Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament – Review

OUR RATING: 6.5/10

Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament whisks us away to a realm inspired by the Shang Dynasty, around 1300 BC. That’s some seriously ancient history we’re talking about! The game follows Sikong Yu, a young man from a small village who finds himself thrust into an epic adventure.

Yu’s life takes a dramatic turn when his sister is kidnapped by bandits. During the rescue mission, he meets Zi Qiao, a girl with superhuman strength and an insatiable appetite, and Muyue, a mysterious woman with magical powers who can’t remember where she’s from. Add to the mix a noble named Fengyu, and you’ve got yourself quite the motley crew.

The premise sounds promising, doesn’t it? A group of diverse characters embarking on a quest across ancient China, battling mythical creatures and unraveling age-old mysteries. It’s the stuff of gaming dreams! But as we’ll soon discover, sometimes dreams can turn into nightmares.

Remember those early PS2 games that made you go “Wow!” back in the day? Well, The Gate of Firmament might make you go “Wow…” but for entirely different reasons. The graphics seem to have taken a time machine from the early 2000s and forgotten to upgrade along the way.

The character models look like they’ve been crafted from the leftover polygons of games past. They move with all the grace of a marionette controlled by a novice puppeteer. Imagine characters that rotate on the spot like paper cutouts instead of turning naturally. It’s almost comical, but the laughter quickly turns to tears when you realize this is a game from 2015, not 2005.

The environments fare no better. Whether you’re traversing a lush forest or scaling an icy mountain, everything has a distinct “I’ve seen this before, but better” quality. The textures are crude, the details are sparse, and there’s a general lack of imagination in the design. It’s as if the developers were given a “Generic Fantasy Landscape” starter pack and told to make do.

But hey, graphics aren’t everything, right? Maybe the gameplay and story make up for the visual shortcomings?

The Gate of Firmament bills itself as an action RPG, which usually promises an exciting blend of strategic combat and character development. What we get instead is a system that feels more like a game of “how fast can you mash this button?”

The combat revolves around a cooldown system for abilities, with martial arts moves activated by button combinations. As you progress, you unlock more skills and can customize your characters’ abilities. Sounds good on paper, doesn’t it? But in practice, it boils down to repeatedly hitting the same button until everything on the screen stops moving.

There’s a distinct lack of satisfaction in the combat. Landing a powerful blow feels about as impactful as swatting a fly with a newspaper. The enemies, for the most part, serve as little more than mobile health bars for you to deplete.

To add insult to injury, the game throws a curveball near the end with a sudden spike in difficulty. Boss fights become exercises in frustration, with enemies employing cheap tactics that force you to adopt equally cheesy strategies to succeed. It’s less about skill and more about endurance – can you outlast the boss’s seemingly endless health bar while it heals itself for the umpteenth time?

Now, let’s talk about the story – or rather, let’s try to decipher what the story is supposed to be. The Gate of Firmament suffers from one of the most egregious localization efforts I’ve ever encountered. It’s as if the entire script was run through an online translator and then published without a second glance.

Spelling and grammatical errors aren’t just common; they’re the norm. Nearly every sentence contains some form of linguistic faux pas. But that’s not even the worst part. The real tragedy is that often, the dialogue makes absolutely no sense. You’ll find yourself staring at the screen, trying to piece together what the characters are trying to say, like some sort of bizarre word puzzle.

This might be forgivable in a game where the story takes a backseat to action. But The Gate of Firmament isn’t that game. It relies heavily on its narrative, with lengthy cutscenes that can stretch on for ten minutes or more. These scenes become exercises in patience as you watch stiffly animated characters spout nonsensical dialogue at each other.

The potential for an engaging story is there. The characters, despite their wooden animations, have interesting backstories and dynamics. But all of this is lost in the quagmire of poor translation. It’s like watching a foreign film with subtitles written by someone who’s never actually seen the movie.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of The Gate of Firmament is the wasted potential. Chinese mythology is a rich, largely untapped resource in the world of gaming. There’s so much fascinating lore, so many intriguing creatures and concepts that could make for an incredible gaming experience.

But instead of diving deep into this wealth of material, the game barely skims the surface. There’s no effort made to explain or contextualize the mythological elements for players unfamiliar with Chinese folklore. An in-game encyclopedia or codex could have gone a long way in making the world more accessible and engaging for Western audiences.

In the end, Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament feels like a missed opportunity on multiple fronts. It’s a game that promises an epic journey through Chinese mythology but delivers a frustrating slog through poorly translated dialogue and dated gameplay mechanics.

The visual presentation is disappointing, the combat is repetitive, and the potentially interesting story is buried under layers of incomprehensible text. Even the inclusion of a comical pig companion (complete with an overly enthusiastic voice actor) can’t salvage the experience.

For fans of Chinese mythology or those curious about the Xuan Yuan Sword series, it might be worth waiting for a more polished entry in the franchise. As it stands, The Gate of Firmament is a gate best left unopened.

If you’re still curious about exploring games inspired by Chinese culture, you might be better off looking into more recent titles that have managed to blend mythology with engaging gameplay and better production values. Until then, this particular journey into ancient China is one that’s probably best left in the annals of gaming history.

Despite the disappointment that is The Gate of Firmament, there’s still hope for the Xuan Yuan Sword series and Chinese mythology-inspired games in general. The potential is clearly there – it just needs the right execution.

With proper localization, updated graphics, and refined gameplay mechanics, a game in this setting could be truly spectacular. Imagine exploring the mystical landscapes of ancient China with the visual fidelity of modern RPGs, battling legendary creatures with a combat system that’s both challenging and satisfying, and unraveling a story steeped in rich mythology that’s accessible to players of all backgrounds.