In 1985 Origin published Moebius: The Orb of Celestial Harmony, an odd RPG by Greg Malone. It was a mediocre Ultima-clone, but it stood out due to its Chinese-based setting, bizarre art style and, especially, its real-time martial arts combat, inspired by fighting games like Karateka (1984).

The sequel, Windwalker, went one step further. While its predecessor's combat was reflex-based, you can now battle in turn-based mode, creating a fascinating fighting system that allows you to carefully choose your next move from a menu. Moreover, a real-time replay can be seen afterwards, making it all look like a fierce martial arts duel.

So why isn't such cool game talked about more? Because combat quickly becomes one of Windwalker's worst aspects. Attacks have a rock-paper-scissors logic to them – once you understand your opponent's moves, you'll know how to counter their attacks. But you can use only two fighting styles and there's only four enemy types in the game – one being the final boss! Worse yet, enemies spawn constantly, turning battles into a chore that drags the entire game down.

Regardless, there isn't much to see here anyway. There's no character creation, stats or skills – you just grow stronger as you play. The world is small, composed of tiny islands, a huge empty ocean, very few NPCs and only three quests. Thus, the frequent battles feel like lazy padding for what's otherwise a 2-3 hours game.

The Chinese-inspired setting is richly described in the manual (with a bibliography!) and there's even an NPC that will read your fortune using the I Ching, but otherwise it's tragically underused. You get some magic chants, a mostly irrelevant honour code, mythological creatures and that's about it. Still, the game does look very distinctive, using heads as icons and a perspective that rolls vertically, as if the world was a cylinder.