Sword and Fairy, originally known as 仙劍奇俠傳 (XiānjiànQíXiáZhuàn, lit. The Legend of Sword and Fairy) is a series of Xianxia Eastern Role Playing Games, developed by Taiwanese Softstar company. All of them are set in the same Chinese mythology-inspired world, over the course of several hundred years.
Games in the main series include:
- Sword And Fairy (1995, DOS, PC, Sega Saturn, iOS)
- Sword And Fairy 2 (2003, PC, iOS)
- Sword And Fairy 3 (2003, PC)
- Sword And Fairy 3 Ex (2004, PC)
- Sword And Fairy 4 (2007, PC)
- Sword And Fairy 5 (2011, PC, iOS)
- Sword And Fairy 5 Prequel (2013, PC)
- Sword & Fairy 6 (2015, PC, PS4, Xbox One)
- Sword and Fairy 7 (2021, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
All of the main games are available on Steam.
The series also spawned three TV series, based on the games. They are:
- Chinese Paladin (2004)
- Chinese Paladin 3 (2009)
- Chinese Paladin 5 (2016)
See also Xuan-Yuan Sword, another RPG series made by Softstar.
Sword and Fairy series contains examples of:
- Anachronic Order: The third game (and its Gaiden Game) is the prequel to the original, and Sword and Fairy 4 is the prequel to the whole series.
- Creation Myth: The series uses a slightly modified version of the Chinese creation myth
. The universe was created by a primordial god Pangu, who later died, and his Power, Energy and Spirit turned into three gods, named Three Emperors: Fuxi, Shennong and Nüwa. They created Deities, Beasts and Humans respectively. - Genre Shift: From turn-based to Combatant Cooldown System in 6, and to Action RPG in 7.
- Great Offscreen War: The War of Three Races was fought over ownership of Nine Springs. Deities lost two thirds of their population, 90% of Humans died, and Beasts were all but wiped out. It was ended by Covenant of Three Emperors, that decreed that anyone who tries to restart the war should be destroyed by other parties.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Protagonists of the main series always use either a jian or two short swords.
- Our Demons Are Different: Beings that were corrupted by "evil air" of Demon Realm/Devildom are generally called Demons. Most of them used to be Beasts, a race created by Shennong, who turned into Demons after losing the War of Three Races and fleeing to Demon Realm. Most of them are Blood Knights, but Dark Is Not Evil is in effect here.
- Our Gods Are Different: Deities are the race created by Fuxi. There are two types of them: Original Deities, made from Fuxi's pure spiritual energy, and New Deities, made from divine fruits, infused with Chunzi spring's power. They are mostly similar to humans in appearance, except that Original Deities are about one and a half times taller than most humans. They also can be killed. Some Deities view other races as inferior, but most are good.
- Place of Power: Nine Springs, scattered across Six Realms. They are key points in Spiritual Veins, that supply Six Realms with life energy. Each spring also has some kind of power, such as being the source of all poisons and antidotes in the world, or allowing one to see the future. Currently Demons own one spring, and Deities own two.
- Spirit Cultivation Genre: A prime gaming example of this. There is even a sect called the Xianxia sect.
- Wuxia: Self-described, even. But it is more in line with the Spirit Cultivation Genre.
