I attempted to write this so many times and was unable to find adequate words to describe the sheer vortex that was this game taking over my life that it appears that I ended up never posting it lol, sorry developers.

Yes, I played it a lot, yes, I told everyone who can hear about it and now I'm about to write this so people can read what I write about it too.

The story of this game can be linear, but I think focusing on a single path with branches really allows the developers to focus in on the narrative and story. I know everyone wants to pick their own sect, and I read on the forum that that was the cincher for a lot of people so if you are here to pick a sect, seek other games? Personally I thought joining Wudang feels right for the story of the game, and if you have a narrative you want to portray, it's fine to make it linear. That being said, your choices and actions in the game can have consequences, just not often when you are clicking on dialogue options. There is a quest where picking the wrong location to travel to, something you do manually in this game and not by clicking a button on the quest map to teleport there, will lead to a prominent character dying.

I had so much fun running around the map, exploring every little corner and checking on the time-locked quests. A mechanic I love with this game are follow-up quests. There are hints of big quest chains and locations of them, but sometimes it needed further investigations, or the time wasn't right, so you need to pick up the clues or come back later to fully complete the quest. It's honestly a pretty brave decision, because it banks on the players reading and engaging with your works. If not well-written, this could make your dialogue feels quite awkward and forced, but luckily, this game is quite well-written. The dialogue feels natural to me. They managed to make unique characters and strong emotional arcs purely from writing-- there are only one, very rarely two sprite per character. The translation (I assumed this was written in Chinese) was great, and I love all the little plots with increasing complexities. There are subtleties I didn't expect to come through. There seems to be a lot of care and attention put into this game and that makes it very compelling.

Also, shout out to your artists, the art looks bombastic, and the animations of all the skills are so good. It makes exploring the map so fun. I came back to the game for the Southern Chronicle, start a new save file from fresh and found that I still remember where everything was and where all the secret chests were because every location was so unique. There are so many unique characters art, too. They really made an effort to fill the world.

This game has both real-time and turn based combat, as well as a pretty reliable auto-play so you can grind but also has a life! I like the upgrading system. You don't get stronger until you find new manuals to study, and then you need to grind points to invest in the skill you get from the manuals. There is also a stat upgrade tree, the currency of which you get from upgrading your cultivation manuals (not weapon skills, only cultivation). I thought this was quite fun and really encourage the players to hunt for manuals and thus, really explore the NPCs and regions.

Someone better than me should write about the music and the poems. I wish I could write about the music and the poems. maybe it's budget constraint rather than an artistic choice, but I really like the little section after certain quest chains where you get a little moment of quiet where the MC reflect on the everything, and it's flowery and nostalgic and I adore that. Really gives one a much needed moment to wind down after a hard quest, and it makes the accomplishment feels real.

I remember buying the game when it first launched, give and take a week, and every single play session, I would open up to a new QoL update. The developers are receptive to players' input, and even now, they are continuing to develop the story. I can't wait to come back to this game many more time!

TL,DR: this isn't a review I'm just gushing about the game i like

PS: Thanks for correcting the Purple Cowrie Soup ingredients, Devs

This is one of, if not the most unique turn based tile formed combat games you'll ever play.
Great graphics, great story, pretty good depth on the combat and skill trees.

Wishing there was character customisation, and 1 more class option based on range, but a solid 8.9/10

Absolutely the best wuxia game I have ever played, even better than the old classics!