Where Winds Meet review: Quantity over quality

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Where Winds Meet is a remarkably diverse game, offering a huge range of activities – you can get married, participate in sumo wrestling, become a doctor, even end up in prison! It also features player housing and challenging multiplayer raids, alongside a dedicated single-player story. It feels like the developers tried to include everything, and surprisingly, this ambitious approach actually succeeds.

A new brand of gacha game

Let’s start with what kind of game Where Winds Meet is. It’s an action RPG set in the wuxia world, blending elements of multiplayer online games with a focus on cooperative play. The combat is challenging, similar to ‘soulslike’ games, and there’s a full story you can play on your own, as well as lots of things to do with other players. Crucially, Where Winds Meet is a free-to-play game that will be continuously updated. It does have an in-game shop where you can spend real money, and a ‘gacha’ system for earning items, but currently those items are purely cosmetic. It’s worth noting this, as the game looks like titles such as Ghost of Tsushima or Sekiro, but the gameplay is actually more akin to games like Wuthering Waves or Final Fantasy XIV.

Where Winds Meet lets you create a detailed character, a young swordmaster, who embarks on a quest to find their missing uncle, Jiang – a famous swordsman. Along the way, they’ll discover hidden truths about their family and the world they live in, known as the Jianghu.

Localization needs work

The story in Where Winds Meet unfortunately doesn’t quite work. It feels very familiar and is significantly hampered by a poor English translation. Subtitles frequently don’t align with the spoken dialogue, and audio often cuts out mid-sentence. This, combined with unnatural phrasing, makes the story difficult to follow and not compelling enough to overcome these issues. While one scene near the end of the first chapter briefly evoked some emotion, I mostly progressed through the story because I had to, not because I wanted to. Interestingly, the game seems aware of its narrative weaknesses, as it consistently offers the option to speed up dialogue up to three times the normal pace.

Where Winds Meet really shines during battles. It’s an action RPG where you need to time your blocks and dodges perfectly. You can choose from a variety of weapons, each with its own unique attacks. Like many online games, the weapons fall into three roles: Tank, Damage Dealer, and Healer. I mainly played with a combination of Tank and Damage Dealer, using the Mo Blade, Twinblades, and Spear. You can equip two weapons at once, and some combinations work better than others because they give each other bonuses. I started with the Mo Blade as my main weapon and the Twinblades as my secondary, which was effective. However, I later switched to the Spear as my secondary because one of its abilities boosted the Mo Blade. While this focus on weapon synergy sometimes felt restrictive, I never felt weak using weapons that didn’t combine well.

Master your weapon

Beyond the main story, Where Winds Meet offers a lot of optional boss fights and combat challenges. You’ll find powerful bosses roaming the game’s two areas, and can tackle combat trials and capture outposts either by yourself or with a friend. Most of these fights are fun, especially in co-op, but some bosses have unclear or broken mechanics. For example, one co-op challenge required us to jump onto moving horses to damage the boss, but the game wouldn’t let us mount them unless our stamina was completely empty. Adding to the frustration, the matchmaking system doesn’t let you choose a role, so you often end up with unbalanced teams – like all damage dealers and no healers – which can make winning these fights very difficult.

In Where Winds Meet, like many similar games, you can improve your character’s strength in a few different ways. You can upgrade entire gear slots to boost any item equipped there, or level up individual weapons. There’s also a system where you can attach older gear as a secondary boost. All of these upgrades require resources you earn by defeating enemies, completing tasks, exploring the world, or purchasing them with in-game currency.

It took me until around level 40 to finally figure out how gear upgrades work, because the game doesn’t explain things very well. Luckily, I usually had the resources I needed when it was time to upgrade, so I didn’t have to worry about farming them. But if you’re planning to really focus on getting better gear, be aware that getting the resources to upgrade costs energy. This energy refills slowly – only a little bit every nine minutes. If you use it all up, you’ll be unable to get more resources for over a day.

Overwhelming clutter

My first few hours with Where Winds Meet were frustrating because the game doesn’t explain anything. There are tons of menus, and many are hidden within other menus, leaving you to figure things out on your own. I spent way too long just trying to find basic things like how to upgrade my gear, check my quests, or join a friend. Even now, I’m still clicking through menus to find the right shop for specific items. The user interface really needs work – if I wasn’t reviewing the game, I probably would have stopped playing due to how overwhelming it is.

Despite its flaws, Where Winds Meet can be a really enjoyable game if you can get past its complicated menus. It’s a visually stunning game, constantly prompting you to capture screenshots with the built-in photo mode. Many other players seem to agree, as evidenced by the in-game signposts – similar to those in Dark Souls or Elden Ring – which often include photos of the area, frequently featuring stylish player characters. Speaking of style, the outfits in Where Winds Meet are fantastic, and some are tempting enough to consider buying, though a few are unfortunately quite expensive.

Playing with others is a blast too! There are tons of different minigames and activities you can enjoy with friends or even random players online. Like I said earlier, you can become a healer and act as a doctor, treating all sorts of illnesses and injuries you might get while playing. For example, I once drank too much wine and got sick, so I had to call a doctor to my game to help. Another time, I stole something and a bounty was put on my head, meaning other players could come hunt me down! I managed to fight them off, but eventually got caught and sent to jail for fourteen minutes – thankfully, I was able to bribe the guard to let me out early.

Where Winds Meet offers a surprising amount of activities. While it might not be polished and is geared towards fans of gacha games or those willing to try free-to-play experiences, it can be enjoyable, particularly when played with friends. However, if you’re seeking a strong narrative-driven, single-player action RPG, you might find it falls short compared to other games in the genre.

Where Winds Meet is available now for PC, PS5, iOS and Android.

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2025-12-15 21:29