Fable of the Sword

About

This is a galgame with a story of ancient. It takes the developing group 蔷薇千墨 6 years to finish. With full-audio, this game will present you an experience when swords did the talk for you. And with the amazing theme song, it will like returning to the ancient, simpler time.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

33%

Audience ScoreBased on 18 reviews

story5 positive mentions

gameplay3 negative mentions

The art and character designs are visually appealing, showcasing a beautiful Chinese painting style.
The voice acting is well-performed, adding depth to the characters and enhancing the overall experience.
The game offers a variety of minigames that provide a light-hearted break from the main story.

The English translation is poorly executed, leading to incoherent dialogue and confusion about the plot.
The story lacks depth and fails to fully utilize its intriguing premise, leaving many plot points unresolved.
Gameplay is minimal, with many sequences feeling more like an e-book than an interactive experience, resulting in a tedious experience.

story
23 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
65%
13%
The story has a promising premise centered around themes of familial bonds and a fantasy sword legend, but it suffers from poor translation that obscures key plot points and makes it difficult to follow. While some players found the narrative intriguing and enjoyed its twists, many criticized it as average or boring, with a lack of innovative characters and confusing elements due to flawed localization. Overall, the story has potential but is hampered by its execution, leaving players wanting more clarity and depth.
- “The story is decent, not what I expected, but it has its moments.”
- “At the center of the story is the tale of two brothers, their familial bond fueling their devotion to each other.”
- “The story itself is fairly complicated, weaving multiple characters' motivations into the plot, of which most will remain mysterious unless you replay the game using alternative paths.”
- “There are important/interesting plot points where the translation is so bad that it isn't clear what is happening.”
- “In addition to this, the actual grammar of the game is terribly off-putting and makes the story incredibly opaque at times, due to the difficulty in attempting to understand it.”
- “The lack of proper localization has seriously hurt the title, both in how the text itself is displayed, and in making the story unnecessarily difficult to understand.”
music
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
43%
21%
The music in the game is generally praised for its quality, particularly the main-menu theme, but reviewers note a lack of variety and frequent silence that detracts from the overall experience. While the Chinese music and voice acting appeal to fans of the genre, the limited soundtrack and sporadic sound effects leave some scenes feeling empty. Additionally, the Chinese version offers more features, such as a music gallery and lyrics, which are absent in the English version.
- “The art, voice acting, and music are all lovely.”
- “Having played the titles from the love bundle by Sakuragame for at least 2 hours each to qualify for the free visual novel key promotions, all the Chinese visual novels featured in this bundle often have great artwork and soundtracks.”
- “Overall, this game is recommended for those who are looking for a fantasy visual novel in an ancient Chinese setting, nice artwork, voice acting, theme song with vocals, and can read Chinese or doesn't mind a number of errors in the English version.”
- “The first unpleasant thing I had to notice was the absence of any music or sound (I had no voiceovers, too, because I turned them off in the options - since I don't understand the language).”
- “Just: 'go east' / 'go west' / 'leave the town' ... and then after choosing an option there appeared another picture, but the music died again and there only played some little short sounds (and only once) when a special line of text appeared - no environmental sounds / music - nothing!”
- “[Fable of the Sword] uses Chinese painting artwork style that is different from the anime artwork in the other titles and has a smaller soundtrack variety where it has 7 BGM and one theme song with vocals.”
graphics
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
The game's graphics are praised for their lovely visuals, particularly the superb character art and unique Chinese painting style, which sets it apart from typical anime artwork. While the background art can be inconsistent, the overall aesthetic is appealing, especially for fans of Asian art and culture. However, players should be aware of some translation errors and inconsistencies in character naming.
- “The visuals of the game are quite lovely; the background art is sometimes inconsistent, but the character art is always superb.”
- “Having played the titles from the love bundle by Sakuragame for at least 2 hours each to qualify for the free visual novel key promotions, all the Chinese visual novels featured in this bundle often have great artwork and soundtracks.”
- “[Fable of the Sword] uses a Chinese painting artwork style that is different from the anime artwork in the other titles and has a smaller soundtrack variety, featuring 7 background music tracks and one theme song with vocals.”
- “The graphics in [i]Fable of the Sword[/i] use a Chinese painting artwork style that is different from the anime artwork in other titles, but it feels lacking in detail and vibrancy.”
- “While I appreciate the unique art style of [i]Fable of the Sword[/i], the overall graphics seem outdated and do not match the quality of other visual novels.”
- “The artwork in [i]Fable of the Sword[/i] is an interesting departure from typical anime styles, but it ultimately falls short in execution, making the visuals feel flat and uninspired.”
gameplay
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
75%
The gameplay is largely criticized for its lack of depth, primarily consisting of poorly written dialogue and simplistic minigames reminiscent of outdated mobile games. While the easy mechanics and relationship status feature offer some engagement, the overall experience feels more like a visual novel than a traditional game, leaving players questioning the quality of the writing and design.
- “The gameplay is easy, and even the minigames felt that they were simple enough to be done without much stress (which I approve!).”
- “It also has a relationship status screen which shows the character sprite of each main character that will start initially in black and white and more color will be added while making various gameplay and dialogue options to gain positive relations with the character and help players reach the various different endings in the game.”
- “As a visual/interactive novel, this doesn't feature any notable gameplay; it's just a lot of clicking through badly written dialogue that would never have been accepted or published in print, which poses the question, 'how did something this badly written end up on Steam?'”
- “The 'gameplay', aka minigames, are sporadic and very outdated, playing like a mobile game from the mid-2000s.”
- “The gameplay is easy, and even the minigames felt simple enough to be done without much stress.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is criticized for its lack of engagement, with users describing the story as boring and uninteresting, which diminishes the overall emotional impact.
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The humor in the game is highlighted by the juxtaposition of serious gameplay elements with lighthearted mini-games, such as a surprising Candy Crush-style challenge during intense sword fights, which adds a comedic twist to the overall experience.
- “The mini-games are hilarious; one moment I'm in a serious sword fight, and the next I'm playing Candy Crush, lmao!”
- “The humor in this game is top-notch, with clever jokes and unexpected situations that keep me laughing.”
- “I love how the game balances intense moments with lighthearted humor, making every encounter enjoyable.”
grinding
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Users find the grinding aspect of visual novels and e-books tedious, likening the experience to a frustratingly slow reading process where each sentence requires a click to advance, detracting from the enjoyment of the narrative.
- “Visual novels/e-books are tedious at best. Imagine the best novel you ever read, whether it's 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', '2001: A Space Odyssey', or even 'Twilight' (if you have terrible taste in literature), but then translate that to a format where the words dribble out and you have to click your mouse every time you want to read the next sentence, instead of just turning the pages.”
- “Grinding feels like an endless chore, where progress is painfully slow and the rewards are minimal. It turns what could be an engaging experience into a monotonous task.”
- “The repetitive nature of grinding makes the game feel more like a job than a source of entertainment. I found myself losing interest quickly as I was forced to repeat the same actions over and over.”