Ho Tu Lo Shu: The Books of Dragon

About

"Ho Tu Lo Shu: The Books of Dragon" is a Hong Kong-developed action RPG that follows the journey of a young hero tasked with collecting the "Books of Dragon." The game features intense martial arts combat, puzzle-solving, and character development, all set in a vibrant and immersive ancient Chinese world. Players must navigate through treacherous landscapes, defeat powerful enemies, and uncover the secrets of the Books of Dragon to save the world from destruction.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

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

Ho Tu Lo Shu: The Books of Dragon screenshot

85%

Audience ScoreBased on 362 reviews

story22 positive mentions

optimization9 negative mentions

The game features an outstanding plot and a rich open-world experience with numerous side quests and character interactions.
The combat system is engaging and allows for strategic action, with a variety of martial arts styles to master.
Despite its technical flaws, the game captures the essence of Wuxia culture and provides a nostalgic experience for fans of the genre.

The graphics, animations, and sound effects are outdated and poorly optimized, leading to performance issues even on high-end systems.
The game is riddled with bugs that can disrupt gameplay, including quest-breaking issues and memory leaks.
The lack of an official English translation makes it difficult for non-Chinese speakers to fully enjoy the story and gameplay.

story
89 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
67%
8%
The game's story is praised for its engaging and well-written narrative, drawing inspiration from popular wuxia novels, with a focus on player choices that significantly impact character interactions and quest outcomes. While the main plot involves a typical isekai premise, the richness of side quests and character development adds depth, although some players note issues with clarity and bugs that can hinder progression. Overall, the story is considered a strong point of the game, despite technical shortcomings and some repetitive fetch quests.
- “The general plot and setting are based on the wuxia novels by Jin Yong, which have apparently sold over 100 million copies worldwide.”
- “Carefully written, interesting, and engaging story on top of very solid gameplay mechanics.”
- “This is the main strength of the game, with an interesting storyline and rich/variable side quests.”
- “But the game is still not very good and the storyline is not great.”
- “Overall, I think I got my money's worth just going by the story, yet it's frustrating in many places because I don't think the main character did anything worthwhile.”
- “The game is really buggy and laggy, which reminds me of old Chinese games in the early mid-90s, but I still enjoy it with the 'more' original feel of the story and a couple of mini side missions.”
graphics
26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
69%
15%
The graphics of the game have been widely criticized for being outdated and reminiscent of mid-2000s titles, with many users noting poor animations, bugs, and unstable framerates. While some appreciate the game's aesthetic and worldbuilding, the overall visual quality is considered subpar, especially when compared to contemporary AAA games. Despite these shortcomings, players suggest that the engaging content may still appeal to those willing to overlook the graphical flaws.
- “Although the game has many technical areas that need to be smoothed out a lot (graphics, lag, character movements, environment), it does shine brightly in the most important aspect of the wuxia genre - it has created an interesting engaging world of wuxia, with very solid worldbuilding through side quests and open-world content.”
- “No, the graphics can be great; you'll have very good textures and very bad ones mixed together, or stretched out.”
- “Currently playing 3rd new character, 2nd one using a Chinese mod where you can change main character models as well as characters and martial arts from Jin Yong classics like Divine Dragon Palm, Dog Beating Sticks, etc. The game is not optimized for 1080p; I play with 1366x768 with all graphics features on, which has the smoothest FPS with my GTX 980 Ti.”
- “The graphics look poor and outdated even for 2018.”
- “The graphic is so buggy even at the lowest settings - I give up.”
- “If you hate unstable framerates, old graphics, and game bugs, stay away.”
optimization
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
40%
45%
The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with many players reporting poor performance even on high-end systems like the RTX 4080. Despite its engaging content, the optimization issues significantly detract from the overall experience, leading to sluggish gameplay and performance problems across various hardware configurations. While some hope for future improvements, the current state of optimization is considered a major flaw.
- “Despite the lack of optimization, this is hands-down one of the best wu-xia games out there.”
- “After the initial performance issues, the game has been polished and it's enjoyable to play.”
- “The previous games by the studio with the 2.5D camera angle run quite smoothly, but this game just isn’t optimized well.”
- “The optimization is so bad it should be called sabotage instead.”
- “The biggest fault of the game is that optimization is incredibly poor.”
- “Let me start with the negatives: poor performance and poor optimization.”
gameplay
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
50%
17%
The gameplay is generally praised for its solid mechanics and engaging story, offering a mix of open-world freedom and immersive experiences. However, some players express dissatisfaction with performance issues, such as lag and crashes, as well as a lack of depth in RPG elements. Overall, while the gameplay has potential and is enjoyable, it suffers from technical shortcomings that detract from the experience.
- “Carefully written, interesting and engaging story on top of very solid gameplay mechanics.”
- “A 8/10 for the great gameplay, story, and open-world design.”
- “Overall gameplay is not bad, open world with lots of freedom and choices to make, allowing for a more immersive gameplay experience.”
- “Gameplay and design from the 80s.”
- “I think there's more than enough value in this game to justify the price tag, but I'm highly unsatisfied by the gameplay and insufficient RPG elements of the game.”
- “It does get noticeably slower after 3 hours of gameplay, and I think this is related to known issues with overuse of internal memory.”
stability
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is widely criticized, with users reporting numerous bugs, glitches, and performance issues even after multiple patches. While some players find the experience enjoyable despite these problems, many express frustration over the game's lack of optimization and persistent technical flaws. Overall, stability remains a significant concern for players.
- “The translation is barely intelligible nonsense, it runs poorly, and even after three years of constant patches, it's still pretty buggy.”
- “Models disappearing or stuck in weird poses, glitches.”
- “The game is really buggy and laggy, which reminds me of old Chinese games from the early to mid-90s.”
music
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
100%
The music in the game is highly praised for its magnificence, with many players expressing a desire for a soundtrack to enjoy outside of gameplay. The soundtracks complement the open world experience, enhancing the overall enjoyment of the game.
- “The music is so magnificently great you'll want a dub of it for when you're rolling around in your car.”
- “I really love the open world aspect of the game, and the soundtracks are amazing.”
- “The music feels repetitive and lacks variety, making it hard to stay engaged.”
- “The soundtrack doesn't match the game's atmosphere, which detracts from the overall experience.”
- “The voice acting is subpar and often feels out of place, pulling me out of the immersion.”
replayability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
67%
The game offers strong replayability due to its complex skill tree and the ability to develop characters in various ways, although some players note that repeating quests can diminish the experience. Overall, it is well-received for its replay value.
- “The game itself is highly replayable as you can choose to develop your character differently, and with so many quests to experience again, I love this game.”
- “The complex skill tree adds significant replay value.”
- “Great replayability!”
- “The game itself should be replayable as you can choose to develop your character differently, but with so many quests being played again, it loses some of its charm.”
- “Complex skill tree with replay value.”
emotional
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
100%
Players report that while the game offers picturesque views and evokes a sense of immersion in a wuxia fantasy world, the emotional impact is diminished by a lackluster storyline. The contrast between beautiful environments and outdated design elements contributes to a mixed emotional experience.
- “These three things actually made me feel like I'm a character in the wuxia (Chinese fantasy martial arts) world.”
- “The storyline was so dull that it failed to evoke any emotional response.”
- “I found the characters unrelatable, which made it hard to connect with their emotional struggles.”
- “Despite the game's attempts at depth, the emotional moments felt forced and unconvincing.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players note that grinding is a necessary aspect of the game across all difficulty levels, often leading to a tedious experience, though it ultimately results in significant power gains. The slow tempo of battles contributes to the repetitive nature of grinding, which is typical for a strategy game. Those who enjoy grinding may find higher difficulty settings more rewarding, while others might find the game too easy on lower settings.
- “No matter if you play this on easy, general, difficult, or purgatory, you'll have to grind to some extent. This can feel quite tedious, but before you know it, you're very powerful. If you don't mind grinding, play this on difficult or purgatory, or the game might become too easy.”
- “The tempo of the battles is quite slow, requiring some repetitive grinding, but it is expected for a strategy game style of combat.”
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Reviewers praise the character development for its impressive designs and flashy skill animations, highlighting the variety of artistic styles available for players to acquire.
- “The character designs are fantastic, featuring flashy skill animations and a wide variety of artistic styles to acquire.”
- “The depth of character development is impressive, allowing players to truly connect with their avatars.”
- “Each character evolves in meaningful ways, making the journey of growth and transformation incredibly rewarding.”