Tianji: Shadow of the Ancients Announced for PS5, Switch 2, Nintendo Switch and PC With 2027 Release Window

Summary

• Tianji: Shadow of the Ancients is coming to PS5, Switch 2, Switch, and PC in 2027.
• The RPG mixes turn-based combo combat, exploration, and day-and-night-dependent interactions.
• Directed by Xuan-Yuan Sword creator Tsai Ming-hong, it leans heavily on its Tang Dynasty setting and Chinese historical fantasy.

A new historical fantasy RPG is heading west in 2027, and its creative pedigree makes it considerably more interesting than another name tossed onto an increasingly crowded release calendar.

Justdan International has announced Tianji: Shadow of the Ancients, a turn-based RPG set during China’s Tang Dynasty. The game is currently scheduled for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam in 2027, with English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese language support planned.

The headline feature is not merely the historical setting. Justdan describes the project as being directed by the “father of the Xuan-Yuan Sword series,” connecting Tianji to one of the longest-running names in Chinese role-playing games. Japanese outlet Automaton identifies that creator as Tsai Ming-hong, and reports that Tianji is his first project after leaving longtime Xuan-Yuan Sword developer Softstar and working independently.

That context gives Tianji: Shadow of the Ancients a more useful identity than the wonderfully vague category of “another Asian RPG.”

Tianji: Shadow of the Ancients is set during the Tang Dynasty

The story takes place during the Tianbao era of the Tang Dynasty, with unrest spreading through the Bashu region.

Players control Shangguan Shuo, an amnesiac soldier belonging to the Tianji Guard. His investigation begins with two rather inconvenient clues to his identity: a fish-shaped Tianji Guard token and a mysterious mask.

The larger mystery involves the Xuanxin Order, an organization that rises in the region following a disastrous Tianji Guard expedition into an ancient ruin. According to Justdan’s story description, the earlier mission ended after a commanding general placed a strange bronze mask over his face and lost control, effectively destroying the Tianji Guard as a functioning organization.

Months later, Shangguan Shuo awakens inside one of the Xuanxin Order’s strongholds without his memories. His attempt to reconstruct his identity eventually leads toward a conspiracy involving the Order and a millennium-old underground city.

Amnesia certainly isn’t breaking new ground for RPG protagonists. The poor genre has probably misplaced enough memories to populate a small country. The Tang Dynasty setting and Chinese historical-fantasy influences are doing considerably more of the interesting work here.

Turn-based combat puts combos ahead of simply trading attacks

Tianji uses a turn-based battle system, although Justdan is clearly trying to make the combat look busier than the traditional select-command-and-watch routine.

Combo chains form the foundation of battles. Confirmed mechanics include Chain Skills, weakness exploitation, Pursuit Skills and Block Counters, with equipment and Core effects providing additional ways to modify combat. Enemies appear directly on the map rather than through random encounters, and substantially weaker enemies can apparently be defeated without entering a full battle.

Early hands-on reporting provides more detail than the announcement trailer alone.

Automaton says it played roughly three hours of an early demo during Bilibili Game First Look. Its report describes a timeline-based turn structure in which exploiting elemental weaknesses can place enemies into a vulnerable state. Timed defensive inputs also allow players to guard against attacks, while follow-up attacks can extend offensive sequences.

That makes the action-RPG comparison in Justdan’s marketing a little less suspicious. Tianji remains a turn-based game, rather than secretly becoming an action RPG whenever somebody presses a button quickly, but the developers appear interested in reducing dead time between commands.

How well that system holds up across dozens of hours is another question. A reveal trailer can make almost any combat system look brisk when the editor is allowed to remove every boring five seconds.

Exploration changes between day and night

Combat is only part of the pitch.

Players will move through environments using climbing, swimming and environmental puzzle mechanics, while towns contain events, items and NPC interactions that can change depending on whether they are visited during the day or at night. Players can manually switch between the two periods while exploring settlements.

The visual presentation uses detailed 2D hand-drawn environments influenced by traditional Chinese landscape painting. Justdan says architecture, clothing, vegetation and other environmental details were designed around the historical-fantasy setting rather than simply using a generic medieval backdrop.

Automaton’s demo report adds that NPC behavior and dialogue can also change with the time of day and with side-quest progress. Its preview describes nighttime settlements becoming visibly less populated, an encouraging detail if the final version maintains that degree of environmental variation.

Companions have functions outside battle as well. Different party members can unlock or improve systems involving cooking, equipment refinement, Core upgrades and rare-item trading, with those abilities developing alongside their individual side stories.

Xuan-Yuan Sword creator Tsai Ming-hong gives Tianji an unusual pedigree

The name Xuan-Yuan Sword may not carry the same recognition among American players as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest or Persona, but its relevance to Tianji should not be buried three paragraphs below “beautiful ancient China.”

Xuan-Yuan Sword originated at Taiwanese developer Softstar Entertainment and became a long-running Chinese historical fantasy RPG series. Automaton specifically identifies Tianji producer and director Tsai Ming-hong as the creator associated with that franchise and says this is his first game after leaving Softstar.

Tianji: Shadow of the Ancients is not being presented as a Xuan-Yuan Sword sequel or spin-off. It is a separate property developed internally by Justdan International.

That distinction matters. The useful comparison is creative lineage rather than franchise continuity.

Early reporting also suggests the project is reasonably far beyond the “here’s a logo, see you in four years” phase of game announcements. Automaton’s three-hour playable build included combat, exploration, side quests and multiple party members. The outlet reports that Tsai estimated a total playtime of roughly 20 to 30 hours, although development estimates should always be treated as estimates until the finished game exists in people’s hands.

When does Tianji: Shadow of the Ancients release?

Justdan International is targeting 2027 for Tianji: Shadow of the Ancients on PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch and PC through Steam. No specific release date has been announced.

Steam currently goes one step more cautious and lists the planned release date simply as “To be announced,” despite the broader 2027 window given with the announcement. The PC version already has a store page and can be wishlisted.

English interface and subtitles are confirmed on Steam, alongside Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Japanese support. Simplified Chinese and Japanese are currently listed with full audio.

Justdan has also released announcement trailers in English, Japanese and Traditional Chinese, suggesting the company is treating the game as an international release rather than leaving localization to become somebody else’s problem six months after launch.

Tianji: Shadow of the Ancients still has plenty to prove before 2027. Its broad release window leaves room for changes, the combat system has mostly been seen through controlled demonstrations, and neither pricing nor an exact launch date has been disclosed.

The ingredients are at least unusually specific: Tang Dynasty historical fantasy, hand-drawn environments, turn-based combat built around active combo systems, changing day-and-night interactions and a director with decades of Chinese RPG history behind him.

For a newly announced RPG with relatively little English-language coverage, that is enough reason to keep it on the radar.

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