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Where Winds Meet
Jan. 10th, 2026 10:03 amFor the past few weeks, I’ve been absolutely obsessed with Where Winds Meet. I always get addicted to open-world RPGs, and that’s definitely been the case here.
The assignment for WWM was clearly to make a wish-fulfillment wuxia game, and that’s definitely the case here. There’s so much to do; so many side quests, minigames, professions, and things to collect. I spent dozens upon dozens of hours in Qinghe ignoring the main story and just exploring. The side quests are generally quite interesting, definitely not the MMO-style fetch quests. The most memorable one for me so far was when I accepted what I thought was a straightforward rescue sidequest, only to be kidnapped and sent to the Ghost Market! I also love the music minigames (though the pipa ones can be challenging).
Combat has been fun. I really like the martial arts and Mystic Skills; there’s a nice variety that allows you to switch things up when you want. For PvE, I’ve mostly stuck to the Heavenquaker Spear and Soulshade Umbrella, though I’ve also enjoyed the dual blades. I love the system of sneaking into the sects’ headquarters to steal their martial arts. It was so fun.
I’ve been playing on my iPad Mini with a controller (though I’d love to swap to my Macbook if they release the game for it). I sometimes play with touchscreen controls when I just want to look at something briefly, but I don’t love the touchscreen controls—I don’t know about other people, but I keep accidentally touching the weapon button when I’m trying to adjust the camera and accidentally terrorizing townspeople. :(
Here are a list of other issues that I’ve had so far, ranging from not that serious to relatively annoying (though, don’t get me wrong, I love the game overall):
- The storytelling can be vague. To a certain extent, it might be a stylistic choice (Black Myth Wukong, for example, didn’t spell things out explicitly either). But I find some of the lore in this game so vague I can’t even piece it together. I didn’t understand Jiang Yan’s backstory from that one sidequest, for example, and I didn’t understand Murong Yuan’s motives in the Jinming Pool campaign. I also wouldn’t have known that Big Zhao is Emperor Song Taizu and Jin Zhongyuan is the future Emperor Song Taizong if I hadn’t looked it up online.
- For the most part, I’ve really enjoyed the side stories in the campaigns and the Jianghu Legacies. However, I didn't love the latest few; The River's Fury had very repetitive water puzzles, and the Heavenfall Campaign was short and boring (basically go here, beat up a few guards, activate a mechanism, rinse and repeat). Also, neither story was interesting. Even the side stories in Qinghe that seemed unrelated to the larger narrative were interesting in their own right, like Gleaming Abyss and Blind to the World. I also didn't love the final boss of the final Jianghu Legacy chapter in Kaifeng; re-fighting four bosses I already fought before was terribly boring and tedious. I really hope this isn't a sign that the writing goes downhill in future areas, because the whole reason I enjoy the Jianghu Legacy chapters and the Campaigns is because of the storytelling.
- Collecting Oddities in Kaifeng feels tedious because you have to chase most of them down.
- It’s nearly impossible to complete Bounty requests from other players because people jump on them so quickly.
- Trying to get enough Appearance Tickets and Adventure Slips to afford the technically free outfits is a pretty tedious grind. I wish the Appearance Chests would randomly drop 1-5 tickets (or so) to make it go faster. (I do wonder if they did this on purpose to give people reasons to log in daily once they’ve finished the story/main content, but still…)
I’m excited to see what future updates bring! I really want building houses/estates to be a full feature in the international release, as well as more sects (would love to be able to visit the Well of Heaven Sect HQ…some day…).
The assignment for WWM was clearly to make a wish-fulfillment wuxia game, and that’s definitely the case here. There’s so much to do; so many side quests, minigames, professions, and things to collect. I spent dozens upon dozens of hours in Qinghe ignoring the main story and just exploring. The side quests are generally quite interesting, definitely not the MMO-style fetch quests. The most memorable one for me so far was when I accepted what I thought was a straightforward rescue sidequest, only to be kidnapped and sent to the Ghost Market! I also love the music minigames (though the pipa ones can be challenging).
Combat has been fun. I really like the martial arts and Mystic Skills; there’s a nice variety that allows you to switch things up when you want. For PvE, I’ve mostly stuck to the Heavenquaker Spear and Soulshade Umbrella, though I’ve also enjoyed the dual blades. I love the system of sneaking into the sects’ headquarters to steal their martial arts. It was so fun.
I’ve been playing on my iPad Mini with a controller (though I’d love to swap to my Macbook if they release the game for it). I sometimes play with touchscreen controls when I just want to look at something briefly, but I don’t love the touchscreen controls—I don’t know about other people, but I keep accidentally touching the weapon button when I’m trying to adjust the camera and accidentally terrorizing townspeople. :(
Here are a list of other issues that I’ve had so far, ranging from not that serious to relatively annoying (though, don’t get me wrong, I love the game overall):
- The storytelling can be vague. To a certain extent, it might be a stylistic choice (Black Myth Wukong, for example, didn’t spell things out explicitly either). But I find some of the lore in this game so vague I can’t even piece it together. I didn’t understand Jiang Yan’s backstory from that one sidequest, for example, and I didn’t understand Murong Yuan’s motives in the Jinming Pool campaign. I also wouldn’t have known that Big Zhao is Emperor Song Taizu and Jin Zhongyuan is the future Emperor Song Taizong if I hadn’t looked it up online.
- For the most part, I’ve really enjoyed the side stories in the campaigns and the Jianghu Legacies. However, I didn't love the latest few; The River's Fury had very repetitive water puzzles, and the Heavenfall Campaign was short and boring (basically go here, beat up a few guards, activate a mechanism, rinse and repeat). Also, neither story was interesting. Even the side stories in Qinghe that seemed unrelated to the larger narrative were interesting in their own right, like Gleaming Abyss and Blind to the World. I also didn't love the final boss of the final Jianghu Legacy chapter in Kaifeng; re-fighting four bosses I already fought before was terribly boring and tedious. I really hope this isn't a sign that the writing goes downhill in future areas, because the whole reason I enjoy the Jianghu Legacy chapters and the Campaigns is because of the storytelling.
- Collecting Oddities in Kaifeng feels tedious because you have to chase most of them down.
- It’s nearly impossible to complete Bounty requests from other players because people jump on them so quickly.
- Trying to get enough Appearance Tickets and Adventure Slips to afford the technically free outfits is a pretty tedious grind. I wish the Appearance Chests would randomly drop 1-5 tickets (or so) to make it go faster. (I do wonder if they did this on purpose to give people reasons to log in daily once they’ve finished the story/main content, but still…)
I’m excited to see what future updates bring! I really want building houses/estates to be a full feature in the international release, as well as more sects (would love to be able to visit the Well of Heaven Sect HQ…some day…).
