Author: A bite of rice balls
When I first saw the trailer for "Yellow Spring Road", I was deeply attracted by it, how such a "different style" samurai theme game was built. Even in today's 2022, samurai games have thunderous names such as "Ghost Warrior", "Ren Wang", "Only Wolf" and "Soul of Tsushima", so can "Yellow Spring Road" break through among many samurai?
Although the game was produced by the developer of the Shadow Samurai series, the entire game has a strong Japanese cultural color, the voice actors are also very good, all the dialogue in the game is presented in Japanese, with subtitles in different languages, in addition, from the character costumes, to the architectural design, and the Bushido spirit that runs through the game, all focus on the background of the Edo period. Game director Kryszpin once said that this is not a large game, and it only takes about 5 hours to complete the level in normal mode, in order to hope that players can complete this movie-like experience and learn the story of the Edo period in the game.
Hiroki is in Huangquan
Originally inspired by a series of classic Japanese films such as Akira Kurosawa and Masaki Kobayashi, Yellow Spring Road was an attempt to present the game in black and white in Unreal Engine, including shooting angles, graphics, and even the expression of lines. Like a series of movies such as "Thirteen Assassins", "Seven Samurai", and "Cut belly", the protagonist of "The Road to The Yellow Spring" is also exploring the "Tao" in his heart, what is the "Tao"? How should we choose when survival and the Tao are in conflict?
Stills from The Seven Samurai
As an orphan, Hiroki was raised as a successor by Master Sanjuro from an early age. In order to defend against the thieves who come to loot the village, the young Kohiroki vows to protect the village and his loved ones in the village, but deep down, there is a contest with the self. In the face of responsibility and mission, you must go alone beyond life and death, face yourself, and decide your own samurai path.
God blocks the killing of God, and Buddha blocks the killing of Buddha
Bushido was the spiritual pillar of the samurai class in feudal Japanese society. Originated in the Kamakura shogunate in Japan, it was formed by the absorption of Confucian and Buddhist ideas in the Edo period. The most typical behavior of the Bushido spirit is to cut the abdomen. Advocate virtues such as: righteousness, courage, benevolence, courtesy, sincerity, reputation, loyalty, and self-denial.
Bushido spirit
The whole game of "Yellow Spring Road" is also around patience, righteousness, loyalty, and courage, with the advancement of the main line, players need to make choices in various situations, and when you make a choice, the game will also go to a different ending. Watching your relatives, friends and best friends die one by one in front of your eyes, you are for tat, blood for blood. Or do you have a heart for life, let yourself live, protect the living, and do your duty to dedicate your strength to the villagers. Whether it is the mission of passing on the master, or saving the life and death of the lover, it is all in your thoughts.
Different choices, the ending will be different
The whole game presents a black and white retro style, from the first time into the main interface, the melodious piano sound reveals loneliness and sadness, but also implies that the player will meet a bloody challenge, the scenes in the game are mostly based on the countryside and woods, the player's perspective takes a specific camera angle, the proportion of the character's screen is relatively small, and after matching the fixed mirror effect, it feels like watching a black and white samurai movie. The transition from light to dark in the scene also has a very rich sense of layering, and also adds the noise of the old film machine and the screen flash effect.
Battle environment small boss
The core gameplay of this game is to master the rebound, speaking of this, many players may think of the soul game, will they be tortured? Wouldn't it be hard to play? In fact, everyone does not have to worry, because the bounce time in the game is very abundant, even if it is a first-time action game player can quickly get started.
Hiroki's confession
The battle is mainly presented in the form of horizontal plates, players need to control knives, bows, fire bolts, shurikens to cooperate with the killing of the enemy, it is worth mentioning that the thieves in the game really talk about martial virtue, never take advantage of the danger, even if a group of people in front of and behind you surround you, they will only be one by one with you, so as long as you master the attack bullet counter skill, then you are invincible!
Hiroki and the inner challenge
As the main weapon, as the plot progresses, you can learn some different moves such as light strikes, heavy blows, and broken armor, while shuriken, bow, and fire hammer are ranged consumable weapons, and the attack speed is also progressive from fast to slow, shuriken can be instantaneous, but the damage is the lowest, the fire ream needs to be loaded with ammunition, the process is the longest, but the damage is the highest, and it can kill the mob with one hit. In addition, if the enemies are all standing together, the fire bolt can even achieve the effect of knocking down a row with one bullet. Therefore, the rational use of scene battles can also achieve unexpected effects.
How about dying a thousand times for the sake of loving a son
What you need to pay attention to is to maintain a good stamina value in battle at all times, whether it is running or fighting will continue to be consumed, once the stamina value returns to zero, it will be in a state of exhaustion, then your attack and walking will become turtle speed, if attacked, the damage will be multiplied, so in the battle to plan their own way of attack, do not blindly attack, find flaws, give the enemy a fatal blow to maximize the benefits.
Love, righteousness, and evil all reflect Hiroki's tangled inner expressions all the time
In addition to the thrill of killing enemies, there are additional puzzle elements for you to crack, but they are relatively simple, and even the answers have been written on your face. For the content of the puzzle, the game does not go into detail why the puzzle appears in this link. And why is this the answer? Does it have a deeper meaning, or is it a puzzle for the sake of understanding the puzzle?
Somehow the puzzle
In addition, the in-game save points appear in the form of shrines, and the number is quite large, basically every one or two battles must have a save point, as long as the file is saved, the current amount of health will automatically fill up, but the same shrine can not be repeatedly saved, so in the process of the battle when the amount of health is not healthy, you can only continue to explore forward, looking for the next shrine.
Big boss shadow inflammation
Let's talk about its shortcomings, the growth route is too single, the repetition of the enemy is too high, the puzzle is too simple, it is easy to make people feel tired of playing, and many combat moves in the early stage become a fixed routine in the later stage, a set of bullets gently hit the invincible hand all over the world. In fact, it is more like an interactive movie than an action game.
In general, the artistic style of "The Road to Yellow Springs" is extremely high, and the overall feeling is like a cool film, defending the homeland, with one enemy and a hundred enemies, even if you are in Huangquan, you will also kill a blood road. In addition, there are many endings in the game, players can use different choices to interpret different Bushido spirits, no matter which "road" road, can not change Hiroki to protect the villagers' firm heart, but do not be blinded by hatred and revenge. The reality is also the same, walking in the world, we may learn to defend the righteous "Tao" in our hearts, not distorted, upright and frank.
Average review score: 80