“We’ll be together. For now and ever. Oh oh, oh oh oh.”
-Super Furry Animals
Sword and Fairy: Together Forever is the seventh in a well-regarded series of RPGs from China. The previous entries have either not been translated into English or been difficult to get hold of on import, but now the developers are pushing everything they have behind the seventh mainline entry to reach an international audience.
Sound familiar? Speaking as an RPG fan living in the PAL region, I feel as though the above paragraph could well have been written about the mighty Final Fantasy VII back in the mid-nineties. Thankfully the developers at Softstar have decided to do a ’90s Squaresoft and push for global domination. They have, over the past couple of years, brought the seventh entries in both of their epic RPG series to western audiences. Last year saw the worldwide physical release of Xuan-Yuan Sword 7, an action RPG steeped heavily in Chinese culture and mythology. Now in the summer of 2022, they are releasing Sword and Fairy: Together Forever, another action RPG steeped heavily in Chinese culture and mythology!
Interestingly, the parallels to Final Fantasy don’t stop there either: the previous entry in this series, Sword and Fairy 6, was a turn-based affair that I played and enjoyed on the Playstation 4 a few years ago thanks to an import copy I bought online. This time around, Sword and Fairy: Together Forever has opted for an action-oriented combat system, not unlike the style used in Square Enix’s recent Trials of Mana remake. It’s simple and functional enough to use, without throwing unnecessarily complicated systems at the player. In short, it’s a very welcoming entry point into what is essentially an epic franchise.
For anyone concerned about stepping into a long-running RPG series at its seventh entry, there is nothing to fear. Sword and Fairy: Together Forever is set many years after the events of the previous games and only ever makes occasional nods to prior events. If this is your first foray into the series, the developers have done their very best not to alienate you. Being someone who shamefully knows very little about Chinese culture, I was extremely thankful for the database of characters, places, and events that the game routinely adds to. Having that glossary available in the menu to remind me of who’s who, or to offer background info on certain events and mythical creatures, was a very useful and often informative resource.
The game’s story unfolds as the deity Xiu Wu escapes from the Demon Realm and crashes to earth. Disguised as an apple (no, really), he is rescued by our heroine Yue Qinghu. Qinghu’s sect has dwindled in numbers to the point where it is just herself and her grandfather left to defend the neighbouring village from vicious beasts. Discovering that a young escapee from the neighbouring sect could be a reincarnation of an extremely powerful god, Wu and Qinghu – together with their additional party members Moqing and Yo – set out to uncover the truth and protect the child from demons. It’s a very high-fantasy story that takes a few twists and turns along the way, and even though there is a pacing issue, I can say with honesty that it all leads towards one of the most thrilling final acts that I have played in a video game in quite some time.
Along the journey are areas open enough for exploration and level-grinding, but linear enough to keep the main questline constantly moving along. There are waypoint markers placed on the map for each area for main quests, side-quests, and additional points of interest. This, of course, takes away the need to ‘explore’ for yourself, but it does keep the momentum going as you move from quest marker to quest marker. The side quests themselves are very simple fetch quests, but the addition of mini-games such as a recurring platforming challenge where you leap across giant leaves is a short but welcome distraction.
The combat, as I previously mentioned, is action-oriented. Each character has a standard attack and heavy attack, and combos can be executed through an assortment of both. Depending on which character is player-controlled, Wu and Qinghu use a range of melee attacks whereas Yo and Moqing provide ranged attacks with a crossbow and a magical talisman respectively. Alongside these standard attacks come several abilities which cost MP to use: these abilities can be set in the menu for each character between battles and offer a range of offensive and recovery spells that add an extra level of variety to your attacks. There’s also an extremely random button-prompt that infrequently offers a special combined attack with a teammate, and in true RPG fashion, there is also a way to summon gods to aid in battle for a limited time. The battle system, it must be said, is varied enough without overcomplicating itself.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an epic RPG without a card game, and Sword and Fairy: Together Forever has one of the most frustratingly brilliant ones in the form of ‘Journey Heaven – Earth’. This is basically rock-paper-scissors but with element-based cards. Some cards have special attacks, some have healing abilities, and the objective is to finish the game with more health remaining than your opponent. It sounds simple, and it is until some opponents decide to come at you with impossibly good cards. None of it is overly difficult though, and all opponents could be defeated after a few unsuccessful attempts. It is great fun trying to read the opponent though, predicting what they will play and trying to counter their moves. By the end, I’d found it almost as addictive as Gwent.
So, let’s break Sword and Fairy: Together Forever down into its individual components. Clearly, there is a lot to love here, and plenty that’s worthy of further analysis.
The 8-bit Review
Visuals: 9/10
Sword and Fairy: Together Forever is frequently a joy to look at. Some of the locations are so beautifully designed that any passing observer would think that this is potentially a AAA game running on the Playstation 5. The series has received some criticism over previous entries for looking a generation or two behind in terms of visuals, but I would say this game has taken a massive visual leap forward over its predecessor. Some of the cut-scenes also must be seen to be believed, with beautifully choreographed fight scenes and some genuine wow-moments towards the end.
Audio: 9/10
The audio is clean and crisp throughout, with satisfying sound effects during battles and gentle, wistful instrumentation playing when in the sanctuary of towns. Intriguingly, there is a music-related side quest that appears to unlock a selection of tunes from earlier Sword and Fairy games. Though I didn’t recognize them, it doesn’t go unappreciated that a series with such history offers that respectful audio nod to its own legacy.
Gameplay: 8/10
Sword and Fairy: Together Forever is a solid ARPG that keeps on offering more to the player the further they delve into the quest. The combat is smooth, albeit with the occasional frustrating hiccup: this being an action-focused RPG, there are a few times where the enemy can stun-lock you into their attacks, leaving you grunting “Lemme go!” at the screen. Overall, though, the combat is well up to the task of keeping the player interested throughout the game. It may not be Trials of Mana but it’s in the same ballpark, and some of the boss battles are a real treat! There are a couple of forced stealth sections, in the interest of variety, but these are easy to struggle through and don’t slow the pace of the action down too much.
Narrative: 7/10
What does slow the pace down is the story. Hoo-boy, I hope you like slow-paced drama because that is exactly what Sword and Fairy: Together Forever offers! Admittedly, I was expecting this after playing Xuan-Yuan Sword 7 because I was told at the time that Chinese drama is very slow-paced compared with what I’m used to. However, I was not expecting the narrative to crawl like this. Admittedly, my attention drifted away from the screen once during a conversation between party members and by the time I had refocused myself… they were still talking about the exact same thing! This is possibly hindered by the Chinese voice-overs and English language subtitles. I know a lot of purists love to play this way, but in this game, there is no way to skip to the next piece of dialogue. Often, I’d already read the subtitle and had to wait for the line to be read aloud in Chinese before it permitted me to move on. Thankfully, to the game’s benefit, the story it tells is an interesting one and really becomes something spectacular in the final third.
(Editor’s note – 8/4/22: If users have their system language set to a non-supported language (e.g. German, French, Spanish, etc.), the game defaults to Chinese. Users can overcome this problem by changing their system language to English. The developers are working on this issue.)
Accessibility: 7/10
The game itself is relatively simple to pick up and play, with a couple of straightforward tutorials close to the beginning explaining movement, attacks, and combos. What it doesn’t do as great a job of is explaining the rules of the aforementioned card game. I read the tutorial about six times before deciding that I would figure it out for myself… and even then, it was close to the end of the game when I figured out all its little nuances.
In addition, the subtitles can occasionally be difficult to read and there doesn’t appear to be a way to place them against a solid background. There were times I had to angle the camera down to be able to read the subtitles against the backdrop of the actual ground.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that if your controller runs out of charge, the game will not pause for you to plug your controller in. Be warned just in case you are, for example, in a decisive boss battle and low on health. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
Challenge: 7/10
The game itself is mostly smooth sailing. The side quests are a very simple case of going to certain characters, talking to them, going back to the quest-giver, and talking to them again. There’s nothing that’s going to really tax your brain until you start playing the card game. That’s when strategy comes into play, and you can really go for an added challenge!
Some of the boss battles may take a couple of attempts to work out which abilities and spells work best against them, but once again there’s nothing on the frustratingly difficult side of things. In fact, experienced ARPG players might want to opt for Hard difficulty straight out of the box. Otherwise, I would say it’s a relatively easy game to beat.
Uniqueness: 7/10
Sword and Fairy: Together Forever is a beautiful ARPG, but there are really quite a few of those around these days. In fact, I would say that there are more games of this style releasing this generation than in the turn-based style that the previous Sword and Fairy games utilised. This, sadly, takes away from a lot of its uniqueness in an increasingly crowded genre. I feel as though this is a game that will be overlooked by many just because of how unoriginal it might seem at first glance. After all, it is competing for attention with the recently released Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in terms of being an epic RPG quest. I would also say that the same developer’s Xuan-Yuan Sword 7 did a lot of the same things but somehow… cooler? Overall, if you have already played Trials of Mana and Xuan-Yuan Sword 7 and you’re looking for another real sleeper-hit of the summer, then this game could well be it.
Personal: 8/10
All things considered, I have really enjoyed my time with Sword and Fairy: Together Forever. It is a thoroughly enjoyable RPG that really gets better and better the more time you put into it. By the end of my journey, I had clocked in around 30 hours of playtime, which included a full playthrough on Normal difficulty, and a few extra hours afterward mopping up the remaining side quests. In fact, I even stuck around to grab the platinum trophy, which really gives you a clearer idea of how much I enjoyed the game! Here’s hoping that Softstar can see their worldwide venture as a success and that we can expect more games like this from them in the future.
We would like to express our gratitude for the copy of Sword and Fairy: Together Forever provided for this critique.
Aggregated score: 7.8
Teebee is an avid video-game collector and literature enthusiast. When he isn’t educating the younger generation, he can be found sharing a wealth of obscure gaming knowledge as TeacherBloke85 on Twitter.
