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It was a surprise to wait so quickly than expected
Probably because the feelings that originated in childhood have been perfectly continued, I still like all kinds of pixel-style and nostalgic games. So it is not surprising that last year, when I accidentally saw the news that the retro work "The Mystery of the Black Cloak of the Strange World" was going to be released to NS, it was not surprising that I was immediately attracted to it. The game is right in the heart in all aspects, there is no resistance at all, I want to play super want to play, there is a wood! Originally, I planned to go to a certain treasure to book the physical version at that moment, but then calmed down and thought of the extremely fragile joy-con joy stick of NS who had eaten ash for a long time, and finally reason overcame the impulse.
But honestly what can't be obtained is always in turmoil (?) ), which became a thought that haunted me all the time, and from time to time it would diverge "If only I could experience it on Steam!" Although NatsumeAtari is not very active on the PC platform, their works have also been logged on Steam, the most famous is the action spin-off of "Hundred Heroes: Rise", well, I have experienced it before It is really a very good game.
In fact, NatsumeAtari's positive attitude completely exceeded my expectations, and the cross-platform progress of Strange World Black Cloak Mystery was not as slow as expected, and the porting was completed in less than a year. Happiness came so suddenly, in February this year, NatsumeAtari announced that the game will be released on PC, this time by themselves, after releasing the Steam store page, it shows that they actually support Chinese, which is also too sincere!
I think that although the volume of the work may not mean anything to others, it is really "shocking" to me (?) In short, very pleasantly surprised. After the official release, I naturally went to play it as soon as possible, the game is really great from every aspect, difficult but can arouse the player's desire to challenge, and I can't stop refining my skills again and again, which can be said to be completely worthy of the previous expectations.
The reproduction strives to be original and suitable for the current generation
According to the official statement, "Strange World Black Cloak Mystery" is the sequel to the 1992 SFC work "Strange World Mystery Black Cloak", and it is still created by the original team, that is, "NatsumeAtari's TENGO PROJECT team developed for the latest host", such as the person in charge of BGM or Yan Yue, and the teacher in charge of illustration is Asari Yoshito, so the original taste is guaranteed to the greatest extent. But on this basis, something new must be added, as a new work to some extent also have to consider to meet the needs of current players, I think there are not too many players who choose this work purely because of feelings, after all, the original work has passed 30 years, and the audience has changed a lot.
Specifically, "new" will be reflected in the relatively intuitive picture dimension, the production team on the basis of ensuring a full retro style, that is, our concept of SFC's 16bit flavor (?) ), and with the help of new technology to present the picture to highlight the sense of sophistication. So even the pixel wind is the kind of more advanced pixel wind (?) All the details are in place. Like a color-changing charm used by Miss Witch (?) ), decorative fallen leaves, shaking vegetation, although it may not be time to take care of in the heat of battle, but occasionally such a "glimpse" is already unforgettable. I think this kind of good graphics will also reduce frustration, and players will be eager to see what the next levels have to offer, well, at least that's enough motivation for me.
The "old" is reflected in the gameplay mechanism, we still have to rely on exquisite positions to avoid enemy attacks, in order to avoid damage as much as possible. Therefore, you have to learn what card layout to lose the enemy card, otherwise the infinitely refreshing enemies and dense barrage will not be able to eat ah. As for the output, it is necessary to find an opportunity, the greedy knife is often not worth the loss, many times even have to memorize the version, and it is not necessary to fully memorize, but the enemy's approximate location and attack method still have to be remembered.
There are familiar elements of the process and different unfoldings of the process
The similarities between this game and the original are not only reflected in the name (?). ), reflected in the gameplay mechanism, and even the plot is strikingly similar - our tanuki demon brother demon slave this time and double "big things are not good", well, the monsters in the mountains were originally taught by the witch Xiaoye to obey, but I didn't expect that this time suddenly for some strange reason the eyes were red and began to riot. The tanuki demon brother is also in the way (?) Pulled a train over and let Xiao Ye face the wind. This part of the plot performance is the same as the original, but the expression is much stronger than in the past, of course, the plot is not important, just to provide a rational reason, anyway, we started very hastily.
After Xiao Ye used the same appearance method as the original (?) ), the first level officially begins. In fact, the first level of this work is completely a reproduction of the first level of the original work, and the map design and monster distribution are basically consistent with the original, so old players may be able to evoke the beauty in their memories after a long time. And after beating Brother Dou, the pervert given (?) The reason is also the same, suddenly there is a cloaked mysterious man to a mind control (mistake), so that the monsters are all manipulated, well, it is really very standard and very modern unfolding.
However, after the first level, it is different, it turns out that as a 2P existence, the tanuki demon brother will have a stronger sense of existence this time, and Xiao Ye has more interaction, for example, Xiao Ye told him not to go to the dangerous in the mountains The dialogue is not in the original work, and the tanuki demon brother did not obey and felt that it was his own territory that he had to go to see, so in the second level we began to operate the tanuki demon brother very reasonably. And the follow-up lady also came to take a shift, anyway, it brought a good sense of freshness.
The difficulty is as hardcore as in the past, players can only choose "normal" and "difficult" at the beginning, "extremely simple" actually need to accumulate gold coins to unlock, this setting is also not in the past, it is really a bit meaningful (?) ）。 Well, I also admired the appearance of the original level a little, how to feel that this work will be more difficult, especially the boss battle is really much more difficult than in the past.
Death, death, and habit, perseverance, always rewarded
I think it is very necessary to repeatedly emphasize the hardcore nature of this game, as we said, because the difficulty is locked at the beginning because of the very simple difficulty, so players have to choose normal and above difficulty, well, players who are not confident in their STG game level such as me, it is inevitable that they will be timid before fighting (?). ）。 And after actually starting the game, I didn't actually underestimate the difficulty of the game and overestimate my level - I really kept dying, and God knows how hard I wasted to see Damo! However, Dharma, which will change 1 to 4 or 4, and has a bit of a variety of moves, is not a boss, but I beat it when I first saw it, and it was when the mountains and waters were exhausted but I didn't jump out of the complicated mood when I passed the level.
And after many hardships to finally meet Brother Dou, it is the beginning of the real challenge. Brother Dou mainly plays a righteous collision and a spit bean attack, and the novices in the righteous collision are really not easy to hide, and they need to practice repeatedly to master the distance. However, after Brother Dou was knocked down, there was actually a second stage, not only the collision was more oppressive, but also played a full-screen barrage, not talking about martial virtue at all, is it good!
Well, if I got the hang of the mob part in front of me in just 20 minutes, then this boss battle stuck me for at least half an hour. In fact, this is a process of familiarizing yourself with boss tricks and output timing, and you need to constantly sum up lessons learned - well, dying of greed and recklessness is the main reason, of course, this boss is indeed more difficult than the original, and the original only needs to knock down a stage and it will be over. For some reason, playing reminds me of the Souls series, I think it's because both can give players a very obvious sense of growth.
However, the production team still showed mercy (?) ), there will be a break before the boss - that is, if the death of the boss life is zero, GAME OVER will not start over from the beginning, we only need to fight some mobs or parkour to spend a little time to see the boss again. This undoubtedly lowered some frustration and changed the rhythm, so players don't have to be tense all the time, so they can breathe a sigh of relief.
After having fun, please bring more strange worlds
Overall, "Strange World: The Mystery of the Black Cloak" is worthy of the name of the sequel after many years, the retro-style graphics are excellent in detail, and the "reenactment" and "tribute" elements are also throughout, this new and old intertwined method I think will not only attract old players, but also new students are also interested in trying it. You don't need to worry about the frustration of hardcore, in fact, even an elderly player like me who is a bit handicapped and not very patient has been successfully aroused by the desire to challenge and have a lot of fun to experience, I don't think there is anything more to say, right?
In addition, the operation mode still needs to be mentioned, although this work has good support for the keyboard and the controller, but due to the existence of diagonal shooting, the keyboard is destined to have higher requirements for operation than the controller, after all, the oblique has to press two keys. Of course, players like me whose APM is not so high, often aim obliquely, and only honestly hit head-on, are actually okay to use the keyboard at the beginning. But old and dead, you know, you want to change your mood (?) And changing to the handle is really much smoother, and I don't know if the bonus is really so big, or if I have become proficient.
In July 2022, NatsumeAtari announced that the game's global sales exceeded 100,000, which is really a very good result for retro STGs. I think this number should be pushed up even further after the release of the Steam version, right? There is a saying, although the price of Steam's national area of 108 yuan seems a little expensive, but I think the price is still worth it in terms of game quality, well, not to mention that the Steam version is really much cheaper than the console version, and the NS Hong Kong version is 248 Hong Kong dollars, which is almost 220 yuan.
Of course, I also want to say that "Strange World: The Mystery of the Black Cloak" sold well, does this mean that the new work is also a certainty? I just don't know if the next one is a completely new work or a remake of the old work, if it is a reenactment of the old work, "Strange World Moon Night Grass" I don't know if it can be prioritized, this one I am still very interested in watching the video.
Overall rating: 8/10
Recommended for: Retro game lovers, STG lovers