Aaron Preece
In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into two fantasy action role-playing games that are similar in some ways yet distinct in others, especially in how they handle accessibility for players who are blind or have low-vision. Both games, Shadow Line by Galaxy Laboratory and Fantasy Story II by Toya Shiwasu, feature audio landscapes designed to provide a fully navigable experience without sight. Despite their differences, these games exemplify how audio cues can create immersive, accessible environments.
Both games are played from a 2D, top-down perspective, a view familiar to anyone who has played classics like The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, or Pokémon. This perspective lends itself well to accessibility features that rely on audio cues to simulate navigation and interaction. For instance, while first-person games for blind players often use soundscapes to simulate 3D environments, they are frequently, in practice, adaptations of 2D gameplay.
Both games allow a user to use several screen readers for speech output as well as SAPI speech if a screen reader is not present or the user's screen reader is unsupported.
Let’s explore how these two games—available for free—use their unique approaches to accessible audio navigation.
Shadow Line: A Story-Driven Action RPG
Shadow Line (Shadow Rine in most romanizations) is an action role-playing game developed by the Japanese studio Galaxy Laboratory. Recently, an unofficial English translation by Thunderstep Gaming has made the game far more accessible to English-speaking players. While previous versions required screen readers with on-the-fly translation, the patch now incorporates English text directly into the game, with only a few untranslated elements. If you wish to translate the remaining portions of the game for completeness or to better access settings, I recommend using Ian Reed's Japanese Games Translator (JGT) for the NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) screen reader. If you are a sighted player, you can open the NVDA menu, select Tools, and then select Speech Viewer to see what NVDA is saying so you can view the translations. See the Resources section for links to JGT and NVDA.
Gameplay and Accessibility
In Shadow Line, players are summoned to save the world of Kareshia from an encroaching darkness. The game features a robust cast of characters, a detailed story, and full Japanese voice acting. With the English patch, dialogue is also presented in english, making it more accessible to English-speaking players.
The world of Shadow Line is divided into individual screens. Players navigate by moving to the edges of each screen, which transitions to new areas. The game’s audio cues are positioned around the player character, creating a dynamic audio “camera”.
In Shadow Line, the audio design revolves around the concept of positional audio, ensuring that players can navigate the game world effectively. Sounds to the north are higher-pitched, while those to the south are lower-pitched, with items to the left or right playing from their respective directions. Interactive elements, such as treasure chests or other objects, remain silent until they are directly aligned with the player character, at which point a sound cue is triggered. Note that these sound cues only play when the player takes a step, not continuously. For example, if a player is walking east to west and comes upon a chest positioned to the north, a sound will emit from the direction of the chest once aligned, growing louder as the player approaches. Hazards and navigation challenges are also communicated through continuous sounds that indicate dangers like water or magma. When near a ledge, players can hear their footsteps echo, and an alert is played when the player is directly on a ledge or the edge of a hazard. Distinct audio cues signal whether a jump will land on safe ground or carry them over a hazard, particularly helpful when traversing small platforms among a field of hazards.
One of the unique accessibility features in Shadow Line is how the game uses sound cues to communicate the presence—or absence—of walls. Unlike some games that use continuous audio tones to indicate walls, Shadow Line takes a minimalist approach. Sounds play only when there is a gap or opening adjacent to the player. Rather than constant audio feedback, the game uses a single "wind swish" sound that plays in the direction of the opening as soon as it aligns with the player character.
For example, if the player is walking along a hallway and an alcove or passage opens to the right, a wind swish will sound once to indicate the gap. Even if the opening is only a few tiles wide, the game will alert the player the moment they step in line with it. The sound does not repeat unless the player leaves and realigns with the opening, providing concise and clear feedback without overwhelming the player with continuous audio.
Field Viewer and Combat
The Field Viewer mode allows players to explore the map tile-by-tile. Each type of terrain, from walls to treasure chests, has a unique sound. Characters can explore the entire screen with the arrow keys and press the ENTER key to cycle between objects of interest. Pressing Escape returns the field "camera" to the player’s current position. This feature is especially helpful when navigating maze-like screens or those requiring careful platforming.
Combat relies on a robust system of audio cues to convey critical information about enemies and the environment. Players can hear enemies moving nearby, as well as distinct sounds associated with different types of attacks. For example, a standard enemy strike produces a unique sound, while a projectile attack or special ability has its own distinct audio cue. Helpfully, projectile attacks play a continuous sound when used, making it possible to dodge them effectively. These cues not only differentiate threats but also provide vital information about timing and direction, allowing players to anticipate and react effectively.
One of the standout features of Shadow Line’s combat is its dual-layered system for attack range indicators. When the player character enters an enemy’s attack range, a specific sound plays, warning the player that they are in danger of being hit. Conversely, another distinct sound plays when the player moves out of the enemy’s range, signaling safety. Similarly, there is a separate set of audio cues that indicate when an enemy has entered or exited the player’s own attack range. These cues allow players to understand both when they are vulnerable to enemy attacks and when they have the opportunity to strike. Notably, these attack range cues account for the type of attack an enemy is using, such as ranged or melee, ensuring the player remains aware even if the enemy is far across the screen.
The sounds for attack range, both your own and those of your opponents, can be critical in determining strategies. For example, as I was testing the game for this review, I noticed that my most commonly used character, though fast and agile, had a shorter range than most of the larger enemies. Being able to determine this from the attack range audio cues allowed me to ensure that I would switch from her to a slower, larger character with a greater range when facing those sorts of enemies in particular.
Fantasy Story II: Open-Ended Multiplayer RPG
While Shadow Line offers a story-driven single-player experience, Fantasy Story II focuses on open-ended multiplayer gameplay. Players are free to craft their own goals, develop skills, and explore the world at their own pace. The game is reminiscent of MMORPGs like RuneScape, with an emphasis on skill-based progression and crafting.
Gameplay and Accessibility
The design of Fantasy Story II’s game map, along with its use of audio cues and text information, sets it apart from Shadow Line. While the perspective—a 2D, top-down view—and the screen-based maps with exits on the sides to navigate the world are similar to Shadow Line, Fantasy Story II employs a different approach to making its world accessible.
Screens are laid out in a predictable manner, and more complex layouts involving mazes or hazards are absent in Fantasy Story II. For screens without enemies, their design is consistent: points of interest are typically located in the top-left, top-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right corners of the screen. Exceptions to this pattern occur in specific circumstances, such as when a player designs their own living space. While these elements may not always be present, when they are, they follow this predictable layout—items are generally found first in the top-left and top-right, followed by the bottom-left and bottom-right corners.
Players can bring up a map of the current zone, whether it’s a city, forest, desert, plains, or other area. Unlike Shadow Line, where players can explore individual tiles on the screen, Fantasy Story II does not allow tile-by-tile exploration. However, this level of detail is unnecessary, as the game’s design ensures that important elements are clearly accessible. When viewing a section on the map, the player will be told the contents of that section, though if it is an enemy, the number of enemies is not reported. For example, a player focusing on "E3" in Firewall Volcano might hear: "(E3) Upper left: Inn, Upper right: Item Shop, Lower left: Witch, Lower right: Traveler."
As in Shadow Line, audio cues are provided for points of interest, but in Fantasy Story II, these sounds play continuously rather than only when the player moves or aligns with an object along the X or Y axis.
Enemies in Fantasy Story II share similarities with those in Shadow Line. Players can hear them moving around and attacking, with distinct sounds indicating the type of attack—whether it’s a standard attack, a special ability, a magic spell, or another type of skill. A specific sound plays when an enemy enters the player’s attack range, particularly for melee weapons. For ranged attacks, whether using a bow and arrow or magic, strikes are automatically targeted with high accuracy, removing the need for manual aiming.
In addition to audio cues, Fantasy Story II provides numerous text cues that players can call on demand. These cues allow players to assess the presence and direction of specific elements, such as exits, points of interest, collectible items, and enemies. Players can also cycle through enemies or elements on the current screen, with their character automatically moving toward the selected target. This feature is particularly helpful for quickly navigating to items or chasing down an enemy attempting to flee while casting a spell at your character.
In Fantasy Story II, it is also possible to craft items, with their quality determined by how close to the center of a moving gauge the player presses a key. To make this activity accessible, the game plays a sound exactly when the indicator is in the center of the gauge, enabling blind or low-vision players to fully participate in crafting. Additionally, players have significant control over their appearance, with detailed descriptions provided during character creation.
Key Differences and Personal Thoughts
These two games share several similarities. Both are action role-playing games that utilize a top-down perspective and feature individual screens or sections that players navigate through, rather than a continuously scrolling world as seen in other games. However, they differ significantly in how they present audio cues to alert players to nearby elements of interest.
Shadow Line adopts a minimalist approach, where sounds only play when the player character aligns with an element of interest along the same axis. Walls are identified solely by the absence of sound, with alerts playing only when a passage opens next to the player. In contrast, Fantasy Story II employs a more continuous audio system, with persistent cues that consistently indicate the location of interactable objects and points of interest. Both methods are equally valid, offering blind and low-vision players seamless access to their respective game worlds.
Fantasy Story II is also notable for its robust text-based information systems and automatic targeting system for ranged combat. The targeting system simplifies gameplay by ensuring that attacks or interactions with points of interest are both precise and intuitive.
For any game developer seeking to implement accessibility into a game with a navigable world, I highly recommend exploring these two titles. Both are free to play and pair their audio soundscapes with text and visuals, making them excellent entry points for those new to playing games entirely by sound. I also recommend visiting both games' websites, linked in the resources section below. Shadow Line's site includes audio demonstrating gameplay and environmental sounds, while Fantasy Story II features several screenshots with excellent alt-text.
On a personal note, I consider both games exceptional. I have spent many hours playing them, even before writing this review. I would go so far as to say that Shadow Line is one of the best audio-based games ever produced, despite being several years old. Meanwhile, Fantasy Story II offers an enjoyable experience whether playing online with friends or solo. To the best of my knowledge, it remains the only fully accessible real-time multiplayer video game of its kind, distinct from traditional text-based games.
Resources
