Sword and Fairy: Together Forever
Developer: Softstar Technology
Publisher: Eastasiasoft
Platform: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (Reviewed)
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $39.99 – Available Here
Overview
For many RPG fans in the West the name of Sword and Fairy would mean absolutely nothing to them despite the fact that the franchise, developed by Taiwan based Softstar, is perhaps one of the biggest RPGs of all time in China. There is a relatively good reason for that however as this series, despite starting in 1995, has almost never seen a release in English outside of a PC release of the sixth entry and now finally a console release of the seventh entry in the series in the form of Sword and Fairy: Together Forever. Will being a uniquely developed RPG bring something new to the table for RPG fans or is Sword and Fairy: Together Forever still too rough around the edges for a global stage?
Story
There is a fairly solid reason that Sword and Fairy: Together Forever has dropped the number from its title, besides making it a bit more appealing for newcomers to try out the game, and that happens to be the fact that for the most part players can enjoy most of what the storyline has to offer without any prior knowledge to the series. There are certain elements that may be a bit rough around the edges and never feel truly fleshed out but those worried that they may simply find themselves lost shouldn’t worry too much here.
Qingshu has spent her life training to protect her village from various monsters that may be lurking outside the woods and as a member of the Mingshu sect who is blessed with a spirit beast she is quite adept at it. That is until one day when she encounters a boy being attacked by a monster that she cannot hope to defeat only for the mysterious but wounded Xiu Wu to step in and help her. Xiu Wu, a deity in humanoid form, was struck down by a demon lord and forced into the human realm during a chaotic battle and now players quickly find themselves embroiled in a conflict that threatens to rip apart the entire world and doom all three forces, humans, deities, and demons, to destruction.
Without going any further, players should already have a bit of a glimpse at just how in-depth Sword and Fairy: Together Forever‘s storyline can be and it only gets more dense from then on. This is partially due to an incredibly slow start and the fact that the game makes frequent use of lengthy cut-scenes and dialogue sections that often dwarf the actual moments of gameplay that take place between them. Nearly every aspect of the story’s lore is explained, be it through a random textbook or aforementioned cut-scene, but don’t expect an incredibly interesting story all the same. In fact despite the game’s depth, the actual core storyline is very predictable once plot points start to fall into place though it is saved a bit by just how deep the Chinese mythology goes and the actual characters that make up the player’s party.
The four main characters that players will eventually get in their party play off one another so well that it truly is a delight anytime the story spends time focusing on their interactions. This includes growth and development as the story progresses, keeping things feeling fresh even when the core story drags along. That being said, it is worth noting that no matter how impressive the original writing may have been, the English translation is incredibly rough in places and almost incomprehensible in others. While the core storyline is mostly translated okay, perhaps a bit too literally in some cases, there are countless cases where character dialogue, menu descriptions, and even instructions have been translated so poorly they go from being minor distractions to frustrations that plague nearly every written word in this Chinese voiced game.
Gameplay
For the first time in the series’ history, Sword and Fairy: Together Forever utilizes an action based combat system instead of a turn-based system and while this may not mean much to those unfamiliar with the franchise, it does mean that the developers aren’t quite as skilled at it as one would hope but thankfully they have pulled it off quite well. While exploring and traveling through the game players will freely roam around areas with their party of up to four characters and freely utilize their various attacks, skills, and magical attacks to take down foes. This is done through a fairly simple but entertaining combination of light and heavy attacks that can be strung together to dish out various special combos that change depending on the character being controlled as well as each characters’ special abilities.
While stringing together combo attacks will make up most of the game’s combat players can also make use of up to eight abilities that can be mapped to R2 + the four face buttons. These abilities are fairly flashy and can deal tons of damage, though unfortunately they aren’t organized and labeled the best when it comes to healing, buffing, or simply dealing damage and even then a few of these abilities are also incredibly similar to one another. It is also nice to note that magical attacks that deal massive amounts of damage can also be unleashed on foes and can be vital to use in boss battles but otherwise players will find that, for the most part, many fights won’t even require extensive knowledge of the combat system.
This is due to the fact that while the combat is fun and hectic at the same time, it is also incredibly easy to the point of disappointment outside of a few challenging boss fights that require unique elements to take down. As a result players can’t make the most out of what the game’s combat system has to offer and it also doesn’t help that ally AI is incredibly dumb more often than not as they rarely use their special moves properly and, in more than a few cases, simply deal basic damage unless players swap to them and utilize their abilities.
Outside of the game’s combat players will find that the game does try and vary things up from time to time by having various stealth sections as well as a variety of mini-games and little distractions but don’t really offer too much enjoyment compared to actual combat. On the other hand exploring the world can be quite fun, especially since there is a wide variety of areas to travel through and despite the game’s linear nature there are plenty to explore in most locations as well as ingredients that can be collected and cooked together for some temporary stat boosts. Unfortunately the same cannot be said regarding the game’s incredibly generic side quests that have perhaps some of the worst writing in the game, with a few being almost incomprehensible if not for the objective markers and even then most simply boil down to slaying certain demons, fetch quests, or talking to another character.
Visuals & Audio
Playing on the PlayStation 5 Sword and Fairy: Together Forever can often look quite amazing at times, especially in lusher more detailed environments. On the other hand, there are areas so simply designed and muted in nature that they look as if they were taken from a completely different game. The same can be said in regards to the character designs as their models are handled well but feature no real facial animations. As for the monsters and combat, thankfully the game features a ton of monster variety especially when it comes to boss design and the frantic combat is always a highlight and never experiences any slowdown on console.
As mentioned before, this game makes use of only the original Chinese voice track which is something a bit unique for an Eastern RPG but unfortunately the development team chose to accompany it with some incredibly small and non-adjustable subtitle font making it easy to miss dialogue. The soundtrack that accompanies the game features a nice variety of tracks as well as some truly outstanding instrumental pieces that feel quite unique.
Overall
Sword and Fairy: Together Forever is in a bit of a strange place as not only does it have to deal with being nearly the first entry for most players into a long running series but it also fails to capitalize on most of its strongest elements. Players will find that the characters in the storyline are written quite well but the story itself, despite having some impressively deep lore, is rather predictable and suffers from horrible localization just like its fun combat is easy to learn but also lacks any real challenge to pit players against. This makes this Chinese RPG one that has plenty of charm at times but also plenty of flaws that hamper the experience.
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