Sword and Fairy: Together Forever Review

Initial release date: March 22, 2021

Worldwide Rerelease: August 04, 2022

Series: The Legend of Sword and Fairy

Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Genres: Role-playing video game, Action game, Adventure game

Developers: SOFTSTAR, Softstar Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows

Publishers: EastAsiaSoft, Cube Game, Softstar Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.

"Review Copy Provided By EastAsiaSoft"

I was randomly looking at videos on YouTube one day and came across a trailer for a game called Sword and Fairy: Together Forever and it immediately captured my attention with how visually impressive it was and how action packed it seemed. In a ironic twist, as I was looking up more information for the game EastAsiaSoft reached out to me and offered me a review copy of the game of which I immediately got to playing this game. Little did I know that this game is part of a long running franchise that’s been ongoing since 1995 that has 10 main entries with countless spin off titles and TV shows in China. This is the 7th entry in the series and what’s interesting is that it was previously released worldwide back in October of 2021; oddly the publisher decided it was worthwhile to repackage and rerelease the game. So now that I’ve given a bit of background on the franchise, the question now remains of whether the game is any good or not so let’s find out!

The plot of Sword and Fairy: Together Forever (I'll be referring to it going forward as SaF) starts off with your usual Gods, Demons, and super powered warriors and the schism between the three. You’ll get your standard save the world plot but you’ll also be given situations where the perspectives of the characters and their interactions with one another is truly amazing and are downright moving. Given that I am a sucker for a good romance in my games, the romantic sub plots amongst the cast is surprisingly good and develops in a way that is unlike what you would normally see in other games that makes me wonder if the scenario writer for this game would do some consultation for other scenario writers to help them make better love stories in gaming.

Ganeplay-wise, SaF is an action-adventure RPG that takes heavy inspiration combat wise from games like Devil May Cry and the recent Xuan Yuan Sword 7 and adds to that flair by giving you the ability to switch amongst a cast of characters that will be your party members. Each of your party members fits into a role of either a ranged or melee fighter with some unique abilities that they bring to the table such as healing abilities and the like and you can swap easily between them. You have a variety of moves that you can do for each character as they each have 8 moves mapped to the face buttons as well as combined with the R2+face buttons. Basic attacks are mapped to the Square button with heavy attacks assigned to Triangle; experimentation of mixing up light and heavy attacks will give you what’s called “Joint Attacks”. It’s not quite the free-flowing combat experience of a Devil May Cry game but it’s still pretty fun. The game also borrows from the Bayonetta franchise with you being able to dodge right before an attack lands and you get a stat buff to your damage output. There is also a RAGE like mode that you can utilize which buffs your attacks and makes you invincible for a limited amount of time along with a cool feature that allows you to summon deities which allows you to briefly control them and deal out some major damage.

SaF is graphically a one of the most breathtakingly beautiful games I’ve seen this generation with stunning attention to detail for the character models and the hair and clothing. Each of the characters looks like the came straight out of a live action play and really showcase what the next generation of gaming should look like. Environments are well detailed and can go from realistic to fantastical at a moments notice.

So with all the praise I’ve given this game you, you may be wondering what or if there are any downsides to this game and honestly there is and it’s the most glaring of all because it’s what makes the experience a bit marred and that’s the translation. The translation can often times be rough with incredibly broken making conversations very hard to follow especially when there is no dub other than Chinese on top of there being incredibly long cutscenes at times which can feel like they drag on. Maybe with some patches the translation can be fixed making the awesome story easier to follow along with; but as it is the translation is the roughest aspect of this game.

All in all, Sword and Fairy: Together Forever is a really enjoyable game with a pretty incredible story (when you can follow along with it) and an excellent combat system make this a hidden gem that you need to go out of your way to play!