As the first work of the English studio where the moonlight cockroach is located, "Hessin-cho Qitan" takes AVG as the main line and is supplemented by a novel combination of "Chinese Horror Japanese Horror Japanese Pixel Style" to create a unique fear core for domestic games.
What is China's horror? Is it the traditional three elements of the "Paper Man's Coffin Curse"? Is it a cultural symbol of Yin and Yang and Five Elements, , the Eight Trigrams of the Book of Changes and Eight Trigrams of ? Is it a classic background element for the country, mansion, and grave? Personally, in a word, the core of Chinese-style horror is the deep thought and fear after experience.
Just like the collection of classical Chinese short stories in the Qing Dynasty ("Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio") has been passed down through the ages, its extraordinary feature is that it is called "On Ghosts and Gods", which is actually about people's hearts. "Hesen-cho Qitan" is dressed in a terrifying Japanese robes, but the flesh inside is highly condensed with the terrifying Chinese soul. Through the "Little Trial" of "Hesen-cho Qitan", another Chinese horror game in the future, it also laid a solid foundation for another Chinese horror game "The Pearl in the Crown" 3354 "Fireworks".
"Because, the scenery there is beautiful."
1. Background: Human tragedy caused by extreme disappointment with society.
There are bones everywhere he wants to go, and flowers everywhere he goes.
"Heisen-cho Qitan" tells a story that makes people feel excited and moved after playing.
Japanese middle school girl Hihara Xiasen accidentally broke into the other world of consciousness, and she met the mysterious girl Tan Xue. The two traveled through time at different times, gradually revealing the hazy and terrible truth hidden behind historical events.
Whoever has played "Hesen-cho Qitan" should know that there is a saying at the beginning of the game, "The game is created based on real events."
The game time changed back and forth in the 1980s and 1990s, and it was a glorious period that made Heisei's men cry. This period is also known as Japan's bubble economy, generally referring to the 4 years and 3 months from December 1986 to February 1991, and it is also the second period of great development after the rapid economic development in the late 1960s.
It is also a period of singing and dancing, drunk, crazy, and wealth rapidly expanding. How much is the accumulation of wealth exaggerated?
At that time, in Japan, the starting price of taxis was 10,000 yen per turn. The company could provide hundreds of thousands of yen to college students who had not graduated in one month. Middle-level cadres who poach the corner can get one million yen. You know, it was in 1989.
In Japan in 1989, house prices and land prices soared, and selling Tokyo to buy the United States is no longer a dream. For example, Mitsubishi, Japan bought the Rockefeller Center in the United States, Sony bought the Columbia movie, and Empire State Building was bought by Hideki Yokoi, Japan.
However, "the flawed soldiers are always soldiers, and the perfect flies are just flies", Japan's bubble economy is just Japan's "bubble" economy. Because this economic tide was supported by a large amount of speculation, with the bursting of the bubble in the early 1990s, Japan's economy experienced a major regression, and then entered a Heisei depression, which has not fully recovered until today. And this flashing scare is creepy.
The collapse of Japanese bubble economy has led to a series of social conflicts. The population is negative, people are in debt and even choose ZS. What's even more terrifying is that people's extreme dissatisfaction with society and lack of hope for the future also gives X a chance to teach.
The organization of "Truth Heaven" in the game reflects the Aum Shinri Church, and the train gas incident is also the real Tokyo Metro Salin gas incident.
On the morning of March 20, 1995, a terrorist attack occurred in the Tokyo Metro in Japan. Aum Shinri Kung X, who launched a terrorist attack, distributed sarin gas on five trains on Tokyo Metro Line 3, killing 13 people and injuring more than 5,510 people.
Relatedly, a train heading to Hesse Town Station also broke out in the game. In order to prevent the thug from leaving, ticket conductor Miss Kuno is willing to block the car door with her body, sacrifice herself to help innocent people.
Like a lost kitten, she finally found the train to the Fairy Tale Kingdom.
As a result of the changes of the times, the changes of the times and the sweeping of the third industrial revolution of , the wave of urbanization inevitably swept into Luming Village. This originally peaceful, peaceful and quiet village has its own patron saint of faith, but under the impact of capital and the baptism of the times, people's hearts gradually become anxious and their eyes gradually become short-sighted. Conflicts with cities and villages will inevitably lead to disputes, conflicts and even death.
The villagers gradually gave up their faith under the temptation of the X-sect, chose to trade with the demons, and finally fell into an endless abyss.
2. Story: Anecdotes inject lively water from the source into game creation.
The horror of "Heisen-cho Kitan" was inspired by the Japanese economic bubble and subway gas incident in the last century, and it was also integrated into the local monster culture of Japan.
Moonlight cockroach said: sharp-eyed friends may also find many easter eggs, such as "JOJO's Wonderful Adventure", "Millennium Actress", Kurosawa's movies, etc. A movie is mentioned in particular, and there are tributes in the game. In order to avoid suspicion, the game is called "Yashan". In reality, this movie is called "The Legend of the Mountain Festival".
"The Examination of the Yama Festival" tells a tradition in a Japanese mountain village in the old society: in order to save food, the elderly in the village must carry their families up the mountain to worship the mountain god after they reach a certain age. In fact, this is staying on the mountain and waiting for death. This terrible custom originates from material deprivation, from awe of nature and worship of fertility.
The first Japanese legend in the game, "Hundred Ghosts Walking Night" is that a pregnant woman who died of dying from childbirth turned into a monster,————a bird.
It is said that the ancient firebird always holds a child and will hand it over to passers-by when encountering passers-by. But if passers-by pick up the child, they will feel that the child in their hands is getting heavier and heavier. The second terrifying Japanese ghost legend in the game is that the fox married his own daughter. The first dream of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's "Dream" (composed of eight dreams) starts with "Sunshine and Rain".
There is a legend about the fox marrying his daughter in spring, warning people not to enter the forest in spring and disturb the fox’s wedding, otherwise they will suffer bad luck. And what we call "Sun Rain" is that the fox wants to marry his daughter.
It is particularly worth mentioning that the character "Cookie Girl" appears in the game.
In 1979, "The Legend of the Liebok Girl" spread like an infectious disease, sweeping all Japanese campuses and causing great public anxiety. At first it was just a topic circulating among primary school students. It was not until some students were so scared that they dared to go to school alone that parents realized the seriousness of the situation and wrote a note on the contact book, asking the teacher to pay special attention to the safety of their children. It even evolved into schools going out to seek help from police and strengthening patrols around the campus. Even local schools in the noisiest areas were forced to suspend classes completely.
But the life of Miss Ando, the girl in the game, is very miserable.
As an actor, she is young and promising, with superb acting skills, and has won unanimous praise from the audience and the company. She should have a better life.
Until one night she met a perverted and enthusiastic male fan. The male fan believed the media rumor that Miss Hui was going to be with another man, and he slashed Miss Hui in the face with a knife.
After Miss Hui was disfigured, fewer and fewer people were around her who cared about her. This also gave the X-sect people the opportunity to deceive her and make her take revenge on this society.
What I envy you is the courage to love and the freedom to be loved.
On a rainy day, Miss Hui took poison gas and released it in the rain, eventually killing many innocent people.
Coincidentally, high school girl Kiyoko Nishimura should have the beauty of her flower season.
However, she was bullied by school, and was eventually bewitched by X and poisoned the train to death.
The two of them were originally innocent people, but in an instant they lost themselves and fell into the abyss, becoming bloody perpetrators.
In fact, in domestic horror games, the most common feeling of immersion created by supernatural stories.
In this long-standing land in China, countless supernatural stories are circulating.The story of the dragon descending from Yingkou, the jade pendant of Pisces, the advertisement of , Guangjiu Railway in 1993, and the corpse driving people in Xiangxi. These stories not only become the topic of conversation for people in their spare time, but also become the source of inspiration for China's horror.
Although "Heisen-cho Qitan" uses horror stories from Japanese legends, these short and concise stories similar to Chinese horrors, constructing bloody and zombie rampant stories that are different from the horrors of the United States, making people feel the profound meaning of the text in just 6 hours.
3. Character: Since ancient times, beauties have lived so short, who will be pity for their demise?
Lu Xun said: The real tragedy is to tear up beautiful things for people to see. In recent years, domestic horror games have broken through the circle, and small-level games such as " Hong Kong Strange Record ", "Paper Wedding Dress", "Paper Man", and "Fireworks" have gradually entered people's attention.
In Chinese society, the concept of "men are superior to women" has been deeply rooted for thousands of years. However, when there is injustice, there will be contradictions and resistance. In this way, stories of personal ethical tragedy and moral degradation are constantly being staged on the land of China.
As mentioned earlier, the essence of Chinese horror games lies in short and concise storytelling, and the core of these stories lies in the hearts of the people, and the portrayal of the people's hearts cannot be separated from the in-depth portrayal of female characters.
In "Hong Kong Strange Records", Zhang Yi was forced to death by a nobleman and a madam in Shicheng, and in "Paper Wedding Dress", he had to be sacrificed as a paper bride, and in "Paper Man", Mrs. Yin lost her baby due to family suspicion, and Zhao
Similar, in "Hesen Town Qi Tan", the protagonists in the three chapters "The Strange Case of Deer Bone", "Cat Train" and "Monster Show" are all heroines. Including the heroine Ishihara Natsumoto, who finally found the truth of the tragic, all have tragic fates to varying degrees.
However, even if the ideal place they pursue is gone, they try their best to make the path they have walked bear fruit.
Yu Qianjing, the fox girl in "The Legend of Deer Bones", struggles to break free from the shackles and constraints passed down from generation to generation and bravely integrates into the world;
The train conductor in "The Cat Train", Miss Yuno, has a spark of hope in her eyes. She hopes to break the worldly vision one day and become a real train conductor.
Eka Ando in "Devil Show" finally realized that in the past, what she longed for was illusory honor, but now, as long as everyone shows a smile from the heart, she is satisfied;
In order to get close to the public, Gu Xue has been deliberately catering to others all her life. This time, she wanted to live bravely for herself.
At the end of the story, Ishihara Natsumoto chose to face up to his uniqueness and no longer avoid the existence of "they"...
In this strange, absurd or sad story, the city and the countryside, monsters and humans complement each other and go their separate ways.
In Chinese horror games, many characters are hateful and pitiful. They take it for granted that they are wrong with others rather than themselves, so they deceive themselves and themselves in their hearts, and ultimately convince themselves to leave the moral burden and legal constraints and embark on a path of no return.
For example, the planners of X Education in the game may not know how painful it will be to fall into hell, but they still choose to devote themselves to the "beautiful" imagination of "purifying" the world and eventually cut off the butcher knife on the innocent.
In the context of ignorance, every blind life will eventually be a soul with no place to rest, a broken soul with scars. 4. Conclusion: Chinese horror games have a long way to go
In recent years, with the rapid progress of domestic stand-alone games, Chinese horror games are also rising strongly. Unlike the high investment and output of Europe and the United States in 3A games, the ingenuity, excellence and repeated gameplay of independent studios is obviously a "curve-to-curve country" path.
Regarding China's horror game, Moonlight Cockroach said in an interview: I think the core of "Chinese style" is a localized story. The behavioral logic of the characters in the story, their lines, and their family relationships should make people feel that this is a story that takes place in the context of China at a glance.On this basis, consider packaging some horror or suspense elements.
Of course, some Chinese horror games still have bad plots. In the end, we can only use "spirit" and "drugs" and other means to force the dog to continue to be marten, just like domestic horror movies.
With the gradual recovery of domestic stand-alone games, I believe that Chinese horror games will find their own spring with the efforts of a group of aspiring people. I also hope that more high-quality domestic brands can go abroad and compete with "foreign masters". After all, it is not the only one branch in spring, but the blooming of flowers.
