The Matchless KungFu offers a complex mix of role-playing game, building game and an open world that you can expand as you play
Remember Kenshi, the great sandbox open world in which you can become anything from a small farmer to the ruler of an entire empire?
If you are enthusiastic about such a concept, you should take a look at The Matchless KungFu take a look: The role-playing game on Steam takes you into a world whose fate you not only influence through your actions – you even build the open world piece by piece according to your wishes.
This is what awaits you in The Matchless KungFu
The Matchless KungFu, similar to the aforementioned Kenshi, offers a complex mixture of role-playing game elements and sandbox open world. You start with a simple character who… really can’t do anything. So you end up in a game world inspired by Chinese mythology and learn the basics in the tutorial – such as harvesting resources and completing battles.
The game world
The game world – in which, absurdly, every man, woman, child and animal knows Kung Fu – is initially quite clear. But this changes quickly.
The heart of the game is the construction of the world itself. By completing certain tasks, pieces of land are unlocked that can be added to the existing game world, each offering different quests and resources.
In small villages and towns you can trade and meet NPCs, fight monsters and bandits in swamps and in the mountains valuable ore deposits are waiting to be mined by you.
Through your decisions and actions, you can forge long-term alliances, find a partner, produce offspring or make bitter enemies. The social structure in The Matchless KungFu reacts dynamically to your actions and grows with every new tile you attach to your open world
The battles
Fighting is the second central element of The Matchless KungFu – and quite confusing at first glance. Instead of action, you can expect complex round battles in which you string together martial arts attacks to trigger powerful combos and special attacks
The whole thing works on a kind of rock-paper-scissors principle with additional nuances:
- In each combat round, you draw punches, kicks, weapon attacks and palm strikes from your deck.
- Now you can chain these basic attacks together, but normally only the same attacks can be combined.
- Each round, however, there are several
Omni-Moves
available – these allow you to turn kicks into punches or combine different basic attacks, for example. - All these moves can be countered using the rock-paper-scissors principle. For example, if you use a punch while your enemy is entering, you win the exchange of blows and deal damage.
- As each participant usually strings together six or more attacks, small kung fu battles are created at the end of the round, just like in a fighting game.
- Finally, certain combos trigger special attacks. If you chain four kicks in a row, you can then kick your enemy in the abdomen for extra damage.
Between masterpiece and cabinet of curiosities
The Matchless KungFu is an absolutely absurd mixture of innovative, ingenious, but at the same time strange game mechanics. This leads to a fascinatingly absurd gaming experience where you never know what’s going to happen next
Of course, you can simply place your land pieces and fulfill the quest of the new area in order to be able to place the next one afterwards. But it is much more exciting to set yourself a goal and write your own story.
Building fans have the opportunity to create a farm with a farm store or even a thriving settlement in unspoiled nature You might even found your own kung fu clan. Combine all these elements and attract the strongest fighters in the game world – with delicious, home-cooked meals made from the produce of your own farm
If you want to give free rein to your criminal energy, become a master thief instead and clear out entire towns at night – or simply beat up every wanderer you come across in the game world as a bandit. The possibilities for cool stories are almost endless.
As exciting as all this may sound, The Matchless KungFu repeatedly scrapes just past the edge of trash The presentation is utilitarian at best and the English translation is completely useless in places
If you take too many kicks to the crotch, for example, your baby
may break … which largely means that your best piece has literally fallen off and you can no longer father offspring unless a doctor sews it back on. Hard to say whether the translation or the fact that this is even possible is more absurd here.
Some curious highlights from my almost ten hours of playtime:
- I have beaten countless wild horses (who also know KungFu) to death. Horses drop heaps of manure, which I was able to sell for a lot of money at the local auction because the farmers want to use it to fertilize their fields.
- A young woman has fallen in love with me and moved in with me on my little farm. To pass the time, we had a training duel – in which she bashed my head in and I died.
- When you die, you have to create a new character. However, this is not an unknown character like your first character, but has connections to the game world you created. So I resurrected myself as the son of a blacksmith and simply seduced my grieving widow again.
- I got into a fight with a snake and was poisoned in the process. Because I didn’t notice in time, I later went blind. The only doctor in town didn’t want to help me because he had caught me stealing medicine from his store.
- After beating up a bandit, I took him home and locked him in a cage. A short time later, his mother came to my door, knocked me unconscious and broke my legs.
All in all, The Matchless KungFu eis a colorful mix of ingenious possibilities and some of the strangest ideas I’ve ever seen The game challenges your creativity and adaptability and offers you an absolutely extraordinary experience that you are guaranteed not to forget
Despite all the quirks and the sometimes bumpy presentation, there is always something new to discover in this chaotic world. Whether you build a magnificent dynasty, sell weapons as a peaceful blacksmith or go down in history as a legendary KungFu master is entirely up to you.
The Matchless KungFu is certainly not for everyone, but it is a unique experiment and has enormous potential despite its early stage of development. Anyone who is not afraid of unconventional ideas and has already enjoyed writing their own stories in other games such as Kenshi or Rimworld should definitely take a look.
