The Weeping Swan: Ten Days of the City's Fall Review

The Weeping Swan: Ten Days of the City’s Fall is a narrative-driven survival game that takes place in 1645, during the final years of the Ming Dynasty. It follows the story of Fang Zhiyou, a scholar who is trapped in a nightmarish world that he created himself in a book he wrote called The Lion Camel Kingdom. He is fighting to protect a mysterious young girl while confronting his tragic past.

When the game begins, we join Fang Zhiyou, who is attending a wine-drinking event with Officer Yang and Scholar Wang. The three are heavily drinking, and we learn about his illness, which he calls The Beast’s Affliction. This causes him to see people transform from humans into beasts. This all started to happen when the love of his life, Su Lianyan, apparently committed suicide. Officer Yang is transformed into a jackal, his eyes glinting like a wolf’s and his head turning into a muzzle, while Scholar Wang’s head morphs into a horse's.

Story-wise, The Weeping Swan: Ten Days of the City’s Fall is not linear. We jump back and forth in time to learn about Fang’s past and how it connects to the events of the present. Fang lost his parents when he was nine years old and was sent to live with his uncle in Jiangnan. He took the Imperial examination, which was used to select candidates for the state bureaucracy, but instead of pursuing an official career, he decided to become a writer.

As a writer, he tried to emulate the great Scoffing Scholar of Lanling, author of The Plum in the Golden Vase. He created a story called The Lion Camel Kingdom, influenced by Journey to the West. In his book, a hundred thousand demon soldiers breach a city to butcher an entire kingdom. He is 18 when he comes up with this storyline and claims he will have the book finished in five years. Su does not believe him, and they make a bet: if he does not finish the book in that time, he will spend all his money to buy her freedom. If he completes the story, then she will marry into his family and redeem herself.

After your drunken night, Fang passes out in a pile of hay and is awakened by what sounds like fireworks. He soon realises that these sounds are actually cannon fire; the city is under attack. The Tatars are here, taking over the city. Fear spreads, and the soldiers abandon their posts. They transform into crimson wolves, white boars, and azure jackals. These are the man-eating demons from The Lion Camel Ridge. This cannot be the Beast’s Affliction; they must have been demons to begin with. Is this a dream, or did Fang Zhiyou die on the street? Suddenly, he hears a voice from his past: it is Su Lianyan.

The script for this story is novel-length, with over 450,000 words. It is presented as a visual novel, with hundreds of CG illustrations that combine realistic oil-painting textures with a modern anime look. The architecture and clothing worn by the characters are true to what you would see in the Ming and Qing periods. The backgrounds and characters are not animated; they are static, with the camera zooming in and out as needed. There are subtitles, as the game features Chinese voice acting, with Japanese available at launch. The soundtrack for The Weeping Swan does a great job of capturing what is happening in the story, ranging from fear and terror to love and happiness.

The story in The Weeping Swan: Ten Days of the City’s Fall is based on the real-life tragedy of the Yangzhou Massacre (Ten Days of Yangzhou), where a mass killing occurred in May 1645. In the game, there are multiple main endings to achieve and dozens of ways to die based on the choices you make. Should you run or hide? Do you try to bargain with your last coins, or do you fight with your blade? What you choose actually makes a difference.

The Weeping Swan: Ten Days of the City’s Fall is a beautiful-looking game with an intriguing story. It was interesting to see events from the present and past weave together as you try to determine what is real and what was created in Fang’s imagination. I enjoyed the touches of Chinese history and how your choices influence the story. It feels like you are taking part in it and shaping it, rather than simply sitting back and watching everything unfold.