As one of the most optimistic games in 2023, "Crouching Dragon: Skyfall" was hailed as the pinnacle of Three Kingdoms RPG before its release, surpassing a wolf-like soul-like game. However, due to the optimization relationship, the evaluation of the PC platform has "mostly bad reviews", and players are even more scolded. But it also has to be said that this work combines the "history of the Three Kingdoms" and "demon chaos" that Asian players are familiar with, plus the experience accumulated in the past "Renwang" series, to bring a fast-paced special experience.
And this review I will conduct in the way of excluding optimization, mainly discussing the combat gameplay of the game itself, and the plot will not reveal much except for the boss screenshot. Next, let's take a look at how the game performs.
History of the Three Kingdoms + "Wolf"
This "Sleeping Dragon" is obviously very different from the past "Renwang", and the biggest reference object to say is definitely FS Society's "Wolf", which also canceled the physical strength bar that restricted defense and attack in "Dark Souls" and "Renwang" in the past, and changed it to "momentum", and the design encourages players to face the enemy bravely, rather than playing a few rolls and a few times of gameplay.
It will be said that the game is like "Wolf", the main reason is that "momentum" is a blank meter, the player successfully hits the enemy or defuses (block) will increase to the right "positive", can be consumed to dodge, defuse, perform stunts and magic, as long as the scale is positive to cast any move will increase the attack. However, if the scale is "negative" and increases to the left, the player can still attack and cast various magics, but when they reach the far left, as long as they are attacked by the enemy, they will enter a state of frustrated momentum, simply put, it is a long time of hard straightness, and can only be beaten obediently.
The momentum table will automatically return to zero as long as it does not increase or decrease for a period of time, and the system seems to be that players will accumulate negatively as long as they are attacked, which actually encourages players to make good use of "defuse" to attack. That's right, in addition to some large-scale moves that cannot be resolved, the solution can be said to be almost invincible, as long as the enemy's attack timing is grasped, the judgment in the game is actually more relaxed than the "Wolf" to see through and rebound, you can continuously set up the enemy's attack to give a counterattack, as long as the enemy's momentum table is negative, you can QTE under the opponent's momentum is frustrated, or use the accumulated positive momentum to perform powerful stunts.
It can be said that as long as the rhythm of the solution is mastered well, the player does not need to hide and dodge around, but can attack head-on, to cut one to two to cut two, unless it is a continuous or large-scale attack, otherwise even the flying fireball or arrow can be handsome, and in the first time to counterattack to turn defense into attack, accelerating the rhythm of the game itself.
At the same time, "Crouching Dragon" also went out of its own route, relying on the rewards and punishments brought by the positive and negative directions, and encouraged players to go forward and attack, and use the magic skills that can be learned in the game (similar to magic, there are gold, wood, water, fire and earth, a total of five elements), as well as the stunts that come with the weapon itself, to perform powerful attacks or auxiliary abilities, and there will be richer matching gameplay in the growth type of the character.
Here I need to emphasize that when fighting, especially boss battles, you must use defuse + stunts or magic, of course, you can also win without relying on them, but compared to the same type of game design, just play will find that the ordinary attack power in this work is very, very low, fight the boss unless you want to challenge or self-abuse, otherwise the same level will absolutely collapse.
This alone is obvious to the development team's determination to encourage players to practice defusing, but there is still backstabbing assassination gameplay in the game, and each enemy will show their own level of alertness on their heads to see if the player is found, and even fall from a high place to kill, but it should be noted that falling from a high place will make a loud noise, making the enemy who has his back to him turn back and become a big fight.
Challenge or simple? The morale system is free to choose
"Crouching Dragon" is the same as many soul games, does not give players a choice of difficulty, but allows players to judge which route they want to take according to themselves, a certain route may have many enemies, a certain route may be very simple, and even by inserting "tooth flags" to improve "morale", it is also a temporary strengthening system that can be liver in addition to the character level, allowing players to choose the difficulty of the game itself by fighting when necessary.
This morale level determines your strength in the current level, and some magic spells also require a certain morale level to be cast, and enemies also have a morale level to symbolize their strength. The level of morale needs to be improved by killing enemies, and even erecting the tooth flag and the Jing flag hidden in various places on the map (relatively small flags, in addition to the indomitable level, can only return blood), you can improve the "indomitable level" of morale.
This means that for players who feel hard at the boss, it is very important to explore the map to plant flags, the more flags you look for can increase the level of the map, even if you die, it will not return to zero, and it also plays a role in guiding players, because usually seeing that the morale of the enemy is higher than yours, it means that there are other routes to take, or flags can be planted, there is no need to rush to this side, which is very friendly for novices.
And the difficulty of the game itself, although the initial solution will allow players to pile up corpses to learn, but I have to say that after mastering it is a powerful brainless move, as long as you seize the opportunity to counterattack and watch the handsome animation, I think it is still not strong enough to go to the liver level liver morale, or use the "mythical beast" Buff and tricks obtained in the main plot in the game, a bit like the monsterization system in "Renwang 2", each mythical beast has its own advantages and disadvantages.
In addition, compared with "Renwang 2", there must still be people who do not understand the complexity of the upper, middle and lower sections of the system until now, "Crouching Dragon" is simple and clear is an action RPG, with complete skills and equipment entries and other designs, with the assistance of "momentum" and "morale", you don't need to understand too many things, as long as you learn the enemy's attacks, you can quickly get started, and a big reason is also from the development experience of "Renwang 2", many systems can be found to be inherited from predecessors.
However, although this is an advantage but also a disadvantage, it is definitely necessary to mention "Renwang" here, because although its initial system looks complicated, it does encourage characters to play differently, but without the skill tree development of the weapon itself, the rich moves in the upper, middle and lower sections, and the inability to quickly switch weapons, etc., there is still a gap in the degree of freedom, not to mention the unlimited use of the odd tree, making the props look dispensable.
epilogue
I definitely have to praise Chinese voice acting quality in the game, and it's arguably one of the best things Team Ninja has done on this game. Of course, returning to the content of the game itself, in addition to scolding the NPC partner who has been blocking the way, if you want to dodge to the side, you will be blocked by your own people, and directly eat the enemy and die, although most of the game is resolved from the beginning to the end, but it has to be said that the high-speed battle with the flash-to-action painting in the game can only be described as "handsome to explode".
The sense of speed is much improved compared to "Nioh 2", and the seemingly powerful enemies can really dissolve in the later stage and block continuous attacks with their eyes closed and pressed, because the judgment of this generation is extremely relaxed, of course, you can also choose to challenge yourself to experience the three kingdoms where the demon is rampant in different ways, after all, this is the charm of RPGs, even if they are not mainstream factions or have powerful abilities, as long as you want to do nothing.
Even this game after clearing some of the main lines, you can also recruit generals like "Zhao Yun" as partners, each time you can bring two partners at the same time, each general has their own auxiliary abilities, but the best place is to cultivate the relationship between the two parties, of course, this is not to say what to get married or not to get married, but the other party will give you his own signature weapons or equipment, there should be no need to talk about it here.
This experience is mainly for the battle part, after all, this is the source of the charm of the soul series itself, giving people a feeling that it is indeed like the journey of the Three Kingdoms version of "Wolf", but this journey "Crouching Dragon" has gone out of its own route. If you're willing to wait for PC optimization or opt for a console, this game will be a fun experience, especially for fans who are familiar with the Three Kingdoms.