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preface
2021 can be described as a year of grand ambitions for Clouded Leopard Entertainment, in addition to releasing "Fairy Tale Forest" and "Iron Wing Girl", participating in the release of "Swaying Camping VR" Benqi Lake Chapter & Foothills Camping Field And other independent games, comic game, or focus on the transplantation of Falcom classic works.
In February, the Chinese versions of Heroes: Flash Trail I: Change – Thors Military Academy 1204 – and Heroes: Flash Trail II: Change – The Erebonian Civil War- were released on Steam, followed by Heroes: Trail of Flash III in March, followed by Legend of Heroes Genesis TRAIL in August, and December at the end of the year with Legend of Heroes Trail IV - Trail of Lightning IV. The End of Saga-" and "Legend of Heroes Zero: Change" surprise two consecutive releases.
From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, the fans are really completely refreshed, and the 6 tracks are arranged to let people relive the touching and bloody moments of the past, and they are full of happiness throughout the year. And for the new students who are eager to enter the pit, this is definitely the best opportunity, 4 "Flash Trail" plus a "Trail of Tron" dubbed "Flash Trail 5" constitute a very grand and very complete story line, the player most of the time accompanied by the male protagonist Rien Shu huaze's perspective, little by little witness how he grew from an ordinary (completely) student to a hero who saved the world, of course, on this long journey, various companions, especially all kinds of beautiful girl companions (?). It's also a great highlight. As always, the translation quality of Clouded Leopard Entertainment is still very trustworthy, which is also the biggest advantage of the official Chinese version compared to other versions.
Growing up is an eternal theme, and Lane finally begins to hand over the baton
As mentioned earlier, if I had to give a key word in the Flash Trail series, it would be "growth". Of course, not only the growth of Lane Shuhuaze, but also the growth of his friends around him, which will make the player in front of the screen have a subtle "sense of harvest". It's just that most of the time the camera is focused on Lane, after all, it will be more substitutionary. At the beginning of "Trail of Flash 1", Lane is still a clueless student in the VII class of Tolz Non-Commissioned Officer College, and will be troubled by schoolwork and relationships with classmates - especially the relationship with the proud golden retriever Alyssa is simply a mess. Excluding the slightly outrageous combat effectiveness factors, everyone meets together to go to class, participate in clubs, answer class questions, etc., which is completely full of youthful atmosphere of campus drama visual sense.
It's just that in the context of the big times, the campus is definitely not as easy as in the daily department of GALGAME, from one generation to three generations behind the emergence of war, aggression, is conspiracy - Le en experienced the civil war caused by the confrontation between the reformists and aristocrats of the Erebonian Empire, experienced the war with the enemy Republic of Calvad, and himself graduated from the Tolzi Non-Commissioned Officer Academy and quickly grew into a qualified instructor who can guide young people. Based on the release time of the Japanese version, "Flash Trail" released 4 parts in the 5 years from 2013 to 2018, on the one hand, the calm little handsome brother Li En accumulated a lot of popularity, on the other hand, not to mention that ordinary players even loyal fans are aesthetically tired, the production team is obviously aware of this problem, so they chose to let the plot run wild at the end of the third part - although it caused great controversy, but the desired effect was achieved, they just naturally gave Lee En" Hidden".
Instead, Yuna Crawford of the New VII class was appointed to play an important role as the lead character of Trail of Flash 4, even fully as the protagonist in the first chapter of the game. Continuing the plot of the previous game, a group of people wake up in the Mist Spirit, and after a special training, they take Yuna as the core to seek the rescue of Li En. After a long search, the old and new VII squad finally join forces to rescue Lane from the goblin-controlled black workshop and awaken his will. So the plot also returns to the so-called right track that we are familiar with, in order to solve the end of the world caused by the "Giant Twilight", Lane and the ultra-luxurious lineup finally succeeded in preventing the destruction.
Along the way, we witnessed the courage of Lane and his partners from confusion and struggle to firm faith, and witnessed the non-hesitation in the face of self-sacrifice, although there was a touch and a reluctance, but it can be said that there is no regret. In particular, the leap from Normal End to True End is a further sublimation, we witnessed the reunion after igniting hope through the power of the crowd, the pharaoh really knows what the player wants, let everyone brew the emotions for a long time, and smoothly transition to the state of the satisfied sage (?) ), this plot control is wonderful.
Selling feelings is undoubtedly the focus, and the characters appear in a dizzying manner
Since "Flash Trail 4" as the end of the Flash Track series, then selling feelings has naturally become a key matter, after all, the Spring Festival Gala will make the performing actors shine at the time of "Unforgettable Tonight", then the Flash Track has been 5 years before and after and now it is the final moment, and the important and unimportant characters in the past are released to gather together (?). It is also reasonable that the so-called no merit and hard work, at this time, it is a bit too much to not let people brush off the sense of existence. So this time, even Estil Bright, Joshua Bright of "The Trail of Emptiness", Royd Bannings, Ellie McDowell and other old players and even outsiders of "Orbit of Zero" are also very familiar with the characters, in the prologue to show everyone a bunch, the style is not reduced, it is really enjoyable.
But so dozens of characters have appeared to form a "trajectory all-star" lineup (?) While it does fill up the mood, it also brings many problems. One of the biggest problems is that the whole script has a tendency to develop towards group portrait dramas, always a large wave of people you sing me on stage, even if the perspective is still around the protagonist, but there are too many people next to it! In addition to those heavy die-hard players who can even memorize the Chronology of the Seven Yao Calendar, the average player is easily dizzy, and this time it is really easy to face blindness attack and can't remember who is who. After all, the pharaoh control ancestral modeling has a saying that a face is really almost the same, and even if the hairstyles and hair colors are various, but so many works have spanned so many years, especially in the flash 1-flash 3, the characters who are active in the empty zero blue suddenly appear to make people dizzy, and the algorithm old control is very intimate to mark the name I have to react for half a day, and many times I have to turn to the encyclopedia to find out what this person is doing and when it first appeared.
Of course, some hardcore voice actors and chefs may not have this phenomenon, after all, the sound of the original life is even if it turns to ashes (?). Nor can it be forgotten. But this also does not apply to ordinary players, you still have to stand in the perspective of ordinary people to look at, so dozens of voice actors, even if most of them are well-known with countless works with a high degree of national fame, but then the trajectory with the protagonist is good, run to match a supporting role that does not have a strong sense of existence, then who remembers who is who. So a lot of times I'm afraid of encountering a scene where Wu Yangyang is all crowded, and it's too draining to try to distinguish the characters every time. In the end, the strategy I chose could only be to advance the plot of "Flash Trail 4", while using data to recall and re-memorize, honestly it was quite painful.
Even old players like me have to go through this process, let alone new players. My advice is that you should never think of taking a step up the ladder starting from "Trail of Lightning 4", LV0 level to challenge the LV99 level is really reckless and no fun, please invest absolute patience honestly start from the generation - as I mentioned, Clouded Leopard in 2021 "Trail of Flash" 1-4 including the follow-up "Trail of Tron" Chinese version and DLC are put on Steam, you don't need to hesitate to buy it all and spend hundreds of hours playing slowly and it will be finished. It's not impossible to really have time to watch other people's plot flow strategies, but I don't advocate using this way, because the damage to the sense of substitution is still quite serious, and the king JRPG has to immerse itself in one sentence to listen to the voice, fight monsters and fight monsters to challenge the BOSS.
The level of the picture has been improving, and the vertical contrast is very obvious
If you are a trajectory veteran player, then you definitely have enough tolerance in terms of graphics - this veteran RPG manufacturer has never been good at building gorgeous game graphics, and the various jagged dog teeth brought by their famous "ancestral engine" have been accustomed to it for so many years, and the attitude has also changed from the past playful criticism to the current play terrier, in the final analysis, we will choose Pharaoh's control works are holding the purpose of playing plot and fighting, rather than playing with pictures. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you take "Trajectory" to make a horizontal comparison with the works of other manufacturers, after all, in 2022, the big factories have begun to have Unreal 5 per capita. If you have to compare, you can make a vertical comparison, and you can indeed see that Pharaoh Control has been striding forward.
If you have played "Flash Trail" 1-2 and later HD revisions, then you can see that the picture of "Flash Trail 4" is still much better. I took a screenshot of the game screen in the early trials of "Flash Trail 1 Change" and "Flash Trail 4", and the texture of "Flash Trail 4" in the scene modeling is relatively better, and the decorations and destructibles will be much more. Of course, the existing shortcomings in the previous work are still in this work, such as vegetation or a variety of teeth and claws growing arbitrarily, and the ground map is still a large piece of color, but the good villain has changed from the state of relatively unbearable direct gaze in the past to a state that can be seen and looks more pleasing to the eye.
And the character modeling will be much better, "Flash Trail 4" and later "Tron Trail" is basically at the same level, the protagonists and the former protagonists although still two-dimensional style modeling but now not afraid of the face lens, although the hair is still a whole piece but will be slightly a little hair modification, texture is not so clumpy and greasy, eyelashes ah eyes ah eyes and other details are also relatively complete. In addition, it is necessary to mention the use of light and shadow, compared to the strange lighting of the 1st and 2nd generations of the redesign, the gloss of the face of the characters in "Flash Trail 4" this time is very normal, and the player can finally feel at ease and boldly lick the wives (mistakenly). In addition, the scene lighting is also more reasonable, not too bright nor too dark. From a visual point of view, although it is not as good as the graphics of those photo-level games, it also makes people feel quite comfortable.
As for other passers-by NPCs or something, Pharaoh Control did not cut corners, although the face pinch can not walk out of the strange circle of a thousand people, but the costumes and hairstyles can be seen that there is a serious design and reflects some differentiation, so that there is no drama and no drama, I think this is enough.
Combat is relatively easy to get started with, and the operation optimization is satisfactory
The traditional sequential turn-based combat system of the Flash Trail series actually has nothing to mention in particular, and the 4 games including the later Tron Trail are basically the same, and the enemy and we attack in the order on the left side of the screen is finished. Of course, in order to make the attack play tricks, Pharaoh Control also set up magic in addition to the general attack, add buff courage instructions for companions, combat skills that consume CP value, and S combat skills that can only be released when the CP value reaches 100 and 200 are full of power. In particular, when the S combat skills are released, there will be a standing drawing display and a large section of cool animation, of course, watching more will be tired, so the pharaoh control is also very intimate to set the skip function. Of course, the auto combat function production team also provides, but sometimes the CPU control character will be a bit silly, you still have to stare at it, otherwise it may be destroyed at low difficulty.
Here we must also remind the novice students to pay attention to the so-called first attack problem when moving in the maze - in fact, everyone understands the truth, that is, after seeing the monster, first attack to make it dizzy, and then contact it to enter the formal battle. Why do you emphasize the importance of the first attack here is because the difficulty curve of "Trail of Lightning 4" is not very smooth, the opening prologue Estil's group of people more than 80 levels of various peerless not to mention, with Yuna as the protagonist, our team is more than 20 levels of children, and after passing the initial trial maze, the level is suddenly raised to level 50 by the system. I thought I could show my fists, but I didn't expect that the scene of just coming out of the mist spirit to the forest scene was all kinds of unscientific.
What is the effect of hypnotizing two and then rapidly reducing our health volume, what has the effect of being bitten and returning to the west with the effect of imminent death, all kinds of miscellaneous soldiers are really outrageous. Honestly speaking, I am about to become a spring water god of war, and I have to go back to make up for a fight or two, and it is really all up to the S combat skills to survive. In the end, I went up to hide from the beginning of the strange, anyway, the normal difficulty and below there was no need to deliberately level up.
In addition, in terms of operation, I also need to praise the clouded leopard, compared to the first transplant of "Flash Trail 1 Change" is not very experienced, and now they have performed very well. I deliberately used the keyboard and mouse to play the game this time, the various default keys are very reasonable and completely no problem, and the keys are also intimately marked for everyone to have prompts on various occasions. I tried the keyboard and mouse and then I didn't plan to take out the handle at all, anyway, "Flash Track" has no action requirements - the only action that can be called action is that after the attack may trigger the combo, the chase state requires you to quickly press the corresponding button, but this is equivalent to a small QTE, very smooth keyboard and mouse operation can be fully satisfied. As for the optimization, the current version I personally open 1080P full height on the notebook without any caton, in addition to the fever is a little bit stronger and there is no other problem.
summary
Falcom's "Trail of Flash" series, as the aggregator of the traditional Japanese RPG genre, has gained a large number of fans including me in the past 5 years - I myself was barely a passerby player during the "Trail of emptiness" period, and at that time I would have loved the more action-oriented "Legends" series next door, but now that I am getting older, I like this series with blood, emotion, and bondage and growth.
Although as a tried and tested RPG god of war, my taste has become more and more eccentric, I will like the twists and turns in the middle of the way because it will be more irritating, and I also like the clichéd reunion ending where the protagonist Fang everyone gets happy, because "beautiful" is always the direction of pursuit engraved in the bones of our East Asian cultural circles. And the long story composed of 4 "Flash Trails" uses a familiar recipe to make a familiar flavor, although I have seen most of the script routines, but occasionally encounter some unexpected places will still be very surprised, on the whole, it can be said that it is a good meeting of my needs.
Let's focus on "Trail of Flash 4" again, put aside the emotion brought about by the sublimation of the ending, and evaluate the entire work rationally and objectively, we can still get the conclusion that "this is an excellent and satisfactory finish". After all, what should be explained is accounted for, what should be filled in is filled, and what should be rendered is also rendered in place, although there will be plot procrastination, aesthetic fatigue, and high repetition during the playing process, but there are no regrets so far. That's enough, wave goodbye to the past - of course, for the new students who pushed the 4-part process, there is also the so-called "Trail of Lightning 5" "Trail of Creation" waiting for it, change the mood to see a different scenery, and then prepare to jump into the big pit of the "Legend of Heroes: Trail of Dawn" series. Speaking of the Chinese version of "Legend of Heroes: The Trail of Dawn" has not yet been listed, Pharaoh Control is already working hard to produce 2 generations, which is also too prolific!
In 2022, as a player, I have more expectations for Clouded Leopard Entertainment. On the one hand, it is hoped that they will continue to launch more popular works in indie games and comic games, such as 5pb console comic games, I don't know if they can arrange it? On the other hand, they continue to exert efforts on the pharaonic control works, of course, in January they will continue to fill the pit to bring us the "Hero Legend Bi's Trail: Change" and "Isu IX - Night of the Strange Man-" on the Steam platform, and also look forward to the early launch of the Steam Chinese version of "Hero Legend: The Trail of Dawn"!
Overall rating: 8/10 Recommended audience: Fans of the "Trail of Flash" series