After two days and more than a dozen hours of gaming experience, I have forgotten that I am playing a mobile game, it is like a pot of dusty wine, tasted with the mellow accumulation of years, so that old players can quickly recall the golden age of wargames, they usually simulate the battlefield trend in the box court world, and glimpse the war with the underlying characters.
This mobile game is called "Sword of Suzuran", when it was also called "Codename: SSRPG", it has set off a lot of heat in the game circle, and the campfire test opened in the second half of last year further expanded the popularity of the game, and also established a good reputation among the player group.
In various senses, "The Sword of Suzuran" is an alternative mobile game, the classic wargame gameplay it adheres to is rare in the field of mobile games, and its storytelling method is also a bit novel, and the design of separating the online game content from the stand-alone content cannot find a benchmark.
This is a very "bold" wargame mobile game.
New bottle of old wine? "The Sword of Suzuran" may not stop there
In the "R&D Codex I." released by the development team Extreme Heart Society last year, the "Sword of Suzuran" was summarized with this sentence: "Using the technology of the new era, interpreting the classics of the old era".
This sentence contains two main points, new technology and classics, not only need to present the appearance and connotation of the old game, but also have to adapt to the new era, not to pursue retro, but to retro as the style.
It can be roughly broken down into two parts, art and gameplay, and judging from the new round of testing that began on April 14, the Pole Heart Society has fulfilled their promise.
First of all, the art, "The Sword of Suzuran" adopts the pixel style of the classic SRPG, but in the specific design, the Polar Heart Society uses modern 3D rendering technology to enhance the expressiveness of the pixel screen, such as real-time multi-point dynamic light source, full-screen floodlight, dynamic depth of field rendering, etc. On the basis of retaining the original pixel style, it creates the depth of field of the scene through the change of focal length, adds light and shadow effects to the environment such as water surface and flame, and gives the character more action details and skill effects, so that the game has a modern packaging.
Light and shadow can be seen everywhere in the game
Vision bokeh, shaping depth of field
According to the Extreme Heart Society, the pixel wind of "Suzuran Sword" is not the "HD-2D" technology shown by "Misguided Traveler", although the same 3D engine is used to do pixel art, but the latter is close to "the stylized 3D rendering of pixel wind", and the goal of "Suzuran Sword" is "pixels in the golden age of evolution", a significant example is the skill effect in the game, the development team deliberately compressed the particle effects of these skills, so that it still looks like it retains the unique "grainy feeling" of pixels, classic and modern in the "golden age of pixels", a significant example is the skill effect in the game, the development team deliberately compressed the particle effects of these skills, so that it still looks like it retains the unique "grainy feeling" of pixels. The Sword of Suzuran is highly unified.
The second is the gameplay, "The Sword of Suzuran" refers to the classic Japanese wargame gameplay, and is a wargame game with a high and low map.
Whether it is from official reports or player reviews, the words "Royal Knights" will appear. Indeed, "Sword of Suzuran" follows the gameplay framework of "Royal Knights 2": with high and low maps, terrain differences, character orientation, attribute restraint, etc., this game released in 1995 has created a new era in the history of wargames, it has a large number of loyal fans and imitators on the PC side /console, but it is difficult to find on the mobile side, in the final analysis, increased Z-axis wargame gameplay disguised to increase the development workload, the game requires more gameplay strategies, numerical calculations, It also lengthens the already slow pace of the wargame, which is incompatible with the pursuit of fast-paced mobile games.
However, the sense of accomplishment brought by this type of wargame gameplay is also unmatched by other types, and "The Sword of Suzuran" dares to use this type of gameplay in mobile games, which obviously has its own considerations.
It needs to be like the pixel style of the game, which can both retain the connotation of classic gameplay and adapt to the needs of the new era.
Specific to the game design, the Polar Heart Society has made significant changes to the classic game mechanics according to the characteristics of mobile games.
1. The difference between the height and the height of the map mainly affects the attack range and the range of movement, and does not affect the damage calculation;
2. The standby orientation of the character depends on the final direction of action, and cannot be changed by itself, but there is a backstabbing mechanism, and the counterattack skill is also closely related to the orientation;
3. Attribute restraint is simplified to three types: dexterity, strength, and special ability;
4. The release of skills does not consume MP, but limited energy points, how to rationally use and obtain the character's energy points is also a part of the player's strategy;
……
Not only that, "The Sword of Suzuran" also further lowers the threshold for wargames to start in the turn-based and penal chess system, the game follows the "speed smooth" mode, within a large round, the order of action of the character is only related to the speed of the character, which fully reflects the differences and advantages and disadvantages of different classes, usually, the assassin is the first to act, and the high mobility and first-hand characteristics of this class can often play a lot of eye-catching tactical operations.
The "in-turn speed action" adopted by "Sword of Suzuran" avoids the rigidity and potential "unfairness" of a party's full action mode (that is, our character and the opposing character are fully acted after the turn rotation is carried out), on the other hand, it is easy for novice players to understand, it is not like the semi-real-time ATB mechanism, which can act multiple times before the enemy strikes, nor is it the Royal Knights 2. In the action mechanism (In Royal Knights 2, the character's RT value = WT value composed of the character's base speed and equipment weight + action RT + skill RT + mobile RT, the player can change the character's shot order in different rounds through careful calculation. ）
The addition of backtracking mode further improves the player's fault tolerance rate.
The player can go back to the previous character or the action of the previous turn
In these ways, The Sword of Suzuran has greatly lowered the threshold of wargames with Z-axis maps, achieving the purpose of "allowing more people to play".
However, the simplification of the game mechanics is prone to the side effects of insufficient depth of strategy, and the solution of "Sword of Suzuran" is to broaden the width of gameplay and game mechanics, and trigger qualitative changes through quantitative changes, such as:
1. Introduction of tactical skills.
As a battlefield commander, players can cast tactical skills at any point in their actions, such as the "Fire Command" that allows the character to gain an extra round of action power after killing a specified target.
2. Diversification of character skills.
The game currently designed dozens of different styles of class classes and more than a hundred kinds of skills, each class has its own special mode, the pioneering shield class is to add a lot of fun to the game, the class of soldiers low speed action sequence is behind, physical attacks need to break the shield first to cause substantial damage, its design is not only in line with the bulky, high-defense characteristics of the shield guard, but also allows players to have more tactical choices and more cautious way to break the game.
However, the focus of the skill diversity of "Sword of Suzuran" is to fill in the tactical gap after simplifying the game mechanics, and the Polar Heart Society allows the characters to have more action capabilities under the existing framework, including but not limited to jumping, sprinting, hook locks, etc., these abilities to a certain extent break the ZOC (Zone of Control, control area, players can limit the enemy's actions through the character position) mechanism, making the entire battlefield more flexible.
3. Degree of freedom of character skills.
In a battle, a character can carry up to 5 skills, all of which can be replaced. Therefore, even if it is the same class and the same class, its battlefield positioning is also very different according to the skill combination, which further expands the player's tactical options and the game's strategic gameplay.
4. Rich map interactive elements.
The Polar Heart Society has set up a large number of interactive elements in the game's map, such as rolling stones, which use the game's unique knockback mechanism to push rolling stones from a high place to directly crush enemies; such as explosive barrels, which will cause range damage after detonation, and ignite grass and wooden floors, and burning blocks will cause sustained damage to enemies and reduce movement.
In fact, a wargame with a high-low map is a game that requires subtle and complex numerical calculations, and both the character and the level map contain multiple parameters that affect the game's strategic gameplay from different dimensions.
Character action stats can also be a deep game mechanic
Screenshot source: B station up master Lunamos, SRPG monument: "Royal Knights" full series review
The terrain in The Royal Knights wheel of destiny affects character movement and attack
Image source: Sky Magic Network
Under the design idea of mobile games, the numerical system of wargames will undoubtedly face two major problems, one is the problem of numerical expansion that is easy to cause by long-term operation, and the other is the problem of getting started by newcomer players.
The Sword of Suzuran's weakened depth and horizontal expansion cleverly circumvents these problems. Players also need to make careful calculations in the game, calculate the character's range of movement and the order of action, calculate the damage of the enemy and us, these calculations are more intuitive and clear than the classic wargames, but the player needs to calculate the consumption of energy points, calculate the interactive elements in the field, calculate the character's skill collocation outside the field, and ensure the friendliness of the game to the newcomers without losing the strategic charm of the wargame game.
More importantly, "The Sword of Suzuran" magnifies the cool point of the wargame game at some levels, and the Polar Heart Society not only gives the player more sensory enjoyment in audiovisual performance (such as adding additional animations to the character's skills), but also gives the player "sweetness" in the game mechanics, such as the tarot cards that give the player extra turns in the map, with the character skills and the player's tactical skills, which can make the same character act multiple times in a turn, such as the character's knockback skills. With a variety of terrain or interactive objects to create a tactical effect that is half the work, the player's thinking can bring direct, highly saturated refreshment.
For the wargame gameplay of "The Sword of Suzuran", the well-known wargame producer Tai Matsuno once made a high evaluation: "Pixel animation is meticulously crafted and the performance is wonderful. Most importantly, the game's battle rhythm is well grasped. ”
"Good battle rhythm" is enough to prove the success of "Sword of Suzuran" in the exploration of gameplay, which means that the game not only realizes the rich strategy and playability of classic wargames in design, but also ensures the silky experience of the playing process through various details innovations and changes.
The "Loop System" plot interpretation, a long-term operation of mobile games
"Sword of Suzuran" will be a free download, including in-app purchase of mobile games, The Pole Heart Society wrote in the [R&D Codex II.] that they hope to combine the advantages of online games with the advantages of single-player, specifically, to divide the game into two major modes, one is to provide the main content of the story mode, it has no less than the full content of high-quality single-player, the other is free mode, the main fast-paced wargame gameplay and diversified character development.
"Story Mode will be a pure single-player game". The problem is that single-player wargames will eventually usher in the end of the story, a process that usually takes a dozen or dozens of hours, and only a few players choose multi-week purposes. When the story mode of "Suzuran Sword" is benchmarked against "pure single-player games", how should the "sustainability" of long-term operation games be achieved?
The Polar Heart Club chose the "Loop Series" story.
The "Loop Series" is commonly found in novels, anime, or AVG games, where protagonists with the ability to travel through time and space collect clues through repeated backtracking and eventually change the course of events.
Its advantage is that it is convenient to describe different characters in different timelines, and portray the whole picture of characters and events, so that the story has layers of in-depth, ups and downs of emotional flashpoints.
Its difficulties are how to set up and break the game, and what key information should the protagonist obtain and how to obtain if he wants to get a satisfactory event trend? How many obstructions should be set during this period? How does the protagonist's solution make the reader realize?
The "Loop" plot is a rarity in the field of mobile games, and it once again proves that "The Sword of Suzuran" is not ordinary.
In the story mode of "Sword of Suzuran" there are multiple story branches, the player's different choices will change the direction of the story, while introducing special objects such as "beacons", its game function is equivalent to the save point, its plot function is equivalent to the key information that changes the direction of events, for example, the player will be involved in a melee and the whole army will be destroyed at the beginning of the story, and the protagonist after the retrospection will have a new "beacon", which carries the message of "rushing to the destruction of the whole army" and provides the player with new options to go to different world lines.
In GameRes' view, the "Loop System" has several benefits for the single-machine story mode of "Sword of Suzuran":
1. Reflect the breadth of the story.
Like the classic wargame game, "The Sword of Suzuran" also adopts the theme of war, the protagonist, as the leader of the small town mercenary group, needs to mediate with many forces, they will throw an olive branch to the player, but they may also laugh and hide the knife, watch the fire from the other side, borrow the knife to kill people and other military strategies are not uncommon in the game, and the player may not be able to glimpse the whole picture of the event in a single world line.
The backtracking ability of the "Loop System" facilitates the game to describe different aspects of the war, allowing players to deeply experience the complex entanglement of interests of the "Rashomon".
2. Give the player freedom of choice.
Is there an absolutely correct side in the war? This is a complex issue. Most war-themed works tend to be king-style plots, with the protagonist leading the troops to attack the city and eventually complete the unification, and the protagonist is also named "hero", abandoning the portrayal of war details and small characters in front of a series of grand narratives. Perhaps because of this, "Royal Knights 2", which exposes the cruel side of war, has become a pearl in the history of wargames.
Screenshot source: B station up main Lunamos, "Royal Knights 2" full plot explanation
The same may be true in "The Sword of Suzuran", the three major forces of the Knights, the Rodis Empire, and the Ilya do not enjoy absolute justice, and the Suzuran Sword Mercenary Corps mixed in the three is bound to face a series of choices and survive under the torrent of history. In this context, the game gives players full choice, and their choices will truly reflect the will of the individual and influence the direction of the story.
3. Slow down the consumption of game content.
Different story directions add to the value of repeating gameplay in the game.
Although it is inevitable that there will be repeated experiences of game content, the Polar Heart Society has made several preparations to avoid players from falling into a period of burnout, and the difference in resources and challenges caused by options is one of them. For example, if the player chooses to make friends with the Knights in the game, the Knights will reinforce the town of Suzuran, providing unique content in terms of equipment, personnel, and so on.
As far as GameRes' experience in the new round of testing is concerned, the single-week clearance process is nearly 20 hours, and its content volume cannot be described as full, if you want to experience the whole plot, the length can also increase by several orders of magnitude. More importantly, the Polar Heart Society can continue to produce new content under the framework of the "Loop System", and the plot of repeated attempts and repeated gameplay effectively avoids the rapid consumption of content, but it also puts forward extremely high requirements for the script design of the development team.
In addition to the "Loop System" to interpret the classic war theme of the wargame, "Sword of Suzuran" has also made modern modifications in the specific game process, and the Polar Heart Society has integrated management modules and random elements into the story mode, which you can compare to the small town in "Dark Dungeon", players can recruit new characters, manage the status of the characters, cultivate the skills and levels of the characters, collect props, and build equipment.
Managing a character's stamina is also an important part of the game's strategy
Characters consume 10% of their stamina each time they fight or dispatch, and the game also links the character's physical strength to the character's physical strength when defeated on the battlefield, replacing the punishment of reducing the permanent death of traditional wargames with a 40% stamina consumption
"We have a conclusion internally that we need to shorten the battle time of the wargames to 50% of the game as a whole." Guo Lei, head of the Extreme Heart Society, said so in a media interview.
This is an evolutionary trend of contemporary wargames, taking the best-selling "Fire Emblem: Wind and Snow Moon" in the Flame Emblem series, which increases the daily gameplay, love system, and reduces the proportion of content of wargames, thus winning the support of many non-wargame audiences.
In terms of actual experience, the current small-town operation gameplay + plot of "Sword of Suzuran" accounts for about 40% to 50% of the entire story mode, and the entire game process has a relatively smooth difficulty curve, which has a high degree of friendliness for newcomer players and a fairly high freshness for old players.
epilogue
"The Sword of Suzuran" is undoubtedly full of a hint of "Old School" mellowness, from art, gameplay to theme, it is better, but it is by no means more than this, the Polar Heart Society from the "popular mobile game" and "modernization" two entry points to improve the classic, 3D rendering technology blessing, wargame game mechanics of trade-offs and innovation, "Loop system" on the plot of the multi-faceted packaging, small town management of the game content supplement ... These initiatives have made it a new look, and at the same time different from the wargames on the market.
"Sword of Suzuran" is an alternative in mobile games, but of all the alternative temperament it shows, what moves GameRes the most is not its business model, art style or gameplay, but that it spends most of its energy on the polishing of game content and game experience, rather than focusing on the retention and paid design of mobile games.
In the mobile game market, where the number of games is growing year by year, "content experience" will gradually become the primary measure for players to choose games, and there is no shortage of market for games like "Sword of Suzuran" that focus on providing quality content.