Summary
Xuanyuan Jian embraces the world
The Good
"Xuanyuan Jian 3" occupies a special place in the most long-running and venerable Chinese RPG series. Since the first
Xuanyuan Jian (released in 1990), all the games in the series were dedicated to Chinese mythology, and most of them (except the very first) were also set in a concrete historical period in China. Games that were released after "Xuanyuan Jian 3" also followed this rule. Until now, "Xuanyuan Jian 3" remains the only exception. I can imagine the astonishment of die-hard Xuanyuan Jian fans when they put the new shiny game CD into the disc drive and were greeted by the sinister singing of a medieval church choir, and afterwards found themselves on the streets of Venice, in control of a Christian European knight...
Many fans criticized the game for that. They were expecting another Chinese historical RPG, and instead had to follow a quest that at first sight had nothing to do with China. Pity if such fans stopped playing the game, not having enough patience to follow the story, because in the end the heroes of the game do travel to China, and the connection between this story and those of other Xuanyuan Jian games becomes evident. As for myself, I absolutely loved that change in setting, and I think that "Xuanyuan Jian 3" would probably be the best Xuanyuan Jian game to start with for a non-Chinese gamer.
What is so special about the setting? Compare it to those found in Japanese RPGs (by which the game, as well as the entire Chinese RPG industry, was obviously influenced). Most of them are set in fantasy worlds. Medieval, post-apocalyptic, steam-punk, cyberpunk - all those worlds are fictional. Exceptions such as the excellent
Koudelka and related
Shadow Hearts games, which were indeed set in a concrete historical period on Earth and featured real historical characters, appeared much later. The classic Japan of
Tengai Makyou games cannot be taken seriously, since they were conceived as a parodies. Now, take Western RPGs. You'll encounter plenty of fictional medieval worlds, but no concrete historical setting. Exceptions such as
Lionheart and others only confirm the rule. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I think the non-historical, fictional approach to RPG setting is common to both Western and Japanese design philosophy.
On the contrary, Chinese developers always liked concrete historical setting. This is not a coincidence. The reason is not only the exceptional depth and versatility of Chinese culture. More importantly, Chinese people feel a much stronger connection to it than an average Western person to the great Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Greek legacy, which gave birth to the Western culture. If a Western developer would base his game on the Gilgamesh epic or even the much more familiar "Iliad" or "Odyssey", modern Europeans and Americans would consider it "exotic" and wouldn't accept it as their own, despite the clear fact their culture wouldn't have existed without those. Even a Biblical-themed, Christianity-based game, set for example in Europe of Middle Ages, wouldn't excite most players the same way a fictional world would. As for the Japanese, they also prefer foreign setting to their own one; besides, the Japanese culture is historically part of the Chinese one and is quite young, not more than 1400 years old, so they can't help knowing it is not truly their own. Same with the Europeans, whose culture is based on Greek aesthetics and Jewish religion, i.e. not really their own stuff. And they also feel no real connection to their own origins (Norse mythology, Druid religion, etc.). Not so in China. Talk about the old Xuanyuan, the legendary father of Chinese nation, the appearance of the cosmic being Pangu, the first kings Yao, Shun, and Yu, and the Chinese will feel those are
their stories. And of course, they will feel even more so about real historical periods, such as Zhou dynasty, Spring and Autumn, Han dynasty, Tang dynasty, and so on. That is why Chinese create great RPGs in Chinese setting, and the results are always so natural and convincing.
And yet in "Xuanyuan Jian 3" they decided to include other cultures as well. Still a historical setting, but not only in China. The game is divided into three parts, the first one takes place in Europe, the second in Middle East that was just conquered by the Arabs and their Islam, and the third brings us to China of Tang dynasty. Result? Well, obviously, they succeeded more in depicting China than Europe or Islamic world. But despite some inconsistencies (see "The Bad" section), I was quite satisfied by the setting, and I am hard to satisfy when it comes to history. Ignorance in history of nations and their cultures is so wide-spread that I didn't even expect from the developers to be more or less exact. Yet they were quite exact, and even though some things look improbable or out of place, they succeeded in two most important aspects: atmosphere and credibility.
As for the latter, I could notice they had made a pretty good research. There are many examples. The kingdom which our hero Septem serves is correctly called "Kingdom of Francs", not "France", as that name appeared later. It is correct that the capital of the Islamic caliphate (Omayyad dynasty) in 8th century was Damascus, not Baghdad (which became the capital later). It is also true that in the 8th century Europe could have used the great wisdom (first believed to be possessed by the Arabs, but in fact preserved by the Chinese in the game) Septem was looking for (although I doubt a European of that time would be open-minded enough to send an emissary to the "pagans" in order to learn from them). During the game, some true historical events occur - along with completely fictional ones, of course. For example, the confrontation between the Omayyads and the Abbasids in the Islamic world is mentioned and shown. And even though the world is populated by monsters, demons, spirits, and other evil and benevolent supernatural beings, it has just the right atmosphere and the right amount of concrete facts and details thrown in to draw us into it. Of course, we aren't talking a real "semi-educational" game here, but for a RPG, a genre that traditionally relies on fantastic and supernatural, it is already a great achievement.
Naturally, the most convincing part of the setting is China. China of 8th century was ruled by the Tang dynasty, and was the most advanced culture in the world. Tang epoch maybe hasn't produced so many great scientists as Han dynasty before or Song dynasty after, but poetry, arts, social relationships, trade, economics, and lots of other things got a tremendous boost. Chinese remember with fondness the great lyrical poetry and the famous love stories of Tang epoch. The capital was Chang'an, "Long-Lasting Peace" (today's Xi'an), the same city in which the cruel First Emperor buried himself with his terracotta army almost a thousand years before. I was absolutely delighted to visit Chang'an in the game. They made the city very big (you actually travel over the city map and visit many separate districts), and it was great to walk along the same walls I have seen in real life. There are other famous locations, such as the Shaolin monastery. You meet merchants, officials, Buddhist monks, old kung-fu masters, beautiful girls, and other typical representatives of Chinese society. You even meet the emperor Xuanzong himself, and even his famous concubine Yang Guifei, who is considered the most beautiful Chinese woman ever! It was because of her that the emperor neglected everything else, which led to the downfall of the Tang empire. It was great to meet such famous historical figures. And you even meet the great poet Li Bai in the game! I loved that part. It was somehow different from other Xuanyuan Jian games. Since the hero of the game is a European, there were more explanations about the Chinese culture. For example, every Chinese knows Li Bai is a great poet, but since unfortunately an average foreigner knows next to nothing about Chinese culture, they decided to explain to Septem (and to the hypothetical foreign player, too) who Li Bai was. This is another reason why I think "Xuanyuan Jian 3" is the perfect Chinese game for the Western player to start with.
The story of the game is excellent, it takes time to understand its underlying message, but it's definitely there. The continuous search for wisdom, the inability to find it either in Christian or Islamic world leads our hero to China, where he learns about Chinese culture and way of thinking. For me, the story emphasized the superiority of Buddhism to Christianity and Islam - which is also my opinion. Of course, not much is said clearly, but I think it wasn't a coincidence that the search for spirituality leads Septem to China. I would have enjoyed more speculations and discussions about religions, but I guess they figured out most players would enjoy more fighting evil demons and such, so in the end the whole philosophical contect was somewhat weakened in favor of "defeating the bad guys". But the idea of a spiritual quest was nevertheless a great one. Another essential part of the story is the confrontation between Septem and Miles. The main story actually revolves around two men who are in love with the same woman. The greatest part of the game was the character development of both heroes. It was very interesting to see how they react to the same events, how they deal with grief and despair, and how their relationship evolves. In fact, Septem and Miles are the two characters who carry the whole story on their shoulders. While there is occasional depth in others (Nicole, Midad, Cornelius, etc.), those two are the ones who make the story so exciting.
Nevertheless, there are many characters in the game, and most are pretty interesting and colorful, if not particularly deep. Your party members are all spirits, which is an interesting touch. While Kama and Li Jin were among the weaker characters in the game, I liked Nicole very much. Of course, this character was clearly influenced by Japanese "little girl with huge eyes" type, but there is something genuinely cute and touching in her. When she cries "Septem! Septem!" every time she feels he is angry after yet another careless action of hers, I really felt sympathy for the little creature. Besides, she is supposed to be evil, and I liked supposedly evil characters who turn out to be cute. Like my wife says, "demons are much cuter than angels".
Speaking of demons, there are of course villains in the game. As always in games (or anywhere else), I like ambiguous, good/evil characters, and fortunately there is a very strong one in "Xuanyuan Jian 3". I won't spoil anything else for you. In addition, there are some more ordinary villains, the most notable of which is the ever-present Cornelius. There is nothing extraordinary about this villain, but there is something convincingly creepy in him, and it is also possible to offer a symbolic interpretation of this character.
The graphics of the game are really nothing cutting-edge, but their artistic value is undeniable. The graphics help to create the proper atmosphere, and it is evident everywhere. Quiet streets of Venice, white-stone buildings of Damascus, beautiful, detailed decorations in Chang'an - everything is created with care and talent. Most notable are the wonderful hand-painted drawings of portraits and characters sprites in battles. Although the battles use a two-dimensional view and there aren't many special effects, they come to life thanks to the great design. Backgrounds have a definite Chinese touch, some of them remind Chinese watercolor paintings. Character portraits are influenced by Japanese art, with typical "expressions" (especially by Nicole), but are of a very good quality and add a lot to the game. In navigation mode, all characters are "super-deformed" sprites in nostalgic SNES-like spirit. I know some players are delighted by this style. I would definitely prefer different, proportional sprites, like those they used in battles, but that's a matter of taste. The game also has a great, atmospheric intro animation. The music is for the most part excellent, the best being the Venice melody in the beginning of the game, decidedly one of the most beautiful ones I have ever heard in a game. The Arab music was pretty good and atmospheric; surprisingly, the weakest was the Chinese one. However, it was great they changed music depending on the country you were in. The battle music for example exists in three variants: European, Arab, Chinese.
The gameplay system of "Xuanyuan Jian 3" has a lot in common with
Final Fantasy games. The battles play from the same perspective, and use a very similar active-time-battle system. Unlike Final Fantasy games, the enemies won't attack when you scroll through menus, but the command menu will also not pop out automatically: if you don't set the battle on auto, you must call the action menu yourself by clicking on a character (or pressing the space bar), and then selecting your action. The enemies won't wait for you, and sometimes a delay can be deadly. Overall, the game follows a very solid Japanese-style template. You'll get equipment, descend into dungeons, level up, and manage a party. There are many very cool additions which make this system more exciting. First of all, there are sub-quests, which are treated in a manner more typical for Western RPGs: you talk to characters and do what they want you to do, receiving a reward. Those quests are not very varied and usually involve fetching a particular item or answering questions correctly, but it's nice to have them there. By the way, the game lists your quests, including the main one, which is a nice feature, since you always know what is the task at hand. Once you have found your companions, you manage a party of four people, which I prefer over three party members any time of the day. It's simply more fun to control a larger party. What's more, some AI-controlled party members will join you. At a certain time, there will be four additional AI-controlled party members fighting on your side, which is of course cool.
There is plenty of equipment in the game: you can equip not only various body parts, but additional items with special effects, scrolls, and even monsters! The monster-summoning system is very interesting: basically, you can use a special command in battle to capture the monster you are fighting. Then the monster will appear as item in your menu. You can now either equip it on somebody, raising his/her stats, or leave the monster as a free item. In this case, it can be "used" in battles as an item to be summoned and to fight for you. Of course, you won't be able to summon monsters for free. Each monster requires you to spend a certain amount of stamina. You can view your stamina bar the same way as health and magic ones. There are some tricky stamina-restoring spells, spells that require stamina and replenish your magic points and vice versa. In addition to that, you can also mix any item you have with another one, including monsters. Sometimes you would get another monster, sometimes a new item. This experimenting could get very addictive, and I was in a hurry to finish the game, so I can't say I tried much. But obviously, you can create very powerful monsters and items during later stages of the game. I found the difficulty level of the game quite low for the most part, with two exceptions: one was a solo fight in the middle of the game, which I found pretty hard (but that might be my lack of monster/item experimentation), and the other was the final battle, which was appropriately nerve-tickling.
The Bad
As always with Xuanyuan Jian games, I don't have much to write here. There are just a few points. The final confrontation could have been made a bit more dramatic, I was slightly disappointed by the identity of the final enemy and the dialogue before and after the ultimate battle. Character-related side-stories, quests, and overall background information was a bit missing. Septem was absolutely in the center of the story, and his companions were somewhat in the shadow. While Nicole was rather active in many scenes and also played a certain role in the main story, other party members were there more for embellishment and exotic flavor than for true substance. Optional locations were also lacking, I don't think there is a location in the game which is not necessary to visit. There is no possibility to explore the world using vehicles, and it is always very clear where you can go and where not. While this makes the game much easier to play, especially if you don't understand Chinese, the joy of finding secret locations could add more "pepper" to it.
It's true that the graphics are very nice, but mainly thanks to the talent of the artists, not the technology. From technical point of view, the graphics are in many ways outdated. The characters are just simple "super-deformed" sprites, and the pre-rendered backgrounds don't quite match the quality of contemporary
Final Fantasy games. There are some pre-rendered animations, but most of them use the same character sprites, and the effect is simply not there. Most of those animations appear during the first part of the game, and afterwards there is a a serious "drought" which unfortunately lasts until the end. Also, I must say I wasn't that excited by those big-headed character sprites, I wish they would use the realistically looking battle sprites for navigation (like in
Heroine Anthem games), and of course, for pre-rendered animations. Another minor complaint is the looping music in battles. More often than not a boss battle lasts much longer than the music, and instead of carrying on, there is a noticeable break between the end and the next beginning, during which you'll just hear the sound effects and nothing more.
As for the setting: of course it was great, but I couldn't help noticing the developers felt much more "at home" in China than in Europe or the Islamic world. The Europe of the game actually belongs to a much later period, that of crusades or even later. It is hard to imagine such an enlightened and tolerant person as Septem among the European knights of the time. In 8th century, Europe was much behind Islamic world (and of course China), culturally as well as economically. It stayed so for a long time, of course, but 8th century was a really dark period there, I'm pretty sure (according to historical facts) that a knight such as Septem probably couldn't read and write. There are other inconsistencies, most of which take place in the Islamic world. That an Arab girl would be allowed to lead a whole army is absolutely out of question. That she would consider marriage to a European knight is perhaps even less probable. The weakest part was the whole story with Kama and Ankh. First of all, Kama is an Indian character, the god of love, who has nothing to do with Arab culture. Second, Ankh is an Egyptian word; nothing to do with Arabs (including Arab invaders in Egypt), either. Third, how come are they found in Syria? Why do the ancient symbols resemble Egyptian hieroglyphs? And why is the language in the ruins called "ancient Arabic"? In 8th century there was no "ancient" Arabic to speak of. And if there were, it would have been found in Arabia (today's Saudi Arabia), not in Syria, which was at that time just conquered by the Arabs, and whose ancient languages were Assyrian and Aramaic, not Arabic. I'm sure such inconsistencies won't bother most players, but I'm very sensitive when it comes to history of culture.
The Bottom Line
The third installment of the wonderful series scores a lot of points for originality. The decision to abandon the "China-only" concept and to introduce other countries and cultures was great, I applaud Softstar for it, and I absolutely disagree with those fans who criticized "Xuanyuan Jian 3" for being less Chinese than the other games.The great journey of a young European knight through the world of 8th century appeals to a broader audience, and the game proves above all that Xuanyuan Jian series belongs to the "world literature" of games, and is not necessarily an exclusive dish for Chinese gourmets and admirers of this great culture. But the setting of "Xuanyuan Jian 3" is also very unique and stylish compared to most RPGs, not only Chinese ones. Monumental story, good characterization, excellent style (as always), and solid gameplay system help to make "Xuanyuan Jian 3" the best possible choice for those who want to get acquainted with the series, but prefer to start in a more familiar place.
