Developer Everstone Studios has high ambitions for its upcoming open-world action RPG Where Winds Meet. In an interview with Techradar, lead designer Chris Lyu spoke about what the studio hopes to achieve with the title, especially since Where Winds Meet tackles a setting and period that hasn’t really seen much representation in gaming otherwise. He also spoke about other things, like the challenges faced by the studio, as well as player response from playtests.
“What we hope to create is a really immersive world experience, that was our core goal when we created this project,” said Chris Lyu. “Of course, we ran into a lot of difficulties. Since no other studio has made this kind of game before, we didn’t have a lot of references.” He went on to discuss the overall positive reception that the title has been seeing, especially in China.
“The overall response has been pretty great and we’ve got a lot of positive reviews,” Lyu continued. “On Douyin [Chinese equivalent to TikTok] and Xiaohongshu [RedNote] we had a lot of spontaneous discussions among the players. Some of them would post videos of them playing and those videos would generate a lot of comments from others. Also, the response to the storyline has been great. A lot of players would burst into tears at the most moving parts and I think that created a lot of talk about the game.”
According to Lyu, the monetisation in Where Winds Meet has also been met quite positively, owing to the fact that the title doesn’t feature any pay-to-win content. Rather, the monetisation largely revolves around gacha-styled mechanics, as well as season passes and an in-game store selling cosmetic items.
“We don’t have any pay to win elements in the game, so it’s not like you can purchase your power level,” Lyu explained. “All of our monetization relies on making yourself look good. It’s purchasing costumes and mounts or visual effects for different skills and abilities. So it’s all about pleasing yourself.”
Circling back to discussing the Wuxia influences of Where Winds Meet thanks to its setting of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, global design lead Soul spoke about the challenges behind bringing the culture of the era to life in the game. This includes various aspects, from just the visuals to things like the emotions of the setting as well.
“Rather than just expressing the culture in a verbal manner, we prefer to create this atmosphere in which you can just experience the whole wuxia spirit of martial justice,” said Soul. “We let you experience the happiness, the sorrow, the excitement of that era in this wuxia world.”
Where Winds Meet is in development for PC, PS5, Android and iOS. The game will be coming first to PS5, before making its way on to other platforms after six months. For more details about the title, check out the behind-the-scenes video that was released earlier this week highlighting the motion capture efforts behind the game’s epic dance sequence. Also check out ten minutes of gameplay that was showcased ahead of the title’s final closed beta test.
