REVIEW: ‘Where Winds Meet’ Is An Ambitious Action RPG

Where Winds Meet is NetEase Games and Everstone Studio’s free-to-play open-world RPG, a highly ambitious, incredibly engaging title that seamlessly combines several elements commonly found in the genre. While it succeeds at being engaging with these elements, it struggles to get its footing at the start, as it falls into the same sluggish pacing seen in many open-world adventure games.

Where Winds Meet is set at the twilight of the Ten Kingdoms and opens with a mysterious warrior named Jiang Yan, who holds an equally mysterious baby and is being chased by soldiers who claim he killed his own father and stole a mysterious item known as the Zhenguan Jade. After an explosive opening that sees Jiang and his associate dispatching their pursuers and defeating a boss who ultimately kills his associate, the game then skips forward several years.

Players control the baby in Where Winds Meet, now a young adult known as the Wanderer. They’ve been raised by Jiang and his partner, Aunt Han, but it’s revealed that Jiang has been missing for several years. One day, the Wanderer’s Jade necklace is stolen from them by a mysterious masked warrior.

Gameplay in Where Winds Meet is the game’s most defining feature and its best aspect.

They then embark on a quest to find the culprit while seeking answers to other important questions, such as who their birth parents are, why their necklace was stolen, what the circumstances are behind the Zhenguan Jade, and where Jiang Yan has disappeared to. However, during their quest, they become entangled in controversies that shake the kingdom and must make important decisions that will determine its fate.

Where Winds Meet has an ambitious narrative that is rooted in its inspirations and Chinese origins. Throughout the game, players will encounter several characters inspired by historical figures, learn about various elements of the Tang Dynasty, and experience many events of the era. Where Winds Meet also includes the use of Wuxia martial arts, a thrilling staple of Chinese mythology.

However, while the narrative sports some really exciting moments, the beginning can be a slog to get through. While admittedly filled with important tutorial sequences, the first few hours require players to engage in lengthy, inconsequential dialogue with insufficient exposition, as well as numerous challenges and missions that are somewhat boring and low-stakes.

Combat is where the game truly shines and is its most exciting aspect.

Additionally, players will encounter several unexplained terms and titles at the start of Where Winds Meet, such as “renegade of the well of heaven,” which only serves to confuse the narrative further. Thankfully, after completing the lengthy opening missions, players reach the heart of the gameplay, and the narrative begins to unfold, becoming clearer.

Gameplay in Where Winds Meet is the game’s most defining feature and its best aspect. Players traverse the land of Qinghe freely and openly on foot or on several mounts, where they’ll encounter several challenges, NPCs who give them a variety of quests, and intricately designed structures and buildings. While Qinghe looks beautiful and immaculately designed, most of it outside of towns is admittedly quite empty, with little more than foliage, rivers, and mountains.

However, the many towns are intricately designed and are faithful to the architectural designs of their setting. Players can also learn more about the overarching narrative through NPC dialogue in these towns, which provides context for world events that further contextualize the game’s narrative, unlike many other games that offer the illusion of environmental storytelling. Where Winds Meet actually includes useful information that rewards exploration.

Combat is where the game truly shines and is its most exciting aspect. Players get access to several weapons and skills to add to their arsenal. Weapons include but are not limited to swords, spears, dual blades, glaives, whips, and bows. They also use several Wuxia combat style superhuman skills that are incredibly faithful to their inspirations. These skills, called Mystic Arts, offer a variety of stylish and effective combat skills, but with a cooldown after each use.

These include executing a flurry of flashing blade attacks, breathing fire, locating enemies through sound, and much more. Using these skills feels great, especially during boss fights, as they are not only incredibly cool to execute but also deal significant damage to enemies. Players can unlock more Mystic Arts and other skills with Talent Points, which they get after completing missions and challenges.

Combat is fun, fast, and flashy in Where Winds Meet, and you can feel the weight and impact of each attack. The fight choreography and animations are some of the best in action RPGs. Reminiscent of action RPGs like Sekiro and Wukong, players must deflect, block, and dodge incoming attacks while using a balance of their weapons and skills to overcome the game’s several formidable enemies and bosses.

Combat is fun, fast, and flashy in Where Winds Meet, and you can feel the weight and impact of each attack.

However, weapons are where you do most of your consistent and most reliable damage, as finding the best weapons and leveling them up is your best bet for the best damage. Boss fights are one of the game’s many highlights, as not only are they sufficiently challenging, but most are fun, well-designed, and the boss designs are unique.

It’s worth noting that players can play the whole game online, as Where Winds Meet also serves as an MMO lite where players can interact with one another, play missions together, fight in PVP arenas, take on bounties of other players or have a bounty placed on them, and much more.

Moreover, the game offers several exceedingly fun and bizarre features that feel like they were included simply because they’re enjoyable. These include the ability to shrink, import original emotes from videos, build structures, fly after obtaining your flight license, marry other players, and much more.

Despite being a free-to-play game, all these features are available to players at launch, making Where Winds Meet incredibly engaging, even more so than the main objectives. However, players will need to pay for several items, such as mounts, premium cosmetics, and other in-game purchases, using the premium currency.

The game also features a gacha system where many of the best cosmetic items can be acquired. Other than that, Where Winds Meet features impeccable visuals, with fantastic character designs, art direction, effects, reflections, and more, despite its size and visual elements, the game surprisingly runs well on PS5, with only a few sparse frame rate drops encountered.

Overall, while its narrative is far from perfect in terms of engagement, Where Winds Meet is an impressive and ambitious game that, for the most part, succeeds in fulfilling its promises, the game offers over 100 hours of content, with its incredible combat and gameplay elements being the highlight for every type of player.

Where Winds Meet will launch globally now, on  PlayStation 5 and PC.