Wandering Sword Review | A Pixelated Odyssey Into Ancient Martial Arts Culture

Created by The Swordman Studio (a really cool studio name might I add), Wandering Sword promises many things that are sure to captivate its players. With its unique take on the setting of murim and the gameplay of old-school RPG, players that love murim manhwa or played a lot of earlier iterations of Final Fantasy or Mana Khemia will feel right at home. Players can immerse themselves in this game and become a martial arts legend in this captivating gaming experience. This Wandering Sword review will take a look at its unique gameplay and stunning graphics. Let’s begin.

Wandering Sword is available on Steam for $19.99.

Story: Unleash Your Inner Warrior

In this game, you will play as Yuwen Yi, a quite naïve swordsman who took up a job as one of the bodyguards for a caravan. Like every movie and manhwa that involves guarding a caravan, of course, something goes wrong, and you are stuck between the fights of two rival groups of bandits. Bandits ambushed you and your party while you were guarding the “mysterious person” inside the caravan, poisoning you both with arrows.

After you were poisoned, the man in the caravan, who turns out to be the famous ‘Master Qingxu’, assisted you in fending off the bandits. After you defeat the bandits, Master Qingxu carries you to the nearest village for treatment after you succumb to poison.

And that’s basically it, the premise of the game is you trying to find this Qingxu who helps you in the first place, and you will get into more trouble that will help you grow from some random swordsman to a proper martial artist.

Yuwen Yi.

Gameplay: Master the Art of Combat

Moving on to the next section of this Wandering Sword review, let’s take a deeper dive into its gameplay. The game is essentially an RPG, so of course, there will be a lot of numbers, here, there are the ATK, CRIT, DEF, EVA, MOV, and Qi. You need to improve these numbers by equipping the right gear or by permanently upgrading your stat by unlocking many parts of your meridian point by spending Meridian Points. I can see why this is confusing, but trust me, this is better than the developers saying “You can upgrade any stats as you see fit”.

Tile-Based Battles

The combat of Wandering Sword commences in tile-based gameplay where your party and enemies scatter around in a set of tiles.

In this combat mode, there are two bars that you need to look out for, the green and red bars indicate the HP of you and your enemy characters respectively. If you lose all the HP, that character will pass out for the remainder of the fight. Meanwhile, the yellow bar is how long it will take for that character to make a move, and a character can only make a move and attack when the yellow bar is full, whereas, after the selected character move or attack, the yellow bar will reset back to 0.

With my description above, you might think that the game only has turn-based battles and scenarios, but that is not the case, as this game also features a real-time mode for those of you who don’t like to wait for a long time to make a certain move.

Tile-Based Battle.

Arsenal of Weapons and Skills

Speaking about skills, there are quite a lot of them. There are weapon techniques that tie for a certain type of weapon like the Polearm Techniques, there are also Cultivation Methods that can be used to heal or buff yourself in the next turn. Different weapons also play differently than each other, there are swords that can attack two tiles adjacent to you, a polearm that attacks around you, and a few more.

Graphics and Sound: An Enchanting Canvas

Lastly, to finalize this Wandering Sword review, I will talk about its graphics and sound. I have to say, the graphics in this game are incredibly mesmerizing. Personally, I’m all in for that 2.5D old Chinese vibe Wandering Sword serves up. The pixel art combined with those awesome particle effects creates a style that’s just beautiful and genuinely unique, unlike anything I’ve seen in other games.

Wandering Sword is a visual masterpiece, where every pixel feels like it’s been hand-made with care, and every battle turns into a jaw-dropping spectacle thanks to those epic particle effects. Wandering Sword isn’t just a game; it’s a visual feast, and it’s set a whole new bar for others to aim for.

Oh, and let’s not forget about the music – it’s an absolute gem. It brilliantly encapsulates that old-school Chinese musical vibe but with a subtle modern twist that adds a unique flavor. I personally found it so enchanting that I literally stopped in my tracks for a good ten minutes, just to soak in the soothing background tunes. The music has this magical ability to transport you to another world, where you can easily lose yourself in its melodic embrace.

Now, if I had to nitpick a bit, I’d say it would’ve been even more immersive with some additional ambient sounds like the hustle and bustle of city life or the gentle chirping of birds to make the game’s world feel more alive. But putting that aside, I’m so in love with the game’s music that I’d even wish for it to hit Spotify someday.

This Wandering Sword review is possible thanks to PR Outreach for providing a review code to us.