Wen 丨 dog pigeon review 丨 thousands of miles
Typesetting丨Deer Nine
If you have several two-dimensional games lying in your phone and have observed the second-game market a little, it is easy to conclude like this:
Today, in 2023, the art of the second tour has been rolled up to the point of blood, a bit of a peak.
You can see that games that do not pursue gameplay have made a lot of money with excellent art level or color standing painting, and many of them still have good results today.
This is obviously a very reasonable thing, because art is the part that the player can most intuitively feel, and it is the part that the player can marvel at with the lowest effort and time cost.
Therefore, the art that is constantly rolled up also makes today's head and two tours look extraordinarily delicious, each with its own good, each with its own wonder.
But recently, and even in recent years, it seems that the way the second swim goes out of the circle is no longer just a few color drawings and a few amazingly drawn characters.
Not to mention "God Solver", which is suspected to be out of the circle because of the plot of "Minotaur", or "Singularity Era", which exploded against the sky.
Just look at games such as "Forever Lost" and "Back to the Future: 1999", which can be regarded as directly putting the plot on to buy points, and even has the posture of "plot is greater than art" (here refers to art resources serving the plot, rather than copywriting like White Night Aurora serving art).
And the fourth anniversary of "Ark of Tomorrow" can be regarded as a fierce interpretation of what is called "second journey plot".
Is it that the second tour manufacturer does not roll up art?
No, on the contrary, everyone is rolling up the art. Whether it is the elaboration of character standing drawing or the user experience of UI and UE, the level of the second game has always been going up.
Either industrialized assembly line mass production, or catch you XP with high precision, or choose a typed path - "Wildfire Lumen" for the national style, "Mist Remnants" for the super big sister, and "New Moon Companion" for new Chinese weird talk.
Like "Forever Lost", it can be seen that the game where all the resources are invested in the copywriter will also have the characteristics of "dark realistic style". Although the intensity of the standing painting is uneven, it can be regarded as catching the corresponding group.
But that is because everyone has rolled up to a new height in art, so this year, roll art, don't eat fragrant!
For example, because the investment of art resources is too large, it is difficult to return the cost, and even indirectly lead to the high price of "Back to the Future: 1999", or after the release of many excellent art in the same period but PV or testing, player feedback in terms of gameplay is not as good as the previous "New Moon Companion" and "Cipher: Hitomi" and the like, all telling everyone that players don't just want good-looking standing paintings.
Art, plot, gameplay, two of the three, is the way to win.
Maybe add one... Fan base?
Let's talk about the plot today. From my personal point of view, the plot of a second game wants to be normal and even brilliant, which is nothing more than a problem in two aspects.
First, it is the plot structure, including the so-called starting and ending, as well as the process and high concept of the entire story.
The second is the narrative technique, including the copywriter's ability to control the text, and the language tonality shown by the entire game.
With both, there will be a good game plot; If you take one of the two, there will be a game plot that many people like.
It's both... It doesn't have to make a lot of money.
Let's talk about the plot structure first. At present, there are second tours with heads and faces in China, and I think the best thing to do in this regard is "Forever Lost".
From the text point of view, the plot structure requires the main text to have a strong ability to construct the story, as well as the ability to control the release of the plot and the change of emotions (or flow).
When implemented in the game, it is even more difficult.
Because it is necessary to consider the direct split between levels, the player's play interval, the frequency of battles in the story, and the amount of art resources, such as where CG is used, who needs standing drawings, and so on.
If the control is not good, it may be like Zhan Shuang, and a bunch of story chapters without battle are first brought up at the beginning of a chapter for you to read wildly (there is no meaning that the plot of Zhan Shuang is not good).
What is the strength of "Forever Lost"?
Strong in its homeless village chapter, the copywriter's control of perspective change and emotional change is strong to the point of wonder, other plots may challenge and push up emotions are particularly tricky, and they can even switch tension, panic and joy, noisy instantly without being abrupt;
Strong in its ability to control foreshadowing and foreshadowing, like Zoya, most of the plot has not appeared, and the role of fate hanging in the balance, like enemies and friends, can pass the small hook in the plot, not often mentioned, but makes you worry;
Strong in its review link, can use a limited space, with the most core and interesting plot to call up the most core and unconscious desires of the characters, and rationalize them in front of the player, so as not to make people resist this group of prisoners, or even love them.
They are also clearly well designed in terms of the use of high-light CG and the combination of combat and the plot of the current level.
It can be said that with the help of many factors, "Forever Lost" has achieved the current position of the pinnacle of the second tour in China in terms of plot.
Then let's talk about the narrative technique.
In recent years, the one that gave me the best experience in this regard was Back to the Future: 1999.
Everyone may want to say, can you not talk about the game of high and low!
Don't worry, before that, let's talk about a fun that has been widely spread recently.
As shown in the picture, the plot of the fourth anniversary of the boat tour is quite broken, but some breaking the circle is not a good thing.
But is this passage really poorly written?
Before judging this copy of Zhou, let's take a look at what netizens said about "shooting roses":
That's right, this piece of copy that you read and didn't read is "shoot the rose" literature.
The earliest in my memory should be from the word C, in the famous friends and prison Ford people should still see a lot of it, along with the famous "angel came to the belly of enlightenment" and other famous terriers.
The characteristic is that there is no information, only the accumulation of "gorgeous" words, and the seemingly nonexistent kind of "aesthetic pursuit".
Is this copy of that Zhouzhou shot at the rose level?
I think not.
First of all, what this plot wants to show is probably a scene of mental loss of control + human experiments.
Not to mention whether the direct description can pass the trial, in fact, Zhouzhou's sentences, some words have actually stepped on the edge of the shielding thesaurus.
And the plot that cannot be described in vain obviously needs the assistance of some narrative techniques.
Secondly, in terms of the supply of information, this text is obviously much more than the so-called "shoot the rose".
The characterization of the characters, the content of past experiments, and a slight sense of pain. Overall, the performance is not bad, and even for friends who are more immersed in reading, it may be a little heart-wrenching.
Is that really not dark?
That's not either.
Whether imprisoned in a situation that cannot be directly described or out of personal preference, the use of this regularized, rhythmic narrative technique is an act of cleverness.
And many times, just like writing lines and copywriting to avoid rhyme, relying too much on technique, or failing to control the content of the text well, will give people a bad impression.
This copy of Zhou, the imagery taken, and the verbs used, there are many places that can be speculated.
Why do we hate Shoot Rose literature?
Because it's like overplaying memes: too little information, too many meaningless things, no plot, only fun, showing the writer's vulnerable text control and weak desire to tell stories.
Without ability, without desire, a writer, what is left?
No information, no story, a laughing copy, can't hide your flaws.
Back to Back to Back to the Future: 1999.
Why do I like its narrative approach? Because in the second chapter, "Back to the Future: 1999" gives a performance in the plot of the second game in recent years, in terms of narrative, very, very good, and textbook level.
Whether you like the 1999 genre or not, I think it's nice to look at the plot about the character Snyder.
As with the controversial passage of the boat tour, in the "Green Citrus" section of the second chapter, 1999 tells the scene of a murder.
Although in 1999 there were already a lot of realistic place names, prohibition laws and other things that did not know how to pass the trial, but it was still difficult to write about murder.
Especially, it is still torture.
Facing an extremely attractive, helpless and cute female character, in the plot, as the protagonist, you have to shoot her nearly ten times to kill her.
Don't rush to shout feces as a disgusting person.
How did 1999 come to show such a horrific plot?
With an orange.
Villain? Or a bunch of idealists pretending to be villains, using an orange as a metaphor for Snyder's young and fruity life.
You fall into a fantasy, and in the illusion, you meet the little Snyder, who is still young, not persecuted by life and not persecuted by the world.
You talk to her, you play with her.
You share a sweet citrus.
And every time you pick a small orange petal, you take part of Snyder's limb in reality.
I don't care about spoiling a little here, because even if you know the outcome in advance, the experience is still extremely shocking and cruel when playing.
Just like Barrage says, Snyder tries to wake you up, beat you, and even leave you wounds, and you don't wake up.
And in the fantasy realm, whether you are driving away demon spirits or eating citrus, you are constantly hurting Snyder, who is already seriously injured.
You listen to the innocent words of young Snyder and peel a clove of a delicious orange.
And in the background there are gunshots and Snyder's muted cry of pain, but you can't hear it.
The sound of citrus being peeled apart was like tearing flesh and blood, like tearing open a scar that had not yet healed.
The plot will not be talked about later, at present, with the level of 1999, coupled with the cultivation and extraction system after the change, I think it is not too much to say "good game".
In the interchapter of the plot, the small passages and interesting verses of 1999 can be regarded as reflecting the copywriter's control of the text.
It's still quite an excellent work.
Let's get back to the topic. In these years, is there a so-called plot-led game?
Yes – in my opinion, both "Forever Lost" and "Back to the Future: 1999" are, and have already given a beautiful answer.
But after the wave of volume art, is volume copywriting a new way out for the second tour?
Not necessarily.
According to the feedback of players on various platforms, investing so much in copywriting, and even calling on art and procedural resources to supply the demand of copywriting, these two games have not obtained a relatively high expected return.
In the second game, what makes a lot of money is still art and numerical games, and even saying that they have a "good plot" has become a selling point for some art and numerical games to shout loudly.
The two plots of Life Lost and Battle Double are good and even outstanding game flows are not good-looking, and at present, copywriting is still significantly more for the transformation of economic benefits in B Game.
But is volume copywriting a dead end?
Nor is it.
At the end of the day, don't forget what games are for.
Trapped by factors such as the environment and audience, we may not be able to make games like "Eddie Finci Memories" and "Disco Elysium", and the market will not welcome such works.
Due to living conditions and cultural trends, sometimes good copywriting may lead to an increase in the threshold for play, or a dilemma in promotion.
(Even as little as 29r!!! ）
But as a writer, or a romantic - "creator of fantasy worlds", even game copywriters who are responsible for profit should have their own pursuits.
At the very least, don't write a plot that looks back two or three years later and feels extremely mentally retarded.
Right?