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Swords of Legends Online

Swords of Legends Online is a free to play 3D fantasy MMORPG and is the online version of the Gujian series of Chinese single-player RPGs. Players will get to explore a world inspired by Chinese mythology with legendary monsters, challenging dungeons, crafting, and multiple options for PvP.

Publisher: Gameforge
Type: MMORPG
Release Date: July 9, 2021
Free to Play Transition: March 3, 2022
Shut Down: June 30, 2023
Pros:+Gorgeous visuals. +In-depth customization. +Fast progression. +Fluid combo-based combat.
Cons: -Poor optimization and performance. -Time-gated content. -Poor translation/localization. -Expensive cosmetics.

Swords of Legends Online Shut Down on June 30, 2023

Overview

Swords of Legends Online Overview

Harness the power of the Legendary Swords to finally put an end to the plague goddess Jiegou and her army of demons in Swords of Legends Online. Choose from six classes based on the ancient schools of martial arts: the Spearmaster, Berserker, Spellsword, Bard, Summoner, and Reaper. Each class is proficient in different weapon types and offers unique abilities that can be chained together to deal massive damage to enemies. Test your skills against other players in numerous PvP modes including multiple PvP arenas, battlegrounds, capture-the-flag, battle royale-style matches, and small-scale skirmishes. Complete dungeons and other activities to earn and gain access to better weapons and gear as you take on increasingly more powerful foes in your quest to rid the world of the evil goddess and creatures born of dark qi.

Swords of Legends Online Key Features:

  • Xianxia-Inspired MMORPG – explore a massive fantasy world inhabited by mythical creatures as you unfold an epic storyline based on Xianxia Chinese mythology and martial arts.
  • Fluid Action Combat System – unlock a variety of mystical skills that you can chain together for massive combos while skillfully dodging enemy attacks.
  • Challenging Dungeons – complete dungeons on different difficulties for a chance to acquire better rewards and more powerful gear.
  • Instanced Player Housing – build your own Asian-inspired mansion on a fully-customizable and sculptable floating island. Decorate your house with a wide range of furnishings, trees, plants, and other decorations.
  • Epic PvP Battles – choose from a variety of PvP instances and activities, including 3v3, 10v10, 15v15, Battlegrounds, Battle Royale, Capture the Flag, and more.

Swords of Legends Online Screenshots

Swords of Legends Online Featured Video

Full Review

Swords of Legends Online Review

By Marc Marasigan

Chinese MMORPG’s have always had a bad reputation for being re-skinned pay-to-win clones with auto-pathing and auto-battles. Basically, production line cash cows that will milk you with microtransactions. Then along comes Swords of Legends Online, a Chinese MMORPG port looking to break the mold with full-fledged action MMORPG gameplay and a promise of purely cosmetic microtransactions.

Swords of Legends Online is a remastered and improved version of Gu Jian Qi Tan Online that launched in China in July 2019 from developer Wangyuan Shengtang Entertainment Technology. The game is based on the Xianxia genre of Chinese mythology that has spawned various video games, novels, TV shows, and film adaptations in China. You take on the role of a promising martial arts student caught in the middle of the age-old fight between the forces of pure qi and dark qi. Chosen to be the vessel for the soul and consciousness of one of the ancient swords of legend, you must journey across the realm to help defeat the plague goddess Jiegou’s invading army of Blightbeasts and demons.

Be Cool, Go To Martial Arts School

Before you can go traipsing off to stop an army of demons, you must first choose your class, or in SOLO’s case, your school of discipline. You can choose from six classes: the Spearmaster, Berserker, Spellsword, Bard, Summoner, and Reaper. Each class also offers two specializations that you can unlock later in the game to fine tune your role for endgame dungeons and raids. The Spearmaster, for example, can specialize as either the General (melee DPS) or the Spearmaster (tank), while the Bard can choose to go with Dissonance (caster DPS) or Harmony (healer).

Personally, I rolled with the Reaper which offers a nice mix of melee attacks, quick dodges, and mid-range spells. The Reaper can specialize as an Assassin that plays just like a typical stealthy rogue with DoT skills and position-based abilities, or as an Occultist that can heal allies in exchange for HP and reduce incoming damage received by the group with a damage reduction buff.

The Berserker is also a good choice for those who prefer a more direct, fast, and hard-hitting melee class that will quickly blast through the early stages of the game. For those who lean more towards support roles, both the Bard and Summoner are excellent choices. The former uses AoE heals and shields, while the latter uses HoT skills and can summon a fairy to help with healing.

Taking Your First Steps

After choosing your class, it’s now time to create your character. Character creation is pretty straightforward with a wide range of customization options, sliders, and a free-morph feature to get your character’s look just right. Unfortunately, since the game is set in ancient Chinese times, the options are a bit on the conservative side. While you’ll have access to flashy accessories and outlandish makeup, there are no options for blonde or brightly-colored hair, blue or green eyes, or overly-dark skin tones.

Once that’s done with, you can now enter the game where you’ll spend roughly 30 minutes to two hours completing the tutorial, depending on whether you skip the cutscenes or not and there’s a lot of them. If you don’t mind a few broken translations and missing English voiceovers and are genuinely interested in following the game’s lore, then you’ll probably want to watch the cutscenes and read through each and every NPC dialogue throughout the game. If you’re not too particular about the storyline, then it’s probably best that you skip them entirely. Towards the end of the tutorial quests, you’ll also get to visit a mountain temple that perfectly shows off the game’s gorgeous environments, backdrops, and water effects.

After completing the tutorial, you’ll get to take your first steps in the game’s central hub, the floating city of Cloudrise, where you’ll complete even more quests and talk to even more NPCs.

Journey To The End

From Cloudrise, you’ll embark on a series of quests across the Mountain Realms, accomplishing a variety of kill and gather tasks for the grandmasters and leaders of each martial arts school. The tasks themselves aren’t overly challenging but they are quite tedious and, unlike open-world MMORPG’s, SOLO leaves you with no choice but to plow forward, progress through the storyline, and ultimately reach the endgame.

On the subject of progression, you’ll go through 37 Beginner levels in order to reach Student 1, the current max level. As the game is updated, you’ll then have to go through 37 Student levels to reach Adept 1. The unique leveling system is apparently based on the belief in the cycle of rebirth that forms the foundations of many Chinese religions. Every few levels, you’ll automatically unlock a new skill to add to your existing arsenal and will eventually get to select your specialization.

At the end of the level grind to reach Student 1, you’ll unlock a good smattering of endgame content which includes dungeons with two difficulty options, raids, world bosses, and PvP. Dungeons and especially PvP offers a more dynamic combat experience that requires you to make full use of your combos, dodge enemy attacks, and work with other players, unlike early game quests that are just plain dull and boring.

The game also features professions like crafting, gathering, fishing, hunting, and cooking in their simplest and very basic forms. You learn a recipe, gather the required materials, then craft or cook the chosen item. No muss, no fuss.

Home Sweet Home

SOLO’s elaborate player housing system is where the game really shines. Upon reaching Student 1, you’ll get to purchase your very own floating island residence where you can build a house that you and your friends can chill in while taking a break from fighting the forces of evil. You can also plant and harvest resources in your backyard that you can use to craft a wide variety of building materials and decorations, including furniture, statues, fabric, plants, and more. Resource nodes and residences can also be leveled up to increase production, resource storage, and blueprint research slots.

Final VerdictGood

I’ve tried my hand at a fair number of Chinese MMORPGs in the past and none of them hold a candle to Swords of Legends Online even with its broken translations and messy interface. The game’s stunning visuals and beautifully-rendered environments also puts it at par with other modern AAA MMORPGs. The best part is that, as Gameforge promised, there are no pay-to-win items and only cosmetic items are being sold in the cash shop, although the prices are a little too steep for my liking.

The one big letdown that I have is that the actual enjoyable activities like dungeons, raids, and player housing are locked behind an extremely boring level grind which is going to prove to be a challenge for a lot of players. If you do decide to put in the time, you’ll be rewarded with a whole host of new content with more on the way in future updates. Overall, a pretty good game that I’d recommend to anyone looking for alternatives to big-name MMORPGs as long as they have the patience to stick it out until it gets good.

Screenshots

Swords of Legends Online Screenshots

System Requirements

Swords of Legends Online System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 10
CPU: AMD FX-6300 or Intel Core i3-4130
Video Card: GeForce GTX 760 or Radeon HD 7870
RAM: 8 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 80 GB available space
DirectX: Version 9.0

Recommended Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 10
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 or Intel Core i5-6600K
Video Card: Radeon RX 580 or Nvidia GTX 980Ti
RAM: 16 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 80 GB available space
DirectX: Version 9.0

Music

Swords of Legends Online Music & Soundtrack

Coming soon!

Additional Info

Swords of Legends Online Additional Information

Developer: Wangyuan Shengtang Entertainment Technology Co.
Publisher: Gameforge

Platforms: PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, Gameforge)

Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Western CBT1: May 21-25, 2021
Western CBT2:
June 1-8, 2021
Official Launch Date:
July 9, 2021

Free to Play launch: March 3, 2022

Shut Down: June 30, 2023

Development History / Background:

Swords of Legends Online is a 3D free-to-play fantasy MMORPG by Chinese video game developer Wangyuan Shengtang Entertainment Technology and published by Gameforge in North America and Europe. The game is a remastered and westernized version of Gu Jian Qi Tan Online, which originally launched in China in July 2019, and is the latest game in the Gujian RPG series. The game originally launched as a buy to play MMORPG and went free to play on March 3, 2022.

The western release of Swords of Legends Online was first announced in April 2021 followed by two rounds of closed beta testing from May 21-25 and June 1-8. A free demo was also available for a limited-time on Steam from June 16-June 22 as part of the Steam Next Fest indie game event. The game officially launched on Steam in Europe, North America, South America, North Africa, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and other regions on July 9, 2021. Swords of Legends Online went free to play on March 3, 2022.

The game was shut down on June 30, 2023.