When I first watched the trailer for "Master", I was quite impressed by the punching style with the eyes and the fist-to-flesh movement. The one-to-many scenes in the trailer made me think that this would be a refreshing swim that would be quite comfortable to play. However, at the moment of pressing "Buy", I had no idea what kind of asceticism I would have to face for the next three days.
I have to say that "Master" is a very rare and quite hardcore action game in these years. It's not easy to beat, and "rare and outrageous" has become the mainstream of topics related to this game. Soon after the game was released, there was a lot of bitter noise on the Internet, because of the martial arts theme of "special attack on Chinese players", the attention of "Master" before the release was not low, and the unexpectedly high difficulty once again boosted the popularity of the game.
The unique mechanism of the game to die once and become old has become a new terrier, this set of aging design combined with the difficulty of the game is not low, creating a different kind of joy, giving birth to a lot of "20 years old into the nightclub, 70 years old to come out" and other quite game characteristics of the meme. Watching anchors continue to die and "grow old" has also become a pleasure for many players.
Before the release, the game received IGN and Gamespot double 9 points, Metacritic statistical media average score of 80 points, coupled with the domestic publicity team authentic and mature marketing, "Master" successfully sold 500,000 copies on the 4th, becoming a dark horse in February. Among them, China has the most "suffering" players.
Official 500,000 sales commemoration
The game flow is actually not very long, and the prologue is only six levels, but it takes a considerable amount of time to get to the end.
This game has brought me quite a lot of surprises and thoughts, at least for me, the whole journey of "Master" is like a long road of cultivation. (There are some spoilers in the following, please watch as appropriate)
01
Playing "Master" is not only a good kung fu
The gameplay of the game is also the most attractive part of the game, using the white eyebrow fist method that has been practiced for eight years to defeat all the enemies in front of you. For this reason, "Master" invited Benjamin Culos, a descendant of Baimei Boxing who had traveled to Sichuan to worship as the game's action director. Compared with other action games that emphasize the action design of opening and closing, "Master" well reflects the characteristics of the tight door and compact action of the Southern Fist, and the rigidity and rapidity of the White Brow Fist are vividly played in the fight.
"Shot like lightning strike, strong like an arrow"
Stand firm to hold. As one of the southern fists, Bai Mei Quan is also very particular about the stability of the next plate, and the game has chosen the performance of the posture bar, and the player and the enemy have a posture slot. Posture is posture, the body is chaotic, naturally can not block the attack of others, "Master" here is designed the same as "Only Wolf", as long as the enemy is unbalanced, you can directly execute and kill.
Hold yourself to the point where you can stretch out your fist. The whole game is based on fighting, but it is too boring to just blindly punch through the level. "Master" also thinks so, the game has a fairly rich dodge mechanism, the perfect block to see the timing, up and down the left and right four directions of dodging methods make the game's combat situation very complicated.
The enemies who appear in the game have certain fighting skills, they and the player will dodge and block, if you fight alone, it is better to say, a player with some action game experience is no problem. However, the handling of "Master" at this point is not half towards the player, it can be said that the game has almost no enemies to choose to appear alone except for the big and small boss links, and the player needs to face several or even a dozen enemies at the same time most of the time.
A dozen ten? Ten dozen one!
And unlike general action games, "Master" has almost no protection mechanism, such as off-screen enemies do not shoot, will not shoot at the same time and other designs do not exist, often when you are fighting with an enemy, a stick suddenly sticks out of the screen to take you away. In addition, the game rarely has a group attack method, and after being blocked in the corner, there is basically only one ending, "corner tragedy".
Rushing out is a stick (Source: B station UP master - Tdogegg)
This group of enemies is often mixed with elites with longer postures and stronger attacks, making battles that need to be complicated become more unpredictable. Players must not only fight fast, but also have a good understanding of the attack method to ensure that they will not suddenly die violently.
The game's death mechanic is very distinctive, a string of mysterious copper coins can make the protagonist continue to come back from the dead, but not without cost. Every time the protagonist dies, he will become one year older, the most annoying thing is that the game also designed a "death counter" for this purpose, continuous death will make each increase in the number of years superimposed, if in a certain place, the age of a few years rises, basically by the speed of light away.
Rise 6 years in one go
"Unless you work hard for a long time, you can't suddenly penetrate." This mechanic is not only distinctive, but also well integrated into the theme of the game. Kung Fu, Yu Jiu Yu Qiang. Although the protagonist who has become old has lost his vitality, it is more painful to hit people. This means that the protagonist, who is no longer young, needs to pay more attention to dodging and blocking, and although the attack intensity is greater, but the danger is also greater.
And the level will inherit the player's age at the time of the previous level, and the player needs to challenge how to maintain a small number of deaths all the way to the end in the priority age, and meet his enemies. There is no other way to do this than the shortcuts the route provided by the game. Although the game provides a mechanism to upgrade skills and basic abilities, it only plays a role in assisting the battle, and does not make qualitative changes to the battle.
Just a simple upgrade project
The way to complete the game is the same as the game's action design, simple and solid, improving your ability in the reincarnation challenge again and again, and passing through the difficulties with the lowest age is the most difficult and interesting part of "Master".
02
Entering a nightclub at the age of 20 and coming out at the age of 70?
The main plot of the game is very simple, the master brother who was expelled from the military attache suddenly came to the door to slaughter the museum, and killed the owner of the museum, the owner's son (daughter), who is also the protagonist, practiced kung fu for eight years, and went to the door to take revenge on the five murderers of that year.
The information about the object of revenge is written on the clue board
Honestly, at first I didn't think about how this game could have a sense of substitution, just play well. But in the process of playing, "Master" unexpectedly brought me a different sense of substitution.
The difficulty curve of the game is quite unreasonable, and I did not encounter any obstacles along the way in the first level of the slums, and soon managed to walk out at the age of 26. With an explosion of self-confidence, I immediately rushed to the second level nightclub and began my in-game prison experience.
I entered a nightclub at the age of 20 and never got out again
The difficulty curve of the game rose sharply, even the difficulty of the miscellaneous battle rose by one level, several small bosses beat me bitterly, a strong sense of frustration turned into anger, I began to have revenge, just want to blow up everyone I saw.
But the situation took a sharp turn, watching the enemy's dexterous immortals flashing and moving and a dozen accurate fast combos, I didn't fight a single blow, and the two "door gods" in front of the boss at the bottom beat me even more and I didn't know where to break the game, the more anxious I was, the faster I died.
Every enemy in the game is like a taunt pulling full, as long as you knock you down, you will use garbage words to raise your already high blood pressure.
Don't swear
Finally, after seeing the full screen of red light symbolizing game over again, I dropped my grip and sighed in the air.
I don't know how many times I've died here
Turn off the game and lie in bed to calm down, start to look at other people's evaluations of the game, this "thing" can still have a positive review? Soon, I flipped to Touch's review of "Master Goes Down the Mountain", and I was overwhelmed by the rich story and fun nature of the article when it came to the content of the game.
Soon I picked up the handle again, and after a few trial and error, I walked out of the nightclub and stumbled all the way to the last level, the Meditation Hall. In the end, at the age of 72, he defeated the master brother Yang.
There was no screenshot at the time, so let's take a look at it (bushi.)
The game "Master" has brought me too many surprises, the game's interpretation of "kung fu" is quite in place, and the characteristics of Baimei Fist's "rapid advance and retreat with soft Kegang" are perfectly contained in every game with the enemy.
Not only is it similar, but so is God. The challenge of each level is a test of the player's mentality. Whether you can stabilize your state of mind in countless setbacks, calm down and see the enemy's fists with your eyes, use the right skills to deal with and find flaws to counterattack, has become a compulsory course for every "white eyebrow fist apprentice". Finding a breakthrough in one failure after another, and going to the end with the will to not be chaotic, is the only trick to the game.
It's really refreshing to see through enemy moves one by one
In addition, there is a point in the game that is quite interesting, a scene in the game has a picture, suggesting that the four guardians defeated on the way to the revenge of the master brother in that year correspond to wood, fire, water and earth, and the protagonist needs to face the final boss battle theme of the first four levels corresponds to these four attributes, the protagonist after walking the old road of the master brother, more than a test, because the master brother and the protagonist division out of the same door, so Yang will use exactly the same move as the protagonist, and the protagonist's final difficulty is to defeat himself.
Finally, and the hardest enemy
This ubiquitous detail reveals the production team's deep understanding of the spirit of Chinese martial arts, and all kinds of seemingly irrational game designs now seem more like their intentions. After experiencing many failures, it is still able to calm down and overcome obstacles, which is "Master".
03
For kung fu, they are serious
Even after completing Master, it's hard for me to believe that this is a game made by a French company, whether it's the understanding of oriental aesthetics in the level design or the game's extremely restrained connotation of revenge and forgiveness, it can have such a Chinese flavor.
The ending of "WuDe" is a natural and profound blend of the Chinese idea of "stopping the war into the martial arts" into the game, and the people who learn martial arts should have a benevolent heart, which is well explained in this ending.
In addition, every part of the game is heartfelt, with a lot of details, pleasing action design and highly ornamental execution animations, the stylized level design of each level corresponding to the theme, the hint to the protagonist to stop revenge in each level, and the feeling of loss after the revenge is completed, all of which constantly refresh my understanding of "Master".
Part of the level design is really very interesting (source: B station UP master - black tong Google)
You'll find that the oldest of the five bosses also has the shortest amount of health and posture slots, in line with the setting that the older you get, the shorter the health bar; you can see the many details of their eyes when choosing to forgive the enemy; the level is not just a change of location, the attributes corresponding to the level boss are in every part of the level design.
The opening of the "Art Museum" level is full of designs with the element of water
The game is full of details like this, but this attentive attitude is what makes Master so popular with so many people.
Sloclap, a game developer from France, has created a very authentic Chinese game with a very serious attitude. In recent years, in the environment of frequent semi-finished products in the stand-alone market, I am very happy that such a game is willing to tell Chinese culture with such a serious attitude, and I also respect such a company that makes games with heart.