Xuan-Yuan Sword 7

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 13 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 13
  3. Negative: 3 out of 13
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  1. SplitMind
    Nov 13, 2021
    7
    It brings me no pleasure to say that XYS7 is unfortunately average in all ways. The game has its charm from the Asian themes and context but ultimately is a very middle-of- the-road outing.

    The graphics may be one of the best things about XYS7. The environments in particular I found to be beautiful, with the green foliage to the autumnal leaves in other areas. The downside of this is    It brings me no pleasure to say that XYS7 is unfortunately average in all ways. The game has its charm from the Asian themes and context but ultimately is a very middle-of- the-road outing.

    The graphics may be one of the best things about XYS7. The environments in particular I found to be beautiful, with the green foliage to the autumnal leaves in other areas. The downside of this is that it's counterbalanced by dungeons that are incredibly bland and grayscale affairs. The character models which look good are also plagued by wooden movements in cut-scenes. This is a consistent issue with XYS7 - everything is dragged down to average whilst showing great promise.

    The gameplay lets XYS7 down a bit. The most consistently irritating thing I found was a lack of a sprint function, which is quite an issue in an adventure game. You have waypoints you can teleport with, but there isn't always one nearby, so sprinting would have been very helpful.

    The combat is fun, if a bit basic. One thing that could have really boosted the experience would have been to be able to switch characters and play as your companions, rather than the single instruction you are restricted to giving them. By the end of the game I was fed up of encountering enemies rather than excited for a battle. I also don't understand the imprison concept - it would have been far better if your skill bar for this just built up with each kill rather than having to execute a separate strategy mid-battle. A final note on combat - boss difficulty spikes were very odd, especially with the final boss who barely damaged me except for one fire attack that one-shotted me multiple times.

    Exploration in the game could also get a bit stale and irritating. Quite a few obstacles could be traversed with a simple jump, yet for some reason our protagonist cannot jump at all. I didn't appreciate having to take the scenic route.

    The story of XYS7 is a plot involving political warfare mixed with supernatural elements in trying to save your sister's life. One of my biggest issues with the plot was the amount of unnecessary cut-scenes where little happens. The game could really benefit from a smoother transition into cut-scenes also, instead of the outdated fade-to-black, as this adds to the length of cut-scenes and ruins any fluidity. Whoever's idea it was to use a bird-like voice for one of the characters portrayed by a talking bird made a very bad choice, as I found it such a grating voice, whereas none others bothered me at all. Overall, the plot of XYS7 is fairly unremarkable, and I heavily criticise the end-game section that made me traverse from area-to-area just for cut-scenes before sending me into New Game+.

    In summary, XYS7 isn't a bad game, but it's also fairly unmemorable too. Having glossed over the Wiki page after finishing the game, it appears this series has been going since 1990. This makes me even more critical, as a budget may be lacking but innovation and creativity should be flourishing much more than is evidenced here. XYS7 plays more like an early PS4 title rather than a 2020 title. It still makes me interested in seeing the next game, but much less likely to buy it.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

64
#64 Best PS4 Game of 2021
49
#49 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 12
  3. Negative: 1 out of 12
  1. Jeuxvideo.com
    Nov 30, 2021
    65
    Once the controller is in place, there remains a mixed feeling, made of a feeling of too little and the satisfaction of having had a good time anyway.
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  2. GameCritics
    Nov 18, 2021
    60
    While I generally enjoyed my time with Xuan Yuan Sword 7, it’s hard to recommend. Those who can deal with the mediocre and sometimes unfair combat may be able to enjoy the world and story, and there is something to be said for games that can wrap things up in around 15 hours or so, but that’s still a significant amount of time to deal with issues that really need more polish.
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  3. PLAY
    Nov 17, 2021
    70
    As much as we enjoy our first taste of Xuan-Yuan, it’s definitely rough around the edges. We experience framerate drops whenever we go near rivers, hitboxes not being where they should be, and some oddly endearing animation jank. But as long as you’re fine with that, you’ll have a good time hacking through it. [Issue#8, p.84]
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