Journey to the East
Xuan Yuan Sword is a series from the late 90’s in China, needless to say its roots go deep in that part of the world, akin to Japan’s love of Final Fantasy. Xuan Yuan Sword 7 launched in 2020 on PC but coming to consoles now even more RPG fans can experience this love letter to Chinese story-telling, mythology and action RPG’s in general.
In Xuan Yuan Sword 7 players are introduced to Taishi Zhao, who as a child escaped an attack on his family. While he was able to make it to safety with his baby sister in tow, unfortunately she is taken ill most likely due to the smoke she breathed in during the attack. Ten years pass and the pair live in the woods where young Zhao does odd jobs to make money for his sister’s medicine. Its here that Zhao is hired to lead some troops into the jungle to check on a disturbance.
MSRP: $49.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $49.99
Once there, of course, the team is ambushed by a monster who escapes and heads back to Zhao’s home where his sister is attacked. Zhao is forced to reveal a secret to the military as he teleports to another dimension to save his sister. With the help of a friend, Zhao is able to seal his sisters’ spirit into a wooden golem; not unlike the anime Full Metal Alchemist where Edward is forced to seal his brother Al’s soul into a suit of armor. The difference here is that while Zhao’s sister looks like herself instead of looking like the wooden golem unlike poor Alphonse. While the initial quest is that of saving his sister, over the course of the journey the story dips into love, family, loss and political injustice.
It should be said that this won’t be a game for everyone, despite its action RPG combat mechanics. Unlike most western games Xuan Yuan 7 is very exposition heavy; meaning that cutscenes will be very long and text heavy. Because this game is Chinese, it doesn’t have an English voice track so unless you know the language you will need to read quite a bit. While this reviewer didn’t mind because the story, and mythology of the depicted ancient Chinese world was extremely fascinating; it does need to be said because if you skip cutscenes you can end up confused.
The combat in Xuan Yuan 7 is well done if not a bit confusing due to translation. While players will find an attack button which will facilitate the basic attacks; as the story progress Zhao will unlock various ‘martial arts.’ These end up being nothing more than just a heavy attack that continual usage will upgrade its effectiveness. While western audiences might mistake this for some sort of Kung-Fu fighting option (as I did), while it may not completely change the way one plays, the variety in the arts make them invaluable in combat with the later creatures. Combat is fast and ferocious, and if Zhao doesn’t make use of his blocks, dodges and parries death will find him quickly. The parry system seemed a bit strict, the player has to hit it exactly as the enemy attack is going to land, some games have a few frames that they will allow it to count as a parry; but that’s not the case with Xuan Yuan 7.
While never having played a Xuan Yuan in the past, I can confidently say they have a new fan. As I stated above all of the talking, and explaining can turn off some folks, those that stay will be in for quite a thrill ride of a story full of Chinese mythology, politics and epic fights. While some of the translation is off during the script and on some combat abilities it was never enough to break immersion. The words that popped up were always close enough, that I was able to understand what was going on in the scene. Lastly the game does have a lot of backtracking, while the world is beautiful to behold; its not quite as polished as some of the next-gen offerings (Xuan Yuan Sword 7 is for PS4/Xbox One) it was still a vivid landscape that was a treat to explore. If you were a fan of the original Xenosaga game on PS2; then you will be comfortable with cutscenes and exposition in Xuan Yuan Sword 7. It really is a beautiful game with a heartwarming albeit mature story to tell.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
