the Wu Xia Pian arrives in video games with the Unreal Engine 5,

We have known for a few years that China is now a country that is emerging in terms of video games, with many studios that have ceased to be the small hands of American and Japanese studios, to produce and create their own games. If we are all waiting for the arrival of Black Myth Wukong, another title will undoubtedly attract the attention of Western audiences. This game is Code: To Jin Yong, an open-world Action-RPG developed by China’s LIGHTSPEED STUDIOS and published by Tencent Games. The particularity of this game is that it is developed with the Unreal Engine 5 and that it takes up a genre well appreciated by the Chinese public, Wuxia, in other words the famous martial arts novels. In the cinema, the Wu Xia Pian has something rooted in Chinese culture and in the cinema, the general Western public was able to discover it with Tiger & Dragon by Ang Lee, Hero by Zhang Yimou or even The Secret of the Flying Daggers by the same director.

For Code To Jin Yong, the developers of LIGHTSPEED STUDIOS were inspired by the writings of Jin Yong, a writer ultra famous in China for his swashbuckling novels, who died in 2018, and whose legacy will be found in this game planned for PC and next gen consoles. For the moment, the story around the game remains quite mysterious, but we are promised something related to the characters of Yang Guo, Guo Jing and Linghu Chong, knowing that there will be exploration and a lot of magic. The developers have used martial arts experts for the game, especially when it comes to motion capture, with the promise of movements and poses faithful to the Wu Xia Pian. In terms of gameplay, Code To Jin Yong seems to offer ultra-dynamic combat that relies on powerful blows, both melee and ranged, with the possibility of throwing projectiles. Of course, it will be possible to counter his attacks and also wait for the opportune moment to counter-attack, even if it means breaking the opponent. The game does not seem to skimp on the equives, the parries, but also the aerial attacks to better surprise the enemy. We also note the possibility of using invocations to strike even harder if necessary and when possible; it will be necessary to expect a gauge to fill…

But Code To Jin Yong is not just a simple game, it is also a major project for Tencent Games which wishes to immortalize the culture of Wuxia, in particular that of Jin Yong in digital art. Also, LIGHTSPEED STUDIOS has launched the “Jin Yong Wuxia Landmarks” project in parallel, in which the development team will create more digital renderings of these landmarks and then recreate them in Code: To Jin Yong. For the time being, the game has no release date, but we imagine that it will be hard work in Chinese studios to make the video game of the middle country shine internationally… It is Christophe Gans who will be delighted!