Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: Feiyun

Even after many years, the game will not become obsolete with the passage of time.

On October 20, 1995, the ARPG game "creation of Heaven and Earth", developed by Quintet and released by Enix, was released. When there were all kinds of Japanese-style RPG explosions on SFC, coupled with other factors, the game did not sell well, and the research and development company Quintet later disappeared into history.

With the passage of time, more and more players in the world have gradually discovered the uniqueness of this work: exquisite pictures, beautiful soundtrack, smooth operation feel, as well as the elements of urban development, the narrative techniques of the stream of consciousness, the world outlook that draws lessons from the Bible and the geographical elements of the real world, as well as the twists and turns of the plot and so on. Entering the 21st century, Necrosaro, the pioneer of Sinicization of domestic folk games, has made extremely high-level Chinese patches for this game, so that more players can come into contact with and understand its grandeur and beauty. This Chinese version not only has a far-reaching impact on domestic folk Sinicization, but also made many players like me broaden their horizons through this book and really see the form of excellent console games.

It has been nearly 30 years since the release of the Japanese cover game of "creation of Heaven and Earth". Recently, the demand for the remaking of "creation of Heaven and Earth" is getting louder and louder, and relevant commemorative activities are even held every year in foreign countries, and there is no exception on October 20 this year. It's just that Enix, as the publisher of the game, merged with Square many years ago to become what is now known as Square Enix, or SE. In recent years, SE has reproduced a large number of classics, and "creation of Heaven and Earth" does have the value of reproduction, but whether the proposal of reproduction will really be accepted by SE is an interesting and worthwhile topic to discuss.

Quintet, the developer of "creation of Heaven and Earth", was founded in Tokyo, Japan in 1989 and was very active in the early 1990s. Quintet has launched five ARPG on the SFC platform, namely, two "Reza attack" games and a "creation trilogy", namely, "the Book of creation", "Gaia Fantasy" and "creation of Heaven and Earth". All five games are well-known, among which "creation of Heaven and Earth" has the greatest achievement and fame. The company also has a much less well-known RPG "Warrior Robot" on SFC.

Quintet was an outlier at that time, because at that time, most Japanese companies produced pure RPG works on SFC. For example, after seeing the popularity of "final Fantasy" and "Warriors against Dragons" series, CAPCOM also released two "Dragon Warriors" games on SFC. Companies like Quintet that are obsessed with ARPG can be said to be extremely rare.

The main menu of "creation of Heaven and Earth" Quintet has its own strength to do so. The company's two founders, Friendship Miyazaki and Shoya Hashimoto, were the creators of the 1980s Falcom masterpieces "ISU" and "ISU 2", who wrote scripts, and Hashimoto was in charge of game design and programming.

At first, ISU was an undervalued project within Falcom, but in the end, Miyazaki Friendship and Hashimoto became famous. Later, they left Falcom in the middle of the development of "ISU 3" and founded Quintet, which attracted many former Falcom employees to join. Their original intention of setting up their own door and insisting on doing ARPG may be to recreate the glory of the early "ISU" series, but they did not fully do so in the end.

The first game released by the original Quintet of "ISU" on the PC-88 platform was "Resa attack". The two horizontal versions of ARPG in this series have a lot of innovation and have a profound impact on subsequent games developed by Quintet.

There are many differences between the early days of "Reza attack" and the common ARPG at that time. The basic theme of the game is "God to open up the world". The gods played by the players need to eliminate demons and demons on the land where human beings live, build the home of human life, and help solve some problems encountered in human development. The world in the game is not big, only two continents, six parts, the problem needs to be solved one by one, the overall process is not very long.

The operation of the whole game is divided into two kinds: one is the horizontal version of the action level, in which the player operates the protagonist to choose the level on the big map, and after entering, he overthrows the ordinary enemy or Boss;. The other is to operate the cherub to complete the special task entrusted by human beings, and then develop the population and villages. Incorporating simulation elements into a horizontal version of ARPG was a bold innovation at that time.

The game refers to a variety of famous landscapes on the earth in real life, and there are tropical rain forests, deserts, snow-capped mountains, pyramids, temples and other things, which can be seen as stories that happen on the earth in a parallel world.

Raisa strikes, 1990

After that, Quintet games mostly focus on "Salvation" and "parallel Worlds Earth" these two major elements to launch the new Quintet company is the famous publisher is Enix, the two sides jointly launched six games, sales are not very good. The final launch of "creation of Heaven and Earth" only got a rating of 30 points (full score of 40 points) of "Fami Tong", and sold only 200000 sets. This led to the termination of the partnership by Enix and indirectly led to the collapse of Quintet.

Of course, Quintet didn't go bankrupt right away. It set up a subsidiary, Shade, and launched works such as the Legend of the floating Island, the Light Knight and the inspiration of Mars on the PS platform. Among them, the first two are also ARPG, "Light Knight" is still a relatively unpopular dungeon adventure theme, at that time also had a certain degree of popularity in China; "Mars inspiration" is also a RPG game, but with more riddle-solving elements.

These three works were also not recognized by the market, and since then Quintet has gradually sunk, and the last game to participate in the development may be "Magic God", which was released on the GBA platform in 2002.

The Legend of floating Island is regarded by some as a spiritual sequel to the creation of Heaven and Earth, but sales are dismal. In 2012, when Quintet officially announced its closure and talent went to other companies, Miyazaki Friendship and Hashimoto disappeared. Its subsidiary Shade later survived on a variety of pretty girl games, such as "SAMURAI MAIDEN-Samurai Girl -" which will be released on December 1 this year, which was developed by Shade, which is, of course, a different story.

The sales failure of "Tiandi creation" can be seen as a turning point in the decline of Quintet. This game has many advantages, it is still not easy to sell, now it seems that it may be some "born at the wrong time".

The first reason is that ARPG was not a very mainstream type of games at that time. SFC and PS were in the golden age of Japanese RPG, giving birth to a large number of masterpieces and masterpieces, but the field of ARPG did not get the same scenery. At that time, there were only a few successful ARPG works such as Legend of Zelda: triangular Power and Legend of the Holy Sword 2. It is not only "creation of Heaven and Earth" that does not sell well. A few months after the release of "creation of Heaven and Earth", the "ISU" series launched the SFC exclusive "ISU 5", and the sales were so poor that it became the largest "black history" in the series. So far, Falcom has refused to mention it or reproduce it.

"Black History" and "ISU 5" secondly, Enix closed its subsidiaries in North America that year, and "creation of Heaven and Earth" was not released in North America, so its sales were naturally affected. Nintendo is responsible for English-language versions issued in places such as Europe and Australia.

At the same time, the design of "creation of Heaven and Earth" adopts the narrative way of stream of consciousness, there are too many mysteries in the game, the game itself does not explain, but let the players to experience and feel, which was really too advanced at that time.

Although Quintet eventually closed down, but the "creation of heaven and earth" because of the passage of time, increasingly aroused heated discussion and attention of players, they began to dig for all kinds of details in the game. Some independent game producers are also deeply influenced by it. KEIZO, the producer of the popular independent game "Divine balance", mentioned that he was deeply influenced by the early works of the "ISU" series and "the creation of Heaven and Earth".

"balance of God", the advantages of the excellent quality "creation of heaven and earth" in 2022 are very outstanding, such as the very exquisite pictures at that time. Because of the active use of SFC's zoom function, the game creates a pseudo-3D effect in scenes such as big maps, and the effect of casting advanced magic is also very gorgeous. In addition, the level design and operation feel is also quite good, in the maze to play monster upgrade, explore the sense of rhythm, the design of puzzles can be noted.

"creation of Heaven and Earth" also inherits and carries forward the simulated management elements in "Reza attack" in an ingenious way. In the "creation of Heaven and Earth", players will encounter a variety of NPC, as long as the completion of the corresponding tasks can make the relevant cities to develop. The more tasks completed, the higher the degree of urban development. Watching the city gradually develop, players will have a strong sense of achievement, which is closely related to one of the themes of this work-the revival of civilization.

"creation of Heaven and Earth" combines the elements of simulated management with the theme of the game very naturally, but when it comes to the reasons why "creation of heaven and earth" has been unforgettable for many years, it is mainly the shaping of the world outlook, the plot narrative of the stream of consciousness, and wonderful music that are the most moving.

In terms of the shaping of the world outlook, this work inherits the theme of saving the world by the brave in the first two works of the creation Trilogy, but the whole world can be regarded as a parallel earth, in which there are Loulan, the Great Lakes, Nanjing and other areas. players can also meet many historical celebrities, such as Columbus and Bell, and even choose which social system to implement locally in an European town. The combination of these elements from reality and the opposing magic elements in the game produces a unique attraction. The big world map in the game is exactly the same as the real world map, except that there are not as many places to enter as in the real world (and there can't be that many).

In the creation of Heaven and Earth, the elements of reality and magic are skillfully combined. In the creation of Heaven and Earth, the mission of the brave A Kong is to revive civilization, from the beginning to revive plants and animals, and then to reappear human beings. we should also watch human beings develop from the era of great navigation to the era of flying, and in this process, A Kong has traveled all over the world and met many partners such as lions. These designs may refer to the creation themes in the Bible.

It can be said that this game is like a popular book about the wonders of the world in the 1990s, but it has been changed into a game version, which is also reminiscent of classic books such as "20,000 miles under the Sea", "80 days around the Earth" and "PHS roaming the Future". The most wonderful thing is that the works closest to the reading experience of the above-mentioned classics in the gaming industry in so many years, I personally think it is the creation of heaven and earth.

Players can feel the freshness and strangeness of "traveling around the World". As far as the plot narrative is concerned, it has been mentioned earlier that this work uses a rare stream of consciousness, and there is a blank in the plot. the game often does not explain some sudden twists and turns.

At first glance, the plot of "creation of Heaven and Earth" is not complicated. in the first few chapters, the protagonist Ah Kong has a pleasant journey to revive the world, and nothing seems to be different. Ah Kong, who was born in the crystal village of the underground world, was created by the dark Gaia (he disguised himself as the elder of the village). The real Ah Kong actually comes from the crystal village of the surface world-in the creation of Heaven and Earth. The planet is a hollow sphere, divided into underground and surface forms, and there are also bright forms that represent development and dark forms that represent destruction. In fact, everything in the crystal village of the surface world, as well as the true brave A Kong, who is in charge of the recovery mission, has been destroyed. at this time, Ai Lu, A Kong's lover in the underground world, and even A Kong himself are replicas of Dark Gaia. Dark Gaia did this in order to upset the balance of the balance and to let the forces of darkness dominate everything.

At the end of the game, A Kong dies, merges with the soul of the brave A Kong on the surface, becomes a true brave and destroys the dark Gaia, but this means that everything in the underground world will disappear, including himself. So at the end of the game, Guangming Gaia gave A Kong a day so that he could stay in the crystal village.

After saving the world, the brave will disappear and you will find that there are too many unexplained places in the game, such as what is the whole plan of Dark Gaia? Why can Guangming Gaia finally turn against the wind? And to what extent was the rivalry between the two Gaia before the story happened? Has the world experienced countless cycles of civilization revival and then destruction?

There is no explanation in the game itself, but it provides a lot of details and dialogue, so in the player forum, many people discuss these unclear areas. If it is said that this kind of stream-of-consciousness narrative makes the game difficult to be accepted by the players at that time, then with the continuous development of the mainframe game, people's acceptance of the deep plot is getting higher and higher. nowadays, the upsurge of "Riddler" and "Soul" in the game field driven by the "Soul" series also illustrates this trend.

The plot with a lot of blank and vague words seemed abrupt at that time, but now it has become popular. As far as music is concerned, the composers of this work are Meiyoko Kobayashi and Miyoko Kobayashi. The music of "creation of Heaven and Earth" can be called the peak of their composing career, and it can be said that every beautiful melody has a very high standard.

Especially at the end of the game, with the ending music "return Road" sounded, A Kong turned into a bird in his dream, flying over the green jungle, the blue sea and the towering peaks, and saw the appearance of trains and airplanes, as well as the scene of night falling and lights in the bustling city. I think this scene is one of the most shocking endings in game history, and I don't know how many players are moved to tears.

By the standards of that year, the excellent picture, combined with the music of nature, created a wonderful artistic conception.

Folk Sinicization at the beginning of this century, "creation of Heaven and Earth" has been loved by many players in China, which has something to do with the Chinese patches made by Necrosaro.

In the era when SFC was still mainstream, the vast majority of foreign console games were not officially Sinicized. The only official Chinese game on SFC is the Chronicles of the three Kingdoms released in 1995. This makes many domestic players marvel at the prospect of console games-after all, there are only a few players who are proficient in foreign languages and pass through such top RPG masterpieces as "final Fantasy 6" and "Warrior against Dragon 6".

At the beginning of this century, due to the rise of the Internet, game enthusiasts can find technical materials, do their own Sinicization of old games through online collaboration, and introduce the classics to more people. During that period, a number of Sinicization groups emerged. For example, Wolf Group launched the Sinicization patch of SFC masterpiece "Flame Emblem: Dolakiya 776" in 2001, as well as Dream Group, Angel Sinicization Group and so on.

Necrosaro, the early folk Chinese version of Flame medallion, was a legend of that year. He was still in high school when he was Sinicized "creation of Heaven and Earth". In terms of the number of words in "the creation of heaven and earth", it was not easy to translate it alone, whether at that time or now. "creation of Heaven and Earth" is also the first Chinese work of Necrosaro. The reason for choosing this game is that he is madly in love with "creation of Heaven and Earth" and has passed customs many times.

In the early days of the development of the Internet in China, Necrosaro would enthusiastically respond to enthusiasts who want to study Sinicization technology and answer all kinds of questions they asked, so he became one of the celebrities in the folk Sinicization circle. Of course, the efforts of Sinicization pioneers such as Shi Keyu were obvious to all at that time, but Necrosaro is very young, and compared with his low-key predecessors, he is more active online and likes to interact with all kinds of enthusiasts, so he has gained a high reputation.

Before Necrosaro, Wolf Group and other folk translators made such efforts, domestic players could only play "D-Merchant Sinicization" with uneven translation levels, such as the well-known alien technology, Blue Crystal Technology, Yongsheng and other Chinese games in the 1990s. The Chinese patch launched by Necrosaro not only benefits players, but also because the translation quality is very high, which makes a good start for domestic folk Sinicization and inspires a number of players to join the ranks of folk Sinicization.

The efforts of folk Sinicists have brought more wonderful games to domestic players, it can be said that it is the efforts of these pioneers that the later folk Sinicization can become a trend and continues to this day. In recent years, we can still see some enthusiasts making Chinese patches for games on FC, GBA and PS2.

However, when the folk Sinicization gradually became popular, Necrosaro chose to retire instead. After setting up the Warrior Sinicization Group and translating SFC's masterpiece "final Fantasy 6" and other works, he gradually disappeared on the Internet and lost any trace, so that now the new generation of players rarely know that there was once such a popular figure.

Perhaps even friendly Miyazaki and Changya Hashimoto do not know that a Chinese student once translated the creation of Heaven and Earth, which they have devoted countless painstaking efforts, and his efforts have become the driving force of the trend of Sinicization of Chinese folk console games.

In the Chinese version of the beginning of the game interface can see the mark of Necrosaro, of course, the site has long been unable to open the possibility of reproduction after entering this century, the value of "creation of heaven and earth" is gradually valued by players around the world, in Europe and the United States nostalgic game circle status is also getting higher and higher, a lot of RPG inventory list will appear its name, the call for reproduction is also quite loud.

Since 2015, the 20th anniversary of the release of "creation of Heaven and Earth", overseas players who love the work will hold "Hero Easter" on social networking sites every year to express their love. At one point at the previous Easter event, fans invited Miyoko Fujiwara and one of the composers, Miyoko Fujiwara, to make a commemorative video to help.

A scene in the 25th Anniversary Animation in recent years, there have been joint requests from players to SE in the hope that this work can be reissued or remade, but due to the huge volume of "creation of Heaven and Earth" and not developed by SE itself, it may be difficult to reproduce, not only for technical reasons, but also for copyright may become a factor affecting the launch of remaking.

However, hope is not absent. In recent years, SE has launched a large number of remake games, and CEO Matsuda Yoyou has said that he hopes to revive more of his classics. Maybe "heaven and earth creation" is among them, who knows.

Around the world, many players are eagerly looking forward to writing in the end that "creation of Heaven and Earth" is one of the games with the most times of customs clearance. The kind of pure emotion it brings to players is very rare now. The creators at that time really wanted to express some kind of thinking about the world through the game, and the original intention of the Necrosaro Chinese game was also because of being deeply shocked by the plot.

Because of the depth of the story, even after many years, the game will not become obsolete with the passage of time, and remaking may actually appear one day.

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