Stranger of Sword City is a typical dungeon crawler, which means your party is made up of individuals that each belong to certain classes. But it’s also like Etrian Odyssey, where a character isn’t trapped in one class forever. The party members in the game can reclass up to five times, allowing you to create customized characters that suit your own needs. It’s handled very well, in such a way that you don’t have overpowered war machines, but do have someone with skills and abilities that cater to your dungeon-crawling needs.
First, it’s easy to make reclassing happen. You can change a character’s class immediately after they’re created. This cuts their level in half, once they go over to the new class. You also have to pay a fee, which varies based on your level and how many times that character has changed classes. As an example, the first class change on a level 1 character would be 100C, on a level 2 character would be 200C, and so on. Your character has two Skill Slots to start, and eventually earns a second Skill Slot from each of the five additional classes at level 13.
There are two times someone may want to consider a class change. The first is rather obvious. You may want to stick with one class until level 13, so you can get that additional Skill Slot. If you intend to perform multiple class changes, you’re going to want that cushion. Reach that point, get your Skill Slot, then move on to a new lifestyle for that character, keeping the skills you’ve learned so far and like best from other classes in those slots.
The other time is actually at level 1. As I mentioned before, You can reclass right away. Take the Samurai, as an example. It gets Light Blade Soul, Katana Soul, and Light Armor Soul, all of which allow the character to use those kinds of equipment, at level 1. It also learns Dual Wielding at the first level, which is a big help.
Personally, I haven’t been adhering to either of those suggestions. While I did do some level 1 reclassing, I’m currently waiting until level 7-9, depending on the character’s class. Characters learn skills between levels 1-28, but it seems like many of the best abilities for my needs are learned between levels 7-9. The Samurai’s Carnage Front, which allows it to automatically counterattack after dodges until hit by an enemy, comes at level 8 and is helpful on Fighters. I also like having Assassination, a sneak attack Ninjas learn at level 6, on my Samurai. Since I’m not a big fan of Dancers otherwise, getting my Ninja the Tri-Step level 3 skill, which allows three consecutive attacks and the morale-boosting level 10 Sword Song helped keep the abilities I needed most on a character I preferred.
It works well, because people who don’t want to change classes aren’t being penalized for being purists. It’s more an option for someone who wants specific equipment or abilities attached to certain characters, without having to shoehorn some class they don’t want into their party. You can get by without bothering with any class changes, but being creative allows for a little more freedom.
People can find Stranger of Sword City on the Xbox One on March 22, 2016. It will be on the PlayStation Vita on April 26, 2016.
