As one of the most successful JRPGs in modern times, and also as the first party under the Nintendo umbrella, Blade of the Alien 2 has become famous. If you are a new player to this game, you may only know the first and second games of "Blade of the Otherworld", but you may not know much about the history of this series. So, this time we're going to talk about the story of the Heterogeneous series.
Xeno series
Xeno is the original word that refers to "strange", "foreign", "otherworld" and other words to describe foreign people' things, the more commonly used words such as Xenophobia and Xenomorph, etc., and tetsuya Takahashi's team's classic Xeno series is also telling stories that are different from human life forms. The series can be traced back to Tetsuya Takahashi's "Alien Armor" developed during the Square period, and then the "Legend of heterogeneousness" series produced by Namco when namco funded the creation of Monolith Soft, which are the tears of old players!
Among them, the "Legend of heterogeneous" trilogy achieved quite good results in the PS2 period, of which the protagonist KOS-MOS was the most famous, and even became a member of the Ocean Hall Mon-sieur Bome series (contemporary popular anime and game characters) at that time.
However, the final ending of these two works was not good, both because of problems within the company Square and Namco at the time, which led to the end of the series. Just when he was in the swamp of despair, Satoshi Iwata of Nintendo at the time took a certain trait of Tetsuya Takahashi's team's Monolith Soft, and lent him a helping hand (in fact, the JRPG work was lacking, so he acquired Monolith Soft?, who was poor at the time), and pulled Tetsuya Takahashi, who was deeply mired in the quagmire, ashore. With the encouragement of Satoshi Iwata, Tetsuya Takahashi was forced to devote himself to the production of the first generation of the Blade of Heterogeneity series, after all, if he missed this muddy loach, there would be no second loach next to the willow tree. As a result, the original Blade of Heterogeneity achieved unprecedented success in the series and wrote a wonderful page in the history of JRPG!
RPG games are like a novel, requiring complex epic scripts to be conceived, and the styles of RPG in Europe, the United States and Japan are very different. Novelists in Europe and the United States like to describe the scene of the novel in words, while Japanese novelists focus on spiritual exploration. Perhaps it is the difference between European and American RPGs and JRPG, European and American RPGs focus on allowing players to explore and find their own unique experience in the game, and JPRG players like to tell a good story within the established framework. "Blade of Alienity", which combines story lines and exploration of space, was a very strange existence when it was released in 2010.
Heterogeneous Blade Series
The "Blade of Alienity" series includes the original generation of "Blade of Alienity" and its subsequent ultimate version, "Blade of Alienity X", "Blade of Alienity 2" and its prequel Ira, the generations of people have changed very much, personal preference for 2 generations of human design.
I believe that many Switch players have played Zelda: Breath of the Wilderness, and you may not know that Zelda's collaborative development is also indispensable to Monolith Soft's credit for landscape and terrain design. Tetsuya Takahashi's team is very good at creating macro-to-meso ecology, as well as three-dimensional open worlds with depth (z-axis representation), and has a way to visualize all imaginations. The stories of the Blade of Heterogeneity series all take place on giant mechs or giant mythical beasts, including depictions of old worlds such as medieval and industrial, worlds constructed by strange races, future worlds filled with mecha AI, and Cthulhu worlds filled with living biological organs. In addition, as an ecological person playing "Blade of Alienity", you will often be moved by the specific scenes of a certain hour, composed of a variety of complex weather systems, rich ecosystems and biological phases.
However, I would like to emphasize that the "Blade of Heterogeneity" series and even the previous "Heterogeneous Armor" and "Heterogeneous Legend" series are often inseparable from a plot axis, that is, the exploration of the origin of life and the world. And this kind of discussion is very touching to me, who has a little research on geology, ecology, evolution chemistry, and various religions, and even this view is not just a point in the plot, but a deep heart and each work is very different. However, there is a binary opposition between organic life (organisms composed of organic matter such as humans) and inorganic life (inorganic life such as metals and minerals). In terms of inorganic life, it can be noted that Tetsuya Takahashi really likes and likes mechs, from "Alien Armor" to "Heterogeneous Blade 2" there are various mechs appearing, and "Heterogeneous Legend" is a popular mechanic KOS-MOS. Therefore, mecha fans will logically like this series of works.
Like many players, I should have started with this series from XB2 (XB2 Blade 2), and even did not intend to buy this series at the beginning, but listened to my friends recommending it, and then directly bought it after listening to it. Blade 2 was probably bought in mid-2018, and I was still struggling to see if I was going to sell it. At first, it was boring enough to be honest, and it has always been filled with the atmosphere of persuasion. After playing for less than an hour, I switched to other games, and after a while, I wanted to say that I would like to go back and play XB2. Then intermittently run-in for more than half a month, grinding to the fourth chapter suddenly felt like it had become a bit of fun! Because the battle system to the Excalibur "light" appeared here is probably almost unlocked, and then it exploded all the way for a few weeks, finally all through! This complex side and main story, the huge world view, the brain-burning combat system is too divine, and even at the finale, the atmosphere is so set off that although the game has many flaws, it is not important, it is too touching.
In the plot part, some "cloud players" will feel that "Blade of the Otherworld 2" has no plot, and think that everyone may be playing for the sake of super fragrant people, I want to say that "human design" is right, but saying that there is no plot is outrageously wrong! As I just said, the main axis of this series of works is the discussion of the world and the origin of life, and heterogeneous degree 2 focuses on the description of the origin of the world and the creationism of life, and how is this "world" formed? Who and where did they come from with the "gods" they believed in? It gives people a lot of philosophical stirring, as a biological person is very fond of this kind of origin of life theme!
As soon as I finished playing XB2, I immediately went to play "Elai in the Golden Land", although Ira is not long, but in the map guidance and combat system have a more detailed introduction, the game experience is very comfortable, it is obvious that the system is much better than the previous game. And Ira is probably the most poignant work in the "Blade of the Otherworld" series, in XB2 you will know that it is a tragedy, and every time you see Laura's smile, you feel very sad! Compared with this biography, "Ela in the Golden Land" does not obviously explore the issue of the origin of life, but instead depicts the characters, which is a more personal and unforgettable experience for the player. Therefore, many players will feel that the plot of the Golden Nation Ira is better, and even has an experience beyond this biography, and the preaching meaning is less heavy.
The Ultimate Edition of Blade of Heterogeneity is a remake of the original version of Blade of Heterogeneousness, which was launched on WiiU ten years ago, and was released at the end of May 2020, because of the powerful charm of Blade of Heterogeneousness 2, I jumped into this Heterogeneous Pit for the first time. The result, like the XB2, once made me wonder whether to sell it, and at the same time, it reached an inflection point that made me dispel this idea and continue to run into it! Grinding and grinding for more than a month passed before passing customs clearance. In addition, unlike the original generation, there is a sequel to "Connected Future", but that is another story!
In the ultimate version, I prefer English pronunciation, and in this work, the Japanese match is not so attractive to me, but the British accent is very comfortable to listen to and has a very epic movie feeling. In the opening chapter, it is obvious that the difference between life forms (organisms and inorganic bodies) is mentioned to everyone, and the original plot of "Blade of Heterogeneousness" is also talking about the exploration of life forms, giving players a powerful ideological impact. Life forms can be organisms or inorganic bodies, giant gods and human beings on giant gods are organisms, and mechanic gods and mechs on the body are inorganic, even reminding me of the mighty ones in Star Trek.
Although the network wind generally feels that XB1 is more fun than XB2, I personally still think that XB2 has the best gaming experience. XB plot tends to be dark and realistic, XB2 main line plot is old-fashioned king's blood, but because there are many Excalibur characters, the plot is very diverse and rich, but it has won my heart. XB in terms of combat system is clear at a glance, XB2 really can't understand at first, but after finally understanding the complex combat system, it is very fun, with multiple attributes of Excalibur has a completely different attack arrangement combination.
summary
On the whole, the "Blade of heterogeneousity" series is not suitable for fast food players (especially cloud players who criticize without even experiencing the experience), it is suitable for slow and hot players, just like nibbling on a brick book novel, not suitable for planting a head to read it, suitable for slow exploration and slow play. The early stage is like a pillow book, when you reach an inflection point, everything becomes clear and enters an enlightened realm, but you will forget yourself and immerse yourself in it to savor it - there are deep crystals in the rock, and when the rock sheath is shed, you will know the beauty and origin of Otoko. The rock sheath that wrapped the deep crystal was the weathered, sad Ira. A heroic epic active in the worlds of the Colossus and the Machine God, from the call of sorrow to the deepest part of the dark cave, exploring the origins of Monado and the world.
Although many game companies are slowly degenerating and no longer the innocence they once were, seeing the new and ancient craftsmen polishing the game like the Blade of The Otherworld series, I feel that the world still has an indisputable paradise for me to explore, play and savor the stories of the continents. Returning to the title text of the Heterogeneous Series, Saga (the narrative genre of Nordic literature) and chronicles may be like listening to a bard or historian talk about the story of the land civilization in great detail, but in this era of fast food games, the audience that can listen to others' rap in this way is becoming increasingly rare.
Finally, I hope that Monolith Soft will continue to adhere to this "craftsmanship" to develop new works, and I also hope that I can remake the "Blade X" that appeared on the WiiU to the Switch, so that I can re-experience the "giant mecha" era that I missed!