It doesn't matter if the atlus is finished, except that the Vanilla Society must not disappear from Japan. —Taro Yokoo
Vanilla Society, a studio with a very artist's temperament.
In the popularity of 3D games, related engine technology is mature today; Vanilla Society still adheres to the traditional 2D hand-drawn game production. From "Odin Field" to "Masashi Tsubasa" to "Dragon's Crown", they have always adhered to the distinctive and bold art hand-painting style, carefully crafting each work.
It is precisely with the spirit of such craftsmen that the Vanilla Society can pass on word of mouth among players and receive such evaluations from Yokoo Taro.
"Dragon's Crown" art appreciation
Since 2013, when Moriharu Kamiya unveiled his new work "Thirteen Machine Defense Circles", he has been involved in a long period of development. After nearly 7 years of long waiting and several ticket jumps, this work finally came to our eyes.
In order to ensure the objectivity and rigor of the review, we carefully split the game mechanics and system before writing; we made a questionnaire for the game as a whole. The content of the review will be based on our own play experience combined with the collected data, as far as possible to let the reader more intuitive three-dimensional understanding of the game.
Thirteen Mechs Defense Circle is a sci-fi mech-themed text adventure + real-time strategy game, as his name goes: thirteen protagonists, thirteen mechs, guarding the common object. The game mode of "Thirteen Aircraft Defense Circle" is divided into three sections, namely: Remembrance, Collapse and Exploration. This edition of the assessment will focus on these three sections and analyze them in detail.
Three parts of the game
The memoirs are the key parts of this work. Unlike the traditional Japanese avg, "Thirteen Machine Defense Circle" chose to use interactive stage plays to carry a huge script. This design greatly enriches the playability of the game, and the interactive stage play can be handled in such a way that the characters and scenes can be controlled; the player can interact with the objects in the scene, and further promote the direction of the plot by interacting with the objects and collecting clues. Due to the characteristics of the stage play itself, the production team in the game can turn a large number of environmental description texts into visual performances, which not only cleverly absorbs the fragmented text to make it more refined, but also reduces the player's reading burden. Compared to the traditional visual novel mode of cg+ text, this treatment greatly deepens the player's sense of immersion.
The way the stage play is performed gives the player more space
In order to enable players to fully enjoy the camera sense brought by the stage play, the Vanilla Society has made sufficient efforts in art and graphics. As always, Vanilla Society still adheres to the 2D hand-drawn style in this game. In order to make the performance more vivid, vanilla society has designed more than a dozen sets of action modules for different characters to ensure that each character can maintain the fluency of its movements in different scenes.
In the background, vanilla Society uses a large number of 2D layers to stack and perform dynamic light processing and environmental sound effects for different scenes, and the beautiful picture seems to bring the former Showa to life. The scenes depicted by this meticulously crafted attitude are naturally exquisite art appreciations. The excellent and exquisite form of expression is already available, and all that remains is a soul with depth.
The processing of dynamic light makes the scene more vivid
Tell me about his script. This work is a large group portrait drama composed of 13 protagonists, using a combination of flashbacks, interludes and chaotic narration. The game depicts 13 characters in detail without deviating from the main line, so that the 13 protagonists are always connected with the main line and jointly advance the plot to uncover the truth of the world.
The plot of the game is always filled with endless freshness, pushing to the end and constantly reversing, and even overturning the previous setting. If you are a story-oriented gamer, the plot of this game will definitely make you feast your eyes.
In the arrangement of the script, Moriharu Kamiya used a lot of disorderly techniques. Because of the unique interactive approach given by the stage play, the production team cannot interfere too much with the choice and rhythm of the players in the game. Disorder becomes a good means of narration. Players trigger different events according to different choices, and the plot is like a huge puzzle, which is pieced together bit by bit by the fragments collected by the player.
And in the process of playing, the player will not affect the experience of the story because of the disordered narrative technique. On the contrary, it is precisely because of the different performance sequences that each player has a unique game experience. The data received in the questionnaire also intuitively confirmed my feelings, and almost all players agreed with the unique experience brought about by the disorderly approach. While maintaining the rhythm of the plot development, this effect can also be achieved, and Moriharu Kamiya's screenwriting ability and literary skills have to be impressive...
Sample of survey data for 65 randomly selected people
In terms of content, we also see many familiar elements, most of them from classic science fiction works. Such as "The Matrix", "Terminator", "Source Code", "Infinite Zone 23", "Godzilla", "2001 Space Odyssey"... For science fiction fans, the world composed of so many science fiction elements is full of infinite charm, which is simply a feast and carnival of science fiction, and the many stems and tributes in the plot make people see Kamiya Moriharu's romantic fantasy of science fiction. For these complex elements and bootlegs, the producers did not indulge in them alone, but cleverly matched them with the story and built a bridge between the player and the producer.
Rich sci-fi elements
In the background, the game focuses on the Showa era of 1985. This time setting is very interesting. At that time, Kamiya was still in his student days, so he was familiar with the various subcultures that were popular at that time, and many elements such as bad, acg, and pseudo-brides were very cleverly combined. The descriptions of this environment in many passages of the text are not difficult to see the current Japanese yearning for economic revival in the golden age. With the blessing of excellent art style and cultural symbols, a strong atmosphere of the times has swept in. This kind of work with a special national cultural atmosphere is worth learning from many game producers who talk about internationalization.
Night view of the city in 1985
The discovery chapter, as the name suggests, is a specially designed entry system to sort out the plot line for players.
As the player progresses, new entries and settings are gradually unlocked as the player progresses. Players can also get new clues by playing secret points earned in the Crash level. Because the plot of this game is too large and complex, in order to allow players to better understand the world view and setting of the story, this system was conceived. It's not so much a entry as it is a piece of the puzzle that the player has collected.
Because they are secret clues that are updated in real time with the plot, these "puzzles" are extremely related. The key clues that these production teams read out inadvertently can well arouse your interest in logical reasoning about the plot. It is also the addition of this system that allows the script of "Thirteen Machine Defense Circles" to do what many other fragmented narrative works can't do— to give the player a deep sense of reasoning in the narrative. This addictive sense of reasoning, paired with the quality setting of the work itself, seems to form a hallucinogen. Most of the players who play the game can't help but be deeply immersed in this carefully crafted sci-fi world, looking forward to the next part of the plot unfolding.
A summary of the secrets in the Discovery Chapter
In the 45 questionnaires filtered through the cloud player option, it is clear that everyone's affirmation of the discovery article is reflected. In this result, 84.45% of the players expressed their affirmation of the guiding role of the discovery article, while 4.44% of the players were opposed, while the other 11.11% of the players had no specific understanding of the playing experience at that time. Through this survey, I also think that not only is it limited to the script, but also in the context of other subsidiary systems, it may also help players to experience the plot in depth. Guiding the player into the story to make logical deductions make it part of the story, and this ingenuity is the charm of the interactive carrier of video games.
Data sector chart
The Crash Chapter is the battle part of this game. Its plot follows immediately after the recollection. Due to the two-part story connection and unlocked story mode, players can switch between reminiscence and collapse plates. The combat system of "Thirteen Machine Defense Circle" adopts a combination of semi-instant wargames and atb, and players need to hold the "Aegis" for a specified period of time or destroy all enemies to win. The game is based on a level system, with a maximum of six mechs per level. According to the fatigue value, each mech can only fight a maximum of 2 consecutive battles, so players need to mix different mechs reasonably to ensure that each battle has full combat effectiveness.
Basic rules
The game does a lot of subtraction on the battle screen, using the form of a tactical deduction sandbox, and the different units are represented in simple geometry. This sense of picture gives the player a sense of tactical command in the sandbox. Although the picture is simple, the designer uses a very clever method to portray the momentum of the backwater war.
In terms of skills, the Vanilla Society continues to exert its craftsmanship spirit, making different animation effects, sound effects and hand feedback for different weapons and attack methods. With the blessing of these stunts, this simple graphics bring a better gaming experience. Especially in the portrayal of mecha and skill performances by the Vanilla Society, the whole battle is not the slightest monotonous, and with the rhythm of bgm, the whole battle can be described as very emotional.
Simple yet stylish battle scenes
On the combat system, the Vanilla Society made a very wise choice. They didn't put as much effort into the numerical system as other strategy game makers did. Compared with the numerical values, the mutual restraint relationship between different skills and different types of mecha is emphasized, and the careful calculation of the numerical values is discarded, allowing the player to handle and plan the entire battle from a macro perspective.
Even so, the Vanilla Society still has a lot of problems with the combat system. The Vanilla Society focuses too much on creating a sense of atmosphere on the battlefield, but ignores the overall depth. Later in the game, once the player grows up, the battle becomes a one-sided form of crushing, with little to no challenge at all.
Limited enemies and battle modes can also make subsequent battles very boring. In the face of the very creative block city distribution, there is no further design of more battle systems, which also causes the entire battle chapter to not be too reproducible. Once the entire battle part is cleared, it gives people a feeling of being tasteless and discarded.
According to the questionnaire received, it also intuitively reflects the shortcomings of the Vanilla Society in the design of the combat system. In the chart below, this problem is reflected. Of the 25 successful cases, 48 percent of players agreed with this view, 24 percent disagreed, and 28 percent paid little attention to the experience problems caused by the combat system. As mentioned above, the combat system of "Thirteen Fighter Defense Circles" did not capture the hearts of players, and it is not so much a combat part of the game as it was designed to achieve the plot.
Questionnaire chart
"Thirteen Aircraft Defense Circle" has a special historical charm and different cultural elements. If you're an aggador, you must not miss it; if you're a picky drama party, you'll have to choose him; if you're a Vanilla Society fan, it's worth buying a ps4 for.
"Thirteen Machine Defense Circle" is an excellent game, the quality of its game script is difficult to find in the game industry, and its exquisite art style is unique. Although due to the size of the studio and the cost of the problem, the vanilla club has many problems in the game system, but the flaws are not hidden.
Seven years of waiting, instead of disappointing players, gave players more expectations Since the game script was written entirely by Moriharu Kamiya, we can clearly feel his love for science fiction and nostalgia for the golden age that has passed. Perhaps it is precisely because of this idea that the birth of "Thirteen Machine Defense Circle" was written for the favorite science fiction and written for the favorite Showa. It is precisely because of this obsession that the vanilla society has been created.
Even if you are 80 years old, you will continue to play! Do only the games you like. - Moriharu Kamiya