"Shamu 3" review: Are your feelings still in the shelf life?

On November 20, 2019, I played Semu 3.

Born in 97, I naturally will not contact the story of "Shemu" 20 years ago, although for this review I experienced a remake of "Shemu 1+2" some time ago, but this is obviously different from the emotional precipitation of more than 20 years, so this review will try to stand in the position of new players to evaluate, as far as possible to restore the experience of "Shemu 3" for readers. On this basis, I try to understand the yesterday, today and tomorrow of the "Shamu" series from more angles.

Surely you have often seen the word "semu" in the recent news, if you are young like me, then you will certainly have similar doubts about "what is this?", I hope that your doubts can be partially answered after reading the review. But unfortunately, the historical significance of the "Semu" series, the many stories of the birth of "Semu 3" and the controversies he is now subject to are not within the scope of this article, let's "talk about games".

The entry interface of "Semu 3" is very old school, just like domestic games from many years ago. He does not have the gorgeous "Persona 5", there is no "AI: Dream Detective" true, really use four words to characterize is "normal", such "normal" almost exists in the whole game, I will discuss in detail later.

Drunk Pops and kung fu masters have rules

An option called "Previously on" is the first unique feature of the game. It's not an uncommon word, you see it on a lot of TV shows, but it's really rare to see this option in games. After the player clicks the item, the timeline will jump back 20 years in an instant, and the story of the previous games "Semu 1" and "Semu 2" will be displayed on the screen in the original CG with narration. For old players, this is the emotional groundwork before starting the long-lost adventure of Bayueliang, and for new players, this setting allows them to understand the game plot in the shortest time and start their first "Shamu journey".

The opening of "Shemu 3" follows the end of "Shemu 2", in order to solve many mysteries, Ba Yueliang came to Guilin, China, and met the story of the local girl Ling Shahua. With the help of "Previously on", even new players will be able to understand the efforts of the teenager Ba Yueliang in order to get revenge. If the player can have a trace of empathy with Ba Yuelang after understanding, then you can understand why he is very much like a "elm head" in terms of emotion, and give the protagonist's face stiff a reasonable explanation - bitter hatred.

If you don't understand the main character emotionally, the Chinese cultural elements that producer Yu Suzuki has designed in the game will be another motivation. The Chinese culture in the "Shamu" series has always been the point that players enjoy talking about, the second generation of Cantonese environmental sound, the beautiful landscape of Guilin and the ubiquitous Chinese kung Fu, so that the world players have a curiosity about this mysterious country in the East and get answers in the game.

One of the reasons why Yu Suzuki's design concepts are recognized by a large number of players is that they are extremely detailed. "Shamu 3" has a series of previous works similar to "all drawers can be opened" fine, and a large number of calligraphy, paintings, Musical Instruments, herbs and mysterious Yin and Yang, eight diagrams and other designs are endowed with the characteristics of Oriental culture, although most of these cultural elements are not very deep, but for any foreign players, these are enough to arouse his curiosity about foreign culture. And play the game driven by that.

This refinement is also reflected in the polish of the game's "sense of reality". The "Shamu" series has been praised for a large number of unique and real systems, the task system into a notebook if only the concept of stealing, the hard work to earn money is only to prolong the difficulty of players to obtain resources, then the special in the "wayfinding" is the best example of its fine performance.

Shahua's painting skills are very unique

The story progression of "Semu" can't escape the cycle of getting from point A to point B or investigating around point C, but when the player wants to have some kind of target point that can be marked to show direction, distance, and other data, it is impossible. This is because the "Shamu" series does not have a visual virtual map, the game's maps are either hand-drawn or traditional paper maps, and when the player wants to find the target point, he can only ask the NPCS around him for help.

NPCS around the map will also be eager to help you with directions, but the "directions" here are literal, the NPC will tell the player a message like "stay ahead, you go straight there" and reach out to point out the specific direction. It's an experience you don't get in many other games, but in Semu 3, it's an experience you get throughout the game.

On the one hand, this design strengthens the sense of reality of the game, more in line with the realistic logic, but also makes "Shamu" appear so unique; On the other hand, it does eat up a lot of the player's time, as some missions require the player to ask all the NPCS on the street. Unraveling the plot puzzle is very interesting, but really want people to "draw" silk "peel" cocoon, a little boring or inevitable.

Sophistication is also reflected in the game's well-organized casual and combat design. In "Shamu 3", players have a lot of time to waste, is to go to the martial arts to upgrade kung fu, challenge the strong, or go to the entertainment venue to fly, "water" open gambling are arbitrary, leisure and combat two systems are designed very full.

Go for it. Bike to bike

The combat system is full of a strong "VR warrior" flavor, the series is one of the masterpieces of the game company Sega, which is known for its hard style, and focuses on reality, but because the main producer is Yu Suzuki, we can call it "Yu Suzuki style". Under the "Suzuki Yu style", not only does the character's action feel full of blows, but the "rub" concept of fighting games is also completely reproduced, and players can obtain various "rub" kung fu moves through a large number of ways.

It's not that I don't want to learn. It's too expensive

The kung fu moves that the protagonist Ba Yueliang has learned in the first and second generation of works can still be used, although this is a very logical setting, but because too many games are not logical nowadays, it is valuable, but the kung fu cultivation method is not so exquisite, players need to repeat "squat", "punch" and "walk chicken" and other small games. Or call the last NPC arranged by the system to "free battle + trigger QTE" sparring to improve the offensive and defensive values. When a player sees a slow increase in numbers, it's easy to think, "It's still a game."

The leisure system does have a bit too many elements. In addition to the large number of different types of egg-twisting machines that can be found everywhere to allow players to "play", fishing, gathering, gaming, gambling and even working will occupy players' time. The fishing system is very realistic, but the gameplay is only a simple trigger "left and right" QTE; Although the collection system adds a special medicine map to help collection, it is only a "secondary gameplay"; The arcade does have a wide variety of video games, but not to the point where players get carried away.

The really fun ones are gambling and part-time jobs. Part-time is a stable source of income for players, mainly to "chop wood" and "forklift", two small games are limited to players through time. As the name suggests, the player needs to cut as much wood as possible within the specified time, in order not to be too boring, each wood is set up a not easy to split traces, when the player splits traces, not only BGM will become more intense, the number of wood calculations will increase, but once the player splits empty, it will lose BGM and bonus "from scratch".

You can not evaluate "chopping wood" in the end is not fun, but because it is difficult to make money from normal work, players will inevitably think about cutting some wood to earn some outside blocks, the game is true as the NPC said "there are many easy ways to make money", but "chopping wood" is always an alternative.

The boss will always be there for you

"Forklift" part-time is a memory of the old players, and will also become the memories of the new players of "Shamu" in this game. This part-time job in the fun and cost-effective setting is good, a "forklift" is equal to three times "firewood" income, producers also on the "forklift" plus the number of restrictions, directly from the rules to prohibit the player's "utilitarian" thought.

Gambling is a long history of human entertainment, which is also confirmed in "Shamu". Whether it is the previous "arm wrestling" or today's "black boxing" with gambling nature, and in the entertainment venue, you can play more naked gambling games, "stone into the bucket", "wind flower moon bird" or "turtle race" are very resistant to play gambling, and even players can experience "slot machine" or "small steel ball machine" and other gambling equipment. Although it is not very realistic in setting (Guilin in 1987), it does satisfy the player's impulse to "come" in fun.

Although "Shamu 3" does have a lot of advantages, but we can not deny his lack of picture performance, play rhythm, this lack is not just with "original" can be muddled through, and for these problems, old players and new players will have completely different feelings.

The feelings of old players for "Shamu" are not experienced I can not empathize with, but due to age factors, in the emotional performance of the game, today's players may have some practical resonance with players twenty years ago.

"Shamu" series of emotional description is very "pinky", which is reflected in the original Qi Wang's "love in the heart of the mouth is difficult to open", reflected in the Baryuelang's "elm head", naturally I should not know these "exclusive" in the old player's good memories, but because the game in addition to "previous review" another "pseudo-previous review", Let the new players also have the opportunity to experience the kind of shyness of the youth "want to talk again".

I'm all right. How about you?

This is the "phone system", in the middle of the game, the map from the country to the county, along with more diverse arcade, and the hotel filled with memories of the phone.

Players can make phone calls to many of the previous characters on the laptop, and in addition to a close-up of Ba Yueliang's face, there are memories that emerge in black and white Windows. During these calls, the player can also choose different answers to the questions posed by the old man, and when he calls Hara, the box containing memories of the moon night motorcycle ride will be opened.

In the game, these characters are separated by a foreign distance, but to the player's eyes, it is more like the length of twenty years, this clever creation of the scene is difficult to defend against a shock, and veteran players are even more affected.

Goro stopped being a street punk and became a forklift worker; Hara said goodbye to the sad Japan, returned to Canada; The Sword Eagle came to Guilin and continued to participate in the story of the treasure hunt. These characters from 20 years ago have their own circumstances, and so have players from 20 years ago.

Some people travel across the ocean to Guilin to volunteer teaching; Some become game designers and make their own games; Some people are quietly thinking about "Semu 3" and giving generously in the crowdfunding stage. The game's producer, Hiroshi Suzuki, remembered these players and expressed his gratitude to them in the game.

The guest book in the hotel is filled with comments on the "Shamu" series from players around the world, in different languages, and is more than 50 pages long. In the game suddenly appeared in the building "save Shamu Pavilion", full of players' photos, the center of the pavilion slowly rotating Suzuki Yu Q version statue with a smile, there are a lot of surrounding paintings, twisting egg doll around. Seeing this scene, even new players will have some vague perception of the difficulty of the birth of this game.

Now it has been twenty years since the beginning of the birth of "Shamu", in the most old-fashioned words, "there can be several twenty years". Most of the young kids who initially played "Semu" are now over, and their special emotions for the game can be understood, but as a matter of fact, "Semu 3" can make new players have the magic of "waiting for twenty years", it is not clear.

Swiss picture book writer York Miller has a classic picture book, called "Bulldozers every year, the village has changed", the book uses seven color pictures to describe the changes of a village in 20 years, I think the same changes have also happened in the player group.

Twenty years ago, players had the patience to experience a new game, when there was no accurate type division, they were not too picky, cherish food, so they can eat some dishes that are not humanized.

Today's players are more and more impatient to experience a new game, now the game has been a lot of symbols for a variety of definitions, players are most interested in their own type to choose, and there are a lot of requirements, "big game" than whether 4K60 frames, "small game" depends on the gameplay is not innovative enough, there is no suspicion of plagiarism.

This is not to criticize the player, in fact, "picky eating" is the performance of the game experience, but in today's game market, we really difficult to see some "more special" things, so independent games will have some more room for development today.

Many of the unique features of "Shamu 3" can now be crowned with a "conservative" suspicion, but in the process of playing, these "old" did give me some good experience. In the first half of the map in the White deer village in a branch commission, I need to find a piece of local high-end cloth, then I first thought of a nearby village called "color water", Chinese players naturally not difficult to understand the meaning of "color water" - the reflection of dyed cloth, this is a very beautiful experience.

What a duck paradise

There are more thinking can be derived in the game, White Deer village is mostly "386199" troops, few young people. When Ba Yuexiang and Sha Hua talk about this, will get "village people are going out to work" such a very in line with the historical background of the answer, and then the map to the county bird dance, bustling county and declining villages caused a huge impact on the player, which must also be the producer in China when the wind has had the experience, the carrier value of the game is reflected in this exchange.

"Shamu" the story of nature has not ended, the protagonist Ba Yuelang revenge road even just started, although the plot is fascinating, how many new players can endure the boring taste of the plot is not yet known, old players have been waiting for 20 years, new players naturally can also wait for 20 years, but this year has been 61 years old Suzuki Yu may not be.

There's an old Chinese saying, "Business is business," which probably means business is business and don't fucking play the emotional card with me. This is also the "Semu" emotion in the hands of the old fans in the heart of the current worry, the quality of "Semu 3" they are very satisfied, but they are worried about the new players to buy it, because the attitude of the new players determines whether the future can have "Semu 4", and they are too eager to hear the end of the story.

Too bad there are so few of them.