Switch Xuan Yuan Sword 7 Review

It is genuinely impressive that Xuan-Yuan Sword VII has come to the Switch. This is one of the more technically detailed games to have come out of Taiwan, and concessions did need to be made to make it work on the Switch. If all that matters to you is the technical fidelity, then it would be difficult to recommend the Switch port. However, everything else about the game is captured perfectly. It looks gorgeous thanks to the art direction. The action is fluid and dynamic. And it's an excellent example of Chinese storytelling that we still don't see that often (particularly this well localized, thanks to the work of eastasiasoft.

This is a game that I enjoy more each time I play it. It was released for the first time in fairly broken English on the PlayStation 4 in 2020. Then eastasiasoft ran their localization eyes over it, and a vastly improved script accompanied the proper 2021 global release on the same console. Now, three years later, it makes its way to the Switch.

The basic plot is that of a brother and his little sister going on a journey to try and save her. In the early moments of the game, she's critically wounded in a battle between soldiers and monsters, but an "entombed God" promises to revive her, but they have to help him escape his prison first, and that sends them on a journey to find the Mohists.



Mohism isn't that well known in the west, but it was one of the earliest philosophical thought models in Chinese culture, from around 2,000 years ago. The script isn't subtle about these references – it outright names them. I wasn't familiar with the school of thought until being exposed to it through this game myself, and it has since been interesting going and learning more afterwards.



In short, it's a clean, elegant, and reasonably brief (at around 20 hours) journey through vibrant landscapes, towns, and places of antiquity. It's not perfect – the combat system is a little simple and it can take a while to understand how the "capture" and upgrade systems work – but it is enjoyable and, backed by that script, a different experience to a lot of what we're used to in the genre.



Aside from the drop in technical fidelity, the Switch port of Xuan-Yuan 7 doesn't miss a beat, and it's actually one of the more impressive action RPGs on the console. I do hold out hope that eastasiasoft and Softstar can achieve a similar miracle with Sword & Fairy Together Forever, because that's on another level entirely and is genuinely one of the finest releases this generation, but having Xuan Yuan VII on the Switch is a big box ticked.