Where Winds Meet: The Free-to-Play Open World Review

Where Winds Meet is certainly a courageous product, but its history so far seems to have rewarded the efforts of developer Everstone Studio and publisher NetEase: the game debuted on PC almost a year ago and subsequently expanded to the Mobile market before arriving on PS5 last November. We are talking about an Action-RPG Open World set in a Wuxia world inspired by 10th-century China, with the fundamental characteristic of being Free to Play. We ventured into these lands of bandits, monks, and rice paddies to try and understand the secret of its success.

• Basic Concepts

• Activities and Progression

• Realization

• Considerations

Where Winds Meet: Wuxia China Solo or with Company

In the introduction to the story, we meet two heroes – a swordsman and a fan virtuoso – who defend an infant from an attack by a bandit sect. During the clash, the latter is killed, but the former manages to escape with the precious bundle, later assuming the role of its uncle and introducing it to martial arts discipline from a young age, safe in the Qinghe region. Years later, we find the grown-up infant – or grown-up, if you prefer – serving a woman, the tavern keeper Han, with no news of the beloved uncle, who left years ago. Needless to say, an unknown past will soon come knocking, dragging the protagonist into an adventure that will span the entire region, from the capital Kaifeng and even further afield.

Where Winds Meet is, as mentioned, an Open-World title, but from the early stages of the game, it tends to offer the player a structure where the main storyline plays a significant role. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the game experience, we will be asked if we prefer a solitary journey where MultiPlayer is limited to specific PvP arenas and the summoning of allies near Bosses, or if we prefer a greater chance of encountering other players. In the first case, the game will have a structure very reminiscent of Genshin Impact or various Souls-likes; in the second, it will offer a certain touch of MMORPG.

Where Winds Meet and the Parallel Structure

The narrative structure of Where Winds Meet allows for the initial exploration of only certain areas of the game map: subsequent areas will be revealed progressively as the main story unfolds. Simultaneously, however, to unlock the various story chapters, it will also be necessary to reach a certain minimum level. This means that we will have to dedicate time to grinding and side missions or various activities before we can dive headfirst into the subsequent chapters or regions. Not only that: certain level thresholds cannot be surpassed unless a specific trial is completed, consisting of an arena where you face predetermined enemies.

Beyond this last hurdle, however, the requirement of the dual parallel progression – level and plot – will hardly be an obstacle: despite the fact that the main missions already provide enough experience to bring us significantly closer to the next threshold, the various collateral activities offered by the game world are so numerous that we will hardly find ourselves without “something to do”. Even just wandering freely through the rice paddies or mountains, fighting wolves and bandits, or collecting chests and treasures scattered around can be very rewarding, especially when you encounter a Boss that is malleable enough to be defeated; to these are added the numerous side missions that can be assigned by NPCs, but also fishing, Shogi challenges, debates, drunken target practice, and many other mini-games that the developers have introduced into the world.

A third layer of character development will also involve one's combat skills and weapons: in general, we will receive a new and more powerful weapon for each category present in the game – single sword, dual swords, spear, halberd, fan, umbrella – with each “rank” change, but for the rest, equipment will be progressively upgraded using various consumable items found around, from merchants or enemies. Other materials will be used to enhance weapon affinity, and finally, Talents developed during the game will be spent in the appropriate tree or saved to unlock abilities related to defeated Bosses.

Where Winds Meet: Between Art and ChatBot

The aesthetic impact of Where Winds Meet is certainly remarkable: the work done by Everstone Studio in recreating the rural and urban environment of 10th-century China rivals that of other more renowned studios – we think, for example, of various Assassin's Creed or Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei – and even in the realization of models, textures, and animations, there is a rather high level of care. Unfortunately, not all that glitters is gold, and sometimes we also witness some technical slips, such as model clipping or frame-rate drops; nothing that impairs the gameplay experience, but present nonetheless.

The soundtrack is, obviously, inspired by classic traditional Chinese melodies: however, a certain dose of more modern “influence” is perceptible, which contributes to making all themes pleasant and suitable for various situations. Voices are present only in Chinese and English dubbing: the former seemed to us of better quality, but obviously, comprehension becomes very subjective. Another reason to prefer English dubbing, although perhaps a little less beautiful, is related to the fact that subtitles – also limited in languages and with Italian absent – occasionally choose to lag on screen, a symptom of imperfect revision...

A peculiar element of Where Winds Meet is the fact that it is possible to chat with some NPCs more freely than with classic multiple-choice dialogues: the game includes a dedicated AI ChatBot that responds to phrases we compose in the appropriate dialogue window – obviously, having a keyboard connected to the PS5 can be very useful, but one can also manage with the classic interface. These dialogues are often ends in themselves and at most can yield some resources as a reward if you gain the NPC's sympathy, but they are still something remarkable in terms of experimentation. Dialogues related to the plot and quests, however, are structured in a traditional manner.

Where Winds Meet: A Grand Free-to-Play Work

Earlier in this article, we compared Where Winds Meet to Genshin Impact: in both cases, we have products that offer a vast Open World with multiple collateral activities [the fact that both are works by Chinese teams is a secondary, though perhaps not marginal, element]. However, the similarities between the two titles stop there, as HoYoverse's title is based on managing teams of characters obtained through Gacha mechanics, while Everstone's work puts us in the shoes of a solitary hero. Also, concerning combat styles, Where Winds Meet tries to draw inspiration from NiOh, with the use of stance and stamina, or other souls-likes, but undoubtedly the difficulty level is oriented towards a more casual audience.

The work is, however, undeniably vast, meticulously crafted in its plot and character backgrounds, supported by rather profound themes [without giving you SPOILERS, we advise you not to get too attached to the characters you meet...] and structured to last even 150 hours or more; all of this, it should not be forgotten, is provided in the Free-to-Play formula with monetization based exclusively on cosmetic elements – from common outfits to mounts, to enormous luxurious boats – and not on classic [and often criticized] Gacha mechanics.

In light of these considerations, it is not at all surprising that Where Winds Meet has been successful on both PC and Mobile and is rapidly gaining users on PS5: Everstone Studio's work certainly deserves to be tried by lovers of Open World games, souls-likes, and the Wuxia genre. And if the trial proves unsatisfactory – because, as mentioned, there are still flaws and limitations – at worst, you will have only lost a few hours, but not a single euro...