In Blade Dancer, the player takes control of a young warrior named Shane (shown as “Lance” in the English text) who heads to a far off island to continue his training to become a powerful warrior. When he arrives he meets up with a native named Ferris whose people is under siege by an army of monsters, so Shane takes it upon himself to save Ferris’ people and destroy the demon army.
The game is an RPG, with 3-D battlefields and a “Crafting” system where players can combine items to create a more powerful weapon. The game will store their combinations for future reference as well and supports up to four players on a networking system.
Common to the genre, battles take place in closed off environments, but they are not triggered at random. Colored skulls floating around in the environment lead to battles and based on the color the toughness of the encounter is announced. These skulls can decide to chase the player or back off when they are not strong enough and go look for reinforcements. The turn-based battles are based on a timing system where actions can be formed when an activity circle fills up. Time does not stop however, so actions need to be selected quickly. Weapons wear off and a Lunar Gauge can be filled up to get access to special abilities, affecting a single character or the entire group. This technique is used by the opponents as well.
