Our Judgment
A wandering warrior must choose his path.
They have brought me to ancient China and handed me a sword.
At last, something I understand.
Then they taught me to leap across rooftops, disappear into the shadows, heal a wounded stranger, steal a horse, throw needles, fight with strange martial arts, and apparently glide through the air.
Perhaps I spoke too soon.
Where Winds Meet has no shortage of ambition. Its world is beautiful, and wandering through it is often the best reason to keep playing. Villages, mountains, temples, forests, and forgotten ruins give the journey a sense of place. The martial arts are the star, and the combat gives me several weapons, styles, abilities, and techniques to experiment with. When the pieces come together, a difficult opponent can become a satisfying test of timing and skill.
But a warrior who carries too many weapons does not necessarily become a master.
Where Winds Meet has an enormous number of systems. Combat, stealth, investigations, exploration, crafting, gathering, professions, social activities, progression, and countless smaller mechanics all compete for my attention. The problem is that few of them have enough depth to truly stand on their own. I can do many things, but rarely does the game make me feel that I have truly mastered any of them. The breadth is impressive. The depth is not.
That also makes the world feel less focused than it should. There is always another activity, another menu, another reward, another system asking for my attention. Some of it is enjoyable. Some of it feels like busywork. The game occasionally mistakes giving me more things to do for giving me more meaningful things to do.
Even the combat suffers from this philosophy at times. There are plenty of techniques and flashy abilities, but quantity does not always create complexity. When the combat works, it can be excellent. When it does not, all those systems can make an encounter feel unnecessarily busy rather than genuinely deep.
Still, I respect what Where Winds Meet attempts. Its world has character, its martial arts can be satisfying, and wandering through its landscapes can create moments that few games in the genre can match. It simply needed more discipline. A smaller number of systems, developed with greater care, might have produced a stronger warrior.
The Old Sensei has wandered far.
He has seen beautiful places. He has crossed swords with worthy opponents.
He has learned many techniques.
He has mastered very few.