If you haven’t read my preview yet and would like to know more about the actual game, then I’d really recommend you check that out. You can always come back to this article afterwards.
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But for those who haven’t been following the project, the irony obviously stems from the fact that this ambitious outing is set in an alternate world London, which is being consumed by the fictional realm of Avalon.
As I sat in the studio’s humble headquarters in the centre of Chengdu, the team showed me reference photos of Euston – a train station I’d travelled through some 48 or so hours prior, en route to the opposite side of the world.
In this article, I’m going to take you to Eclipse Glow Games, around the city’s iconic panda base, and inside one of the most impressive media events I’ve personally ever attended.
From London with Love
Without doxing myself, I’m taking a few creative liberties with this article because London isn’t technically my home town. But I do still live in the UK, obvs!
So the start of my journey, almost 24 hours before I was scheduled to arrive in China, involved getting to Heathrow airport.
While I’m intimately familiar with London I did take a little extra time to drink in my surroundings, knowing the things that seemed relatively normal to me were going to be a reference for Tides.
As it turns out, the British Museum – a stone’s throw away from Euston – served as the backdrop for the majority of my demo.
The team’s renamed the iconic gallery the Great Russell Museum in the game, which I assume is a reference to Russell Square, which Londoners will know is a small park opposite the museum itself.
It’s also the home of one of my favourite tube station exteriors, which has a kind of distinctive red brick front and a very rustic font. It’s the kind of iconic British architecture I imagine would appeal to foreigners, and I’m sure it worked its way into the team’s reference photos at some point.
I want to mention one thing that happened while I was passing security at Heathrow; the lady working the counter spotted the Zenless Zone Zero badge on my backpack, and we started a brief, excited conversation about the game while I was getting scanned and patted down.
Actually, she mentioned she hadn’t been able to unlock Remielle Dan yet – the powercrept promoted character currently part of the game’s gacha – so if you’re reading, I hope your luck has turned around.
Aside from Tides – which I’m contractually bound to mention – I was pretty excited to see just how prolific HoYoverse’s games were across China, as this was my first time visiting the country and I imagined they’d be everywhere.
(More on that later and in a separate article where I’ll share my search for merch based on my favourite games!)
Anyway, I’m fairly familiar with long-haul flights these days, so the 10 hours direct to Chengdu did feel tedious but I’ve experienced worse.
I occupied myself with the anime adaptation of The Apothecary Diaries. My consumption of this #content has been unusual really: I started with the light novel then switched to the manga and now I’m watching the anime.
So basically I’ve seen the exact same storyline adapted in three different ways now, and later this year Viz Media has another manga coming out which is different to the one published by Square Enix.
(Yes, that’s right – there are two different manga adaptations of this material running concurrently.)
For those who haven’t watched it, the story’s loosely based on Tang Dynasty-era China. I picked it as my in-flight entertainment because, well, I like it – and I also thought it would get me in the mood.
My itinerary upon arriving Chengdu pretty much involved nothing on the first day: I went for a run, I took a photo of an Infinity Nikki promo taking place at Pizza Hut, and I pondered whether I should buy another One Piece tee from Uniqlo. (I ultimately decided not to.)
First impressions of China: it smells like hot pot and Transformers seems abnormally popular. Cool!
Panda Pops
An early night followed because I was told I must be ready at 8am if I wanted to see pandas, which of course I was eager to cross off my bucket list.
Chengdu is world-famous for its non-profit research facility which houses some 83 giant pandas, red pandas, and more.
In fact, you can visibly see how important the pandas are to the city; basically everywhere you look the animals are used as decoration, whether it’s graffiti, on sign posts, or in shop displays.
I’d seen one giant panda before in Taipei, but this was my first time seeing dozens and dozens and dozens of the animals in quick succession.
In fact, reflecting on this I think it’s almost too much of a good thing – there are so many pandas that I wished I would have taken stock of the situation a bit more and appreciated what I was actually looking at.
Obviously these aren’t animals many people even get to see once in their lifetime; to be able to wander around a pretty massive park filled with them was an unprecedented experience. I’m really grateful for the opportunity.
One thing that amused me is that I think the pandas have learned not to give the audience what they want; many of them were positioned facing the wall, with their backs to their onlookers. I really respect this contrary behaviour!
Eclipse Glow Games really wanted to show me the authentic experience, so it was off for hot pot after that.
Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province, which is obviously very well known for its spicy food. I personally like a bit of heat in my food, but I was warned there would be a lot of fire in this meal.
Actually, I don’t know whether it was because of the build-up or not, but it wasn’t as hot as I expected.
The true fire came from the tu huo – or fire-spitting – that the restaurant’s resident Sichuan opera performer wielded.
I’m not really familiar with the art of bian lian, which is where performers change their mask to convey different emotions. But it was very special to see it in person.
My understanding is that this type of entertainment does occur at high-end hot pot restaurants, but speaking later to one of the team at Eclipse Glow Games they said they’d never actually seen this in-person before. White privilege? Almost certainly.
Inside Ophiuchus Studio Eclipse Glow Games
Given the evident production values of the game, I was excited to see inside Eclipse Glow Games’ office.
Speaking to one of the team over hot pot, I mentioned my visit to Pearl Abyss late last year. Her expression dropped when I mentioned the in-door running track, fully catered restaurant, and on-site baristas at the Crimson Desert maker.
“We don’t have any of that,” she said.
This was very much a humble headquarters, located on an industrial park made up of multiple other offices. There was a KFC nearby, so that’s convenient.
Strangely, the studio is going through a rename, despite calling itself Eclipse Glow Games since the announcement of Tides last year. As such, a lot of the logos in the studio itself referred to Ophiuchus Studio.
I had to Google it but ophiuchus is a word in astrology and apparently the unofficial 13th sign of the zodiac. I wonder whether the studio was worried whether people could pronounce it.
I found the decor inside the office pretty industrial overall; I really liked the spray painted signs for the male and female toilets, stretched out with long shadows.
There’s a lot of black panelling paired with white-washed walls, with various different plants and shrubbery providing colour.
It’s quite an open plan office, with large desks assembled into rows, keeping staff fairly close together and presumably encouraging communication.
But outside of obvious meeting rooms and such, I didn’t see any communal spaces where the team could get together for recreational activities. There was a smoking room, so at least you don’t have to go outside for your nicotine fix.
One thing I would say, and a theme of my visit, is that all of the concept art on the walls looked incredible. I know the team’s focused on finishing the game first and foremost, but it has to do some kind of glossy art book once it’s released.
A Gothic Cathedral in the Centre of Chengdu
With the studio tour done and dusted I was looking forward to finally going hands-on with the game the following day, which as I understood was going to take place inside some kind of themed events venue.
There had been talk of some decorations and like any preview event I’ve been to in the past, I expected a few posters or hoardings.
I never would have imagined arriving at the location and finding an enormous cathedral located in the city itself.
The studio had booked an exhibition hall which I think is usually used for music performances, in a refurbished industrial area named Dongjiao Jiyi.
I came back to this area before leaving the city because it’s super cool: it’s an old state-owned factory complex that’s been transformed into a haven for hipsters, packed with coffee shops, restaurants, and retailers.
There’s a giant MINISO here selling practically every blind box known to man. Personally, as someone who loves tat, this particular brand of tat doesn’t appeal to me – but each to their own.
Inside the event space, Eclipse Glow Games had blocked out the lights, focusing on a giant doorway with a sword-shaped crack cut into it.
This opened to reveal circular rows of game stations, all surrounding a giant sword in the middle of the room.
The team had actually created a light show to draw attention to the sword and set the mood for the demo that was about to take place.
To be honest, I’ve been to a lot of game previews over the years, but I’ve never seen pomp and ceremony quite like this. It’s comfortably the most mind-blowing demonstration of confidence I’ve ever seen.
And I think the game lived up to the expectations set: it’s an ambitious character action affair with a compelling gimmick designed around its protagonist’s ability to summon knights from Arthurian legend like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure-style stands.
I’d encourage you to read my full preview for more on the game itself, as that has all the details about gameplay and systems that you’ll want to know. But to summarise, I’m very impressed – even separating what I played from the theatre of the hands-on event itself.
My visit to Chengdu didn’t conclude with this gameplay session, but as I alluded to earlier in the article, I think my hunt for HoYoverse merch deserves its own standalone article, so look out for that separately in the near-future.
But aside from that, I spent the rest of my travels in a Starbucks sipping mochas while I wrote up the abovementioned preview itself. (Chinese influencers leaked the gameplay and I was concerned about an embargo change.)
My journey home involved a detour through Beijing, but once I landed back in London it was fun seeing many of the same locations from Tides once again, this time observed through a different lens.
