Where Winds Meet follows the classic formula popularized by the creators of Genshin Impact, combining a single-player open-world adventure with MMORPG elements. However, rather than a colorful anime fairy tale, it offers players a harsh and realistic China, rooted in the philosophy of cultivation and wuxia traditions. Games in this genre have never before offered such a scale and budget, making Where Winds Meet a strong contender for the title of one of the best wuxia action games.
Journey to the West
Many gamers of my generation, and even those older than me, grew up watching films that celebrated Chinese martial arts and the philosophies behind them. We don’t have to look far: just think of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or the endless reruns of Bruce Lee films that clung to television screens for decades, viewed on par with Western pop culture phenomena like Predator or Terminator. Over time, the wave of mass popularity subsided, and such action films, especially those with fantasy elements, became a niche genre for a small circle of fans.
The situation in the gaming industry remained similar for a long time. The Chinese market existed primarily within its own confines: domestic mobile MMOs, local RPGs, and projects created for a domestic audience that rarely ventured beyond its borders. Games featuring elements of wuxia, cultivation, and traditional mythology existed separately from the global market, developed in isolation, and were often those same “donation dumps” with tiny budgets and even smaller ambitions. Even now, in 2025, if you search for the most popular projects in this field, you’ll be met with a selection of bizarre titles that evoke no desire to play, even out of curiosity.
The situation began to change rapidly in 2020, when miHoYo (HoYoverse) arrived on the scene, demonstrating that creating an expensive, beautiful, and meticulously crafted free-to-play game was entirely feasible. The success of Genshin Impact was clear proof that international audiences were willing to immerse themselves in projects rooted in Eastern culture, as long as they were backed by quality, technological advancements, and a clear artistic vision. Genshin shattered the ingrained belief that Chinese games inevitably looked cheap, performed poorly, and relied on intrusive “pay-to-win” monetization, setting a new bar for what a world-class F2P product could be.
As early as 2024, the industry encountered a new phenomenon: Black Myth: Wukong. It demonstrated that Chinese studios are capable of creating not only games-as-a-service but also full-length, expensive AAA projects, and that such games generate interest far beyond their local audience.
Together, these two phenomena created a new context. The expectation arose that China could produce projects with its own cultural foundation and still retain the interest of Western audiences. Where Winds Meet, from Everstone Studio and supported by NetEase, entered this niche. This project doesn’t simply embrace the trend, but strives to embody it with due scope. The game offers immersion in a realistic historical China, where wuxia, cultivation, and spiritual strengthening practices function not only as a cultural foundation but also as system-building mechanics. The scale and quality of production, meanwhile, match what the genre has historically lacked.
Forgive this long introduction, but it’s necessary because Where Winds Meet can’t be viewed in a vacuum. The game draws significant inspiration from the aforementioned projects and many others, so a simple introduction like this is better than endless remarks like “Genshin already did this” or “it’s well done—for a free-to-play game.” Where Winds Meet desperately tries to be that “something for everyone,” trying to please “both you and us,” but in its scope, it’s spread too thinly across too many vectors, each of which doesn’t always achieve its intended goal.
Chinese turmoil
The story in Where Winds Meet is quite traditional for Chinese heroic fantasy—it’s the simplest way to describe wuxia without delving into complex terms. We find ourselves in 10th-century China, during a turbulent time of fragmentation known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, when the country was just preparing to embark on the path to unification. We take on the role of a wandering warrior who must gradually uncover the secret of his own origins, unravel the intricacies of a political conspiracy, and encounter the mystical underpinnings of this world.
But first, we’re treated to a rather impressive action prologue, in which the hero escapes pursuit on horseback and fights while holding a baby. The staging of this scene remains fairly simple technically, including some primitive QTE sequences, but it achieves the desired effect.
Here, we’re taught the basic mechanics: archery, sword strikes, parrying, dodging, and using abilities. Then, a time skip occurs: several years pass, and the baby from the prologue turns out to be a grown-up hero (or heroine). At this point, the player is given the opportunity to create their own character.
The customization tools are quite extensive: after choosing a gender and one of the basic appearances, you gain access to a detailed editor where you can spend hours creating the character of your dreams. There are so many settings that it’s impossible to list them all, but the most important ones—like breast size (heh-heh)—are still missing. However, you can fine-tune your face and makeup, import your photo for auto-generated appearance, or browse those created by other players.
The game’s story is presented in fragments and is currently unavailable in its entirety. It’s broken down into chapters and episodes, which will be released seasonally (approximately every three months). Furthermore, the game artificially limits the pace of play—in several ways at once. After every few quests, you inevitably get stopped and sent to level up a few more levels before you can progress further.
However, even with an infinite amount of time, you won’t be able to level up freely: every ten levels, you must complete a combat challenge to unlock further leveling and increase the world’s level. Having reached level forty, I discovered that the game required me to wait 24 hours before I could complete this challenge.
Okay, I waited a day—I unlocked the level boost to 50, but it immediately became clear that the next world level boost to level 6 wouldn’t be available for another four days. And how long it would take to reach the maximum world level of 11 is a big mystery.
This is a familiar gimmick from NetEase projects (I’ve seen quite a few of them), and it artificially equalizes player progress, regardless of how much time they spend in the game. Therefore, I should point out right away that at the time of writing, I haven’t completed the entire storyline, but that’s not necessary, as the nature of such games means that completing one major story chapter will likely take a year to complete. Until then, speculating on its quality is somewhat pointless. For now, I can say that the story begins as a fairly expansive and convoluted adventure, but for now, it’s more of a mood-setter than a coherent narrative.
This is partly due to the game’s cluttered plot points: the game doesn’t allow for a coherent progression and regularly forces distractions from side activities due to the limitations described above. It’s also due to the fact that, when launching internationally, the developers of Where Winds Meet never localized the project into the third most popular language on Steam.
There aren’t even Russian subtitles, and the English version is poorly produced: there are inaccurate translations that sometimes make it difficult to understand what’s going on (even English-speaking players have noted this). The situation is made worse by the almost complete lack of lip-syncing and voiceover. Characters often speak without opening their mouths because the original Chinese lines were shorter, and some phrases are not voiced at all in English.
That said, the plot isn’t entirely boring. At times, Where Winds Meet rewards story progression with spectacular scenes, executed with the grandeur and pathos inherent to wuxia. For example, one boss battle unfolds in practically three dimensions: the real world and a mirror image, further divided into two.
But the most interesting part occurs in the staged scene, when two characters drain jugs of rice wine and burst into the crowd. A spectacular massacre ensues, in the best traditions of Chinese cinema: blades whistle, enemies fly apart, and in the midst of the melee, one of the heroes deftly places his sword under a shard of broken jug, allowing it to roll straight into his mouth—and takes another sip of the intoxicating elixir, ready to begin slashing at his opponents with renewed vigor.
Moments like these are the quintessence of the exaggerated wuxia style: perhaps overly pretentious, but incredibly spectacular. Otherwise, the plot serves more as a pretext for colorful battles and exploration of the vast open world, which we’ll discuss below.
Nice uniformity
The open world and its technical implementation are somewhere between Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Ghost of Tsushima: it is moderately realistic, capable of pleasing details, but still relies more on the overall visual image than on an attempt to convey every detail in detail.
This is also evident in the physics model: in some places, you can chop down an entire bamboo forest or set grass on fire with a fire arrow; in others, using an ability will cause all the surrounding foliage to fly; in others, not a single blade of grass will stir—the environment remains completely static and barely reacts to your actions. Weather effects, picturesque gusts of wind, and a dynamic change in time of day are also present, creating a convincing sense of a large, vibrant space that is truly pleasant to be in.
The only thing it lacks, in my opinion, is visual diversity. The current locations look rather monotonous, featuring forests, meadows, rivers, and mountains, and I hope that future updates will introduce more vibrant and colorful biomes.
The game is also impressive in terms of optimization: on my RTX 4070 Super, it runs a solid 95-100 FPS at native 1440p, which is expected given the smartphone release planned for December. However, this would be almost perfect if not for the occasional texture loading that’s clearly visible. I’d happily get rid of it at the cost of some frame rate, but I didn’t find that option in the PC version.
The only truly impressive thing is the capital, Kaifeng. It’s the largest and most detailed city in the game: it’s home to shops, fairs, docks, man-made lakes and streams, theater areas, temples, and gardens teeming with life. At first, you move around the capital at a leisurely pace, like on a real tour. It’s a shame that you can’t enter the imperial palace without an invitation, but I’m sure players will eventually get one.
This location is very detailed and puts a heavy strain on the system, dropping frame rates to as low as 50 frames per second. The developers claimed there are around 10,000 NPCs here, and while I’m not entirely sure, I think it’s not far from the truth, considering the streets are indeed densely populated, and fully exploring every corner of the capital would likely take many hours.
However, how “living” this world feels is debatable. Despite the impressive number of NPCs and meticulously crafted settings, interaction with the townspeople is often minimal. Most characters serve as background noise: they follow predetermined routes, repeat short animations, respond to the player only within the confines of a modest script, and rarely offer anything beyond their usual lines.
However, this doesn’t detract from the immersion in the slightest, as there are plenty of random events (which aren’t actually random), quest characters with tasks ranging from mundane to quite intriguing, and even genuine AI NPCs.
The developers are experimenting with a dialogue system based on neural network models: some characters actually respond to you not with pre-written phrases, but with dynamically generated lines in response to your phrases, which must be manually typed on the keyboard.
In practice, however, the system’s capabilities are still limited. Most of these NPCs engage in extremely simplified conversation, repeating similar lines and quickly spiraling into a cycle of identical responses. Sometimes they simply don’t understand the context and offer meaningless comments.
Pile up – be healthy!
As you explore the world, the game encourages you to look ahead and follow your curiosity. Everything you see on the horizon is truly achievable—you just need to figure out how to get there. However, when it comes to content, Where Winds Meet is so packed with it that I honestly don’t even know where to begin. There’s far too much content for a starter edition of any service game.
At a basic level, as you explore the world, you’ll encounter chests, hidden interactions, and puzzles at every turn—from the most basic, with solutions readily apparent, to multi-stage spatial puzzles that require you to decipher clues from texts based on Chinese mythology.
Some of these puzzles require the use of so-called mythical abilities—like “tai chi,” which creates a vortex, “sky grab” (telekinesis), or “meridian touch,” which activates the target’s acupuncture points (read: freezes the target), and others. These abilities can also be used in combat: for example, telekinesis allows you to disarm an enemy, and “cloud steps” not only allow you to latch onto ledges but also quickly catch up with a fleeing enemy.
These abilities are unlocked by completing quests, and some, such as “tai chi” or “jumping frog,” are obtained by observing the actions of animals and imitating their movements while completing a simple QTE game.
Other activities include timed collectible challenges, parkour and acrobatic sections, combat challenges with restrictions, and full-blown stealth challenges—because yes, there’s an invisibility ability here—and there are missions where you sneak into an enemy base, stealthily eliminate opponents, loot chests, and reach the main target to… no, not kill them, but to spy on a combat move and unlock new weapon abilities.
And that’s just a small part of what the game has to offer. Bet you didn’t expect to find a card battler in here where you have to cure a goose of its mental problems?!
We’ll talk about the combat system and progression later, but for now, let’s dig through the “content” a bit more. The developers have piled on so much that it’s simply impossible to list it all. Mastering it completely requires hundreds of hours and an almost complete lack of personal life.
Therefore, you should also know that the game supports two modes: solo and multiplayer. In the former, you exist in your own isolated world, exploring, adventuring, and progressing through the story. In the latter, you’re transported to a shared world with other players—and here, accordingly, there’s even more multiplayer content waiting for you.
The multiplayer mode is structured like a hybrid of a classic MMO and a theme park: some modes feature the same outpost clearings, stealth missions, and boss battles, only with other players. But in the “peaceful” portion, we’ll find more exotic experiences.
These include group practices similar to various types of meditation, collective cultivation of Qi energy, running in circles while shouting slogans, group quizzes, retreats for healing villagers (essentially a raid run, but in the format of a card battler), and much more.
More “fun” activities include fireworks shows, mahjong tournaments, boat cruises, drinking contests, card games, riddle-solving, wrestling, music performances, hot spring baths—you can even give a friend a back rub. And that’s not all: there really are tons of activities.
But this luxury has one problem: you quickly begin to notice how similar many of the activities are. This is the key flaw. For example, debate and wrestling are fun mini-games, but at their core, like “healing diseases,” they are primitive card battlers with minimal differences in the conditions.
In debates, it’s impossible to read all the possible answers in English in time to respond. And in riddle-solving competitions, the language barrier is a stumbling block: there’s no automatic translation feature, and when a Russian, a German, and a Czech team are on the same team, the event falls apart, turning into a tired joke.
Yes, the developers have really piled on a ton of stuff—no exaggeration there. But only a few of these activities are truly entertaining, and at worst, they simply become confusing. The only saving grace is that the game generously rewards you with experience and resources for every little thing, motivating you to at least try everything once.
Don’t join – think about it
The sect system—local martial schools or factions that the hero can join—deserves a separate discussion. In Where Winds Meet, sects function not only as part of the lore but also as a mechanical superstructure for the character. Each has its own rules, bonuses and penalties, a set of preferred martial arts, and its own store where, in exchange for reputation, unique items unavailable to members of other schools are sold.
You won’t be able to join a cult right away. First, you need to do what the game already encourages you to do: explore the world, collect clues, read notes, communicate with masters, and complete small quests. Only when you’ve collected enough clues will you be able to join the cult. After that, the familiar MMO cycle begins: you rise in rank in the cult, complete quests, gain reputation, and unlock new items and techniques.
For example, you can run around the world healing others by joining the Healers’ Sect, or join the Midnight Blade Sect and receive bonuses from fighting other players. The Righteous Sect allows you to give money to other players, but if you earn more than you’re allowed to in a week, you’ll lose reputation points.
It’s possible, however, to renounce affiliation with a cult altogether and remain free. In this case, their rules don’t apply to you, and no one restricts you, but in exchange, you lose access to some of the benefits and pay a higher price for martial arts training.
On paper, the system seems like another way to add a wuxia flavor to the game: there are schools, their doctrines, and a choice of paths. In reality, however, it suffers from some of the same problems as the rest of Where Winds Meet’s content. There are numerous sects, each with its own nuances, quests, restrictions, and weekly limits on reputation and currency. This adds depth to the roleplaying experience, but also increases the feeling of overload: yet another system to keep in mind when you’re already juggling story quests, side activities, seasonal events, and other activities.
Flying Daggers Showdown
No game set in a wuxia setting can exist without a vibrant combat system, and the developers understood this perfectly. The combat system here resembles a hybrid of Sekiro, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, and Nioh—roughly equal parts parries, dashes and rolls, swift attacks and weapon combos, mystical skills, and weapon switching to continue combos—but with a much greater emphasis on acrobatics and the technical flourishes inherent to wuxia. To put it simply, combat is fast, technical, and demanding, yet forgiving of mistakes by beginners.
The game features three basic difficulty levels (Story, Standard, and Expert), as well as a Hardcore mode with permadeath, which is currently unavailable. On Standard, combat resembles a lighter Sekiro: enemies have a chi (focus) meter that must be depleted through a series of attacks and parries to break through their defenses. The parry mechanics are classic: press a button just before you’re hit, and you’ll get the result, and if you dodge at the last moment, you can even slow down time.
However, the developers have included flexible settings and allow for partial automation of parrying, transforming the reactive mechanics into a simplified QTE format where you’re guaranteed to parry attacks every few seconds by pressing just one button highlighted on the screen. This feature doesn’t work in PvP, but in PvE, it allows even those who come here solely to soak in the hot springs and play mahjong to master the content.
The game features eight types of weapons, each with its own moveset, stance, and even role: from dual blades and a spear to a combat fan and umbrella. One type of fan allows you to become a long-range mage, while another allows you to become a healer. This division into roles is primarily necessary for high-level group content, but even in solo mode, I enjoyed running around with a set of fast, high-damage dual blades, without losing the ability to switch to the fan for healing without breaking a combo.
What’s convenient is that you don’t need to upgrade each weapon individually. It’s the equipment slots—the left and right hands—that are upgraded. Upgrade a slot and automatically enhance any weapon slotted into it. There are also separate upgrades for specific weapon types, but these aren’t tied to a specific blade. However, to unlock them, you need to complete various combat challenges.
Combat in this game is enjoyable and pleasing to the eye, thanks in large part to the excellent animation and fight choreography—so much so that it’s easy to overlook the repetitive nature of the enemies (at least for now). However, this praise only applies to the player’s avatar, as enemy hits often lack tactile feedback: strikes—whether with a greatsword, a spear, or dual blades—most often feel the same and lack sufficient “weight.” But, again, this wasn’t a major issue for me, as you can forgive a lot when simply enjoying the spectacle on screen.
While smashing dummies is fun, the same can’t be said for battling other players. Where Winds Meet offers several competitive modes: a one-on-one arena, which is only available at certain times, and a battle royale, which is always open.
The problem is that the combat system designed for PvE loses its expressiveness in PvP. All its strengths—the beautiful animations, the dynamics, the combos, and the mystical arts—are transformed into a chaotic spam of moves until one of you falls dead. The situation is made worse by connection issues, which make the animations even more choppy—a sad sight.
The situation improves slightly in the battle royale mode, where battles are stretched out across time and space, slowing the pace and allowing for clever use of abilities and distance control. But even here, the thesis of shallow implementation remains. The battle royale mode is partially reminiscent of NetEase’s Naraka: Bladepoint and serves as just another item in a long list of activities. It’s hard to imagine anyone launching Where Winds Meet solely for this mode when there’s a standalone game that does the same thing much better.
On the positive side, PvP is played on a level playing field, with the exception of a dedicated PvP stat tree, allowing you to ignore everything else if you’re solely interested in fighting other players. Otherwise, there are no “pay to win” mechanics, and the monetization itself is much more generous than that of potential competitors.
Don’t pay to win
At first glance, the monetization offers the familiar “gentleman’s set” of gacha-based games: a monthly subscription, a battle pass, and spins. But the nice thing is that you don’t need to earn characters and level them up—all monetization is based solely on cosmetics. These include costumes for your character, horse skins, pets, dyes, accessories, and unique character abilities.
That said, I wouldn’t say the emphasis on cosmetic monetization forced the developers to make the base items “ugly”—on the contrary, there’s plenty to customize your character with without spending any money. And some unique skins are earned solely through your achievements in various game modes, such as PvP, allowing you to stand out from those who aren’t as successful as you.
In this sense, Where Winds Meet stands out from its competitors: the game doesn’t force you to donate—you can play for months without spending a single ruble, and without losing anything significant, except perhaps a couple of particularly beautiful outfits.
However, a complete absence of pressure doesn’t mean an absence of temptation, so if you struggle to avoid impulsive spending, it’s best to avoid the project in advance and remember that no matter how lenient the monetization system, it remains part of the overall service ecosystem that determines the rhythm of the game.
Rewards, season passes, dozens of currencies, and leveling restrictions all serve as reminders that Where Winds Meet is not only an enjoyable adventure, but also a free-to-play platform that they plan to develop and milk for years to come.
Diagnosis
Where Winds Meet is a very strange project. On the one hand, it’s a very standard online RPG with seasonal progression, grinding, events, and dozens of systems that flash notifications and beckon you on a journey for another dose of quick dopamine. On the other, it’s a rather generous embodiment of Chinese heroic fantasy with a distinctive combat system, a vast (even today) world, and an uncompromising immersion into Chinese history and culture. This is a large-scale, sometimes spectacular, sometimes downright luxurious open-world project that is sure to captivate, especially considering the entry fee is zero.
But it’s hampered by the fact that it’s trying to be everything at once: a historical RPG, an online sandbox, a social MMO, an amusement park, a PvP platform, and a host of other attractions—both standalone and intertwined. At launch, the project is spreading out faster than it can go deep, and so many mechanics feel more like awkward sketches than well-developed ideas. What will happen next is difficult to say.
If you’ve been waiting for a major wuxia game centered around Chinese history, martial arts, and cultivation, Where Winds Meet simply has no alternative. If you’re interested in these activities and share the cultivation philosophy, you can definitely give it a try. If not, you can just as easily ignore all these activities, and that, in my opinion, is a definite plus.
However, if right now you’re exclusively interested in a single-player adventure with an emphasis on exploration and boss battles in the style of a lighter Sekiro, it’s best to wait. Perhaps until the developers expand the game with story content, perhaps iron out some technical issues, and finally translate the project into Russian. As an open-world grinder, the game is well-made and clever, but it would certainly be easier to navigate in your native language.
