When it comes to indie games, I've always believed that games with highlights and significant shortcomings are better than 7-point games that are mediocre in every way. Because nowadays, what we lack is not games but fun games (and time), if you don't believe it, you can look at the dusty bones in the inventory that EPIC gives, and if you keep receiving the free games that are given away every week, you can now expect to have more than 300+ in stock - but you won't open it. But if it is a martial arts game with both advantages and disadvantages, I will be willing to try it, from "The Legend of Heluo Qunxia" to "The Way of Xia". For domestic players, martial arts games will always be white moonlight and cinnabar moles, which are difficult to put down.
A heroic swordsman who kills one person in ten steps and leaves no room for thousands of miles will be a little more interesting than a black-clad ninja on the eaves or a western cowboy who comes out of the bar fence and immediately pulls out a gun and shoots the head of an enemy dog. The reason may lie in this: justice.
The ninja samurai or ronin are more like a killing tool lacking subjective will, and outside Rashomon, the spider's nest castle, accompanied by katanas and shurikens, may be an era of bloodshed rather than a peaceful future. Western cowboys naturally have a bit of extrajudicial fanaticism, crimes committed against Native Americans during the Great Westward Expansion, and after that, zero dollar money trucks and vaults are just as innumerable. But the warrior, he is different, he drinks and eats meat in a big bowl, he can violate the law by force, he can eliminate violence and good health, he is in line with our simple and good values, but also has the power to change fate. So although this is a precarious worldview, the charm of the martial arts world for players has never been diminished in the slightest.
For EA's "The Legend of the Great Heroes", in addition to a lot of unfinished content, it does have some problems, but in conclusion, it builds an interesting dynamic rivers and lakes, and also shows some CRPG-style interactive freedom, allowing players to complete their own "martial arts scrolls" in this dynamic rivers and lakes. This production method and the content currently displayed have a long enough long board to bring players some special martial arts game fun. So what this article wants to talk about is, what are the interesting points that "The Legend of the Great Heroes" has been completed so far?
Welcome to the world of martial arts where the methods of death are unknown and diverse
The first thing that impressed me deeply was the method of death: the most common disadvantage is "hero please do it again", I believe many people have seen it. But when I saw slightly nonsensical endings such as "Rookie Man" who was trampled on the top of his head by a rooster, "Hungry for Food" accompanied by wild dogs, etc., I still couldn't help but wonder how to operate to complete these strange results.
The multi-ending style is a bit like "Neil: Mechanical Age" (including a total of 26 endings from A-Z, except for the true ending of A-E, most of the others are various accidents or deaths), and "The Legend of the Great Heroes" unlocks the new weeks after the extra birth, which is also somewhat "reincarnation".
This kind of multi-ending setting has an absurd and reasonable "sense of freedom experience" - absurdity lies in the final form of the ending, but the rationality lies in: if the protagonist's halo and dragon Aotian are removed, originally for the "little shrimp" who started from scratch, if you want to reach the peak of life within 100 days and become a legend, you need luck and hard work without a single one. Repeated "reopening" and the exploration of the path of destiny may be the norm, so "The Legend of Great Heroes" may bring a different martial arts game experience, that is-
is a development RPG, but logically more like a meat pigeon game
First of all, we need to be clear: "The Legend of the Great Heroes" is a game that mainly relies on cultivation, character development is in place, even if the head of the six main factions is on it together, it will not pass a few moves under you, and the character development is not good, such as the most extreme situation you will sleep in the initial small broken temple during the day, or do nothing and keep shopping, then even the chickens of the nameless village can step on your head and claim dominance.
The game contains some elements of wargaming strategy, but not much; If the numerical cultivation is not up to standard, it is impossible to go to the seemingly high-looking ending similar to "martial arts alliance master" or "martial arts overlord" shown in the illustration above.
But on the other hand, unlike ordinary martial arts games that arrange 12345 game chapters and established story routes for you, "The Legend of Great Heroes" only tells you that there will be catastrophe in the rivers and lakes after a hundred days, and you need to rest martial arts, upgrade your level, make friends or make friends or through other conceivable ways to make yourself the chosen son of fate at the moment of that fateful moment.
There is a relatively clear ultimate goal, but the process is arbitrary, mainly depending on the process of "construction", then a "meat pigeon game" temperament begins to appear, and even the game also contains some meat pigeon game-style unlocking elements: for example, Ren Yi Li Zhi Xin Yong all reach 100 can unlock the "Sage Heir" trait, which can completely change your Erzhou game experience.
So what are the parts of the meat pigeon game that are good and not so good in terms of the dynamics and randomness required by it?
The dynamic quacks and lakes that are just beginning to take shape: time-limited triggers and time do not wait for anyone
In terms of establishing a dynamic and random experience, "The Legend of the Great Heroes" adopts the mechanism of "time-limited trigger" and "time does not wait" for many adventures and events in the game.
For example, in the initial nameless village, when you stay in the store, you can trigger Ye Yinbottle to find the package, the dart dart wants to seize the room, and the punks come to the door to blackmail three random events, these events respectively limit the number of days and time periods, if you do not appear in the right place at the right time, the above game content may not be triggered at all.
For example, when you carry more than a certain amount of money with you, at the entrance of the village will trigger the incident of being stolen by the beggar Hong Xiaoqi (provided that he wants his dog skin plaster), at this time, the subsequent branches have you to single out defeat him, recover the money (gain fame and courage), or forgive him (get the dog stick method) - but the premise of these two branches is: you need to find and catch him in time after losing money, otherwise you will face that there is no proof of death after the money is spent, and as a result, when the villagers watch the interrogation, The embarrassing situation of you being bitten back.
This kind of "time-limited trigger" and "time does not wait" adventure trigger method, can be in the process of repeated play without players looking at the guide, in the process of repeated play every time there are surprises, but also in line with a "dynamic rivers and lakes" experience, that is, the game world does not stop because your character stops, but always maintains its own operation, whether you participate or not, those martial arts conference ring matches, those auctions in the depths of dirty streets, those undercurrents of sect disputes and invasion haze, They keep their own trajectory moving forward, and you are just a passing guest in the story - until you have completed enough "observations" to intervene in the trajectory of fate to become the protagonist.
This kind of time-limited triggering is actually crazy for a perfectionist player like me. However, "The Legend of the Great Hero" has done a very good job in the mesh mission chain and multi-branching, which still gives me a very good experience. For example, the side plot of the officials imprisoned in Qingfeng Zhai is believed to be encountered by many player friends, but the variety of the direction of this task may be far beyond your imagination:
(1) The first branch appears in whether you can tell the truth and send troops to domine, or lie that the official has defected (the advantage is that you can save the Qingfeng Village)
(2) The second branch appears when you go to assassinate, the official will reveal the general's secret to you, at this time you can choose to believe him, let him go, and believe but not let him go
(3) Depending on the results of your actions and whether or not you serve in the General's Mansion, the way you return to Chuxiang City in the decisive battle will change
(4) In the interaction between the decisive battle and the general, there are also three options: asking for help, fleeing and leading the war
"The Legend of the Great Hero" shows an effort that surprised me a little in the network narrative of the mission: for example, in the armory mission in Chuxiang City, the truth is that the thief of the swallow's nest colluded with the guards to steal military food, but if you have joined the swallow's nest before, then you can solve the incident peacefully and discover the truth behind it: it turns out that they are transporting the military food to the precarious refugee settlement.
A "dynamic river" with its own trajectory and a variety of directions that accompany your choices is formed.
Interact with people and objects
Looking back at the martial arts games that impressed me in recent years, "The Way of Xia", "Destiny 2" and the new "The Legend of the Great Heroes", they may all show something new, that is, the game content logic that is closer to CRPG.
CPRG is a game genre developed from TRPG (tabletop role-playing games), but because of the lack of DM (host), it is difficult for such games to truly achieve "script-driven" - this kind of game with rule books, character cards and God's fate-determined dice as endless possibilities charm, and the more popular mode today is about scripted kills that are still done on the "desktop", and wide linear CRPG - such as "Baldur's Gate", which opened the golden age of American RPGs. The common feature of these two gameplay modes is that the general direction of the main story is constrained to a certain extent.
Although the plot direction is not so free, the character cards and rule books are still preserved to a high degree in the CRPG, and the richness of interaction with people and objects constitutes its unique charm. In "Destiny 2", which surprised me at the beginning, a system that includes four interactive methods of "showing, igniting, lucking, and destroying" has realized various brain-opening interaction methods, bringing endless exploration fun.
But such an interactive system is more about interaction with objects (similar to "Divine World: Original Sin 2"), and in "The Legend of the Great Hero", the object of interaction is more "people" - every character on the rivers and lakes, from the women and children of the nameless village to the head of the Six Gates Sect, all contain many information such as the exercises used, mental methods, character characteristics, and equipment held.
Each NPC then contains several favorability levels, and after reaching a sufficient favorability level, they can barter for their treasures (avoiding the loss caused by the price difference in the process of buying and selling), and can be invited to join the team and explore with them to challenge otherwise difficult battles.
And in each favorability level corresponds to the way of improvement: the gift of the first acquaintance (and the whole process is effective), the subsequent discussion, and some dialogues and choices in the plot, etc., which constitute the first layer of logic of interacting with the characters - that is, if you have a good relationship, the divine weapons, divine skills and even his or her body can be used for you.
In addition to justice and evil, there is also chaos and order
"Jianghu is not only fighting and killing, but also people's love" is a feasible gameplay choice. For example, in the game, from Ye Yun and Yu Chunqiu in the early stage to sloppy Zhang and Lai Touyang in the later stage, you can collect many thighs of more than 50 levels to "sanction BUGS with BUGS".
But on the other hand, it's not the only gameplay option either. You can also be a Demon King of the Troubled World and slaughter them all - just like the classic position of CRPG Nine Squares, for this, those ancient martial arts games also do some differential design of positive and evil lines, but the difference between "The Legend of the Great Heroes" is that due to the multiple possibilities of human interaction, it distinguishes more from "chaos and order" - for example, the same is to join the evil way, you do sect tasks every day is a "evil order" way of play: in fact, the general's mansion and dirty street dispute at the beginning of the game , is quite a bit of "evil procedures" and "evil chaos" two choices.
In the way the character interaction content mentioned above, we also have a variety of choices: we can steal, rob, buy or barter for the items he holds, ask him for martial arts cheats, invite him to join the team after befriending him, or simply kill people so that they no longer exist in this river.
This kind of "chaos and order", if the character attributes in the game are one-sided, then obviously can't let the player really be themselves, but "The Legend of the Great Hero" still completed some interesting designs*: for example, if the courage reaches the upper limit of 100, you will get a BUFF state of +15% damage for all troops, but if you foul to reach the lower limit of -100, you will get a state called "Fox Fake Tiger Power", the effect is that for each surviving teammate, their own damage increases by 15%—— If you want to let your role stand alone, this "timid as a mouse" performance representation may be a more suitable cultivation route.
*However, there is one exception, that is, the -100 of etiquette is a pure negative effect (the gift giving effect is reduced to 1/10)
The small pleasures and relevance of the living system
In terms of life systems, CRPGs also tend to have a deeper setting than JRPGs, such as setting special addable ability values for many "actions" such as unlocking, opening doors, unlocking traps, etc., and JRPGs are generally fishing and cooking (and most of them are not addable).
From this point of view, the design of "The Legend of the Great Heroes" is also closer to CRPG, for example, there are many life systems such as mining and logging & mining & forging in the game, which correspond to their respective experience levels, and will gain experience with our application, thereby improving skill levels and effects, such as mining will have a higher probability of obtaining high-level ores, buying and selling items to get more monetary gains, etc.
However, this "use and upgrade" setting is actually not common in CRPGs, but is generally found in survival adventure games (Kenshi, Conan the Exile, etc.), because those games often require a lot of repetitive completion of these life labor content.
CRPGs such as the "Wasteland" series also have life skills such as unlocking and repairing, but they require players to invest skill points to obtain a higher probability of passing the test of dice rolling. Also, traditional CRPGs may not necessarily have interconnections between systems, but "The Legend of the Great Heroes" still contains a little bit of related fun.
For example, in the matter of cutting trees, what surprised me was not only that I became more skilled in chopping, but also that my arm strength increased after a period of logging. In addition, eating high-grade food can increase physical fitness, and moving your legs to run the map can increase agility, I never thought that the "blessing" that seemed to be the most useless was the real Draco attribute that could not be cultivated - but the correlation between this unexpected system is quite interesting.
Not done, but trying to make something fun
The part completed in the current "Legend of the Great Heroes" is probably a good start: the beginning of the game contains a newbie village with an astonishing density of content, and almost every character corresponds to the story and adventure; And a decent ending: In addition to those halfway dog strap & bucket run endings of gags, there are 5 "true endings" to complete depending on the player's choice.
But unfortunately, the content in the middle is slightly empty, even Chuxiang City, which is relatively rich in content among the three main cities, does not have enough content to support the player's rivers and lakes, Da Liang and Lin An almost wrote "unfinished" on their faces, and the wild leveling points, the gang system with only a skeleton, etc., are still in a state waiting for further improvement*.
* The game is in the early acess, that is, the early experience stage, which is a mode of releasing the game under development in advance, which allows players to better help developers correct the development direction of the game and finally complete the game that makes players more satisfied.
But the good news is that what it's trying to do is something fun. In the past, the martial arts games in the JRPG mode gradually declined, and the reduction of the screenwriter's pen power and the difficulty of breaking through the story mode are important reasons, so based on the freedom of rich interaction in the martial arts world, let players write the legend of the road of walking by themselves, then what will be the result?
In fact, the author liked "Divergent Road Traveler 2" very much some time ago, is also a bit of "CRPG" JRPG, in addition to not using a car card, its 8 heroes also have many interactive skills, and the NPCs in the game also have their own hidden information, martial arts, carrying items and playing tracks, allowing players to complete a wealth of "interaction with people", so that the construction of the whole world is very real and vivid.
If there is anything in "The Legend of the Great Heroes" that I think can be further done in terms of "interacting with people", it is probably the story behind each character and the hidden information - after the "package inquiry" of the novice village, too few characters can provide useful "rumors" to make the whole river and lake come alive.
In any case, this is a process that takes time, and it is unknown whether the future hero can really play a little new trick of his own, or just play the crowd. But I hope that in the end, it will be a game that is fun enough.