Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Tale of Wuxia

[RK47]

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

No... you're shitting me? I fucking hate rodents.

 

[Absinthe]

It's like you guys are itching to Retardo the thread. Stop treating this thread like it's GD.

Anyway, the following issues with the game have been mentioned:

• Poor and incomplete translation work
  
• Really shitty minigames
• English version is several patches behind Chinese version
• Shitty tooltips
• No fucking manual

But there are some more issues that haven't been covered well. On the translation front, for instance, there are a number of moments where you are called upon to demonstrate your knowledge of Chinese acupuncture. The game will handily display a labeled Chinese acupuncture chart to you, then challenge you to identify which acupuncture node is closest to wherever they are having problems. This would make the challenge pretty easy, except they didn't translate the chart, so if you cannot read Mandarin, you are shit out of luck and have to hope your random guess was right. There are other moments as well when not knowing Mandarin will hurt you. The game also tries to have an evil route, complete with Malevolent giving you a bonus that scales with how low your morality is, but it's clear that the game on the whole is made with the expectation that your protagonist be a heroic character. The opening scene alone reinforces that, and it's pretty much a waste to try to bottom out your morality score. Instead it's better to get Leading Big Bro than Malevolent if you want to do an evil run. You don't have as much freedom to decide what kind of person your character is as the game claims. The RNG character creation is also an abomination. It is way the fuck better to be able to pick and choose your starting traits, but instead you just end up laboriously rerandomizing until you get what you need for the playthrough you intend. Random events also include rather dumb shit (like a scene where you run into E.T. for some inexplicable reason - this also gives you 100 sight and hearing, so a clever player will know to never bother training these two because the E.T. event will max them out anyway). Comprehension is also pretty much a god stat in Tale of Wuxia because high comprehension raises the gains you make from training pretty much everything.

There's also a Tale of Wuxia LP right here: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/lets-play-tale-of-wuxia-comic-sans-optional.128526

 

[Darth Roxor]

This would make the challenge pretty easy, except they didn't translate the chart, so if you cannot read Mandarin, you are shit out of luck and have to hope your random guess was right.

This is why you take screenshots of your journal section on acupuncture (or hit google)

it's clear that the game on the whole is made with the expectation that your protagonist be a heroic character. The opening scene alone reinforces that

I didn't go through the evil playthrough, but I read how it plays out in Steve's LP, and I rather disagree. The evil path looks deliciously and properly freaking evil, and I don't really know why it would matter that you're "expected to be a hero from the start". The promising hero turning into a villain is a classic theme. I mean, hell

Plus, if the game was really really made with the "expectation" of your being a hero, then I'm p. sure it's fair to say that it wouldn't offer an evil path in the first place.

The RNG character creation is also an abomination

Doesn't bother me at all. I would perhaps agree that on subsequent playthroughs it would be nice to be able to pick at least the traits, but otherwise, it still doesn't bother me as much.

 

[True Ukrainian]

Comprehension is not as godly as it first seems. It speeds up your training and early gains, but you hit the level cap for the individual skills far more quickly, meaning in the long run your stats will be weaker than someone who had trained without the benefit of high comprehension. Though to be fair, you need to be familiar with the game's systems to metagame in this way.

 

[Zachariahmancer]

The Pre-Sequel (侠客风云传前传) are better than the base game (侠客风云传) actually.

Their latest game Ho Tu Lo Shu ： The Books of Dragon (河洛群侠传) is a sequel of the so called "Legend of Wulin Heroes" （武林群侠传) , which is one of the most classic works in the history of Chinese video game, due to some copyright issue, they can not use that name anymore. It's an unfinished game with tons of bugs but also worth trying because of the amazing open world.

Heluo Studio (河洛工作室) is now working on a game named 侠隐阁 (means The Pavilion of Hidden Warriors)

 

[Zachariahmancer]

The Pre-Sequel (侠客风云传前传) are better than the base game (侠客风云传) actually.

Their latest game Ho Tu Lo Shu ： The Books of Dragon (河洛群侠传) is a sequel of the so called "Legend of Wulin Heroes" （武林群侠传) , which is one of the most classic works in the history of Chinese video game, due to some copyright issue, they can not use that name anymore. It's an unfinished game with tons of bugs but also worth trying because of the amazing open world.

Heluo Studio (河洛工作室) is now working on a game named 侠隐阁 (means The Pavilion of Hidden Warriors)

It cost them about 5.22 million CNY to solve the copyright issue. Unfortunately their new game didn't perform well and they have already stopped updating it since April. so I guess the incoming game 侠隐阁 will be their final chance. I have to admit that the future of Heluo Studio is unstable.

 

[yolu]

Interesting. Mind if I translate it into Chinese?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Pretty sure the game already has a Chinese version

 

[Brozef]

Have to say not only is it a great review but I really appreciate taking the time to shiny a spotlight on a overlooked gem.
Doing god's work roxor

 

[MicoSelva]

Not that I need to be talked into enjoying wuxia stuff, but a quality opinion from The Codex's chief reviewer is always welcome.
Game looks fun. Thanks for the review Darth Roxor .

 

[Eyestabber]

Bought the game a couple days ago, 53 hours in and honestly...I can't recommend it. I can put up with the horrible translation and shit documentation, google exists, it's fine. What I can't put up with is straight up dishonesty from the developers. Others mentioned ITT that the ENG version is "several patches behind" and at first it doesn't sound like a big deal, but it sure as fuck is. Because the current 1.0.2.6 ENG version is fucking unfinished. An entire fighting style (Dual Wield) is missing and several party members are also missing. Decided to choose the Flower Girl as your waifu? Well, get fucked, because her home is a ghost town, due to her only being introduced via a patch/DLC that is only available on the Chink version. Ho-ray! EDIT: Oops, turns out I was searching the wrong place. Flower Girl can be recruited.

Basically, everyone who bought this game's Western version and expected a finished product got shafted. And here is a list of other severe issues I found:

- The entire character development system gets flushed down the toilet by the retarded ET event. Whoever came up with that idea, I hope runs afoul of the Chink Govt and gets shot ASAP.
- The premise of learning multiple martial arts, like the hero Nobody, and switching around as needed simply doesn't work because some idiot thought it would be a good idea to have all cooldowns reset upon switching style. The stupidity is mind-blowing and you're stuck using whatever style has the best moveset. Switching around means only being able to use the basic attack. OH and the fucking "internal styles" cost your entire turn, same as consumables. Frankly, the turn economy is bonkers in this game.
- Arbitrary shit all around means you HAVE to read about things ahead of time, unless you get seriously fucked. Want to learn the best sword art in the game? SURE, just romance this one particular NPC, raise flower skill, win flower competition and THEN remember to plant this one particular flower before valentines day, otherwise LOLOLOLOL. BTW, the girl in question DOESN'T EVEN FIGHT WITH A FUCKING SWORD, so it's 100% "guesswork" (aka googling). Only a complete masochist would even try to play this game blind, the game simply assumes you have meta game knowledge and it's simply not beatable if you don't.
- Terrible pacing. Free roaming mode only happens once the game is about to end and BTW, here's some more arbitrary shit: people only seem to join your party at fucking 100% affection. 95? SORRY BRO, I GOT BETTER SHIT TO DO THAN SAVE THE WORLD, LOLOLOLOLOL. Oh, and you can't raise affection at this point anymore, have fun reloading.

It's a real shame because the game showed a lot of promise and it can be fun, but it's not nearly as good as the early game might lead you to believe. I guess it might be worth picking up at Steam Sales, but I feel cheated paying full price for a game in this sorry state.

And if Steam Reviews are anything to go by, the Pre-Sequel is even buggier.

 

[Darth Roxor]

The premise of learning multiple martial arts, like the hero Nobody, and switching around as needed simply doesn't work because some idiot thought it would be a good idea to have all cooldowns reset upon switching style.

Can you imagine how ridiculous it would be if you could switch styles without this penalty and use the strongest moves all the time? It would make absolutely each and every fight trivial. I'm pretty sure you could literally keep up invulnerability indefinitely if that were the case.

The stupidity is mind-blowing and you're stuck using whatever style has the best moveset.

There's no such thing as "best moveset". I remember switching styles for different fights quite a few times, and I also remember swapping them mid-combat for different purposes. And then you have RK47's LP which keeps jumping between styles literally all the time, both once and multiple times a fight.

Arbitrary shit all around means you HAVE to read about things ahead of time

This is nonsense. You only "have" to do this if you're intent on having your playthrough 100% min-maxed and will get butthurt if you miss even the tiniest fraction of content, and I'm afraid if that's the case, then something's wrong with you, not with the game. What happened to discovery and replayability? You might as well ask for a quest compass to direct you to all the bestest outcomes.

Only a complete masochist would even try to play this game blind, the game simply assumes you have meta game knowledge and it's simply not beatable if you don't.

I played the game blind, had fun and beat it. Not at once did it feel to me like the game "assumed" I needed to have meta knowledge, what kind of stupidity is this even.

 

[Eyestabber]

This game is a sad topic for me to discuss, because this isn't a case of overall mediocrity like so many others released lately. Tale of Wuxia has so many good parts and even some great parts and it infuriates me that all these parts fail to come together in a meaningful way. Finished the game yesterday and the final battle is beyond insulting. Arbitrary bullshit cranked up to eleven. You don't win because of your tactics or char building strategy, you win because you're supposed to wait for Big Brother to go down and then come back up by the Power of Friendship™. That's the turning point. Then Poison Dude says some mean things (which I honestly couldn't really understand due to how awful the translation is + I wanted to be done with the game) and...VOILA! Your MC now deals 100% extra damage. Why? Because...whatever, who cares at this point? Poison dude comes back to life in his younger form, because apparently he is the ONLY character with a younger model and devs thought "hey, let's use this shit for...SOMETHING, right?".

My ending was also a bit disappointing. No romance epilogue with Flower Girl, despite all the trouble I went to get the best sword style in the game romance my super awsum chink anime-waifu. I could've just reloaded, but there is simply no way in hell I'm playing that idiotic final battle again. At least I got to meet some colorful NPCs:

Spoiler

Can you imagine how ridiculous it would be if you could switch styles without this penalty and use the strongest moves all the time? It would make absolutely each and every fight trivial. I'm pretty sure you could literally keep up invulnerability indefinitely if that were the case.

A team that actually knew what they were doing would balance the game around being able to switch styles. My main issue with the game is that I first looked at the 3 skill slots and thought to myself "well...it must get more complex than that, right...?". Wrong. It doesn't. This game's "tactical combat" makes nu-Xcom look like rocket science. Character system is undeniably interesting, but it leads to a pretty run-of-the-mill-baby's-first-rpg combat system. It doesn't even feature saving throws, debuffs always succeed.

There's no such thing as "best moveset".

I'm gonna stop you right there. I'm perfectly fine with an endgame style being better than whatever first style the Master teaches you when you're just a scrub, but the intro cutscene sets up an expectation that is never fulfilled in-game. You can't argue with a straight face that a style featuring Killing Momentum/Dual Strike/Combo/Invulnerability is somehow comparable to another that doesn't feature these things. No...just, no. I played the game with swords and the style you learn as a reward for following Flower-Girl's routine is undeniably superior to any of its predecessors. Oh, according to some dude on Steam, there's another end-game style: Incel Blade Mastery, that is acquired by not pursuing any romances and staying home practicing the blade during valentine's day which sounds pretty cool and accurate except...it requires a patch that was never released for filthy westerners. xD

Oh, and speaking of swords, how come these chink clowns couldn't be bothered to put a "Type: " on their weapon description? Good luck trying to figure out which weapons are considered swords and which ones are considered "Broadsword/Blade" by the game. And before you get cute: the Katana is a BLADE, not a sword. Lel.

You only "have" to do this if you're intent on having your playthrough 100% min-maxed and will get butthurt if you miss even the tiniest fraction of content, and I'm afraid if that's the case, then something's wrong with you, not with the game. What happened to discovery and replayability? You might as well ask for a quest compass to direct you to all the bestest outcomes.

If that were the case I would've gone for the ET event, obvious best way to min-max. Try harder. Unless you're playing at the lowest difficulty, the early to midgame features a lot of tough fights. I re-rolled twice at the Docks fight in Hangzhou simply because I realized my char was way behind the power curve, probably because I missed some "power pills" in the very first village. To me this isn't actually a bad thing, I like the challenge, but if you don't see the obvious result (pushing player towards metagaming out of necessity) then you can't be helped.

I played the game blind, had fun and beat it. Not at once did it feel to me like the game "assumed" I needed to have meta knowledge, what kind of stupidity is this even.

Right. You also played on Grandmaster and got the True Ending + Harem.

NO. Tiger Claw dudes on the boat are IMO a very good mid-game "progress report" for your character and I sincerely doubt you beat them first try on a blind playthrough. Their boss has a one-shot grenade, you either know about that ahead of time and try to finish his goons with your goons (so MC and Red Lady can still take a turn) OR you're pretty much screwed. That and you need a strong build up until that point, otherwise you lose because your numbers aren't high enough. Again: NOT. BEATABLE. WITHOUT. META. KNOWLEDGE.

Bottom line: game isn't bad, but it sure as hell isn't any kind of "hidden gem". It's more like finding 20 bucks under your couch. Cool, sure, but you can live without it.

 

[RK47]

 

[Eyestabber]

More bad news:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/377530/discussions/0/1696040635916566768/?ctp=6#c1658943116244728137

Unofficial fan translation project of the last patch/full game is on hold since monday. Eh...I might go for that True Ending route in another ten years, once the dedicated autists finish the translation.

Interesting background:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/952860/discussions/0/1848072002760223657/

 

[Abu Antar]

Not beating a fight on your first try is not a bad thing.

Not seeing all the content is also not a must.

I've played the game twice. Once without any knowledge and once by getting a great ending.

I honestly enjoyed both playthroughs.

And the combat in this game being babbys first rpg is laughable. I had to reload on more than one fight. More often than not, a switch in style would help me overcome the challenge.

 

[Tacgnol]

Not seeing all the content is also not a must.

It's often a bad sign if you can see all content in a single playthrough, as it suggests there isn't any real finality or consequences for choices.

 

[Darth Roxor]

You can't argue with a straight face that a style featuring Killing Momentum/Dual Strike/Combo/Invulnerability is somehow comparable to another that doesn't feature these things.

I can and I will, unless you mean a style that features all those things, which I'm pretty sure doesn't exist (especially since killing momentum is an internal). I had a sword style with invuln that I got in the starter village, used it for a while but swapped it out for the taoist style with mana shield and life drain for most of the time once I got it. Used it with a poison accessory, sword and internal to an excellent effect - I wouldn't swap out the poison internal for killing momentum for sure, because I'd have little use for it.

Oh, and speaking of swords, how come these chink clowns couldn't be bothered to put a "Type: " on their weapon description? Good luck trying to figure out which weapons are considered swords and which ones are considered "Broadsword/Blade" by the game. And before you get cute: the Katana is a BLADE, not a sword. Lel.

It isn't the most convenient, no, but it can be figured out pretty easily. Swords are stabby, broadswords/blades are slashy. It's all according to Wushu classifications (sword = jian, broadsword = dao), and the game is actually pretty consistent when it comes to this.

Right. You also played on Grandmaster and got the True Ending + Harem.

No. But I played on 2nd hardest and got the Time Traveller ending. Without ever consulting any kind of walkthrough or strategy guide.

NO. Tiger Claw dudes on the boat are IMO a very good mid-game "progress report" for your character and I sincerely doubt you beat them first try on a blind playthrough. Their boss has a one-shot grenade, you either know about that ahead of time and try to finish his goons with your goons (so MC and Red Lady can still take a turn) OR you're pretty much screwed. That and you need a strong build up until that point, otherwise you lose because your numbers aren't high enough. Again: NOT. BEATABLE. WITHOUT. META. KNOWLEDGE.

What the hell is even your point here, because I'm honestly kind of lost. No, I didn't beat the shark clan on 1st try, I might have done it on the 3rd or so. But reloading the game after you get beaten and trying again now counts as "meta knowledge"? You have to be shitting me.

 

[Eyestabber]

It isn't the most convenient, no, but it can be figured out pretty easily. Swords are stabby, broadswords/blades are slashy. It's all according to Wushu classifications (sword = jian, broadsword = dao), and the game is actually pretty consistent when it comes to this.

YEAH, the Katana and the red poison katana thing being "broadswords" while big PHAT Juque is a sword...totally not a problem with the game.

And the way to "figure out" is simply starting a fight and checking whether your dude is still using your sword style or swapped for a lvl 1 broadsword style. Good luck if you forgot to save.

What the hell is even your point here, because I'm honestly kind of lost. No, I didn't beat the shark clan on 1st try, I might have done it on the 3rd or so. But reloading the game after you get beaten and trying again now counts as "meta knowledge"? You have to be shitting me.

You can switch that fight for any other "boss" fight roughly around that point in the game, it won't really change much about my argument. What I'm saying is the game has a power curve it expects you to keep up and in order to do so you need meta knowledge. And here's another thing we haven't mentioned yet: the main way of grinding HP and mana (and cash) is by playing the shitty minigames over and over. Training internals will only take you so far, after that you need to hunt for tiger cocks, bear galls and fish magicool fish from the frozen lake. The tablet-tier minigames are a BIG part of Tale of Wuxia, and that obviously detracts from the whole experience.

OH, yeah, and here's another fun thing: party members have no character development mechanics to speak of. It's about as deep as Dragon Age 2. No, wait, DA2 had party member items, so...yeah. Bellow DA2.

Sorry my dude, I tried my very best to love this game, but I simply can't. The actual mechanics are NOT really deep or interesting. The story is actually kinda nice, which WOULD allow me to enjoy it as more of a storyfag game EXCEPT the translation is an awful unfinished mess, which also compromises one's ability to enjoy the story. AFAIK there are like 6 different endings and normally I would be hyped to see all of them, but sadly the journey there simply isn't very enjoyable.

To anyone reading this thread and still on the fence: grab it if it goes on Steam Sales, the setting and characters can make the game worth a playthrough, but try not to get too pissed off at the obvious cut/unfinished content you stumble across, specially in Year 4. Wondering about what this game could've been is not an enjoyable experience.

 

[ybfelix]

Oh, and speaking of swords, how come these chink clowns couldn't be bothered to put a "Type: " on their weapon description? Good luck trying to figure out which weapons are considered swords and which ones are considered "Broadsword/Blade" by the game. And before you get cute: the Katana is a BLADE, not a sword. Lel. .

In Chinese, the type distinction is evident in weapon name itself, as Chinese language use different words for straight, double edged sword ("jian") and curved, single edged swords ("dao"). Cheap labor translator probably didn't account this for foreign devil language

 

[someone else]

Hey I still have the hint book from the original game from 2001. Back then it was in 2D.
There are 3 endings/paths to choose.
Game is Taiwanese.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Bought the game a couple days ago, 53 hours in and honestly...I can't recommend it. I can put up with the horrible translation and shit documentation, google exists, it's fine. What I can't put up with is straight up dishonesty from the developers. Others mentioned ITT that the ENG version is "several patches behind" and at first it doesn't sound like a big deal, but it sure as fuck is. Because the current 1.0.2.6 ENG version is fucking unfinished. An entire fighting style (Dual Wield) is missing and several party members are also missing. Decided to choose the Flower Girl as your waifu? Well, get fucked, because her home is a ghost town, due to her only being introduced via a patch/DLC that is only available on the Chink version. Ho-ray! EDIT: Oops, turns out I was searching the wrong place. Flower Girl can be recruited.

Basically, everyone who bought this game's Western version and expected a finished product got shafted. And here is a list of other severe issues I found:

- The entire character development system gets flushed down the toilet by the retarded ET event. Whoever came up with that idea, I hope runs afoul of the Chink Govt and gets shot ASAP.
- The premise of learning multiple martial arts, like the hero Nobody, and switching around as needed simply doesn't work because some idiot thought it would be a good idea to have all cooldowns reset upon switching style. The stupidity is mind-blowing and you're stuck using whatever style has the best moveset. Switching around means only being able to use the basic attack. OH and the fucking "internal styles" cost your entire turn, same as consumables. Frankly, the turn economy is bonkers in this game.
- Arbitrary shit all around means you HAVE to read about things ahead of time, unless you get seriously fucked. Want to learn the best sword art in the game? SURE, just romance this one particular NPC, raise flower skill, win flower competition and THEN remember to plant this one particular flower before valentines day, otherwise LOLOLOLOL. BTW, the girl in question DOESN'T EVEN FIGHT WITH A FUCKING SWORD, so it's 100% "guesswork" (aka googling). Only a complete masochist would even try to play this game blind, the game simply assumes you have meta game knowledge and it's simply not beatable if you don't.
- Terrible pacing. Free roaming mode only happens once the game is about to end and BTW, here's some more arbitrary shit: people only seem to join your party at fucking 100% affection. 95? SORRY BRO, I GOT BETTER SHIT TO DO THAN SAVE THE WORLD, LOLOLOLOLOL. Oh, and you can't raise affection at this point anymore, have fun reloading.

It's a real shame because the game showed a lot of promise and it can be fun, but it's not nearly as good as the early game might lead you to believe. I guess it might be worth picking up at Steam Sales, but I feel cheated paying full price for a game in this sorry state.

And if Steam Reviews are anything to go by, the Pre-Sequel is even buggier.

Can't Brofist you enough, i did the same mistake as you, except i stopped soon after reaching the second year, skipping dialogs as fast as i could.

Should have read the thread before, i bought it after reading Roxor's review alone.

No, the first village isn't Hommlet, yes, there is some fetch quest but it's small, most NPC are outside and close to each other and i actually enjoyed that part, even fighting a Roster and barely making it.

The retarded part starts afterward :

• You're on the clock, chances are you're not going to complete most quests from the first village if you're neither a retard nor chinese and didn't play it 10 times in a row.
• Minigames aren't too bad (the fishing one is) but they are if you have to play them over and over to train and you do
• You barely get any bonus for winning a fight, instead, you get to just train for hours and hours (and it was just the first year, i've read there's four of them)
• You think DAO is retarded, well, this is worse, relationships with everyone is at the center of the gameplay, this is a giant dating sim with occasional decent turn-based combat
• 80% of the game is about training and playing mini games or watching retarded sequences; 20% about regular exploration while a timer is running
• Your inventory is full of shit and there's no way to know what's useful, think regular hoarder cRPG but worse
• Most of the rest was already stated by Eyestabber like the timer when switching disciplines making only the first move available

And the final blow :

• Camera view, if you dislike WL2 for that, it's way worse here, no way to rotate the camera at all; just a zoom out option but it doesn't move that far
• If you get to 5 move points, depending on the battlefield, you won't see as far as four moves away in one direction and that's your opponent direction, every fucking time
• Very frequently as well, enemies would start off the screen, might come from the resolution but i played with the standard one so either way, it's retarded

Should you buy this game ?
YES, if you're chinese, retarded or wait for a 95% sale but even with the sale, just give a few bucks to a beggar and you'll just spare yourself this experience, there's others turds to play.

A shame, make the training and whatever part 10% of the game, work on the "quests" and with some other minor fixes it'd have been decent, good, even.

 

[Abu Antar]

The game is great and the sequel is even better. You're not meant to befriend every character. You'll get upset if you want to be like a BioWare or Oblivion character that is the master of the universe. Expecting to achieve everything on your first playthrough. Since when is it a negative to not find everything on your first run of a game?

 

[Darth Canoli]

Since when is it a negative to not find everything on your first run of a game?

When the gameplay is so boring i don't even want to play the game once.

Besides, it's not about doing everything, it's about being on a timer for no reason and it's a minor beef, if it was just that, it'd be just fine.
Cf. my other 9 points ...