Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains Review Summary

Enduring Classic Masterpiece: Players overwhelmingly praise the game as a classic masterpiece, highlighting its enduring appeal, nostalgic value, and overall quality. Many consider it the pinnacle of domestic RPGs and a standout title in the Xuan-Yuan Sword series.

Captivating & Profound Story: The game's story is consistently lauded for its depth, engaging narrative, and profound themes. Players appreciate the well-developed plot, its grand scope, and the improvements made in the Steam version compared to earlier releases.

Grand Eurasian Scope: A significant strength of the game is its ambitious and grand scope, spanning across Eurasia and blending diverse cultures. This epic journey from Europe to the Tang Dynasty is frequently cited as a unique and impressive aspect.

Exquisite Art & Visuals: The game's art style, particularly its 2D graphics, pixel animation, and ink wash painting elements, receives high praise for its beauty and artistic charm. The combat visuals and character designs are also noted as exquisite.

Excellent & Moving Music: The game's soundtrack is consistently highlighted as excellent, beautiful, and impactful. Players find the music fitting and diverse, significantly enhancing the overall experience.

Poorly written and rushed plot: The game's narrative is widely criticized for being poorly written, illogical, and rushed, especially in the latter half and the ending. New plot additions, particularly in the China chapter, are seen as unnecessary and detrimental to the original story, leading to a disjointed and unengaging experience.

Clunky and inconsistent controls: The game suffers from awkward and inconsistent controls, particularly with keyboard and mouse input. Many actions require mouse use, and keyboard shortcuts are often buggy or non-functional, making navigation and gameplay cumbersome.

Severe bugs and poor optimization: Players report numerous critical bugs, frequent crashes, and poor optimization across the board. The game is perceived as a low-quality mobile port, lacking proper adaptation for PC, leading to a frustrating and unstable experience. A significant issue is the DLC download getting stuck, rendering the game unplayable for many.

Unbalanced and tedious combat: The combat system is criticized for being unbalanced, with inconsistent difficulty spikes where enemies can be either too easy or instantly lethal. The overall combat experience is described as tedious and unengaging, lacking strategic depth.

Shallow character development: Character development is perceived as shallow, with many characters lacking depth or consistent portrayal. Character portraits are also criticized for being poorly drawn, further impacting immersion.

Combat system changed to turn-based: The combat system has undergone significant changes, moving from a semi-real-time or ATB system to a purely turn-based approach in the remastered version. This shift has altered the strategic feel of battles, with some players noting a more retro or simplified experience.

Mobile version port: The Steam release is a direct port of the mobile (iOS) version, which introduced significant changes like reduced enemy HP and the shift from semi-real-time to turn-based combat. This porting decision has been a point of contention for players expecting a faithful PC remaster of the original.

Engaging puzzles and side quests: The game includes various side quests, notably featuring math and history puzzles, often presented through NPC interactions. While some players found these challenging, they add an intellectual layer to exploration and lore discovery.

Expansive world map and lore: The game's narrative spans a vast geographical and historical scope, taking players on a journey from Europe (Venice) through the Middle East (Damascus, Baghdad) to China (Chang'an). This grand setting incorporates diverse mythologies and historical elements, contributing to a rich world-building experience.

Maze exploration and random encounters: Gameplay involves extensive exploration of complex mazes, often accompanied by frequent random encounters. The game encourages exploration by hiding items and tying rewards to discovery, while also featuring NPCs who join the party to assist in combat.

Improved stability, minor bugs: While the game had numerous bugs at launch, official patches have significantly improved stability. Some minor bugs still exist, but they generally do not lead to crashes.

cnc-ddraw essential for DVD: The cnc-ddraw tool is essential for running the DVD version of the game. It also provides additional display options like windowed fullscreen, improving the overall experience.

DLC installation workaround: Players experienced issues installing DLC through the Cloud Mountain launcher. A workaround involves installing the 1999 free DLC directly via Steam, which resolves the problem and allows the game to launch.

Fast loading, frequent autosave: The game features very fast loading times, which enhances the player experience. Frequent autosaves further minimize progress loss, even if issues occur.

Slow scene transitions: Some scene transitions are notably slow, which is attributed to the hardware limitations of the game's original release era (2000).

Highly Recommended for RPG Fans: Many players recommend the game, especially for fans of classic RPGs, the Xuan Yuan Sword series, or those interested in Chinese fantasy. It's often praised as a masterpiece within the genre.

Desire for More Classic Remasters: Players express a strong desire for more classic Chinese RPGs, particularly other titles from the Xuan Yuan Sword series or similar games, to be remastered and released on platforms like Steam.

Buy for Included DVD Version: Players recommend purchasing the game primarily for the included DVD version, which offers a more authentic or preferred experience compared to the remastered version.

Manage Expectations: Players are advised to manage their expectations, especially if they are not hardcore fans of the series or old RPGs, to avoid disappointment with the game.

Controller Support Needed: One specific technical issue mentioned is the lack of optimized controller operations, leading a player to stop playing until it's resolved.

Strong nostalgic appeal: Many players purchased the game due to strong nostalgia, recalling it as a significant part of their childhood or student days. This emotional connection often influenced their decision to support the game, even if they encountered minor issues.

Steam version features and issues: The Steam version offers optimizations like smoother scene transitions and includes the original 1999 DVD version as a free DLC. However, some users reported issues with the launcher freezing or difficulty accessing the original version, requiring specific steps to download it from the store page.

Desire for future remake: Some players expressed a desire for a future, more comprehensive remake of the game. They hope a full remake would address existing shortcomings and elevate the game to an even higher quality standard.

High series expectations: Reviewers hold high expectations for the Xuan-Yuan Sword series, with this installment often ranked among their top favorites. There's a sentiment that with proper execution, the game could have achieved classic status.