The rise of the Chinese action RPG

GamesRPGBlack Myth: WukongThe rise of the Chinese action RPGWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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1995’s Sword and Fairy was a huge influenced on Chinese RPGs.(Image credit: Softstar)

Sword and Fairy

Although it wasn’t the very first, Taiwanese-developed Sword and Fairy, released on DOS-based hardware similar to the PCs English speaking RPG fans were using to playStonekeepandRavenloft: Stone Propheton at the time, had a huge impact on everything that followed. The story charted a magically-infused romance from humble hometown to its tragic end, well-received not only in its original game form but also in the multiple luscious and lengthy TV adaptations made afterwards.

As timeless as the story is, the RPG that surrounded it followed a traditional town/dungeon formula familiar to gamers the world over, with action portrayed using isometric 2D pixel art. The battles in Sword and Fairy were strictly turn-based: Heroes on one side of the screen, enemies on the other, and all attacks handled using a simple menu system. But that was perfectly fine in 1995.

Sword and Fairy was more than a hit: it was a historically significant masterpiece, a fantastic game that every Chinese and Taiwanese RPG developer at the time wanted to create their own spin on. Sword and Fairy’s sequels, spinoffs, and sister seriesXuan Yuan Swordeven ended up struggling to outdo.

Old battles are given a new real-time twist

Image1of4(Image credit: Kingsoft Corp.)(Image credit: Kingsoft Corp.)(Image credit: Kingsoft Corp.)(Image credit: Kingsoft Corp.)

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(Image credit: Kingsoft Corp.)(Image credit: Kingsoft Corp.)(Image credit: Kingsoft Corp.)(Image credit: Kingsoft Corp.)

(Image credit: Kingsoft Corp.)

Jian Xia Qingyuan Waizhuan, a Chinese RPG

(Image credit: Kingsoft Corp.)

Jian Xia Qingyuan Waizhuan, a Chinese RPG

(Image credit: Kingsoft Corp.)

Jian Xia Qingyuan Waizhuan, a Chinese RPG

(Image credit: Kingsoft Corp.)

Jian Xia Qingyuan Waizhuan, a Chinese RPG

Time marched on regardless, and soon mainland Chinese RPGs were also trying to bring a little action and excitement to the traditionally stat-heavy genre. 2001’sJian Xia Qingyuan Waizhuan: Yue Ying Chuanshuomerged an almost Baldur’s Gate-like presentation with real-time skirmishes. Here fights play out naturally within the environment and how often and how fast I swung my sword depended entirely on how often and how fast I clicked my mouse button. Turns and formations simply weren’t a thing, although an achy index finger was. Did this early attempt to “go action” work? Oh heck no, not even close. Clicking on tiny highly mobile VGA-sized sprites over and over again wasn’t practical, let alone fun. It was an interesting experiment, though, even if it’s also one I hope I never encounter again.

Thankfully the Fantasia Sango series, starting in 2003, offered a more successful mix of RPG and action. These games are set in a gloriously colourful take on Three Kingdoms-era China, mythical versions of famous people and fantastical takes on real-world locations used as a backdrop for heroes to battle and romance their way through. Taiwanese developer UserJoy Technology Co. came up with something abitdifferent from all the lightsaber action found in another RPG released that year—KoTOR—but it still had the same desire to bring something new and more directly interactive to the genre.

As in Sword and Fairy the heroes are lined up on one side of the screen while the enemies politely keep to the other, but there’s a new and unstoppable layer of action running underneath it all, a truly fresh twist on traditional RPGing. A Final Fantasy-like ATB gauge governed when friends and foes alike could perform an action, but the game then expanded on the concept of active combat in ways Square’s headline games never would.

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Both sides arranged their combatants on a generously sized grid, the positions controlling which attacks could hit their mark (a 1x3 square swipe would leave the back half of a 2x2 formation unharmed, for example).

Image1of42003’s Fantasia Sango(Image credit: UserJoy Technology Co., Ltd.)2003’s Fantasia Sango(Image credit: UserJoy Technology Co., Ltd.)2003’s Fantasia Sango(Image credit: UserJoy Technology Co., Ltd.)2003’s Fantasia Sango(Image credit: UserJoy Technology Co., Ltd.)

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2003’s Fantasia Sango(Image credit: UserJoy Technology Co., Ltd.)2003’s Fantasia Sango(Image credit: UserJoy Technology Co., Ltd.)2003’s Fantasia Sango(Image credit: UserJoy Technology Co., Ltd.)2003’s Fantasia Sango(Image credit: UserJoy Technology Co., Ltd.)

2003’s Fantasia Sango(Image credit: UserJoy Technology Co., Ltd.)

Fantasia Sango, a Chinese action RPG

2003’s Fantasia Sango(Image credit: UserJoy Technology Co., Ltd.)

Fantasia Sango, a Chinese action RPG

2003’s Fantasia Sango(Image credit: UserJoy Technology Co., Ltd.)

Fantasia Sango, a Chinese action RPG

2003’s Fantasia Sango(Image credit: UserJoy Technology Co., Ltd.)

Fantasia Sango, a Chinese action RPG

Formations could also be changed mid-battle, altering buffs and character positions in the process. Here a character was more than a bundle of numbers with some equipment attached. They were a physical presence on the battlefield.

Embracing QTEs and a more active future

Even as action RPGs were clearly taking over in China, exactly how that action materialised was still somewhat open to interpretation

This beautiful bow was wrapped around a game eager to move with the times, and that meant introducing action wherever it could. QTEs allowed hero Tusu to perform dramatic leaps and gravity-defying runs, as if he was the athletic star of a wuxia movie. Battles tried to mix traditional turns with flexible timings, a bar across the top denoting when someone’s attack was coming up, and whether that heal you needed would come before or after a powerful enemy had unleashed their next move.

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2013’s Gu Jian 2 exhibits its focus on presentation(Image credit: Aurogon Info&Tech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.)2013’s Gu Jian 2 exhibits its focus on presentation(Image credit: Aurogon Info&Tech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.)2013’s Gu Jian 2 exhibits its focus on presentation(Image credit: Aurogon Info&Tech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.)2013’s Gu Jian 2 exhibits its focus on presentation(Image credit: Aurogon Info&Tech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.)2013’s Gu Jian 2 exhibits its focus on presentation(Image credit: Aurogon Info&Tech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.)2013’s Gu Jian 2 exhibits its focus on presentation(Image credit: Aurogon Info&Tech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.)2013’s Gu Jian 2 exhibits its focus on presentation(Image credit: Aurogon Info&Tech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.)2013’s Gu Jian 2 exhibits its focus on presentation(Image credit: Aurogon Info&Tech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.)2013’s Gu Jian 2 exhibits its focus on presentation(Image credit: Aurogon Info&Tech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.)