This will disappoint some but who knows? Maybe CGCG will implement this option in a future patch.Recently I was granted access to an early version/demo of The Legend of Tianding, a 2D Beat ‘Em Up game about the legendary Taiwanese folk hero Liao Tianding. There’s no visible option to run the game in 4K resolution or go past the 60FPS cap. The game runs flawlessly in 1080p resolution and at 60 frames per second. The main characters’ models are well rendered and animated with a high number of frames. Dadaocheng comes to life with lots of NPCs prowling the streets. The technology may be rudimentary, but the amount of care put into its art style and animations is something truly admirable. The graphics use art and filters to look like a playable Chinese manga, and it looks beautiful. The Legend of Tianding is made entirely in 3D using the Unity engine. If you’re careless, you may die a couple of times before defeating a boss. The bosses have a variety of attack patterns and potential damage that they can dish out. They are not too challenging but are certainly a considerable spike in difficulty and also make things more interesting combat-wise. This game doesn’t properly punish the players’ mistakes with one exception: boss battles. On “wanted outlaw” difficulty, the gameplay flows fast the platforming is very simple and the combat easy. Once the mission begins, the player must traverse a series of platforming sections, avoid obstacles and fight the enemies that roam the area. Those include batons, swords, pistols, and more. The red sash is also used to steal currency and even their weapons this creates an interesting dynamic to the combat, as depending on the variety of enemy you’re dealing with, they’ll carry different weapons. By dealing a certain amount of damage to enemies, you can bind them with the red sash and from there, bring them towards you, send them to the front which will hit other enemies, or launch them in the air, allowing you to follow up with attacks. One of the most interesting ones among these abilities is Tianding’s Wing Chun red sash. Some of these moves will help not only in combat but also in reaching higher platforms. At the very beginning, the player will have at their disposal Tianding’s basic thievery and Kung Fu abilities. These missions feel like dungeons in an RPG and are the meat of the game. ![]() Sometimes, the player will also need to do a little fetch-questing to advance the story, but those are just a minor annoyance.Īfter all the talking is done, the player will take on missions that cover the action-platforming part of the game. There are more than a hundred of those, each with their own description which adds a lot of context to the time period that the game takes place in. These artifacts not only grant stats bonuses or abilities, but they are also literal pieces of history that you can collect: these include newspapers, first aid kits that were sold by the Japanese, bottles of alcoholic beverages, etc. The player is able to explore Dadaocheng, talk with citizens and collect hidden artifacts that are also acquirable by donating money to the poor. There are also some RPG elements, something that seems mandatory in most modern action games nowadays. The Legend of Tianding is at its core, a side scroller, action-platformer game. Different from Detention, the focus of Tianding is less on its writing and more on the quality of its action, playability, and presentation. Coincidentally or not, The Legend of Tianding has the same solid foundation. It was certainly an educational experience as I knew absolutely nothing about Taiwan back then Detention opened my eyes and made me even more receptive to new cultures and ideas in general. Detention’s art and solid writing, not to mention that it was navigable with little clunkiness, kept me intrigued until I saw the credits roll. That game used the same basic premise as Tianding it was based on a real-life historical period of Taiwan. ![]() The first game I experienced from a Taiwanese developer was a story-driven horror game called Detention. Looking at the selection of indie titles we have nowadays, we can certainly say that we have some variety in regards to games based on less represented cultures. As a Taiwan-based indie developer, CGCG’s mission is to create games, especially action-oriented ones, that use Taiwan’s history and folktales as a background. Produced in a joint effort between Taiwanese indie developer CGCG and publisher Neon Doctrine, The Legend of Tianding is CGCG’s first released game. The Legend of Tianding is an action-platformer game with some RPG elements. Price: US$19.99 – Available Here Overview
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