"Half" is a dystopian text adventure AVG+ battle flag game developed by Zero Creation Games and published by Cube Games. The story is set centuries into the future of human civilization, when the white alien civilization invades and destroys human civilization, establishing the White Cult to rule the world, while the remaining humans build rebel armies to fight against the White Cult and restore the previous human civilization. As observers, players will experience the stories of both camps.
Game start screen - Black Ember Raven Faction
Game start screen - White Church camp
Beautiful standing painting, excellent voice acting, intricate story
This review is almost spoiler-free, so feel free to watch
The story of the game is divided into the main line and the branch line, the main line is the conflict between the two camps, one is that the white main church accepts the gift of the white alien civilization and cooperates with it, abandoning all the cultures of the previous human civilization, advocating human liberation and unifying the will, creating a world without emotional fluctuations (called black particles in the game), while the other side is to retain the original culture and autonomous will of human beings, the white alien civilization is very angry at the destruction of human history and culture, they believe that the development of human beings is determined by human beings, So the Black Ember Crow camp was formed to rebel against the White Lord's Church.
The main point of contention between the two camps is actually whether to maintain oneself or unified thinking, the pursuit of freedom or the pursuit of order, and the game does not clearly state which doctrine is suitable for human beings. As observers, players can choose the ideas they recognize, but despite their choices, we can't influence the story because we didn't come to this world.
The player's perspective as an observer is the story
White Lord's Church
The architectural style of the White Cathedral
White Church - Margaret
Black Ember Raven - Training ground
Black Ember Raven - Combat Council
The returner of the Black Ember Raven
The main story revolves around the offensive and defensive battles of the city of "Paradise 286", while the side lines complement the background of the characters. In terms of gameplay, the two-camp perspective character writing method is adopted, the story is spread out through the characters of different camps, each camp has 6 characters, after completing one of the chapters of a character, the next chapter story is unlocked, the unlocked chapter story may also be this character's, or it may be other characters, and some small battles of battle flags will be interspersed in some battle plots in the chapter.
In the side line, it is mainly to complete the journey of all the protagonists, enrich the background of the characters and make the characters fuller, so that players have a deeper understanding of these protagonists in the main story. The side plot is also making up for the setting of the worldview, such as the reason for the establishment of the White Church, the past life and past of the two camps of black and white. The side story is called deep memory in the game, while the main story is called shallow memory.
Paradise 286
Paradise 286's offensive and defensive battle
White Church - Main plot
Black Ember Raven - Main story
Black Ember Raven - Side story
White Church - Side plot
If the order of players experiences the plot of the characters is different, it will also affect the player's judgment of the people of different camps, most of the Black Ember Crow camp is in the name of freedom, some for anti-white churches, and some for other reasons. However, after all the plot is experienced, there is a kind of story is just the prologue at the beginning, although there are also additions in the side line, and there are some pairs for the main line, and there are also arrangements and recycling, but the game is said in the store to have a 25W text volume, but the world view is huge, the copywriting level is relatively average, and this huge world view is not controlled, and finally it feels like there is no ending, and it also feels like the main line is not written, it is a semi-finished product, although the side line has also added a lot, and finally it actually did not play a role in the main line.
Character Plot: Margaret
Character plot - Ruri
Character Plots - Hull
Character plots - Dorothy, these plots bring together the whole in points
Side plot
Of course, it is a very outstanding place in the standing painting, the protagonist of the White Lord Church, the standing painting, I believe they have attracted the eyes of a large number of players, and even many players especially like Margaret...! The style of the Black Ember Crow is unique, but the style is not uniform, and there are many styles of feeling, but these do not affect the image design of the characters. The characters on both sides of black and white are impressive, and they also have the personality that fits the characters, plus the performance of live 2D, which makes the characters stand up and paint. The illustrations of the main and side lines are beautiful, but the CG of the illustrations is static, wouldn't it be better to add some performance effects or other dynamic effects when the cost is right?
The CG illustrations and standing drawings are beautiful
The CG illustrations and standing drawings are beautiful
The CG illustrations and standing drawings are beautiful
The CG illustrations and standing drawings are beautiful
The CG illustrations and standing drawings are beautiful
In terms of the UI of the game, it is very in line with the world view setting of the game, the design is also more exquisite, and the layout is in line with the player's operating habits, only a small number of UEs need to be strengthened, and the UI animation effect is relatively cheap, destroying the advanced sense of art style.
In terms of music, it is quite remarkable, but there is no sense of this grand world view, the music is not so top-level refined, but the soundtrack in each character is more in line, and the soundtrack of some characters' backstories is also very relevant to the era background at that time, and the soundtrack is above the passing line. In terms of dubbing, the emotions and expressiveness of character dubbing are very rich, impressive, and the sense of substitution is also very strong.
The UI is beautiful, but many of the animation effects are just getting in and out
Battle flags without depth
Since this work is the main battle flag, then I have to spit on the battle flag in this work experience is very bad, here I feel that the design of the production team in the battle flag mode has been entangled for a long time, may be to use the battle flag this hardcore mode, but I am very worried that the threshold of the battle flag is higher, and the game is very long, dissuade some players, and then may think of breaking some traditional battle flag gameplay design, and finally the battle flag is made into four unlike, completely unsatisfactory.
Battle System - Round Battle Flag
1. Enemy attacks are delayed attacks, all attacks have obvious hints such as range and pointing, which completely reduces the difficulty of the battle, as long as you move casually, every battle is unharmed.
2. The battle flag scene is similar to the form of a chessboard, and the perspective cannot be rotated, and the checkerboard battle flag can refer to "The Fall of the Battle".
3. The numerical design is very rough, because this battle flag does not have any equipment, items, and levels to drive, and there is no means to improve combat power, making the whole battle very concise, only the strength of its own skills. Many of the characters have high levels of skill intensity, making the combat unfun.
4, light cultivation is better than not design, there are free combat levels in the game, complete the task goal to give gray feathers, you can unlock new skills of the character, in the battle flag design itself is biased towards the player, there is no challenge, any configuration can pass the level, what is the meaning of unlocking skills?
Enemy attack range
Light development - skill learning
Introduction to the abilities of the glazed characters
5, the battle flag of the novice teaching is too much, almost every new character has done a novice tutorial, it is estimated that the purpose is to let players understand the skill characteristics of each character, but this very anxious setting should be simplified, only need to do basic operations, any game is required to learn the cost, and the battle of its own battle flag is too simple, this kind of teaching can be completely abandoned.
6. Most of the battle flag skills are straight lines, pushing, pulling, state skills, control skills, etc., the strategy is greatly reduced, and the terrain in the chessboard has no other use except collision and blocking.
The gameplay of Battle Flag is mainly to unlock the side plot in the game, but fortunately, the production team has added a skip function, and skipping can also unlock the side plot, so that players who do not want to play this part can also watch the plot.
Select the character to play
Skip levels
Skipping also unlocks side stories
The gameplay of Battle Flags There are many excellent battle flag games on the market, such as "Arthurian Knight Legend", "xcom", "Trapped Battle", "War Legend", "Fire Emblem Series", etc., these are worth referring to do subtraction, in fact, the production cost of Battle Flag is quite high, it is better to focus this energy on other AVG components, such as interactive, R18? More CG and beautiful standing paintings? More scenes, performances, motion effects? I would have liked R18 to appear, and the white female character I believe players like it (evil smiley).
Some of the moves are a little better here
It would be better if Ruriri appeared here with cherry blossom animation
epilogue
This work has exquisite standing painting and excellent dubbing, the scene CG is exquisite, the art style is very good, and there are well-known CVs in the dubbing to make the plot sense of substitution great, but the plot may be too grand in the world, the intricate plot feels unfinished, and the battle flag gameplay is decent (even given the skip option), but this work is still a remarkable AVG game. If you are a player who plays against the battle flag, it is recommended not to have any psychological expectations, if you are aiming at the plot and beautiful standing painting, it is still recommended to start. I hope that the production team will bring players the same or better works as "Funeral Flower" in subsequent works.