Angels of East is a free-to-play role-playing game (RPG) from the Ghost City Working Group. This fantasy game revolves around the Chinese subgenre of Xianxia, better known worldwide as cultivation. As you pursue self-development, you can learn various martial arts and enhance your affinity to one of the Five Elements.

The main setback with Angels of East is that as a cultivation RPG, it doesn’t feature 3D gameplay with impressive visual effects. It plays more like city management or a visual novel sim, where you move between screens and a lot of text, similar to Infinite Cultivation or Golden Market.

Collect the treasures of heaven and earth

Angels of East is, at its core, a cultivation game. It focuses on a fantasy world where heroes and martial artists hone their physical and spiritual skills. As such, it also features magic and other fantasy elements. This rich world translates to a lot of in-game content, letting players explore various character classes, builds, and abilities. Meditate, attend a martial arts school, or embark on an adventure.

As mentioned, it doesn’t play like your standard 3D RPG. Instead, you simply click on screens and watch as your stats grow. It also follows the same system for navigation, letting you travel between rooms, locations, and regions. However, its dungeons and battle mechanics follow a grid and turn-based strategy format, adding a refreshing change of view for the mostly static game.

The main issue with the game is that it is in Mandarin, including the in-game text. While the artwork is impressive, the language barrier makes it difficult for non-speakers of the language. Additionally, the game could use better balancing efforts. It is clear that some sects and builds are unilaterally stronger than others. Lastly, minor bugs and glitches negatively affect the gameplay experience.

A complex, engaging cultivation game

Overall, Angels of East is a promising fantasy RPG in the rapidly growing cultivation subgenre. It captures all the elements in terms of character and set designs, and the various in-game features such as the sects, schools, and magic spells available. By adhering to the more conservative turn-based combat, it misses out on some immersive ways to flesh out its fantasy content.