@Wyrmspawn, I don’t know the author at all, and I’ve only read part of CoKF. But I wouldn’t assume she didn’t do her research (as you keep insisting) just because she didn’t write in the genre that you would have liked best.
For all you or I know, she knows wuxia in and out, but wrote a Western genre version because that’s her target audience and she expects it to sell more copies, or because she enjoys it more, or various other reasons. From what you’ve written, it doesn’t seem to me that she was trying to write wuxia, let alone historical fiction. So we can’t really answer the question of how much research she did into those specifics.
It’s great to have you point out how it’s very different from wuxia – very informative for those of us who don’t read wuxia ourselves. And if you think that kung fu fiction should only be written according to historical or Chinese fictional standards, that would be an interesting, fruitful discussion to have. Is it, for example, ugly Western imperialism to write fox spirits as if they were friendly fairies?
But claiming the author “hasn’t done her research” because of her choice of genre seems like a red herring to me.
It would be really iffy for a Westerner to write wuxia. Just putting that out there. The whole point of the genre is about us fighting our oppressors both domestic and foreign. One simply cannot write wuxia while being an oppressor (both current and historical). Not to say that the body of wuxia fiction doesn’t have its own oppressive elements (sexism for example) and I have my own ideas about those, but I won’t go into that.
Now, as for fantasy based on Chinese culture, one always runs the risk of exoticising and appropriation. I haven’t played the game yet because I was afraid of that happening, and from what I read here, it seems like it’s another one of those things written by Westerners who either misunderstand aspects of Chinese culture, folklore and martial arts or understand but ignore it anyway in favour of a Western lens.
@Wyrmspawn Fox spirits do exist in folklore. You think the patriarchal fuckheads randomly decide to insult a woman based on her preceived promiscuity by random throwing two words together?
Drazen
63
To say anyone from the Occident cannot write that genre is an association fallacy. Because, bluntly, they can; Whether or not they did so well in this case is another matter. There is no fundamental difference between the Caucasoids and the Mongoloids which would prevent one from adopting the culture of the other, and consequently no reason why they couldn’t write fiction within a foreign literary tradition. Saying someone cannot write something because they are an “oppressor” by dint of birthplace is just poppycock.
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Hahaha, look at the dinosaur using racial terms invented by 19th century white men to justify their imperialism.
Drazen
65
“I may be accused of being a dinosaur, but I would remind you that dinosaurs ruled the Earth for a very long time.” - Sir Patrick Moore.
Your ad hominems still do not save your flippant dismissal of the author. I would advise you abstain from bringing your own political frustrations into this, and stick to discussing the game proper.
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Laguz
66
I second @Drazen, @ScarletGeisha. We’re 'ere for the game, and I’d like to see this topic (and most of this forum) kept that way.
hild
68
Now that this game has been released on the kindle I have had a chance to play it and it has been one of the better new releases so far. It really felt like my choices mattered and I wasn’t being railroaders by the story as some games have been. I also really loved the jade empire feel of the game.
@ScarletGeisha I find that comment to be very ignorant and, quite frankly, far more racist then Drazen came off. Because ancestors of mine from hundreds of years ago were a**holes doesn’t mean I am incapable of understanding history or culture not of my own country (In fact, being Canadian has opened me up to many, many different ways of life as we are a big ‘melting pot’). I know you speak of Chinese culture and history but I think ‘Shōgun’ by James Clavell (a white man) did a wonderful job of showing the western world what it was like in Japan during the turn of the 16 century, as one commonly known example.
How do you get the Dragon Sage to make you the Emperor?
I too am also wondering how to be emperor.
I like this game, it could have been epic and it was defiantly sowing the seeds of it(the foreigners, the rebels and the Emperor), but it was wrapped up quickly. I would not have minded playing a part 2.
The biggest problem for me was the lack of closure. I would have liked to have seen more variables to the endings. Like romance, or how the kingdom is at the end of the story, or how my school is doing.
Ramidel
72
I have to agree about the wrap-up being rushed; you get an answer and its results, and that’s it; nothing unrelated to the Sage’s question.
I think this is a slight flaw in the game; there’s a lot of plotlines on the boil, but there’s no branching (even if the branches aggressively merge) to allow you to delve into the stuff that interests you.
To become Emperor, strengthen your Tianxia stat. You can do this by fighting foreigners, supporting the Blue Scarves against Governor Rong, and generally by showing that you believe that the Empire is going down the wrong path and needs to be set right.
TDilz
73
I thought it was excellent, nicely long and gave a lot of options for resolving issues. (perhaps a bit easy though).
I can’t speak to it’s genre accuracy but it felt authentic enough. A story flavoured by wuxia, if not a wuxia story in itself
umrahel
74
Quite good if I do say so myself. Doesn’t have to be true to life in any shape or form.
Does anyone know how to romance Sun An?
bawpie
78
I enjoyed this one, though the third part is really rushed and I felt the way that the romance (with my rival) was really brushed over at the end which I felt was a shame. It was like the author put a lot of work into the first few parts and then completely rushed the ending. I’ll play it again, and I’m quite happy with the amount paid for it, but I just think it was a shame that the end part was so brief…
@CJW - As I always say if it doesn’t interest you don’t get it. 
It’s certainly one of the better quality ones though.
The biggest thing for me, as mentioned by almost everyone else is lack of closure. It would be nice to know what my effect on the world is, how the conflict turned out, and how my school turned out. The whole romance thing also seems to be a little cosmetic in my opinion.
As for the work’s faithfulness to the wuxia genre, I think it did a fairly decent job. Simplification of the various wushu styles is probably done in the interest of preventing the stat screen to become too clustered. Besides, the philosophy of the Peach Tree school seems to be taking the best out of many different styles. I would have to agree that Peach Tree order’s monastic characteristics seem to be less than faithful to the likes of, say, Shaolin. However, no one actually said they’re Buddhist either (at least not that I remember). The setting of the piece, I think, is less similar to Jin Yong, and closer to the fantastic settings seen in works such as The Legend of Sword and Fairy. I actually think the fox spirit makes the piece distinctively more Eastern. I would like to see more works in this setting in the future.
