Info about Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains: Official game description: The Journey of a Frankish Knight in the Tang Empire --------------------------------------------------- Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains is a classic **turn-based RPG**. Under the orders of **Pepin III**, **the Frankish Knight Septem** has embarked on a long journey to seek **the Invincible Arts of War**. Starting from the canals of beautiful Venice, the great knight's path has spanned the Middle East, Western Regions on his way to the mystical orient. In his adventures, Septem has drawn into the intricate power disputes between local powers, along with the decade-spanning ambitions of **the dark lord, Satan**. **China** enjoys peace and prosperity under the rule of **the Tang Empire**, **Europe** finds itself embroiled in **the Dark Ages**, **the Arabian Empire** is ascendant, and all the while, the march of progress brings these disparate cultures together. From ancient times, Chinese legends have spoken of the **Xuan-Yuan Sword** and **Spirit Fusion Pot**, along with the rise of great legends in the new era... A Symphony of Western and Eastern Culture ----------------------------------------- The scope of Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the mountains covers a wide range, spanning all of Eurasia and covering the Arab World, Francia, and China. From the canals of Venice, Damascus to the beautiful Chang’an, the story introduces unique architectural styles, clothing, food, and customs. A Fusion of History and Fantasy ------------------------------- The story of Xuan-Yuan Sword III takes place in an era of collision between East and West, covering a range of historical events that include the Battle of Talas, the Arabian Civil War, and An Lushan Rebellion interspersed through character dramas. Xuan-Yuan Sword III perfectly integrates history with Chinese and Western mythology. Players will encounter unique historical enemies such as Merovingian soldiers, the Venetian navy, the Abbasid Caliphate, Tang soldiers, and Taoists along with unique mythical creatures such as centaurs, Medusa, the Black and White Reapers, and the Xuannü of the Nine Heavens. Unique Spirit Fusion Pot System ------------------------------- Players can use the Spirit Fusion Pot to capture enemies in battle. Items and monsters can be used to craft a new item or monster from the codex. Users can craft items and monsters from the Eastern or Western altars, which the resulting item differing based on the selected altar. Unique Ink Painting Artstyle ---------------------------- The game features a beautiful traditional Chinese style, with the game map, battle backgrounds, and characters all painted in unique oriental ink. Improvements and changes ------------------------ * 16:9 high-resolution graphic * UI rework * High-resolution item texture * Controller support * China Episode, originally added in mobile version Release date: 25 Jul, 2023 Categories: Turn-based RPG, Single-player Story, Exploration, Puzzle Solving, Multiple Endings, Monster Fusion System, Character Progression - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Enduring Classic Masterpiece (weight 1): 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 (weight 0.78): 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 (weight 0.59): 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 (weight 0.59): 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 (weight 0.55): The game's soundtrack is consistently highlighted as excellent, beautiful, and impactful. Players find the music fitting and diverse, significantly enhancing the overall experience. - Accessible Difficulty (weight 0.51): The game's reduced difficulty in the Steam version is seen as a positive, making it more accessible for casual players or those primarily interested in experiencing the story without significant combat challenges. - Rich with Easter Eggs (weight 0.51): Players appreciate the inclusion of numerous easter eggs, cultural research details, and a rewarding achievement system. These elements add depth and replayability for explorers and collectors. - Vivid & Intelligent Characters (weight 0.49): The character development is praised for creating vivid and intelligent protagonists. Players appreciate that the script avoids common pitfalls like forced romance, allowing characters to act with normal intelligence. - Engaging Monster Refining System (weight 0.48): The monster refining and magic item system is a notable highlight, offering strategic depth and diverse combinations. Players enjoy the ability to capture and synthesize monsters, comparing it favorably to 'Pokemon'. Common complaints: - Poorly written and rushed plot (weight 0.84): 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 (weight 0.75): 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 (weight 0.67): 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 (weight 0.65): 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 (weight 0.43): 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. - Disappointing remaster quality (weight 0.3): The remastered version fails to capture the essence and quality of the original, with many players feeling it's a mere nostalgia cash-grab. Visuals are criticized for blurry, low-resolution cutscenes due to poor AI upscaling, and the overall graphical quality does not meet modern expectations for a 'remaster'. - Subpar localization and translation (weight 0.16): The game's localization, especially the English translation, is widely panned for being poor, often resembling machine translation. This results in awkward phrasing, typos, and inconsistencies that break immersion and detract from the narrative. - Tedious leveling and monster systems (weight 0.13): The weapon and character leveling systems are criticized for being tedious and poorly balanced. Specifically, magic weapon leveling is excessively slow, and the monster taming/refining system is restrictive and unrewarding. - Unattractive and poor UI design (weight 0.1): The user interface is consistently described as ugly, poorly designed, and not conforming to PC aesthetics. It's seen as a negative optimization that detracts from the overall user experience. - Obscure hidden content (weight 0.08): The game's hidden content and side quests are often too obscure or easily missed without a guide, making progression and discovery frustrating for players. - Inferior to prequel 'Tian Zhi Hen' (weight 0.08): The game is frequently compared unfavorably to its prequel, 'Tian Zhi Hen,' with players noting inferior monster refining systems, story, and overall content completion, suggesting a decline in quality. - Lackluster emotional and musical impact (weight 0.05): The game's emotional portrayal is faint, and the background music, while fitting, lacks the immersive impact and standalone quality found in other games, contributing to a less memorable experience. Gameplay feedback: - Combat system changed to turn-based (weight 0.43): 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 (weight 0.16): 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 (weight 0.13): 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 (weight 0.1): 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 (weight 0.08): 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. - Multiple endings and save flexibility (weight 0.07): The game features a multi-ending design, allowing for different narrative conclusions based on player choices. It also includes a convenient save-anywhere feature, enhancing player agency and replayability. - Flexible control options (weight 0.06): The game offers flexible control options, supporting both keyboard/mouse and controllers. While controller use is often recommended for a more comfortable experience, the controls are generally simple and easy to understand. - Moderate achievement difficulty (weight 0.06): Achieving 100% completion and all achievements is considered moderately challenging, with an estimated completion time of around 27 hours. While some bosses may require multiple attempts without a guide, the overall achievement difficulty is manageable. Performance notes: - Improved stability, minor bugs (weight 0.05): 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 (weight 0.04): 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 (weight 0.04): 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 (weight 0.04): 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 (weight 0.02): Some scene transitions are notably slow, which is attributed to the hardware limitations of the game's original release era (2000). Recommendations: - Highly Recommended for RPG Fans (weight 0.35): 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 (weight 0.09): 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 (weight 0.08): 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 (weight 0.03): 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 (weight 0.02): One specific technical issue mentioned is the lack of optimized controller operations, leading a player to stop playing until it's resolved. - No New Game+ (weight 0.01): A minor point of feedback is the absence of a New Game+ feature, which some players might expect in an RPG. Other player notes: - Strong nostalgic appeal (weight 0.29): 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 (weight 0.2): 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 (weight 0.04): 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 (weight 0.04): 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. Emotions: - Disappointment (weight 0.21): Players expressed disappointment primarily due to the game's plot quality, particularly its rushed or inconsistent ending and childish elements. Technical issues such as poor port optimization, numerous bugs, and a lack of significant improvements in remastered versions also contributed heavily to this emotion. Additionally, some players felt let down by the game's overall quality, outdated combat, and unfulfilled potential. - Satisfaction (weight 0.19): Satisfaction stemmed from players completing the game and enjoying its grand plot, music, and art style. Many appreciated the game's classic status, improved quality-of-life features in newer versions, and the convenience of controller support. The reduced difficulty in some versions also contributed to satisfaction for those seeking a more relaxed story experience. - Frustration (weight 0.19): Frustration was largely caused by technical issues, including game-breaking bugs, poor optimization, and unresponsive controls, which often prevented plot progression or game access. Players also experienced frustration with unbalanced difficulty, tedious grinding, and poorly designed gameplay elements like high monster encounter rates and cryptic puzzles. Inconsistencies in plot and character development further added to this negative emotion. - Nostalgia (weight 0.11): Nostalgia was a strong emotion, driven by players revisiting the game from their childhood or student days. The game served as a powerful memory trigger, allowing them to reconnect with past experiences, the golden age of the series, and even family history. This emotion was rooted in the sentimental value and classic status of the game. - Admiration (weight 0.07): Admiration arose from the game's classic status, its grand scope, and its deep historical and cultural significance. Players appreciated the high quality of the script, intelligent character portrayal, and the philosophical depth explored within the narrative. The unique combat styles and rich moves also contributed to this positive sentiment. - Anger (weight 0.03): Anger was primarily directed at the developers due to perceived laziness, poor game design choices, and a lack of sincerity in addressing bugs and technical issues. Players were also upset by plot and dialogue flaws, distorted historical interpretations, and specific changes like the removal of the naming function. - Appreciation (weight 0.02): Appreciation was felt for the game's epic scope, its classic status, and the developers' dedication to its creation. Players valued the game's unique art style, the successful fusion of plot and culture, and the expansive world-building. - Joy (weight 0.02): Joy was experienced through overall enjoyment of the game, particularly the HD remake, and engaging with its puzzles, mazes, and combat. Affection for specific characters and the improved combat system also contributed to this positive feeling, often intertwined with nostalgia for shared experiences. - Enjoyment (weight 0.02): Enjoyment stemmed from the game's overall fun factor, its engaging story, and its classic old-school JRPG feel. Players particularly liked the historical themes, the characters, and the music, finding the game to be a high-quality title despite its age. - Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion arose from strange pacing in the latter half of the game, unclear outcomes in boss battles, and general plot inconsistencies. Some players also felt confused by the overall game experience and the reuse of assets. - Excitement (weight 0.01): Excitement was generated by the game's high quality, its epic scope, and innovative combat system. Players were thrilled by the narrative elements, fun gameplay, and specific character designs, often leading to anticipation for future games in the series. - Helpfulness (weight 0.01): Helpfulness was expressed by players who provided solutions to technical issues, offered information on game versions and DLC access, or shared useful gameplay tips. This indicates a community-driven effort to assist fellow players. - Love (weight 0.01): Love for the game was rooted in its classic status, high quality, and a strong personal connection. This emotion signifies a deep affection and admiration for the title. - Hope (weight 0.01): Hope was expressed as a desire for a complete, higher-quality remake of the game or other titles in the series. This indicates a longing for improved versions that address past shortcomings. - Surprise (weight 0.01): Surprise was caused by unexpected events such as sudden difficulty spikes in boss battles, unforeseen plot twists, and the unexpected enjoyment derived from the game itself. - Melancholy (weight 0.01): Melancholy was felt due to the game's ending, the realization that nostalgic memories can sometimes be better than the reality of replaying the game, and a sense of longing for past friendships associated with the original experience. - Mixed feelings (weight 0.01): Mixed feelings arose from specific aspects like character development, which had both positive and negative elements, and the inclusion of a DVD version, which was appreciated by some but not universally impactful. - Mild disappointment (weight 0.01): Mild disappointment was caused by issues such as inconsistent plot pacing and outdated gameplay mechanics. These were minor but noticeable flaws that slightly detracted from the overall experience. - Annoyance (weight 0.01): Annoyance stemmed from minor but persistent issues like typos and sound problems in the remastered version, as well as the game's outdated mechanics that felt cumbersome to players. - Desire (weight 0.01): Desire was expressed for the reintroduction of the original difficulty option, indicating that some players missed the challenge of the game's initial release.}