Just a while ago, IGN released a live demonstration of "Little Tina's Fantasy Land", a demonstration of only more than 20 minutes of time to show many professional skills, available firearms and enemy monsters. In the demonstration, brilliant guns and magic fly around in this colorful fantasy world, and the two are like closely coordinated golden partners, which together outline a fantasy picture.
But in reality, the thermal weapons representing science and the magic representing religion and occultism, whether in definition or in form, are completely unrelated. In the long river of human history, the relationship between the two followers is more than that between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and it cannot be called love, at least it can be regarded as incompatible.
However, unlike reality, in games or film and television works such as "Little Tina's Fantasy Land", magic and gunfire (thermal weapons) often appear in the same frame, becoming a close form of "you have me, I have you". Sometimes, there is even a stable triangle in which the three of heat weapons, cold weapons, and magic are not in conflict with each other, and coexist harmoniously.
For example, the following one.
Sword and magic and gun and magic
When it comes to magic now, many people, like me, think of the "sword and magic" that Japanese people like to hear.
I don't know when the Japanese seemed to have an almost obsessive love for "swords and magic". Whether it is "Dragon Quest", which is regarded as a national RPG, or a novel or anime represented by "ShowMot Magician" and "Rhode Island War", Western-style fantasies represented by "Sword and Magic" have flourished in Japan. In particular, in recent years, the prevalence of the theme of crossing or rebirth in other worlds has made "sword and magic" look like "ruling" the Japanese ACGN.
Although compared with the "Golden Age" a few years ago, the theme of "other worlds + swords and magic" is gradually declining. However, such fantasy works with strong Japanese characteristics are still "fragrant", and in recent years, in new fans, light novels, games and manga, they are still able to firmly grasp the "traffic code" that can not be slipped.
This has led many people to enter a misunderstanding - Japanese works on other worlds often only stay in the world of swords and magic.
But it turns out that this is not the case, in addition to "sword and magic", they actually have "gun and magic"...
Magical girls are known to be physically exorcising themselves with a thermal weapon
In 2013, a writer named カルロ ゼン created a novel about the monkey shochu (magical girl) hitting the plane, "Tanya Battle" (later adapted into an anime and began broadcasting in January 2017).
In the world created by this novel, humans fuse guns and magic to form a powerful magical armage, and the elite troops who can use such weapons are called "aviation magic masters", and their way of fighting is to float in the air, chant with the gun-shaped weapons in their hands, and then cast magic to destroy all enemies on the battlefield.
Although it seems that the Japanese can't do without magic in the short term, unlike the father in the orange cardigan, the creators in neon have not always adhered to the truth of "using magic to defeat magic".
For example, in another world full of magic and witches, in order to save the world, the endangered human race chooses to randomly summon a Chosen Son from other worlds to drive the Gundam against the Creator God.
This "Gundam and Magic", which is even more outrageous than a girl's plane, although it sounds magical, it does exist. Such a work that combines various elements such as mecha, science fiction, religion and crossing, and was born in the "golden age" of the fire of other world themes, naturally has a very middle two name - "The Lord of Blasphemy".
In addition to fiction and animation, this obviously counterintuitive setting is also widely used in the field of games. In popular JRPGs such as Final Fantasy, examples of guns, mechs, and magic appearing at the same time abound.
The weapon used by Final Fantasy VIII protagonist Scull Leonhardt is the Gunblade.
Seemingly contradictory but charming
On today's Chinese Internet, the word "magic" is gradually departing from its original meaning. Especially in the eyes of gamers, anything in reality becomes magical (in every sense) when it is added to the magic element. In this regard, the "Wanning Backgammon", which turned backgammon into a "fairy art" war, has a lot of say.
And when hot weapons are combined as a product of modern human civilization with purely imaginary magic, they often produce some products that transcend human cognition like Warhammer: Total War.
In this fantasy world, there are both troops using various muskets and cannons, as well as magical winds and elves. In addition to using magic, the lizard people who live deep in the jungle can also use the ancient sacred technology they have picked up from time to time to send you a precise railgun strike. The Skavan rat people, on the other hand, know what "technology changes lives", and they strive to create a world full of "nuclear peace" in the face of the strife of medieval warhammers.
In fact, in the unreal world constructed by video games, after it is difficult to get rid of the shackles of rigid reality laws, it is normal for some magic settings that are contrary to common sense.
As Ah Xuan said: "There must be something wrong with the head of a person who looks for a sense of reality in a virtual story." Although this "violent theory" is somewhat extreme, it is not entirely unreasonable. Whenever the player opens the game to enjoy it, in this boxy screen, we get rid of the shackles of reality, avoid the pressure from reality, and experience life that we may never have had the opportunity to experience.
Moreover, this magical setting is not necessarily a good thing for the player.
Based on such settings, from the Middle Ages where blood and fire intertwine, to the strange modern world, to the deep starry universe thousands of years later, countless games have taken us to experience one overhead fantasy world after another. In these very different virtual worlds built from lines of code, players feel a variety of flesh-and-blood characters; a variety of adventure classes such as gunmen and witches; and strange races of different forms such as elves and mechanical life forms.
The second is the extension of the gameplay, and it has to be admitted that, although unreasonable, the golden combination of "bullet + magic" has now created a variety of interesting combat gameplay - players enjoy shooting and explosions at the same time, the addition of brilliant magic skills, so that the already high line of excitement of the adrenaline once again soared. It is also this magical combination that is completely inconsistent with the logic of reality that gives birth to classic games such as Destiny, which enjoy the pure thrill of shooting.
The upcoming release of "Little Tina's Fantasy Land" is no exception, although it is only a "fanwai" work derived from the worldview of Borderlands. However, this game still has a series of countless funny guns and weapons, and inherits the unique running group gameplay in "Little Tina Strikes the Dragon Castle", coupled with the magic of the sky, players will enjoy a unique fantasy world adventure when stepping into the fantasy land imagined by Little Tina.
It is worth mentioning that "Little Tina's Fantasy Land" also has the grounded Chinese dubbing in "Borderlands 3", and everyone may wish to look forward to it.
epilogue
"Maybe one of you will ask, 'Oh my God, why are there guns in fantasy?' ”
In the trailer PV of "Little Tina's Fantasy Land", Tina said something casual to herself, helping us ask this "question" that has plagued countless players. Subsequently, the eccentric little Lori gave a very Tina-like answer - "Close the mouth of the bird and go back to fire."
Yes, instead of tangling with this kind of scratching your scalp and not being able to think of anything so, it is better to throw away all the logic gods, manipulate the characters, and directly shoot everything in front of you.