Anytime I pick up a new game, I do a bit of research into the game before I play. What sort of game is this? Who is the studio? Have I played anything from them before? It was no different when I received the code for this game. As a fan of JRPGs, I was ready for a long game, a bit of grind, and a worthwhile story. Even going in with these expectations, I don’t think I was prepared for what I was stepping into. Let’s do a somewhat deep dive on the Xuan Yuan series before we step into the review shall we?
XYS: The Gate of Firmament is not the first Xuan Yuan game in the series. In fact, SOFTSTAR ENTERTAINMENT began publishing this series began in 1990 with Xuan Yuan Sword. Since then there are 7 main line, 6 tales, many spin offs, and even a TV series. To say that this series has a cultural impact in China would be an understatement. It helps that these games are very rooted in Chinese history from all different periods. Historical fiction lovers, especially those interested in East Asian history will find themselves drawn to these settings. In fact, the entire series would draw inspiration from Chinese folklore, mythology, and history. The game begins in ancient times with the Gate of Heaven, gods, and an emperor that sets the plot in motion.
Localization
Before I get into the plot, graphics, or anything else a review should cover, I need to start with localization. This localization, in the age of AI, is quite poor for a 2024 release. While it’s easy to excuse that jokes may not land in the same way, this is very much beyond that. There are spelling errors (“com” instead of “come”), times where the conversation doesn’t make sense, and small oddities (“dismount” instead of “unequip” in an equipment menu). I wondered, why does the character menu state dismount but after trial and error I understood what they meant. Normally localization wouldn’t be something I’d focus on, however, with a RPG, it’s hard not to notice language issues. At times, the language is so jarring, it can take you out of an otherwise pivotal scene.
Sometimes you absolutely have to read the subtitles to know what is happening since there is no English voice over. I would be absolutely fine with this, if there weren’t moments when the text on the screen was difficult to read on a bright backdrop. I’m not certain if Chinese word characters would’ve been shorter and fit nicer on the screen. This isn’t always the case for the English translations.
The language issues can also be difficult when you come across any riddles. When I came across talking monsters, at times the conversation made no sense. Often times, there was no good translation and I just chose an option and went about my day. Either I’d fight the monster or they’d let me go and we’d keep exploring. Occasionally, you may see some Chinese characters in the text box as well. Perhaps its time to use that translate app on your phone and engage a new language?
Speaking of language issues, I want to discuss something that occurred during my playtime. The first time I booted up XYS: The Gate of Firmament, the game showed me everything in English, great! However, the next time I opened up the game, it all booted in Chinese. Thanks to modern technology, I was able to use Google translate to find where to change the language back to English. Yet when I hit apply, the language did not change. I had to back out the game completely and repeat this process twice for the change to take effect. So if you run into this issue, there is a resolution, even if a bit annoying.
Characters/Character Models
Narrative driven games are nothing without their starring characters so let’s discuss our main party. At this moment its worth noting that this is an enhanced release and not a remaster/remake. XYS: The Gate of Firmament comes with higher resolution graphics and better loading times. I can’t compare to the original but will say these graphics still appear to be PS3 graphics. At this time, a PS5 and halfway decent TV/monitor will make it quite obvious the graphical quality is still outdated. It doesn’t help when the character models are typically quite emotionless when the camera closes up on their face. Tears on their face and some eyebrow movement helps, but overall feels quite flat. The character body language helps convey the emotions as the voice acting seemingly does as well. I can’t fully confirm the voice acting as it is in Chinese, but they seem to be doing heavy lifting.
The first character you are introduced to is Sikong Yu, small town boy living with his mother and sister. At least, I assume so. In conversations between Sikong and his mother or sister, the localization falls apart making it difficult to confirm their relationship. It doesn’t help with such a small town and everyone being aunt or uncle. Sikong is a bit of your stereotypical main character where there is more to his story than even he knows. His flaw? The sister character who may be one of the most annoying plot devices I’ve ever met. Her attachment to Sikong also makes me question their relationship, is she in love with her brother? At times, the localization makes it feel like she is pining for him instead of just sibling concern. Please feel free to comment and let me know if not having a brother makes me misread their relationship. Either way, Sikong Yu’s story makes him the true protagonist and is literally on the journey of his life.
The next character you’ll meet is Ziqiao although she will come in and out of your party a bit. At first, she seems like just a nice friendly girl on a mission of her own. This mission might also include marrying a prince, but she has to explore the world first right? You’ll soon learn about her past and her mission to bring peace to the world. I was really enjoying her character, until every five minutes it felt like the party paused because she was hungry. Maybe it’s meant to be humorous and is used to move the plot along but a joke can be overused. I really thought once we had the big plot moment in Chapter 2 it would be over, it wasn’t. It’s quite an annoying trait that at times feels disruptive to your game play flow while you wander the world. They do use this to have the characters interact with each other in cut scenes at times. However, with the language being a bit off, the cut scenes don’t always hit in the way they should. Did I mention she has a bit of a habit of getting possessed? Apparently only the pure of heart can be corrupted, who knew?
Our next strong female is Muyue, a mysterious girl you save with magic power. She should look familiar when you meet her in the story. We learn that her journey is trying to get back home. The problem is that her home hasn’t existed in thousands of years and we’re pretty sure she’s a divine being. She won’t admit to it, but all signs point to yes, especially when lights appear around her when she’s emotional. At least, as emotional as the character models allow her to be. While Sikong Yu is the antagonist, her past choices (and those of her family) are the catalyst for this adventure. She’s very quiet when we first meet her but as the story goes on, she opens up and engages the rest of the party in conversation.
Finally there is Fengyu, a traveler found on the road who sets the party towards a new destination. Like Ziqiao he is on a mission for peace and knows quite a bit about historic weapons. Something about him seems a bit off, like he’s hiding something. Maybe it’s just an alcohol problem, he is a bit of a drinker. Or maybe it’s all those people coming after him that he can’t quite explain? I won’t spoil it for you in case you’d like to give it a shot and unravel this mystery yourself. Underneath it all, he’s just a boy with an inferiority complex due to his bloodline. Maybe after this long journey he’ll find himself thinking ancestry isn’t quite as important as he thinks. Despite Ziqiao already being engaged to the prince, he does take quite a liking to her. He also has quite a bad habit of being vague, distrustful, and even betraying those close to him.
These characters all have their flaws but do find some time to entertain. Fengyu tries to offer advice on women to Sikong, Ziqiao finds herself attracted to Fengyu, and Muyue just being herself. Each has their own reason for being on the road and coming and going from the party, yet it works. At least when you can keep them well stocked, alive, and together.
I’ll also give a small shout out to Aqi, the pig. He carries the container that you’ll capture monsters in. They even give Aqi his own side story as an achievement if you’re going for 100%.
Gameplay
Similar to many JRPGs, XYS: The Gate of Firmament has lots of cut scenes where you can put the controller down and read subtitles. When it’s time for you to take control, I’d like to offer a bit of good luck. This game will not hold your hand walking you through tutorials of the menu and many other aspects. You’ll want to go in and read a lot of the “help” area to get a full understanding of your customization options. I highly recommend spending some time in here to see what how you want to set up your game play. This will be especially important when you get into the longer combat areas.
I did find some joy in word puzzles on treasure chests found in the wild. These may not be too difficult for English speakers overall as you are filling in just one or two letters. Although you may find times where multiple letters can fit the puzzle and you’ll have to guess which is correct. It’s a simple fun mechanic and breaks up the monotony of just opening treasure chests. You’ll also want to open the treasure chest and then collect the chests for additional resources. Resources are very important and if you let your characters heal on their own, you’ll burn through many of them.
One thing I wish I did sooner? Stop the characters from using all of our mana healing items. The characters will use their magic abilities first even against some of the weakest characters and burn through supplies. I finally turned this option off, as it only is an on/off switch and not character dependent. It’s either all characters can independently use these items or none (except whoever you control) will use them in battle. This may be recency bias talking, but it would have been nice to set limits or provide them each their own timing on when to use these. The number of times I’d go to heal a character just as they healed themselves felt all too often.
Combat is cool down based active time battle system. Consider something like Final Fantasy VII with a twist. Healing items will take a bit longer to be ready than your attacks or skills so keep this in mind as you choose your next move. You only control one character at a time, so you might see the party seemingly standing there. Don’t worry it’s just while their timers reset. You can also switch through characters at any time in battle which helps with balancing out the fights. After a bit, you’ll also be able to trap demons in combat and use them to your advantage later. This is part of the crafting system that you’ll unlock, one of the areas I enjoyed about the game. What demons can I combine to use for my own ends in combat later? Finding the balance is extremely helpful as you progress through difficult battles.
Narrative
I won’t spend too much time on the narrative as I don’t want to spoil the overall story. I wish this game had an area to understand the historical and mythological context that exists in the world. Early on, they’ll reference a god or historical name and I feel I am missing some of the context. This isn’t make or break, but for someone who enjoys understanding the whole narrative, this felt jarring. It is a bit difficult once you realize that the story revolves around Gonggong, a Chinese water god that does exist outside of the game.
Outside of that criticism, the story does take some time to pick up. This is probably due to the characters coming in and out of focus before really hitting their stride together. They each have their own motivations, their own depth, but it feels disjointed until it doesn’t. It’s around chapter 3 that the party feels solidified, which can be quite long depending on play style. When we hit Sikong’s emotional stride as he finds his reasons to continue, it feels like we’ve finally begun. For me, this is about 12 hours into the game. It would have been great if this would have occurred sooner, but I give you fair warning.
Each character has a story that you can unlock through quests as I mentioned previously with Aqi. Each story will give you a deeper dive into the character, but they are easy to miss. Some quests are also locked unless you speak to the quest giver with the right character. I’ll admit I didn’t love this mechanic but did understand. It does sometimes become an annoyance when you just want to unlock the quest, but you need to swap characters to see who is best to speak to them with. If you don’t speak to the little girl with Muyue, guess what, you won’t be playing this quest and getting the EXP. Good luck!
Overall / Final Thoughts
While a part of me wants to rank Xuan Yuan: The Gate of Firmament highly, I’m not quite sure I can. In all honesty, the flaws tragically outweigh what I think could be something beautiful. It’s not that it is entirely awful, but it feels unpolished and unfinished. That’s not to say that it won’t find an audience who will look beyond the flaws and love it. In fact, upon first release, it already had those fans. If this was a first release and 10 years ago, I’d give it a higher score. This game would definitely be enhanced from some quality of life improvements such as a quest tracker, localization, and customizing when characters use items.
In 2024 when other foreign game companies such as MiHoYo (Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail) localize free to play games with such expertise, one has to wonder why an enhanced edition fell short. While I completed the story of the game, I didn’t go achievement hunting. I missed side stories for characters, but I also don’t feel the urge to go back. I almost wish there was a new game+ to help me get through the side stories I missed, another potential quality of life improvement perhaps? For now, I have to rate Xuan Yuan: The Gate of Firmament on a wish they would’ve polished it. This also could’ve been an amazing time to learn more about Chinese mythology if the opportunity existed. Could we have a compendium that clarifies some of these gods? How do I know they are important just by their name as someone who is not part of the culture? I took the time to do my research, but for the average gamer, I’m not certain they’ll do the same.
Overall it just feels so middle of the road that it could be absolutely forgettable. Is it better to be bad and remembered or forgettable? Feel free to tell me why I’m wrong with a comment below (or tell me you agree too, that’s cool)!
Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament was reviewed on PlayStation 5. Gamer Social Club was provided a code by publisher Eastasiasoft. The enhanced version is available beginning December 13, 2024 for a digital price of $24.99.
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