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

Partners (nakama) is an important component of Japanese RPG. Partners of different genders, personalities, looks, skills and backgrounds interact with the game world and players to form a considerable number of interesting stories.

Partners in the early RPG, due to functional limitations, did not carry content other than gender and skills. In fact, as an important benchmark of Japanese-style RPG, the original "Warriors fight Dragons" (hereinafter referred to as DQ) did not even have a partner. It was not until the initial generation of "DQ II" and "final Fantasy" (hereinafter referred to as FF) in 1987 that partners gradually became standard in RPG.

Take "DQ II" as an example, the addition of supporting princes and princesses not only adds a little bit to the plot, but also allows the game to show better strategic depth in the case of very limited capacity.

At the top of the blue protagonist is the princess who has been turned into a puppy, and the princess from Montburk is very special. When entering the stage, it is turned into a dog, and the player needs to get the "pull mirror" and use it on the puppy before he can break the curse and restore the princess to her human form. Perhaps this short story left a very deep impression on the players, resulting in similar scenes in later DQ. Of course, this is later. After the completion of this simple task chain, the princess joined the team, the main post recovery and assistance, there is no longer any pen and ink on the story. This was also the norm for partners in all kinds of games at that time, mostly with only a few words and occasionally a short story of their own. After a brief confession, the battle of the battle, the recovery of the recovery, vividly shed the image of the "tool man".

After that, although the story of the partners has not been excavated more, the use value has been further enhanced. "DQ III" and "FF III" have successively realized the transfer function-and even the concept of a hidden profession such as "sage" has emerged.

Not only that, the Japanese-style RPG in this period has also done a lot of practice in the design of the world outlook, almost every work can bring a bright effect, leaving an important reference for later games. With regard to the setting of the world outlook, we will talk about it later in space and time.

Since 1990, the game platform has gradually shifted from FC to SFC. The multiplying performance not only takes the game screen to a new level, but also encourages developers to bring deeper stories to players. In other words, to some extent, the development of stories is relatively easy to master and use new technologies, and RPG at this stage has really made a lot of efforts in this regard. Partners begin to have rich stories like protagonists, and even have their own biographies in some games. During this period, there are a large number of works still mentioned from time to time, such as "DQV", "FF VI", "Wheel beyond time and Space", "Fantasy Legend", "Mother 2" and so on.

The description of partners in "Transtime Wheel" is also very interesting, especially in "FF VI", where there are more than 10 operable partners, changing the routine of three or four. Not only that, throughout the game process, each character is clearly explained, and it is easy for players to understand why they are doing this or that. Even today, it is not easy to explain so many characters clearly. Specifically, in general, it would be a bad decision, such as the later works of Fantasy Outlaws of the Marsh.

Three years after "FF VI", the cross-era "FF VII" appeared on PS. Although the 3D picture of the game looks very simple today, it was a great thing at that time. Although there are fewer controllable characters and a smaller world than the 6th generation, the gap between the game and the player is narrowed by pre-rendered scenes and CG animations.

The comparison between the new and old pictures of "FF VII" is also from this moment on, the quantitative and qualitative changes in technology imperceptibly guide game manufacturers to the direction of reality and showing off their skills, and players never get tired of discussing who is the most beautiful heroine in the final fantasy of all ages, even if they have only seen a picture and never played a game at all.

Intentionally or not, the same seven-generation "DQ VII" not only arrived late in 2000, but also focused on 2D in the picture, and seemed determined to fight against the 3D trend. When it comes to the depth and breadth of the script, although it may exceed the sum of final fantasies 7, 8 and 9, times have changed. In the context of that era, what players need is not to imagine what the character looks like, but to see directly what the scene should be, and now that FF has done it, so should DQ.

The hero in DQ VII is a wolf-turned man, the opposite of a second-generation princess. Of course, no one would have thought that a few years later, with the popularity of handsets and smartphones, and the retro plots of early indie games, the 2D gaming boom would revive and players would be taught to be more tolerant. I'm afraid it would be another story to play such a game with the volume of "DQ VII" today.

During this period, each game in the partner is still the continuation of the previous train of thought, and basically formed.

Changes in quantity. For example, in the fantasy Outlaws of the Marsh, there are so many characters available, while in DQ V, you can catch monsters and become your companions.

A change in function. For example, the concept of professional combination appeared in "DQ VI", "extraction" in "FF VIII" and so on, so that partners are no longer limited to the set ability, giving players enough room to play.

A change in performance. For example, in the SKIT Little Theater in the Legend of Destiny, it can not only fully develop the thoughts of partners in the adventure, enrich the connotation of partners, but also a good collection of elements.

In the final analysis, no matter what the changes are, they will eventually be implemented in the use of partners. If a character with a large number of descriptions cannot be used, it will never be allowed unless he is a villain (later "FF XV" actually did). This also partly leads to the practice of hiding endings and multi-weekly games to reveal the background stories of important villains or to use them directly.

After 2000, with the further development of technology, partners generally have voice, and the image is gradually closer to the proportion of real people from three heads-the difference between illusion and reality has been further weakened. To this day, this continues to happen.

Although the concept of partnership has not been further expanded, with excellent world outlook and screenplay, a number of excellent RPG-- "DQ" and "FF" have emerged, needless to say, "Legend" series, "Wild weapons" series, "Alchemy Workshop" series, ".hack / /" series, "Legend of Heroes" series, "Sea of Stars", "profile of the Goddess", "Heart of Shadow", "Legend of different degrees" series. "the Goddess" series and so on, almost every year there will be several games to look forward to. Although there are occasional disappointments, there are still more surprises.

Many RPG in the PS2 and PS3 period are still very difficult. For example, the only thing that can be called a change in "Nordic Goddess" is that the positioning of partners as "tool people" is gradually blurred because of technological progress.

In the past, in order to have their own characteristics, it was painstaking to introduce elements from other types of games, from the clear division of labor in the beginning to the introduction of "rubbing tricks" and other types of games. Now, designers can make the game look richer through more visual changes.

Take the Legend series as an example. From the original "Fantasy Legend", there are only swordsman type, mage type, pastoral type, bow type role, gradually increased the boxing type, gunman type, animal type, two-handed sword type, swordsman type, ninja type and so on. These forms of combat experience are different, but also provide more image support for character shaping. If it is on FC or SFC, these designs are likely to be rejected before development because it is difficult to show a difference in performance.

What new types of characters does Breaking Dawn Legend bring? At the same time, virtual characters are becoming more and more face-profiling and formulaic. Over time, a set of highly generalized visual arrangements and combinations appeared and began to spread. Just like a fortune teller, looking at the character's head image, chest size, gender, race, dress, occupation, etc., you can roughly speculate on ta's character and destiny. Although formulaic designs have existed for a long time, there is no doubt that they should be really finalized during this period of time.

On the other hand, also because of technological advances, the game world is undergoing earth-shaking changes-not only from 2D to 3D, but also from the background of the story to the foreground, where the interaction can be touched.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: game Design of Thousand Monkey Horse (ID:baima21th), author: big White Horse

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