Developer: SOFTSTAR
Publisher: EastAsiaSoft
ReleaseDate: 3rd June 2022
Platforms: PlayStation & PC
Reviewed on: PlayStation
* Code provided by the publisher *
The Legend of Sword and Fairy (Chinese Paladin) has been around since the mid-’90s and is a very successful series in China, spawning a TV show back in 1995. This is only the second one to be released in Europe, with the sixth instalment released in 2015.
Sword and Fairy: Together Forever is the seventh game in this series and luckily the story is standalone so there’s no need to catch up with the older games. Though if you have played them you’ll definitely see how far the series has come as it now uses Unreal Engine 4. The graphics have had a major overhaul with character models looking gorgeous and the world, lush with colour feels more alive than ever. Its soft muted tones give it an almost watercolor look compared to say the highly saturated world of Uncharted 4.
I haven’t long been acquainted with the Sword & Fairy series overall and as much as I tried, I just couldn’t get on with the sixth game. The incredibly dated visuals and some big problems with its framerate just made it extremely hard to get into. Luckily the same can not be said for this entry. Within the first few minutes, the game has you running through a mountain of lava, while it splashes against the rocks. Debris falls all around you as you swiftly jump across each platform before getting straight into your first main fight.
The combat here is simplified, especially compared to the last games turn-based system. Now in real-time with the controller’s face buttons as your main attack and the shoulder buttons adding in a few extra fancy moves. It’s all fairly straight forward and it’s not overly difficult. You’ll get to grips with each character as you progress and will be able to switch between them as you go. Menus are clean and easy to understand. Health, quests, spirits and your map are all mapped to the directional buttons.
Sword and Fairy: Together Forever provides a semi-open world that has a few small loads in between some areas. Later in the game, you’ll be able to jump between areas. Unlike so many other open-world games and RPGs, S&F is not bogged down in a massive amount of side quests. It cares about the players game time, keeping it trim and allows you to focus on its story. The same way as Xuan Yuan Sword 7 (PS4) did back in 2020 (an underrated RPG that I recommend).
With a nice mix of ancient mythology and an Asian aesthetic, it’s a beautiful world to explore with its Tale of Humans, Deities and Demons and all this is accompanied by a gorgeous musical score plus some great voice acting. It’s a shame the NPC’s mouths don’t sync with the dialogue outside of cutscenes but it’s a small nitpick and there are no English voiceovers here for anyone who may be wanting that.
I love exploring this world, even taking pauses to take in the scenery. Also looking for these extremely cute creatures and monsters, that at times I didn’t even want to fight as they were so adorable. I spent time just watching them do their own little things. One of my favourite little moments was just watching a Rock creature sitting in the stream, trying to dry off his own stone foot. It’s all very cute.
There are also a few mini-games to pull your attention away from the main story and they are definitely worth checking out. One feature I didn’t expect the game to have was a photomode. While not the best one around, it’s certainly a nice surprise to have it included.
It’s not all perfect though, some sound effects did feel a little dated and as impressive as it looks, it did have some graphical hiccups here and there. One cutscene had a character floating above the table as she ate food and other times items, people or scenery would just pop into view. However, none of these really spoiled the game for me.
Overall this is a charming little game that should take roughly 30 hours. I hope it finds an audience over here as it’s definitely a series to keep an eye on in the future. Softstar really did an amazing job with this entry and it has earned a new fan to a series that’s not far off being 30 years old…
-James