Enemies have two methods of being taken down, either by completely whittling down their health bar or by filling up their stagger gauge.

When you're not exploring the world, you'll be engaging in frantic combat, akin to the God of War series.

It absolutely works in the game's favour. There's very little to distract you from the main path outside of some hidden chests, a couple of side quests and addictive mini-games. Instead, it manages to constantly keep the momentum rolling forward, as you venture from town to dungeon, helping locals with their problems and uncovering more of the story. Initially, it presents itself as any other open-world RPG, but it's far more linear than you might expect, and that's not a negative. It blends elements of other games such as God of War and The Last of Us, developing an emotional core that's easy to latch on to.īut what made us fall in love with Xuan Yuan Sword 7 is its lean gameplay. The story follows Taishi Zhao on a personal story to protect his sister from powers against his control. The best part? You don't need any prior knowledge of the series to dive in here. While Xuan Yuan Sword 7 perhaps doesn't pack the polish and ambition of those titles, it oozes with so much charm that it's hard not to fall in love with it. The series' attempt to capture a western audience feels akin to the Persona and Yakuza franchises, which were both massive in other territories before blowing up in the west in recent years. Xuan Yuan Sword 7 has now travelled to the west aiming to bring back the gaming days of a bygone era and succeeds tremendously in its ambition. Sometimes we crave those linear experiences of the early Xbox days, where the adventure could be consumed in a weekend. The game is fantastic but is accompanied by an extraordinary amount of filler, and the result is that the percentage of people who made it to the end is shockingly low. Take Assassin's Creed Valhalla for example. These days, games get so bogged down in their ideas that they lose their central idea.

Xuan-Yuan Sword VII for android instal