I worked on Far Star Story for ten years and cured my cyberpunk PTSD

In 10 years, it means that some people have transformed from ignorant elementary school students to young people who have just emerged from society; Their goal may no longer be to become scientists, doctors, or lawyers, but to think about whether the resume they just submitted today can be favored by HR from small companies in the 18th tier. When he was a child, his craving finally allowed him to freely take a few bites, and then he flipped through the filtered meals on his social media, sighing helplessly.

For some people, 10 years are all spent creating a game that they consider perfect. From the rough prototype based on RPG Maker in 2011 to the complete story experience after DLC's release a few weeks ago, Far Star Story has gone through its 10-year journey.

Although this is a game that ranges from a large overall framework, to small scraps and even developer logs, it has not received much attention from domestic media over the years. After thinking about the reason, I think it should be too "plain".

The blandness here certainly does not refer to the game itself, but rather its development background, personnel, promotion, and gameplay are all without any gimmicks.

For example, with the wealth code of video self media nowadays, verifying some information is a problem that could have been solved with just a few clicks on Google. It requires a story of "racking one's brains - almost giving up - hidden and bright", just like discovering a shocking secret to gain attention. The special identity of game creators, the magnificent journey of tackling challenges, and the hot topic marketing that ignites hot topics have become important factors in whether works can be popular.

However, the German team behind "Far Star Story", Radical Fish Games, is a group of simple and unadorned children, a pair of computer science college students who are still studying. With a love for JRPG, they embarked on the path of developing games. In addition, a few online friends they met also worked part-time on video chat software to create some visuals, music, and sound effects, and everything started to run like a cloud.

Radical Fish Games has only had one game in the past 10 years, Far Star Story

For their story development, composer Deniz Akbulut simply casually said, "Go to bed and wake up early, rest well."; Producer Felix Klein casually mentioned that he wrote a task list - whoever has free time will do it.

The only fork in the entire process was probably at the end of 2018, when they made a premature judgment in an official announcement: due to compatibility issues with HTML5 code, in order for Far Star Story to log in to the Switch, "the old sow will climb the tree.". The result was another true fragrance in the Nintendo face-to-face meeting a month later... Looking back now, this should be one of their few successful "marketing" efforts.

also thanks the localization team for their excellent translation of the announcement

On the Craft of Sewing

With some selfishness in mind, I originally didn't want to quote "perfect". Although Far Star Story does have some issues, such as high difficulty and a lack of height difference prompts on the map, its overall size and quality are close to the ceiling of independent games. A nearly 100 hour experience driven by stories, a vast and not empty world map, exquisite combat and puzzle design, a huge talent tree composed of five panels, coupled with impressive multi character shaping, to the point where comprehensive ARPG and similar comparisons are needed, the brain will probably only have a few names.

The combat scenes like are not uncommon in Far Star Story

However, Radical Fish Games has listed many names of its predecessors:

The visual style of the game clearly draws inspiration from classic works such as "Creation of Heaven and Earth", "Legend of the Holy Sword", and "Wheel of Time and Space". The overall exploration and missions are mainly inspired by "Blade of Abyss", while battles are a mix of games such as "Kingdom Heart" and "Ghost Cry".

The inspiration for the puzzle elements comes from the old Legend of Zelda, and the design of map depth and jumping may be similar to that of Arandora. The shooting and pitching mechanisms are a bit like the egg toss in Yoshihide Island. The background of the game may look similar to Sword God Domain, but it actually comes from an earlier. hack series. In addition, some scenes may have shadows from Final Fantasy or Xenoblade Armor. "The Statue of the Goddess" and "Time Travel" also provide some ideas, but it's actually difficult to list all the games that inspire us because there are so many. "

In fact, there is no need to make it so complicated. Most people's first impression of it is a 16 bit retro ARPG with a top-down angle, but the production team is not a fundamentalist retro. Many shadows, special effects, and feedback are based on current games, and the music is closer to works from the PS1 or PS2 era. They also bought an old module to imitate the sound effects of Japanese games in the 1990s.

from  Deniz Akbulut's game soundtrack

Generally speaking, developers with high self-esteem are either ashamed to admit that they have borrowed something, or go to the other extreme and display the slogan of "being on par with someone". After people realize that the goods are not right, they have already developed resistance to such rhetoric.

But Far Star Story to some extent dispelled my prejudices, and from the degree of fusion of various elements, it did not show much signs of stitching, at least better than the widely acclaimed "Space Wolves" and "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Knights" that resemble the sea of gods and ancient tombs. The key is to have a core feature that integrates scattered things: combat and puzzles complement each other, and no one can do without their design.

The catchphrase "combat and puzzles complement each other" has long lost its meaning, as although many games contain elements of combat and puzzle solving, it is often difficult to see chemical reactions between them.

The Far Star Story unifies the solutions of both, to the extent that you often encounter situations like this:

Boss fought for half a day without breaking the defense, only to realize that he had to use electrical elements to trigger the electrodes in the scene and paralyze it;

The little monsters only discovered that they had been infected with viruses to remove the golden bell masks from their bodies when they were beaten to the point of cramping their hands;

The Gatling machine gun tower couldn't escape, only to realize that it needed to use wave elements to interact with air balloons and achieve teleportation.

What left a deep impression on me was a "cat catching" section in the branch line. If it was designed to be easy, it could be made to "kill the cat" and complete the task. However, players need to use electricity to light up the iron cage at the right time to prevent these cute creatures from escaping. In short, each battle contains multiple puzzles that need to be solved, and some of them can indeed utilize the characteristics of RPG - to pass through through level training recklessly; A part of the brain can't turn around, so it really doesn't work.

Catching Cats with Iron Cages

On the contrary, pure puzzle solving levels can also bring a sense of urgency in operation: for example, first using fire elements to blow out steam bubbles to make the mechanism door rotate, and then encountering a furnace that needs to be cooled with ice; After solving the problem with the furnace, the entire assembly line needs to be started with the help of current. If a quick judgment is not made, the mechanism door will close within the time limit.

is a headache inducing puzzle level at first glance

Through this core feature, seemingly complex action systems, puzzle designs, and talent trees are organically combined. The problem of neglecting other character characteristics in traditional RPG due to one genre being too strong has also been addressed to some extent due to the need to fully utilize abilities.

Such detailed levels and enemy configurations, with mainline missions, side quests, scene puzzles, and unexpected events scattered throughout a map comparable to a medium-sized open world, make it hard to believe that this task can be completed by just two programmers and about ten part-time workers.

The old sow also climbed the tree

The development team of Far Star Story actually has a clear idea of the problem of the venue being too large. In an interview, they admitted that "small independent developers should avoid this situation, but they are stubborn and can't help but do it themselves." In addition, there was almost no reduction in the originally planned content, so it is understandable that a game has been played for 10 years. In short, their approach is to first build the basic elements and the overall framework of the story, and then implement them one by one, like a German without a sense of humor.

If we go back to the game itself, the concept of "big" can also be felt from its world setting. A consortium called "Concrete Effect" has developed an MMORPG, but it is not purely a virtual program, but a physical one located on a satellite orbiting a gas giant planet. People can use equipment to connect with "concrete objects" for entertainment, with the goal of breaking through a series of dungeons.

On the planet called Shalond, players need to follow a portion of the Pathfinder's ancestral path, which means they must explore several ancestral temples and gain the power of the Four Elements in order to uncover the secrets of this planet in the final challenge.

It is not an exaggeration to say that as a pure standalone game, Far Star Story has created a trustworthy MMO world, which is already quite magical. A more intuitive impression is that most characters, except for you, are "dynamic". They will wander around the city and outdoors, sitting in groups by the riverbank chatting aimlessly, creating an atmosphere of people coming and going, and creating the illusion of "playing online games on their own".

On this basis, some tasks have enriched the personality of NPC group portraits. It's like having a green haired guy constantly come to you for PK, and in the end, he becomes a good friend who often chats and teams up; A buddy will teach you how to "get stuck" in the game, allowing players to discover areas and bosses that do not even exist on the map; There is also a guild called "International Hacker Organization" that searches for loopholes in the game to obtain rewards.

For the core characters in those stories, maintaining the atmosphere of MMO also requires a team building system. To be honest, from the perspective of the gameplay of Far Star Story, this is not a necessary feature because most of the time players need to solve problems in dungeons alone. However, when you open your friend list and find that you can connect and chat with some characters or invite teams, the sense of immersion will obviously be further enhanced.

In the latest DLC, the feeling of "playing online games in a single player" is further enhanced to the extreme: a large number of "players" gather at the entrance of the upcoming large-scale dungeon, and the "First Scholar" guild where the protagonist is located has also sent teams of new and old groups to collaborate and conquer.

What's more, team-mates will respond to the surrounding environment by chatting. For example, one of the protagonist's good friends screamed and became numb when she saw the worm monster. Another bookworm like little brother often roast about the unreasonable game design of the "concrete effect".

But compared to most RPGs, the overall plot of Far Star Story is not about saving the world or defeating gods, but rather something more practical. The story is divided into a bright line and a dark line, with the adventure in MMORPG on the surface and the entanglement in reality behind it.

A lot of things can be seen from the background setting and opening information. A large consortium with the ability to build entertainment venues on satellites, a virtual character control module that can simulate human neural networks, and a mute protagonist promised to play games all the time to retrieve memories - isn't it particularly cyberpunk like?

What is not vulgar is that the production team did not rely on visual elements such as stacked neon lights, slums, and rugged corporate buildings to express this. Instead, they used dialogue and the linkage between real life and MMORPG to showcase a series of conspiracies and tricks behind it.

A stable story always brings unpredictable turning points to players, and the interactive atmosphere created by "mid game" is ultimately used to pave the way for emotions, hitting the soft spots in everyone's heart. The deep narrative brought an unforgettable experience, a touching story that cured my cyberpunk PTSD in this era of homogeneous and rampant cyberpunk themes.

With the release of DLC's "New Home", the old sow has also climbed the tree, and the 10-year journey of "Far Star Story" seems to have come to an end. More truth is revealed, more choices and reflections are presented, and the cute little protagonist with blue hair, Leah, is still bouncing around.

This work may never have found a chance to become popular in its lifetime, but what is truly important is that an independent game with depth, quality, and content volume that can rival that of a major player's work has been proven by Radical Fish Games to be completely possible to produce. Perhaps when we stare at those cold fans who have repeatedly hyped up IPs and lament the afterglow, we can turn around and see the new continent created by another group of enthusiastic people.