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Why This Promising Martial Hero Sandbox Game Has 60% Negative Reviews After 2 Days

By Johnson Ge
Jan. 13, 2023 updated 07:10

Open-world martial hero game Jianghu 11 was released on Jan 11th. The game is heavily inspired by "Taiko Risshiden", the popular sandbox RPG series produced by Koei back in the early 2000s. Players will create their own martial hero, explore an enormous Wuxia sandbox, meet various NPCs and write their own legend. However, the game experience was not even close to its ambition in any respect. Two days after release, the current review rate is mixed, with only 40% positive on Steam.

A screenshot of Jianghu 11’s steam store page shows the review rate is poor.A screenshot of Jianghu 11’s steam store page shows the review rate is poor.

For martial hero RPGs, one of the most crucial parts is the combat system. Martial hero game enthusiasts are willing to take a great amount of time to try different character builds and see which one is the best in combat or fits their ideal martial hero character.

Jianghu 11 has a quite unique combat system: it does not use the regular HP value as many other Martial Arts RPGs do. Instead, Jianghu 11 uses a “victory point” system. After each turn, the side who gained the upper hand will receive 1-3 victory points. After 18 turns, the side with more victory points wins. There are some martial arts that give the user a chance to one-hit KO the opponent, winning the fight before reaching 18 turns. The combat system is creative and feels more like a fighting sport rather than a death match. It is a great representation of the friendly competition that is a common trope in Martial Hero stories. In such stories, it is common to see duels where characters test their skills against each other without causing injury or death to see who is the stronger.

A screenshot of Jianghu 11’s combat screen.A screenshot of Jianghu 11’s combat screen.

The problem is, the combat system has not created a fun gameplay experience with a reasonable learning curve. The victory point system lacks the excitement of depleting the whole gauge of the enemy’s HP, and the KO skills have a chance to fail. Making combat often needlessly long, forcing players to endure 18 turns to claim victory.

Though the core feature of the combat is quite simple: the side with higher skill power will win the turn and gain the victory points. The combat tutorial failed miserably at teaching players, attempting to explain the game in two three-turn battles. Meanwhile, the combat UI is very complicated for new players. As a result, many players had no clue about why they won the fights and what they should focus on in the following fights.  It took them extra hours to fully understand the combat mechanics. At that time, most of them were disappointed since the combat system lacked the depth they expected.

Jianghu 11’s UI in combat is overcomplicated and confusing at the start.Jianghu 11’s UI in combat is overcomplicated and confusing at the start.

Jianghu 11 has a large sandbox map based on China’s Song Dynasty. But it does not provide much variety in the activities or exploration, nothing close to “Taiko Risshiden”. The characters do have many non-combat activities like drinking, playing musical instruments, gambling, medical skills, etc. The sub-systems are usually just skill checks instead of interesting mini-games, and most of them do not have their own playstyle or unique story route. The main purpose of the skills is to help the players improve their relationship with NPCs or receive items that improve their combat stats. It feels like the sandbox is not the main course it should be but a support system for the combat and the main story.

Many players complained they could barely find their destination on the sandbox map due to the ill-positioned camera angle.Many players complained they could barely find their destination on the sandbox map due to the ill-positioned camera angle.

The main story frustrated many players as well. Though Jianghu 11 claimed that players could write their own legends, the player-created character has little presence in the main story. The player character has very few lines, and there are many times when the main story NPCs do not even mention the player character at all. Many have joked that the martial hero they created was merely a “moving camera” to help record the story and nobody really cared about them.

The idea of Jianghu 11 feels really promising, and many parts of the game feel like it tries to be a “Taiko Risshiden” style martial hero game. Unfortunately, the game lacks enough gameplay depth or content to reach its ambitious goal.