"Mountain and Sea Traveler: Nocturnal Willow Crossing": a real echo

Zhiwei style domestic adventure game "Mountain And Sea Traveler" launched DLC "Night Walking Willow Crossing" as scheduled last week. Less than half a year since the release of this article, such a short cycle, from the experience point of view, it is inevitable that people are a little worried about quality. However, after the experience of light speed, I think that although the game only has a one or two hour process, it is indeed a bit unfinished, but overall, this length is just like a single episode of the TV series, or a movie, but also a real response to the players after a few months of silence by the production team - the future of "Mountain And Sea Traveler" is very promising, which is equivalent to the DLC in the first chapter of this prequel.

By the time of this writing, the player's evaluation of this article has been said to be good

Continue to cultivate the gameplay

In this episode of "Mountain and Sea Traveler", the player plays the role of Qiyun, a "reverse dream master" employed by the official institution in mythology, the Yin Cao Difu. In the game world, there are many tragedies in the human world that do not meet the predetermined fate of the prefectural government due to external interference, and the anti-dreamer is specifically responsible for finding these cases and using the "anti-dream" ability to go back to before the tragedy occurred and restore the world to the original normal development track. Zhou Yinshan, the protagonist of "Nocturnal Liudu", is the father of Qiyun who is also a dreamer.

The core gameplay of this game is to let the protagonist reverse the tragedy that has occurred through a similar time retrospective means. This kind of timeline gameplay is not uncommon in puzzle-type games, such as the plot twists and turns of "The Silent Age", the exquisite sketches of recent years, such as "Timelie", and the "Da Vinci" series (The House of Da Vinci), etc., compared with them, "Mountain Sea Traveler" gives a very unique and Chinese-style answer to this mechanism.

Unlike most puzzle games that directly physically interfere with the "past", "Mountain Sea Traveler" requires players to have an in-depth understanding of the entire timeline, especially to understand the inner thoughts and hears of each character involved in the event, and then combine the clues obtained by their own exploration of the "past" world, and instill some information that the characters who originally influenced the development of the event do not know to them, so that their own behavior is more reasonable, and then reverse the direction of the entire event.

Learn about the various thoughts in the character's mind and look for clues from them

How to stimulate the character to trigger the hidden plot development on the right is the main means to advance the story

This design gives the player a sense of approachability, knowing the moods and sorrows of each character, even without a face, rather than playing with the fate of others like an arrogant immortal who stays out of the way. This is not only very in line with the personality of Qiyun, forming just the right way to play and plot intersection, but also in line with the Chinese-style logic of the able, and there is nothing more compassionate than this.

Because the protagonist wants to change the fate of the people around him, changing his life will inevitably make the cause and effect series, before and after the impact, but in the long process, like the first quarter of the animation of this part, these life change operations are often the only solution, it is difficult to take into account the development of a variety of different routes. In "Nocturnal Willow Crossing", because of its short length, it is very suitable for the structure of the circulating branches, which can create various branches, which is similar to the suspenseful adventure game "12 Minutes" a while ago, and it can also make up for the small regrets in the main part.

Different story developments are a must for the timeline puzzle genre

In terms of overall style and gameplay presentation, "Night Walking Willow Crossing" has been regarded as "meritorious consummation", but the production team still has an old-school enterprising style, and has also made some new attempts in specific gameplay. For example, there are some immature "battle" sections in this part, although the icing on the cake, but also some simple. The enemy and the player are both touching each other and dying, but in fact, it is a puzzle solving operation in disguise.

The "battle" in the DLC has been iteratively upgraded. Although it is still a turn-based puzzle battle, there are some places where the player needs to choose the correct attack on the enemy's weakness from several alternatives in a time window, and the ACT is much larger. This small design makes people nervous, but also maintains the effect of adding icing on the cake to this piece.

In addition, there is a humble detail worth pondering. In the game, the protagonist encounters a chest before entering the dream phase, at which point it can be solved to open it, but only a note is inside. In this article, it is impossible to enter the dream without opening the box, and the DLC can be opened or not opened. When the player goes back to the chest after the dream, he will find that it remains in the state before the dream, and the items in it will vary according to the situation when the player reverses the dream - no doubt also increases the degree of freedom and more changes.

Overall, whether from the perspective of game programming or storytelling, the production team has a more comfortable grasp of the exploration of branch differentiation, and they still have a strong willingness to dig in the core gameplay and theme, to be honest, this makes me look forward to the follow-up plot.

So, let's talk about the follow-up...

In a previous interview with TouchLe, producer Wei Xinyu had made it clear when mentioning the future that "if you have money, of course you want to continue to do it", and now the launch of "Night Travel Liudu" is a response to this remark. The plot framework of the DLC is also obviously drawn, the story revolves around Qiyun's father, but the single chapter of "Nocturnal Willow Crossing" is like the prologue of this part, a story seems to have only finished the beginning, and naturally there is a later one. Coupled with some small details that echo this article, it can be seen that the production team is also interested in continuing this story well.

Players who have played this part will see this "Pisces Jade Pendant", presumably will be an excitement

In addition to the continuation of the story, in the combination of Chinese element puzzle design, the "Mountain and Sea Traveler" has made me feel that there are still many blanks to fill, and "Night Walking Liudu" is a real response to this feeling, especially the high-quality, full of Chinese elements of the puzzle, to say exaggerated, which is a "lifetime" level of expectation for Chinese players who have been waiting for many years.

I can give many examples, for example, the rod scale puzzle in this article, I believe that I will never be the only one who will smile when I first see it. From the perspective of personal experience, I can't remember how many years ago I asked the teacher in the labor class, what is the use of learning the rod scale, I did not expect to accidentally encounter it in "Mountain and Sea Traveler" - I happen to remember how to use it, which can be described as a strange fate of life and mixed feelings. And this encounter, whether it is accidental or inevitable, is very suitable for the atmosphere of the impermanence of fate shown in the game story. This experience of staggering virtual and real is really rare, and it is also an experience opportunity that only domestic games have.

I can't imagine it, teacher, I used to play games!

That's why I love Mountain And Sea Traveler. Chinese players will often encounter designs inspired by Chinese classics in foreign puzzle games, such as the "Huarong Dao" that is almost everywhere, or the well-known "Kong Ming Lock". Therefore, since the beginning of the DOS era, players have been looking forward to when domestic games can have an original color.

"Mountain Sea Traveler" has fulfilled this wish, which is also one of the unique charms of the game. Not only the traditional puzzles of the new temperament packaging, but also the examples of reasonable localization after the principle of "anti-robbery" foreign puzzles, the design has a high gold content and is very interesting. For example, when the classic nine-square grid filled in the numbers with the help of the alchemy formula in this article, I really couldn't help but directly awaken to DNA, and immediately began to play the mantra of "up and down to easy, left and right, and four dimensions to stand out".

Of course, there are fewer puzzles in "Nocturnal Willow Crossing", and I guess it may be that the cycle is tight, it is difficult to achieve more designs, or according to the DLC's updated plan, the fierce material should be placed in the back (this is also the rhythm of this part). In addition, in this part, some players have reported that there is a difference in the number or difficulty of the puzzles, and the DLC has obviously made some difficulty adjustments, but the taste of preferring Chinese cultural puzzles has not changed.

For example, this kind of puzzle is finally not "the soldiers, all arrayed in front"...

"Nocturnal Willow Crossing" also shows the enthusiasm of the production team to incorporate more elements into the game. For example, despite the limited size of the DLC and the fact that it has been so generous, the studio has added an imposing boss battle at the end of the story, which is much more exciting and surprising than the slightly gentle ending of this part. Maybe it's exactly what the producer said in the interview that "I wanted to do it" - jokingly, I always feel that the final chapter of the DLC finale will have a black and white impermanence throwing a bazooka from the helicopter to the protagonist... Ah no, the string table went to Raccoon Town.

From a personal point of view, the bland and uninspiring story style of this article touched my heart very much, and "Nocturnal Willow Crossing" also maintained the same touch. Although the story of "Shan Hai Traveler" is about strange things, the core reveals an instinctive kindness that remains after life and death indifferently, and that Chinese unique gentleness - we hope that everyone is well, for which each of us is willing to pay our own efforts, even if we are all mortals.

There are enough sad people in this world... So how can my generation continue to sit back and watch the tragedy unfold?

In this chapter, a certain character is with a gentle heart of love, "I do not go to hell, who goes to hell", in exchange for the bottom of the development of the story. In "Nocturnal Willow Crossing", a character who is known to starve to death due to lack of food is willing to take out the grain he has exchanged for his ancestral treasures to help his more difficult neighbors. This is very ordinary, because people have to eat when they live, and this matter is also very unusual, because the sages cannot guarantee such selflessness.

In "Mountain and Sea Traveler", these ordinary shining points release The gentle kindness of the Chinese style everywhere, which is very kind. I love that glow.

Inevitable problems

Under this topic, I would like to say that the production team with "Mountain and Sea Traveler" as the first work, Yunshan Xiaoyu Studio, is indeed still "young", and there will always be some inexperience, so it is inevitable that there will be flaws in the DLC.

For example, the hints of the puzzles will be somewhat unreasonable, the most typical of which is the "butterfly box" that raises people's blood pressure. Walking around the Steam comments section, I also found that I was not the only one trapped by the puzzle. Butterfly box this part, according to the text prompts and picture information to establish the puzzle logic always seems to be ineffective, after trying two or three I feel that "should be" thinking, finally had to give up random pressing, to the Internet to find a strategy. This puzzle reminds me of more than one puzzle in Resident Evil 3 that needs to be pressed randomly, not only makes the brain unable to move, but also cumbersome to operate, and was rated as lazy design that year, fortunately, only this puzzle in the game is not very tasteful.

The only thing about this DLC that made me a little "crazy"

Another example is the problem of first sight killing. In this article, there will be some places where the first sight of the killing will appear suddenly, making it difficult for players who are accustomed to the rhythm of investigating cases and solving puzzles to switch to the thinking and operation mode of playing ACT games. In the DLC, it can be felt that the production team wants to avoid this situation as much as possible, for example, there is a reminder to the player at the beginning, but because of this reminder, it brings the illusion that there is a place at the end of the story that requires the player to immediately start running for their lives without prompting, making people think that they are still in the plot, and then being poked through the heart.

There are indeed reminders, but not all of them...

The production team did realize the problem and iterated, but it didn't do it completely. Problems like this one-or-other approach also exist in branch development. At the end of the DLC reverse dream paragraph, if the player stimulates the order of two characters is not the same, it will cause the order of their visits to a certain place to change, to achieve different results, which is a detailed place, but it is easy to give the player a misunderstanding, making people think that other nodes also have this situation, and finally found that only here is inexplicably a differentiated performance, it is inevitable to be dazed - I really think that there is other room for struggle under the branch that burned something, flipped several times, and then found that there is not.

Despite this, the production team continued the pragmatic style of the scientific researchers who have been consistent in this article, and some problems may not present the optimal solution, but they still hold the bottom line. For example, the first sight of the kill, indeed that there is an automatic save everywhere in that section, which can offset some discomfort and keep the game experience above a certain level as a whole.

The skip prompt in the lower right corner of the second week eye makes people feel gentle, which is the function of the game in 2022!

epilogue

As far as the game with Chinese elements is concerned, although I also like to open the matchless in Nagasaka slope and have played di Renjie in the pen of a foreigner, some things still have to be Chinese to do it yourself, and some words must be Chinese to reflect enough feelings, just like some words also need to be pronounced in Japanese and English. In my opinion, "Mountain And Sea Traveler" is such an authentic delicacy, it is unique, Chinese, and the ghost does not know how long I have been waiting for such a game. Those who permeate the story, both explicitly or implicitly, and carry the great good selflessness carried by the small body, are the key core of our civilization that has been passed down for thousands of years, and there are few similar expressions in foreign works. This is also something that I like, have been seeking for a long time, but have rarely obtained.

If there's anything I want to say to the production team, there's only one sentence: "When is the next DLC coming out?" Can I pre-order? Of course, it is not necessary to urge, please be sure to maintain the quality. "No, no, I still can't wait...