The gap between Chinese and Japanese RPGS from "Legend of Heroes 6: The Trail of Emptiness"

Finally finished the Legend of Heroes 6, it took a long time to calm down, it has been many years to play such a good role-playing game. The Japanese version was released in June 2004, but it has not been the habit of playing the Japanese version until the Chinese version was released this year. Although I knew this was a boutique, I was still shocked after really playing, and its quality far exceeded my expectations.

In this part, the author gives a general overview of his own views, and then makes a detailed discussion on the plot alone.

First of all, the plot. Story is the soul of an RPG and the most important measure of how good an RPG is. There is no need to say more about the plot of British 6, at least in the major forums have not seen a bad plot. Hero legend series has always been outstanding plot, Kakab trilogy script is close to perfect, grand and spectacular, let people play after endless aftertaste, than some will only die the protagonist and love triangle of domestic games ten million times. The plot of the Trail of Emptiness is even worse than the Kakab trilogy, there is no cold and drag from beginning to end, and the rhythm of the story is just right and one at a time. Although the ending is to be continued, please look forward to the end, which makes people anxious to go crazy, I do not blame FALCOM's idea at all. Since this half of the story is hundreds of times better than 99% of the RPGS in the world, it is already more than enough as an RPG script. Even FALCOM was too kind when he heard that the sequel: Trail of Emptiness SC is the end. Given the clues left in the trail of Emptiness, it would be easy to make three, four or more sequels, and it is considerate to finish with only two parts.

This sentence of the old man speaks the voice of the author

Then is the picture, 2004 learned that the British 6 is 3D production, the first reaction is: absolutely do not play. However, I saw some public screenshots and felt that the quality was acceptable, and I could not tell that it was 3D without looking carefully. After playing is greatly impressed, for the first time in more than a decade, feel a 3D scene RPG "good-looking". From landscape houses to table and chair furnishings, everything is so coordinated and rounded, without a single bit of 3D model edges and corners, the color is also very beautiful, and there will never be a transparent object in Xianjian 3 or Cang Tao. Being able to make a 3D picture look like a 2D one is a new realm.

The musical standard of the Sky Track is also quite high, and there are no less than 10 impressive songs. Some people on the BBS say that it is not as good as Kaka, which is not necessarily true. Music, unlike pictures, is hard to tell which is better. The music and the plot of the scene in English 6 are very harmonious, successfully set off the atmosphere of the story, and can get a minimum of 90 points. In addition, I have always thought that the first formal background music of the game and the first battle music are extremely important, the former is the first impression of the player, the latter is often heard from beginning to end, and should be made with the most care. Hero Legend 4 Red tears in this point to do very well, this time the empty track inherited good habits, Loriante's daytime/dusk two background music, and VS mixed soldiers battle music are very good.

Whether the music matches the location and plot of each story is more important than whether the music itself sounds good. A good RPG should be made with the game and music in sync, constantly harmonizing. There are many scenes in English 6, with great differences in style, such as rural towns, commercial cities, industrial cities, coastal cities, king cities, underground tunnels, schools, caves... The background music of each scene is very good, and it is produced simultaneously. The music synchronization of domestic games is rarely produced, and the known one is UJ's game. Many big manufacturers are also writing the requirements for the arrangement, and the game music is done separately, so the effect is impossible to reach the standard.

The system of Void locus is also quite rich and perfect. The guerrilla manual, the cooking manual, and the crystalline loop system all make the game much more playable. Compared to the pure pursuit of story Kakab series, the Trail of emptiness greatly improves the gameplay under the premise of the same excellent story. If the Kakab trilogy is just a work of art, then the Trail of Emptiness is a highly artistic piece of entertainment.

2. Detailed analysis of RPG plot:

It has been said that the smallest difference between Chinese RPGS and Japanese RPGS is the story. This is my most despised sentence, the person who said this sentence, said he is stupid do not deserve. The biggest gap between Chinese RPGS and Japanese RPGS has always been the story, and after the trajectory of Emptiness, this gap has widened a lot. The following is a detailed list of these differences.  

World outlook

The Hero saga series has a huge worldview

A classic-level RPG must have its own worldview, without its own worldview, even if the plot is outstanding, it is only a second-rate work that is not classy. There are two works in domestic games that have their own world view: the Heaven and Earth series and the Xuanyuan sword series, and there is no third one. (Xianjian 3 that what six world view don't mention... The shame of the world)

The world view of Heaven and Earth series and Xuanyuan sword series is only an embryonic form, not out of the real world, but on the basis of the real world set a set of their own unique rules. The Legend of Heroes series is completely detached from the real world, and the entire world of the game is original. It would be arbitrary to say that the former is not as good as the latter, but the difficulty of the two is definitely different.

In the Xuanyuan sword, we need a grand map of the world, and there is a ready-made Eurasian continent; For historical events, there are numerous large-scale wars; If you want a monster, you can use 100 years in the mountains and seas; Various places of interest, ancient ruins, house architecture, clothing styles, all have countless ready-made samples.

And the hero saga series? Everything is original, as big as the world continent, country division, hundreds of years or more of history and important events, customs and customs must be thought of, and many things that are not displayed in the game must also be set and improved. As small as the clothing style of the characters, every piece of furniture, the way the characters speak and think must be fully in line with this original world, and it takes far more energy to perfect these things than the average player can imagine.

The only advantage of being attached to the real world like Xuanyuan Sword is to give the player a sense of intimacy. But if this intimacy is cordial for ten or twenty years, it will completely lose its freshness. The hero legend is completely perfected in a world after the good, to create a new world, to leave the player endless reverie.

Another feeling of English 6 is "atmosphere", although it is a fictional world, comic characters, but the grand plot makes people's blood boil, a character with a distinctive character is unforgettable. Write here suddenly thought of the swordsman love, that kind of thing also all day thick skin known as the atmosphere, really shameless. It does not have to be close to the real history, patriotic themes, for the country and the people is called atmosphere! That can only prove that emotional intelligence is not enough, like hero legend 6, really write the script well, even if it is a cartoon character, it is also a hundred times more than the garbage atmosphere of those patriotic themes!

Legend of Heroes 6 is a completely new world setting, with no connection to the Kakab trilogy, and is very different in style. A world of gods war, a modern world of spacecraft cannons, have no connection with each other, but the same heroic legend series, and can also make people feel so coordinated, vaguely can feel "indeed where is very similar", it is amazing. Throughout this series is the "hero legend" these four words! Hero legend, what a vulgar name without personality, but FALCOM dared to use this name, the most simple "hero legend" as the essence of the series and has been able to make new ideas, this is the charm of great works. This is a higher level than Xuanyuan sword series relying on a Xuanyuan sword as the central clue. That is, from the state of having a move to the state of having no move.

There are rumors that Xuanyuan Jian 5 will set the story in the Qing Dynasty, the credibility is not high. But in fact, I really hope that this rumor comes true, if you can really try the modern background, it is also a breakthrough, after all, the spring and Autumn war results have been Qin, Jin, Sui and Tang, and then it is difficult to do anything in ancient China, if possible, I very much hope that I can see the campus theme of the 21st century Xuanyuan sword 8, I am not talking in my sleep.

SCRIPT

The script is not the plot, an RPG, want to have a wonderful plot is not difficult, shape a bunch of handsome men and women, to a bit of intense fighting, life and death, in the middle of a small branch, a script will come out. With some music, the heroine is dedicated, people are emotional animals, maybe so easily moved. Even if the old player called trash, there are not countless junior high school children, can always win a lot of applause. But this is not on the table, can not go out of the country, can only cheat children's "wonderful plot" is ultimately rejected by people, excellent script, to let people after repeated study can still be amazed.

The ending of the empty track, 180 degrees of reversal, gives a huge shock, but it does not make people feel far-fetched, but is very convincing, because the front has done enough groundwork, and people can not detect, the feeling of enlightenment when the final mystery is revealed, and read the old file to play again, but also have to admire the wisdom of the screenwriter. Many domestic games in order to pursue bizarre plots, deliberately grandstanding, and finally the script to be inconsistent, full of flaws, has been their own can not justify, it is very bad.

rhythm

Rhythm is one area where the skill gap between Chinese and Japanese RPGS is quite obvious. If you look closely, great Japanese RPGS like Legend of Legends 6 have quite a lot of camera cuts. Most Chinese RPGS rarely have this kind of switching, often focusing on the protagonist from start to finish, and even if the occasional camera switch to other characters, it is only coping, and has no effect on the plot of the game. The switch of the empty track is to make the protagonist and other characters interact at any time, which is very helpful to feel the whole story more thoroughly.

Each chapter has a long automatic story before and after the chapter, all of the important plot, and then the progress of the full screen of the new chapter title, and then the official game, which feels very good.

detail

Another very obvious gap, it seems not important, in fact, countless inconspicuous excellent small details can improve the level of the entire work a lot, the atmosphere of the plot is also a great help, there are many examples, their own experience in the game, here is only one example.

Operation to save the Queen ends with Ensign Lorenz. The battle is about to begin, the mysterious Lorenz took off the hood for the first time, showed a handsome face with silver hair, and said the line "although you are women, but I have no intention of sparing", before entering the battle, the background music has been changed to the battle music, after finishing the last few lines into the battle, the battle song has not paused, so continued to play the battle began. Although it is only a little action, but the effect is much better than entering the battle before switching battle song.

In addition, before entering the battle, Lieutenant Lorenz is running to rush, and then the camera flashes into the battle screen, rather than switching directly, these small details can enhance the atmosphere of the game, domestic games rarely think about these, but always think about the maze and battle all day.

When it comes to the excellent details of domestic games, the most commendable is the setting of entering the demon pot in Xuanyuan Jian 3. This design is really amazing, RPG can casually break into the house and strangers chat, but can not get along with the teammates say a word, has been a pity, Xuan 3 can at any time into the chain magic pot and teammates chat, with the current plot is different, chat content will be different, some dialogue is very wonderful, better than the main plot lines. Unfortunately, such creative ideas are few and far between over the years, because most of the pseudo players will not pay attention to these "meaningless things", those idiots only care about where to level, that kind of people are not suitable for playing RPG. Fortunately, in recent years, those garbage have gone to play garbage online games, very good, stand-alone games were not meant for them to play.

NPC

Let's use this picture, the NPC has said: God do God do God

In Legend of Heroes 6, even if there is a small incident, the dialogue content of hundreds of NPCS in the city will be updated, and even the dialogue of more than N NPCS in several cities and villages around the city will be updated together. Play for an hour, several insignificant small events occurred in a row, the dialogue of hundreds of NPCS may have been updated N times, the amount of text is tens of thousands, and even the dialogue with people who sell things, there will be two options of "talk" and "buy things", rather than buy things directly! With so many NPC conversations, 90% of them are never seen. No one's going to see it. Do it. Japanese people do things so seriously to pervert, smart Chinese people will never spend their energy on this "meaningless" place. But the Japanese spent so much effort, in exchange for the game to make people feel that this is simply a real world, each NPC is the same as the protagonist of the real "people", and its dialogue, talk about the latest things, in such a game environment to complete the task, the sense of accomplishment will be quite high. After playing domestic RPG, NPC will say that sentence from beginning to end, you will feel very unbearable, the sense of reality is greatly reduced, and the city is like a dead city. Anything is afraid of comparison, others in progress, their stagnation, it will be left behind.

3. Music and pictures

Story and details are the biggest difference between Chinese and Japanese RPGS, and the smallest difference is the music. The only Chinese game that reaches the world level is the music.

The FALCOM guys are absolutely perfect

The portraits of people in the Trail of Emptiness are beautiful. But the most worthless Japanese game is handsome and beautiful men, in this environment, the characters of the empty track can only be counted as medium, absolutely not outstanding, the most commendable is the expression of the characters, almost every protagonist has more than twenty expressions, some of the very small differences can not be distinguished if you do not look carefully. But a careful comparison shows that there is still a difference in expression. At the end of the game, the professor appeared to uncover the conspiracy of that section, the professor a total of only dozens of lines, crazy mouse point a minute in the past plot, but there are 7 new expressions! It's just a cameo!! In fact, from the point of view of that plot, three expressions are enough, but the producer did not perfunctory at all, such a serious attitude, in exchange for a more excellent atmosphere. I'm sure anyone who's played this will be impressed.

A typical negative example is Jin Yong's Chivalrades, which was a classic at the time, but all the characters had only one expression, and almost all the NPCS were motionless. It's super depressing and dead, and I can't stand it after '98. In fact, a single expression is not as good as no portrait at all like the Kakab trilogy, which can at least have some imagination space, better than a piece of paper. Later, the Martial arts legend makes people feel very lively, although the character portraits still only have one expression, but the system and small games are rich N times, and the NPC has small actions in the field is also one of the reasons.

The scene is very beautiful, but that's not the point, any rubbish game these days is not bad graphics. Or the details reflect the gap: the five important cities of the empty track are completely different styles from inside to outside, the house architecture, interior decoration, street grid, can reflect the local characteristics, the furniture of each house is different, countless NPC residences completely unrelated to the plot have 3,4 rooms, 2 floors. And domestic games... From beginning to end, all the tables and chairs in the town were probably produced by one furniture factory.

There are too many want to say, but can not recall for a moment, this feeling is also very messy, because there is no draft, immediately written, chaotic. Overall, Legends of Heroes 6 is the best RPG I've ever played. While admitting that a new game is "the best I've ever played" is a bit of a newish thing to do, I've desperately reviewed the hundreds of RPGS I've played over the past decade, and I can't help but admit that none of them are better than Empty Tracks.