Swords of Destiny is a fairly obscure Hack and Slash game developed by Artoon in 2006, and set into a mythic ancient China.
Long ago, evil demons known as Gyakki invaded the human world led by their empress Yang Yuan. However, a legendary warrior called Yan De, wielding the Three Swords of Yi and helped by his daughter's spiritual powers vanquished her and her minions. However, fearing her return, he built a dojo in order to choose a rightful successor. Said successor, Lei Yun, is entrusted with the Awakening Sword, and sent on a journey to train. Sadly, he comes back just in time to see Yang's return as she and her slaves attacks Yan De's dojo and kidnap his daughter, Xiao, at the same time releasing the spirit of the evil Meng Wei. With Yan De dead, is up to Lei Yun to find all the Swords of Yi, save Xiao and stop the Gyakki once again.
Alas, the game seems to suffer a rather obvious case of "Blind Idiot" Translation, along with a rather bad voice acting and some frustrating mechanics in certain portions of the game.
This game contains examples of:
- Action Bomb: Some Gyakki looks like floating tumors and will explode with violence if approached.
- Back from the Dead: Yang Yuan was defeated long ago by the retired hero Yan De, but she came back to life recently.
- Big Bad: Meng Wei. Alias, Yan De, fallen from grace and desperate to find a way to stop the Gyakki permanently.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: The whole game is largely guilty of this. The description of certain bonus stages is so convulted it becomes nearly impossible to figure out what you're supposed to do.
- Bullet Time: Or rather, Sword Time: when you lock on an enemy, a green circle will appear. Hitting enemies when the circle turns red will initiate the Sword Time, with Lei becoming able to land a few really damaging hits on the nearby foes... though sometimes is hard to use.
- Cool Sword: The Three Swords of Yi, plus the Awakening Sword:
- Sinister Scimitar: Blue Dragon, a blue Da dao which boosts the Sword Time damage and utility.
- BFS: Raging Tiger, a huge and thick Jian which boost Strength.
- Double Weapon: Flaming Phoenix, a double bladed sword perfect for aerial combat.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: All the bosses, which is why you need to Master the Sword Time and the mastery of enemy's weapons, in order to deal better damage.
- Damsel in Distress: Xiao is kidnapped by Yang Yuan and must be rescued.
- Degraded Boss: The very first boss is a giant Gyakki wielding a club. They reappear later as common Elite Mook.
- Dragons Are Demonic: The second boss you encounter is a monstrous, dragon-looking Gyakki who was your co-student once.
- Evil Laugh: Yang during her Boss Battle.
- Flash Step: Dodging attacks and dashing may result in this.
- Flechette Storm: Flaming Phoenix' Dragon Magic results in a volley of homing fiery feathers.
- Ground Pound: Raging Tiger's magic.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Implied to be the case with Yan De, who became the demonic overlord Meng Wei.
- I Shall Taunt You: Before the actual boss fight, Yang will often appear to belittle and mock Lei during his quest.
- In a Single Bound: Lei Yun can jump pretty far and even double jump if required.
- Legions of Hell: The Gyakki.
- Lethal Lava Land: The caverns before Raging Tiger's temple.
- Light Is Not Good: Downplayed, after venturing forth in an ominous stone temple and across a net of gloomy, misty catacombs, the realm of the Gyakki appears as a magnficent gilded palace, though the sky gives off a sinister red vibe.
- Male Gaze: Yang's outfit is very skimpy, but to really top it all, her breast bands, while unrevealing, are black with a noticeable golden design on them.
- Morph Weapon: In order to improve your attacks you can pick up weapons from the fallen monsters and transfer the spirit of the Swords of Yi inside them. As a result, they'll be identical to the swords but with better statistics.
- Ninja: Some of the enemies.
- One-Winged Angel: Yang Yuan will turn into a massive Spider Person after her defeat. Unlike many other examples, the battle is divided in two different stages.
- Oni: The Giant Gyakki such as the first boss and others are seemingly based on this monster, even wielding gargantuan clubs in lieu of swords or blades.
- Our Demons Are Different: Most of the Gyakki are monstrous humanoids of various sizes and types, wielding swords and other blades. A few of them are seemingly based on certain Youkai.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The second boss is a western-style demonic dragon... who apparently was one of Lei Yun's former friends turned into a monster by Yang Yuan.
- Razor Wind: Blue Dragon's magic.
- The Reveal: Meng Wei is actually Yan De.
- Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: The main hero is fully dressed as a warrior. Xiao wears a rather chaste priestess outfit. Yang Yuan, on the other hand, has clothes only on her legs, groin and boobs.
- Stock Wushu Weapons: All the fighters employ classical martial arts, and the hero is a Master Swordsman using a jian, a large dao and a even larger jian, as well as a two-bladed jian with a staff-like moveset. Yang Yuan wields a yue poleaxe, while the mooks have a galore of weapons, including dao and jian of all sizes, qiang an jian clubs.
- Temple of Doom: Most of the second part of the game is inside one.
- Tengu: The flying enemies are winged humanoids with sandals armed with double spears and able to attack with Razor Wind and Flechette Storm.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Averted, you can pick up enemy weapons and turns them in one of the Swords of Yi... now with better statistics, butt less durability.
- The Worf Effect: In a cutscene, Yan De and Xiao manage to wipe out several demons without effort. Then Yang Yuan arrives, knocks Yan De out with a shockwave and dominates Xiao... by simply grabbing her. That's right, being grabbed by a half-naked demoness will make your demon-repelling skills useless.
- Wutai: The setting seems to be chinese, and yet, japanese-sounding words like Gyakki and dojo are heard.
