Xuan-Yuan Sword III: Mists Beyond the Mountains was released in 1999 exclusively for PC's in Taiwan, 24 Years late in 2023 the game received a modern PC and Nintendo Switch port with English support.
When it first released I was so happy to see this game finally received a English Port, before I had only seen screenshots of it but I had felt in love with it, specially because it reminded me of SaGa frontier one of my favorite PS1 games, but when the review of it came out, I was disappointed to read that this game was apparently quite bad with an AI translation that made the story hard to understand, and a difficulty curve that made the game way too easy , I also played Xuan-Yuan Firmed gate a spin-off game that while I didn't think it was bad, I couldn't put myself to finish it because I found it to be a overall very boring game, despite that I put the game on my wish list and hoped for a sale , maybe the review was wrong or they had fix those issues...
After playing it for around 28 Hours, I am happy to say that this game is in fact quite good, and that those issues where either fixed or never exited to being with.
If you have played any 90's turn base JRPG, specially Final Fantasy 7, you will already know how this game works, this game has an ATB like bar and when it's full the game will pause to allow to select an action, you can do an attack, use Skill that consume SP and will be used to heal your party or powerful spells against the enemy.
Items is where it gets a little bit interesting, as usual for most RPG , you can use healing items during battle, you can also use attacking items during battle although I never used them, and lastly use "living" during battle.
This game has a monster capture mechanic , after a certain point the story very early one, you are able to capture enemies with the main protagonist, if the enemy is low enough on health you can simply capture them, after capturing one enemy of a certain type , you can capture any enemy of the same type without needing to lower their HP first, the trade off in capturing enemies is that you don't get their EXP and money if you capture them , but after getting them, you can do 3 things with it, use them as an "accessory" each character will have 2 monster slots, and each monster has stats that will affect the characters stats giving them stats buff, it's nothing substantial just a nice bonus (outside of the agility stat) you can use them in Fusion which you can combine any 2 monster or item to create another item or monster , I only used it once in my game, you can probably can make some cool stuff with it but I never bother, lastly you can use those monster in battle as item, the will consume some vitality when summoned but will stay with until the end of the battle, I only used them like this 3 times over the game however they were very important on the final boss, so you should keep an eye on them.
Ultimate works like Limit break in Final Fantasy 7 where you will be able to use an selection of powerful attacks, and they will recharge as you get beaten during the battle, Guard that will reduce damage and increase the odds of evading attacks , there's also other commands like thief that are specific to certain artifacts you gain access during your journey.
The combat system here is not anything groundbreaking, for most battle I just pressed the auto-battle button, boss fights in the other hand are all over the place as far as difficulty goes, some boss battles specially in the latter half, where I just spammed powerful magic until the boss died, because everyone had equipment that reduced damage from Dark type attack which was the one type of attack they had, while other like the final boss and some boss fights in the early to mid game were really hard, with bosses that dealt a lot of HP damage that you could barely heal, and big HP bars that took forever to take down.
The Final boss was a huge difficulty spike that took me 4 hours to prepare and beat it, there was an item I could get to help that fight but I sadly couldn't get it because I missed early in the game.
I would say that the key to win battle here is to have equipment or accessories that reduce damage from elemental type the boss has attacks off, like having an Water resistance to the water boss.
Progression and exploration is very linear similar to the likes of Final Fantasy 10 for example where you can't go back to areas you visited before, this only changes in the last part of the game when you arrive in China where it opens up a little, but it's a very small area.
This is one of those games that in my opinion are batter the less you know about them, the first half of this game is pretty insane , and it keep me hocked to know , what's going to happen next because it felt like a fever dream, the latter half in the other hand is more grounded and while it didn't kept me hocked, it was still a very entering journey that had likeable characters , the ending was underwhelming however and barely worth the pain of the final boss.
The music here is alright, It serves it purpose and fits the game, but nothing memorable, sadly the music here has a giant flaw at least on this version, that issue being is that it doesn't loop properly, so in long boss battles for example the music will stop in the middle of the battle, have some second of awkward silence, after some second it will start again , the same thing applies when you are vising cities or exploring dungeons.
The Presentation in the other hand is fantastic, sure other game around the same time had technically more impressive graphics , as I said I felt in love with this game as soon as I saw screenshots of it, because it reminded me of SaGa frontier, the CGI background never felt off with the 2D sprites, despite them being very different from one another, the only thing odd about this game visually is that the in battle sprites look very different from the out of battle ones, but Final Fantasy 7 did the same thing and got away with it.
When it first released I was so happy to see this game finally received a English Port, before I had only seen screenshots of it but I had felt in love with it, specially because it reminded me of SaGa frontier one of my favorite PS1 games, but when the review of it came out, I was disappointed to read that this game was apparently quite bad with an AI translation that made the story hard to understand, and a difficulty curve that made the game way too easy , I also played Xuan-Yuan Firmed gate a spin-off game that while I didn't think it was bad, I couldn't put myself to finish it because I found it to be a overall very boring game, despite that I put the game on my wish list and hoped for a sale , maybe the review was wrong or they had fix those issues...
After playing it for around 28 Hours, I am happy to say that this game is in fact quite good, and that those issues where either fixed or never exited to being with.
Gameplay
If you have played any 90's turn base JRPG, specially Final Fantasy 7, you will already know how this game works, this game has an ATB like bar and when it's full the game will pause to allow to select an action, you can do an attack, use Skill that consume SP and will be used to heal your party or powerful spells against the enemy.
Items is where it gets a little bit interesting, as usual for most RPG , you can use healing items during battle, you can also use attacking items during battle although I never used them, and lastly use "living" during battle.
This game has a monster capture mechanic , after a certain point the story very early one, you are able to capture enemies with the main protagonist, if the enemy is low enough on health you can simply capture them, after capturing one enemy of a certain type , you can capture any enemy of the same type without needing to lower their HP first, the trade off in capturing enemies is that you don't get their EXP and money if you capture them , but after getting them, you can do 3 things with it, use them as an "accessory" each character will have 2 monster slots, and each monster has stats that will affect the characters stats giving them stats buff, it's nothing substantial just a nice bonus (outside of the agility stat) you can use them in Fusion which you can combine any 2 monster or item to create another item or monster , I only used it once in my game, you can probably can make some cool stuff with it but I never bother, lastly you can use those monster in battle as item, the will consume some vitality when summoned but will stay with until the end of the battle, I only used them like this 3 times over the game however they were very important on the final boss, so you should keep an eye on them.
Ultimate works like Limit break in Final Fantasy 7 where you will be able to use an selection of powerful attacks, and they will recharge as you get beaten during the battle, Guard that will reduce damage and increase the odds of evading attacks , there's also other commands like thief that are specific to certain artifacts you gain access during your journey.
The combat system here is not anything groundbreaking, for most battle I just pressed the auto-battle button, boss fights in the other hand are all over the place as far as difficulty goes, some boss battles specially in the latter half, where I just spammed powerful magic until the boss died, because everyone had equipment that reduced damage from Dark type attack which was the one type of attack they had, while other like the final boss and some boss fights in the early to mid game were really hard, with bosses that dealt a lot of HP damage that you could barely heal, and big HP bars that took forever to take down.
The Final boss was a huge difficulty spike that took me 4 hours to prepare and beat it, there was an item I could get to help that fight but I sadly couldn't get it because I missed early in the game.
I would say that the key to win battle here is to have equipment or accessories that reduce damage from elemental type the boss has attacks off, like having an Water resistance to the water boss.
Progression and exploration is very linear similar to the likes of Final Fantasy 10 for example where you can't go back to areas you visited before, this only changes in the last part of the game when you arrive in China where it opens up a little, but it's a very small area.
Story
This is one of those games that in my opinion are batter the less you know about them, the first half of this game is pretty insane , and it keep me hocked to know , what's going to happen next because it felt like a fever dream, the latter half in the other hand is more grounded and while it didn't kept me hocked, it was still a very entering journey that had likeable characters , the ending was underwhelming however and barely worth the pain of the final boss.
Music and Presentation
The music here is alright, It serves it purpose and fits the game, but nothing memorable, sadly the music here has a giant flaw at least on this version, that issue being is that it doesn't loop properly, so in long boss battles for example the music will stop in the middle of the battle, have some second of awkward silence, after some second it will start again , the same thing applies when you are vising cities or exploring dungeons.
The Presentation in the other hand is fantastic, sure other game around the same time had technically more impressive graphics , as I said I felt in love with this game as soon as I saw screenshots of it, because it reminded me of SaGa frontier, the CGI background never felt off with the 2D sprites, despite them being very different from one another, the only thing odd about this game visually is that the in battle sprites look very different from the out of battle ones, but Final Fantasy 7 did the same thing and got away with it.
Pros
- + Unique story
- + Likeable characters
- + Competent battle system
- + Eye catching visuals
Cons
- - Music doesn't loop properly
- - Difficulty spikes and vales
- - Underwhelming ending and Hard final boss
7
Gameplay
This game choose to not innovate , but rather just combine what other JRPG had done similarly before , if you think turn base JRPG are boring this game won't be for you.
9
Graphics
I know, I might be very bias here, some people might not like how 2 very different art style collide with each other , but for me the early 3D background works with detail sprite work
8
Story
This is not necessary a well written story, but rather one that will keep you playing this game until the credits roll because of how insane and endearing it is.
5
Sound
This music here sound alright, but the fact that isn't anywhere only shows how little people care about it, doesn't help that it has loop issues either.
5
Replayability
If you don't follow an guide you will miss some missable, like the one that will help against the final boss and secret super bosses, but because of how linear it is I don't see myself replaying it
8.5
out of 10
Overall
If you love PS1 JRPGs like me and want to play something like them but with a twist, you should jump straight into it.
