Video Game Review: The Legend of Tianding

Developer: Neon Doctrine

Publisher: Creative Games Computer Graphics Corporation

Genre: Action

Reviewed On: PC

Also Available On: Nintendo Switch

A great side effect of the video game revolution is the greater reach of players and developers looking to share their stories. It’s been a wonder to see so many smaller groups or even individuals decide to take their unique experiences and turn them into games as the desired medium to reach out and say “this is important to me.” Sometimes it’s something magnificently massive, like Undertale or Lisa, and other times it’s minor ideas, like Wheels of Aurelia, Drowning or the ever depressing Actual Sunlight. The world is huge, and we can’t possibly know all the stories. So it’s awesome that the verbosely named Creative Games Computer Graphics Corporation was able to take a bit of history hitherto unknown to me and create something vibrant, engaging and educational (if clearly skewed). Let’s go back to the days after the first Sino-Japanese war, of the occupation of Taiwan, and the badass hero who brings together The Legend of Tianding.

Liao Tianding was a folk hero of Taiwan in the early 20th century, a figure who stood as the champion of the people and the loathed rogue amongst the occupying Japanese troops. Without giving too much away about the story, Liao is a smooth talking, fast footed and iron fisted vigilante who seeks to usurp the rich and corrupt to aid the disenfranchised. Armed only with the weapons that he liberates from his opponents, Liao must fight a daily battle of survival, justice and freedom, constantly pursued by those who wish to silence his voice of opposition. It’s incredibly exciting, and anyone who’s remotely interested in history is in for a treat with the way lore is handled within the game.

As a sidescrolling brawler with RPG elements, The Legend of Tianding is a straightforward affair, highly recommended to be enjoyed with a controller. Tianding is a solo fighter, who uses a series of simple inputs to strike and disarm his opponents. Upon picking up a weapon, that becomes his new primary attack, and will continue until he chooses to drop the weapon or is disarmed himself. A lot goes into fast precision movements: dodging and air dodging are both important, and the double jump along with a roll recovery when being struck in midair are essential to maintain the balance of dancing and hitting. As you get further into the game, there are various healing items and such to grab, but also passive powerups that can be equipped to improve your character build overall. The scale of difficulty does require you to invest some thinking into this aspect: without the right equipment, you can get your ass handed to you by more powerful boss fights. However, I did find out that the more relaxed mode of the game (aptly titled Gentleman Thief mode) allows you to coast through without caring too much about optimization. More on that in a moment.

There is also a side mode in The Legend of Tianding where you can play Four Color Cards, which is a Taiwanese version of Rummy. It’s a bit tricky to understand at first, but it quickly became a small addiction within this already robust game. I don’t know what it is, but it’s really important for me for minigames to be fun or interesting, and Four Color Cards was just a small delight found in something that already captivated me on multiple fronts. Be sure to take a moment and play if you’re unfamiliar with the game.

However, beyond the fighting and equipment grabbing of The Legend of Tianding is the presentation, which I feel dwarfs everything else you could say about the game. Visually, The Legend of Tianding is positively stunning. Meshing a wonderful mix of comic panels and voice work, you could feel the streets of Taipei spring to life as you moved seamlessly between expositional moments and into the fighting alleys in Dadaocheng. There’s an enormous amount of detail going into the game, and it’s truly something that’s loving, precise and done with the intent to evoke a particular era and feeling for the world of Tianding. As someone who’s never been to Taiwan and didn’t know about this chunk of history, it was amazing to get drawn into the story in such a massive way.

Additionally, the soundtrack is an absolute banger. Bringing in notes of period-centric music and instrumentation, the people of Creative Games Computer Graphics Corporation went the extra mile to bring the game to the forefront of what you might want to hear and see in this game. It was soothing, and I wish there were more moments of downtime between fights so I could just enjoy the music. Still, you’re doing something very right if I can be in a game that’s so heady with fighting and quick reflexes and fixate on the soundtrack.

As for the fighting, be ready for The Legend of Tianding to scale nicely as you get further on. As the difficulty has already been addressed, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that the fighting becomes more complex in terms of execution. Sure, you can steal weapons from others and use them, but unique combos begin to present themselves as Liao Tianding gets some extra help from sympathizers and creates a stronger fighting style. The game does a wonderful job in not getting too repetitive, instead focusing on introducing stronger elements as necessary and then calling back to the basics to keep you from getting rusty. It was a pleasure to be able to have some balance in not just discarding what I learned at the beginning, but also not pretending like the first five minutes are all I would be doing forever and ever.

I can’t see any reason not to recommend The Legend of Tianding. If this isn’t your cup of tea for gaming, at least do yourself a favor and watch some of the cutscenes to get the story, the artwork and the audio. The voice acting is top notch, and I sincerely appreciate the decision to just sub instead of trying to localize this Taiwanese hero into English. If you love a good brawler, get in there and punch to your heart’s content. And if you want to enlighten yourself to a bright spot in a dark period, then this the story to read.