- Estimated achievement difficulty: 2/10 [Achievement Difficulty Rating]
- Offline: 43 [1000]
- Approximate amount of time to 1000: 10-15 Hours [Estimated Time to 100%]
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
- Missable achievements: Seen It All (30G)
- Does difficulty affect achievements: No
- Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No
Introduction:
Xuan Yuan Sword 7 is an action RPG with frenetic real-time combat, visceral 3D presentation and a rich cinematic narrative. It is a celebration of ancient China’s landscape, civilization and culture, infused with the mystique of its own legends in stark contrast to anachronistic technological designs. It is a world that is both familiar and mysterious, one of both science and spirituality, one that is waiting to be explored. Take the role of the calm and reliable swordsman Taishi Zhao as he fights to protect his family and uncover the truth of a blight threatens all of China. With a story deeply rooted in ancient Chinese history and mythology, Xuan Yuan Sword 7 reimagines both as one fantastical and chaotic realm under the governance of a new Xin Dynasty.
Step 1: Complete the Game
Your main task at first should be to simply follow the story. There are a number of side-quests you can pick up along the way, but only a handful are required for the achievements (they unlock journal entries). I have listed those in Good Company (30G) below. You can free roam and complete any quests after the final boss if you'd like, and will need to grind some experience to get to Level 50, so anything you don't do here can be mopped up at that time. It's worth doing the chess games as soon as they are available to avoid backtracking though.
As you play through the game, check Elysium from time to time and upgrade what you can, as well as upgrading your weapon in the armory. If you play the game on Easy, you'll never need to worry about any other equipment as the game is a joke (except for the final boss). I followed this walkthrough which has solutions to all the chess games, puzzles, and side-quests.
MISSABLE: There is only one achievement that you can miss in the game, which is Seen It All (30G). For this, you must ensure you unlock it prior to defeating the final boss for the To End It All (15G) achievement. This is because some of the journal entries must be unlocked with the parrot in your entourage (he tells you a story), and after the final boss that character is no longer travelling with you. Be sure to sleep at camp fires until it unlocks before doing the final quest.
Step 2: Finish Journal and Level 50
You should finish the story at around Level 45 if you were diligent in killing everything in your path. There is a nice XP farming spot listed in the Power From Discipline (30G) achievement to knock out that achievement. If you were careful and did all side-quests during the story and fully upgraded Elysium and your weapon already, that should be your last achievement. If not, finish up any remaining quests or upgrades necessary now to finish off the completion.
Conclusion:
Xuan-Yuan Sword is certainly not a franchise most people will be familiar with. This is the second entry on Xbox and the first I have played (mostly because the other one was 100+ hour completion and I never could bring myself to start it). However, it's a pretty good ARPG. The Chinese mythology is a nice change of pace, and the traversal, combat, and puzzles are all really good as well. As a bonus, the achievements are extremely simple and it's a fairly quick completion as well. It has an Asian stack with English menus that you can get from a number of different stores (I got mine from Singapore), so it's worth a double dip.