As long as the name "Legend of the Martial Arts Heroes" is mentioned, the old players with certain experience unconsciously burst into a smile. Although it is a 2001 work, it has always been the number one domestic RPG in my mind. Its gameplay, system design, plot conception and connotation of traditional Chinese studies, even if it is put into the current measurement standards, it is still a game masterpiece that can rank in the forefront. More importantly, it grasps the core spirit of Jin Yong and Gulong Martial Arts, and reshapes it into a martial arts world that is completely its own. "The Legend of the Wulin Heroes" is no longer just a playable martial arts novel, but a role-playing game that makes the martial arts world live in it. This time, we're going to review this classic.
Luoyang City: Shows the vitality of the town, with endless secret branches
When you first enter the game, the most amazing thing is the smooth vitality displayed by Luoyang City, as if those NPCs are really living in the fictional Luoyang City. According to the passage of time, they will have different actions, for example, the little two of luoyang inn will buy vegetables in the market in the morning, and in the afternoon, they will slowly walk back to the kitchen of the inn to prepare materials, in order to trigger the subsequent plot. For example, the student who enters Luoyang City at the same time as the protagonist will have a different dialogue when he stays at each fixed point, and even when he stays in front of the calligraphy and painting stall, there are more events that allow the protagonist to learn the skill book.
At the beginning of the game, Luoyang City shouldered the teaching of the game system, and also allowed players to fully feel the "freedom of traveling in the martial arts world" that the game wanted to present. The story begins with the protagonist is still a small shrimp rice, it is a period of curiosity and novelty about everything, and the player is the same, the game is not familiar with the content of the game, but the game can be a smooth rhythm, bring out a lot of interesting small events. These events may systematically teach the player, improve the basic skills, increase the content of the skill book, understand the main supporting roles, etc., which can be said to be quite rich.
Finally, according to the result of the player's play in Luoyang City, that is, how much money is made, the next stage of the game is determined: the most important value of the cultivation mode, "enlightenment". This approach is very clever and very real, if the player can make more money in Luoyang under the time limit, it means that the player is more attentive, or rather more methodical, to control and allocate the use of time and resources.
When I first entered Luoyang City more than a decade ago, I was amazed by the very special game experience - everything is free, anything can be tried, and at different points in time, the events that can be triggered will be different. Every time you revisit Luoyang City, you will get a new experience, which can be said to bring different surprises to players again and again.
Cultivation Mode: Freely choose the martial arts to cultivate, and the path of good and evil is also determined by the player
In addition to town exploration, the most important gameplay process of the game is to reflect "how is the chivalrous?" The cultivation model of this concept. The mode will give the player a number of options, as well as a limited number of rounds. Under the time limit, the player's time management and target management ability are tested. Under normal gameplay (without using modifiers or any cheating methods), there is no way for players to cultivate "omniscient and all-powerful" warriors, and players with limited resources can only make operational trade-offs towards a training goal. At the same time, in order not to make players feel dull and boring, the plot dialogue in the cultivation mode is mostly a witty and funny route, and when it comes to the adventure stage of town exploration, it returns to the more serious martial arts realistic style, so that the player can get a lively balance in the game experience.
Each skill, each martial arts move, has an exclusive event and plot, such as the seven arts of the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting and medical hops, all correspond to one of the seven sages, after learning the final reward of the "art". As for the "skill" part, it refers to economic activities such as hunting, fishing, and forging, and as long as the value is full, a special skill can be realized from this activity. This is completely unaware of the player, when a certain value reaches full, getting this kind of substantive feedback of new moves and new stunts is one of the keys to the player's enjoyment.
The game can change the direction of the plot according to the player's choice, whether to go to the main line of the upright martial arts league, or the dragon king hegemonic chart line of the cult, or to jump out of the dispute between good and evil, intending to establish the ideal country of the Heavenly King An Guo line, there are many hidden plots waiting for players to try to discover, every time you experience a new round of the game, there will be a new experience.
The source of the game's connotation: strong Sinology background and martial arts Easter eggs
If the previous work "The Legend of Jin Yongqun" is a worldview based on the Fourteen Heavenly Books- Jin Yong's fourteen martial arts novels, then this work "The Legend of the Heroes of the Wulin Group" is based on the foundation of the Fourteen Heavenly Books and reshapes a new martial arts world. Among them, there are four traces of Chinese culture's sinology heritage, as well as various Easter eggs from Jin Yong's works, which can be called martial artists and heroes who are both realistic but also empty everywhere.
The traditional Chinese studies section, such as the expertise of the Seven Arts of Qinqi, Painting, Calligraphy and Painting, and the Customs and Culture of Various Towns, such as Luoyang, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Dukang Village, etc., in addition to cooking, tea ceremony, appraisal and other skills can be learned. The amazing part of "The Legend of the Martial Heroes" is that these are not only numerical presentations, but also provide players with relevant knowledge of Chinese studies in the form of quoting scriptures. This not only expands the player's knowledge layer, but also allows players to better integrate into the immersive experience of the game.
Free Travel: Adventure mode on the big map, accept the results of the cultivation mode
The Legend of the Martial Arts Divides the Game Stage into three parts: Town Exploration, Runaway Valley Cultivation, and Large Map Travel. There are always countless side quests waiting to be discovered and solved in towns, and time and resources need to be allocated in runaway valleys to receive the greatest cultivation results. Finally, the game will allow players to enter one of three distinct story lines according to the player's choice in the cultivation mode, namely the main line of the Wulin League, the main line of the Dragon King Batu line and the Tianwang Anguo line, each with its own tasks and events waiting for the player to solve.
Here is the main line of the Wulin League as an example. In the large map mode, the game gives the player a month to go to the gates to inform them of the schedule of the martial arts conference, and hopes that they will arrive on time. However, the game will never let the player solve everything so easily - each gate faction has its own problems waiting to be solved, and only by helping them solve them can they attend the martial arts conference.
Yes, the game flow is simply running missions, with almost endless tasks waiting for players to complete. However, in the process of running the mission, players will have a deeper understanding of the complex relationships between the characters, such as the love debt entanglement between the Wudang Sect and the Tianshan Sect, and the generational struggle between the Tianjian Gate and the Absolute Sword Gate. The protagonist Dongfang Weiming is like a small shrimp rice involved in the storm of martial arts for no reason, but with a full of enthusiasm, he regroups the consciousness of the various gate sects and leads the crowd to resist the cult Tianlong Sect.
However, the first round of the game of "The Legend of the Martial Artists" usually runs very hard, because there are too many secret side quests and hidden tasks, and if you are not careful, you will rub shoulders with the main plot. But that's where the game gets in its flavor – with each new round of the game, there's a new experience and a secret that wasn't discovered in the previous round.
Plot: A small shrimp rice involved in the martial arts storm for no reason
"The Legend of the Martial Arts" is a highly gameplay work, which is quite interesting and vivid in the design of dialogue and missions, not the kind of game that looks gorgeous and is actually lifeless. However, it still has its shortcomings, and this shortcoming is quite fatal.
The story begins with the protagonist Dongfang Weiming coming to Luoyang City, to his accidental entry into the Runaway Valley for cultivation, until finally entering different camps according to the player's choice. But looking at the three story lines, the protagonist helps the master to do things in the main line of the alliance, helps the dragon king to do things when the dragon king line, and helps the king to do things when the king line, it seems that there is no way to fully reflect the core spirit of the game, "freedom"-what if I just want to be a chivalrous guest who can see everything and let the world roam? In this game that emphasizes freedom, it gives several storylines with strict passing restrictions, which seems to be contrary to its original theme.
In addition, the story of this game is good, more than three main lines have their core values and concepts, and even countless branches have evocative memory points. However, there is less psychological depiction of the protagonist himself, and he may want to portray the protagonist as a stand-in for the player - like Link in The Legend of Zelda, although he is mouthless, he has a great influence on the world. However, the protagonist Dongfang Unknown has quite a lot of lines in the plot, thus reducing the player's sense of substitution. If you choose to retreat to the second place, put away the requirements of the sense of substitution, and concentrate on the story, but the game plot does not depict the emotions, life, and influence of the East. Although the gameplay is excellent, along the way, it feels like the protagonist (and the player) is like a tool to move the plot forward.
Overall: Put aside the flashy sugar coating! A solid experience is the most important thing about the game
In addition to the plot part, the dialogue of the characters in the game is quite interesting, and from time to time, the knowledge of traditional Chinese studies and the familiar names of Jin Yong's novel moves always make people feel very kind. When the game was first played, there were surprises everywhere, countless side plots broadened the game experience, free cultivation deepened the player's emotions for the game, and there were various hidden secret missions. The final mission rewards are also quite rich, if you don't look at the raiders, experience it with a blank-paper mentality, "The Legend of the Martial Arts" is definitely a game experience that can bring players a rich harvest and a sense of achievement.
Its art style is quaint, no gorgeous appearance, no gorgeous moves, no countless handsome men and women, but if you are willing to experience the flow and tasks of the game in depth, you will be surprised by it. As a single-player game with an ending, it can be developed with town exploration, character cultivation, large map adventures, etc., presenting the vastness of the martial arts world, which cannot be done without strong planning ability. That's the special experience that the game can bring. Sid Meier, the designer of "Civilization", once said: "The game is a series of interesting choices", and "The Legend of the Martial Heroes" interprets the true meaning of this sentence in such a simple and quaint mode.
Nowadays, too many fast food games tend to "brush copies" gameplay, and even the design of the mission is very simple, just for the sake of existence, in order to give the player a "goal" and "motivation" to continue to play, but does not show the charm of the game itself in the mission. In the process of mechanical copy brushing and task brushing, the player's money, time and concentration are consumed, and it is difficult to get more from it in addition to the fun and sense of achievement in the process.
The mission design of "The Legend of the Heroes of the Wulin Group" is all self-derived, not only based on the needs of the plot, but also from the task of knowledge of traditional Chinese studies. For example, the wine fairy in the Seven Sages of Forgetting Worries, in order to help him, asked the protagonist to guess the puzzle with him, as long as he guessed a question correctly, he could keep a bottle of wine for the master, and each question was related to the knowledge of wine. The design of the mission can not only be to give the player the goal of playing, but must let the task "come from it", in addition to giving the goal of playing, but also enhance the player's sense of identification with the game.
Looking back now, it is hard to imagine that the work with this kind of conception came from more than twenty years ago, and "The Legend of the Martial Arts" is definitely a milestone for domestic games. I wonder what kind of sweet and sour memories you have had in this vast and free martial arts world? Share it with you in the comments section.