"Red Bean Puree Private Marseille (really very sorry)".
When the first shot of the trailer is of a zombie in a kimono bowing to the camera, the author, whose smile has already hung on the corner of his mouth, senses that there is something wrong with the temperament of the game.
At the Bilibili Game Awards held on January 7, Wuhan-based independent game company Suzuku Games officially announced its latest game, Showa Rice Story, through a trailer. The game will be launched on PS4/PS5, PC and other platforms in the future, and reservations have been opened on Steam.
According to the official, "this is an RPG game that pays homage to the pop culture of the 80s and is presented in a strong B-movie style."
As the second promotional PV of an indie game, Suzuku Games did not choose to demonstrate the gameplay of the game down-to-earth, or take the riddler route, "holding the pipa half covered", but chose the most bullet screen method - the whole life, and the tribute to the "craftsman spirit" at the beginning of the article came from the game's promotional video.
Some netizens commented after watching the promotional video: "This is like a game made by a group of people at home after isolating and eating mushrooms and eating hallucinations."
The following is a promotional video for Showa Mikuni Monogatari (domestic version):
Cultural Exchange X Cultural Arch Fire √
After the traditional art "bow and apologize", the background of the story of "Showa Rice Story" slowly unfolds with the prelude to the original Japanese song "Red Sun" "それが事" (1991).
The game's story is set after the empty Showa 66 (about the equivalent of the real 1990), when Japan bought most of the United States with its strong economic strength. What followed was Japan's all-round economic and cultural "invasion" of the United States, just after the United States had gradually become accustomed to the impact of Japan, a catastrophe caused by unknown reasons plunged the continent into the end of the world, and a large number of zombies and beasts replaced human civilization in the land of "Showa and the United States".
In fact, as early as the end of the last century, before the Asian financial crisis, Japan's post-war economy developed rapidly, and the position of "the world's second largest economic power" at that time did give many people the idea of surpassing the United States economically. Considering this period of history and the relationship between the United States and Japan today, the "if" line setting of "Showa Mikoku Monogatari", which is based on reality but is diametrically opposed to reality, is enough to arouse the topic.
Of course, in addition to the "outrageous" game background, the entire promotional PV also shows suzuku games' grasp of cultural elements and the brains of team members.
For example, the "MAGA" poster that catches the eye, the big brother of the last century, and the famous Japanese pinball soda (bozi soda), etc., almost every shot hides a stem belonging to a different era.
Tough guy drinking bozi soda
Of course, in addition to these symbolic Japanese and American elements, the more emblematic of the culture shock is the stitching of some Japanese culture and American culture, such as the Statue of Liberty in kimono, the Golden Gate Bridge with Japanese lanterns, Hollywood renamed "New Yokohama", and the police station from "NYPD (New York Police Department)" to "NYHPD (New Yokohama Police Department)".
These two can be said to represent the classic landmarks of the East and West Coasts of the United States
While rendering the alternate era background and game environment through cultural elements, Suzuku Games has also added tributes to various Japanese and American classic dramas, animations and other cultural products in the promotional film.
For example, the locomotive that pays tribute to the heroine of the Kamen Rider Storm.
A tribute to the "zombie" of the Japanese drama "The Wonderful Story of the World", which began in 1990, pedaling a bicycle to generate electricity.
A drill weapon that pays homage to Tianyuan Breakthrough.
The American sitcom Growing Pains, which began airing in 1985.
The classic pool only available in the international version of the promotional video.
The above elements make people who understand it smile at the same time, but also for the netizens watching the PV to initially build a parallel world full of details. At the same time, as a game produced by a Chinese game company that colonizes the United States economically and culturally, its own "magical" attributes also give the production team room to be creative. I don't think any players will think that the elegance and accuracy of the use of Japanese and American cultural elements is important.
As netizens said, "The Japanese have fun, americans like to play a prank on their own culture, Chinese get the game, and the world where no one is hurt is finished."
However, under the background of the wonderful play and the whole life, it may be reserved, and the battle scenes shown in the game in the promotional film have not reached the corresponding height, and there is still some room for improvement.
Although as an indie game GameLook can also understand the difficulty of behind-the-scenes development, there are also players on the B station who say that "I don't care about his gameplay anymore, I want to watch the plot", but the author still looks forward to seeing a high-quality game that has both.
The essence of the game: Tu Yi Le
As soon as the showa story was released, it received great attention at home and abroad, and the game's promotional video has received 1.78 million views on station B, and the total number of IGN and IGN JP promotional videos released on YouTube has exceeded 620,000.
Under these videos and topics related to social platforms, the atmosphere of players from all over the world can be described as happy and harmonious.
As a non-existent third party in the game, Chinese players are naturally all kinds of "fun", such as B station has netizens suggested, "I hope that every time the protagonist is killed by an NPC, the NPC will bow", "It is recommended to add the TV Tokyo terrier and use the TV show to confirm whether the neighborhood is safe."
For Japanese players, the use of various cultural elements, even if some elements have certain stereotypes, such as the meaningless Torii gate that grows on the road in the promotional video, has become proof that Chinese game companies "understand" Japan.
The pool scene mentioned above has been widely praised by Japanese and American netizens, and some Japanese netizens have taken this opportunity to say that Suzuran Games is an "international team with a deep understanding of culture".
Some Japanese netizens even said that "people who like "Showa Rice Story" will also like Japan" and "Showa Rice Story" has many elements that Japanese people like, but Japanese people can never do", which can be said to be a relatively high affirmation of the Chinese of the game.
Of course, there are also Japanese netizens who asked for various cultural elements in the game, "Even in Japanese culture, will Japan lose to China?" " questions. Yusuke Tomizawa, the producer of "The Legend of Dawn", also tweeted that the PV of "Showa Rice Story" is shocking.
Some netizens posted that in the comment area of the game, Chinese and Japanese netizens rarely got along harmoniously, which was refreshing.
As for European and American players, the concept of novelty has already circled a wave of fans for the game, and the setting of being "colonized" in the game is obviously not a problem for them who like "self-blackness", as far as the netizens' statements are concerned, European and American players are more of a "I can't understand, but I am shocked" attitude.
Interestingly, after the game promo was launched, Reuters published a report that "Japan's Toyota Motor will sell more than General Motors in the United States in 2021", and some netizens quoted this report to "prove" the "authenticity" of Japan's acquisition of the United States in "Showa Mikoku Monogatari".
Chinese make up stories to tell world-class stories
However, after the game's promotional video was issued, in addition to the happy and harmonious comments of players from all over the world, it was also mixed with the reflections and discussions of Chinese and Japanese netizens on their own national game industry.
Among them, "culture and games", a recent hot topic in the industry, has naturally become one of the focuses of discussion among domestic netizens under such a product involving Chinese game companies and American and Japanese culture. One of the generally agreed conclusions reached by domestic netizens is that "telling Chinese stories well does not necessarily mean telling Chinese stories."
In fact, this is not a new point of view in the game or culture industry, GameLook has previously emphasized a similar idea, that is, by deconstructing the culture of other countries, wrapping their core value expressions with more acceptable elements, to carry out product distribution and cultural exchanges, the best example is Disney.
Of course, GameLook is not a strong value on "Showa Rice Story", but the strong cultural hedging and integration in the game promotion PV, as well as the popularity of the game promo after its launch, show the problems and relationships between the game and culture nakedly.
Although the appearance of the game is full of a large number of deconstructed Elements of American and Japanese culture, as a product of a Chinese game company, the core of the whole story, GameLook, believes that it will more or less represent a certain Chinese culture and value orientation. As netizens described, the game twisted the "U.S.-Japanese culture into Tianjin twist flower sales."
If the cloud violet during this period represents a kind of use of high-quality and modern content to let interested players take the initiative to understand Chinese culture, then the "Showa Rice Story" type of product is more like packaging to make themselves and different players mingle, subtly output content.
Compared with the former, which requires strong capital, technology accumulation and control over culture, the latter "takes the initiative" to deconstruct and reorganize the cultural elements of other countries for their own use, which may be more universal for domestic independent games that have emerged in the past two years but have relatively limited capabilities.
"Since Japan can make games with the theme of the Three Kingdoms of China, why can't China make games with the Theme of the Japanese Showa?"
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GameLook Daily Game Industry Report
Global vision / depth is material