Bloody Spell, Chinese third person action RPG for PC

Edit: As a heads up all the videos in the OP will autoplay by themselves so pause them first or at least turn off/lower your volume.

For Chinajoy 2018 the developers Yi Long Games have released a new trailer and a 30 minute demo of one of the levels that is open for everyone to play at the convention at their booth and the Zhongshan Subor PC console booth. The game kinda looks like a mix between Devil May Cry, Dark Souls and a little God Of War with Devil May Cry style hack n slash but more grounded, God Of War-ish with flashy finisher attacks and Dark Souls in just how gritty the environment looks and from the looks of it they'll try to catch you by surprise by having enemies placed out of sight and attack you when you least expect it. Normal attacks don't won't on some enemies which forces you to dodge when they're about to attack like with the big dual blade wielding enemy shown in the later half around the 19:50 minute mark in the 30 minute video.

One of the things that stand out about this game is real time character switching you can play as a guy with a one handed sword/spear/staff etc that specializes in close combat and as a magical girl that mostly does ranged attacks and can switch between them instantaneously in combat.

A release date is not known yet and whether or not this will get an English translation. As far as I know the original debut trailer got an English translated version so there may be some hope.

Anyway here is the debut trailer and the 30 minute demo, the youku player may not work well on this site or your browser.

And here are some earlier build demonstrations

Do these games ever come out?

@Gamerno6666: Not sure what you mean by that. Singleplayer games developed in China of this level and above were never common and are only starting to now. The game has secured funding from investors so it doesn't seem if it were to never come out it'd be because of lack of funding. Another possibility is that these games do come out but only for China thus hardly anyone that doesn't live in China or can read Chinese at least knows about these games. Finding Chinese gaming news itself is already a challenge.

looks like a copy of other games.

More Chinese propaganda, great.

Where is the propaganda ?

Do you use Steam, Tencent WeGame client ?

looks like inspiration of other games and their own take on the genre.

Doesn't look bad actually

RPG... No thanks.

Indie developers cant make gameplay good. and having RPG mean bad gameplay.

@vaeh: I use steam but not wegame client. Can you post some steam link of these games? I want to check them out.

I remember you posting an earlier video of this game. Looks like it has potential.

However, it seems unlikely to release in the West. Chinese games rarely ever do. And it's probably because Chinese publishers just don't seem to care about overseas markets. The Chinese market is so huge that they can make a ton of money without ever releasing their games overseas. Some of the highest-grossing games of all time are games which are almost unheard of in the West but made tons from China (e.g. Dungeon Fighter Online, CrossFire, Lineage, Westward Journey, Arena of Valor, etc.).

better looking than I'd expect, wouldn't want it though, even if I had a gaming PC, simply better looking stuff out there that calls me

are PC gamers here really looking forward to this or are they just doing the System War thing of "oh look something my system has that yours doesn't"?

anyhow, curious when it happens that Chinese developers make stuff way too good to pass up and whether they're going to flood western gaming market and cast a shadow on the current western console/PC developers, think it'll happen?

@lamprey263: I'm pretty sure overwhelming majority of PC gamers here in the West don't even know of this game's existence. That's half the reason I made this thread the other reason is kinda what you said but to also point out to a certain faction that like to tout PC only having RTS, MOBAs, and crappy indies *cough*cows*cough*.

Anyway I'm just generally interested in the games coming out of China whether they're for PC or console, this is a market that is not only the biggest in the world but the only to hardly ever have any singleplayer or premium games come out of it.

Even if this game doesn't come out in the West I just hope that someone at least makes an English fan patch. One of Tencent's main motives for WeGame international is to expose non-Chinese gamers to Chinese games so maybe if we're lucky and it shows up on the WeGame platform Tencent will work on getting the devs to make official translations.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/658630/Anonymous_ME/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/840140/_The_Swordsmen_X/

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=659184245

https://store.steampowered.com/app/717980/Summer_Rain/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/427030/The_Gate_of_Firmament/

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1179426998

https://store.steampowered.com/app/680390/Hidden_Dragon_Legend/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/594680/Shuyan_Saga/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/691280/SINNER_Sacrifice_for_Redemption/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/800140/_Faith_of_Danschant___Royal_Heart/

Meng's company is translating Gu Jian and the Faith of Danschant into English and plans to launch them in overseas markets. Currently they are negotiating overseas licensing with seven countries including the United States, Russia, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.

Source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-03/06/c_137019706.htm

Coming to Steam in August 2018

Release Date: December 2018

china sure loves their third person.

@ten_pints: More baseless xenophobia, great.

LOL. I love Chinese, but I could never eat a whole one.

@NoodleFighter It will have English subs. It's really amazing how the combat system progresses in the last few months.

@Gamerno6666Shaolin vs Wutang, martial arts fighting game left early access a couple of weeks ago that's pretty good.

There's a martial arts crpg Fate Seeker recently released on Steam. It has not English support yet. Reviews on Steam so far have been very positive.

The App Store picked Nishan Shaman as its favorite game in July! For some reason Japanese culture has penetrated mass market acceptance, but Chinese culture themed media remains so niche.

@kozio: Thanks for the heads up on Bloody Spell getting english subs. Yeah the combat seems less Devil May Cry-like and more Ninja Gaiden-like now. I wonder if the girl character is still in the game and if character swapping is still a thing.

Fate Seeker looks cool too, I saw a video of it before but I couldn't get the name of the game translated into English and properly search it. I assumed it was a new Tale Of Wuxia game since the main characters on the cover art looked very similar.

I'd say anime and manga are the reason why Japanese culture have obtained mass worldwide market acceptance. Series such as Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, Bleach, Pokemon and Digimon were the gateway to Japanese culture for a lot of people. Especially since in the 90s when anime started getting dubbed a lot and airing on TV too as Western media companies were starting to abandon action cartoons and decided to air anime since it was cheaper to just have a license than to make a cartoon. Normally when someone becomes a fan they start doing more research which would obviously lead to them research the country of origin their favorite series comes from, hence where weeaboos come in. I do it find it strange that people that can't even speak Japanese get hyped over hearing their favorite seiyuu in a game or show. For example a lot of people got mad that the Western version of Soul Worker Online only has the Korean voice overs and not the Japanese ones as they like the Japanese voice actors better.

@k--m--k: that's what china do best, they are world. Class at reverse engineering and copying stuff

@Jag85: Very true. I moved to Hong Kong two years ago and i see people play these games that look like Diablo. They look great and I hear they are very good but since i cannot read Chinese I never play them. But I think we will see more Chinese games in the future, the quality is improving and more games and competition can only be a good thing.

Looks like a cheap Chinese Devil May Cry, knockoff.

The most popular Diablo-looking game I'm aware of is Lineage I, a Korean MMORPG that released way back in '98 and is still going strong today in Korea & China even after 20 years.

Chinese games aren't relevant in the Western market for now, but they have future breakout potential. Much like how Poland had a breakout with The Witcher a couple of years ago, and now South Korea has had a breakout with PUBG. Chinese games may follow suit.

These don't look that bad, although the enemies are a bit bullet spongey for my taste. If they went the Dark Souls route where you die easily, but so do the enemies, then I'd be on board with these.

@NoodleFighter: Dragonball is loosely based off of Journey to the West. The name Son Goku is just the Japanese pronunciation of 孙悟空 or Sun Wukong. There have been a lot of adaptations of the folklore from the anime Saiyuki to the PS1 tactics RPG game Journey to the West.

Many things in Japan have Chinese roots. The list includes the written language, tea, paper, koi fish, tofu, the movable-type printing press, calligraphy, architecture, Confucian philosophy, Buddhism, martial arts, and even the pronunciation of some Japanese words is loosely based on the original Chinese.

China has have an anime industry since 20s. Back in 50s to early 80s, there used to be the golden time for the anime industry of China.

Chinese and Korean manhua/manhwa are popular, just not in America. And probably not as widely so as the Japanese variant. This is mostly because these things aren't being marketed in the West. There is a perception that they are simply copy cats of Japanese manga. Japan leads the anime and manga front because it's a pillar industry in Japan. In China and Korea, it's a niche hobby at best.

Because of this, they simply weren't prominent enough during the anime and manga boom of the 80's and again the 90's which is what resulted in several American companies rushing to import and market Japanese manga to Western audiences. Mainly Chinese manhua artists were discouraged due to copyright issues. Chinese cartoonist tried to make their painting style more Japanese, so that made Chinese manhuas didn’t have their specialties, lost their competitiveness.

China may have a huge domestic market, but some people still view anime as kids-related. And on an international level…haha. Some people may not be willing to try Donghua because “only Japanese animation and Disney is good” and “ Their voice is so weird. Can I have Japanese dub please.” I call it close-minded and the rejection stage. The modernization of Japan came earlier than the rest of Asia which allowed them to enjoy advantages of modernity. China has bad press. Japan had good relations with US. This could have led many cultural things being spread. But I have to say, anime in China is developing in an astonishing speed.

Taipei-set anime style action game. Weeabos might like this, all the anime game hallmarks are there.

It is primarily a VR game as far as I know but they also are making a flat screen copy so they still are able to make a profit while doing such an expensive production funded by a big Chinese company. I mean even a composer is a person that composed for Made in Abyss (Kevin Penkin) an Anime that was super well received with incredibly good music.

This Chinese third-person singleplayer ARPG seem to been having some marketing/pr problems. It was shown at E3 2018.

If we can get this type of talent from Hong Kong and funding to make singleplayer games that would be great.

This is how arcade beat'm ups should have evolved! For some reason the 3-man Korean team didn't really do advertising for this. Had a failed Kickstarter sadly. Hope a publisher picks them up and this gets release in the future.

@kozio:I know that Dragon Ball is based off of Journey To The West but Dragon Ball isn't as popular as Dragon Ball Z. I know plenty of people that love Dragon Ball Z but never watched or read Dragon Ball and its incredibly common since Dragon Ball Z is the part that took off in the West and the rest of the world with mass popularity. People are more likely to think of Goku as a Japanese Superman than a Japanese Sun Wukong due to Superman being more well known and Goku's origin story being almost the same as his not to mention his portrayal in the anime made him seem like a superhero of justice when he is really just a manchild martial artist that likes to fight and knows to get serious from time to time.

Dragon Ball has a lot of influences from Chinese culture for starters the landscapes they often explore and fight in on Earth are based off of China's mountainous terrains and canyons. Some characters have Chinese pun names like Roshi meaning teacher in Chinese, Oolong being a type of Chinese tea, Shu and Mai together make Shumai a type of Chinese dumpling, Tien is named after the Chinese themed Japanese dish Tenshindon and Mercenary Tao being a pun on the Chinese American dish General Tao/Tso Chicken. Chiaotzu's character design is based off of Chinese vampires. Emperor Pilaf wears the Chinese characters "fried rice" on his outfit. And of course Master Roshi's fake name for the Budokai Tenkai'Ichi is Jackie Chun an obvious reference to Jackie Chan the famous Chinese martial artist and actor.

I'm aware of Manhwa and Manhua and even read a couple (God Of Martial Arts and Breaker: New Waves). I have noticed manhwa getting a lil more popular recently. I think this has to do with K-POP and K-Drama getting more people into Korean culture and entertainment especially since K-POP has a much bigger worldwide audience than J-POP. It makes sense that Chinese and Korean anime aren't as popular due to not reaching foreign markets like Japanese anime does. I find it a bit strange that Koreans think animation is for kids considering their country is responsible for producing most of the world's cartoons and anime you'd think they'd love and respect the craft more than the Japanese do especially since animation studios in Japan are on the decline for over a decade now.

China really does suffers from the stigma of being seen as only able to make cheap knockoffs of other countries stuff. Some of the post in this thread proof it.

Thanks for the news on some of those games. I found out about Dusk Divers a week ago and I plan on a making a thread for it later if its gameplay footage impresses me. Risk One's Neck looks badass and truly a evolution of the beat em up genre. I'm pissed now that none of the gaming sites I followed did an article on this game, it could have gotten them the funding they needed. Hopefully they still find a way to make the game. The Pascal's Wager looks cool but being a mobile game definitely killed my interest in it. It seems like a huge waste to put all that effort into a mobile game with its limited hardware and controls when its potential can be shown much better on PC and consoles.

Nostos looks amazing and I'm glad it has a non VR version. They could market it as PCs alternative to Breath Of The Wild to garner up tons of sales.

Speaking of Donghua have you seen the movie trailer for JX3's animated movie adaption?

Yep, looks sick! JX3 has many fans of its Dōjin culture. Hopefully Wang Xing doesn't disappoint with the script.

It's made at the expense of Huyao Xiao Hongniang and The Outcast. It better be something worthwhile.

Holy shit, those animations look smooth and the combat looks satisfying as hell. This is how they should have done Streets of Rage IV.