Disclaimer: My first playthrough started when The Echoes of Ash and Dust update is live.

Wandering Sword is one of the best Martial Art RPG that I've ever played.

Wandering Sword heavily encourage you to explore and get to know all the characters on your journey, since majority of the companions that can follow you is hidden behind many quests, if you beeline through the main story you will definitely miss most of the companions, and by extension the endings that require their presents.

My favorite part of the game is by far the last act of the game, specifically the one that The Echoes of Ash and Dust update brings. You can only get this version of the last act if you resolve many mysteries and recruit most (maybe all) of the companions. I just love how all the companions have prominent roles on the story.

Spiral Art Games tends to give free updates for this game, and my personal experience on playing this game have been terrific.
I would probably buy any RPG that this team will produce in the future. I'm looking forward to play Wandering Sword's Sequels of spinoff!

Its a good game.
However, there are afew fairly big flaws compared to the alternatives (Hero's Adventure).
Some of the negatives:
-Story is very linear and you cannot deviate much from it.
-Lacks martial arts compared to other games.
-Forces you to have companions for a huge chunk of the story.

Those things might be positives to some, but for me, the allure and fun of wuxia games is the ability to explore, to be free in a vast world and bumble around getting killed or finding really cool ♥♥♥♥ and this game dosent really have that, atleast not to the same extent other games in the genre got it.

That being said, this game is still really fun, and story-wise it stands about the competition.

I started playing this directly after beating Octopath Traveler 2 and was quite impressed with its polish. I if you are a fan of Wuxia/Xainxia genre this is one of the bests/most complete games on Steam. Very good game. Very underrated

[Audio and Visual] 9/10
The game features gorgeous HD-2D graphics similar to Octopath and Triangle Strategy. Character sprites are well animated. Attack animations are ok initially, but get much better for the stronger techniques. Everything ran smoothly and without issue. The music fits quite well with the ambiance of the game. A Peaceful Bamboo Flute, Pipa, Guzheng or Erhu plays unobtrusively and mostly unaccompanied in most town areas. In more deserted and foreign locals to tone shifts to tense and during battles the tempo increases with a full ensemble.

[Gameplay] 7/10
The battles work similar to Path of Wuxia with a grid based system and different weapon types having different grid shapes. Rather then leveling up your character directly, you can spend martial points earned through combat to learn weapon and cultivation manuals. These manuals can be equipped to allow for use of their skills and equipment perks. Leveling up weapon manuals permanently increases your proficiency with that weapon type regardless of whether its equipped or not. Cultivation manual increase max hp and meridian points which can be used to purchase perks and stat bonuses. Positioning for back attacks and side attack is rewarded with damage and accuracy bonuses, There are also Movement skills that can effect movement range and and dodge rate as well a compose feature to recover a small amount of hp/mp. The game also features a real time mode similar to Chrono Trigger where all characters' movement gauges fill simultaneously and they can take action whenever it reaches full. Outside of combat you can use stamina to fish, collect resources, craft, rob people, or learn their techniques provided you have a good enough relationship with them.

[Convenience/Difficulty] 10/10
The creator goes out of his way to reduce the inconveniences and grindiness common in most rpgs. Their are no random encounters. enemies appear visible at location and can be avoided with modest effort. The game features autobattle and double speed modes for if enemies encounters in an area get too easy. Character who don't currently need martial points can spend them to teach other characters. All cutscenes are skip-able by holding down a button. A side quest to unlock the mount is accessible early in the game to help reduce travel time. Returning players starting a new game can begin with some of the stuff they unlocked from a previous play through. Hard mode is recommend as Normal mode get relatively easy mid game. If you want more of a challenge the game features an extreme mode and quirks to make the game significantly more difficult. For an additional challenge, using a weapon other than sword for your main character (especially hidden weapons) will make thing a little harder.

[Story] 9/10
If you like Chinese martial arts fantasies the story will be familiar, but well executed. The expanse and detail of the world is well done. It is somewhat unfortunate that there is only one path in the main story. Minor Early game spoiler You have to join the good guy sword sect in-spite of there being ~12 factions in the game . There are quite a few scripted losses, but beating them does reward you some extra goodies. Some of the bigger side quests do have branching outcomes and rewards. Most of the 10+ Companion characters you can find have 1-2 side quests. Some of them even have special endings. The South Chronicle update added a fairly large side story that have multiple routes and it is a bit more unique then the main quest line. I have not fully seen the changes from the Echoes of Ash and Dust, but i'm hoping it does something similar. The game has a respectable amount of side quest, but a lot of them are time gated to the main story so make sure you explore a bit before you rush through.