Read our Where Winds Meet interview with Netease developers as we dive deep into the game’s Wuxia here.
Where Winds Meet is a massive open-world RPG that boasts tons of content through minigames, bosses, events, and tons of quests and stories enriched with rich lore inspired by Chinese and wuxia stories. Months after its release, Everstone Studio expanded the game with additional content through several updates, and the latest is Where Winds Meet Imperial Palace.
The newest update puts players in Kaifeng City’s grand Imperial Palace, the largest palace-themed area in the game, where players will fraternize with royals, partake in mischievous activities, and follow a new story. The update’s content is engaging in several ways, and it provides new story content that effectively expands the game’s world.
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Right from the start of the update and arriving at the Palace, players will notice how grand the Imperial Palace truly is. Granted, several locations in Where Winds Meet are expansive and lavishly designed, but most of the expansive areas aren’t as picturesque, which makes the Palace that much more impressive and astonishing to behold. The Palace is over a million square meters, which is both impressive and makes it a pain to traverse at times. Regardless, it is also one of the most engaging areas in the game.
Where Winds Meet Imperial Palace takes players into Keifeng City’s royal court.
Kaifeng itself is a major region in Where Winds Meet and serves as a key cultural and political hub in the game’s world. It is a large, thriving city-region with busy markets, government districts, academies, temples, and crowded urban areas. In contrast to the quieter, rural Qinghe, Kaifeng embodies the center of city life.
The Palace has over three thousand NPCs roaming around doing several tasks and activities. It also features 300 interactive characters, all of which respond to your interactions and dialogue prompts, though it’s worth noting that not all of them have anything interesting to say.
The update also introduces new story content through the side story Throne and Tempest, which is split into two parts. The story begins with rumors and reports of a thief plotting to go after the Sealed Treasury. Despite few people knowing about its location or existence, it remains a concern. As such, players are tasked to go undercover to find out who the thief is.
This eventually leads to a conspiracy within the Palace, with players investigating the circumstances to uncover the truth after being mistaken for the thief. While undercover, players are forced to engage in several quiet activities that lead to high-octane action moments.
During those moments, players chase assassins on rooftops and engage in explosive, immersive battles with enemies. While the narrative is completely serviceable and even fun at times, it doesn’t stand out much, as the Palace, along with its elements and the boss fights it introduces, overshadows it.
The story quests specifically add two new campaign bosses: one with Blacklad, Zhao JingNiang, and the other with The Lone Tyrant, a dark manifestation of Big Zhao’s youthful self. Both fights are incredibly cinematic and captivating in several ways.
Netease’s Wuxia epic continues to grow with high-octane action.
The fight with Blacklad is set in the rooftops of the Palace and has players use lightness skills to chase after her before engaging in full-blown, cinematic combat. While not as challenging as other fights in the game, the boss still puts up a good fight and is one of the most engaging battles.
The second boss fight is where the challenge lies, as players will fight The Lone Tyrant, who will overwhelm players with his relentless staff attacks before getting more personal with his fists in the second phase. The fight is challenging, explosive, and incredibly cool and memorable.
Outside the story quests, players will have a variety of activities to indulge in. This includes several minigames, including a funny and bizarre version of “Fruit Ninja” set in a palace kitchen. Players slice and dice as many fruits as they can in a wacky fashion.
Another exciting minigame the update introduces is mounted archery, a form of archery that few games have included in recent years. The game makes the mode an exciting inclusion that’s both fun and challenging, as trying to get higher scores is competitive and almost addictive.
Some activities are also seasonal, so depending on when you enter and interact with several things in the Palace, you’ll see event transformations and new games, such as ice games, replacing their summer or fall counterparts. These inclusions and details show off how grand yet intricate the update and its additions are, making them incredibly impressive.
Aside from minigames, players can also perform several mischievous actions and hijinks. This includes eavesdropping on NPC gossip, casually sitting on the Dragon Throne, stealing items, slapping NPCs and other characters, and more. These actions are genuinely funny to do, especially because of the shockingly zany repercussions that follow.
Where Winds Meet Imperial Palace isn’t all action; it’s also hijinks and extravagant costumes.
If you get caught eavesdropping, your ears grow cartoonishly large, and if you get caught stealing too much, you might just get a literal spanking from an NPC. These features add more humor to the game and are genuinely enjoyable new additions to a game that already has several funny elements.
Other than that, players can also take on new Jianghu Legacy quests, which are basically lore-based quests focused mainly on puzzles, and two new world bosses, the Cat Emperor and Gilded Lament. The world bosses, like other world bosses, especially the Cat Emperor boss, are some of the most challenging in the game, designed to be taken on multiple times in exchange for some valuable items.
Overall, while some aspects are lacking, the Where Winds Meet Imperial Palace expansion is a fun and entertaining update that offers players tons of great and hilarious elements, as well as epic boss fights.
The Where Winds Meet Imperial Palace update is available now for PC, PlayStation 5, and mobile devices.
