On April 15, a new round of testing of "Lost in Time" began, and players like Xiaobian who booked early will certainly not miss this test. Judging from the lively discussion among players, there are not a few players who are looking forward to this game. After experiencing the game for a while, today I will talk about my thoughts and understanding of the game.
Fine art style - free and uninhibited sister aesthetics
When it comes to two-dimensional mobile games, people naturally think of cute and sweet Japanese girls. Well-behaved personalities seem to have defaulted to the only way to push otaku to pay money. However, "Lost in Time" is different, the game characters are mostly temperamental royal sisters, in order to fit the human setting, the art adopts a strong style of thick painting method. The characters wear free and avant-garde costumes such as coats, trench coats, and combat suits, which can be said to be insulated from the iconic "cute system" of the second dimension.
Character Standing Painting - Bai Yi
Character Standing Painting - Ninety-Nine
Carefully observing the character standing painting, it is not difficult for us to find that the overall painting technique is more realistic and the three-dimensional sense is stronger. This style is a little less wasteful, more physical beauty and sci-fi sense, combined with the game setting detailed world view, with just the right combination experience.
We can analyze from the character modeling, and guess why "Lost in The End" chose the half-thick graffiti method. Take the popular character Zoya in the game as an example, this character itself is the leader of the syndicate civil organization "Legion", a veritable "gangster boss", who is the initiator of a new round of civil unrest in the plot, so in the image design, it pays attention to the ultimate strength and aura, giving people a high-cold royal sister temperament. At this time, I believe that everyone also found that if you use the traditional Japanese painting style, the expression of the character's aura will be inferior.
Combat System - Micro-innovative real-time strategy tower defense
Many players will be surprised by the exquisite art style of "Lost in Time" after experiencing its exquisite art style, and Xiaobian was deeply surprised at first. After all, there are many tower defense game products on the market, and if you want to make a game that is different from traditional tower defense, you need to plan and use your brain.
The game divides the forbidden person into several different classes according to function and attributes, such as tenacity, fury, mystery, precision, ability, enlightenment, etc., and there are also different positions and application methods between classes. In the battle preparation phase, we need to assign positions and combinations according to the class of different characters. Taking the "tough" class as an example, although the confinement range is small, it can block multiple enemies at the same time, and it is undoubtedly the best candidate for defense. Therefore, it can be placed at the front of the enemy's path to resist the advance of the unit.
Unlike traditional tower defense, "Lost in Time" has a "free movement" setting. After entering the battle, the player can freely adjust the position of the forbidden according to the battlefield situation, making the strategy part of the whole game more diverse. This mechanism is more conducive to allowing players to control the rhythm of the game, and can also improve the fault tolerance rate in terms of skills and standing.
In addition, the rational use of the newly added "core mechanism" is also a very important part of the battle. In the game level, players can use the special skills of some of the forbidden ones to deal core damage to elite mobs & elite bosses with cores, and after breaking all the cores of the enemy, they can trigger a long period of stun and defense reduction, and quickly set fire in this state, which will be more conducive to killing enemies.
Obviously, such a complex and changeable combat operation greatly improves the upper and lower limits of the difficulty of the level, from the strategic direction of the editor believes that it is desirable, tower defense enthusiasts can think about choosing more ways to pass the level, and casual players can also use this mechanism to use a specific confiner to copy the job to pass the level. But unfortunately, the new mechanism is not perfect, in this update, there are problems such as unclear beginner guidance and unsmooth level values that lead to a poor player experience. After the discovery, the official also gave a commitment in time to modify it in subsequent versions, hoping that the official can optimize this unique mechanism.
Worldview - Reflections on human nature in the face of social unrest
Aside from gameplay and standing painting, if there is anything else that can be used as a feature of this game, then the plot copy is definitely a praiseworthy point. In recent years, with the rapid development of two-dimensional mobile game comics, it is not uncommon for themes to be set in the "post-apocalyptic era", and it can even be said that they are somewhat flooded. But for players, the core of the story game is not the genre, but whether it can tell a story that mobilizes emotions, and the brilliant copywriting and plot will naturally be favored by the player.
The worldview of "Lost in Time" mainly tells the story of a series of mutations induced by the landing of unknown meteorites, and the wild changes affect the entire city of Deus. Under the influence of mutations, some people turn into twisted monsters, while a small number of unmutated people have a power that ordinary people cannot match and become confinement.
In this disorderly city of Des, there is no clear division of camps, from humans to the imprisoned, whether they have done evil or not, in fact, everyone is carrying pain, and everyone has a difficult scripture. At this time, civilization seems to be the end of the chapter, and it cannot help but silence people. In the second chapter of the main line, the plot describes in detail the social situation of the infected person. Through the story of the gray-haired girl who was used by outsiders and eventually died, we learned that the confinement is not the cause of social unrest, and that the good and evil of human nature cannot be distinguished by appearance and ability.
A game's copywriting skills often run through the entire main line, and "Lost in Time" will add a new Chinese voice to the plot text in each round of testing, from the first chapter to the second chapter of the main line, all characters, including supporting characters, have a voice. It should be known that the amount of text of the main plot is far more than the character's combat voice, and most games on the market will not invest too much in this regard, which also reflects the official confidence in the story, text and world view of this game.
The same goes for interrogation gameplay, where each character can interact individually, and through interrogation we can learn more about the characters and learn about what happened before they were taken in. Moreover, there will be different options during the interrogation process, and the player's different choices become the factors that drive the direction of the plot, in this game, the player is no longer a bystander, more participants, and the sense of immersion and substitution of the game is also satisfied.
Conclusion
These are the remarkable points in the "Detention" test of "Lost in Time", which has a differentiated art, excellent copywriting plot, micro-innovative gameplay and a strong voice cast. Although this test has some shortcomings around character development and combat gameplay. For example, the character cultivation line is complex, some levels are more difficult, the number of characters is relatively small, and so on. But the official response has been, and the follow-up will be optimized one by one. As a player, Xiaobian believes that the official attitude towards players is still good.
Overall, the quality of the test of "Lost in The End" is still very impressive, and many people have high expectations for this game, hoping that the follow-up public beta can have a better performance in all aspects, and do not disappoint players. I wonder what other suggestions you have or other views on the game during this test? You can also exchange and discuss Oh~