XD released Sword of Convallaria, a tactical RPG for iOS, Android, and PC to audiences in the west in August ’24 (around a year after the game’s East Asian launch). Heavily influenced by Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics, the game has captivated fans with its meticulously crafted war story and highly strategic battles, all played out to a beautiful soundtrack.
Just over a year following its release, a truly major collaboration between Sword of Convallaria: For This World of Peace and CD PROJEKT RED’s open-world RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been fully realised and delivered to gamers. Geralt, Yennefer, Triss, and Ciri now appear in Sword of Convallaria as playable characters; allowing players to enjoy collaborative stories and quests surrounding the Lord of the Forest from another world.
Bartosz Sztybor, Franchise Creative Director at CD PROJEKT RED, explained his take on the collaboration and how it came together: “At CD PROJEKT RED, storytelling is at the heart of everything we do, and we take a hands-on approach even when collaborating with external partners. For our partnership with Sword of Convallaria, our Franchise Creative team worked closely with developer XD International to craft a story that captures the essence of The Witcher universe, both for the anime trailer and the collaboration quest. Working with a partner who shares our passion for The Witcher is always a privilege, and we’re thrilled with the results of what we’ve created together. We’re looking forward to sharing the fruits of this partnership with the community, and can’t wait to see their response!”
CD PROJEKT RED’s Satoru Homma, Japan Country Manager, offered further insight into their partnership with XD Games: “For the collaboration between Sword of Convallaria and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, I was responsible for project management on behalf of CD PROJEKT RED. I am personally a huge fan of Sword of Convallaria, and I had a strong desire to see The Witcher 3’s characters — rendered in beautiful pixel art — playable within a tactical RPG. With the deep love and understanding Sword of Convallaria’s team holds for The Witcher 3, and under the thorough supervision of our in-house lore specialists, we were able to deliver grounded and authentic storytelling in the collaboration quest. I sincerely hope that The Witcher 3 players who may be unfamiliar with the tactical RPG genre will take the time to enjoy this content, which is infused with a deep appreciation for the world and its characters.
Director of Sword of Convallaria, Guo Lei (of XD Games)spoke about this collaboration in more detail — as well as the circumstances that led to it becoming a reality.
Inspired by Tactics Ogre, which he played in high school, Guo always wanted to become a game creator. He is also a fan of The Witcher 3, and his favourite characters are Geralt and Yennefer.
Guo on Sword of Convallaria passing the first anniversary of its western release and how he feels looking back on the past year:
Sword of Convallaria got off to a successful start, but there was a period when we were searching for the right direction to go in. However, thanks to the support of our fans, we were able to turn things around and successfully celebrate our first anniversary. From now on, we will continue to develop the game with confidence and enjoyment for the fans who have high expectations for it.
Regarding the game’s content, the Global version saw the release of Iria, and the story of her stepping into the world that lies beyond was depicted on the first anniversary. In the future, Sword of Convallaria will enter its 2.0 story arc, taking players on adventures beyond Iria, and develop a story in which the player protects peace. We hope you will look forward to it.
— On how the The Witcher 3 collaboration came about:
Guo: From the beginning, our team had already been acquainted with the CDPR China team. During one of these casual conversations, we mentioned that it would be exciting if we could one day work on something together based on Sword of Convallaria and The Witcher 3.
Later, we had the opportunity to meet the CDPR Japan team in person at Tokyo Game Show 2024. During our discussions there, I showed them my personal love for The Witcher 3 and the interest in exploring whether we might create something together. They encouraged us to submit a formal proposal, which set the collaboration into motion. The Witcher 3 is a game that boasts worldwide popularity, so I was over the moon when he positively considered our proposal for a collaboration. After considerable effort, the collaboration was officially approved. From that point onward, both teams dedicated nearly a full year to development, ultimately bringing this collaboration to life in the form you see today.
What it was about The Witcher 3 that particularly appealed to him:
First of all, it’s the sense of immersion that comes with being so realistic. You get the feeling that you’re immersed in the world, something you can’t experience in other games. Also, it’s the story element. What’s great about it is that it depicts so many stories that you can empathise with. It’s very unique in that you make painful choices that change the outcome of the story. I was overwhelmed by how the fascinating characters play an active role in the story.
How the story was designed, its core themes, and the creative collaboration behind it
We wanted to create the worldview of The Witcher 3 within the world of Sword of Convallaria. However, it goes against Geralt’s beliefs to get involved in conflicts between nations, and in fact, if we were to depict an epic story involving The Witcher 3, we felt that it would be quite a high hurdle to figure out how to resolve it. For this reason, we decided to aim for a down-to-earth story.
The story revolves around the Leshen from The Witcher 3 appearing and causing trouble, and Geralt and his friends teaming up with the Leader to defeat it. Behind the scenes, the story also depicts the malice of people. For example, when a problem occurs, people assume that it is the work of those from a different background to themselves and blame them. The theme of the story poses a question of morality, as Geralt and Yennefer intervene to try to resolve this.
In The Witcher 3, Geralt and Yennefer are portrayed as unusual people who present differently from the average person. Naturally, they have differing personalities and ways of conducting themselves. We made it a priority to carefully express the various facets of these characters in the collaborative story.
We made sure to communicate closely with CD PROJEKT RED. We created shared documents, edited those documents, and received feedback, all of which allowed us to proceed with development meticulously and efficiently. This resulted in a fun development experience unlike any other.
How they approached reimagining The Witcher 3 characters into the pixel-based world of Sword of Convallaria:
The Witcher 3 has a realistic 3D visual style, but when translating that into pixel art, our first priority was to think about how to express the movement in a way that would satisfy players.
However, the designers also love The Witcher 3, so they had fun designing it with care, for example, to make it clear the difference between a silver sword and a steel sword. As a result, I got the impression that the visuals went smoothly.
The regions that were main target for the collaboration:
Worldwide. Sword of Convallaria is available in four languages: Chinese, Japanese, English, and Korean. As with The Witcher 3, we have a global perspective and want game fans around the world to enjoy Sword of Convallaria Sword IP. Therefore, every region is important to us.
If I had to say, we’re particularly interested in English-speaking countries. We see the English-speaking world as a region where we still want to gain more fans for Sword of Convallaria. It goes without saying that The Witcher 3 has already gained many English-speaking fans, so we hope that this collaboration will help us further appeal to the English-speaking world.
Aspects that particularly stood out for him during this collaboration:
I think this was a true collaboration. The fact that both parties were working together in the same direction was a feeling I’d never had before, and it was a lot of fun. It was a wonderful experience for us. So, this time, we were able to communicate directly with CDPR, and not only was it very efficient, but we also felt that everyone gained something from this project.
The part of the collaboration that symbolised its success, or made him especially proud to be a part of it:
What’s necessary when collaborating with other artists is love for the work. I think that only when we have a strong love for the work can we create something that satisfies our collaborators. We ourselves had always wanted to collaborate with The Witcher 3, but it was thanks to CDPR that we were able to make it happen. We are truly happy. We have also prepared skins for Geralt, Yennefer, and Triss. We have created skins based on the scenes that moved us the most while we were playing The Witcher 3. Geralt usually wears armor, but for this skin we created one that realistically expresses the love between father and daughter when Ciri visits Geralt.
As for Triss, in The Witcher 3, Triss and Geralt attend a dance party. However, the two of them aren’t very interested in the dance party, so they sneak out midway through and enjoy a date in the garden. We recreated that atmosphere with the skin.
Each skin was created with love, so I hope all players will check them out.
His message to the Sword of Convallaria players who are looking forward to the collaboration:
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all of our fans. It is thanks to you all that Sword of Convallaria has grown so much over the past year or so, and that we have been able to safely reach our first anniversary. Thank you so much! Thanks to everyone’s support, we were able to collaborate with The Witcher 3. How will Geralt and his friends play a role in the world of Sword of Convallaria? We hope that not only the Leaders but also fans of The Witcher 3 will enjoy the event.
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The Witcher® is a trademark of CD Projekt S.A. The Witcher game ©CD Projekt S.A. All rights reserved. The Witcher game is based on a novel by Andrzej Sapkowski. All other copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
