As the third work in the "Shadow Blade" series, Shadow Blade 3 pays more attention to return and change. This game still continues the brutal graphic style and the expression of the group drama, and uses the classic "skill chain" system and "killing transformation" design, which becomes more easy to use and challenging under the premise of maintaining the unique style of the original work.
Compared with the martial arts themes used in similar products, Shadow Blade 3 does the opposite, using more spicy brushstrokes to discuss topics about human nature with players.
<h1>An overwhelming sense of immersion</h1>
Before discussing Shadow Blade 3, let's briefly talk about the worldview of the "Rain Blood" and "Shadow Blade" series. In this "Shadow Realm" martial forest, which has no fixed dynasty and only uses the "organization" establishment time as the year count, the masters of the major factions are caught in a long struggle in order to observe the extremely advanced book "Heavenly Book Fragments", and the former great power master Xuan Mo, who stole this strange book from the capital and scattered it among the people, for various reasons, scattered the "killing qi transformation technology" all over the world, with a wide impact.
Everyone who is "infected" by this technology will awaken negative emotions such as greed, hatred and jealousy in their hearts, which will lead to various transformation cases. In the beginning, the "organization" is only responsible for organizing each case into a separate "file" for reference, and in Shadow Blade 3, as the protagonist explores more and more related hidden facts, it turns out that under the chaos, the world hides another chess game.
In the core of the plot, the "Shadow Blade" series refers to and draws on the martial arts works of well-known writers such as Gu Long, and strives to explore and experience the content of human nature through martial arts stories. In "Shadow Blade 3", the game also draws a lot of materials from popular culture and real society - social issues such as domestic violence, illegitimate meals, and stalkers are involved in different degrees.
In fact, in many scenes, the group drama-style performance method does not use more detailed CG animation, but with the wonderful interpretation of the voice actors of the hong Kong TVB classic martial arts drama, and the background music tailored for the game by the royal composer Bo Caisheng of the Shadow Blade series, the game plot can still be unforgettable and cannot bear to skip, and this is also unique and precious in the context of the crazy showmanship of the mobile game.
<h1>A battle system back to its roots</h1>
Shadow Blade 3 is not an ACT game that relies entirely on a linear story, and each chapter is hidden behind a variety of challenging levels, a design that is much more free than similar games.
You can choose to explore the main story in a targeted manner, or you can repeatedly travel to a map to collect rare drops. At the same time, the game also gives players enough space and freshness to explore, you can meet more characters in the town in a special location in the scene map, and unlock the side story, and use the game's Roguelike features to gain a unique adventure experience in each battle. Therefore, in many scenarios, players are not easy to be limited by equipment or economic system limitations, and in the repeated brushing and game experience, they can also find a more comfortable balance.
Corresponding to the mission system, Shadow Blade 3's combat system and enhancement mechanics are also more free and strategic than previous works. In this game, the classic "skill chain" system returns to all of them, and the "killing intent" is used to improve the release effect of in-game skills.
In simple terms, the battle interface contains only two skill buttons, but up to six skills can be configured behind them. Some of these skills can accumulate killing intent after casting, while a few skills can release killing intent and deal high damage. With this feature, you can use the game to defeat the strong with a weak, such as using jumping skills to frantically kite enemies, or activating features such as bounce and close-quarters dodge to refresh the cooldown and get a glimmer of life from the desperate situation.
The skill configuration and killing intent cultivation method without the "standard answer" effectively reduces the phenomenon of "combat power theory" and also gives the liver emperor more possibilities to transform into a big guy. In order to cooperate with these mechanisms, the equipment system also has a more flexible collocation and strengthening mode, but even so, the European Emperor and the Kryptonian Gold Gangster can not completely because of the out-of-game investment, so that they can run amok in this martial forest, if there is no determination and operation to change their lives against the sky, the BOSS of the "anti-heaven" difficulty can also teach the player to be a man in an instant.
<h1>Diverse designs throughout</h1>
In addition to the characteristic gameplay and design, there is another word that runs through Shadow Blade 3: diversity.
For example, in each level boss, there are two form designs, one is a character form in the traditional martial arts style, but an alienated giant monster form under the boiling killing qi or the transformation of the mechanism. Not only that, but the mob style and skill effect are also full of diverse attempts. For example, the strange-faced stick monk in file two can not only use his body technique to flash behind the player's back to "sneak attack", but also chant the sutra in the same place to return blood.
Fat Head can easily throw you into the air, and can also use a huge body to smash into the earth. Such a design is relatively rare in similar mobile games, and even if there is a similar design, the tension of its animation performance and the gorgeousness of its skills are not as detailed as in Shadow Blade 3.
Diversity is also reflected in the character selection, each character attacks differently, and the skill effect is equally outstanding.
For example, the skill design of the "stringer" class is mostly related to the rhythm, and the name is also from Bai Juyi's "Pipa Line", accompanied by the pipa music, each attack seems to be composing a magnificent martial arts movement, and the flexible combat performance allows the player to clearly feel what is called "playing with ease".
In addition, in terms of gameplay, Shadow Blade 3 also makes a cautious but bold attempt. For example, the cooking system is added to the main line of gameplay, and the difficulty of the BOSS challenge can be reduced to a certain extent by simply collecting ingredients and cooking and eating in the preparation stage.
The Sin Karma system is an asynchronous online mode similar to the "Blood Knife Tomb" of Renwang. Players can discover the illusions of other players within the level, and by defeating these more powerful characters, they can also get more generous rewards. It is worth mentioning that under the blessing of excellent AI, the phantom characters are not all "reckless", they will only blindly attack and expose flaws, and there will also be more "insidious" enemies such as hiding in the corner to put skills or flexibly dodging attack effects, which tests each player's understanding and application of skills.
<h1>epilogue</h1>
Whether it is to dilute the main line of the level mode, or a more free combat system, or a more diversified system design, the performance of "Shadow Blade 3" makes this classic martial arts IP show strong vitality, even compared with the more popular ACT mobile game in the same period, the characteristics of Shadow Blade 3 are still very clear. It is foreseeable that the development of the "organization" will continue, and the rivers and lakes in this cloud of strangeness will also show their last fangs with the exploration of many players.