Maiden and Swordsman is an openworld RPG.
At-a-glance
(Adult) Content?
(F) Nudity.
Censorship?
No. Woot! Woot!
Hours of Game-play?
Two or three hours.
Modding Support?
No.
Patch Available?
Download from Steam.
Foreword
Since writing a review for this game on March 6th it has received one or more updates. However, no updates have been mentioned in a public log of sorts. With that in mind, I’m unsure how accurate this review is. The developers have not reached out to me, leaving fixes and new content unknown. Still, I think the majority of this review rings true for the game in its current state. Going by the sales of Maiden and Swordsman and closed-lip nature of the developers, I don’t this game will be seeing many more updates.
Gameplay
. . . in a nutshell
A deeply unrefined third-person action RPG.
out the shell. . .
Before starting a new game, you must choose a character. You can pick either a combat or magic oriented character. What each character can/can’t do is unclear.
I. . . can’t read Chinese.
The goal is to find NPCs and complete quests, which generally involve killing one or more enemies. You start in a “hub world”, which houses shops and possesses no hostiles. Each world is huge, but lacking interactive content. You can expect most of your playtime to be walking from point “A” to point “B”. Leveling up is an arduous grind, and if you enter the wrong location you’ll be smashed by enemies hundreds of levels above you.
Kind of like in Borderlands!
As you level up, you can enhance your stats and learn new attacks. The character I chose had the ability to “poison” enemies, which removed a set percent of health each second. This allowed me to kill enemies that would otherwise take hours to kill in minutes. She could also summon (one) companion, who made cheesing enemies with my poison even easier. This game is deeply unbalanced (if you couldn’t already tell).
I’ve seen the interface and progression system in at least two other titles. I smell asset rip.
. . . no, this not a game you can play one-handed!
Story
The world is under siege, and um. . . these mutant monsters have wreaked havoc by “corrupting” otherwise normal folk. . . and a the hero must been chosen to beat back the mutants!
Again, I can’t read Chinese.
Visuals
The title screen showcases cast of clashing asset flips, but the animated background is a great touch. Under “Set” (or “settings”), the language, volume and resolution can be adjusted. Overall, the user interface is basic (and one I’ve seen from other Unity games). Even though my language was set to “English”, the character select screen was in Chinese. The in-game assets do look good, but are clearly a mash of widely used Unity assets.
The Goods
The “Adult” DLC makes a lot of (female) characters go shirtless.
. . . expect upper female nudity.
Verdict
Given the bugs, visuals and awful balance, I strongly disrecommend this game. I enjoy these kinds of (generally bad) RPGs, but this is one that I couldn’t get behind.
I feel like I’ve been pranked with an overpriced piece of memeware.
Maybe this is shovelware, or maybe this is a passionate project made by an overextended crew. In either case, it’s grossly overpriced (at ten USD) for how fun and functional the content is.
