Chinese Paladin: Sword and Fairy 6 released

[Latro]

only 11 bux until Nov. 11th. English/Steam release for this game anyway.

Jinn says it's good, and he's a good man right?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/696360/_Chinese_PaladinSword_and_Fairy_6/

 

[Jinn]

You're too kind, Latro.

I will give some more in-depth impressions of this when I have more time to play it, but yeah, I've really enjoyed it so far (about 10 hours in). To anyone thinking of grabbing it, keep my biases in mind: really happy to have any game that has a primarily Chinese theme to it, don't mind JRPG battle systems as long as they present some decent challenge from time to time (which this certainly has a number of times already), and I'm excited in general to see more Chinese games entering the western market.

Besides the things I enjoy, the game does have some flaws that tend to plague modern Chinese RPGs, such as stiff, awkward animations, poor optimization, and sloppy localization. However, this is definitely the best Chinese to English translation I've seen released yet, so Softstar has been putting some serious effort into improving this aspect, and it shows.

Also, $11 for like a 60-70 hour game.

EDIT: I forgot to mention my biggest qualm with the game so far: long as FUCK cut scenes. I enjoy the story and find the characters likable and surprisingly unique, but goddamn are there some long-ass cut scenes. It would normally be a bigger issue with me if it weren't for the said positives of the narrative above.

 

[TigerKnee]

What's a (Chinese) Paladin?

 

[Jinn]

What's a (Chinese) Paladin?

It's an unfortunate mistranslation made a long time ago that western people associate with the series now. Sword and Fairy seems to be the more accepted title, but I think Softstar decided to maintain "Chinese Paladin" for it's roots in the western consciousness. Not sure about that though.

 

[EnterEther]

So I know I'm nobody is going to be able to read my post for like a week until I get approved, but I made an account to ask this question because nobody else is really talking about this game, so I hope this thread is still going in a week!

When you say optimization issues, do you mean unplayable on a mid-range pc, or do you mean slight framerate drops and silly controls? I've got better than what the minimum requirements are on steam, but nothing super fancy. Thanks in advance!

 

[Jinn]

So I know I'm nobody is going to be able to read my post for like a week until I get approved, but I made an account to ask this question because nobody else is really talking about this game, so I hope this thread is still going in a week!

When you say optimization issues, do you mean unplayable on a mid-range pc, or do you mean slight framerate drops and silly controls? I've got better than what the minimum requirements are on steam, but nothing super fancy. Thanks in advance!

Poor FPS, but you should be able to tweak the video settings to mid range and be just fine. Turn off the "combat effects" setting for sure.

It's mainly just weird FPS drops here and there.

 

[EnterEther]

So I know I'm nobody is going to be able to read my post for like a week until I get approved, but I made an account to ask this question because nobody else is really talking about this game, so I hope this thread is still going in a week!

When you say optimization issues, do you mean unplayable on a mid-range pc, or do you mean slight framerate drops and silly controls? I've got better than what the minimum requirements are on steam, but nothing super fancy. Thanks in advance!

Poor FPS, but you should be able to tweak the video settings to mid range and be just fine. Turn off the "combat effects" setting for sure.

It's mainly just weird FPS drops here and there.

Ok great, thanks for the info. Gonna go buy it now! It's my first CRPG (seeing as I didn't know they existed until this showed up on my steam feed), but I'm really interested in trying it out.

 

[Jinn]

Besides the things I enjoy, the game does have some flaws that tend to plague modern Chinese RPGs, such as stiff, awkward animations, poor optimization, and sloppy localization. However, this is definitely the best Chinese to English translation I've seen released yet, so Softstar has been putting some serious effort into improving this aspect, and it shows.

Are there any streams or LPs of the translation? The few steam reviews and twitter opinions say otherwise.

The translation is rough around the edges, with awkward diction, syntax, and typos/spelling errors here and there. Don't get me wrong, it is far from perfect, but compared to the Wuxia games and even Gate of the Firmament (by the same developer) it is a great improvement. Also, the opening movie was HORRIBLY translated for some reason and is not indicative of the rest of the game, so don't be put off by that.

Just buy it and refund it within 2 hours if you don't trust my opinion on the translation and find it isn't to your liking.

 

[a bear named spigot]

the translation in the intro cinematic had me laffin and expecting little, but in-game it's actually pretty good. performance has been fine on max settings on my 5 years or so old pc. one thing that did bug me was the slow camera move speed, moving my mouse like crazy just to look around.

 

[EnterEther]

the translation in the intro cinematic had me laffin and expecting little, but in-game it's actually pretty good. performance has been fine on max settings on my 5 years or so old pc. one thing that did bug me was the slow camera move speed, moving my mouse like crazy just to look around.

I can attest to all of this being true. The opening cinematic was a bit off, but the tutorial and in game dialogue is actually pretty good. I actually find the tutorial and UI easy to understand, which isn't even always the case for some jrps I've played. Don't expect perfection and you shouldn't be disappointed.

 

[Nostaljaded]

However, this is definitely the best Chinese to English translation I've seen released yet, so Softstar has been putting some serious effort into improving this aspect, and it shows.

Have you played The Legend of Sword and Fairy (1) ENG fan-translation?

If yes and understand Chinese, is 6 (1st few hours) a better translation on dialogues than 1 (1st few hours)?
I would assume so, anyway 1's translation is in m_eng.txt file for easy comparison.

Please ignore 1's opening scene (before taking control of main character, just like disregarding the opening movie in 6) as that was (re)translated word-for-word, becoming lengthy and heavy.


Could you post a sample of (original & translated) flowery writing/poetry in 6 if you have?
Interested to know whether is it retained (done well/awkwardly) or completely replaced with an English-equivalent.

 

[Jinn]

Have you played The Legend of Sword and Fairy (1) ENG fan-translation?

If yes and understand Chinese, is 6 (1st few hours) a better translation on dialogues than 1 (1st few hours)?
I would assume so, anyway 1's translation is in m_eng.txt file for easy comparison.

Please ignore 1's opening scene (before taking control of main character, just like disregarding the opening movie in 6) as that was (re)translated word-for-word, becoming lengthy and heavy.


Could you post a sample of (original & translated) flowery writing/poetry in 6 if you have?
Interested to know whether is it retained (done well/awkwardly) or completely replaced with an English-equivalent.

I have not tried that translation out.

I would post an example of flowery/poetic writing if I had witnessed any so far in 6, but I haven't. It's all been relatively straight-forward dialogue with a general Eastern sense of courtesy and respect between characters.

 

[Nostaljaded]

I would post an example of flowery/poetic writing if I had witnessed any so far in 6

Thanks.

1st poetry in The Legend of Sword and Fairy

树欲静而风不止
子欲养而亲不待

Current:
Tree stands but Wind blows [26 chara]
Son cares but Fate not [22 chara]

Edited:
Son cares but Kin succumbs [26 chara]

Before anyone says it's shit, translation has to fit the following guidelines:
- Maintain the same number of lines &
- Each line cannot exceed more than 30 characters, 28 if strict

 

[kalganoat]

I only recommend 1 3 and 4. Everything else is shit

 

[Jinn]

The introduction, just WTF... Please tell me this is a joke. This is Google Translate-level crowdsourced machine translation. It's like whoever signed off on this just dgaf about first impressions. The rest of the prologue is passable I suppose. It's clear this never saw an editing pass.

Probably best to play it in chinese.

Also, the opening movie was HORRIBLY translated for some reason and is not indicative of the rest of the game, so don't be put off by that.

But yeah, if you know Chinese, you would probably be better off with that.