Last weekend, a global beta test began for Where Winds Meet, the open-world game published by NetEase that is already available in China. This free-to-play game takes place around the year 1000 between the great Tang and Song dynasties during what’s known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. In it, players take the role of a lone wandering hero during this time of upheaval where one’s own strength matters more than the rules of society. IGN readers may not be too familiar with the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, but don’t worry – the same even seems to apply to players in China.
We know that the game takes some influence from Ghost of Tsushima and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild thanks to a past interview with lead designer Chris Lyu, but it can be difficult to imagine exactly what the gameplay will be like. According to Lyu, it is “the world’s first wuxia-themed open-world” game. Once I got my hands on the game, I found Where Winds Meet was indeed a wuxia game through-and-through, with the strength of the concept bringing together a variety of elements seen in games today.
Once you’re finished with character creation and begin playing the game, you’re first met with a graceful man with flowing hair resting in a bamboo grove while holding a baby to his chest, almost like Zhao Yun from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Then, another handsome and long-haired man comes to talk to him, and it seems that this man with a baby has betrayed his school. He hops on a white horse then gallops through the bamboo while avoiding his pursuer’s weapons, at times in slow motion. All of these shots are reminiscent of famous scenes from various Chinese movies of the past, making it clear from the start that this game is closely linked to the wuxia tradition.
A sense of “wuxia-ness” oozes out of this game at every turn even after this opening scene ends and you take control of the character you’ve created – whether that’s through its gameplay in general, its systems and graphics, or its dialogue. A few minutes after I started walking freely through its world, I spoke to an old man on the side of the road who asked me to repel a bear who’s been after honey. It seems that the protagonist is able to learn techniques from the movements of the bear, as pressing buttons at the right time according to icons that pop up caused him to learn tai chi from the beast, incredibly enough.
All of this serves as a tutorial for the Mystic Arts that make up part of your arsenal, but more importantly, this process of observing familiar objects and nature to learn abilities and grow stronger gives the player a strong sense of the game’s wuxia flavor. It seems there are other abilities that come from nature, like Lion’s Roar and the venomous Toad Style, so I’m sure there will be many other techniques the protagonist learns from all the creatures of the game’s world. Just as you might expect to be able to use magic to create fire in a game with a fantasy setting, the player in this game’s wuxia world is able to master strange powers of their own. It’s also interesting to note that these abilities can be used outside of combat as well. For example, nearby fish are caught up in tai chi when it’s used by the water’s surface, making for efficient fishing.
One of the most notable things about this thoroughly wuxia game is its inclusion of many elements we’ve come to expect from combat systems and exploration in action games today. For example, pressing the correct button just before an enemy’s attack lands will parry it, creating a back-and-forth tempo during action segments.
While equivalent to the kinds of parry systems that have become a staple in recent action games, this game goes into slow motion when it’s time to parry an enemy attack and displays an icon telling you what button to press (though it is possible to turn this icon off in the options). While similar to Final Fantasy XVI’s Story-Focused mode, these icons deplete an Insight Points meter when they’re displayed and won’t show up if you run out, so you can’t recklessly fend off every single enemy attack.
There are currently seven weapon types that a player can use (with plans to add more). In addition to standard swords and spears, there are also more unusual weapons like umbrellas and folding fans. Each weapon provides for its own unique gameplay, such as the umbrella’s skill that temporarily stuns an enemy, or the fan’s ability to create a zone that heals the player and their allies.
Players can equip both a main weapon and a sub-weapon, each enabling a variety of martial techniques. What techniques are available to you will also change based on the school you study under, with a total of eleven available schools. The game’s combat style changes quite a bit depending on the combination of mystic and martial skills you use, allowing for a wide degree of customization. Between all of the different attacks, the balance between offense and defense enabled by parries, and the overall voracious approach to combat elements, it felt like the game had taken a menu of popular modern features and ordered one of everything.
The bow and arrow is treated differently whether it’s being used as a main or a sub-weapon, capable of attacking enemies from afar while also solving puzzles by burning through vines to open up pathways. The way it’s positioned shows the influence of another game that was previously mentioned, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
The game’s core of open world exploration and progression has also been extravagantly created. During the preview, I was able to visit Kaifeng, one of China’s eight ancient capitals located in Heinan province that flourished at the time as one of the world’s largest cities. Despite the war-ravaged world, the city in the game was open and lively, with its residents chatting away like it was Cyberpunk 2077 after just a short walk through its streets. It sounds like upwards of a thousand NPCs have reputation levels, allowing you to befriend them on an individual basis.
It’s not hard to imagine how people live in the game’s detailed streets of Kaifeng, apparently recreated by referring to historical remains that still exist today. Walk down the big street that cuts through it all and eventually you’ll find a large arching bridge. A beautiful palace with towering defenses awaits you on the other side, making it clear just how prosperous this Chinese capital was at the time. From there the player will be able to dig into the secrets around their own birth as a wandering hero.
After only about three hours of gameplay, I could tell that Where Winds Meet is packed full of elements that players have experienced before in open-world games. But what shocked me most of all is that while you could call this a mishmash of features, the key concept of wuxia along with the way those elements are presented worked to bring all of them together in a natural way. Perhaps you could say that what best defines Where Winds Meet is this coexistence of the past decade of what has made open-world and action games fun alongside its Chinese creators’ love for the genre of wuxia.
