Swords Of Destiny, AKA Tian Xing: Swords Of Destiny is yet another 3D beat em up that never got localized in the US but somehow managed to make it to PAL territories. Needless to say, the game was quickly forgotten as a result but does it hold up better than The Sword Of Etheria or is it yet another missed opportunity to give us something unique? Well Swords Of Destiny is nowhere near as ambitious as The Sword Of Etheria, though that’s not to say that it doesn’t bring its own twists to the usual beat em up formula. One thing that should be noted though is that Swords Of Destiny was developed by Artoon, a company infamous for the godawful Vampire Rain, so I went in not expecting much from the game but honestly, there really isn’t much to dislike here, albeit a few minor gripes.
The story takes place in what appears to be a fictional china but with demons, so it’s kind of like what Onimusha would be like if it was set in the romance of the three kingdoms universe instead of the sengoku period. There isn’t really much of a story here, just a few cutscenes with some terrible voice acting that tell you that bad guys have appeared and you have to go and get them, that’s about all there is to it really which is just enough to justify the player’s murderous rampage throughout the game. It’s pretty forgettable, even for beat em up standards but it’s better than nothing I suppose.
Clearly the meat of the experience lies in the game’s combat and if you’ve played other 3D Beat Em Ups before then you will probably be familiar with most of the mechanics, particularly if you’ve played games like Onimusha, Shinobi or Ninja Gaiden. The most interesting aspect of the combat is its sword time mechanic which requires you to attack enemies when the lock on cursor turns red, sort of like the steal mechanic in Castlevania Curse Of Darkness in the sense that you need good timing to pull it off. You could say that it’s similar to the issen technique in Onimusha but nowhere near as powerful, plus I find that it gives you a considerable amount of leeway by comparison. Once you activate sword time, you will launch enemies into the air and can deal heavy damage to them.
This is where another mechanic comes into play, the dash maneuver which not only lets you home in on enemies from any angle but can also be used in platforming too to reach areas that are too far away to reach via jumping. You can also perform a dash attack by pressing the attack button right after dashing which lets you knock enemies back a bit which comes in handy when trying to get rid of bothersome enemies from afar. When in sword time, if you press the dash at the right time during an attack, you can continuously juggle a single enemy as well as reach enemies from afar to continue attacking them with sword time. For this reason it is important to master dash cancelling to maximize your efficiency in sword time and deal tremendous damage to both regular enemies and bosses. Those who do however may find the game to be rather easy but if they don’t then they may have a tougher time in the later portions of the game. Thankfully the game is generous with healing items so you shouldn’t have to worry about dying too often making Sword Of Destiny the perfect entry level 3D beat em up for people who want to start with a more obscure title in the genre.
There are a few other abilities in the game worth noting such as charged attacks and special attacks. Charged attacks are mostly used for breaking through cracked walls, I never found them to be useful in combat though they work similarly to ultimate techniques in the Ninja Gaiden games but aren’t half as useful by comparison. Special attacks are basically the same thing as magic attacks from Onimusha or ninpo from Ninja Gaiden except it costs dragon power to perform them, there’s no difference at all really. Enemies may occasionally drop health and dragon power in a similar way to souls in Onimusha except they are automatically absorbed in this game. There is of course a dodge button and you will find yourself using it a lot as there are numerous enemies in some very tight areas which makes it difficult at times to avoid them without it. You can also perform a dodge attack as well though I didn’t find myself using it all that much. Finally there’s the spells you can throw at enemies which stun them, leaving them open for sword time attacks. These can come in handy in a pinch, particularly if you aren’t very good at performing sword time attacks. There are other spells you can get as well such as shield spells which can protect you from enemy attacks.
One thing that I found to be hit or miss is the camera. On one hand, the camera is zoomed far back enough to see enemies from behind, which can be handy in large open areas, however many of the later areas are tighter and the camera suffers in these sections. It certainly isn’t the worst camera I’ve seen but it can be a nuisance at times. The lock on can also be problematic at times as moving past pillars can deactivate the lock on which can be irritating at times since it means that you have to press the lock on button again. There are also quite a few hit point sponge enemies later on in the game in sizable quantities which can be a pain at times, especially if you haven’t mastered the sword time mechanic. Fortunately these issues weren’t too problematic for the most part and are mostly minor issues. At least they actually bothered to implement a lock on and camera controls, showing that the developers actually did their homework unlike the developers of Seven Samurai 20XX who seemed to think that camera controls and lock on systems weren’t important enough to be included in their game.
Given the fact that the game’s title suggests that you will fight with multiple swords, certain enemies will drop their own weapons which you can collect. While the weapons themselves cannot be used in battle, they can instead be used to augment the 3 elemental weapons you acquire throughout the story, giving them unique properties. Some of these properties can have crazy effects like draining you health for more damage but others can also heal you when you attack an enemy and this comes in handy when you are fighting against tougher enemies. It’s a bit of a shame how you can’t actually equip the weapons themselves though as there are some interesting ones, many of which aren’t even swords. It would have been cool to see several different fighting styles on offer but the three weapons you can swap between are adequate enough. Regardless, I do find it cool that you can apply effects that can make the game easier or harder for you. Each weapon has a durability though so you have to be careful not to overuse them. I did find the health stealing weapons to be the most useful personally as it allowed me to conserve my healing items. Speaking of which, many of the game’s healing items are hidden in breakable objects so you’ll want to break everything you see. It should be noted that permenant health/dragon power items can be hidden in there as well and if you miss them, you can never backtrack to previous levels so you will have to make do with what you have.
Interestingly enough, there are certain points in the game where you are able to choose the order of which levels you play, as well as some bonus stages that are completely optional. The game is rather short so it doesn’t take too long to get through it. There are 18 stages in total, some of which are just boss fights, so the game doesn’t overstay its welcome. I found the stages to be varied enough in terms of aesthetic though some stages are the same aesthetic as the previous stage. The level design is very much arena based though some arenas are very small and tight which can be a pain to fight in. The more open arenas tend to be much better. There are some hazards to avoid though such as spike traps which appear when you walk past 3 black holes in the wall as well as fire that comes out of the walls. While you can dash through these, I did find them to be annoying at times, especially the spike traps, fuck those things. Thankfully they only show up in 2 of the game’s levels (the mausoleum section) and the rest of them are just empty rooms with the occasional breakable pot, it’s pretty basic stuff. At least from a visual standpoint it looks decent enough, it’s certainly no Bujingai though that’s for sure.
The music, while not terrible isn’t particularly memorable. That’s not to say that there aren’t any decent tracks, it’s just that none of them stood out to me. I suppose having some background music is better than none and the music never got on my nerves. Most of the music is calming oriental tracks which don’t really fit the nature of the gameplay at all. I think the biggest issue with the soundtrack is that it lacks that intense adrenaline pumping vibe that other games in the genre have which makes it feel weird as I’m cutting up demons to music that would better fit that of a town area in a RPG than that of a combat scenario. There is a battle song in the game that shows up every so often, though it’s pretty average at best, especially when you compare it to other games like Bujingai where the soundtrack is full of energy. Swords Of Destiny’s soundtrack feels lethargic and while that wouldn’t be a problem in any other game, it just doesn’t fit the nature of a 3d beat em up.
Ultimately Swords Of Destiny is a pretty bare bones experience for the most part, you can tell that it’s trying to be like some of the more popular beat em ups and it does what it sets out to do surprisingly well. That being said however, I was left wanting more from this game. It’s lacking the flair and energy that other games in the genre have such as Bujingai, heck even Dynasty Warriors has an energetic soundtrack to match the fast paced nature of the game. It certainly isn’t a terrible experience though and quite frankly it’s better than a lot of Beat Em Ups out there, plus it’s a very accessible game for newcomers to the genre which makes it easy to recommend to someone who struggles with these types of games. Swords Of Destiny is a game that most people should probably pass up on but if you crave a simple, mindless 3d beat em up experience and have played all the greats or are looking for an entry point, you can’t really go wrong with this game. There really isn’t much else to say about Swords Of Destiny, it’s just one of those games that exists that nobody seems to care about, so I thought I might as well cover it just to give it a bit more exposure as I think it deserves at least some credit for managing to be a competent 3d beat em up, something that some games of the time fail to do due to being too ambitious, I’m looking at you The Sword Of Etheria. In a way, you could say that Swords Of Destiny is the polar opposite of The Sword Of Etheria in that regard.
Cynical Gaming Blog 
Thank you for the review. This title is available on my local PS3 PSN store, hence my interest in it.
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I would recommend against getting it on PSN. I would suggest instead to get a physical copy of the game as it’s dirt cheap and cheaper than PSN Store. If your console is US then play it on PCSX2 (just put the game in the PC Disk Drive and select plugin which means disk drive then run it). PSN store is a scam, They overcharge for everything and are getting sued for it right as we speak so I’d avoid using it if I were you. I do suggest emulating the game though.
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