The game's story follows one such man, Lau Wong, a sword-wielding exile who returns to Earth to confront a former ally and an army of demons who have taken hold of the titular Asian city of Bujingai.

The game is a third-person beat 'em up/hack and slash in which the player controls the protagonist Lau, exploring open environments, solving minor puzzles, and battling enemies and bosses.

Set in the 23rd century, Bujingai begins 100 years after an accident involving an environmentally-friendly energy source annihilated 70 percent of the world's population and all of its government.

[4] A mysterious and powerful human exile, Lau Wong, returns to the planet to battle his former friend and training partner Rei Jenron, who has been possessed by an evil spirit.

[5] Bujingai is a third-person beat 'em up/hack and slash game where the player controls the protagonist Lau, exploring different environments, completing minor objectives, and battling numerous enemies and more powerful end-stage bosses.

[6] The gameplay in Bujingai is visually styled akin to Hong Kong martial arts (Wuxia) films with colorful sword-slashes, spinning aerial jousts, and gliding.

[4] The game's characters were designed by Toshihiro Kawamoto, whose previous credits include the anime television series Cowboy Bebop and Wolf's Rain.

Producer Keisaku Okumura explained that it was a challenge to make a universally accepted collaboration between Taito, an old corporation with a large imprint on the history of the Japanese arcade industry, and Red Entertainment, a younger "hooligan" company.

Aoki's goal was to make the game unique among other action titles like Shinobi and Nightshade by implementing intuitive controls, responsive enemies, and faithfully reproduced swordplay.

The team had no particular theme when designing Lau and his antagonists at the start, but gradually focused on character silhouettes; imagery using mythological creatures like the dragon and phoenix; and "beauty of the flow of action during the sword fighting scenes".

[25][26] Critics have found the combat gameplay enjoyable and rewarding, positively comparing it to other titles in its genre including the Devil May Cry series, Shinobi, Nightshade, Otogi: Myth of Demons, and Ninja Gaiden.

[5][6][8][9][27][28] GamesTM summarized, "Spend time mastering the fighting system, powering up your various attacks and revisiting stages to improve your combo scores and the game becomes so much more than just a basic hack-and-slash romp - it's a feast of replayable swordplay.

"[30] GamePro stated the gameplay is "both surprisingly deep and unfortunately simple", lamenting that blocking, parrying, and counterattacking belies the ability to button mash one's way through most battles.

[9] IGN's Jeremy Dunham also noted Bujingai to have a simplistic gameplay model beneath its stylized visual presentation, but still celebrated it as "challenging, fast, and easy to learn".

[5] Reviewers have criticized the game's camera system and its jumping and gliding gameplay, referring to these mechanics as "simplistic",[5] unresponsive,[6] "impossible",[8] "awkward",[9] and "purely frustrating".

Dunham stated the game's visuals as "top of the line" by virtue of its textures, character designs, pyrotechnic effects, and a "silky smooth" frame rate.

Dunham labeled the environments distinctly unique, boasting "everything from blizzard-ridden mountaintops and dusty desert castles to abandoned city streets and misty bamboo forests".

[5] Media Create sales information shows that Bujingai ranked 19th among all video game releases in Japan during its debut week, selling 43,116 copies.

[18] On March 31, 2006, South Korean film distributor SidusHQ announced that it had acquired the rights to publish a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on Bujingai, developed by Besttoday.

[35] Besttoday CEO Jeon Jun Woo announced at ChinaJoy in July of that year that the game was in full development with plans for release in the third quarter of 2007.