In China, the open-world RPG Where Winds Meet has already captivated millions of players. On November 14, 2025, the release in the West is scheduled. MeinMMO reveals how much MMO is in the new role-playing game from China.
Why is the MMO question even being raised? Where Winds Meet is a packed open-world RPG that wants to offer a bit of everything:
- A cinematically staged story campaign with voiced dialogues that you can experience alone or in co-op with up to 4 players.
- A multiplayer mode that gives you access to special MMO content.
- Features known from MMOs such as guilds, dungeons, professions, housing, world bosses, PvP, and raids.
- Different control and interface variants for MMORPG and action RPG fans.
Given the abundance of features, systems, and content, it is a challenge for the developers to explain in short trailers and texts exactly what kind of game Where Winds Meet is. Therefore, we would like to clarify how much MMORPG is in the role-playing game and whether genre fans can look forward to the release.
One of the trailers for Where Winds Meet:
What kind of player are you?
When you start Where Winds Meet for the first time, you not only create your own character: The role-playing game also offers you various options to customize your gaming experience.
Option 1 concerns the control or how you adjust the camera perspective: Holding the right mouse button (and with the CTRL key you defend)? That is the MMORPG mode. Or with simple mouse movements (and with right-click you defend)? That is the ARPG mode.
Option 2, however, revolves around the presentation of tasks and goals in the world or through the interface. There is the selection point “Detailed Instructions” for MMO players as well as beginners. The alternative “Free Exploration” offers much less display and is for players who want to explore the world on their own.
– The PC version was released in its home market in December 2024, the mobile version in January 2025.
– In just three days, the game earned over 1.4 million US dollars with 1.6 million downloads in the Chinese iOS App Store alone.
– Analysts estimate revenues in the first 12 months at around 2.4 billion Yuan (approximately 327 million US dollars) on mobile devices and an additional 1.8 billion Yuan (approximately 246 million US dollars) on PC.
– The number of players in China is estimated to be over 15 million.
Solo, Co-op or like in a light MMORPG?
Where Winds Meet is designed such that you unlock the numerous features and systems of the role-playing game gradually. At the beginning, only the so-called single-player mode is available, in which you can explore the world solo at your own pace and experience all the quest and story content of the RPG.
You only encounter other players in this mode if you consciously decide to (more on that shortly). Similar to Dark Souls or Elden Ring, players can leave messages in the world to give tips on puzzles or warn of dangerous passages.
Even though the name does not suggest it, you can team up with up to 3 other players in single-player mode to cooperatively tackle many of the contents of Where Winds Meet. You can
- share collected items such as chests and curiosities
- play activities such as side quest chains
- complete the campaigns
- enjoy various leisure activities (such as mini-games)
- master bosses and other challenges in the open world
What about the MMORPG part? After a few level ups, you unlock the so-called online mode for Where Winds Meet. In this mode, you can meet other players in the world and experience special multiplayer content.
In this mode, progress on certain chests, curiosities, and puzzles is synchronized so that you can receive rewards together as a team. However, the focus is clearly on social interaction. You cannot play the campaign and side quests in this mode. In the open world, you won’t even encounter the normal enemies anymore.
We were able to play Where Winds Meet – here are our first impressions:
Wide range of multiplayer content
Below we summarize which contents of Where Winds Meet are designed for multiple players:
- You can create guilds and unlock special guild rewards or guild bonuses through the completion of activities and events. For a guild to survive, it must regularly pay maintenance costs.
- Guilds can have different specializations, such as dungeons and guild wars, non-combat content, trade, exploration, or PvP, in order to gain access to special bonuses for these specific types of content.
- Each guild has its own hub with plenty of space. The developers are apparently working on expanding the game’s building system to this hub in a future update.
- You can also build a blood brotherhood with up to 9 other players by performing a blood oath. As part of such a brotherhood, you gain access to certain quests through which you can earn points and increase the brotherhood level.
- There are also various sects in the game that you can join. Each sect focuses on one of the martial arts styles. Being part of a sect makes it easier to learn and master the associated martial arts style, but also gives you advantages in other areas. In return, however, you must abide by the rules of the group. Within a sect, you can rise in rank and unlock new cosmetics such as titles and emotes. A player can even rise to become the leader of a sect.
- Last but not least, you can build a relationship with a player of your choice, even to the point of marriage, and earn various rewards (such as romantic emotes or titles) this way.
- In the sword trials, you will encounter combat challenges for optional 5-player groups (but there is also a version for 1 to 4 players, with weaker loot), for which you can search for interested allies via player search if needed.
- In the campaign challenges, you can experience mastered boss fights in harder versions again to earn additional rewards and climb a leaderboard.
- In the world of Where Winds Meet, several outposts can be stormed alone or with allies and liberated from enemies. If successful, new equipment awaits.
- In the adventure area, you can expect various activities such as group cultivation (a type of meditation exercise), jointly healing an NPC suffering from a severe illness (group consultation), or a knowledge quiz.
- There is a 1vs1 arena for PvP fans with a leaderboard and a battle royale mode called Perception Forest.
- There are group dungeons through which you can earn additional rewards once a week.
- There are bounty quests in which you may participate in community events or hunt or defeat target players/characters – this can be done in both online and single-player modes.
- By the way, if you misbehave and repeatedly break the rules, you can be placed on a wanted list and even imprisoned for a certain period of time. Your blood brotherhood can help you escape. Other players can decide to prevent your escape.
- Where Winds Meet is expected to receive long-term new content and challenges through seasons.
Is Where Winds Meet a full-fledged MMORPG?
Due to the strict separation between single-player and multiplayer modes, we must answer this question with a clear “No”. The main contents of Where Winds Meet are only accessible in the single-player/co-op mode.
The persistent online world feels more like an optional sidebar due to the lack of enemies and quests, where one can express their social side, participate in certain activities, and find friends for online play.
This division of the game, coupled with the sheer mass of features and content, is so special that we are very curious how Where Winds Meet will be received by you and others. Thanks to the Free2Play model, anyone interested can at least easily get an impression. You’ll find all further information in our extensive overview: Where Winds Meet: All information on release, price, and gameplay
