Today, a Chinese AAA studio announced that it would adapt a famous wuxia novel series into a martial arts game. The demo trailer featured stylish battles that involve highly exaggerated aerial movements that are a common hallmark of wuxia cinema, but which I have rarely seen recreated so gracefully in games! In most action games, characters dodge attacks and block them with both feet on the ground. Code: To Jin Yong lets you jump impractical distances simply because it’s cool.
The game is developed by Lightspeed Studios, owned and owned by Tencent worked before the mobile ports for Apex Legends and PUBG. Code: To Jin Tong is being developed in Unreal Engine 5, which Tencent says will allow developers to realize fantastic martial arts moves through the engine’s advanced physics system. From what the reveal trailer suggests, even the environment seems very responsive to the player’s actions. The individual leaves move according to the characters’ attacks and are not a ready-made special effect that plays whenever a specific movement is performed. And I would be very happy if the camera movements seen in the trailer remain just as dynamic when the game finally launches.
And that’s a big if. The developers have only released AAA games for mobile, and the trailer confirms that the trailer “does not reflect the quality of the final product”. Tencent hasn’t announced a release date, so we may still be a few years away from playing the first Wuxia game developed in Unreal Engine 5.
As previously reported, the Chinese game development scene is moving again as regulators start approving more projects for domestic release. But licenses are hard to come by even for gaming giants like Tencent, so AAA studios have started to focus on premium experiences. In addition, publishers are also looking for game releases beyond the domestic market. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers and Black Myth: Wukong are two other examples of premium Chinese games announced during this push.
