Xuanyuan Jian

Xuanyuan Jian, aka Xuan-Yuan Sword (Chinese: 軒轅劍, literally "Sword of Yellow Emperor"), refers to a series of Chinese role-playing video games for personal computers developed by DOMO group of Softstar, Inc. based in Taiwan. These games are based on pre-history Chinese mythology, as well as history-based storylines around Qin Dynasty, Sui Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, etc.

In the time beyond record, the "Xuan-Yuan Sword" is created by Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor of ancient China to defend the ancient Chinese against darklord Chi You and his evil empire. After Chi You was killed by the Sword, the five-thousand-year-old history of China began, and the Sword was passed on from Huangdi to heroes alike to continue to defend the nation against evil. Due to its great power, however, ambitious would-be emperors and evil warlords often sought the Sword to further their own end.

There is also the Spirit Fusion Pot, (Lian Yao Hu, 鍊妖壺 in traditional Chinese, or simply the Pot, this rranslation first appeared in the user guide of Xuanyuan Sword 3) created by the goddess Nüwa to cleanse the world. Living in the Pot is the god Pot Lord, whose specialty is to combine whatever evil thrown into the pot, and transmute them into harmless creatures or items that benefits the world.

In the beginning of the world, the goddess Nüwa created two genres of intelligent life: those of Man, and those of Monster, who warred among each other all the time. The Sword was created by Men in an attempt to end the everlasting war. Led by a single heroic figure, Xuanyuan Jian Xia (軒轅劍俠, Crusader of the Sword, or simply the Crusader) who wielded the Sword, the War Between Men and Monsters ended with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Seventeen years later, the main character, He Ran (何然), a young discipline of Xian Shu (仙術, sorcery) left his mentor, into the aftermath world of China to carve a future of his own.

The first game of the series, Xuanyuan Sword was also Softstar's first RPG product, released in 1990. The storyline in this game was not based on any certain period of actual history, the culture and people in the game bear a resemblance of what was mid-1500 ancient Chinese. All these materials were presented in a Dragon Quest-like game rule and interface. Players started the game as a youthful good-for-nothing level 1 character, in a poor village that offered little else than most basic equipments. The wilderness was filled with monsters that players must kill to gain experience levels, thus enable them to proceed to other areas, and thus proceed the plot.

The game featured standard VGA 16-colored 640x480 screen, complete with party-members, round-based combat, full-screen sprite animation, various monsters, Chinese-styled Ad Lb music, sound effects, animated spell effects, as well as full Chinese interface, which was a great hit in Taiwan's computer game market at that period.

Released on 13 October 1990.