Video Game / Xuan-Yuan Sword

Xuanyuan Jian AKA Xuan-Yuan Sword (Chinese: 軒轅劍, literally "Sword of Yellow Emperor") refers to a series of Chinese role-playing video games for personal computers developed by DOMO group, named to represent a group of friends with common goals, of Softstar Entertainment Inc. based in Taiwan.

These games incorporate elements from Chinese history and mythology. The first game, released in 1990, was a short game with a somewhat fragmented plot (retconned in the second game) and lifted names for its protagonists straight from A Chinese Ghost Story (also retconned in the second game), but paved the way to the establishment of a groundbreaking franchise of video games as well as the Chinese video gaming industry at large.

The series consists of the following games:

Main entries:

• Xuan-Yuan Sword (軒轅劍) (1990, DOS)
  • Set in an ambiguous time period in Chinese history
• Xuan-Yuan Sword 2 (軒轅劍貳) (1994, DOS, iOS)
  • Direct sequel to the first game
• Xuan-Yuan Sword 3: Mists Beyond the Mountains (軒轅劍參：雲和山的彼端) (1999, Windows, Nintendo Switch)
  • Set in the Tang Dynasty, as well as Europe and Arabia
• Xuan-Yuan Sword 4: The Black Dragon Dances as the Storm Rages (軒轅劍肆：黑龍舞兮雲飛揚) (2002, Windows)
  • Set in the Qin Dynasty
• Xuan-Yuan Sword 5: A Sword Above the Clouds & the Sentiments of Shanhai (軒轅劍伍：一劍凌雲山海情) (2006, Windows)
  • Set in the Three Kingdoms period
• Xuan-Yuan Sword 6: The Phoenix Soars over Millennial Clouds (軒轅劍陸：鳳凌長空千載雲) (2013, Windows)
  • Set in the Zhou Dynasty
• Xuan-Yuan Sword 7 (軒轅劍七) (2020, Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One)
  • Set in the Han Dynasty

Waizhuan entries:

• Xuan-Yuan Sword: Dance of Maple Leaves (軒轅劍外傳：楓之舞) (1995, DOS, iOS)
  • Set in the Warring States period
• Xuan-Yuan Sword: The Scar of Sky (軒轅劍參外傳：天之痕) (2001, Windows)
  • Set in the Sui Dynasty
• Xuan-Yuan Sword: The Millennial Destiny (軒轅劍外傳：蒼之濤) (2004, Windows)
  • Set in the Spring and Autumn period and Jin Dynasty
• Xuan-Yuan Sword: The Cloud of Han (軒轅劍外傳：漢之雲) (2007, Windows)
  • Set in the Three Kingdoms period
• Xuan-Yuan Sword: The Clouds Faraway (軒轅劍外傳：雲之遙) (2010, Windows)
  • Set in the Three Kingdoms period
• Xuan Yuan Sword EX: The Gate Of Firmament (軒轅劍外傳 穹之扉) (2015 Windows, PS4, Xbox One)
  • Set in the Shang Dynasty

Other entries:

• Xuan-Yuan Demonbane Chronicles (軒轅伏魔錄) (2001, Windows)
• Xuan-Yuan Sword Online: Chain of Life (軒轅劍網路版) (2002, Windows)
• Dream of Mirror Online (飛天歷險：軒轅劍網路版2代) (2005, Windows)
• The Scar of Sky Online (天之痕：軒轅劍網路版) (2010, Windows)
• Xuan-Yuan Sword Gaiden Online (軒轅劍外傳Online) (2012, Windows)
• Flying PuPu (飛天噗噗) (2011, iOS)
• Battle Legends (伏魔傳奇) (2012, iOS)

See also Sword and Fairy, another RPG series made by Softstar.

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This Franchise contains examples of:

• Autosave: Featured in the newer installments of the series.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: From the second game onwards, the developers DOMO Studio can be found in hidden areas.
• Cel Shading: Dream of Mirror Online, or Xuan-Yuan Sword Online 2, utilizes this to great effect.
• Combatant Cooldown System: Added in Xuan-Yuan Sword 3, which also changed the combat system closer to Final Fantasy.
• Cut and Paste Environments: Several generic environments from Xuan-Yuan Sword 3 were reused in its gaiden title, The Scar of Sky.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first game has minimal plot, with character names lifted from then popular media such as A Chinese Ghost Story, and was influenced in gameplay by the Dragon Quest series. The series' trademark Chinese painting artwork and monster absorption system were not introduced until the second game.
• Elaborate Equals Effective: Typically, the better looking the equipment is, the more powerful its stats are.
• Faux First Person 3D: Featured in the first three games.
• Fixed Camera: A point of controversy in the three games of generation 5, where there were usually no environments to render outside of the camera frame.
• Going Through the Motions: A staple from generation 4 (the first 3D generation) onward.
• Iconic Item: The Xuan-Yuan Sword that provided the series name. It was once wield by the Yellow Emperor to protect ancient China from monsters, and handed down from generation to generation.
• Isometric Projection: Experimented with in Xuan-Yuan Demonbane Chronicles, a spinoff Strategy RPG.
• Loading Screen: Present in the series during environment transitions.
• Multi-Platform:
  • Xuan-Yuan Sword: The Scar of Sky, has been ported on to mobile platforms, including iOS and Android.
  • Xuan Yuan Sword EX: The Gate Of Firmament is the first game in the series to be ported into consoles, such as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
• Real-Time with Pause: Gate of Firmament features the Cross Dynamic Time Battle system, in which the players can use a pause function and yet still issue commands to the currently selected character, while actions initiated before the pause resolve.
• Respawn Point: Averted. Being defeated in battles that are not hopeless boss fights takes the player back to the starting menu screen.
• Retcon: The second game standardized the character names, and removed those lifted from A Chinese Ghost Story.
• Spin-Off: The franchise has generated a great deal of spin-off media and events, such as music concerts, mobile games, MMOs, novels, comics, fanart, and a TV show, Xuanyuan Jian: Tian zhi Hen (軒轅劍之天之痕, lit. Xuan-Yuan Sword: Scar of Sky), a 2012 Chinese TV series adapted from the game of the same name.
• Video Game Long-Runners: Definitely, because the main series has at least six games, with multitudes of spinoff games, and the franchise has spanned over 25 years.