The history of modern European and American fantasy creation, featuring elements such as swords, magic, dragons and elves, has been going on for almost 80 years since Tolkien began to write and create “The Lord of the Rings”. Until today, when all kinds of cultures are blossoming, it is still one of the mainstream creative themes of European and American art.
One of the cultures most influenced by it is the little brother of the human art family, which did not come into existence until nearly 20 years after the publication of The Lord of the Rings.
As one of the worldview themes most adept at creating a sense of immersion and storytelling, “classical fantasy role-playing” has rightly become the natural child of the European and American gaming community from the moment the term “video game” was born.
From the oldest “Dragon & Dungeon (D&D)” rules composed of text RPG, to today’s 3A masterpiece with cinematic sound effects graphics for narrative, the performance of European and American RPGs are changing day by day, but what remains the same are the brave knights, elegant elves, mouths spitting The dragon spitting flames, and the wizard wearing a cloak.
European-American fantasy is like Chinese martial arts, an inexhaustible and timeless cultural treasure trove that carries the spirit of the nation.
Since the new century, with Hollywood as the core of cultural globalization, this European and American fantasy worldview has slowly begun to be accepted by us Chinese across the ocean.
Back then, the CG of Warcraft 3 was probably the European and American fantasy initiation of many Chinese people.
Blizzard’s Warcraft, Black Island’s Icewind Dale, Obsidian’s Winterless Nights, Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls, all familiar names to old gamers, are credited with popularizing fantasy culture and gaming culture in China.
Among them, Bethesda’s (also known to players simply as B Society) Elder Scrolls series – especially the latest in the series, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – is known for its advanced open-world design, rich content, and highly free mod (customization) gameplay, it has become one of the most widely known medieval fantasy (A) RPGs in China.
Even if you haven’t played it, you must have heard of “Girl Scrolls” or “Rolling 5”.
So, there are many friends left a message asking me: “In today’s fast-food games, like the old rolling such European and American fantasy theme, but also very playable game, there is no other outstanding works?”
Of course not! It just so happens that a few particularly fun traditional European and American fantasy RPGs have been making big moves lately, so today William wants to talk about these games that are older than “ARPGs” like Rolling Stone: these are pure RPGs where you can control multiple characters at once, and each time you press a button instead of “swinging a sword ” but “specify the target”, the battle is more about strategy rather than slash and burn.
I’m either going to leave this topic alone or I’m going to say three at a time.
First out of the European and American game industry in addition to Bethesda, another “B society” – the development of the famous RPG “Bode’s Gate” series of developers BioWare.
It combines the essence of modern action games on the basis of the rules of Bode’s Gate to create a new form of classical fantasy RPG – “Dragon Age”.
The series is divided into three parts, with a certain degree of carry-over in the plot. Players who are in a position to do so are recommended to play from the beginning.
The entire series is available on the PC Origin platform, with only “Judgment” on the current generation console platform
In terms of the core mechanics of the game, the entire series maintains an inherent feature: players can either observe the situation and give orders from the tactical camera; or they can choose to control only one person with a third-person perspective while the other three teammates fight on their own based on the AI, thus providing an action game-like combat experience.
The impact of the first generation of Dragon Age: Origins when it was first released was huge — not just because Dragon Age gave the slow-paced traditional RPG a snappy and addictive combat mechanic, but because it didn’t forget its job as a spiritual successor to the classical RPG –telling a good story.
Although in the second generation on a little crooked (too much focus on the action experience and ignore the content and scenes), made a revisionist mistake. But luckily BioWare mended its ways in time, and the third generation of Dragon Age: Inquisition took home the 2014 TGA Game of the Year + RPG of the Year double award in one fell swoop.
The trilogy takes place on a fictional continent called Sedaris, and revolves around the theme of “little people slowly growing up to become heroes who influence history”.
Bioware is a specialist in RPGs, specializing in narrative while also portraying the social environment around the protagonists and the interactions between the characters – friendship, family, love.
Overall, if you like smooth action experiences and classic fantasy RPGs, then give this series a try. Because BioWare is part of the EA platform, so the PC version to go to Origin platform to find (the game does not come with Chinese, but all have mature Chinese patch, host version without Chinese), in addition if you are Origin Access members can play the whole series for free.
The second game is “Pillars of Eternity”.
The first and second generation PC major platforms are sold, the second generation of the host version has not yet been released
The previous game had been laughingly called “Pillars of Eternity” by the players because there was no Chinese version, but now there is a more complete Chinese patch online. A week ago, the series released the second work “Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire”, the official comes with simplified Chinese.
Pillars of Eternity” by Obsidian Studios, it is “Bode’s Gate” and “Icewind Dale” the proper spiritual sequel, the overall game play and experience with the two classic games 20 years ago is no different: 45 degrees perspective, semi-instant system, six-player team control, and overall more emphasis on “life in addition to fighting, there are other ways to solve problems “.
Unlike Dragon Age, Pillars of Eternity, which was born thanks to crowdfunding from veteran players, has a different goal from the start: I want to give those old timers who love Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale an original retro experience.
So there are no advanced graphics and special effects inside Pillars of Eternity, it is completely a serious style of classical text RPG – large text descriptions instead of animated performances, abstract 2D illustrations instead of sophisticated 3D modeling, and there are no various erotic and adult bridges in Dragon Age.
The main plot of the game also gives a feeling of bitterness and hatred: the protagonists, who accidentally bear a curse, are on a quest to find the culprit behind it and try to eliminate a terrible plague that is plaguing the world. (The plot of the second generation is a direct sequel to the first generation, and will be affected by the choices made in the first generation, so we recommend playing it in order)
However, if you carefully play the game’s various plots, you will find a lot of fun belonging to the old days – the game’s missions in those days rarely asked you to “go somewhere and kill whoever”, but rather a wonderful little story, and vivid people.
Old-school RPG players who like the rules of Dungeons & Dragons can find a lot of emotion in Pillars of Eternity.
But for those who are looking for fresh excitement and explosive scenes, “Dragon Age” may be a better choice.
The third game comes from a Belgian developer somewhat similar to the developer of The Witcher series CDPR: Larian Studios – like the Polish “dumb ass”, this studio in the field of canonical games is basically dead on one IP: Divinity. Divinity.
With the exception of a few titles, Larian’s games all start with the word “Divinity” ……
Like Pillars of Eternity, the open house was also saved by the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter – leading the revival of the series, “Divinity: Original Sin” released in 2014, if not for the $1 million raised by players, it would probably have been stillborn, not to mention the word-of-mouth about the upcoming release of the simplified Chinese version today! The masterpiece “Gods: Original Sin 2”.
Compared with the first two games, “Divinity: Original Sin” series can be seen as a trade-off between the classic fantasy of “Pillars of Eternity” and the new-school action of “Dragon Age”: from the content performance, it uses 3D graphics and free perspective; while in the combat mechanism, but a different way to use the more “ancient” turn-based wargaming. If you like this style of combat, then you’ll be able to enjoy the game.
Gods Among Us: Original Sin does not rely on story and emotion, like Dragon Age, nor does it manage the transition between the two very well – a magnificent chapter about gods, time and fate, interspersed with many intense and varied battles. The battle is a great one.
Also worth mentioning is its creative co-op mode: the first generation of the game has a male and a female protagonist, so the game can be played locally split screen or online by two people. The second generation can support four people (it is said that there are mods to unlock six people mode, William did not try).
More interestingly, in the generation of two-player mode, not just two people can explore the world separately and fight together side by side so simple. In the game’s core storyline dialogue, you and your friend both have to express their ideas. If your ideas are at odds, you will have to “fight” before you can decide whose ideas you want to pursue.
From the point of view of game mechanics, this “two-player RPG” feeling is very amazing, will let you really feel your friend in the game is not a fighter, you asked him to fight whoever, but a person with their own independent consciousness, he will flirt with you, against you, and even dominate you.
Unfortunately this mechanic was removed in the second generation, but the good news is that there are more people to play with, and the freedom, combat and narrative are all further along than in the first generation.
In addition to the live-action co-op, the game is full of interesting NPCs and quests, and with the contrasting painting style, it makes the “Gods Among Us: Original Sin” series feel less serious and heavy to me than the previous two recommended games.
It tells the story with a sense of epicness while still giving you a sense of naughtiness and joy, and the skill of the writers is evident.
The introduction of the turn-based wargame mechanism, compared to the traditional semi-real time system of play slower pace, but also more strategic fun, so players who like modern tactical games can also buy to experience, perhaps from now on into the European and American fantasy fans may also be.
The way the mute thief teammate “speaks” in the first generation will certainly make you laugh – the charm of this text, nowadays in other areas of the game is rare
The only problem, however, is that the Original Sin series is still a traditional RPG and not Call of Duty, with a huge amount of text and dialogue to read and understand, and a vast and detailed world to explore, as are Dragon Age and Pillars of Eternity – traditional European and American RPGs that require a lot of determination. games.
If you want to properly experience the multiplayer mode of the Original Sin series, it’s even more important to have like-minded friends who can sit down with you and play with patience.
However, although Larian Studios pays a lot of attention to Chinese players (traditional RPGs are very text-heavy and difficult to translate, but they have Chinese versions for both titles), making sure that every Chinese player can integrate into the game without any obstacles.
