"Foreign players are learning Song Dynasty history through the game."

Since its global launch on November 7, NetEase's MMORPG "Sword of Justice" has generated trending discussions across major social media platforms worldwide. In the game, players explore the Hongqiao Bridge in Bianjing, experiencing the scenery of 'Qingming Shanghe Tu'. Through interactive storylines, they also engage with classical Chinese poetry.

This international release has successfully introduced traditional Chinese cultural elements and aesthetic values to global gaming audiences.

From the very first day of launch, the game dominated charts in multiple countries, topping the free sections of App Store and Google Play in Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, and other nations.

01. Light Character Progression + Heavy Social Interaction

As a highly culturally rich MMO rooted in traditional Chinese aesthetics, it is quite surprising that it has achieved such success in international markets. Similar to the debut of "Black Myth: Wukong", Sword of Justice has sparked players’ interest in excavating and learning about the historical stories behind the game.

The game incorporates numerous famous figures from the Song Dynasty into its storyline, allowing players to interact with literary giants such as Su Shi, Shen Kuo, and Li Qingzhao.

Through carefully designed quests and dialogues, players can gain deep insights into these historical personalities’ lives and literary achievements.

Many overseas players actively discuss traditional clothing patterns, architectural features, and poetic works on social media. Several streamers also run dedicated segments analyzing the game’s embodiment of Eastern aesthetics, inspiring players to explore Song Dynasty art and literature.

The game’s success relies not only on cultural depth. The core of Sword of Justice’s appeal lies in its “light character development + heavy social interaction” gameplay model, which has set it apart in the MMO market.

The game introduces a fresh approach to character progression, distinct from traditional MMOs, by "decoupling resource farming from gameplay."

In typical MMOs, character development is tied to specific activities, forcing players to participate in designated content to progress. In Sword of Justice, all gameplay points toward a key currency, which can be directly exchanged for various development resources.

Additionally, based on a seasonal model, players can freely choose to engage in PVE, PVP, or PVX modes. The resources earned from each mode are equal and share a weekly cap, enabling casual players to spend around 8 minutes daily completing daily tasks and easily gathering resources to boost combat power.

On the social front, the game not only features traditional relationship systems like sworn alliances and master-disciple bonds but also integrates numerous cooperative mini-games to enhance interaction. The developers humorously refer to these as “super stitched-together monsters,” aiming to “offer players a game experience similar to trying countless games at once.”

This “mash-up” strategy aligns well with current trends toward fragmented, lightweight entertainment. Through frequent updates and diversified gameplay integration, the game has broadened user options and established a distinctive competitive edge.

02. Chinese Cultural Trend Is Still the Top Player

Actually, even before the game’s launch, Sword of Justice’s traditional Chinese cultural elements had already attracted a large audience's attention.

According to data from AppGrowing, related promotional materials were launched on a large scale starting one week before the game's release, with nearly 1,500 sets of materials deployed on peak days. The video content mainly falls into two categories: high-quality CG and gameplay demos.

Source：AppGrowing

Notably, nearly all promotional content highlights the game’s traditional Chinese elements, including scenery, costumes, and storyline elements. For example, some materials showcase beautiful visuals of autumnal mountains and rural scenes, along with images of Eastern-style pavilions, embedding the game’s unique Eastern aesthetic deep into users’ minds.

This strategy serves two purposes: first, it lays a cultural recognition foundation prior to launch through traditional Chinese elements, effectively reducing cultural barriers for overseas players; second, it leverages exquisite artistic styles to stimulate players’ longing for this open world rich in Eastern charm.

Source：AppGrowing

For different markets, targeted player acquisition strategies vary slightly. Data from AppGrowing shows that Sword of Justice mainly focuses on Southeast Asia, with marketing efforts nearly 3 to 5 times larger than in other regions. Most promotional materials in these markets feature local celebrities as endorsers.

For instance, Thailand’s popular actress Pimpaka was invited to endorse, appearing in promotional content dressed as a senior disciple character from the game, in traditional costumes, exuding elegance.

High-quality character design and artistic style immediately attract users interested in traditional Chinese and martial arts themes. This region-specific promotional strategy has yielded impressive results, propelling the game to the top of dual-platform free charts in several Southeast Asian countries.

Source：AppGrowing

In other markets, the focus of promotional materials also narrows depending on region. For example, in South Korea, more emphasis is placed on real gameplay videos and live commentary by KOLs to attract and convert players. These videos explicitly highlight that Sword of Justice offers “great content without grind or heavy spending,” directly addressing players’ pain points and promising an improved gaming experience.

Source：AppGrowing

In Japan, promotional content emphasizes the game’s highly customizable “face-creation” system, catering to local players’ strong preference for character personalization. Materials often showcase players creating custom faces and then trying on exquisite traditional Chinese costumes for free, enabling Japanese players to naturally accept and appreciate the classical aesthetic of Chinese style through their personal customization process.

Source：AppGrowing

At this September’s TGS, Sword of Justice virtually recreated the core scene of Bianjing, creating a striking visual impression of the bustling cityscape. This attracted a large number of attendees at the booth.

Additionally, the company demonstrated AI technology on-site, allowing players to interact with intelligent NPCs, showcasing AI’s capacity to generate character animations, facial expressions, and scene changes based on semantic understanding in real-time. This further helped convert attracted visitors into active game audiences.

Through excellent integration of “online+offline” traditional Chinese cultural displays, Sword of Justice successfully transforms the traffic it draws into “retained users.”

03. How Can MMOs "Last Longer"?

For Sword of Justice, the real challenge lies in replicating the success of its domestic server and becoming a "long-lasting" MMO.

Looking at the current global MMO market, the biggest common problem in this genre is that players exhaust content and develop aesthetic fatigue. To maintain vitality, the core lies in establishing a sustainable content supply, player growth, and emotional connection system.

Currently, combat and development systems in MMO games are mostly centered around characters, with internal skills, talents, and other systems serving as auxiliary growth mechanisms. This conventional model was broken last year by NetEase’s Where Winds Meet—a game that also treats weapons as primary development targets.

Players can enhance weapons through enhancement, which grants added buffs. The randomly generated attributes largely determine the character’s maximum combat power. This innovative design offers new insights into MMO growth mechanics.

In recent years, most new MMOs have adopted a seasonal model. For example, Legend of YMIR, launched by Wemade on October 28, 2025, limits players’ growth cycle to a few months. Each new season involves moderate value compression and resets, alongside introducing new gameplay and equipment.

This system offers key advantages over traditional MMOs: first, it provides new players with a fair starting line, greatly lowering entry barriers; second, it creates periodic new goals for veteran players, preventing burnout from endless grind.

Consistent content updates are fundamental to retaining players and maintaining buzz. Sword of Justice into China's vast cultural heritage, drawing from Song Dynasty landscapes and martial arts lore to provide endless inspiration for fresh updates and immersive world-building

However, the ultimate barrier for an MMO isn’t gameplay itself but the social networks built within the game. FF14’s turnaround from critical panning to being dubbed the "best game" can largely be attributed to the deep trust and frequent interactions established between producer Yoshida Natsuno's team and players.

In the past, the focus was on building player relationships, often overlooking the importance of official-player emotional bonds.

When a game ceases to be a cold virtual world and instead becomes a warm community full of memories, its lifespan naturally extends.

Sword of Justice international server maintains an active presence in gaming communities

Although Sword of Justice appears to possess several elements conducive to long-term operation, its ability to sustain success remains uncertain.

According to AppGrowing’s data, the game performs well in Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia, but its response in Europe and America is relatively subdued.

Western players have specific expectations for payment models and gameplay flow. Moreover, mainstream MMO markets in the West tend to prefer Western fantasy and sci-fi themes; martial arts culture has a limited audience there.

Source：AppGrowing

Cultural barriers in games act like a "wall." Although unique Chinese aesthetic and quality attract some players to break through, they also hinder broader acceptance of the game among overseas audiences, making it difficult to overcome this obstacle.

Therefore, as a product with distinctive cultural attributes, it’s crucial to actively transform these "cultural barriers" into "cultural appeal," to achieve sustainable long-term operation.

Notably, based on AppGrowing, Where Winds Meet is also scheduled to launch on November 14, 2025. The sequential release of two similar-themed products is expected to lower the cultural comprehension cost for international audiences and promote mutual support. Currently, Where Winds Meet is also gaining attention, with over ten million overseas reservations.

Sword of Justice Surges Across Global Charts as NetEase’s MMO Expands Its Overseas Footprint

01. Light Character Progression + Heavy Social Interaction

02. Chinese Cultural Trend Is Still the Top Player

03. How Can MMOs "Last Longer"?

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