Monster Circus | wen
One way I've come up with this is not to stare at playing games with AAA ratings or Steam ratings of more than 90%, and sometimes, you have to rely on your eyes and personal tastes to try something that doesn't shine so brightly with reviews and specs.
It just so happens that I've written too much serious stuff lately, and today we're going to change the taste and talk about a game that doesn't have such a good evaluation, but it can match some people's appetite: "Wonder Caller".
"Wonder Caller" is a semi-independent crpg from Poland, which is currently hanging on Steam with a praise rate of 78%, with less than 1000 reviews, and MC's player evaluation has a score of 7.7, which is a tepid level, and it is certainly not worth recommending just by word of mouth.
However, if you're interested in magical games with historical elements, especially the history of Central and Eastern Europe in the early 20th century, this game will most likely be able to match your airwaves. At least, that's how I cleared the level in one go.
About Caller: You might hear a bunch of hype about Polish Pokémon, Disco Elysium, The Witcher, and Baldur's Gate hybrids, but you're going to have to throw it all away, it just doesn't hold up, Caller is just Caller.
Actually, it's more like an interactive visual novel in the form of a CRPG, complete with a combat system. The Wonder Summoner (Miracle Summoner) that the protagonist is actually a magician, just because when the word was born, "miracle" and "magic" are very similar, although the former is more inclined to sages, but in this game, the protagonist is not a sage at all.
The magic of the main character, Victor, manifests itself in three ways: probing the remaining emotions on objects, domesticating and manipulating otherworldly species, and manipulating others with character flaws. These three manifestations correspond to the three ways to play the game.
The first is to probe the residual emotion on the item, which corresponds to the main detective mode of the game. Victor can touch objects and sense the emotions of their former owners to piece together the whole picture of an event.
For example, when Victor searches someone's room, he touches an airplane mug and discovers that its owner is guilty of using it and passionate at the same time;
Victor then touches the man's computer again and discovers that he has bought a copy of Plants vs. Zombies, but is flustered and hungry when he pays, not wanting to be seen;
In the end, Victor touched the figurine hidden in the corner of the bed and found that the owner placed the order on impulse, but immediately regretted it when he got it, not financial regret, but disappointment.
Combining the above three findings, Victor can deduce the whole picture of the matter: living in this room is a person who has special feelings for Puff-Shroom, who originally thought that he liked to look like Puff-Shroom, but after buying the Philen figure, he desperately realized that he was just controlling Puff-Shroom, or even just a version of the game generation.
That's the reasoning in Caller. In fact, in the prologue, it can be seen that the production team wants to learn "Disco Elysium", so that players who take different routes can get different clues. Therefore, the protagonist has four attributes: heart, speech, action, and thought, and the clues can only be seen through after a certain attribute reaches the standard.
Soon, however, Victor became omniscient and largely didn't miss any clues. So the game becomes a fantasy mystery novel: you don't participate in the reasoning, you can't decide the direction of the reasoning, however, you can really see how the protagonist piecing together clues into the truth - a bit like Alan Wake 2.
This is followed by the protagonist's second ability: domesticating and manipulating otherworldly species. It's said to be an otherworldly species.,In fact, it's a human inner demon.,In this worldview,All kinds of personality flaws,There's a kind of inner demon behind it.,And the protagonist can catch these inner demons.,Let them work for themselves.。
It is said that the sirens who suddenly appeared half-naked killed a bunch of live broadcasters at station B
This ability corresponds to the game's battles. It's embarrassing, because this turn-based battle actually doesn't lack depth, but the enemy is too weak and single (and all ordinary people in brawls), so although you can match a variety of combos, in fact, any reasonable set of combos can allow you to win from beginning to end.
There are two main points in this combat system, one is that the enemies all have some kind of buff, such as 80% damage reduction, and you need to attack them with a specific otherworldly species to break them.
The second is that the enemy has two types of health bars: concentration and health bars, which can directly attack the health bar, or perform mental attacks to make them enter a weak state. When weakened is triggered, both the protagonist and the Otherworldly species can perform powerful special attacks.
So basically, Victor loudly exposed the enemy's sexual fetishes on the battlefield and made him die on the spot, and Victor took the opportunity to go up and punch him. It's just that some enemies are too thick-skinned, and their concentration value is longer than the health bar, so they are basically immune to insults.
The above two parts are basically the whole picture of the game. The last "manipulation of others with character flaws" actually only works on a few occasions: Victor can occasionally use the Otherworldly Species to influence NPCs' thoughts in dialogue, such as making him face his love for Puff-Shroom, or even making him fall in love with Defend Carrot again, or exposing the story of his sexual awakening to BB Ji.
Maybe that's why some people say that the game is like The Witcher, and that the ability is really reminiscent of Geralt's seductive sigil, and even the gesture of talking and stealing and touching dogs with his hands is the same - talking to the Poles and staring at their crotch.
Just looking at this, this game doesn't seem to be anything special. However, the charm of "Wonder Caller" is not in the gameplay, but the most interesting thing about it is that it restores the customs and customs of Warsaw at that time in all aspects.
The length of this game is 20 hours, but the cultural heritage is not weak. Warsaw is now the capital of Poland, but it was at a very special time: Poland had been dead for more than 100 years, and Warsaw was a city occupied by Tsarist Russia but whose ownership was unclear.
At the same time, it was on the eve of upheaval: the First World War would soon break out, the Great Revolution in its neighborhood would turn Tsarist Russia into the Soviet Union, and Poland would enter the center of the vortex and begin to regain its country under the leadership of Pilsudski.
So in the city, there are many forces coming together, including Russians with different attitudes, Warsawites with confused identities, Jews, and gangsters born of turmoil. What's more, in the shadows of the city, there are also the Socialist Party that pushes for the workers' revolution and the Zionists who want to restore Poland.
Although it is not a grand story, nor is it a direct depiction of the drastic changes of the times, if you have a certain understanding of the history of the time, you can feel its weight. Each NPC represents a position at the time, and they clash with each other and coexist in Warsaw in a wonderful way.
And the era of the game presentation is not flat, it also has its own past. For example, behind one plot line is the history of Jewish survival in Warsaw, and in the optional exploration part of the branch, there is the story of an elderly couple who lived through the Polish freedom uprising in the 60s of the 19th century.
The characterization is also quite individual. Because the otherworldly species are all demons, the characters have more or less character flaws, such as the protagonist's flaw is arrogance, you can speak with an arrogant attitude on various occasions, which will affect the ending and the direction of some key plots, and it is not succumbing to arrogance, it will lead to a bad ending, the difference is only the difference in values.
In the game, Victor's childhood friend will be reunited with him by kidnapping, he is fond of violence, and at the same time loves to write poetry, and cherishes this brotherhood very much;
But the best characterization may be the player's best friend: Rasputin. Generally speaking, as soon as Rasputin appears, he will be portrayed as a demon monk villain, nervous, powerful and evil, and the rumor that he JJ is 30 centimeters long, like a hidden setting, interferes in every conversation.
If you want to know about Rasputin, you can take a look at this article
But in "Wonder Caller", Rasputin is not a simple villain, he has neither divine power nor evil spirit, he has his own calculations, but he does not always have a ghost in his heart. This Rasputin has a sense of human intimacy, which makes his charm convincing.
The game has multiple endings, and you can become Rasputin's best friend in different ways. It's really rare for me to see this kind of work that neither whitewashes nor demonizes Rasputin, and even fewer can work with him, so the experience of looking at European history from a somewhat non-mainstream perspective like Poland is actually quite novel.
Rasputin is like a tool to test the historical background of the script, and perhaps only those who treat history as a child's play will continue to pull Rasputin's wild history that has been told for a hundred years: a fake monk has immortal magic, can control the Russian royal family by himself, and charm the women of the city while not bathing......
"Wonder Caller" is a magical game with pseudo-historical elements, but it does not fall into clichés, which can also be seen from this that the production team has its own ideas about the plot and character creation.
Several otherworldly species also come from Slavic, Serbian, Tatar, and Jewish legends
In addition to the elements of official history, "Strange Caller" is also very careful in shaping the details of life. The game has a lot of collection branches, and its form is nothing more than following the guide to collect clues, and then go somewhere to experience the customs of the time.
However, this kind of small task can really give you a taste of the times: each location has a description, plus a sketch. For example, if you hear about a sport called football, you can try to play a game somewhere, or if you hear that a small hotel has a new device called an elevator, you can try it out, or if you buy some Polish dumplings on the street.
There's often a little humor in these branches. For example, if you hear about a famous prostitute who has mastered exotic skills and gives people an extraordinary sensory experience, you will find out that she is a Japanese geisha who spreads the art of tea.
It's just a collection of illustrations, but when they come together, it really makes people feel like they've really traveled to that era. From top to bottom, Caller is like a picture of the life of the people of Warsaw in the 20th century.
All in all, Wonder Caller is a game with a decent story but a high standard of copywriting. Some detective plots are quite interesting, look carefully at the copywriting, you will find that the logic of many reasoning is very subtle, and there is foreshadowing everywhere, and the case is not so easy to guess the truth. It's just that because of the lack of production experience and the low budget, the way of expression is holding back.
So for the average player, this game is indeed ordinary, but for those who are interested in that era, it has a wonderful charm that matches the airwaves.
Finally, I would like to talk about the inspiration that "Caller" has inspired me. I have always felt that Poland is a magical country, and Marx once gave it the nickname "the undead warrior of Europe", and it has lost three times in history, and it can be said to be one of the most humiliated countries.
However, now it not only exists, but the economy has even begun to touch the borders of developed countries, and even the Intermaritime Federation, which Pilsudski bankrupted a hundred years ago, has now been realized in a different way.
If you take a closer look at Polish culture, you will find that although it is poor, small and ill-fated, it has people in almost any field: it has Marie Curie, the Nobel Prize-winning Cinker Branch, Poland has world-class musicians in various musical styles, Chopin is from Poland, and it also has the great painter Bexinski, as well as directors like Roman Polanski and Kesilovski, which are inseparable from film history......
Some of the above people were mentioned in "Wonder Caller".
And the outrageous thing that we are all familiar with: this place has become a gaming powerhouse, and the pillar company CDPR started by selling pirated discs in a van.
Why is Poland able to do this? I've been thinking about this since I first played The Witcher in '07.
Some time ago, there was a copy of the Polish Independent Game Foundation's "Development Guide for Games for the Chinese Market" circulating on the Internet, which is very down-to-earth in the study of Chinese players' preferences and minefields, and respects the purchasing power of mainland players.
By the way: BB Ji also makes an appearance in this guide
In contrast, developers in some countries can even do the brain-dead operation of "locked games can't see mainland buyers, so there are no mainland players, you can insult them hard, and you will be bombarded with bad reviews to kneel", that's right, it's you, Matoushe.
It's really a contrast.
Going back to Caller, as a game based entirely on Polish history and culture, it is not suitable for players from other countries. However, because of its focus on the Chinese market, coupled with the benchmark quality of localization services, a large number of Chinese players bought the game, even if some of them found themselves uninterested.
According to Gamesradar, only 9% of Wonder Callers buyers are from Poland, but 22% are from Chinese mainland, making it the game's second-largest sales area. Because of the successful overseas strategy, this game with average quality and limited theme is likely to pay for itself within a year (according to the analysis of analysts at the Bank of Poland).
In fact, according to the Polish government's 23-year report, only 1% to 4% of the sales of Polish game companies are absorbed by local players. The Polish game industry is probably a miracle because it is completely unable to survive on its home market.
Another interesting thing is that, according to publisher 11 Bit Studios, "Wonder Caller", which cost $3.8 million to $5 million to develop, even if it fails, it will not have much impact on the company, because their main focus is the next "Frostpunk 2".
It is precisely because of this qualification of trial and error that they will try this kind of work that looks average, but has a unique style and a strong spontaneous cultural output. If it weren't for Caller, I wouldn't have known what Poland was like at the beginning of the 20th century.
I think the prosperity of the gaming and cultural industry in Poland is a huge inspiration for us. The things behind these "Wonder Callers" may be the things we should think about the most.
But there are some things that I really can't envy, the Polish Prime Minister gave "The Witcher 2" to Obama, not to mention, many people may not know, in fact, in Polish textbooks, "This is My War", or extracurricular recommended reading.
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