Where Winds Meet is one of the most surprising and best games I’ve played in a year when the best games are coming out left and right. It’s a game that quite honestly should not be free. From the amazing production value to the thoroughly deep combat system and absolutely stunning scenery, this thing should’ve cost something.
A game is rarely so good that you want to give the developers money after you’ve played it, but that’s absolutely the case with Where Winds Meet, and it’s a testament to expertise on multiple levels, regardless of the company’s prior gaming experience.
8 Best Games Like Where Winds Meet
From Rise of the Ronin to Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, these games are all highly recommended for Where Winds Meet fans.
We’re going to check out why Where Winds Meet is turning heads at the end of 2025.
8 Visual Presentation
The Stunning Views of Fantasy China
Visually, Where Winds Meet is in many ways the Chinese equivalent of the world of Ghost of Tsushima. It’s high praise for sure, but honestly, in just the opening hours, you will see some of the most beautiful scenery gaming has to offer. The colors pop all over the place, and the trees and water all look stunning beyond words. This stretches to the in-depth character creator, the number of options for character outfits and weapons, and everything else you can imagine.
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The cutscenes are also surprisingly well done, with a clear focus on making them feel immersive and relevant to the story at hand without being too invasive. I also found effects like fire and the sparks from weapons to look incredible and far beyond what any free-to-play game generally has to offer. The boss encounters are also a visual feast, so expect to see some of the shockingly high-quality scenes in those fights.
7 The Character Creator
The Only Self-Insert Game of its Kind
It may seem odd to highlight a character creator as a reason for a game’s success, but this is easily one of the best I’ve seen. You can edit every single thing possible here, from the amount of wrinkles you have to the shape of body parts that I honestly didn’t even know the name of. Hairstyles are plentiful, too, and you have tons of options when it comes to features like scars, blemishes, and anything else to make your character look completely your own.
The best feature here, however, is that you can literally upload a photo of yourself into the character creator and have the game render its version of you for the character’s face. Now, it takes some tweaking for sure, but this is one of the coolest features I’ve ever seen in a game. This is something that should be replicated a ton going forward, as it gives a type of immersion that we seldom see in a game of this magnitude and scale.
6 The Open World Done Right
You Can’t Be Bored
Where Winds Meet may look like your typical Eastern MMO on the surface, but there is something very special about this open world. The main thing is that it doesn’t have you doing busy work. The discovery of side quests and side activities isn’t just force-fed to you by a map marker; it’s explicitly something you can see in the world itself. For example, early on, you’ll see a fisherman near a pond. Do you go up to him or not? If you do, you’ll learn the shockingly addictive fishing mini-game that you can take part in.
There are also emerging events in the world, so any side content you come across is typically done organically. The side quests are also pretty solid here, as they generally have an awesome reward in store for you or a thrilling boss fight to take part in. The variety is fantastic for any game, let alone a free-to-play one. You will get access to brand-new skills here, too, so it’s definitely worth venturing off the beaten path to see what you can find.
5 Combat
Better Than You’d Think
Where Winds Meet surprises in a ton of ways, and perhaps the biggest surprise is just how damn good the combat is. At a glance, it may look like Sekiro and Rise of the Ronin had a child and raised it to play like Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. That’s quite the medley for sure, but honestly, it’s an apt comparison. The combat here is lightning fast, and though it’s not quite as violent as the aforementioned games, it’s still wildly impactful, and most importantly, varied.
The Mystic Skills, in particular, are some of the coolest moves I’ve come across in an action game in quite some time. These are skills you’ll acquire throughout the story or just by exploring on your own. They generally have a dual function inside and outside of combat, too, making them all the more interesting to use. They can be used to solve puzzles outside of combat, and once the fighting starts, you can use them to unleash havoc on enemies.
For example, there is a skill that targets pressure points, and outside of combat, you can use it to cure people of ailments, while inside combat, you can use it to temporarily paralyze an enemy.
You’ll also be parrying and dodging just as much as any Soulslike, and while it’s not that challenging, you can also crank the difficulty up to give you a more demanding experience if you so choose.
4 Playable Solo
Play on Your Own Time
Where Winds Meet is pitched as an MMO with full co-op ability, but the truth is that it’s completely optional if you don’t care to play with others. At a certain point early on in the game, you’re able to join others in the game world, or you can keep the game world completely offline and just play the game like a solo experience. It’s totally up to you, and as of now, none of the content will be locked because of this.
You will find the story fully accessible from a solo perspective. Honestly, it makes far more sense from that view anyway. While some sections will certainly be more challenging than others if you choose to approach them on your own, you can get by with a good understanding of your skills and the combat system as a whole. A lot of MMOs claim you can play solo, but that’s often a lie, as there are raids and huge group events that generally require a bunch of players to complete. Where Winds Meet makes that claim too, but so far, it’s backed it up.
3 It’s Free
Can’t Hurt To Try
A free-to-play game generally has a certain stigma around it these days. Players are constantly looking for the other foot to drop when that happens. For example, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad. That game is also free-to-play, but it essentially blocks any progression at a certain point unless you pay to continue the story.
This gross practice is apparent in plenty of other free-to-play games, but Where Winds Meet doesn’t do that. The game is completely playable from start to finish without paying a dime. Yes, you will occasionally be pushed to buy some cosmetics and the like, but this is far from a pay-to-win style of game. There is no cost to sign up, no need to share an email; nothing like that.
It’s a genuine experience from start to finish, and if you don’t like it, it costs you nothing. In a year when your wallet is probably hurting a bit from the massive releases dropping monthly, Where Winds Meet is a pretty good deal if you ask me.
2 Gripping Story
An MMO That is Story First
At the start of Where Winds Meet, you might think this is just another “Evil attacks village” story. While that is most certainly how it starts, what takes place from there is far more interesting than it has any right to be. While the main story feels a bit straightforward with you searching for your missing family and all the classic betrayals that happen in these types of games, there is also the hidden story to uncover.
See, the side quests are generally pretty connected to the overall plot, and there is a ton to discover in terms of lore and figuring out the motives for different characters and how they all tie into the larger plot. Fans of Soulslikes will be right at home here with constantly finding new bits of story to sink their teeth into, and nothing is explicitly told to the player outside the general main story. It’s clear a ton of effort was put into crafting this story, and there is a lot to dig into if you want to go beyond the basic story told.
1 Wuxia Come West
A Genre Reborn
Believe it or not, there is an entire genre that the Western Hemisphere has yet to really experience. It’s known as Wuxia, and it is generally a martial arts-based fantasy story with several elements of Chinese culture strewn throughout, like chivalry, honor, and the concept of hero characters.
There is actually an entire category on Steam dedicated to it, but the games, for some reason, never make a huge dent worldwide. Where Winds Meet is the game that can change all that; it takes the Wuxia culture and puts it front and center, showcasing amazing-looking martial arts and wild fantastical vistas, basically proving this should’ve been one of gaming’s most popular genres all along. Hopefully, its popularity will shed some light on the genre, as it has a big roster of games that deserve the attention of any action game fan out there.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
