Wuxia as a subgenre is a fairly well-travelled road in video games, with titles like Naraka: Bladepoint and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty standing out as recent examples. The wuxia element is able to cross genres fairly well, though its themes are most easily applied to action-adventure games with combat as a focus. As a result, it’s important to do something different to stand out. In the case of Where Winds Meet from developer Everstone Studios, that “something different” has manifested as an attempt to squeeze as many mechanics from the genre as possible into their game.
Which has not necessarily been a bad thing while playing, I hasten to add. I’ll admit I haven’t a clue what’s happening in the story, which is perhaps my only real complaint after spending half a dozen hours in the playtest. It begins with a warrior holding a baby and escaping an attack by armed horsemen with a series of quick time events (yeah, they still have those, apparently), and then after a boss fight that I won fairly easily I was able to create my character in a deliberately limited character creation suite, before being dropped into the world. The baby was now around ten years old, my character was scarred, and I still had no idea what the hell was happening.
It doesn’t help that the game is only playable in Chinese right now, with English subtitles, and while I love a good read, it was hard to lock in to what was going on in the narrative of Where Winds Meet. Suffice to say we set out on a journey, and I definitely did some stuff.
There’s a similar atmosphere to the one found in last year’s Rise of the Ronin, in that you’re given a huge open world from the off, populated with random events, enemies to fight, secrets to find, and an abundance of crafting resources to gather. Early on I was gifted a spear to go alongside my dual short swords, and shortly thereafter came to possess a bow, enabling me to hunt the wildlife.
Where Winds Meet seems to give you a lot of freedom to interact with its world in between following the quest marker. Although there is a multiplayer option I stuck with the solo experience as that’s how I’ll play the main game, and this is the closest thing to a solo MMO I’ve ever played. All the usual MMO trappings are in place, from vendors selling training alongside goods, to a huge array of currencies I can’t get my head around yet, to somewhat clumsy menu wheels to select weapons and access your character screen. Some armour is for defence, but the main article of clothing you wear is entirely cosmetic, presumably to help facilitate and necessitate the cash shop.
Yet while I was wandering haphazardly about its world I found multiple elements and mechanics that kept me completely intrigued. For example, I came upon a fellow who wanted me to get rid of a bear for him, to which I, a seasoned RPG adventurer, heartily agreed. But before I could fight it I was given the opportunity to observe its actions, which allowed me to complete a short minigame and learn a new martial art from its movements.
Later, I was taught a magical technique to reverse the petrification of living beings, which let me use one of my skills to free someone from a stone curse. All these skills you learn also have combat applications, too, which I found very interesting. In fact, the combat is slick and satisfying altogether, with a dodge and parry system that sees you avoiding or deflecting damage in order to build up a kind of action point system instead of the usual stamina bar. You have two blocks of energy that fill as you fight.
For each one, the game will display a parry icon to let you know when to press the button to activate a Force Deflection, but without that energy you’ll only be able to block as normal. It sounds odd, but the combat is so fast and frantic that it’s not an easy feat to nail a perfect parry without help (at least not for me and my old man reflexes). Spells are available in the form of Mystic Arts that give you powerful attacks and abilities to turn the tide of a fight.
Exploration was mostly on foot in the playtest though there are mounts to be bought or tamed. To swim and climb up rock faces (or run up them like its Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) you have a Breath of the Wild-type stamina bar, which you will be able to extend to help you get around.
Between roaming the land, visiting towns, picking up side quests, filling out your compendium, collecting armour, weapons, and secret hunting, Where Winds Meet seems determined to give the player plenty to do in its gorgeous world. And it is gorgeous, by the way; perhaps not on the level of something like Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but lovely to explore all the same. With the option to play the whole thing with others if you please, Where Winds Meet really looks like it will have something for everyone when it launches later this year.
Where Winds Meet is developed by Everstone Stuidio and published by NetEase, and will launch on PS5 and PC via Steam in 2025.
