In the last month of 2021, Shanghai Candle Dragon, which seems to have disappeared from the player's field of vision for a long time, released two new games in succession, one of which is the "White Thorn Corridor", a derivative of the IP universe of "Ancient Sword And Strange Tan", and the other is the 2D action game "Heart Abyss Dreamland" similar to Galaxy Castlevania.
Although there have been decades of experience in stand-alone and online games, the two-dimensional and horizontal movements are the first areas of candle dragons to try, what will be the style of the candle dragon known as the immortals to do the second dimension? This can't help but make GameLook look forward to it.
"Ancient Sword Strange Tan" universe to add another member, xianxia IP can also be two-dimensional?
Talking about the candle dragon game seems to never be able to avoid the "Ancient Sword Qitan", this stand-alone game born more than ten years ago relies on excellent quality and rich plot to attract countless fans, not only has the reputation of being praised by players as one of the domestic "three swords" (the other two are "Xuanyuan Sword" and "Legend of the Paladin Sword"), the game itself has long become a wonderful memory in the hearts of a generation of players.
White Thorn Corridor character PV
After the release of the last part of the ancient sword series, "Ancient Sword Qitan III", in 2018, it seems that the name of Shanghai Candle Dragon has rarely been heard in recent years. Recently, a mobile game called "White Wattle Cloister" "quietly" appeared on TapTap's appointment list, winning the top spot in the appointment list, with a score of 9.7 points.
"White Thorn Corridor" is the first Unreal Engine real-time strategy RPG mobile game developed by Shanghai Candle Dragon, although it is a two-dimensional style game, some of the characters are old friends who are familiar to fans of the ancient sword series, and sure enough, the law of "everything can be two-dimensional" still works in the ancient style IP. In this regard, the official also said that "in the early attempts of the "Ancient Sword and Strange Tan" series, we had made too many attempts at styling the characters we created, and this became the starting point for the huge world view concept of "White Thorn Corridor"... Here, the ancient sword characters will also have a new identity and experience, and unfold a new story. Many players of the ancient sword series also said "must be supported" when they saw the word "candle dragon".
In "White Thorn Cloister", the background comes to "Senluo", in the year 1116 of the Senluo calendar, a huge void appeared in the sky over the northern area of Hailin City, and many different worlds met and paralleled in it, and with the emergence of crystals of unknown energy, people were forced to enter the era of "White Thorn Technology". In the game, players will play the role of the top executive of the "White Wattle Technology" organization, bringing together "otherworldly visitors" from different worlds to explore the causes of the turmoil. The ancient sword characters that players are familiar with are also the visitors in these worlds.
Although this kind of apocalyptic story is not unfamiliar with two-dimensional games, if it is to add elements of the ancient sword IP, it seems to have a new meaning, and such a story also gives the ancient sword characters a "reasonable" way to string the scenes.
It is worth mentioning that although it is the first two-dimensional style game of Candle Dragon, as far as the official video is concerned, whether it is the character model, aesthetic quality or aesthetic taste, it has reached a fairly mature level, compared with most mainstream two-dimensional games.
For the characters of the ancient sword series, such a two-dimensional "dressup" also seems to be more successful, such as the "Xiang Ling" of "Ancient Sword Qitan II" still retains the playful and cute personality characteristics in "White Thorn Corridor", and the classic hairstyle of double twist braids also forms a good fit with the character modeling of cat elements in the new tour.
In terms of gameplay, "White Thorn Corridor" chose the less common "real-time strategy RPG", although there is not much gameplay introduction at present, but from the official video, it seems to be a bit similar to turn-based rather than real-time strategy, and the specific gameplay will have to wait for the game to be officially launched.
It can be seen that the quality performance of the game at the combat level is also relatively excellent, in addition to the smooth character action, the operation of the overhead view is also refreshing, and the addition of the character big move animation also makes people look forward to the final presentation of this game.
In addition, the plot of the two-dimensional game is also one of the main points of attention of the player, and for the candle dragon who has many years of experience in the plot creation of the ancient sword series, how to tell the story in the two-dimensional game has naturally become a challenge, but the official sells the story of the guanzi very well, and a sentence in the PV "is watching you" evokes countless suspense, which also makes us look forward to the final appearance of this game.
Starting a new one? Original, IP two hands
In addition to the new products of the "Ancient Sword Qitan" universe, in the field of flat action, Candle Dragon has also started its own boutique journey. In early December, Candle Dragon updated the page of Heartland Dream on Steam, and the number of appointments on TapTap exceeded 110,000, with a rating of 9.4.
"Heart Dreamland" demo
The project team said: "When the project was first established, the Galaxy Warrior-like Castlevania game was still a niche game category, and in the past two years, the excellent works in this type of game are like a blowout, and almost every month there will be new eye-catching works. Indeed, in addition to the increase in volume in recent years, the horizontal action game has more importantly shown a clear boutique trend in gameplay and visual presentation, such as "Death Cell", "Hollow Knight", "Ash" and other pearl works have achieved high gameplay while completing their own style of differentiation.
Despite returning to the "old line" of single-player games, this game is still a big challenge for Candle Dragon. In addition to putting aside the "Ancient Sword and Strange Tan" IP, the "new stove" in the art style also makes this work look less "candle dragon".
In "Heartland Dreamland", players will play as the amnesiac girl "Renee" to explore the continent of engardin created by the gods, discovering the dusty history while revealing the truth behind the world. The backstory of a few words suddenly pulls GameLook into some kind of ancient imagination with epic colors, and the "dream" of "Dream of the Heart" is slowly unfolding, and the first thing that comes into sight is the excellent artistic quality.
For single-player horizontal board action, the consideration of art style may be more crucial, in addition to the need to adapt to the aesthetics of different players, but also to be able to label the game with a differentiated label. "Dream of the Heart" chooses to use a pure hand-drawn art style, the official explained, "We have absorbed a lot of painting, oil painting, animation and other artistic styles, hoping to make it look and play like an experience of appreciating art." ”
This choice may be successful, the style of the scene is different, almost every frame has reached the point where it can be wallpapered, and the monsters in different regions even maintain a very good fit with the scene, accompanied by corresponding traps and traps, so that people often mistakenly think that these traps and monsters are decorations on the map.
Meticulous attention to the art did not make this Galactic Warrior-like game lose the "soul of action", and the exquisite scene depiction did not hide the "hardcore" of the game. Achieving this does not seem to be difficult for candle dragons who have cultivated single-player boutiques for many years, the game performs well in character action and sense of blows, each blow will be accompanied by a slight stagnation of the screen, enhancing the expressiveness of the action, and the fast and smooth combo moves and dodges also make every battle challenging.
It is worth mentioning that in terms of action design, "Heart Dreamland" adopts a frame-by-frame hand-drawn method, which is higher than skeletal animation in terms of technical difficulty and work volume, and all of this is also to achieve a better silky combat experience.
Boss battles highlight the game's hardcore, in addition to dealing with the boss's diverse attack methods, players also need to find flaws in the flash to attack, and calmly use melee weapons and ranged spell consumption.
In the weapon system, the player can have 5 main weapons, such as swords, scythes, etc., as well as 3 kinds of secondary weapons, such as the Magic Book, etc., in the future may be more than 10 weapon combinations, different weapons in addition to the attack mode change, more importantly, have different derivative skills, which also allows players to have a richer skill cultivation tree.
In terms of character development, the official also said that compared to the linear process, "Heart Dreamland" encourages players to explore other areas to achieve ability growth during the card level.
The word "change" stands, and what remains unchanged is the original intention of high-quality products
2021 is about to end, looking back at the big and small events of the Chinese game circle this year, it may be possible to answer with the four words of "mixed feelings", on the one hand, the repeated awards of major games have attracted the attention of the world, on the other hand, the total number of game versions and the layoffs and restructuring of the game departments of major companies are not lamentable.
"Change" is undoubtedly a feature of the game industry, and the "silent" Shanghai Candle Dragon at the end of this year also announced that they were full of ambition in the new year's game track with two games with different styles, and GameLook saw more of Shanghai Candle Dragon's inheritance of "seeking change".
As one of the leaders of the domestic "Xian Xia" game, Shanghai Candle Dragon's polishing of the "Ancient Sword Qitan" series of games needless to say, this game IP not only represents the level that domestic games can achieve, but also becomes the collective memory of a generation of players.
With the continuous change of the game market, the emergence of a variety of game types and gameplay has also continued to reshape the taste of players, the stereotype image of the almost binding between the domestic stand-alone xianxia game and the turn-based system, but also let Shanghai Candle Dragon constantly think about the way to "change" - "Ancient Sword Qitan III" may be the best case, they have abandoned the "Ancient Sword" series has always been turn-based or semi-turn-based gameplay in this game, boldly adopted a new real-time combat gameplay, becoming the first real-time combat action martial arts game in China.
Three years later, the Shanghai Candle Dragon, which "slow worked out of thin work", once again showed the players the results of its "change", and this change became thorough enough.
Not only is it a brand new game, on the one hand, "White Thorn Corridor" has made a new change to the IP of the ancient sword series, from the immortal ancient style character to the two-dimensional role in the future science fiction world, the battlefield has also crossed from the ancient to the "Senluo" world, and the gameplay is also the real-time strategy RPG that Candle Dragon has tried for the first time; on the other hand, it is completely out of the ancient sword series of "Heart Abyss Dream", and the gameplay is also the field that Candle Dragon has not set foot in. But whether it is the style change of IP or the change of new content, what remains unchanged is always the original intention of Candle Dragon to carefully polish the game.
The good reputation accumulated in the past days makes these two new games naturally have a group of fans, and the determination to boldly seek change and the ambition to dare to enter the new track are the confidence of Candle Dragon to face the future. In the future, whether the "change" of these two games can set off a wave is still unpredictable, but it is certain that Candle Dragon will show the courage to change and break through at the end of 2021, and will become another expectation for the players of the ancient sword series, in addition to "Ancient Sword Strange Tan IV".
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