSP, are on permanent-indefinite hiatus until i can find someone who's willing to translate the NPC dialog.

i've already done everything else and once i have the dialogs translated i am more than ready to spend endless hours/weeks/months doing the work.

sure, i could pay for a translation, but... I won't.

what I *am* doing is, after so much frustration at having 2 blobbers (ones i just mentioned) basically 50% translated and unable to finish them due to lack of being fluent in jap is the following:

- i've been learning kanji and katakana.

So, now, my goals are no longer to translate these games. My goal is to learn to read japanese kanji and katakana and hiragana.

Er, to bring this back around to your original post: yes, you are correct, NOBODY, i repeat, NOBODY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT BLOBBERS.

we are truly a niche and minority within RPGers.

it is further compounded when said blobbers are japanese, as not only is the language very difficult to learn (usually takes 1-2 years of courses to learn to read kanji), but our "bros", our "peers", our fellow RPGers automatically dismiss the games because they're not Western-made.

it is depressing. oh, and btw, Busin 0 is one of those I would devote years of my life into translating as soon as i get competent at reading jap, however there's a big problem:

- busin 0 features text compression and encryption, which means, aside from learning the language I would have to learn at least basic assembly language.

(i have busin 0 downloaded and all of its files extracted).

now, what does this all mean? that to translate a game like Busin 0, I would need a team. And once again going back to your original point: it is IMPOSSIBLE to recruit a team for blobbers. I tried.

I think it would probably be a better use of my life to just devote myself to snagging a better job, save money, and just fucking pay a professional translator and pay a professional programmer, heh, just so you and me can play Busin 0. because, trust me, NO ONE ELSE will.

 

[Celerity]

Yeah, I can't even find a bored blobber fan (other than me) for Deepest Dark.

 

[Nostaljaded]

my translation of wizardry empire 1 for PC, as well as elminage 2 for PSP, are on permanent-indefinite hiatus until i can find someone who's willing to translate the NPC dialog.

i've already done everything else and once i have the dialogs translated i am more than ready to spend endless hours/weeks/months doing the work...

I don't see why Helly or others won't assist (if he has spare resources) upon showing a game footage where everything is translated except the remaining NPC dialogs.

Has the NPC dialogs already been extracted into plain text format?
Translators could easily work off that. Worst come to worst, you can do a machine translation as a placeholder.

You could add a translator(s)-wanted signature post (like MrRichard999's) to increase visibility that you are seeking translators.

 

[aweigh]

Nostaljaded fluent

Example of my dialog translations:


Example of translated battles:


*BTW, I took it upon myself to mod in sound FX for when a character hits an enemy in melee combat and I also made the footsteps sound (sampled from the game's sequel), as the original game doesn't feature sound FX for neither of the two things I just mentioned.

*Also, with the help of ThisNameIsFree (hacker extraordinaire), he helped mod the game's text to a smaller point size so I could fit in more english letters and also make it prettier!

Example of UI/Interface translation:


the npc dialog and "dungeon text" you see translated has been done by me, using a mix of machine translation and my own limited knowledge of moon-runes (which is increasing as I continue studying).

since i got tired of waiting on Helly to get around to doing it. i put the project on hold because i want to learn to read jap so i don't have to wait, or depend, on people who don't wanna do it. i also made posts in forums but, like i said, nobody wanted to. i also feel guilty now pestering helly about it, since he has my docs, and he said he'll do it when he can... no use in me going on about this with him.

EDIT: My Elminage 2 PSP translation (Wizardry Empire 1, shown above, is for PC), is also already at the same stage. Everything cept NPC dialog is in English. However the Elminage 2 NPC script is gigantic and nobody will do it. Again, is why I want to learn kanji/katakana and just do it myself.

 

[Krraloth]

It has been nearly 3 years since i last played it on PCSX2, the emulator might be a lot faster now

Ninjas still raped your fps in October 2016

 

[Matador]

jungl

- busin 0 features text compression and encryption, which means, aside from learning the language I would have to learn at least basic assembly language.

(i have busin 0 downloaded and all of its files extracted).

now, what does this all mean? that to translate a game like Busin 0, I would need a team. And once again going back to your original point: it is IMPOSSIBLE to recruit a team for blobbers. I tried.

I think it would probably be a better use of my life to just devote myself to snagging a better job, save money, and just fucking pay a professional translator and pay a professional programmer, heh, just so you and me can play Busin 0. because, trust me, NO ONE ELSE will.

Man, I feel you. Busin 0 looks great, and TOFL was pretty good. It's a fuckin shame we can't play it.

 

[Celerity]

I'm curious if the whole ninjas raping fps thing just means you need a really powerful computer because of how inefficient it is or if it's always a problem no matter what. Anyone got a save around ninja territory? For science?

 

[Krraloth]

I'm curious if the whole ninjas raping fps thing just means you need a really powerful computer because of how inefficient it is or if it's always a problem no matter what. Anyone got a save around ninja territory? For science?

It just tanks man, you can switch to software renderer and very low resolution and make do with a 10-15 fps. Hardware just...dies. I have tried on 3 different pcs and one was a fucking beast. Same problem no matter what, you only gain a couple of fps tops with a very powerful cpu but that's it

 

[aweigh]

Video showcasing the extreme usefulness of the "counter attack" ability:


Video showcasing my correct-level-for-the-dungeon party BEATING MARDUILL'S ASS:




Video of me fighting a Mimic:


Video of me getting ass-whooped by the hidden boss in the Palace:

 

[Hirato]

the ninjas I think have a specularity effect of some sort on their models, and this gets processed pixel by agonising pixel.

Krraloth What happens if you set the blending unit accuracy to None?

 

[pakoito]

Is it better than Touhou 2?

I keep getting notified by this thread to come back, so now that time has passed I'll ask this once again then leave.

 

[aweigh]

pakoito

touhou = top-down view RPG that focuses on managing a big roster of "units", each one with different strengths; the game is more akin to a japanese-style "SRPG" except dressed up in the trappings of a grid-based crawler (though it is not in first-person view).

the main tactical depth comes from, as I said, managing your many character units (such as swapping them in and out of battle as need dictates) and spell usage.

There is no itemization.

SoSC = Wiz-clone.

So, to answer your question: There is no way to really compare, as the two games are from two completely different sub-genres.

Did you like Wizardry? You'll like SoSC.

Did you like Touhou, but don't care for turn-based Wiz-style (or Might and Magic-style) dungeon crawlers? Then there's a HIGH, HIGH chance you will NOT find SoSC appealing.

For example, my favorite type of RPG is the turn-based dungeon crawler, but I did not enjoy Touhou. It lacked the things I enjoy about the genre, and found the game's play "style" more like playing a japanese "SRPG" than playing a true dungeon crawler.

 

[pakoito]

Fair, then ! Thanks!

 

[duanth123]

Lol at your Samurai's face being consumed by his armor mane.


How does he fight in that thing.

 

[aweigh]

ancient bushido code states hair must be this high before drawing sword.

 

[Suicidal]

Is it better than Touhou 2?

I keep getting notified by this thread to come back, so now that time has passed I'll ask this once again then leave.

Well it's like aweigh said, both games are too different to warrant a direct comparison. Personally, I enjoyed LoT 2 a lot more so in my subjective opinion it is the superior game because of its unusual combat system, difficult and varied combat encounters with creative mechanics and interesting character/party customization options. But SoSC is undeniably better in other areas, like dungeon exploration, visuals and atmosphere.

However SoSC has some pretty annoying flaws that managed to diminish my enjoyment, namely: repetitiveness of enemy abilities and mechanics, relatively low combat difficulty (especially past the early game), pretty low number of classes and viable party strategies, mediocre item system where you just keep finding incrementally better stuff than what you're currently wearing and unique item effects are not powerful enough to warrant not going for raw stat increases instead.

Still, it's by no means a bad game, it's quite good in fact. If you like dungeon crawlers then no reason not to play it, especially if you can get it at a discount somewhere.

 

[aweigh]

pakoito

if you really want to play another grid-based, turn-based dungeon crawler that is also a Wiz-clone, like SoSC, then play Elminage: Gothic instead.

it is the best Wiz-clone to come out in 13 years, since 2001's release of Wizardry Empire 2: Legacy of the Princess.

but like I said, and as Suicidal said, neither SoSC or the much, much superior Elminage: Gothic, are very similar to Touhou.

honestly I'd hope you play these games and see if you like them. Both are available on Steam.

 

[pakoito]

I'll probably stick to LoT2 and games alike, but I'm curious as to why Elminage has such poor reviews on Steam.