Xuan-Yuan Sword (, literally "Sword of the Xuan-Yuan")The official translation about "軒轅劍" is "Xuan-Yuan Sword", instead of "Xuan-Yuan Jian". Reference:楓舞軒轅電子報第六十二期：軒轅劍的英文名字(The E-Paper of the Maple Dance with Xuan-Yuan Sword, 62nd: The English Name of Xuan-Yuan Sword) is a long-running historical fantasy role-playing video game series developed for personal computers by the DOMO Studio (DOMO小組/多魔小組) of the Taiwanese game developer Softstar Entertainment. The games incorporate heavily elements of Chinese mythology, and is one of the so-called "Twin Swords of Softstar" (大宇雙劍) along with The Legend of Sword and Fairy, a sister fantasy RPG series also developed by Softstar.
In time immemorial, the titular Xuan-Yuan Sword was wielded by Yellow Emperor to defend Ancient China against the warlord Chi You and his aggressive subjects. After Chi You's defeat, the future for the five-thousand-year-old history of China was secured, and the sword was passed on from Yellow Emperor to future generations to continue to defend the world against evil. Due to its great power, the sword was often sought by treacherous individuals to further their own ends.
A recurring item of the series is the Monster Fusion Vessel (Lian Yao Hu, 煉妖壺), created by the goddess Nüwa in emulation of the Immortal Creation Ding (造物仙鼎) to cleanse the world. Within the Vessel resides an immortal entity known as the Spirit in the Vessel. The Vessel's powers are to absorb nonhuman creatures, and to transmute them into other creatures or items.
Main series
The Xuan-Yuan Sword series is the oldest and longest living Chinese RPG series, totaling 13 RPGs with ancient Chinese-style stories set in ancient Chinese backgrounds. They are: Xuan-Yuan Sword Xuan-Yuan Sword II Xuan-Yuan Sword Gaiden: Dance of the Maple Leaves (The story happened in Warring States period of China) Xuan-Yuan Sword III: Mists Beyond the Mountains (The story happened around the time of the An Lushan Rebellion. The protagonist started from Venice, Italy, and crossed the entire Eurasian continent to reach Chang'an, the capital of the Tang dynasty of China) Xuan-Yuan Sword III Gaiden: The Scar of Sky (The story happened in late Sui dynasty) Xuan-Yuan Sword IV: The Black Dragon Dances as the Storm Rages (The story happened in the late Qin dynasty) Xuan-Yuan Sword Gaiden: The Millennial Destiny (Part of the story happened in the Spring and Autumn period of China, in the 6th century BC, and the other part 1000 years later, during the Battle of Fei River, during the East Jin dynasty) Xuan-Yuan Sword V: A Sword Above the Clouds and the Sentiments of Shanhai (The story happened in an alternate world called the world of Shanhai, or literally the world of the Classic of Mountains and Seas. The time is equivalent to late Three Kingdoms period in our world) Xuan-Yuan Sword Gaiden: The Cloud of Han (The story happened in the period of Three Kingdoms of China) Xuan-Yuan Sword Gaiden: The Clouds Faraway (The game consists of 3 chapters: the main chapter, the chapter of Lan Ying, and the chapter of Wuzhang Plains. The story happened in the period of Three Kingdoms.) Xuan-Yuan Sword VI: The Phoenix Soars over Millennial Clouds (The story happened in the West Zhou dynasty) Xuan-Yuan Sword Gaiden: The Gate of Firmament (The story happened in the Shang dynasty) Xuan-Yuan Sword VII (The story happened in the late West Han dynasty)
Xuan-Yuan Sword
(, literally "Xuan-Yuan Sword")
In the beginning of the world, the goddess Nüwa created two kinds of intelligent life: those of men, and those of monsters, who warred among each other all the time. The Sword was created by men in an attempt to end the everlasting war. Led by a single heroic figure, Xuan-yuan Swordsman (軒轅劍俠) who wielded the Sword, the war between humans and monsters ended with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Seventeen years later, the main character, He Ran (何然), a young swordsman left his mentor to set off on a journey into the chaotic world to carve his own path.
The first game in the series, Xuan-Yuan Sword was also Softstar's first RPG product and was released in 1990. The time period the game is set in is ambiguous. The game features a Dragon Quest-like user interface. Players started the game as a novice adventurer with minimal fighting skills and can gain combat experience through battles to enable progression to other areas and advance the plot. The main characters were named after the characters from A Chinese Ghost Story in this game, but their names were retconned in the second game.
The game featured standard VGA 16-colored 640x480 screen, complete with party-members, round-based combat, full-screen sprite animation, various monsters, Chinese-styled AdLb music, sound effects, animated spell effects, as well as full Chinese interface, which was a great hit in Taiwan's computer game market at that period.
Released on October 13, 1990.
Xuan-Yuan Sword II
(, literally "Xuan-Yuan Sword 2")
Continuing from where the first game left off, He Ran (何然), together with the vigilante Yang Kunshuo (楊坤碩) and the young thaumaturge Jiang Ruhong (江如紅), defeated the dreaded incarnation of the Flaming Phoenix (火鳳凰) (the sinister monster who kidnapped Jiang), befriended a benevolent fox spirit Gu Yuesheng (古月聖), and traveled back in time to find He Ran's parents. They sought to bring about the end of the leader of the invasive monsters, known as the Wicked God (惡神), Bashe, and eventually confronted the treacherous Spirit of the Vessel.
Released on February 8, 1994.
Features Many key features of the game series were introduced with this game. It was set in 320×240 256-colored screen (in the once-popular VGA X-mode). In-game artworks such as scenes, monsters, character portraits, items were fashioned in Chinese painting style.
Monster Fusion Vessel Another key feature is the Vessel system. Not long after the beginning of the game, the Monster Fusion Vessel can be acquired, and has two main functions: Absorb enemies encountered in battle, with limitations: Cannot absorb creatures that have higher experience level than player, and those creatures whose levels are close to the players' are more easily captured when wounded. Bosses creatures and human enemies cannot be absorbed. Imprisoned monsters are visible in players inventory and can be summoned to assist during battle with a stamina cost. Transmutation. A player can transmute creatures and items to other objects or creatures. The resulting product may be exceedingly powerful or unobtainable otherwise.
The Sword In the battle against the final boss, the Vessel Spirit, the goddess Nüwa appeared and revealed the truth that Xuan-Yuan Swordsman was He Ran's father whose spirit has fused with the Xuan-Yuan Sword. Receiving the powerful weapon from the goddess, the protagonist and his company went to the World Within the Vessel and defeated the treacherous Vessel Spirit, sealing him by planting the Xuan-Yuan Sword in his head.
This installment also introduced a recurring element of the series, the DOMO Studio that is present in all future games in vastly different incarnations that players can visit to access humorous fourth wall-breaking dialogue, quests, and items.
Xuan-Yuan Sword III: Mists Beyond the Mountains
(, literally "Xuan-Yuan Sword 3: Beyond Clouds and Mountains"; released in English as Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains)Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains - Steam Store
The story opens in Venice with Septem (賽特), a Frankish knight and covert intelligence operative of mixed descent from Gaul who was the lieutenant to Pepin the Younger. Septem possessed an heirloom bronze vessel with an eastern design, which was in fact the Monster Fusion Vessel. He had heterochromic pupils of blue and brown, garnering discrimination and distrust from his peers and fellow knights over his somewhat Eastern appearance. Miles (麥爾斯) (the reincarnation of Satan whose memories and innate powers had not yet been fully awakened), a knight-commander under the guidance of the cleric Cornelius (康那里士) (the Dread Lord of Hell in disguise), was the polar opposite of his rival Septem, enforcing the Church's will without mercy and question, executing those designated as heretics without hesitation, and had the affection of Lilian (莉蓮), a pure maiden Septem had courted in vain. Pepin himself, however, favored Septem, and gave him a quest of great import. He was to go to the East, and find the way to achieve Absolute Victory/the Way of the King. During the journey, a simpleminded demoness named Nicole (妮可) joined Septem after being summoned by a strange dying man Septem tried to help, as an agent sent by Satan. Her mission was to awaken Septem's memory of his past life, in which he was Lucifer's most trusted ally who took part in Lucifer's Rebellion, and to convert him to Satan's cause once more, accompanied with promises of wealth, power, and demonic servants, but she eventually abandoned her mission over the fondness she developed for Septem. Kama, a self-proclaimed spirit of love, and Ankh, a snarky talking flying Egyptian black cat accompanying Kama (both of whom Septem encountered in the Tadmor Tombs), as well as Li Jing (李靖), a Chinese mortal-turned-deity who oversaw the establishment of the Tang dynasty, whose reincarnated self, Master Huiyan, previously accompanied Septem for a short time before sacrificing himself in an attempt to stop a war between the Abbasid Caliphate (which recently overthrew Umayyad rule) and Tang (which ended in the defeat of the Tang forces led by Gao Xianzhi), also joined the party. Septem also met his eventual wife, Widad (薇達), a military leader who defied Arabian patriarchal traditions and who was the reincarnated spirit twin of Kama, and the young grandson of Al-Kindi, whom Septem studied under for a short time around the time of the Abbasid Revolution, as well as Wang Siyue (王思月), a willful young woman from Chang'an with feelings for Septem, along his journey. After finally reaching China and encountering a variety of conflicts, including the An Lushan Rebellion, the group discovered Satan's plan to subjugate all worlds by using the Reversal of Mandala Ritual (反曼陀羅陣), which Septem's past incarnation invented and gained time traversal powers from, to modify the natural laws of causality, and managed to foil it with the assistance of The Immortal of Xuan-yuan Sword (the avatar of the Xuan-Yuan Sword who takes on the form of a stern and wise old man). After Satan's defeat, Septem married Widad, returned to assist Charlemagne with lessons from his journey-that a ruler must rule in the best interests of the commonfolk, and the way to ensure victory lies in the prevention and cessation of conflicts, and later reunited with Nicole, who was reborn once more as a normal girl by the grace of Heaven.
The game eschews turn-based battles for the Active Time Battle combat system, an unusual feature in Chinese RPGs. The refining system in the game has two categories of items and creatures, Eastern and Western, which allows for the creation of different items based on altar selection.
The game was released on December 4, 1999. An iOS port of the game with additional storylines and scenes meant to expand the portion of the game set in China was released on January 17, 2017. This version was later rereleased digitally with numerous enhancements on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2023.
Xuan-Yuan Sword IV: The Black Dragon Dances as the Storm Rages
(, literally "Xuan-Yuan Sword 4: The Black Dragon Dances! The Clouds Fly)
This game is the fourth installment of the main series. The game is the first to be presented in 3D, both in environment and in combat.