The combat actions in this game are visually natural. The battle forms such as bull, wolf, bear, and tiger bring relatively rich moves to the protagonist Taishi Zhao. However, the speed of basic attacks and most heavy attacks is very fast, and sometimes players cannot control them freely. The faster moves and the less obvious feedback from enemies also make the game’s hitting feel somewhat light. On the other hand, the perspective and locking system design of this game are somewhat awkward, and the camera switching is also quite chaotic. Moreover, there is not much space reserved in the lower half of the screen in the game, which makes the player’s back view very cramped and it is not easy to see the situation behind.
The protagonist’s stiff feedback when under attack is also very unclear. Sometimes, one can only rely on the health bar to determine whether they have been hit
The transformation and escort are the core parts of the entire combat mechanism. Players can choose two types of equipment from several forms such as bull, wolf, bear, tiger, and dog and switch between them in battle. Each form will give the protagonist different heavy attacks and martial arts skills. For example, bull form is a combat form mainly based on boxing movements, and its heavy attacks are more likely to increase the enemy’s stun slot; wolf form is an attack form mainly based on stabbing, with high damage and fast speed…
Each form of heavy attack has four combos plus various martial arts with different effects, and there are significant differences in characteristics and operation experience. The efficient stun of the bull shape is conducive to quickly killing some monsters with a lot of health, while the big fan siege attack of the dog is more suitable for dealing with a large number of enemies. Players can switch to use it according to different battle situations and their own habits.
The subsequent stages of heavy attacks and martial arts need to be unlocked by continuously using corresponding forms of moves to improve proficiency.
Similar to previous games such as “Gujian 3”, the teammates in “Xuanyuan Sword 7” are basically controlled by the system AI, and players can only manipulate them to use active skills. Teammates have high damage and strong attacking enthusiasm in battles, which can bring great benefits to the battle. However, in addition to being able to debuff, teammates and the protagonist are lack of other coordination and matching gameplay, and there are not many choices of teammate skills, making the control experience in this aspect relatively single. Another problem is that the enemy’s “hatred” target seems to only focus on the protagonist, which leads to players being able to slack off throughout many battles and let two teammates solve the enemy, which undoubtedly has a very serious impact on the game’s combat.
Collecting and refining demons is a major feature of the Xuanyuan Sword series. In “Xuanyuan Sword 7”, players can cast demon-collecting spells to collect enemies within their range into the heavenly book. The lower the enemy’s health point, the higher the chance of successfully collecting demons. After successfully collecting demons, the enemies will be transformed into Yuanling materials, which can be used for refining souls. Compared to combat, the gameplay of collecting demons will be more interesting. In addition, demon-collecting spells can also attract and gather monsters, which is a creative design in the game.
Regardless of basic concepts such as attacks and energy troughs, as well as the core transformation system, many of the combat parts in “Xuan Yuan Sword 7” are inspired by popular action games and integrated with the background theme of Xuan Yuan Sword. However, the game’s combat system design is mostly limited and lacks in-depth expansion. In addition, the enemy’s AI performance is not strong enough, and the moves and types are not rich enough. The interaction between the enemy and us has always remained at a relatively basic stage.
Although “Xuan-Yuan Sword 7” has designed many bosses to change stages and moves, these are more about allowing players to master the rhythm of attack and the timing of defense and evasion. The game lacks some advanced operation mechanisms, and the enemies themselves lack some characteristics that require players to use targeted moves to deal with them. In this situation, the differences and necessity of moves and skills are difficult to reflect, resulting in players using similar combat strategies regardless of which form they use. Most of the time, reasonable arrangement of souls can significantly improve combat performance, which makes the game more RPG-like.
Of course, “Xuan Yuan Sword 7” did not intend to make the battles too difficult for players. Although this game has some hardcore action game mechanics, the distribution of wild save points is reasonable, and the enemy’s health is also compressed to a relatively low level, which further reduces the trial and error cost and battle time for players. Instead of blindly following the trend to create so-called difficult battles, we try to ensure the smoothness of the game process, and some problems and shortcomings will not be exposed very obviously. Personally, I think this choice is still very wise.
[Process experience]
The process mode of “Xuan Yuan Sword 7” is similar to games like “New God of War”. The entire map is composed of small scenes connected piece by piece. Due to the lack of jumping actions, climbing and crossing are completed through scene interaction, which is relatively stiff. This also leads to some small obstacles that can block the player’s way, causing many unnecessary troubles in the exploration process. Of course, there is also an advantage that the interaction points are clearly marked in the arrival screen, so players are less likely to get lost.
In addition, there are some Treasure boxes, big-eyed frog sculptures, and Easter eggs hidden in the game scenes. However, neither the arrangement of enemies nor the collection of exploration elements is very substantial. Take the battle with Flame Skull in the early stage as an example. There are no enemies or other obstacles set in the large scene after entering the village. Players can directly rush to the BOSS, which is very abrupt.
The maze of the game tends to be shaped with simple ideas, although there are some forks and high and low terrain in the scene, there are basically no complex route designs such as circling and circling. With clear goal guidance, the main line is very clear.
As for the overall difficulty of the game’s puzzles, they are moderate, but some still require players to spend some effort to solve. For example, the first unlocking puzzle in the game requires players to rotate three layers of roulette, plan a route, and gradually transfer the key to the middle lock hole. The route of this puzzle cannot be completed directly in one step. Players need to adjust the wheel several times so that the key can enter the lock hole after a certain amount of rotation. If players do not understand the key, they may spend a lot of time on some puzzles. Fortunately, the game provides a skip command, and players who are not good at solving puzzles can choose to skip directly, which is very user-friendly.
As a linear process, some side missions can be received in the village. However, even if some tasks related to “Zhuolu Chess” are included, the number of side quests is still not very abundant.
Small games with collectible properties seem to have become a standard feature of some domestic RPG games. The small game in “Xuan Yuan Sword 7” is “Zhuolu Chess”. The basic rules of “Zhuolu Chess” are similar to straight chess or Gomoku. Three pieces connected in a line can extract one of the opponent’s pieces. However, the position of the picked piece is called “abandoned position”, and no more pieces can be placed afterwards. This setting speeds up the pace of the game, and players need to consider whether “abandoned position” will be broken themselves or the opponent’s chess path. In addition, “Zhuolu Chess” adds the concept of special pieces to the basic rules. Special pieces come with various special effects, such as some can only be placed in “abandoned position”, and some can eliminate any opponent’s piece when they are placed… The rich variety of special pieces makes “Zhuolu Chess” very playable. Since only six special pieces can be used in each game, players need to consider the combination of the chess piece lineup; the situation of the chessboard also has more variables because of the addition of these pieces
Like the previous series, Xuan Yuan Sword 7 is still set in a historical timeline. The story of this game is set in the late Western Han Dynasty, and historical figures and elements such as Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu and the Green Forest Army are naturally added. The game’s process is relatively shorter than the previous generations, and it can be completed in about 15-20 hours under normal circumstances.
The storytelling of “Xuan Yuan Sword 7” is relatively concise, and some information needs to be completed through campfire breaks, running dialogues, and viewing classics. Just looking at the main storyline, many plots may seem rushed and lack connection. For example, the emotional communication of the protagonist Taishi Showa and Chu Hong is mostly placed in the dialogues along the way and the events of campfire breaks. If you don’t pay attention, you will feel that their emotional development is too fast. Overall, “Xuan Yuan Sword 7” has some scattered information presentation and processing, which makes it difficult for players to understand the plot more intuitively and effectively.
[Heavenly Book and Imperial Soul]
The equipment and cultivation content of “Xuan Yuan Sword 7” are basically included in the Heavenly Book system. By opening the Heavenly Book interface, players can upgrade and produce weapons and armor, as well as refine their souls in various workshops. The cultivation of various equipment and souls is very simple, just obtain materials by fighting monsters and refining monsters, and then upgrade them. There is not much worth exploring.
The weapon can only be upgraded with three parts and cannot be replaced. Upgrading the parts will change the appearance of the weapon. Armor can be replaced and crafted but cannot be upgraded. In addition, each character has two accessory bars. In addition to providing basic attributes, accessories often come with additional special effects. Sometimes players need to adjust the character’s accessories according to the situation.
The “Soul” is the core part of character building. By adjusting the Soul, different characteristics and abilities can be endowed and strengthened to the character. For example, some Souls are specifically used to enhance the protagonist’s transformation state. For example, the “Soul of Breaking Army” can make the wolf-shaped martial arts burn when hitting enemies, while the “Soul of Fighting Spirit” can increase the damage caused by the wolf-shaped heavy blow to burning enemies. Through the linkage of the effects of the two Souls, the output ability of the wolf-shaped can be further strengthened. In addition, there are some Souls in the game that can provide team effects, and players can try to combine them in a relatively rich way.
The combination of souls supports the character building gameplay of “Xuan Yuan Sword 7”, expands the depth of the game, and using refining and exploration to discover new souls and formulas is also a very important collection element in the game. However, it should be mentioned that the dot damage caused by some bosses in high difficulty, such as burning and bleeding, has reached an unreasonable level. However, several corresponding resistant souls can directly convert abnormal damage into health recovery after being fully strengthened, which leads to a significant decrease in the difficulty of the game. Including the hatred issue mentioned earlier, these contents lack sufficient polishing and debugging.
