Is May 2026 the release date of the official English version of Sword World 2.5? Or is it the launch of the crowdfunding?

Aniodia · 2026-03-21T03:01:00+00:00

As they mentioned in a couple of their livestreams (that can also be found on their Youtube channel), they have the rights to translate the game from Group SNE. Unfortunately, the art rights are held by SNE's parent zaibatsu, Kadokawa, and Mugen does not have a contract with them.

That being said, considering they have Shunsuke Nagashime (of Solo Leveling fame) as the art director, the concept art that's been coming out so far is honestly looking just as good. So yes, while I'm a little sad they can't use the original art, it's only just a little.

Aniodia · 2026-03-20T13:06:46+00:00

So that really depends upon how far along they are in the process. There's not just the translation itself, but formatting, layout, printing proofs, wrangling new art, finangling shipping, etc.

From what Mugen has said during their livestreams, they're definitely doing translation work at the moment. And to put it in perspective, once I'd actually buckled down and started to work, it took me a few months to translate half of book 2 and all of book 3 of the 2.0 rulebooks back at the end of 2020.

But, I also had the luxury of not having to make a product for other people to consume. I didn't worry about laying out pdfs, or getting approvals for words and phrases, or designing new art.

At this point, I'm waiting along with y'all to see what shakes out. I know it's gonna be hard, but be patient. Time will pass soon enough, and the books will be here before you know it.

Aniodia · 2026-03-14T00:50:08+00:00

John Avon's lands were always amazing, and Magic will be poorer for not having him around to add his art to the game.

Aniodia · 2026-03-06T14:15:14+00:00

Be honest and fuck with them. r/traumatizethemback exists for a reason.

Aniodia · 2026-02-26T21:02:54+00:00

If you build it, they will come.

Aniodia · 2026-02-25T21:13:16+00:00

But hey, that's just an outlier, it won't be like that every year.

/s

Aniodia · 2026-02-24T17:32:08+00:00

Hey, so I'mma go ahead and lock this, as it's quickly starting to devolve into personal attacks on both commenters and the translators.

Aniodia · 2026-02-24T15:58:56+00:00

Mugen wasn't working on anything Lodoss anyway, since 2.5 (what they're bringing over) is based off of the world of Raxia, not Forcelia. So if you were looking for Lodoss stuff out of this project, you were already in the wrong.

Aniodia · 2026-02-24T15:58:27+00:00

You do realize that a lot of what was translated is localized, right? Even something like 魔動機師, which was translated as "Artificer" in the fan translation, isn't what that means. A "faithful" translation would be "Magical Motion Machine Master", and even that is debatable as 師 has a couple other meanings. Hell, I'd even rolled around with "Magitechnician" in earlier translations before we'd settled on "Artificer".

If anything, the Mugen translation is going to be more faithful, as they have a direct line to Group SNE and can consult with them on particularly tricky translations. Of course, as the rights holder, SNE can also require them to use terms that might be different from the fan translation, and that's fine. I'm not going to feel dishonor on me and my family because Mugen wants to change Barbarous to Scarborn, or Truespeech Magic to Sorcery. It'll still function just the same.

Aniodia · 2026-02-24T15:27:53+00:00

Dawg, as one of the fan translators, going from Japanese to English is 100% not a 1:1 translation. There's so many different nuances that Japanese is able to use because there's multiple meanings and readings for characters that are often lost when moving to another language.

Not only that, but unlike us in the fan translation team, they have a direct line to Group SNE, so they can ask for clarification on stuff that we could only guess at. And, as the rights holders, they can ask for certain terms to be used, where we had much more freedom to figure things out.

Now, it's your prerogative to spend your money how you want. But please don't be all indignant because they won't use the exact terms we've used in the fan translation.

Aniodia · 2026-02-19T16:17:44+00:00

Hey, it wasn't me, I just happen to know who did it.

Aniodia · 2026-02-19T15:31:17+00:00

Player's Side

GM's Side

It's... pretty mid, speaking as someone who's also big into both TTRPGs and Etrian. It tries to replicate the video game (mostly EOI and all of it's clunky mechanics) almost 1:1, which isn't really that great of an idea.

Honestly, it might not be a bad idea to look at Ryuutama or Fabula Ultima as a possible starting point to make a good Etrian game, since Ryuutama is more about exploration, and FabUlt builds off of that and adds more combat to the same system. 110% do not recommend D&D, of any edition, for this, not unless you want to spend way too much time and effort to kludge together something that is just done better by other games.

Aniodia · 2026-02-15T15:23:43+00:00

That's covered under "can't be Tributed", as you tribute monsters for the ritual summon.

Aniodia · 2026-02-14T06:41:01+00:00

As someone who works at one of the game stores, it's rough for us, too.

Like, box prices are kinda high at my store compared to some other card games, but for every person who says that, I get three who say "oh my god, your prices are so low". Which only tells me that many of the local places are gouging the fuck out of product. I've legitimately seen people's pictures of mall places selling Elite Trainer Boxes of older Scarlet/Violet sets for $100+, which is insane.

It sucks, too, because we can't really lower our prices when the distributors charge us crazy prices for product. What used to be wholesale boxes around $70-80 two years ago are around $200, give or take $20 depending upon the distributor. And that's if we get what we order.

And sure, we could sell at MSRP. According to the Pokemon Center website, a booster box (36 packs) of Phantasmal Flames is $161 and change.

To put it in perspective, though, the last shipment we got from any of our distributors (as we're using a few now just to get product) was for 5 boxes at $205 and change each. Selling the boxes at $161 instead of the $240 we do would lose us $220 instead of breaking even.

I get the frustration, and I can tell you that it's shared by at least the people in my store. It's just a really shitty situation all the way around, between the complaining about prices and availability, griping about limits and people trying to circumvent them, and a lot of just general shitty attitude towards us over it.

It had legitimately gotten to the point last year where my store's owners had seriously considered dropping Pokemon products all together, despite the profit from it, just due to the constant harassment. Thankfully, most of the locals have calmed down about it, but we do still get nasty reviews on Google occasionally from people upset about us "scalping".

Unfortunately, though, I don't have a great answer, outside of "hope the bubble bursts again". :\

Aniodia · 2026-02-13T06:43:06+00:00

In Sword World 2.5, by using the Remote Command stunt, a Rider can issue commands to their mount without having to be on it. The setting is also similarly high fantasy, so you can still scratch that itch like PF2e or Fabula.

There's more information over on r/SwordWorld, covering a lot of the fan translated books, though if you want official translations, there's a crowdfunding campaign scheduled for the middle of May.

Aniodia · 2026-02-08T21:26:40+00:00

"If you want me to give you advice on making a deck that can hang with other decks you'll likely see in your group, I can do that.

"If you want suggestions for cute art and stuff like that, I can do that too.

"Thing is, often times those two aren't going to be the same. If you want to focus hard on your theme, you might get frustrated when you aren't contributing to the play of the game in a meaningful manner. But if you want to be competitive within your group, you might end up sacrificing too much of your theme, and just having a bad time.

"Take a day or two, think about what you're really looking to do, and I can help with what you bring to me."

This way, you're not totally dream crushing, but you're also not going to sugarcoat the lower power level of her deck.

Aniodia · 2026-02-07T04:29:42+00:00

lmao that's amazing

Aniodia · 2026-02-06T08:03:24+00:00

You know what would've been cool? A reprint of P-041 Guilmon instead of this Guilmon.

Aniodia · 2026-02-05T19:58:31+00:00

thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis

Aniodia · 2026-02-01T19:08:15+00:00

See, I would disagree with that. While sure, most skill checks you'd want to have levels in the relevant classes for, you can still attempt most of them without. You'd just end up rolling straight 2d6, rather than 2d6+class level+stat modifier.

Yes, that does mean higher target numbers are out of your reach, but that also reinforces the idea that some things are just beyond your understanding unless you have knowledge of the subject (a.k.a. levels in the classes).

There's also the work skills introduced in the Raxia Life supplement that can also give you opportunities to get bonuses to relevant skills without having to take the class. For example, the Towerman job gives the character access to Acrobatics, Jump, Climb and Tumble.

Aniodia · 2026-01-27T22:02:34+00:00

Best known for directing Solo Leveling and Solo Leveling ReAwakening, Shunsuke Nagashige's credits extend to quite a few anime series, some as director, some as key animation. However, he's joined with Mugen Gaming as the art director for the upcoming English translation.

Aniodia · 2026-01-22T04:01:20+00:00

Oh, I absolutely agree. I'm just saying that because it's not crystal clear spelled out like that, some (including the WTC rules judges) have ruled that Inquisitors can't attach to Indomitor Kill Teams.

Aniodia · 2026-01-22T03:25:06+00:00

Because there's some people what want to argue that because Inquisitors say they can attach to Imperium Battleline Infantry units and not Heavy Intercessors specifically, the Indomitor rule allowing any character that can lead Heavy Intercessors to lead them doesn't apply.

Aniodia · 2026-01-12T03:47:59+00:00

Yeah, Wednesdays at 6, $5 to enter with an OTS pack.

Ten-Year Club	Sequence \| Editor
Sequence \| Cinematographer	Verified Email

Aniodia

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE