First of all, thank you for giving me the opportunity to make this review of the headlines of the day.
<h1>introduction</h1>
Full Moon Night is a card fighting game developed and released by Tick Studios.
Set against the backdrop of the well-known Story of Little Red Riding Hood, featuring a variety of randomly generated game cards for fun, and featuring high repetition and playability, Full Moon Night is a very new and interesting card fighting game for Brother Shark.
The game was released on mobile last year and still has a good rating of 9.6 on the TAPTAP platform. Today, its annual expansion pack, Little Red Riding Hood Diaries, has been released on both mobile and PC.
The following is a detailed introduction to the PC version of "Full Moon Night" by Shark Brother, and by the way, I also share some of my experiences after playing the game shallowly. This game review is more novice,If there is anything incorrect in the text, I hope that friends who have already experienced the game will correct it more.
<h1>Chapter 1: The main interface of the hidden mystery</h1>
Figure 1-1: The main interface of the game
After entering the game first, it is the main interface. (Figure 1-1)
The design of the main interface is very simple and easy to understand: a thick notepad in the middle, declaring the thickness of the game's plot; a few cards exposed in the left card bag, expressing the core gameplay of the game; the pumpkin-shaped candle holder with a sly smile in the upper right corner, rendering the gothic style of the entire game; and the rightmost is the game menu button.
As everyone knows, the concise main interface hides some secrets (Figure 1-2):
The left side drops along with the cards, not only the cards, but also two pieces of the puzzle – click on them to enter the puzzle game;
Although the pocket watch in the lower right corner looks bleak, it has the important function of adding passive attribute points to our characters;
The pumpkin-shaped candle holder in the upper right corner is a shop where you can purchase in-game upgrade packs;
In the upper left corner of the middle notepad, there is a "Thank you" word, which is actually a special list of the game's acknowledgements, and if we click into it, we can even hear the theme song of the Chinese of the game.
Figure 1-2: Buttons hidden in the main interface of the game
Such a cryptic interface design, in fact, also complements the plot of the entire "Full Moon Night", and the two keywords of mystery and obscurity are quietly integrated into this gothic style black fairy tale.
By the way, in the setting can set the language and voice of the type, the language is divided into English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, the voice has English and Chinese dubbing two, it is strongly recommended that players try to try to Chinese dubbing, after all, the invitation is overwatch's Chinese dubbing team, the overall experience is very good.
<h1>Chapter 2: Simple not simple combat mechanics</h1>
To talk about the best setting in the whole "Full Moon Night", it must be the battle mechanism, and the shark brother will introduce you to the battle mechanism of "Full Moon Night" in detail.
1. Game story interface
Figure 2-1: Game story interface function decomposition
In Full Moon Night, when there is no battle, it is in the plot interface (Figure 2-1).
First, at the top of the story interface, there are money, the story chapter we are in, and the number of story cards for that chapter. The three cards in the center of the screen are the plot cards, and we must choose one of them to operate, or cancel or activate, but if you encounter an enemy, the battle cannot be canceled and bypassed.
Secondly, in the upper right corner of the screen there are our character's "courage points" and "honor points". After defeating an enemy, occasionally options appear, which are related to the addition and subtraction of courage and honor points. These two values are mainly used to determine who the final boss (enemy leader) is, and their relationship with the boss that Little Red Riding Hood will encounter is as follows:
If courage > honor, the boss can choose werewolf in the end;
If the Courage < Honor, the final boss can choose the Witch;
If the werewolf and witch have been selected several times before, the boss can finally choose the priest;
If you have investigated werewolves and witches, and both courage and honor are greater than 4, you can investigate mysterious people.
Then at the bottom, there's a lot of character status: including passive skills, HP, experience, action and vitality, and of course, our current card pack.
This series of states is actually closely related to our cards.
2. Cards
Figure 2-2: Battle screen with a wide variety of cards
When it comes to the core props of the battle mechanics, it must be a card. In the world of Full Moon Night, we only need to push the card in our hand to the center of the screen to use. All cards are divided into six categories: Attack, Action, Spell, Equipment, Mana, and Special.
Their roles are as follows:
Attack type cards are mainly to deal damage to the enemy;
Action cards require action power and have a variety of effects;
Spell cards require mana and are mostly harmful to the opponent;
Equipment cards can produce a variety of effects per turn;
Mana cards are mostly mana regeneration, and some are accompanied by some other effects;
Most of the special cards cannot be obtained directly, and are special effects produced by card skills or passive skills (Figure 2-2).
Each time they fight, the player draws the maximum number of cards they can hold, and then wins by attacking the opponent to make the opponent's blood slot change to 0. Although the game method is very simple, but the variety of cards is rich, and all of them are randomly generated, and will be focused accordingly according to our profession, so that the whole game has more replay value, the gameplay is naturally very not simple. So what is the specific occupation?
3. Occupation
Figure 2-3: Which profession is Little Red Riding Hood herself
Whichever story mode we choose (Full Moon Night or Little Red Riding Hood Diaries), we'll be asked to choose our class after we start a new adventure. There are several initial classes: Knight, Ranger, Nun, and Little Witch. (Figure 2-3), you can also unlock new classes later through game clearance or purchase game DLC (expansion packs). Interestingly, in the early stages, no matter what kind of profession, the characters are Little Red Riding Hood himself, which has a feeling of one person playing multiple roles.
Each class has its own deck combination and attack routine, as well as its own class passive skills and character active skills (as shown in the lower left corner of Figures 2-1 and 2-2). The Mysterious Man boss can activate its Nightmare difficulty after killing it, and a higher level of Nightmare Difficulty is activated every time the Nightmare Difficulty story is completed. During this time, we will see more and more types of cards, and the difficulty of the game will also increase.
Therefore, thoroughly studying the passive skills and active skills of the class, as well as the combination of cards, and making a certain professional combat routine is the key to completing the difficulty of Nightmare 1 to 7.
Figure 2-4: Werewolf Class
It is worth mentioning that in the new DLC, in addition to the magician and pharmacist professions, the only character who is not Little Red Riding Hood has been added - werewolf carpenter (Figure 2-4). In the storyline, the little carpenter has always been a character that I have been very concerned about and saddened by, and what will happen to him who will turn into a werewolf on the night of the full moon, and what will happen to him after failing to stop Little Red Riding Hood from looking for grandma? In the plot of the werewolf profession, we will get the answer.
4. Little Red Riding Hood Diary
Figure 2-5: The Diary of Little Red Riding Hood begins
In addition to the current story of Full Moon Night, a new play chapter has been added to the new expansion pack: The Diary of Little Red Riding Hood. It tells the story of the night of the full moon five years ago, when Little Red Riding Hood and the little carpenter accidentally broke into the castle (Figure 2-5).
In The Diary of Little Red Riding Hood, there are only three initial classes: Knight, Witch, and Apothecary. The game's battle mode is still the same as before, but the difficulty has been improved - compared to the main story of Full Moon Night, there are few events in the entire story flow to replenish stamina and rectify the removal of old cards, and more about blessings or card choices (Figure 2-6). At the bottom of the screen there will be the current progression of the game, one Elite Monster will appear every three mobs, and at the end it will encounter a big boss.
How to use your own cards and blessings to form a routine, reduce the damage you receive to make it all the way to the end, has become the fun of the game.
Figure 2-6: The Various options in Little Red Riding Hood Diaries
Overall, the plot of "Little Red Riding Hood" is a road to the end of the design, the lack of route choice, but also the lack of the "forgotten tavern" in the main part, which can give up the useless card land, resulting in the player's control over the construction of cards decreased; but the difficulty of the monster increased exponentially, so the difficulty of "Little Red Riding Hood" is much higher than the main "Full Moon Night", relatively speaking, the Rougelike element (randomness and irreversibility) will be much stronger than the main part.
Personally, I think that compared to the main game of "Full Moon Night", the gameplay of "Little Red Riding Hood Diaries" has declined. It is more suitable for players who like Rougelike games than traditional card enthusiasts.
Figure 2-7: "Full Moon Night" full of black fairy tale style
Eerie castles, flying bats, witches, pumpkins, vampires... Both in the main plot of "Full Moon Night" and in "The Diary of Little Red Riding Hood" are full of dark Gothic style (Figure 2-7), which is commonly found in various black fairy tale derivative works. So what exactly is a black fairy tale and how did it arise? Let's talk about the relationship between the black fairy tale and "Full Moon Night".
<h1>Chapter 3: The Black Fairy Tale</h1>
1. "Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes"
The plot of "Full Moon Night" is based on the familiar fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood". And the "Little Red Riding Hood" we saw when we were children undoubtedly came from the well-known "Grimm's Fairy Tales".
In the 1780s, two famous German linguists, Jacob Greene and his brother Wilhelm Green, were born (Figure 3-1). They are all german Chinese and linguistic grandfather-level figures, and have collected, edited and polished a large number of stories in the folk, compiling a collection of German children and family fairy tales. The fairy tale was integrated into the world's literary treasures and wealth, and posterity called it "Grimm's Fairy Tales" in honor of the two of them. So in principle, Grimm's Fairy Tales was not written by the Grimm brothers, but a collection of folk tales they collected and adapted, and "Little Red Riding Hood" that we grew up with is derived from one of them.
Fig. 3-1: The Brothers Grimm are printed on banknotes
But if we go back even earlier, in fact, the story of "Little Red Riding Hood" was born in 1697, created by the famous writer Charles Perot and included in his literary collection "The Story of Mother Goose", including the well-known "Cinderella", "Sleeping Beauty", "Cat in Boots" and so on.
And "The Story of Mother Goose" itself is not as famous as its successor, "Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes".
In 18th-century Britain, the Industrial Revolution led to the birth of capitalism, when the gap between rich and poor in British society was widening. The vast majority of the people have become thoroughly instruments and victims of capitalism: overtime, low wages, and inability to live. Against this backdrop, in 1792, The Nursery Rhymes of Mother Goose, collected and published by John Newberley, became the world's earliest collection of nursery rhymes (Figures 3-2).
Fig. 3-2: Cover of various "Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes" picture books
2. Black fairy tale
The Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes contains a total of 52 poems, and patiently illustrates them with examples after the poems.
But what is interesting is that according to common sense, nursery rhymes should generally be full of warmth and childlike fun, while the works in "Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes" are mostly filled with various bloody, cruel and realistic content. For example, in the British drama "No One Survives" (Figure 3-3), which is adapted from the famous suspense novel of the same name, one of the nursery rhymes "Ten Little Blacks" appears, the specific content is as follows:
Ten little Indian boys, running for food; choking to death one can't be saved, and only nine of the ten remain. Nine Indian boys, really sleepless late at night; when they fell asleep, they slept to death, and there were only eight left of the nine. Eight little Indian boys, in Devon, went hunting; one was left to the west, and eight were left with only seven. Seven Little Indian boys, cutting down trees and cutting branches is not easy; axes split two halves and one life, and seven are only six. Six little Indian boys, playing with the hive to provoke bee wrath; a stinging whining came, and six were left with only five. Five Indian boys, provoked by a lawsuit; the lawsuit was entangled until death, and only four of the five remained. Four indian boys, in a group, went to sea and suffered a great disaster; the bluefish swallowed bloodstains, and only three of the four remained. Three little Indian boys, suffering in the zoo; the bear suddenly fell from the sky, and only two of the three remained. Two little Indian boys, long sighs in the sun; sunburned and roasted to death, two only one left. A little Indian boy returned alone; the hanging beam committed suicide in this life, and there was not a single one left.
Figure 3-3: Poster of the British drama "No One Survives"
The strange method of death and content are naturally very good material in bizarre murder cases. But if we look at the age and context of the birth of this nursery rhyme, it is not difficult to conclude that in fact he is describing how a group of people in the working class were squeezed by capitalism to the point of no one left.
There are many more eerie and bloody nursery rhymes like "Ten Little Blacks" in "Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes", most of which are intended to satirize reality or warn the world. Nursery rhymes are not for children, which in itself has become a strange phenomenon, so such fairy tales or nursery rhymes are called black fairy tales.
3. Little Red Riding Hood
Let's go back and look at the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
In fact, Little Red Riding Hood in the aforementioned version of Charles Perot was designed to be "good-looking and polite" and a country girl (meaning simple personality) who met a very gentle and gentlemanly big bad wolf and told her grandmother's address. So the big bad wolf was very treacherous and cunning to avoid the loggers in the forest, and went to Grandma's address early to eat Grandma, and finally pretended to be Grandma to eat Little Red Riding Hood. The story ends abruptly at this point.
Fig. 3-4: In various adaptations of Little Red Riding Hood, the fallen red will be reflected
The logic and content of the story are very simple, but the words and settings are very obscure, whether it is the dialogue between the wolf in bed and Little Red Riding Hood, or the red hat left after Little Red Riding Hood is eaten, it is like the plot after a girl is deceived by a man with ulterior motives. Author Charles Perot also expressed his intentions: "Beautiful and cultured girls, must not listen to the rumors of strangers, although he seems very gentle and honest, he will eventually follow you to the house and eat everything about you." 」 ”
Half realistic, half unreal. The black fairy tale uses a very cruel and bloody plot to allude to the dark side of real life to educate children to learn to protect themselves, which is its meaning. (Figure 3-4)
4. Black fairy tale derivative works
Through the gimmick of the concept of black fairy tales, all kinds of black fairy tale works have also come out, but the quality of these works is uneven, some are very exciting, and some are tasteless.
For example, in 2011, alice: Crazy Returns, an action game produced by Spicy Horse Studios and released by the famous American EA company (Electronic Arts Corporation of the United States) is one of them. (Figure 3-5)
Figure 3-5: Alice: The Game Setting Interface for Returns of Madness illustrates the importance of mental health.
"Alice: The Return of Madness" tells the story of the young girl Alice who lost her family in a fire eleven years ago, and she is traumatized and admitted to a madhouse, where she enters the "fairyland world" in her mind and fights against her own demons. Ten years later, she was discharged from the lunatic asylum, but she still could not get out of the hallucinations, so she returned to the "fairyland world" invaded by madness, intending to save the world and her own memories and souls.
Dark Gothic style characters and stories, and invigorating action elements make it an excellent black fairy tale spin-off game. In contrast, another film work is less flattering – that is, the movie "Little Red Riding Hood" (Figure 3-6).
Fig. 3-6: Poster of the movie version of Little Red Riding Hood
The black fairy tale was originally intended to allude to the dark side of real life and to admonish or warn the world, but this film version of "Little Red Riding Hood" is completely bloody and bloody, reversed for the sake of reversal: the plot of killing the father and the mother, the heroine who does not distinguish between good and evil, and the love triangle of dog blood all make the plot of this movie look vulgar and low-level. Brother Shark is most impressed by the fact that Little Red Riding Hood in the movie killed her very "justly" after discovering that her father was a werewolf - even if the other party did not mean to harm her at all; and when her boyfriend Peter became a werewolf, she instantly gave up killing on the grounds that only Peter did not deceive her, and the double standard was extreme.
It can only be said that the cheesy and indiscriminate plot of hunting for the sake of curiosity will never be able to support the banner of black fairy tales.
5. Full Moon Night: Covered with bloody facts with layered appearances
Well, let's go back to "The Night of the Full Moon."
In fact, "Full Moon Night" is also a black fairy tale style work, and I dare say that its plot must be borrowed from the movie version of "Little Red Riding Hood" to some extent: for example, the little carpenter is a werewolf and loves Little Red Riding Hood - of course, it is possible that they have all seen "Little Red Riding Hood" like me (Figure 3-7).
Fig. 3-7: Little Red Riding Hood's protagonist Leah is a werewolf. (The little wolf on the left and the blue-haired teenager on the right are both Leah)
At the beginning of the main story of "Full Moon Night", the players play Little Red Riding Hood will meet the little carpenter in the snow, and he will prevent us from entering the Black Forest to investigate the whereabouts of our grandmother - because on the night of the full moon, he will transform into a werewolf, and in order not to affect others, he will hide in the Black Forest - and after we defeat him, we will make a "I will definitely come back" pact with him.
The little carpenter who hid in the Black Forest was eventually killed by Little Red Riding Hood, who mistakenly believed to be the real murderer who kidnapped his grandmother. In the end, he couldn't make a good confession to the other party...
How similar this is to real life, we inadvertently hurt people who love us deeply in order to pursue certain things. It can be said that "Full Moon Night" is really a black fairy tale that reflects reality.
But how can the plot be so simple? As the game progresses, we will peel back the layers of plot appearances, and we will get more and more plot and information, and the real identity of the little carpenter, his past and his motivation for action will gradually surface, and when the truth hidden by the layered plot appearance appears, I am deeply shocked - but in order not to affect your game experience, I will not spoil here, you can explore it yourself.
In addition to the little carpenters, various characters such as grandmothers, wolf kings, godfathers, witches, and even ordinary monsters have their own hidden stories (Figure 3-8). In the latest chapter, Little Red Riding Hood, deeper secrets await players. I have to say that the moment when the wonderful hidden plot was excavated by myself, I really had a sense of accomplishment.
Figure 3-8: Monster characters have their own stories of the past
<h1>Epilogue: General Review</h1>
Full Moon Night is based on the settings in the classic card games Card Adventurer and Dream Quest, contains a variety of classes, and derives a variety of genres. Specific strategy, we can find in the major forums and tieba bar, some masters can even pass the difficulty of Nightmare 7 with one card, which is also admirable.
So many card routines also make the game have a super high playability and replayability, and the black fairy tale style plot, while the player experiences the game over and over again, layer after layer gradually surfaces, allowing players to experience various occupations and various routines at the same time, but also enjoy the double happiness of digging the plot.
Fig. 4-1: A jigsaw puzzle game for "Full Moon Night"
Western-style cartoon art style, excellent game music and dubbing, brain-burning card routine challenges, and the black fairy tale plot to be revealed, all make "Full Moon Night" a unique and excellent card adventure game, and the rating of 9.6 on the TAPTAP platform is well-deserved.
But I personally think that "Full Moon Night" still has a fly in the ointment: the gameplay of the new chapter "Little Red Riding Hood Diary" still needs to be optimized, the lack of independent choice of routes and the lack of a model for building a deck make many old players confused, after the fun of designing their own deck is invisibly reduced, the game's playability will decline, and after playing for a long time, it will bring a burst of greasiness, which may play a counter-effect of dissuading old players to a certain extent. Hopefully, the game can be improved later in life.
In short, if you like card elements or Rougelike elements, then Full Moon Night must be for you.
Personal rating: Gameplay: 8 points; Graphics: 9 points; Music: 9 points; Drama: 8 points
Overall: 8.5 points
(This article is original by @Funny Than Shark Brother Game, plagiarism is strictly prohibited!) ）