This is the 879th original article of the Old Boy Game Box, written by @ King Crab
Speaking of the most popular game themes in China, the Three Kingdoms genre is definitely the undisputed hegemon. Since the early 90s, Capcom has set its sights on this invincible golden sign in the Asian market, and jointly launched the classic "Devouring the World" series of games with manga artist Hiroshi Hongmiya, which has become the most unforgettable memory of countless post-80s and 90s players.
Domestic players may be more familiar with "Devouring the World 2: The Battle of Red Cliffs" on the arcade and the RPG "Devouring the World 2 Zhuge Kongming" on the Red and White Machine FC, and players who are a little older may still remember the first generation of "Devouring the World" on the arcade.
In fact, there are as many as six games in the "Devouring the World" series, and today the author will talk about the other two "Devouring the World" that you may not be familiar with in @oldboy game box!
First of all, let's talk about "Devouring the World" on GB, which is actually a game that ported the original RPG on the red and white machine to the GB.
However, with the capacity and function of GB at that time, it had not yet reached the level of FC, so many places were simple to simple. The whole process is almost a book, and there is almost no room for exploration in the whole RPG process, it is nothing more than going to a certain place according to the script→ defeating an enemy general→ and then going to a →certain place to defeat another enemy general, and so on.
But what is more interesting is that after completing the RPG process, that is, after the original book burned Chibi and beat Boss Cao, Liu Xuande occupied a place and actually opened the SLG mode of competing for the world, which combined the two ways of playing in a single word card game at that time, which was also very "cost-effective".
The GB version of "Devouring the World" can receive up to eighteen generals in addition to the three brothers, but the team can only accommodate three people, and the strength of the three brothers of Liu Guan and Zhang is there, and if you want to change people to play, you can only be abused by the enemy generals, and there is no need to replace people.
However, these generals are not useless, because the SLG mode in the back can also be used as a tool, because the characteristic (slot) of this mode is that every time a city is captured, a military general must be left behind, and the generals who are left behind will hang up permanently from now on, and they can't even be called again, not even to check the status or avatar, let alone the outfit you bought for them out of your own pocket......
So if you suddenly find that the generals you have raised for most of the game suddenly disappear in the late game, don't worry that this is a bug in the game, because the system was originally designed this way...... The author thinks who designed this, and it really should be dragged out by the player and beaten up.
The next one to introduce is the final swan song of the "Devouring World" series, "Devouring World: Three Kingdoms" released on the Super Nintendo SFC platform.
This game was launched in 1995, the year after the GB version, and it may be that the production team felt that the quality of the previous work was too poor, so the production team of this work decided to use all the good steel on the blade, so this "Legend of the Three Kingdoms" completely abandoned the action or RPG mode, and adopted a completely typical SLG strategy game.
To be honest,Capcom at that time was not only in the field of action games,The comprehensive strength in the field of text cards is still very strong,The first impression of this work is that the graphics are exquisite,In the generation of 16-bit consoles, the character portraits and images are depicted in detail as animation。
The quaint and colorful UI design is eye-catching, and the battlefield map cleverly uses SFC's various image transformation functions and translucent effects, which seem to make players feel like they have the momentum of playing "Heaven and Earth Devouring" in one go.
SFC's "Legend of the Three Kingdoms" has developed the concept of "legions" in the system, and each city can accommodate up to three legions at the same time, and each legion can accommodate up to seven generals. The Legion is a fun and brain-burning design that doubles the game's sense of strategy while increasing complexity and playtime. It may not be so accessible to today's fast food players, but once you are proficient, you will understand that this is the essence of this strategy.
After actually entering the battlefield, the setting that distinguishes this game from other "big road goods" games is that the enemy troops are actually invisible at the beginning, just like the fog of RTS war, and even worse, even if your own troops are attacked by the enemy, you can't recognize the details of the other party!
This is very similar to real warfare, in those days there were no stealth units, spy satellites, and plug-ins such as black technology, so reconnaissance is especially important in the war part of the game.
I've also seen beginner players beaten to the point that their noses are blue and their faces are swollen, and they don't know who beat them when they run home, and there are not a few people who abandon the game, after all, other "Three Kingdoms" games are all God's vision, and they see the enemy hula coming to die!
In addition to the graphics and war, the internal affairs and strategy aspects of "Heroes of the Three Kingdoms" are not too prominent from other games of the same type. Among them, it is worth mentioning that the only one worth mentioning is the strategy of "separating the monarch and the minister", if the enemy forces use the discord between the monarch and the minister against us, the system will appear such as the false information brought back by Jiang Ganzhong.
At this time, two options will be given for the player to choose one or the other, and if you choose the wrong one, it will reduce the trust of your generals. If it was in the Japanese version of the actual machine back then, it would be a very tragic happy choice, but in the current era of big simulators...... SL Dafa can be completely ignored.
The overall quality of "Devouring the World: The Legend of the Three Kingdoms" can be said to be a very good existence in SLG games of the same period, but it is a pity that it was born at the wrong time, after all, the 16-bit machine is the cradle of RPG masterpieces, and the natural disadvantages of handle operation SLG compared to the mouse, coupled with the complexity of SLG itself, this kind of game is destined to go to a niche hardcore.
Throughout the history of gaming, the most glorious era of SLG should have been the era when personal PCs were just emerging, so "Devouring the World: Legend of the Three Kingdoms" has naturally become the tears of the times.
However, I believe that there will always be a nostalgic player who will pick up the familiar cover from the corner of the dusty room, pat off the dust on it, and start the lost game again. I don't know how many players have dabbled in the two niche "Devouring the World" in this reminiscence, share your game experience in the comment area!
Author: King Crab
Editor: Xiao Chen