Developer: Lofty Sky Entertainment Inc.
Publisher: Lofty Sky Entertainment Inc.
Platform: Android, iOS, PC, Mac
Tested on: PC
Shuyan Saga – Review
Shuyan Saga is a graphic novel series where action scenes come alive in 3D combat gameplay. Choose your destiny in this comic book meets video game adventure and immerse yourself in an epic wuxia fantasy universe created by Chinese comic book master Daxiong. As Shuyan, you embark on a life-changing journey to master the inner secrets of kung fu! Are you well enough prepared for the path that lies up ahead?
Story
Set in an ancient Chinese martial arts fantasy universe, you embark on a life-changing journey as Shuyan, the princess of Nan Feng. Shuyan is a young princess who is not interested in learning etiquettes or living her life as a sheltered lady, but she rather lives as a free spirit who likes to be among her people and who keeps getting herself into trouble countless times. Her secret passion for kung fu is called upon when her kingdom falls under attack by the Guer horde, an evil army set on destroying the Five Kingdoms. The horde is led by a powerful general who wields a mysterious and otherworldly power.
The Saga of Shuyan is divided into three books, each with several chapters. Playtime is around an hour or two, depending on how well you fight during combat. The story itself flows easily and has a good tempo to it. There is also a sense of choosing your own fate because of the different options of dialogue that are presented. Every decision you make can affect the outcome of the narrative and characters. Who will you choose to save: your mother or best friend?
Graphics
What stands out the most about Shuyan Saga are the impressive visuals. The game is mostly visualized by stunning hand-drawn art that is mixed with 3D animations during combat. The 2D comic-like graphics aren’t always static either, seeing that some scenes are animated as well. This was a great choice to add to the game because it keeps the player more entertained than with a usual static visual novel that most are used to.
There are over 1,400 beautifully illustrated panels from the brilliant Chinese comic book master Daxiong, artist of over 100 comic book titles e.g. Justice League and Star Wars. The action sequences in the game come to life through 3D combat gameplay. It features hundreds of animations that are captured from an actual kung fu master.
Sound
As with the graphics, the game’s sound is also remarkable. With an original soundtrack by award-winning composer Aaron Tsang, the game sucks you right into the Ancient Chinese fantasy universe. Shuyan Saga also includes voice-overs with Kristin Kreuk (mostly known for her roles in Smallville and Beauty & the Beast) as the leading role! This, combined with the animations and great sound effects makes Shuyan Saga come alive and thus making it stand out among other visual novels.
Gameplay
As said before, Shuyan Saga is not like any other graphic novel we’re used to because of its animations and action combat. Here, we’re not only reading about the wuxia adventures of Shuyan, but we’re actually playing it by fighting in every combat scenario we encounter. What makes Shuyan Saga still count as a graphic novel is because of its mechanics. The game’s controls are still solely based on using your mouse.
Surprisingly, there’s a lot of variety in the pointing and clicking in this game, depending on what kind of combat you’re in. There are two kinds of fights you encounter: simple clicking for block/fight while you’re surrounded by enemies and a 1v1 fight where you have to pay more attention to how you attack or defend. So it’s not just left-clicking here and right-clicking there, it’s much more complicated than that. You have to focus on where (high or low) and when you attack/parry/dodge your enemy, you have to keep an eye on your attacks if you want to combine them to create a combo attack, etc. Thankfully, there are difficulty options to change the fight’s intensity, if you’re not really into all that. You can even skip it all if you want to focus on the story instead.
All in all, it’s still a whole lot of clicking. We suggest you take much-needed breaks if you don’t want to get cramps or strain anything. It can get quite tiresome after a while. This is especially true if you had a few fights in a row. It is also notable that the combat already feels clunky and some inputs don’t seem to even register at times, so being tired makes this even worse and even frustrating.
Besides the story, there are also two other modes: Tournament Mode, where you can have 1v1 fights and climb the ranks, and Jade’s Temple Adventure, which focuses more on exploration and puzzles. You can unlock the two separate modes by making progress in the main game. It’s a nice addition to the graphic novel gameplay but it’s not different enough to add actual replay value. It’s still all clicking and it will eventually get boring.
Conclusion
Shuyan Saga is quite an impressive graphic novel, even though it breaks many rules for the genre because of the animations and playable combat. The game keeps us captivated by its extraordinary visuals, sound, and story. The fighting, however, could still use some improvements to make it more interesting and fun. It feels clunky at times and is very tiring after so many clicks. (Oh, so many.) It’s appreciated that there’s variety in the mouse controls, but it doesn’t always click with the player.
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