“Dragon Restoration Among People! “Extreme” clearance concern: Give the newcomer Long Studio a little more time | 4Gamers

After Minoru Nagoshi, the former director of Renlong Studio, left SEGA, Renlong Studio finally launched the first work after the reorganization after a whole year. “Extreme”, this time we also use the deluxe version to play 4 days in advance, and after clearing the game, we will talk about the impression of this game.

Kazuma Kiryu is reborn as Ryoma Sakamoto

This time the story describes the story of the end of the Shogunate period, from the era of “Black Ship Arriving” to “Return of the Great Government”. The player plays the role of “Sakamoto Ryoma”, a villager who had an important influence on this era in history. Describes that in order to find out the murderer who killed his father, he came to Kyoto to investigate “Tiannianli Xinliu”, and then joined the pro-shogunate armed group “Shinsengumi” under the pseudonym “Saitoichi”, investigated the murderer and was involved in a larger The story of the event.

The background of the whole story and some events and names in the game are indeed the same as in history. For example, the existence and positioning of the Shinsengumi, and the “Ikedaya Incident” that attacked the Kinwang faction, these are all facts that actually existed in history.

However, the adaptation of this work is very large. For example, Sakamoto Ryoma mentioned above was mixed into the Shinsengumi under the name Saitoichi. In fact, these two people existed independently in history. Sakamoto Ryoma has never joined the Shinsengumi, let alone who plays whom. question. Therefore, it is okay to regard this work as an opportunity to study history, but not as an entry-level brick.

In the game, the protagonist Sakamoto Ryoma is the same as the protagonist Kazuma Kiryu of “The Dragon Among Men” from the module to the dubbing, and not only Kazuma Kiryu, but also the role of human dragon into this work this time, many characters They all subtly echoed their personalities in “Dragon Among Men”, and even their relationship with Kiryu.

That year’s “Dragon Restoration Among Men!” “is full of the old-fashioned “dragon among men”, this time “Dragon among men is renewed!” “Extreme” is a remake type after all, so the outline of the entire game this time is the traditional “Dragon Among Men” gameplay.

It mainly narrates the main story with twists and turns in a movie-like way, with a semi-open ancient capital, where players can experience various mini-games, or interesting, touching, and funny side missions, from street scenes to food. Japanese culture at that time.

If there is any difference in the plot direction, it is probably the emotional plot. The wandering life of Kiryu Kazuma in “Dragon Among Men” is always difficult to fall in love with, but Sakamoto Ryoma, a character from history, is not the same.

The advantage of this game is that even if you are not a player of the “Dragon Among Men” series, you don’t have to worry about the connection of the plot, and you can experience the so-called “Dragon of Man” game painlessly. If you are interested in the Japanese shogunate era, it is a good introductory work.

As for the players of the series, in addition to experiencing a story different from “Dragon Among Men”, the correspondence between the characters has buried many stalks that old players can understand.

Enjoying Kyoto at the end of the Edo period

Although the style of people and dragons is still the same, the historical Kyoto is definitely the biggest feature of this work. Although there are fewer transport points for sedan chairs (taxis), the design of the scene is good-looking. A part that Sengoku/Shogunate games rarely do.

For example, there are NPCs who will be fixed by the river to tell stories. In the era of uncirculated information, or in the current class era, some samurai are arrogant and domineering in the face of civilians. These are unique themes that only exist in this era. .

Moreover, there is a thoughtful function in the game, which is “dictionary”. You can watch the translation of some nouns at that time during the dialogue at any time. For example, “Tosa” is the southern part of Shikoku in today’s Japan. The identity between the upper-level samurai (上士) and the lower-level samurai (乡士).

Moreover, the background coincides with the historical event “The Arrival of the Black Ship”, so many branches also tell about the cultural and ideological conflicts between Japan and foreign countries at that time from various angles. Players who are interested in the history of the end of the Bakumatsu era in Japan, I believe they will like it. works.

There are still plenty of mini-games in this game. In addition to the traditional karaoke (Japanese version) casino, there are also farms, cooking, playing, fishing, chicken racing, etc. This time the proportion of rhythm is relatively high. If you want to play in depth, players who are hard at rhythm will work harder.

Including mini-games, in the past Renlong had this kind of design similar to the achievement system. In this “Dragon Among Men Restoration!” In “Extreme”, all actions will be turned into “virtue” values. These virtues can be used to improve some of your own abilities, such as the duration of running, or to expand the facilities in the hut, as well as the area of ​​farmland, seeds, etc. .

The only disadvantage is that there are too many switches, which makes the reading a bit unsmooth, which we will mention in the engine section below.

It’s a fight with a knife, but it’s still the same

“Dragon Restoration Among People! The combat in “Extreme” is similar to the four styles of “Dragon Among Men 0”. There are also four attack modes, including empty-handed, knife-holding, gun-holding, and “flurry” of holding a knife + holding a gun. Has strengths and weaknesses. These players will experience it in the game soon.

Due to the existence of the “blood gauge” and “extreme” skills, even with a knife, the overall fight is not much different from the past. Strong players will find ways to fight back (such as fighting tigers), while less powerful players Just run to the opponent to chase, or grab the empty gear after hard gear, the overall change is not big.

If I really want to say the biggest difference, it is probably that there are more blood sprays, but there is still a distance from the restricted level.

The biggest difference between this battle system and the original version is the addition of the squadron system that was only available in the original mini-game. To put it bluntly, the squadron system allows players to have four more active skills, ranging from attack, support, and recovery types of skills.

Each attack mode can be equipped with a team of warriors, and the squadrons themselves have upgrades, recruitment, etc., which seem to be very rich, but in fact, because the official has directly sent legendary guards, and the deluxe version sent one Some of them are quite easy to use, but it is really difficult to stop using them, which makes the whole cultivation system meaningless.

Compared with the original version, this remake has more stringent requirements for the modification of some weapons and armors, but players who have never played the original version may not feel it, and in fact, the main line of normal difficulty does not require high-level modification. Different people have different opinions on the changes.

But I have to say, this time “Dragon Restoration Among Men!” Whether the striking feeling of “Extreme” is good or not may depend on the person. The editor believes that the Renlong series is good at fists and feet. Although it is not that there are no weapons such as knives and guns, they are not the main body after all. But in “Dragon Restoration Among Men!” In “Extreme”, knives and guns became the main body of the attack. This time in the cold weapon battle, it can only be said that it has maintained the level of the human dragon series as a secondary weapon in the past, and it has not deteriorated. However, compared with other games, there is still room for improvement.

Unreal Engine, have to practice again

Not only the production team, but this time “Dragon Among Men is Renewed!” Extreme” abandoned the “Dragon Engine” developed by itself in the past, and switched to the “Unreal Engine” commonly used in the industry.

This change is not obvious on the surface, but if you are a fan of the Human Dragon series, you should feel the difference in details. The good part is that this game is not modern, so some natural scenery such as plants and water bodies in the game are better presented, and the lighting part is also improved a lot compared to the past. This can be seen from the cast list at the beginning of the game when it is on the sea.

But there are also bad parts. First of all, it is obvious that the resources of the UE engine are heavy. This time, the PS5 version often encounters the problem of not being able to read the scenes when switching scenes. In the past, it has minimized the reading of images, and this time it has gone the old way. Separate Mibu and Gion from the map.

Some exploration dialogues and actions often give people a sense of stuttering. Even picking up objects and actions plus displaying props and then stopping the screen, this very old-fashioned approach is not as smooth as the previous works of Dragon Engine.

The official statement is that the dragon engine is not suitable for making daytime scenes.although this aspect is indeed correct, but it is clear that there is still room for improvement in the mastery of the UE engine.

Players who have played the previous game should all agree that the graphics of “Dragon Among Men 7” are not outdated. The editor is actually a little skeptical. Minoru Hiroshi Nagoshi did not leave alone, but also took away a group of important ministers. It is impossible not to have an impact on the development of Renlong Studio. On the technical side, whether the part including the Dragon Engine has resulted in development problems It is worth pondering, maybe only they know it internally, and it will take time to prove it.

“Dragon Restoration Among People! “Extreme” is the first work of the new Dragon Studio, and it actually symbolizes that the “Dragon Among Men” series will move towards a new starting point.

For this “Dragon Restoration Among Men!” “Extreme”, the editor believes that although some are not perfect, it is still a finished product that can be explained on the whole, and after all, this is only a remake. Whether the new studio is better or worse may have to wait until later “Dragon Among Men 7 Biography” and “Dragon Among Men 8” will know.