After its initial release it began experiencing serious technical problems and was closed for reworking, to be reopened several months later as "Westward Journey II".
Another MMORPG, Fantasy Westward Journey, uses the same engine with a different graphical style.
Westward Journey is one of the most popular online games in China, with a peak concurrent user count of 588,000 as of March 2005 and with over 56 million registered accounts, ranking it in the top 3 MMORPG games in China at the time.
[2] The content of the game is heavily inspired by classical Chinese literature: the title is a reference to one such source, Journey to the West.
[2] Unlike many Western MMORPG's, the games feature prominent nudity and anti-religious themes.