I am a lover of singleplayer RPG’s, especially of the Japanese variety. I fall in love with their stories, their characters, their worlds, their soundtracks, everything. So a few weeks ago I had a thought: What about non-Japanese Asian RPG’s? And so that led me to find and purchase some on Steam that had English language support. I plan to do a larger write-up of these games in the future to bring attention to these games which fly under the radar due to lack of media coverage, trailers, etc, but that’s mainly for games that are already released, though I do plan to also address upcoming games that the media have covered more such as Black Myth: Wukong. GuJian 3 is the Chinese RPG that I decided to start my journey with, and I don’t regret a thing. I’ve been loving it so much that I decided to write this impressions article now instead of holding off. And also so I can just share the plethora of absolutely gorgeous screenshots I’ve taken.
I wasn’t lying when I said this game was absolutely gorgeous. Despite being built on the now over 30 year old Gamebryo Engine(The very engine that is the basis for Bethesda’s notoriously buggy Creation Engine.), GuJian 3 is one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever laid eyes on. The two above images are from the games initial area, Amber Reach, a location in the Spirit Realm, home to various fey and demons. It gives off this impressions of permanent Autumn foliage with dense fields and tree’s, broken up periodically with streams and rocky outcroppings. These golden fields blew me away the moment I started the game and I couldn’t help, but just wander around and stare at their beauty. It reminded me of Ghost of Tsushima a bit where there were vast fields of just beautiful white foliage covering the ground.
To give you an idea of what the game is about, it takes place in a fantastical version of Ancient China, thousands of years after the death of the Yellow Emperor Xi’xuanyuan. Demons have begun appearing in the Spirit Realm in increasing numbers and the local fey guardians, the Shadowchasers, are unsure why. You initially play as King Xuange. the most powerful of the Shadowchasers, who has been living on borrowed time due to a mortal wound he received from a powerful demon years earlier, one that no healing can seal, only slow. With his end near, he tracks down and brings his brother, Beiluo, back to the Shadowchaser capital of Skyelk. Beiluo, having lived his whole life in the mortal realm and only vaguely aware of his fey heritage, wants nothing to do with the Shadowchasers… or become King after his brothers passing. After losing a bet, Beiluo agrees to his brothers last wishes and takes up the mantle of King, however before he can be officially crowned, Skyelk’s trigram barrier that prevents demons from entering(And even worse, making it to the mortal world), begins weakening and he must set out on a journey to find a descendant of the Yellow Emperor, or at least someone with knowledge of trigrams, to repair the barrier before its too late.
It is at this point that you take control of Beiluo as the story truly begins, having exited what I can only imagine was a long prologue. But it was well worth it, having gotten used to the controls and gameplay by this point, as well as becoming acquainted with some of the primary characters and establishing lore(The GuJian games are not connected, similar to Final Fantasy, and thus you can jump in here and not feel like you’ve missed anything important even if you might get that impression at first. The story is entirely self contained.). The primary mode of gameplay is that of an action RPG, a contrast to the series turn-based roots. In this ACT mode, the left and right mouse buttons are your light and heavy attacks respectively, SHIFT is your sprint, dodging is activated by double-tapping a movement key in any direction, the T & G keys are mapped to powerful abilities, while smaller abilities are mapped to the number keys. Probably the the worst mapped ability however is blocking, which is mapped to the L-ALT key. Dear lord this causes so many problems because I have repeatedly missed the key and hit either the WIN key or the spacebar by mistake, and let me tell you, a missed key at the wrong time could prove fatal in this game. Thankfully you can rebind these to your liking, so I put blocking/parrying on the middle mouse button. This has worked out a lot better when it comes to flow in combat.
And good thing I figured that out too, because the boss battles in this game can be absolutely brutal. I won’t go as far as to say they’re Dark Soul’s level, but if you’re not careful, you will die a lot. Bosses have somewhat predictable attack patterns and once you figure them out you can more effectively fight them. However, some bosses I’ve faced also fall on the “You only die so much because the boss attacks so much and so fast that you can’t counter.” side of the fence. At least two or three times I’ve gotten absolutely hammered by a boss because they attack in a flurry of action, and each attack you block drains stamina. If they attack enough in one go, or in quick succession, you’ll lose all your stamina and end up getting beaten down pretty quickly. If you go into a boss fight with your health gauge already low, it stays that way when the fight starts and even if you restart the fight. The only way to heal during a fight is via items you’ve set in a quickbar, so no going into your inventory to heal. Enemies in general also have two types of attacks: Blockable and Unblockable. The former is indicated by an orange or yellow icon, the latter by a red one. Read the room correctly and you can respond appropriately. Endless button mashing definitely won’t get you everywhere in this game.
I will say that even though the game gives you areas to explore, there’s not actually a whole lot to do in them if you’re not advancing the main quest. Notice boards in each town give you side quests to do, but usually they’re of the fetch quest variety. Most of the items you need can typically be found in the surrounding area, either just lying around or purchased from vendors. Side quests are the primary way you get money other than just finding it somewhere in the world. You can of course, also sell items you find in order to purchase healing items or new armor. Your armor, does not affect your characters appearance much. Accessories will show up, and putting on a cloak adds some more clothing, but otherwise the characters have established appearances that remain intact for as long as the story wants them too. Most NPC’s you can’t talk to, only ones who are important. Once you leave an area, you cannot return to it(Until later in the game I presume because there does seem to be a teleport option that is currently unavailable. As far as minigames go, so far I’ve only run into two. The first is fishing which is an extremely simple minigame. Hit the spacebar when a fish snags the line, then press the indicated keys to reel it in. If the line goes red, stop until it goes away and then start reeling again. And the second is a card game called Los Tales. It reminds me of Hanafuda in that you have a limited hand and need to match pairs of cards to score points. The player with the most points when both players hands run out is the winner. I will say that I found this game to be easier to figure out than Hanafuda as the illustrations on the cards are more straightforward. Rather than based around seasons, they’re based around people, places, and things, and the cards are color-coded. You can only take a red card from the center if you also have a red card, but pairs can be of any color combination.
Like any good RPG, you will have companions along the way. So far, I’ve gotten three fairly permanent party members, only two of which are actually active in combat. Cen Ying, a human girl who uses a staff and is quite adventurous and booksmart. She joins you after you save her from the Antiquity Society(These folks aren’t as nice as the name would imply.) and a descendant of the Yellow Emperor who has knowledge of trigrams though fairly basic. Yun’wuyue, a woman who is an Eclipser or Dreamhaunt who wields a chain whip and magic. After making a promise to the former King of the Shadowchasers, Xuange, she follows Beiluo out of compulsion to fulfill the promise she made. She is also thousands of years old and thus acts as the players lore guide. The other member of the party is the little critter above. Persimmon is a Golden Glider who is capable of speech and flight. He is Beiluo’s first companion, as the little guy pledged fealty to him after he saved his life, considering it a great honor to serve a Greater Fey, even if Beiluo would rather the didn’t. His importance grows about 13 hours into the story, where I’m at currently, and at what appears to be the point where the game has finally finished with its main setup, introducing all the players in the story you need to know. Persimmon begins tending to your newfound homestead as caretaker, similar to Fire Emblem Fates’ castle.
The game’s soundtrack is also quite beautiful, but I wouldn’t call it extensive. Each area has its own theme, and that theme has variations. Enough tracks to put on a single disc, unlike, say, Final Fantasy XIII which has three discs because Hamauzu went crazy with the admittedly gorgeous score. But the soundtrack is clearly used to invoke feelings, to enchant, or to just make you nervous. They’re definitely worth listening to on their own though. Audio quality also isn’t an issue with this game. While there are a few moments where things might sound a tad compressed, everything is fine and the spoke dialogue is decently voiced. Having said that, listening to Chinese audio is a completely new experience for me. I’m so used to either English or Japanese that it definitely comes off as different. The subtitles are timed with the audio, so if a character speaks fast or how its said in Chinese is shorter than in English, the subtitles can definitely be blink and you miss it affairs. Other times the dialogue goes on so long that I’ve finished reading long before the actor stops speaking.
GuJian 3’s Ancient China is a mystical land that I will continue to explore for quite a while yet, and I’m looking forward to every single moment of it. I want to see how Beiluo’s journey ends and what that means for all the characters present in the story. It’s been quite the ride so far and I expect much more from this game(and the others on my list.) as I continue on. To end these impressions, let me leave you with the very last screenshot I took the last time I played.
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