After the legendary being Pangu opened the sky, there were only two great deities in the world: the ruler of gods, and the demon lord. When the godly woman Nüwa created human beings, a new epoch began, that of humans, gods, and demons. At first, there was a harmony in the world. But gradually, the humans developed their technique and occupied the realms of demons and gods. The demon lord became angry and ordered his minions to destroy humanity. Thousand years of peace have ended. The humans were surprised to discover that in this battle the ruler of gods took the side of the demon lord. When humanity was close to extinction, a hero who was carrying the legendary Xuanyuan sword appeared. He led the remaining humans to a desperate battle, and the humans were defeated. Since then, they could only live in the shadow of demons.
Many years have passed, and a new hero who can wield the Xuanyuan sword was born. Studying martial arts by an old Chinese master, the hero is yet unaware of his destiny. Everything begins when the teacher, worried about his friend, a mayor of a town that was invaded by demons, orders the hero to go there and to rescue him…
Xuanyuan Jian (“Sword of Xuanyuan”) is one of the first computer role-playing games made by Chinese (Taiwanese) developers. Graphically and gameplay-wise, the game follows the standards of Japanese RPGs. The player navigates the hero and his companions on a world map viewed from top-down perspective. Dialogues and battles are viewed from first-person perspective. Enemies appear randomly, and the battle engine is turn-based. The setting of the game, however, is different from the traditional fantasy worlds of Japanese RPGs, since it is set in old China, and its story is based on Chinese mythology.
