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Turn-based strategy wargames are the favorites of many players, fire emblems, royal knights, fantasy simulation battles, super robot wars and other series of works have a high popularity, and today we want to review is from more than twenty years ago, the independent masterpiece, Japan Glory Company released "Journey to the West" on the PS console.
Since the 1980s, Glory has made great achievements in the field of SLG games, especially the works based on ancient Chinese history and literature, such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "The Wolf and the White Deer", "Xiang Liu Ji" and other works, which have been widely praised by players.
After feeling the great charm of Chinese culture, Glory continued to dig more original works for adaptation, and at the same time made a bold attempt in the game genre, successively launched the wargames "Fengshen Yanyi" and "Fengshen Yanyi Aizang Edition" on the Sony PS console, accumulated rich development experience, and launched the protagonist of this part in November 1999, PS version of "Journey to the West"
"Journey to the West", as one of the four famous works of Chinese classics that are well known to the Chinese people, has been widely circulated in the folk for hundreds of years, and the TV series adapted by CCTV in the 1980s has made countless classic images deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, bringing childhood joy to generations of people, and finally precipitating into the collective memory of Chinese.
In Japan, "Journey to the West" is also quite popular, in 1984 Capcom launched a horizontal version of the action shooter Son Son in the arcade, the two protagonists are based on Sun Wukong and Pig Eight Commandments, which is the earliest well-known Journey to the West adaptation game, in addition, NMK Company launched "Journey to the West World" on the FC console is a very familiar action adventure game for domestic players. Unlike the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" with many characters, the protagonists of "Journey to the West" only have a few distinctive characters, and there is a very clear story line, and adapting it into an RPG type game can be said to be the most suitable.
PS version of "Journey to the West" in the original plot of the novel made a bold adaptation, which is also the consistent practice of Japanese anime games, the protagonist Sanzang is an orphan who was taken in by the elder Fa Ming of Jinshan Temple in his childhood, after spending sixteen years in the temple, he accidentally got the oracle and tin staff of Guanyin Bodhisattva in his dream, embarked on a journey to Tianzhu, and on the way he met Sun Wukong, Pig Eight Precepts, Sha Wujing, Cow Devil King, Iron Fan Princess, Zhen Yuanzi and other companions, but the purpose of the westward journey is not the sutra we are familiar with. Instead, according to guanyin's instructions, recover the gods and arrive at the Great Lei Yin Temple, it can be said that in addition to the basic world view and the main characters, the plot of the entire game has been completely redesigned, giving players the opportunity to experience the adventure world of Journey to the West with a unique perspective, as for the ending, there will be no spoilers here, and the suspenseful story will not be solved until the end.
This work also added a large number of original characters, such as Zhu Liangling, Orange Blossom Princess, Song Jinli, Song Yinli, etc. are not women in the original work, plus at the beginning of the game, players can also choose two versions of men and women sanzang, balancing the proportion of men and women in the whole story, but also greatly enriched the fun of the game. The characters in the game use the Q version of the two-headed body model, the plot dialogue will have a standing picture of the avatar with the text frame, the body movements of the model characters and the expression of the avatar fit each other, so that the player is easily immersed in the plot, the overall sense of substitution is very strong, in addition, between the important chapters, also arranged a well-crafted cutscenes, a variety of different dimensions of the form of expression, together to create a relaxed and pleasant experience of the game.
The game adopts the design of the main story advancement + repeatable side quests, the whole story is divided into three major chapters of Datang, Xiyu, and Tianzhu plus the final ascension decisive battle part, each chapter has a regional map, the player continues to advance along the journey with the plot, and constantly triggers the level battle to win the level to successfully pass the level. Some important towns on the map provide cultivation, shops, gambling, commissions, etc. Cultivation content, if you feel that the strength is not enough to fight hard, you can repeatedly brush money through side quests such as escorting and suppressing bandits, and you can get a lot of intelligence through dialogue with NPCs, and hidden characters and powerful equipment will naturally not be absent.
The game's combat system uses the classic Japanese turn-based wargames, the levels are fixed battle scenes, 45 degrees can rotate the 3D perspective, the scene has a variety of terrain elements and visual boundaries. The basic actions of the character include movement, attack, skills, props, etc., which are very simple to get started, but you will soon find that the difficulty of the game is not ordinary.
"Journey to the West" each battle scene is different from other games, the map is generally small, and has a complex terrain, in addition to the basic lateral attack, back attack, high and low difference attack has a damage bonus, the level also has a canoe bridge, floating platform, falling rocks, rolling balls and other obstacles, many times the battle began the player team is in a very unfavorable situation, need to carefully design each step of the action to turn the danger into a disaster.
For example, in the first level of the game, the two realms of the mountain, Sanzang just appeared alone, in the face of several enemies directly hard to fight without chance, need to retreat to the top of the mountain, along the way to dismantle the canoe bridge to prevent the enemy from advancing, after reaching the top of the mountain to lift the seal will be included in the team, with a very intuitive way to teach the player to guide; in the Flame Mountain level, due to the high temperature player will lose HP every turn, and the pumice on the magma can only stand one person, need to be careful; Huang Fengling's boss Yellow Wind Monster will use wild wind magic, can blow the player to the distance, I need to hide behind the stones on the map to be spared; the most impressive and crazy thing for me is the large labyrinth, not to mention the maze-like corridor terrain, and a large stone ball will roll out every turn, and the enemy and us will attack indiscriminately, and the scrolling path needs to be calculated to avoid being hurt. Almost every level has some disgusting elements, so that you can not easily crush the enemy, but after the patient experience can feel the subtle intentions of the developers, if you look at the original book is even more lamented the subtlety of the adaptation, with the weak victory over the strong sense of achievement is even more wonderful.
In addition to basic physical attacks, each character has their own five-element attributes, and according to the principle of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, the rational use of attributes will have a multiplier effect with half the effort. In addition to Sanzang, other characters can also transform into giant divine beasts and consume divine beasts to use various powerful skills, but only one person can transform at most, and choosing the transformation object is also one of the important strategies of the game. As for Sanzang himself, he can summon the divine general, the role is to add buff to the entire team, such as restoring HP per turn, attack power increase, defense power increase, etc., can be said to be the core of the entire team, regardless of the level victory conditions, if Sanzang is unfortunate to sacrifice, it will inevitably lead to GAME OVER, can only return to the inventory point again.
In the whole process of the PS version of "Journey to the West", the player's team can include multiple characters, and the characters can be selected before the start of the level, but the most important role is the few core characters who joined at the beginning stage. The number one protagonist Sanzang, the five elements characteristics of wood, different from the original novel, the game is an optimistic and simple teenager, in front of the monsters and ghosts and gods have no fear, have the courage to pick up the tin staff to meet the enemy, although the attack power is not high, but the critical strike rate is very high, the timely summoning of the god will assist is more obvious.
Sun Wukong, which can be used at the end of the first level of the Two Realms Mountain, the five elements characteristics are fire, the personality is refreshing and crisp, the game does not have the content of the original book to recite the tight hoop spell and be expelled, the attack power is high and there is a unique Muscle Douyun stunt, you can raid and occupy the favorable terrain on the map like an airborne soldier, use the weapon "Ruyi Stick", transform into a divine beast in the form of a giant red ape "Qi Tian Dasheng"
The third level of Gao Laozhuang appeared in the eight precepts of the pig, the five elements characteristics of the earth, different from the original is that he was originally a pig monster, with the goal of becoming the world's first chef, mild personality does not like to fight, likes to make and enjoy delicious food, uses the weapon "spade", transforms into a divine beast into a giant wild boar form of the "Heavenly Collapse Giant Pig"
The fourth level of the eagle sad debut of Zhu Liangling, the five elements characteristics of gold, in the original here is the West Sea Dragon King's third prince Xiao Bailong was exempted from death by Guanyin Bodhisattva, waiting here for the Tang monk and eventually incarnated as a white dragon horse, the game's Zhu Liangling is set as the young daughter of the West Sea Dragon King, the personality is naïve and cheerful and rebellious, because of the opposition to arranged marriage and ran away from home, joined the adventure team, can be said to be the most successful and popular adaptation of the entire game, using the weapon "Gan General Excalibur", transformed into a divine beast as "steel wing flying dragon"
The fifth level of the fallen disease spring debut of Sha Wujing, the five elements characteristics of water, the game set itself is human, cursed in the battle with the youkai, the appearance of words and deeds is cold but the heart is kind, in the water can automatically restore HP, use the weapon "treasure staff", transform into a divine beast into a centaur shape of the "Phantom Lotus River Bo"
The classic "four people and one horse" combination in the original book became the initial five-person group in the game, building a basic adventure team at the same time, but also allowing players to have five elements of attributes, the later characters need to meet specific conditions in the level, and being able to collect all the characters during the clearance process is also one of the important fun.
The capacity of the game is only 1CD, although each character has voice actor dubbing, but only a few occasions have voice, but it does not affect the expressiveness of the character's personality, in the game process to appreciate the humorous dialogue lines between the characters, you can see the designer's creativity in the original adaptation. The characters of this game come from the master Akihiro Yamada, and the theme song Magic Goku is voiced by Yukihide Takekawa, who sang the Theme Song of the Japanese version of Journey to the West, and the packaging of the game also made a lot of effort, and the promotional poster endorsed by the popular actor Jun Matsuda at that time made a deep impression.
PS version of "Journey to the West" appeared in the heyday of the PS console, in the era of a variety of wargames, with a unique original adaptation, well-designed character modeling, concise and clear gameplay system, complex and ingenious level design, so that Glory has a good reputation in this field, this work has not been transplanted to other platforms, is one of the original works of PS exclusive, although the follow-up Glory did not follow up to develop new wargame games, but there are still many enthusiasts revisiting today.
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