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Historical fiction can be entertaining and exciting, and that's exactly what's happening in The Legend of Tianding. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, Tianding is a Robin Hood figure who becomes a hero among the people. Using his acrobatics skills and knowledge of martial arts, you must guide Tianding through a series of hazardous environments and waves of foes.
The game is a 2.5D brawler with platforming and some lite RPG elements. It's fairly easy to get the hang of, but there are some aspects to keep in mind as if you don't, you may end up revisiting checkpoints more often than you'd like.
Always Steal Ranged Weapons
Tianding begins with several skills and one of the most notable is his scarf ability. When an enemy has taken enough damage (their health bar turns yellow), Tianding can ensnare them with his scarf and toss them around. What's even more useful is that he can disarm them and take the weapon for himself.
This is quite handy when foes have strong weapons, but even more so when they have ranged weapons like firearms and explosives. You should always aim to take these weapons first as they increase Tianding's attack range and can deal heavy damage to multiple targets.
Make Use Of Environmental Hazards
As Tianding explores, he learns martial arts techniques that consume bars of stamina that can be seen under his health bar. These attacks add another move to combos, do decent damage, and help with more precise platforming.
One attack, in particular, is a forceful punch that can be used while Tianding is standing still. When timed correctly, this punch can send enemies flying straight back through other enemies until they hit a wall. Since enemies are just as vulnerable to hazards as you are — use this to knock tougher ones into them for instant death, or at least major damage.
Get Plenty Of Distance From Charged Attacks
Brawlers introduce many enemy types, but the strongest are usually signified by their size, aura, or symbols. In Tianding, Elite enemies have a noticeably larger appearance with a surrounding aura and a purple health bar.
As expected, these enemies are tougher, deal more damage, and have unblockable charge attacks. These attacks are telegraphed by a burst of red aura, so watch carefully for this. Charge attacks have a surprising amount of range, so make sure to get as far away as possible before it's executed.
Check For Breakable Walls
Despite being mostly about fighting, there are a lot of secrets for Tianding to find. Some are denoted by shadowy auras that lead to a section off screen, while others are hidden behind breakable objects. This includes breakable walls, which are pretty easy to spot due to their cracks and reactions to attacks.
Unfortunately, Tianding doesn't have any natural moves that can destroy them, so he needs to steal a powerful weapon like an axe or explosives. Make sure you check around fighting areas for said walls so that you don't miss a chance to grab the weapon you need to break through.
Give To The Beggars
When Tianding isn't fighting through specific areas, he's roaming around the overworld where he can talk with NPCs. Among them are Beggars who can be found in every overworld area with dialogue bubbles showing coins.
Tianding can earn coins by finding treasure chests in levels and defeating enemies. When he does, a good way to use them is to share them with the Beggars. Every time you do, they will show appreciation by giving you a collectible that gives you a passive bonus to your skills, weapons, stats, and more.