When it comes to the horror puzzle games with Chinese folklore themes, the "Paper Wedding Dress" series can be said to be the most representative of them. After "Hospital No. 13", "Paper Wedding Dress", "Paper Wedding Dress 2 Zangling Village", now it has finally ushered in the fourth work of the series - "Paper Wedding Dress 3 Mandarin Duck Debt".
▌ Narrative, still outstanding
A good "horror" game, relying on those shocking small means, is far from enough, wonderful plot and narrative presentation is the key, in order to make the player more "afraid" but can not help but want to play more.
This point has always been done well in the "Paper Wedding Dress" series, the first two works have "love" as the main tone, and have also been continued in "Paper Wedding Dress 3 Mandarin Duck Debt"——
The game begins with flashbacks, starting with a fierce argument between the male and female protagonists driving in the country lanes in the middle of the night, followed by the sudden "death" of the heroine, and the urgency of the plot directly fills the player's emotions.
After that, the game slowly unfolds, telling the player the antecedents of the event and guiding the player to try various puzzles at a relatively gentle pace. This relaxed form of processing not only has the look and feel of film and television dramas, but also can serve the needs of different stages of the game very well.
In the past, the series mainly relied on text presentation + character interaction to tell the plot, and "Paper Wedding Dress 3" is more inclined to the latter. Although it is a 2D game, it creates a good sense of immersion through a lot of dynamic graphics and dialogue between characters. The form of the whole voice allows us not to look at the dialogue content word by word, and the dubbing of each character is also remarkable, and it will not make people play.
Because it is a folk theme, the plot is indispensable to some superstitious things. But the game is not to advocate, "anti-superstition" is the core. For example, the various superstitious arguments and means for the heroine at the beginning of the game can be said to make people see that the blood pressure is directly full. Even if there are no such examples around us, there are undoubtedly similar examples. Coupled with the fact that it is based on the tone of "love", it is easy to empathize.
"Paper Wedding Dress 3" still has unique features for the shaping of characters, whether it is the protagonist or supporting roles, the superficial presentation and inner emotions are almost opposites and reversals. The game intends to amplify the shortcomings of many characters at the beginning, but as the story progresses, we will gradually discover the cuteness, respectability, lamentability and helplessness behind them.
The reversal egg at the end of the story I think is quite wonderful, and I will not go into detail to avoid spoilers. It can be said that "Paper Wedding Dress 3" has a great relationship with the series of works, especially "Paper Wedding Dress 1". Although playing this game alone does not affect the understanding, I still strongly recommend that players who have not played the previous game can first "make up lessons", so that after playing "Paper Wedding Dress 3", there will be a feeling of "suddenly understanding" that all the stories are connected, and shout: This is basically the "Paper Wedding Dress Universe".
▌ Solve puzzles and play tricks
Horror elements aside, the Paper Wedding Series is essentially a click-and-click puzzle game. And "Paper Wedding Dress 3" introduces a rather interesting puzzle gameplay - dual perspective switching.
In the fourth chapter, the male and female protagonists are separated by yin and yang, at which point the player needs to switch back and forth between the two perspectives and cooperate with each other to solve the puzzle. Although the scenes in which the two are located are basically the same, the tone of the picture, the puzzle settings and the puzzle solving methods are completely different. The male protagonist in the yang is still a more conventional form, can touch most of the items, and although the heroine in the underworld cannot communicate directly with the male protagonist and cannot touch the things in the yang, she can see what the male protagonist cannot see, and give hints through various "spiritual means".
The two perspectives of men and women, the two worlds of yin and yang, the form of mutual cooperation not only brings more fun to solve puzzles, but also presents two parts of fear. And more importantly, this just buckles the word "Mandarin Duck" in the title of the game, which is really subtle. Of course, for the development team, as long as you draw a scene, you can use two puzzles, which really saves a lot of effort (laughs).
If you can play this game like "Two Players" to complete at the same time, it will definitely be more interesting.
In addition to the new element of dual perspective switching, the overall puzzle design level of "Paper Wedding Dress 3" maintains the consistent high level of the series, and the combination with folk elements is still very good. Of course, this will inevitably appear some more obscure puzzles, but after all, you can get hints by "watching ads", and you will not be unable to proceed because of the card level. And, in addition to helping the development team generate revenue, ads are also helpful to some less daring players — a few more ads make the game not scary at all (laughs).
▌ Conclusion, another masterpiece
The volume of "Paper Wedding Dress 3 Mandarin Duck Debt" is not large, and it can be cleared in about an hour. Although it is already the fourth work in the series, it still maintains high quality and high standards, which is very rare.
Although this game is known as "the most terrifying in the series", the atmosphere of various horrors is indeed full, but in terms of my personal feelings, it is not as strong as "Paper Wedding Dress 2", and players with less courage do not have to be frightened by official publicity, or it is recommended to try it. Of course, it may also be that after playing the first few games, I myself am more "numb" (laughs).
The ending of the game may not be "perfect" and may not be the direction some players expect. But perhaps this is also the foreshadowing of the development team's intention, after all, the official has connected the story of the series through easter eggs, and there may be some surprises in the future. All I can say about that – "Paper Wedding Dress 4", GKD!