Where Winds Meet Is An Open World Action RPG Set In The Poetic End Of The Ten Kingdoms

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Now here’s a Gamescom 2022 surprise. Near the end of the Opening Night Live, Geoff Keighly introduced the world to Where Winds Meet, an upcoming open-world action-adventure RPG set in during the end of the Ten Kingdoms, and the start of the Northern Song Dynasty (around 976 AD, and for context, that’s a couple of centuries after the famous Three Kingdoms period on ancient China).

And it is a poetic end, in the form that there is a poem, The Beautiful Lady Yu, written by the last emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty Li Yu, that poetically marks the end of this era. The lament of Li Yu in his final days is what you see and hear in the first minute of the trailer, with the poem being sung, and the lyrics being subtitled.

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You play as a wandering swordsman, living in this tumultuous era. Players will have to choose whether to keep upholding their moral code to protect the innocent or fight for themselves.

As a lot of the combat action is shown, two other poems-as-songs (not subtitled in the trailer) are played in the background. One is “Liuzhou Getou Theme: Youth Righteousness”, by He Zhu (Northen Song), where the lyrics talk of chivalry. Another song, “Way of the Heroes”, written by Li Bai (Tang) is also a song about chivalry but also about fighting for justice. You can hear more of the songs, and more gameplay, in this extended trailer:

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Speaking of fighting, expect wuxia-style combat where you can counter enemy attacks, reflect the attacks using Tai Chi and make use of Ch’ing Kung to run on walls (and water!) and climb. Stealth attacks are also a thing here.

There are a lot more martial art schools presented in Where Winds Meet, including Lion’s Roar and acupuncture.

With the game being an RPG, there are also sandbox role-playing elements. You can build buildings using the free construction system, which includes 600 authentic antique components. You can also take up non-combat roles like a doctor or a merchant. You can freely choose to engage in just the side activities if you wish.

Where Winds Meet is being developed by Everstone Studio, a new emerging developer based in China focused on open world and ancient narrative. It is also being supported by NetEase Games. So that explains how authentic it feels when it presents its Chinese history theme.

Where Winds Meet is currently only targeting a PC release. A beta test is scheduled to happen sometime this year.

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