Blank Stare-way to Heaven.
My introduction to the Xuan Yuan series was through 2021’s console release of Xuan Yuan Sword 7, a journey I found to be rather impressive. After reviewing it, I purchased The Gate of Firmament while it was on sale but never found the time to play through it. With the game finally coming to PS5, I finally dived in. Unfortunately, while Xuan Yuan Sword 7 was delightful, this entry felt more like a tedious chore than a grand adventure.
Xuan Yuan has been a popular RPG series in China for decades, with the first game releasing over thirty years ago. Across the 16 entries in the series, with many of them being spin-offs, I was eager to explore some of its past after wrapping up its 7th main series entry back in 2021. The Gate of Firmament was originally released back in 2015, and was the first Xuan Yuan game to be localized outside of China. Despite being nearly a decade old, it barely meets even the basic standards of most games of that era. Hell, Witcher 3 released that year, and still looks great to this day whereas The Gate of Firmament barely looks better than most budget bin titles.
The Gate of Firmament is essentially one long escort mission as you’ll take on the role of Sikong Yu, a villager who is attempting to save his village from a series of bandits. As he encounters a camp, he finds Muyue, a woman who has ties to the Gates of Heaven, a place of legend. After she saves his village from these bandits, he is tasked with taking her home, even if she cannot remember how to get there. The game opens with a cinematic that revolves around the Gates of Heaven being opened so the Emperor can find his daughter. However, this caused chaos, and the Gates of Heaven were once again closed, with the Xuan Yuan Sword and Muyue being cast down to the mortal realm below, with a musical spell cast to make all mortals forget about the Gates of Heaven.
As a fan of Euro-Jank titles, I'm fine with rough visuals and the “low effort” aesthetic as I can often still appreciate the passion that has been put into a game despite the obviously low budget. However, there is a fine line between Euro-Jank and just plain Jank, and The Gate of Firmament is the latter, a game devoid of any passion or care to provide even a remotely engaging experience. From characters that have the chemistry of two naked mannequins at the front of a department store, to environments that look ripped out an asset shop, to systems that barely feel functional, The Gate of Firmament feels made on the scraps of scraps, a game that could be somewhat decent, but stumbles at executing on anything.
The Gate of Firmament is a turned-based game that desperately wants to be real-time. It has all the elements to be real-time, but the cooldown-based systems don’t complement your inability to move, making you take hits as you cannot move or dodge out of the way. You’ll eventually have a four-person team, with moments where you’ll split up, but even swapping back and forth to them feels wasteful and generic. It also doesn’t help that the AI will sometimes ignore combat entirely and just spam skills that rarely help, therefore draining that character’s MP. And since you are unable to really defend yourself, boss battles force you to focus on your health bars as you constantly heal those in need, ignoring everything else as you blindly perform actions, waiting for that cooldown to end on your healing items or skills. Regardless of the difficulty, battles against the standard fare of monsters is far easier than any of the game’s true boss encounters, causing a steep difficulty spike for no direct reason.
As you progress, find chests, and check out the few shops there are across the map, you’ll find weapons, gear, and items that can boost your stats and help in battle. Each character has their own weapon type and equipable gear items like bracelets and boots. You can also purchase schematics and craft items, often making something slightly better than what you already have. And since every battle rewards money and materials, it is easy enough to engage with this system and craft a better option. You can also infuse certain items with monsters as the game has this Pokemon-like system, but it feels entirely half-baked and barely worth mentioning.
As Sikong goes on this adventure with Muyue, you’ll also encounter Zi Qiao and Feng Yu, not to mention a little pig named Aqi that has a mystical urn tied to its back. Each new party member is unique and doesn’t feel like they are copies of existing party members. Zi Qiao is the Shang Princess, who loves to adventure and is constantly hungry, whereas Feng Yu is a mysterious man who has some shared goals with Muyue; however, is very secretive about them. There are a few plot twists you’ll see coming between the cast, which is unfortunate that they play the same card twice when it comes to how they handle Feng Yu as well as a character you had met just an hour or so before.
While the characters could be interesting, the blank and emotionless performances and presentation simply disappoint. There is not a single character in the game that emotes or has a performance that feels like they are committed to the role. Sikong will simply just stare off into space and have no readable emotion on his face, regardless of the scenario. Characters will not even look at one another when they talk. It’s like two kids on stage during a school play who are frozen in fear. How this was approved by the lead director or anyone in charge is beyond me.
Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament is unfortunately a very poor experience, regardless of having the fundamentals of what should be a good game. From horrible presentation to constant mini-map glitches, there is almost nothing to like here. Combat is bland, environments are incredibly lacking, and the voicing acting and direction of this game is atrocious. Xuan Yuan is meant to be a treasured series in China, but nothing here is convincing me of it. Xuan Yuan Sword 7 was a very impressive game, but The Gate of Firmament is simply awful.
Developer - DOMO Studio.
Publisher - Softstar entertainment. Released - December 13th, 2024. (PS5), PC (2015), Xbox/PS4 (2017) Available On - PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC. Rated - (T) - Suggestive Themes, Violence. Platform Reviewed - PlayStation 5 Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.