If you want to talk about the pinnacle of the Xuanyuan Sword series, "The Other Side of the Cloud and the Mountain", "Traces of Heaven", and "The Waves of The Heavens" are all the most vocal works.
However, in the author's mind, "Xuanyuan Sword" is also excellent, as a buried classic single-player game, the peak throne should have its place, it should not be forgotten.
Xuanyuan Sword Shop, full name Xuanyuan Sword Gang: Black Dragon Dance Clouds Flying, is a stand-alone game developed by Daewoo's DOMO group in 2002.
Strictly speaking, in addition to pseudo-3D works such as "Xuanyuan Voldemort", "Xuanyuan Sword" is the first true 3D game in the Xuanyuan sword series.
This is a very important engine technology upgrade, due to the evolution of 3D scenes, players can see a variety of ancient black technology with a cyberpunk atmosphere in the game, and experience a pre-Qin fantasy journey.
The story of the game takes place in the years after Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, and the Mo family, where the heroine Water Mirror is located, wanders around in order to escape the encirclement and suppression of the Qin Dynasty organ troops.
In the process, she met the aristocratic teenager Ji Liang (Zhang Liang, one of the Three Masters of the Early Han Dynasty) who was preparing to stab Qin. The two have since become a pair of joyful enemies, and in the process of fighting against the Qin Dynasty warlock Chi Songzi, they have experienced a magical journey.
The entire four generations of the plot continue to "The Dance of the Maple", which still revolves around the story between the Mo family and the pot immortal. Old acquaintances from previous games such as Fuzi Che, Sang Jinwen, Qiao Peng, and Ju Zhongxian reappear.
Although it is a bit of a noise, fortunately, the two protagonists are portrayed very successfully and leave a deep impression.
Needless to say, a noisy parrot, the player has already learned its power in "Maple Dance", mainly to enliven the atmosphere.
The heroine water mirror uses a lyric to describe, that is, "there is a girl, she has some rebellion, she also has some arrogance."
Her recklessness and impulsiveness have brought a lot of trouble to the people around her, but fortunately, there is also a well-informed and "dignified" male protagonist around her, who can often turn the danger into a disaster.
The male protagonist Himeyoshi and the "villain" Akamatsuko are the two most important characters in this work, and they lead to the core of the work's thinking, that is, the "harmony of the chaotic world". The teacher-student relationship between the two is also an enemy and a friend, which is also one of the highlights of this work.
Back in the game, another big attraction of Xuanyuan Sword Is its Tianshu system. To this day, the author still believes that the playability of the four generations and "Cangzhitao" is the highest in the entire Xuanyuan Sword series.
When the Heavenly Book System of Xuanyuan Sword Gang first came out, I don't know how many people were amazed. It is hard to imagine that in 2002, in a domestic RPG, you can see the elements of unlocking treasure chests, picking up resources, and building buildings, which is quite a style of the "Fallout" series.
In the world of Tianshu, medicinal materials, equipment, magic weapons, houses and other related facilities are readily available, which can be completely self-sufficient, replacing the function of town shops. The production of all these resources mainly comes from the metal, wood, and charcoal that can be found everywhere in the game.
But that alone is not enough, and all kinds of labor are needed to make these facilities work. Most of these laborers were yokai that had been ambushed through the Book of Heaven, and some of them were bought through the Sealed Egg.
If you have enough eggs, you can even get the boss to work for you.
In addition to acting as a laborer, the yokai of this game also have two very important roles, one is used to learn immortals in the immortal dojo, and the other is to act as a combat escort in the Tower of the Oni Gods.
There are many immortals that can be learned in the game, and some group attacks without attribute spells are very practical, of course, if you can learn the powerful physical output skill "Qiankun Eight Swords", it will make the first and middle battles much easier.
It doesn't matter if our equipment pulls the crotch, there is an escort, you can completely watch the whole play, let the escort monster shoot and the boss fight. Some defeated bosses can also be summoned to act as escorts, they often have a health volume of more than 100,000, and their attributes are even higher than the opposite boss.
The Tower of the Ghosts in the game can enhance the abilities of these monsters, as long as Ji Liang's stamina is enough, you can even see the shocking scenes of Asura and Pangu fighting for you.
Of course, even without these powerful escorts, the overall difficulty of the game is not large, except for the amount of mobs in individual scenes, the amount of blood is too much, the maze scene is too rounded, and there is basically no obstacle that cannot be passed.
The magic weapons in the game are very powerful, such as "A Certain Water" can double attack, "Qiluo Ancient Jade" can charge power, and "Coin Armor" can withstand damage with money, which greatly enhances our strength.
Later in the game, Water Mirror will learn the most powerful move in the entire Xuanyuan Sword series, "Earth-shattering Fist", and the difficulty of the game will once again be greatly reduced.
Players who have played the original Xuanyuan Sword Gang should have learned the power of the "Earth-shattering Fist", equipped with a certain water and The Regulus Sword, in the case of full BUFF, one turn can hit eight attacks.
Each of its attacks not only repels enemy action bars, but also deals 9999 damage. An output of nearly 80,000 can wipe out almost all the monsters in the game in seconds, even the final boss Black Dragon. Unfortunately, this move was later greatly weakened, and its power was no longer what it used to be.
Weakened earth-shattering punches
After the game is completed, there will be an additional Xuan Hao Palace in the Tianshu system, which adds a maze and several hidden bosses, which can be repeatedly challenged by players.
If you only look at the above content, "Xuanyuan Sword" does not seem to be a peak work. What really makes this game shine is the variety of ancient black technologies in the game.
Stepping crossbows, giant thunderbolts, organ kites, mechanism houses, purple cloud towers, twelve golden men... These heavy metal mech technologies will make players who are exposed to this type of game for the first time addicted.
You can imagine the scene of driving a UFO spaceship and fighting a Gundam in the Qin Dynasty, such a brain hole was only seen in "Great Qin Tough General" twenty years ago. With such a rich imagination alone, "Xuanyuan Sword" is enough to leave a name in the history of domestic games.
In addition, the game's opening CG animation must have also left a deep impression on many players. The scene of Fuzi Che vs Akamatsuko can be called a famous scene in the history of domestic CG, and it is difficult to imagine that the live-action motion capture technology at that time could play such a shocking effect in the game.
It has been exactly twenty years since the advent of "Xuanyuan Sword", and to this day, whenever I recall the scene of Akamatsuko standing on the Purple Cloud Pagoda and singing a song, it is inevitable that I will feel very emotional, and the passing figure of the Qin Bing trio is also foreshadowing something.
Most of the works in the Xuanyuan Sword series after "Cang Zhi Tao" are difficult to say satisfactory. The familiar smell of the Regulus Sword drifted away from us and seemed to be no longer visible.