So fate played its hand and I ended up downloading Sword and Fairy 6 during the current PSN sale for right under $8. I mention fate because I had spent last the week or two looking into Chinese RPGs for the first time. I had read up on this one a little (especially opinions about the game's performance, bugs, and translation) and had been eyeing a $35 copy from Hong Kong but wasn't sure if it was worth the money...lo and behold the game was on sale a few days later. While I wish I had a physical copy for the future, I couldn't resist being able to try out my first Chinese RPG for cheap...
First off, I really enjoy the battle system and the battle animations. I won't try to act like this is a great looking game as it really reminds me a lot of FFXI aesthetically for some reason, but I think it works and is actually pretty charming if you're a fan of PS2/PS3 era models. Some of the attacks look really striking, especially when all of your teammates are unloading attacks at the same time. It can be a little visually overwhelming but there's a lot of really awesome martial arts action under there. Definitely simple but once I got the hang of the battle system I found myself being able to get through battles pretty quickly and the Auto Battle feature is pretty competent (although I've heard some people say they have to reload the game to fix a bug with it sometimes...).
The story has been pretty "on the ground" from the beginning...after starting with a very "big picture" Chinese myth angle, my party of characters are all disconnected but obviously connected by that big picture myth, but for now we're all currently after a cult that's been kidnapping people. I've gone through a couple of dungeons, some overworld areas, and a few town/village locations. After playing FFXV, Like A Dragon, and Demon's Souls lately, it's kind of nice playing a relatively simple RPG again. I grind a little on roads, deserts, and trails, then go to the next town and upgrade equipment. Procedural for sure, but it helps me appreciate my slow increase in strength. Speaking of which, it's cool having the Meridian system which is a way of growing your character's stats like the Sphere/Ascension Grid in FF. You level up like normal with an increase in stats but you also get 'Souls' in battle along with money and XP that you can use to unlock new energy points on the Meridian grid. Once again, it's kind of simplistic but I'm kind of in the mood for that. We'll see how it goes as I continue...
One of the things about the story and characters that I've really liked so far is how everyone is still holding each other at arm's length -- the characters are all hiding important information from each other and are very intelligently cautious. In story scenes there are a lot of cool little moments where we see the inner thoughts of different characters while things are happening -- for example switching directly from Luo Zhaoyan's inner narrative to Yue Jinzhao's during the flow of a scene. I think all of the characters are interesting and visually appealing (if simple). The story and character development is what I'll be keeping an eye on during my playthrough since I'm excited to see what direction things take. I recently finished Final Fantasy XV for the first time a few days ago and it got me thinking about some of the bigger story beats and themes that are present in all the FF games (even if some things are drastically different across entries) and it made me wonder what kind of defining concepts are at the heart of the Chinese Paladin series...I'm excited to find out!
When it comes to performance and bugs, it's been a mixed bag and I can understand how it's a dealbreaker for some. The game's framerate is fluid and stable on the PS5 but I went ahead and tried out the game on my old base PS4 and it was such a striking difference...the game was chugging along and it felt so slow...so I've definitely been playing most on PS5 (I can only imagine how battle animations look on the base PS4...yikes). However, I've still run into a number of different bugs while on PS5 and I assume these are common across platforms...first I've lost a few hours of progress collectively from random freezes (especially when changing skillsets in battles), the worst being after long cutscenes or a tedious boss battle. I've gotten accustomed to saving pretty frequently and it helps that you can save anywhere. I also ran into a bug where my character got stuck in a wall while jumping. Luckily there's a 'reset character position' option in settings and it fixed that up... I've also read a few message board posts about some rough, potentially gamebreaking bugs later on in the game but people have found some workarounds by making a second save and skipping certain events, so I'll be paying attention to those moments as I get closer. Most of the freezes/problems have come and gone and while it's frustrating having to start over or regrind battles, I still find myself wanting to play regardless...
Lastly, the translation definitely doesn't deserve any awards but I've been able to follow along and at worst it just reads as being unprofessional (especially with easy typos like 'peach' instead of 'peace,' inconsistent grammar, and lots of improperly capitalized stuff). Still, I've paid way less attention to the problems as I go along.
Anyone else have any thoughts or opinions on this game? I have no idea how long it is or anything but I'm excited to keep playing. Anything to look out for? Games to check out next (preferably console with English? are there fan translations?)? Either way, definitely check it out on the PSN Sale if you're curious...
First off, I really enjoy the battle system and the battle animations. I won't try to act like this is a great looking game as it really reminds me a lot of FFXI aesthetically for some reason, but I think it works and is actually pretty charming if you're a fan of PS2/PS3 era models. Some of the attacks look really striking, especially when all of your teammates are unloading attacks at the same time. It can be a little visually overwhelming but there's a lot of really awesome martial arts action under there. Definitely simple but once I got the hang of the battle system I found myself being able to get through battles pretty quickly and the Auto Battle feature is pretty competent (although I've heard some people say they have to reload the game to fix a bug with it sometimes...).
The story has been pretty "on the ground" from the beginning...after starting with a very "big picture" Chinese myth angle, my party of characters are all disconnected but obviously connected by that big picture myth, but for now we're all currently after a cult that's been kidnapping people. I've gone through a couple of dungeons, some overworld areas, and a few town/village locations. After playing FFXV, Like A Dragon, and Demon's Souls lately, it's kind of nice playing a relatively simple RPG again. I grind a little on roads, deserts, and trails, then go to the next town and upgrade equipment. Procedural for sure, but it helps me appreciate my slow increase in strength. Speaking of which, it's cool having the Meridian system which is a way of growing your character's stats like the Sphere/Ascension Grid in FF. You level up like normal with an increase in stats but you also get 'Souls' in battle along with money and XP that you can use to unlock new energy points on the Meridian grid. Once again, it's kind of simplistic but I'm kind of in the mood for that. We'll see how it goes as I continue...
One of the things about the story and characters that I've really liked so far is how everyone is still holding each other at arm's length -- the characters are all hiding important information from each other and are very intelligently cautious. In story scenes there are a lot of cool little moments where we see the inner thoughts of different characters while things are happening -- for example switching directly from Luo Zhaoyan's inner narrative to Yue Jinzhao's during the flow of a scene. I think all of the characters are interesting and visually appealing (if simple). The story and character development is what I'll be keeping an eye on during my playthrough since I'm excited to see what direction things take. I recently finished Final Fantasy XV for the first time a few days ago and it got me thinking about some of the bigger story beats and themes that are present in all the FF games (even if some things are drastically different across entries) and it made me wonder what kind of defining concepts are at the heart of the Chinese Paladin series...I'm excited to find out!
When it comes to performance and bugs, it's been a mixed bag and I can understand how it's a dealbreaker for some. The game's framerate is fluid and stable on the PS5 but I went ahead and tried out the game on my old base PS4 and it was such a striking difference...the game was chugging along and it felt so slow...so I've definitely been playing most on PS5 (I can only imagine how battle animations look on the base PS4...yikes). However, I've still run into a number of different bugs while on PS5 and I assume these are common across platforms...first I've lost a few hours of progress collectively from random freezes (especially when changing skillsets in battles), the worst being after long cutscenes or a tedious boss battle. I've gotten accustomed to saving pretty frequently and it helps that you can save anywhere. I also ran into a bug where my character got stuck in a wall while jumping. Luckily there's a 'reset character position' option in settings and it fixed that up... I've also read a few message board posts about some rough, potentially gamebreaking bugs later on in the game but people have found some workarounds by making a second save and skipping certain events, so I'll be paying attention to those moments as I get closer. Most of the freezes/problems have come and gone and while it's frustrating having to start over or regrind battles, I still find myself wanting to play regardless...
Lastly, the translation definitely doesn't deserve any awards but I've been able to follow along and at worst it just reads as being unprofessional (especially with easy typos like 'peach' instead of 'peace,' inconsistent grammar, and lots of improperly capitalized stuff). Still, I've paid way less attention to the problems as I go along.
Anyone else have any thoughts or opinions on this game? I have no idea how long it is or anything but I'm excited to keep playing. Anything to look out for? Games to check out next (preferably console with English? are there fan translations?)? Either way, definitely check it out on the PSN Sale if you're curious...
