On that day, the forces of Light were snuffed out.
100 years ago, the forces of light, heralded by the noble Knights of the Round, faced the Overlord in mortal combat in his castle.
They failed.
You are the leader of the Knights of the Round who died in combat with the Overlord, given new life to attempt to stop the Darkness from destroying the rest of the world. With your squires at your side you shall use the flying fortress Rondaer and bring the fight to the Overlord once again.
Saviors of Sapphire Wings is a Video Game Remake of Entaku no Seito (円卓の生徒 Students of the Round Table), a Dungeon RPG developed by Experience Inc.'s Team Muramasa and localized by Nippon Ichi Software in 2021. It is notable for being the first of the "Empty Epic" series, which includes games such as Stranger of Sword City, Demon Gaze, and Undernauts Labyrinth Of Yomi.
This game provides examples of:
- An Adventurer Is You: There are 10 classes in the game, with one of them being exclusive (and mandatory) to the main character. Notably, the characters in this are not player-generated, and have personalities and default appearances, classes, and stats. "Soul" replaces what would be called a "race" in other similar games and determines your character's base stats.
- You can "reincarnate" any of the characters, allowing you to respec them and select a different Soul type, class, subclass, and stat buildout, with the only thing remaining static to each character is a Unique Skill that gives a 20% buff to a certain stat or combat mechanic. Amusingly each character has art of them in both a melee job and a magic job, so switching things up is anticipated if not intended.
- Art-Style Dissonance: Oxijyen's character portraits from the original PC release of Students of the Round remain selectable when reincarnating a character, although they stand out compared to Yoko Tsukamoto's different and arguably more mordern art style.
- As Long as There Is Evil: Quoted almost word for word by Lucifel after you defeat him. Notably, he's right, and on a much faster timetable than most: Being effectively a god of the dead means he's literally undefeatable in the afterlife where you fight him, killing him merely gives you some time before he reforms his body. You cannot actually defeat him for good.
- Company Cross References: The main character's default name is Xeth; Experience's first DRPG was Wizardry Xth, later remade as Operation Abyss and Operation Babel.
- Continuity Nod: Rosen Bridge in the Secret Trials is a nod to Stranger of Sword City, where he appears in the postgame and performs a similar role. As befitting of a God of Time, it's a Continuity Nod to an event that will happen centuries later.
- Dragon Their Feet: The Vampire Lord is quite happy to fulfill the letter of his duties, such as protecting an area up until your party achieves something (but not actually stopping your party from achieving said task).
- Dragon with an Agenda: The Vampire Lord is downright amiable to your party, up to and including giving you a map of the final dungeon. This is because he is really Lucifel, the king of the dead and the God of the local afterlife, is completely immune to the Overlords mind control and has plans for the Overlord after you kill her.
- Dungeon Crawling: Naturally, as it's a Dungeon RPG. Environments include a forest, a ruined castle, a mine, and several demonic castles.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Merlin joins you in the postgame, after you recover her soul from Lucifel. They need a lot of work as they start at level 1, but doing so is important as she is able to be a Valiant just like the main character, which changes the party strategy options significantly.
- Enemy Summoner: Fitting with the game's generally more new user friendly approach, enemies that can summon are less common and can only do it once. The catch being... the monster they summon can often do it once, too.
- Fighting from the Inside: Lich Eraste can resist the Mind Control to a certain extent, as in part she intentionally fell under it's effects so she could survive long enough to help out Xeth and Eltha.
- The Hero: Xeth, the last Knight of the Round, is definitely this.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The Chevalier Arms get this distinction in universe, with all but two being lost by the time the game takes place: Claide Leos, the sword of the pact, and and the holy staff Crannarrin, which was broken during events 100 years ago. Stat wise, they are fairly solid A rank weapons, which are outclassed by the end of the postgame.
- In the postgame, Claide Leos is reforged into Exbrandnote , which is a series staple for several other Experience DRPG titles. It's also an intentional hint that they all take place in the same universe at different points in the timeline.
- As with all Wizardry-descended DRPGs, Muramasa makes it's return as the most powerful one handed melee weapon in the game, with the Grand Muramasa being an even stronger two handed version of it. They are both extremely rare katanas that only appear at the very end of the postgame at astonishingly small drop rates.
- Mind Control: The Overlord's most dangerous power; allowing her to charm and take over the minds of anyone, corrupting them and turning them evil. This is what defeated the hero in the opening of the game, with all of the three knights' squires having been mind controlled and killed, and eventually the other two knights falling to the influence, too.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: By killing the Overlord, you sent her soul straight to the Netherworld, where Lucifel was waiting for it — and the powers of darkness it had absorbed in our world and had been sealed away from him.
- Palette Swap: An interesting variant; each monster design has 2-3 increasingly complex designs with additional armor and clothing on them; for example a zombie wielding a pickaxe contrasting with a larger zombie reusing the same art but with the pickaxe replaced with a warhammer. Notably, the more complex monsters can often summon their less complex versions.
- More traditionally used in the postgame To show the Lucifel empowered versions of previous bosses that he throws at you.
- Papa Wolf: Oblis, the Dragon God and neutral arbiter between Light and Darkness has absolutely no qualms about getting involved once Peide is corrupted by the Overlord. It takes the Knights of the Round swearing a oath to save his son to get him to calm down enough to not destroy the world.
- Returning Big Bad: Series reoccurring arch villain Lucifel makes his first appearance here.
- Ship Sinking: All hints at romance between Xeth and Eltha are ended abruptly when it's revealed that she is Xeth's daughter from his former incarnation and Eraste.
- Standard Fantasy Races: Japanese Wizardry variant, with Human, Dwarves, Elves, as well as the Cat Folk Ney and the Hobbit-like Migmys.
- However, the actual "race" that affects gameplay is called the "soul" in this game, and can be changed at will, allowing say, Rorone the Migmy to be respecced to have the "Champion Soul" (the default soul of the Dwarves).
- What If?: The Secret Training: Legend, unlocked by finishing Secret Training: Heaven and Secret Training: Earth (as well as finishing the post-game dungeon) sends the main character — now having defeated Lucifel, back in time to 100 years to the original battle against Ol=Ohma alongside Pyros and Eraste. While you'll have to solo the ensuing battle Ol=Ohma is no real match to your post-game dungeon equipped and leveled main character.
- This was originally the final content of the original game, and was meant to end it on a Bittersweet Ending, with the Silver Dragon mentioning that while this is not the timeline that Xeth lives in, somewhere, in some multiverse, Xeth did win that battle and was able to go home with Eraste.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The credits of the game does this with each of the Party members, talking about what history remembered them for. Notably, there's still game left after the credits, and your interactions with the party show the Character Development that they go through to become the people that would do the things they talk about.
