The world of Black Sigil is filled with magic. The magic is a part of everyday life for its inhabitants, and can be harnessed by everyone. A child born into such world without any magical abilities is considered cursed, as once such a child has grown up to be a ruthless villain – General Vai, who waged war onto the kingdom of Bel Lenora. Blade of the Exiled tells a story of a young man named Kairu - an orphan adopted and raised by a nobleman of his country. Kairu is one of the cursed children - born without magic, he is feared and ostracized by most, but despite the cruelty inflicted on him by his peers he remains optimistic and compassionate. One day his adopted father – Duke Averay informs Kairu of one last opportunity granted by Spirit Temple elders to possibly ignite Kairu’s magical abilities. For this he is sent to the Spirit Temple to consult the Sacred Crystal. Albeit – Kairu appears to be beyond the crystal’s ability to heal, and upon his return to his home city Kairu is exiled from Bel Lenora.
The game is designed to resemble a SNES-era Japanese RPG not unlike Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI. It features standard overhead perspective for towns and dungeons, and a Mode 7-style overworld. Like in most console role-playing games of that period, the player has to gain experience by battling randomly encountered enemies which unlike newer entries in the genre do no show up on the map. The battles are fought using a top-down, pseudo-real-time system where both, the enemies and the player characters can move freely around the field, but can only execute battle commands when their turn gage fills up.
