Testimonials! This baby bus version of the soul game actually doesn't play according to the routine?
At the beginning of last year, a game called "Crab Crab Treasure Hunt" attracted a lot of attention after it was announced, and it received 98% praise on Steam after its recent release, and now it is a situation of rave reviews.
The reason why there is a lot of attention and so many praises after the release is mainly because this indie game does not follow the usual path, and integrates the souls gameplay in the theme of crab treasure hunt adventure, which is refreshing, and the game is not confined to some of the past routines of souls games, but has been improved and changed, such as lowering the difficulty and threshold of the game, and then for example, the humorous and witty world view and plot, as well as the novel shell changing gameplay.
Overall, this title makes souls-like games more possible and expandable.
The most people-friendly soul game?
Soul games have developed to the present, often associated with high difficulty, and many players may still be stuck in a certain boss in "Wolf" or "Dark Souls", especially some bosses in "Wolf" may not be able to get over for several years.
And the reason why "Elden Ring" has a lot of problems but can sell more than 20 million, the latest data is as high as 25 million, the key is that the game through the design of the open world to make players grow through a lot of exploration, after the level and character attribute value increase, and after obtaining a variety of powerful weapons, there is no boss that cannot be beaten, even in "Wolf" in the card BOSS card for several years players can also clear the "Elden Ring".
Testimonials! This baby bus version of the soul game actually doesn't play according to the routine?
This work seems to see this trend, and it may also be to attract more players, so the difficulty and threshold of the game are lowered through various methods, which can be described as quite close to the people.
As far as the specific design of this work is concerned, it is through the following design to achieve the purpose of being close to the people.
The first is the simplification of the gameplay of the Souls-based system.
Unlike the souls-based games launched by FS Corporation, which have a large and complex set of classes and a variety of designs such as magic, miracles, and spells, this game has been highly simplified.
For example, in many common soul-based games, the protagonist can be equipped with various positions of the body such as the head, body, and feet, and this work is because the protagonist is a hermit crab, so in addition to equipping weapons, only shellfish items can be equipped, as well as mimic attacks with special abilities, and that's it, so you don't have to think about how to change clothes and reduce weight on multiple parts of the body that are too complex, because the only thing that affects the weight in this work is the shell that is equipped, and its weight is too high to affect the evasion performance.
Testimonials! This baby bus version of the soul game actually doesn't play according to the routine?
The second is to improve the performance of the protagonist crab in all aspects.
For example, the characters in this work have no energy bar limit, and they can jump, which is much stronger than the performance of the protagonist of the Black Soul series.
In addition, the protagonist in the game also has a lot of powerful attacks, and the player can deal with most enemies by clicking on a few powerful skills at the beginning and combining them with powerful shells.
In the middle of the game, the player can obtain a powerful mimic attack skill, which is very strong against the sky, similar to the existence of a "wheelchair" like the famous knife Tsukigaku in "Elden Ring".
It is common to design one or more wheelchairs in current souls games, because many players are not very good at playing such games, and the meaning of wheelchairs is to allow players to obtain a powerful weapon or a powerful skill, so that ordinary players can also clear the level, such as the Guan knife in "Dark Souls", which is the black knight halberd, the giant sword in "Dark Souls 2", and the broadsword in "Dark Souls 3", all belong to wheelchairs.
And this mimic attack skill that exists as a wheelchair in this work may be more powerful than the wheelchair in other soul games, which can be said to further reduce the difficulty.
And it also gives players the right to choose, for example, players who like to challenge high difficulty can not use this skill, and ordinary players with handicap players can equip it.
Testimonials! This baby bus version of the soul game actually doesn't play according to the routine?
The third is that the game's options offer a variety of options that allow players to reduce the difficulty through the assist mode.
In the assist mode, players will find that the game's default difficulty is actually difficult, but they can choose between the preset easy and story difficulties, and the story difficulty is actually similar to the normal difficulty.
In addition, there are a large number of options in the assist mode that can be adjusted by yourself, such as reducing the damage taken by the protagonist Creel, or reducing the health of the enemy, or the extra time of evasion invincibility.
After turning on this magic option,Creel can basically walk sideways in the game after getting a gun.,It can even be said that a child player can use this weapon to clear the book.,It's no wonder that some people jokingly call this an early education version of the soul game、Baby bus version of the soul game。
In fact, this is also the future development direction of the game industry, and the current player base is becoming more and more divided, which is very different from the situation in the 1980s and 1990s, when the game industry was dominated by hardcore players.
Testimonials! This baby bus version of the soul game actually doesn't play according to the routine?
Therefore, some players can immerse themselves in the souls-based game for a long time, while others will take a detour when they see the souls-based game. Players have a wide range of preferences, and it is inevitable to provide multiple options for difficulty adjustment to allow hardcore players, ordinary players, and light gamers to choose the same game as much as possible, such as Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which was released earlier this year, and there will be more games with similar practices in the future.
Of course, FS's Souls-based games never offer difficulty options, and Miyazaki Hidetaka once explained why in a media interview in 2018, and he said this:
"We didn't include a difficulty option because we wanted to bring the same discussion and the same enjoyment to everyone. We want everyone to face this challenge first, and then let players find a player who fits their style to overcome the challenge.
We want everyone to feel a sense of accomplishment, we want everyone to feel proud and participate in discussions at the same level. If we add different levels of difficulty, it will divide the player base and players will have a different experience. This is an aspect that we put a lot of thought into when designing our games. This is the case with previous games, and the new game "Wolf" is almost the same. ”
Testimonials! This baby bus version of the soul game actually doesn't play according to the routine?
In other words, the souls games produced by FS and Hidetaka Miyazaki were originally aimed at hardcore players, and they were the origin of such games, so the player's base plate was large enough, coupled with the clever level design, so that FS could not consider providing difficulty options.
However, as a later imitator, it is not necessary for the general company to completely learn from the practices of FS and Hidetaka Miyazaki, but can open up new paths and try different production directions to attract different groups of players.
Unique charm
One of the core gameplay features of Crab Crab Treasure Hunt is the "shell change", where the little hermit crab Creel can use a variety of marine debris as his back shell, such as cans, glass bullet cups, and even discarded Lego bricks and sushi. There are more than 50 kinds of "back shells" that can be collected in the game, which can fully satisfy players who have a hobby of collecting.
The player's health bar is composed of their own health bar and the back shell health bar, and the shell's health is consumed first when hiding in the shell and taking damage.
In addition, the back shell also provides a function similar to the common "shield counter" in souls games, and different shells have different attributes and skills, such as Yakult's skill is continuous health regeneration, cans are to release bubbles with tracking effect, small red cups can be used to strengthen attacks, banana peels and sushi can be used to restore some health, and so on.
Testimonials! This baby bus version of the soul game actually doesn't play according to the routine?
And these backshells have the same durability as the weapons in the Dark Souls series, and all defenses in the game depend on these backshells, and successful defenses still consume a lot of durability. And once the back shell is broken, the character can't make defensive moves, and then because the game takes place in the ocean world, and there is a lot of this kind of marine garbage in the ocean, so players can pick up a marine garbage at any time during the boss battle to make a back shell to use.
In addition to the fancy experience brought by the back shell, there is also a surprising "fishing" element in the combat of this game.
When it comes to "seafood", it is impossible not to mention "fishing", and if you can't "fish" in leisure, then "fish" in battle. In this game, the main character Creel's hook ability consists of a line and a fish hook, so when Creel needs to hook the enemy in front of him, he needs to engage in a "old man and the sea"-style fight with the enemy.
This set of "fishing" plays is like a stroke of genius for the combat system of this work. The basic combat experience of the game itself is already quite novel, and the fishing rod that is thrown out of the game is suddenly a little more interesting.
In addition, the hook and the unique floating ability in the marine world make Creel's ability to cross terrain quite remarkable. Therefore, the creators are very bold in designing exaggerated height differences in several of the game's main box gardens. The terrain is distinct, so that the main box garden of this work presents a fairly distinct sense of hierarchy, and countless passages and forks also make the exploration experience and sense of adventure qualitatively improved.
Testimonials! This baby bus version of the soul game actually doesn't play according to the routine?
In addition, the game's story dialogue is also very humorous, rather than a fragmented narrative like the Souls. A lot of the dialogue is very nonsensical and makes people laugh, and unlike the characters in the souls game, the characters in this game are simple and straightforward, and there is no plot that players can't understand.
And the world of the game is also very different from the dark world view of the common soul system, but a sunny ocean world, which can also be said to be an interesting fairy tale world, the creators have used all kinds of imagination to make all kinds of marine debris in the game become an interesting existence in the world where the sea creatures live, for example, the city's building is a bottle of wine bottle, the guardrail is film, the bridge is slippers, the flag is ketchup packaging, the currency is microplastics, the weapon is a straw, and the residents' snacks are unfinished cigarette butts.
Testimonials! This baby bus version of the soul game actually doesn't play according to the routine?
This is actually not confined to some established labels of the past soul games,For example, when it comes to soul games in the past,Many people will think that there must be a dark world view、Fragmented narrative、High difficulty and other things,And this work not only reduces the difficulty and has no fragmented narrative,There is no dark world view,But it can also get a lot of praise,This actually shows that who does not stipulate how soul games must be done,How must be designed,Sometimes the opposite is done,Open your mind,Maybe you can get unexpected repercussions。
Animal games have a lot to offer
Animal games were actually common in the past, such as MD's famous Dolphin, and the Earthworm Warrior series was once very famous, and the Mickey Mouse series also shined in the MD and SFC era.
But I don't know why, in recent years, especially for triple-A masterpieces, there are almost no games with animals as the protagonists, only some independent games dare to try, such as the "Crab War" released in 2020, and then "Simulated Goat" and "Simulated Big Goose", "Lost", which won the TGA Best Independent Game of the Year in 2022, uses cats as the protagonists, and this work is also ingenious with hermit crabs as the protagonists.
Testimonials! This baby bus version of the soul game actually doesn't play according to the routine?
Like the most amazing idea of this work is here.,Soul games have produced too many works over the years.,But before that, no one thought that a game with an animal as the protagonist could be integrated into the soul gameplay.,So along this line of thought,Is it any other animal that can also be made into a soul game.,And the hermit crab or any other animal can also be integrated with other gameplay.,Such as Metroidvania or vampire survivor mode or something like that.。
Perhaps in the future we will see more games with interesting gameplay featuring animal protagonists.
Testimonials! This baby bus version of the soul game actually doesn't play according to the routine?
epilogue
This is the second game created by the development studio Aggro Crab, and it has already achieved quite good results since its release, not only to rave reviews, but also to sell 30,000 on the first day.
It even reached No. 8 on the Steam best-selling list at one point, second only to "Fallout 4" and "Persona 3" remake, which have recently risen in popularity due to the TV series.
And IGN, a well-known foreign game media, gave this work a high evaluation of 8 points.
The IGN HQ review had this to say: "Crab Crab Treasure Hunt is one of my favorite Souls-like games in a long time... It borrows a lot from the classic genre, but adds a colorful design charm that feels completely new... The game is so clever and full of wonderful absurdities that it's definitely worth your time."
Aggro Crab is a relatively small indie studio based in Seattle, and after the game received so many positive reviews and a lot of high marks, the members of the studio were so surprised that the developer's official Twitter wrote: "Brothers, is this true? And sent a lot of tears of joy and tears.
Testimonials! This baby bus version of the soul game actually doesn't play according to the routine?
This is also the preciousness of the spirit of indie games, and for these indie game developers, the fact that their attempts to go off the beaten path have been recognized by a large number of players shows how important innovative ideas are, and this will also inspire more indie game developers to make bold attempts and explorations. (Text/Feiyun)
