Review of "Mountain and Sea Traveler": Abacus Sudoku Huarong Dao, did you still need to know these things when dealing with Yin differences?

Mountain and Sea Traveler is a 2D Chinese style puzzle adventure game developed by Yunshan Xiaoyu Studio and released by Gamera Game. Players will play the role of the last "Dream Reverser" Qi Yun in the game, exploring the remaining memories of others, traveling through time, changing the past, and helping trapped souls return to reincarnation.

As a (pseudo) folk enthusiast, I have always been looking forward to this game. After experiencing the complete process of the game, I believe that this game effectively tells the story of a ghost who travels between the yin and yang realms. At the same time, the combination of various puzzles and national elements in the game is also quite commendable.

Pixel style ink painting world

"Mountain and Sea Traveler" adopts a pixel ink painting style, which is simple yet not crude, vividly and appropriately presenting various styles of scenes. In the game, players will shuttle through various scenes such as desolate and dilapidated villages, noisy and eerie ghost markets, misty mountaintop retreats, and eerie monster nests, each showcasing a unique sense of beauty. Paired with excellent soundtrack and exquisite object design, "Mountain and Sea Traveler" performs quite well in terms of audio-visual performance.

The portrayal of the world of the dead in the game is particularly outstanding: unlike the traditional heavy and gloomy concept, the underworld in "Mountain and Sea Traveler" is harmonious and colorful, even more joyful than the underworld in the neighboring "Black Emperor" - players can outsmart unscrupulous vendors in the ghost market, and if they wish, they can also hear the storyteller telling poignant love stories, and even spend some money to buy candy figurine crafts. Meanwhile, many underworld officials such as Meng Po, Black and White impermanence, and Niu Tou Ma Mian are also happy to chat and laugh with the protagonist who grew up in the underworld.

Turning History with the Power of Contrary Dreams

Compared to the underworld where everyone here is talented and speaks well, the plot of Yangjian in "The Traveler of Mountains and Seas" will be even heavier, and the protagonist will have no time to show his usual ease and humor. The plot of the game begins with the discovery of a soul that cannot be reincarnated by Black and White impermanence. Therefore, they entrust the "Dream Reverser" Qiyun to investigate, and Qiyun is also involved in a conspiracy as a result.

As a dream breaker, Qiyun possesses the ability to transform the thoughts of others and rewrite history. In the game, players can rely on memory fragments left by others to return to the past. In this case, players cannot directly interact with the environment, but can influence the thoughts of surrounding characters through perception.

In the reverse dream state, players can obtain "ideas" by observing the scene or directly extracting them from the thinking NPC's brain, and then instill the ideas into other NPCs who are hesitating, thereby changing their original plans and making them take new actions.

As the most unique and important system in Mountain and Sea Traveler, "Reverse Dream" appears several times in the game, each time accompanied by significant plot progression or twists. However, the power of anti dream is not omnipotent: in each memory, players can only choose to extract up to 9 ideas, so when flipping through NPC's thoughts, they need to put aside useless distractions and focus on the truly important content; At the same time, in some scenarios, characters can only generate new ideas when memories continue to advance, but if players cannot find the appropriate ideas to change history before the end of the memories, it will lead to the failure of the dream reversal.

, but this interface always gives me a sense of mystery and technology, slightly highlighting the drama

Fortunately, solving puzzles in reverse dreams in games is not complicated. Often, the key information needed is marked in red to prompt players, and players can pause time to think during reverse dreams. At the same time, this game does not require players to achieve the optimal result in every reverse dream - for example, a certain reverse dream in the game requires players to change the carpenter's mind, so that he can chop down a big tree to prevent it from accidentally falling and injuring people. However, if players cannot achieve the result of "chopping the tree", they can also complete the reverse dream and advance the plot by having the carpenter build pillars to fix the big tree, but they will miss some related collection elements.

A variety of types of Chinese style puzzle solving

In addition to the reverse dream puzzle mentioned earlier, "Mountain and Sea Traveler" also includes various conventional puzzles. Surprisingly, although the overall difficulty of the puzzles in this game is not high, they come in various forms and are different from each other. More importantly, most of the puzzles in the game have Chinese characteristics.

If you have experienced the trial version of this game, you should still remember that a puzzle in the game is presented using traditional Chinese scales. Players need to use the scales to calculate the weight of multiple weights, in order to calculate the password for the puzzle. The official version includes more puzzles that match the game theme.

One stroke

For example, when refining elixirs, players need to calculate the content of each ingredient and arrange it according to the traditional "Luoshu" requirements, so that the total amount of medicine placed horizontally and vertically in the Nine Palace Ge Dan Furnace is equal to 15; For example, when players need to draw talismans to battle enemies, the presentation style is a classic one stroke puzzle. The plot explanation for this is "the stroke breaks, the breath breaks, and this talisman becomes useless"... The game also includes various traditional Chinese style puzzles such as Huarong Dao, Abacus, and Music, which are very satisfying.

abacus calculation

The forms of puzzles in "The Traveler of Mountains and Seas" are diverse, but their difficulty is relatively moderate. Due to the small overall scene of this game, players are unlikely to encounter situations where they receive clues but do not know where to use them. When solving puzzles, players can choose to seek advice from their followers, who not only provide puzzle solving tips but also supplement relevant knowledge. This system is both interesting and ensures a player's experience.

Even players who are not familiar with the use of traditional tools such as abacus, pole scale, and loom can complete puzzles with assistance; Players who are confident in their ability to solve puzzles can choose to completely ignore the prompts during the gameplay and gain a greater sense of achievement.

The collection elements of refinement

Broadly speaking, I believe that the collection content in this game can be divided into two types: firstly, as the plot progresses, players can unlock various entries, expand and introduce the monsters, equipment, language and other content mentioned and introduced in the game, which can popularize some traditional cultural knowledge for players; Another type is the true official collection in this game, which is related to the plot of the game. Players need to search for and collect various exotic flowers and plants during the gameplay. After collecting them all, they can unlock a hidden reverse dream. This plot not only solves some of the puzzles in the game, but also lays more groundwork for the sequel.

After completing the game, players will unlock the collection mode that allows them to freely choose levels. At that time, a prompt will appear under the missed flower entry in the process. Players can refer to the prompt to return to the corresponding paragraph to complete it.

Some regrets

I regret to inform you that the types of monsters encountered by the protagonist during their business trips in the mortal world are relatively rare, and the only type that can truly pose a threat to the protagonist is the boss; Although there are many monsters in the underworld, there are not many with names and surnames. I had secretly hoped that "Mountain and Sea Traveler" would have a feeling of being a local "King of Ren" in terms of monsters, but in reality, even the three monsters on the game startup interface did not appear in the process& nbsp;

In addition, although the BGM in this game is mostly pleasant and appropriate, in the final boss pre war plot, a very urgent situation was paired with an especially festive music, which made me feel both puzzled and acted out.

As a puzzle game, the puzzles in "Mountain and Sea Traveler" are not difficult but very rich. More importantly, it achieves an appropriate combination of puzzle design and game themes; In terms of plot, this work presents a relatively smooth adventure of the years when I was a ghost, and I am looking forward to how the story of the sequel will unfold.

Overall, the performance of this game is worthy of the four words "national style and supernatural" in the promotion. If you are a puzzle game player or interested in trying out a traditional Chinese folk themed game, "Mountain and Sea Traveler" will be a good choice.