The Wind Road

The Wind Road is a real-time combat martial-arts action RPG set in a fictional era along the ancient Silk Road. You begin by helping decent sects escort monks carrying the Great Karma Scripture to the Imperial Court. After a series of trials and setbacks over ten days, you uncover the Scripture’s secret and take on the task of stopping the chaos threatening Shazhou and the Longyou trade route.

The Silk Road

The Barbarians of Grey Wolf have invaded the Silk Road for a hundred years. Now they send troops to Shazhou to capture the important site of Longyou and threaten tens of thousands of people. The Barbarians try to stop the Scripture Escorts from delivering the Great Karma Scripture, while Jianghu forces seeking its secrets also set out after it.

The game’s suspenseful story includes multiple paths and puzzles. You learn about its world by exploring, snooping, reading letters and other texts, and collecting items; the game is fully voiced.

Real-time combat

Combat is built around combining martial-arts moves and responding to enemies. You can block, dodge, roll and use Insight to exploit an opponent’s weakness. Blocking at the moment of an attack can trigger a Sword Riposte, while certain Inner Qi Methods also enable Insight. Enemies can read and counter your moves, and their Inner Qi can offset yours or destroy some objects in the environment.

Your Health determines how long you can survive in combat, Qi fuels Internal Moves, and Stamina limits how often you can sprint, roll and block. These values can be increased by cultivating an Inner Qi Method and taking medicine. Rage builds when you take attacks; once it reaches a threshold, you can use a swift move that breaks an enemy’s defence, based on the weapon on your back. Some moves provide Endurance, preventing an injury from interrupting you, while meditation in combat can bring its own risks.

Martial arts and equipment

You can use swordplay or Fist & Palm techniques. Swordplay allows blocking and Sword Riposte but not Hidden Weapons. Fist & Palm techniques include Palm Blaster, Wing Chun and Drunken Boxing; Palm Blaster is suited to ranged enemies. This style can use Hidden Weapons but cannot block, and it costs a lot of Stamina.

There are six Inner Qi Methods, each offering a different approach to combat and healing. Arts of Violet Mist gives you very low Health and weak blocks in exchange for ample Qi and critical damage. Sinew-changing Classic provides high Health but cannot deal critical hits or strike an enemy’s weakness; it can transfer damage and is effective for healing wounds and resisting Internal Injuries. Activating an Inner Qi Method can also trigger a Psi-Sword effect. For example, Arts of Cloud Dragon makes every sword move available and lets each one break an enemy’s defence.

A martial-arts set contains six moves: three External Moves, or combos, and three Inner Qi skills that cost Qi. The game has over 60 combinations of martial-arts moves, which you can mix to form your own style. You can change your moves and Inner Qi during combat, at an additional EXP cost. You can also enter Sword Holding status when an opportunity arises to recover Qi and Stamina faster.

You can collect or craft Hidden Weapons, including Poisoned Dart, Leaf Blades, Throwing Knife, Darts and Date Pit. Weapon refining uses materials to add temporary effects: Sharpening causes bleeding, Poisoning deals poison damage over time, and Frosting increases critical damage. Equipment includes masks, bamboo hats, weapons, back decorations and rings; changing equipment also grants attribute bonuses. In some levels, you can use a bow and arrows to attack from rugged terrain, including shots that pierce several pursuing enemies.

Drinking too much makes you drunk, allowing special moves such as Drunken Boxing and Taibai Swordplay to increase your combat strength.

Crafting and exploration

You gather materials through missions and exploration, then use them to craft medicines and darts or enhance and repair weapons. Exploration and puzzle-solving are part of discovering the world and its story.

Injuries and challenges

Enemies with strong Inner Qi can inflict Internal Injuries, classified as Ying, Yang or Severe Injury. You need to treat them or take suitable medicine, or their effects will worsen. Other combat effects include Poisoned, which drains Vitality over time; Sinew-broken, which prevents Lightness Techniques such as Dodge and Roll; and Break, which can leave you unable to block after repeated enemy strikes. Tough opponents can also counter your Insight and Sword Riposte.

The game includes more than 100 NPCs and hundreds of combatable rangers in Jianghu. You can challenge rangers and masters at the Arena or Gambling House in Lianshuo Town for rewards.

Inherited playthroughs

A multi-loop inheritance system carries crafting materials, Funds, Equipment, Martial Arts, Internal Force, Martial-arts Basis and game-clearance rewards into a new game. Later playthroughs also let you explore content you missed before, including branches of the main story.