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We've seen some pretty fantastic games come out this year. Expedition 33, Hollow Knight, Donkey Kong Bonanza, Elden Ring Night Reign. I mean, the Game Awards lineup for 2025 is looking pretty solid. But there is one title that has genuinely surprised me, and that's where Winds meet. Now, this is a free-to-play openw world RPG. Hold on. Let me cook. You can use Tai Chi to throw bears in this game. All right, let me cook for a moment. But why am I talking about this game? Randomly out of the blue. Well, you might not know this about me, but I actually have a black belt in Taewondo. I've also learned that Bruce Lee is a liar.
Oh, donkey back. They sure do, Bruce. My arm still hurts. [screaming] Tim, give a big hand. But martial arts and video games are two very big parts of my life. yet they rarely intersect. So when I was offered a sponsorship to play this martial arts RPG set in 10th century China, it kind of felt like the stars aligned. This sponsorship just fell into my lap. So I agreed to play the game and make a video about it on the one condition that I would have total creative freedom and I can say whatever I want about it. They generously agreed and we will make them regret that decision. Okay, they got a lot of cosmetics and stuff. Oh, look at all these fits. Wow. Okay. Oh, no. Put some shoes on. Nope. Uh-uh.
Uh-uh. Yep. Shoes. Okay. No gooning. No gooning allowed. They're cracking down on gooning these days, guys. Spoilers. The biggest criticism I have is that the game sometimes feels like a menu simulator. I just want to stab people with my spear and pull off these insane combos. Where's Meat is this bizarre concoction of ingredients that miraculously work together quite well. It's almost as if it's trying to be every kind of openw world game. And while it may not be the best in any one category, it does a really good job combining all of these familiar mechanics. It has the design of an MMO without other players stealing your mobs. But it's co-op, so if you want people running around your world, you can. You play the whole game with a
buddy. It has a Dark Souls type messaging system with very few restrictions on what you can say. What the [__] these comments? I gooned here. And just look at the cutscenes for a moment. Would you believe that this is free to play? It has all of the polish, flare, and graphical fidelity, breadth of content as a full AAA priced $70 game. So, if this looks cool, if it looks fun, you could try it without any hassle. Actman, this sounds too good to be true. What's the catch? Well, if you're wondering, the game is not pay to win. You can play and beat the entire game without spending a dime. You can purchase cosmetics and there are gotcha mechanics, but we'll talk about that a little bit later. To put it simply,
where winds meet is unlike anything I've ever played, and the things I don't particularly enjoy about it are more to do with my own personal tastes rather than some critical design flaw oversight. So, when playing this game, I'm looking at it from a martial artist perspective. I trained with some of these weapons, so I want to see how they were handled. For better and sometimes worse, where Winds meet is loaded with combat mechanics. You can block, parry, dodge, or jump. They went a little crazy here. You have a triple jump. At your disposal are aerial attacks, a ground pound. There's wall running, which is kind of janky, and that's when you remember, oh, this is freeto play. But there is a lot of crazy
movement tech and you can fly in this game or get different mounts like this army of geese. I love the goose mount. I love it. Some abilities let you freeze enemies in place temporarily. You got quick attacks, charging heavies, stylish execution moves that play a little jingle. There's like 12 different weapon types, each with their own move sets and a variety of special abilities that you can swap out. Not to mention a handful of martial arts skills. Some useful in combat like the aforementioned bear throw technique and others are used for puzzle solving. I mean, there's a lot going on here. And the combat for me is the big highlight. It's surprising then that this game recently came to PC, but
they also have an Android and iOS port coming in December. And I'll be honest, I don't know how you're going to get this like 99 gigabyte game working on a phone. This is a very ambitious title and I can't help but wonder if it's making some sacrifices in order to be a mobile game, mostly in terms of like how the menus and the reward structures work. It is very mobile ccentric in the sense that you were kind of bombarded and blasted with all these menus and congratulations, you walked five feet, here's some coins and stuff. That type of thing. Combat is flashy and satisfying. It's simple enough that you can basically just button mash and feel like you're a badass. That can get you
through some of the easy encounters, but for some of the tougher bosses, you're actually going to have to get good. You find the first major boss after the tutorial in this like upside down city with this red glow. And I don't know where I am, but it looks pretty [__] cool. It's really the complexity of all the systems and numbers and leveling mechanics that kind of takes away from the core combat. In some ways, the complexity of the game can feel detrimental to your ability to just enjoy this really [__] cool martial arts game. Quick question. Any of you big into like firearms, history, war? If you are, I bet you can tell pretty quickly when a game or movie fails to be historically accurate or when the mag
catch is not on the right side of a gun. That's how I feel with martial arts. It's kind of like a six sense, isn't it? Where you can look at something and tell when it's not being authentic to your lived experience or knowledge of a subject. Whereins Meet passes the sniff test flawlessly. They hired this guy named Steven Tongue to work on the fight choreography and the move sets. And that's why it feels authentic to me because these are weapons that I have trained with. This guy has been working as a stuntsman and action choreographer since the age of 16. He is 71 years old and he understands that there's a difference between how martial arts function in film versus video games.
It's that perfect blend of real martial arts, practical techniques amplified by fantastical elements that I love so much. Part of the reason why I love Avatar the Last Air Bender. Now, currently, where Windsme has a very respectable rating on Steam, and daily player counts are looking at around 160,000. Let's talk about the community. Can I just show you the funniest part of this game? Kanye West was here. The One Piece does not exist. So wherew is set in like 10th century China, but everyone can leave messages, comments, likes, and even selfies as if we all have cell phones made out of bamboo. There is like no filter on the chat. Let me tell you, they have a very lenient filter. It's not like Elder Ring or Dark Souls where
you can only choose from a handful of different words and terms. You might encounter a dog, for example. Oh, let's see what the messages say. Nothing like exploring 10th century China and encountering 21st century meme culture. But that's part of the fun. You never know what's around the next corner in terms of like video game secrets. But you also never know what type of crazy [__] you're going to read when it comes to these comments. So having this number of players is a great benefit to the game. It makes you feel like you're sharing this world with others, except those players don't need to be in your world for you to get that feeling. It's the little things like beating a boss,
going through the next hallway, and then reading a message from some other player congratulating you. The way this game is monetized is cosmetic only. And uh they made sure you have multiple ways to show off your drip. And the character creator is pretty bonkers how many options you have. I looked at this and I was like, nah, I'm sticking with default. That's too much for me. But I always find games like this that let you share your creativity with other players to be a huge benefit. It gives you a reason to participate with the community and feel part of it. On a monetization side, there are gotcha mechanics. I've never been a huge gambler, especially when it's like items and currencies. I don't
know what they do. But if there's an outfit that's really cool and it feels like it's worth it, then I might buy it. If you're gonna have microtransactions, I just want to be able to buy the thing that I want and that's it. One look at this game's UI is enough to make a man faint. There is so much on screen as you'd expect from an MMO. But what I often find myself doing is hitting F6 and playing the game like this. It's kind of nice. You even get options at the start for how much you want the game to hold your hand. It's like that Elder Ring UI meme, except you can choose between both of these. Do you want the overdesigned uh checklist of activities scattered across
the map, or do you want to keep it simple and basic, disable all those pesky icons so you can take in the scenery and explore at your own pace? The choice is yours. Now, the menus in this game are a neverending labyrinth. I will find parts of the menus that I can't even remember how to get back to. It is overdesigned in some aspects and that's my biggest critique. Perhaps it's a cultural thing. This game is made by a Chinese company, so they probably have different tastes and expectations over there. I can respect that. It's just not what I'm used to.
And it is a lot to learn, take in, and understand that it might be overwhelming for some players who prefer to be slowly acclimated to all of the game's mechanics. Especially when you're constantly showered with rewards, currencies, crafting, and upgrade materials, and you just started playing, you don't know what any of this stuff does or is used for. And therefore, when you first start playing, you don't really know what's valuable or not. It's totally free and the combat is fun enough that the over complicated menus and designs are nowhere close to being a deal breakaker for me. Now, for those looking to explore a massive world with tons of activities, you want to get lost and go back in time to 10th century
China, you will be pleasantly surprised with the amount of content here. The world is almost too big. You can't walk 30 seconds without finding something interesting. a mob of enemies, a secret cave, this magical cat that gives you a puzzle to solve and then rewards you. You might ground pound on some rubble and uncover a secret cave where you then have to light torches to illuminate enemies, fight through it, and clear the rubble. There are seemingly hundreds of mini games. Yes, you can fish in Whereins Meet. I've done it. I'm a champion. But there's also sumo wrestling, platforming, time trials.
You've got a whole fighting arena. There's this doctor miniame where you can heal animals to improve your own healing flask. You know, in a lot of RPGs, there are those NPCs that are kind of just part of the background. You know, they don't really do anything. You can't interact with them. And that is not the case for where Winds meet. I find the majority of the NPCs or at least half you can interact with. They might give you a quest. They might sell you something. They could give you tips, points of interest to explore, rumors to go check out. There's dueling arenas, marksman competitions. This big city in the middle, Kiang, is ginormous. I don't know if I've seen a city as big as this
one in any game I've played. You can play musical instruments and with like rhythm game mechanics, shake down scam artists in the street. Some of these mini games are pretty fun. Others are a bit questionable. uh this debate miniame where you use cards like Magic the Gathering. I uh not a big fan of that one, but it's kind of like that Michael Scott quote. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Where Winds meet takes a lot of shots. It takes a lot of them. Doesn't always hit, but most times it does. Now MMO RPGs are not really renowned for their storytelling. It's usually serviceable just enough to get you immersed in the world. But unlike even World of Warcraft, this game has
some very impressive cutscenes. They also have this really funny feature where you can triple the playback speed of dialogue scenes. How could it be fully effective, right? So, if you end up not caring about the story, at least they give you the option to breeze past that as fast as possible. But I often find myself just kind of looking around and watching the behavior of NPCs. The environments are wide and varied with giant statues and towers in the background, all just waiting for you to explore. The movement abilities like triple jumping, flying, wall running, all make the game very seamless to
explore. There are fast travel points, but I have yet to use them. It's that kind of game. So, I'm genuinely surprised by the quality of this game. Even more shocked that a game of this caliber has seemed to slip through the cracks, gone unnoticed. Not anymore. These days, it feels like over here in the US, we get $70 mobile games. But where wins Meet is the opposite. It's a free AAA game. It don't make no sense. Maybe it's a sign of the times or the differences in culture of video game industries from other countries, but I doubt any US-based developer or publisher is going to put this much
effort into a game only to make it free. This is a product clearly from an entirely different market, one I'm not used to. And it's a breath of fresh air. It's a breath of fresh wind, if you will. And because it's not part of some established franchise or brand, there's no existing expectation of it. Because it's free, I'd 100% recommend playing it. At least giving it a shot. It might be something you're into. It might not. But at the end of the day, if you can spare the 100 GB on your hard drive, I'd say go explore the world of Whereins Meet. But what do you think? Have you tried the game or even heard about it?
Let me know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below. Thank you to Whereins Meet for sponsoring this video. If you would like to check out the Steam page, the link will be down in the description. All right, everyone. That's all I got for today. This is the ActMan signing out. Peace.
