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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2621 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 28, 2025

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Young masters! This week, my tireless solitary cultivation was disrupted by an unexpected qi deviation; it seems the ambient Fieryheart Miasma I had carelessly suppressed before chose this inconvenient time to manifest as a physical tribulation. Alas, my grasp of the dao proved insufficient to halt this invasion. No choice had been left to me but to descend from the mountain of daily toil and enter a healing trance, conserving my strength and consuming lots of ibuprofen Five-element Spirit Suppression Pills prescribed to me by my faithful healer. Until my qi is once again flowing freely as a shallow stream, I have chosen to meditate; as I did, a new frontier has opened itself to me, and from my ailing body I released my unyielding spirit to roam the rivers and lakes of the jianghu.

...This is a long way of saying I came down with a fever and put some suddenly-freed time into Where Winds Meet this week. This game is... weird; part Genshin, part MMO, part Elden Ring, and ALL wuxia, painfully so. I was always an uncultured gweilo with no experience of cultivationslop and weak understanding of dao, initially skipping most of the dialogue due to chatbot PTSD and inability to differentiate Chinese names, they blend together way too much, I am already bad with names my entire life but god damn Chinese names are on another level. It's also not really an MMO as I'd expected it to be, the solo mode is entirely playable as a proper game, and the core game itself is quite literally Chinese Skyrim x Elden Ring with a dash of Sekiro, with all that entails.

Despite the uh, novel (for me personally) setting, I am very impressed with this game so far, and it blows my mind that AFAICT almost no attempts at marketing the global launch were made (this game is apparently out in China for like a year already), and I learned of this game entirely at random from the usual suspects. This is absolutely an AAA-tier game (in fact calling it AAA almost insults it, Western AAAslop wishes it had this level of pure sovl) that is incredible graphics-wise and completely free to actually play, monetized entirely through battle passes and boatloads of cosmetics as Asian MMOs are wont to do.

A big draw of this game is IMO the combat, the Elden Ring/Sekiro comparison above is not an exaggeration. You can choose difficulty for single-player at the start, and being the "god gamer" I am I chose Legend difficulty, which juices up enemy hp/posture bars and damage; you can also adjust difficulty as you go, but once you lower the difficulty from Legend, you can never return to it again, and the flaming-red HP bar and little neuron activation badge counting how many bosses you killed on Legend are stripped from you in disgrace. It was not too bad over the course of the campaign, the high damage incentivizes you to actually git gud with Sekiro-style deflections, but eventually one of the chapter-end bosses filtered me hard; after 2-3 hours I kowtowed in shame, swallowing my pride and switching down to Expert just to get an actual chance (and progress the story at all). It became painfully apparent that I am but a carp that thinks himself a dragon, yet cannot fight against the stream. This junior is still leagues away from Mt. Tai.

In hindsight I might've gotten overleveled and scaled the world too hard (which you can roll back but it only occurred to me after accepting my defeat), you're probably not supposed to be 52/55 at the end of Qinghe, but monkey see side quest, monkey do, main story who? Just like Skyrim and its ilk I spent like 80% of the time getting distracted and doing random side shit, and boy there is a lot of side shit. If Kaifeng was not gated by MSQ I might not have ever bothered with it, though I must note that the final chapter of the first area is absolute xinema from start to finish and I regret nothing. I think I'm starting to get the appeal of hilariously over-the-top powerscaling and aesthetic overload, might actually pick up a novel at this rate.

I have not tried PVP but it exists, I hear you can even get invaded if you have a bounty on your head, but this young master is an upstanding citizen. Looking forward to trying raids and dungeons with pugs, it's been a long time since I last raged at DPS retards from the backline.

Anecdotes in no particular order as I flip through my screenshots folder:

  • the character creator is extremely well made, always a plus for online games; there's even a gallery of presets for bishies/jade beauties shared by players, first time I see this feature
  • kowtowing is used as a quest mechanic at one point
  • most everything plot-related has a comment section for some fucking reason (context: Ruby is the Paimon of this game)
  • Fromsoft-style player messages never fail to amuse, great feature
  • NPCs dispense incredibly deep pieces of wisdom, as per custom
  • inspecting a goose reveals its martial rating as 9999, and there is an actual boss goose that fucks you up and cannot be damaged, at least I couldn't; eventually I figured out the only way to beat him is to freeze his meridians and yeet him into the river with Tai Chi (this vaguely feels like some novel reference)
  • a line of half-naked people ran past me and I was magically pulled in line (and stripped of clothes) along with them, and shouting slogans in time as you run gives you stat bonuses; this is also a multiplayer mechanic
  • you heal people's illnesses by playing literally Slay the Spire against the illness itself (speechcraft version); my deckbuilding 'tism is very pleased
  • mahjong, of course
  • I got ULTIMATE JIANGHU SECRETS from some random quest, reading which was so cringe it gave my character spiritual AIDS
  • scathing commentary on the 2025 job market and medical practice
  • there is an achievement and a title for spending 160 real time hours in prison
  • 10th-century-Chinese Tinder: you send a message into the aether and get random messages in turn (though the English implementation is uh, untested, I imagine 65 characters is enough for a three-part novel in Chinese but here even pre-generated messages get cut off)
  • a rough implementation of chatbots into NPCs, you can chat with them and gaslight them into raising their affection value so you can get free shit. Not super impressive but at least it's a start? I haven't tried molesting them yet but 4chan provides (this villain was later summarily punished for his crimes; truly there is justice in the jianghu)

TL;DR even as an uncultured gweilo I kowtow before the sheer magnitude of unadulterated SOVL put into this game. From how this game blindsided me, I expect the enjoyment goes up tenfold if you're actually into wuxia/xianxia; I heartily recommend it to others with a passing interest/literacy in the subject, and just straight up ping @self_made_human @sodiummuffin. My only complaints so far are no staff/unarmed weapon style (like really, I can't beat ass with a stick or throw hands in a game entirely about martial arts?) and the horrendous mess of an UI, navigating the menu hell is still far from instinctive even after ~20 hours in the game.

If any mottizens play this my UID is 2038686834, ask for "Skysong" Xian.

..can you play the game without the character looking ridiculous bc of wearing weird clothing with tons of ribbons and shit?

There is clothing with very few ribbons and shit, although perhaps not available immediately.

Very good post. I hope you've shared it on the subreddit.

While I'm more of a Xianxia than Wuxia guy, I get the appeal. It's honestly impressive how much effort went into the game, and even the great deal of jank is the charming kind. I am not sure if I'm going to ever play it, but I'm glad it exists.

Speechcraft as a form of medical treatment? Well...

Dr. Yuan is absolutely spitting facts. If he has an AI bot, we need to put that thing in charge of the NHS.

And why not have a fucking comment section with quests? Good, devs with balls. I know that Amazing Cultivation Sim has a full on in-game forum. Fuck Western devs and their pussy ass takes on it, when they deign to allow it. They can try finger but hole. The Chinese will eventually eat their lunch.

I don't have a Reddit account, you can steal this post if you want. Thanks for reminding me to check the sub.

Dr. Yuan is absolutely spitting facts. If he has an AI bot, we need to put that thing in charge of the NHS.

I'm not yet very experienced with the system but beware what you wish for, junior; my mention of social credit downthread was not a joke. The Silver Needle demands you take payment for healing, and the main measure of a healer in this game is literal likes, which you can force from your patients on success.

You can imagine the dynamic it creates; right now the healers to patients ratio is so fucked that finding bounties to get your weekly quota and avoid -15 SOCIAL CREDIT is nearly impossible even if you spam refresh, any help request in chat is answered and taken before the message finishes loading for you (literally, the notice appears already without the button to actually go heal), and in online mode you get literally swarmed by offers if you show up to Evercare Clinic with so much as a measly sprain since your medical record disease status is public, healers see an obvious HEAL ME icon over your head, and healing a sprain is exactly equal to healing Spiritcore Collapse III in terms of likes received.

And this is just the start of training; as I've seen so far, advancing to Divine Healer rank and beyond involves literal public elections for limited seats in the board inner circle. Truly art imitates life.

Consider if being a slave to networking and Facebook likes would be better than your current arrangement. (If unironically yes, my condolences.)

Good, devs with balls. Fuck Western devs and their pussy ass takes on it, when they deign to allow it. They can try finger but hole.

Sadly these devs are too based for this cursed land, and already had to roll back some things; AIUI in the first few days you were able to post custom images in chat as sort of 'stickers' for everyone to see, with predictable applications. Can't have shit in the jianghu.

You almost said it all. I have zero exposure to Wuxia or whatever so it all is pleasantly fresh.

This is absolutely an AAA-tier game (in fact calling it AAA almost insults it, Western AAAslop wishes it had this level of pure sovl)

The inclusion of the squeeze-between-rocks sequences was hilarious to me. Anticipated the "AAA? Do you have a $TROPE?". I will be bigly disappointed if at high breakthrough levels the animation for opening those comically heavy stone doors is not replaced by swinging them open with ease.

eventually one of the chapter-end bosses filtered me hard

I'm guessing you mean the red-white lady. Great visuals. She filtered me so hard I had to drop it to recommended difficulty. Funny for you to get that other fight with her earlier, and it does not prepare you at all for how ruthless her move set is.

The story-driven sequence before that was very uneven, tho. Martial arts exchange on the cliff over the decision to descend and save the village? Nicely animated, decently real stakes and dialogue. Minute later a 5m fall is somehow very dangerous again and it's raining catapult fire for some retarded reason, very distracting.

The inclusion of the squeeze-between-rocks sequences was hilarious to me. Anticipated the "AAA? Do you have a $TROPE?". I will be bigly disappointed if at high breakthrough levels the animation for opening those comically heavy stone doors is not replaced by swinging them open with ease.

lmao yeah, I kinda glossed over the doors since I've seen that too many times but the first time I saw the narrow passage I thought "oh yeah, now we God of War up in this bitch". The relative absence of yellow paint is refreshing though, I actually have to pay some attention when exploring.

That said, so far it seems you will be bigly diaappointed, the doors are heavy as ever even on level cap. You'd think for how many excessively detailed minor mechanics there are in this game, they'd consider upgrading your dao of stone doors a little.

I'm guessing you mean the red-white lady.

yyyeeeaaahhh

Great visuals.

Absolutely, flipping through the screenshots I took this is some real cinematic shit, the shots of the two figures crossed in particular look like movie posters straight out the gate.

She filtered me so hard I had to drop it to recommended difficulty. Funny for you to get that other fight with her earlier, and it does not prepare you at all for how ruthless her move set is.

As a dishonorable fan user I was eventually able to scrape by a win on Expert, mostly due to being able to slightly recover and stall out via deflection posture damage. On Legend I never even got to the second half of the 2nd health bar - something about the spinny scythe attacks is fucked and I could never reliably deflect them, always taking a graze or two, and on Legend this just kills you straight up with no recourse.

The story-driven sequence before that was very uneven, tho. Martial arts exchange on the cliff over the decision to descend and save the village? Nicely animated, decently real stakes and dialogue. Minute later a 5m fall is somehow very dangerous again and it's raining catapult fire for some retarded reason, very distracting.

The rivers and lakes of the jianghu are treacherous, young wanderer. The plot armor favor of the divine ebbs and flows as the roiling river. What is risen, must be stomped: what is brought low, uplifted; all at the fickle whim of fate...

Which is to say I agree, yes, but the "it's over / we're so back" rollercoaster almost seems like the point, reason and coherence be damned. The last fight cutscene after beating the scythe lady is probably the perfect denouement; my honest reaction was "wait so the wine, they're just gonna like- yyyeeeppp, just chug it down while surrounded by glowies, and so- oh and of course they're roflstomping them now, Qianye who? who cares where she is lmao, mook slaughter time". By the time [redacted] picks up a huge flaming log to fuck shit with I mentally checked out and was firmly in "shut up and enjoy the VFX" mode. I'm sure the "never showed the body" rule is firmly in effect for most characters involved anyway.

level cap

I only now learn I hit the level cap (until ~today I think?). Merciful of them to cap it lower than whatever the Chinese release is at, looking at my playtime so far.

wait so the wine, they're just gonna like- yyyeeeppp, just chug it down while surrounded

By itself, the drunken brawl was fun, but you need to properly write the witch out of the picture for a minute. I'm still on the edge of my seat after the fight, you directly beat into me that she is explosively dangerous - a minute later, safe to ignore. Jarring, dev self-sabotage.

There is a silly brawl cutscene when you make it to Kaifeng, reasonable stakes, very enjoyable.

Can proudly confirm I have (although by utilizing similar unworthy fan methods) beaten Qingye on Legend. It took quite a bit of cursing the seven generations of her ancestors.

Given that most of damage to bosses seems to come from Sekiro finishers after depleting their poise, I'm not sure what's the point of using a weapon that doesn't heal you.

inability to differentiate Chinese names, they blend together way too much, I am already bad with names my entire life but god damn Chinese names are on another level

Personally, not as difficult as Korean names (I would estimate less than a quarter of Americans who watched all of Squid Game can remember even one character's name), but definitely a big issue, especially with single syllable names as is common in fiction. I almost wish they'd put the Chinese characters in parentheses after each instance, like writing "Guan Yu (關羽)", for some additional visual distinction, even for those who don't read Chinese.

They need to be translated, then it works quite well. You can actually remember them then.

Chinese map translated.

LLM suggested translations of Chinese terms.

All much better than the phonetic.

IIRC this was what Jade Empire did, and it worked well IMO.

I'm of mixed opinion on these. I think Belt and Road or PLA are apt translations and better than what the LLM offers here. For fictional people, I think the translated approach could work given the inherent suspension of disbelief, but it starts sounding a bit silly for real people.

and it blows my mind that AFAICT almost no attempts at marketing the global launch were made (this game is apparently out in China for like a year already),

From the review I watched earlier today it seems like they did a shit ton of influencer marketing.

a rough implementation of chatbots into NPCs, you can chat with them and gaslight them into raising their affection value so you can get free shit.

I wasn't impressed by this particular feature, seeing as not only is it tedious to talk to clankers, but they seem to be programmed to drag the chat out for at least 4-5 lines before they agree with me, even if I had objectively dunked on them.

Otherwise, this young master (with the attempt at Benedict Cumberbatch's face, so the "young" part is somewhat a misnomer) has also reached Kaifeng, but is starting to cool on the jianghu somewhat. It doesn't help that the quests I've helped complete in coop don't become completed for me.

A notable feature of the character creator that the senior above did not mention is that it's powerful enough to create such yaoguai as Spongebob or Squidward.

they seem to be programmed to drag the chat out for at least 4-5 lines

Yeah I noticed that as well, but larping as a wandering healer with pills and magic bullshit to solve any problem hasn't yet failed me. It's a funny flashback to c.ai days of yore which I do not miss.

Coop really does need work, I'm making acquaintances in my healer journey (since the healer sect runs on literal social credit facebook likes) and its jank as fuck. Still I persevere, for now.

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