This article is excerpted from UCG Issue 506.507
As a representative animal of diligence and honesty and hard-working, cattle are quite loved by the Chinese people. Needless to say, the cow statue in front of the stock exchange symbolizes the "bull market" is also very festive. And niu's strong body and thick horns also look particularly imposing, so when speaking to describe others as powerful, the Chinese people will unconsciously use the indecent word with the word "cow" (laughs).
So what is the foreign impression of cattle? We might as well get a glimpse of it through the games produced by various countries. This article will follow the timing of the beginning of the Year of the Ox to introduce you to the cows that appear in the game. Some of them borrow from myths and legends, and some of them have become mascots in the game with their own unique designs... Either way, it undoubtedly adds a lot to their own games.
Minotaurs
The image of the Minotaur appears in national myths around the world, after all, the cow, as an important agricultural tool for mankind, is regarded by mankind as one of the totems representing strength and abundance. However, there are also some minotaurs who are evil creatures, such as Minotaur from Greek mythology.
Minotaurs in Blue Fantasy.
Minotaurs is one of the most famous monsters in Greek mythology, the product of a sacred cow sent by The tyrant Minos, who ruled Crete, and Poseidon, the god of the sea. King Minos commissioned the craftsman Daedalus to build a huge labyrinth on the island of Crete to trap the monster. In order to keep the secret of the labyrinth, Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus in the labyrinth, Daedalus made wings out of wax and feathers, and flew away from Crete with his son, but Icarus flew too close to the sun and caused the wax that made the wings to melt, and finally fell from the air and fell to his death, which is where the meaning of "Wings of Icarus" comes from.
Later, in the war with Athens, Minos accepted Athenian peace on the condition that Athens send seven pairs of virgin boys and girls to Crete every nine years as a tribute to Minotaurus as food.
In order to get rid of the monster that endangered Athens and save the virgin boys and girls who were treated as tributes, the Athenian prince Theseus was willing to take himself as a hostage to Crete, and agreed with his father that if he failed, the returning fleet would be hung with black sails. After arriving in Crete, Theseus, with the help of Minos's daughter Ariadne, infiltrated the labyrinth of Daedalus and killed Minotaurs. But Le Ji was sad, Theseus's fleet was too excited to take off the black sails hanging, and the king of Athens saw the fleet return from a distance, thinking that his son was dead, and committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea in grief, and this sea was also named the Aegean Sea.
Minotaurs in Final Fantasy VIII.
As a famous monster image in Greek mythology, Minotaurs has appeared in many games, such as the first labyrinth of the first generation of "Goddess Rebirth" is the "Tower of Daedalus", and the final guard boss is Minotaurs. Minotaurs in the "Final Fantasy Series" has also appeared in many works such as generation 1, 3, and 5. The boss of Table 3 in Castlevania X. Reincarnation of Blood, Minotaurus, impressed players with his ferocious attacks, and in Greek-backed game works such as God of War and Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Minotaurs is a regular visitor who will not be absent.
Minotaurs in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
Cow ghost
The cow ghost is a yokai that has been passed down in Western Japanese legends, and its image is close to that of a spider + a cow, but its body is similar to that of a multi-legged spider under the premise that the head is a bull's head. In some legends, cow ghosts also have insect-like wings. This kind of monster has a very fierce personality, usually living by the river and the sea, and once someone approaches, he will bite the unlucky egg with sharp teeth. The venom spewing from its mouth is also very dangerous, and even if humans come into contact with the contaminated water source, they will die. Such a fierce appearance and powerful lethality make it not only appear in various ancient books depicting youkai. Using modern technology as a carrier, cow ghosts also appear in various unique forms in the game.
In the "Peerless Snake" series, the cow ghost appears many times, and unlike the legendary appearance, although it is called the cow ghost in the "Peerless Snake", it is actually closer to the "Minotaurs". The standing state with a stick is far from the legendary "spider cow" image. The only thing that can be called a similarity is its ferocious performance. The cow ghosts in "Peerless Snake" have been power-type characters throughout the ages, and the moment they swing their sticks with brute force, they are slightly similar in spirit to the fierce performance of the legendary perpetrators who crush them with their teeth.
When it comes to the "perfect restoration" of the image, it is also necessary to count "Monster Watch" and "Renwang 2". The cow ghost in "Monster Watch 4" not only reproduces the classic image of the minotaur spider's body, but also decorates its body with a lot of fluff. What is even more evocative is that although its head is a bull's head, it has compound eyes. The combination of the two successfully highlights the spider characteristics of the cow ghost. Renwang 2 deals with the image of the cow ghost from a more realistic point of view, in which the cow ghost has a spider-like multi-legged, but the feet are alienated into the hooves of the cow, and the front foot part of the spider grows spikes. In battle, it will not only use the attacks mentioned in legends such as spraying poison, but also open its insect-like wings after receiving a certain amount of damage, which makes its performance in the game more domineering at the same time, but also further fits the legendary image.
The cow ghost that appears in "Monster Watch 4" has the golden name of "Cow Devil King", which is very magical.
Minotaur
The Minotaur itself does not have a specific mythological image, but this race appears in a large number of games, and even the appearance of Minotaurs itself is in line with the image of the Minotaur, so here is a detailed description of this well-known race. In view of the high degree of initials with the abbreviation of a certain act in Japanese, the racial name "Minotaur", which originally had a fantasy flavor, has long been criticized, and the author even highly suspects that in the mouths of most non-fantasy fans, the word has completely lost its original meaning (laughs), after all, who would mention the Minotaur!? But we must talk to you very seriously about the original meaning of the word, which is literally: a humanoid creature with a cow-like head.
A relief depicting the appearance of Minotaurs can be seen as a fusion of human and cattle features.
First of all, let's be clear that although in Chinese context, the reference to "Minotaur" refers to the humanoid creature mentioned above, this definition does not correspond exactly to the English language, because it involves a very key point: the Minotaur is not an original concept, and the image of this race is obviously derived from the minotaur in myths and legends, such as the Greek mythological monster Minotaur mentioned above.
So in some works , for example , dungeons and dragons " , the tabletop role-playing game , the Original English name of minotaur directly inherits the original name of the prototype " Minotaur " , and although itself has been changed from a specific monster to a humanoid race name , it also has a very obvious archetypal shadow on its setting , including living in labyrinthine caves and buildings , eating other intelligent creatures that intrude into its own territory , etc. Is a very aggressive creature. The camp is often chaotic and evil, and it is also often used in the campaign mod as an enemy for players to fight, so in the eyes of some players, in fact, this type of positioning of the Minotaur is more suitable for translation as "Minotaur".
The image of the Minotaur from the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons rulesbook.
But with the development of fantasy-themed games, players and developers are obviously not satisfied with only letting this characteristic creature appear only as a monster, after all, compared with many strange humanoid creatures, the prototype of the Minotaur is actually a domestic animal that humans are very familiar with, and just as the developer will create many player characters or teammates based on common creatures such as cats and dogs, the Minotaur obviously has the potential in this regard, so the positioning of this race in video games has also changed with the development of the times.
One of the most recognized turning points is in Heroes of Might and Magic, which features players as the leader of a certain faction that can command our units to engage the enemy on the battlefield, and the fourth level of the Mountain faction is the Minotaur, although it is only one of the class units, but the Minotaur does begin to appear in the game as "us" rather than "enemy".
The Minotaur in the original Heroes of Might and Magic.
However, the most critical positioning change to say that the Minotaur must come from the setting in the "Warcraft series". In the worldview of this series of works created by Blizzard, the Minotaurs are no longer associated with the mythical and legendary Minotaurs, but a race native to the planet Azeroth, and even the original English name has been changed to "Tauren", which can be translated as "Toru", but in view of its appearance characteristics, it is still translated as "Minotaur" when localized.
Unlike the "classical" setting of the Minotaurs in Dungeons & Dragons, the Minotaurs in World of Warcraft are a race that has little to do with Minotauros except for their shapes, they are a peaceful people, living in the form of a relatively old tribe, indisputable, but not lacking the ability to protect themselves.
Set the minotaur's home "Mogaure" in the original painting.
Interestingly, Blizzard also gives the Minotaur a very obvious gender difference (compared to the Minotaur version of Dungeons & Dragons). Male Minotaurs have a surprisingly large body, and their body structure is similar to that of a yak, with the neck and spine connection on the back bulging above the head, and the front view gives the impression that there seems to be no neck, but in fact their neck is extended obliquely forward, and it is not obvious after being covered by hair. Although female Minotaurs have a similar physiological structure, they are smaller in size, and the height of the bulge is flat with the head, and the overall body structure gives the impression of being closer to humans.
The Azeroth version of the Minotaur first appeared in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. In this most iconic series, Blizzard expanded the faction of Warcraft, from a simple battle between humans and orcs to a dispute between several different races, although it was an indigenous people, not an "alien race" from other planets, such as the orcs.
However, the Minotaurs and the Orcs have a lot in common in culture and way of living, and with the help of the Orcs, the Minotaurs also joined the tribal forces established by the Orcs, and became a member of the tribal camp along with another indigenous race, the Trolls. And because the individual combat effectiveness of male Minotaurs is very strong (adult Minotaurs can grow to 900 pounds and 12 feet tall), ordinary Minotaur warriors are already level 5 units of the tribe, and they are invincible on the battlefield with huge totem poles, and only a few units can confront them head-on.
Modeling of Minotaur units in Warcraft III Remake, with minotaur warriors on the right.
As a representative character of this race, Cairne Bloodhoof, the Minotaur chief who appeared as a heroic unit, is an even more powerful Minotaur warrior and the mainstay of the tribal leader role in the series. However, due to the plot arrangement, he was eventually killed by the adulterers and died in a duel with the orc Garrush Hell Roar, which was stifling.
However, Kane Bloodhoofer still appears in many works, such as he is a card in Hearthstone, the effect of death is to summon his son Bane Bloodhoofer, and because the Minotaur Chieftain's hero mod was brought into DOTA, which was born from the Warcraft III map editor, many works that follow the DOTA gameplay also have Minotaur characters that can be operated by players, such as the "Minotaur Chief" Alista in League of Legends and DOTA 2 "The Ancient Colossus" - Although the latter is not set up as a Minotaur, but a Creator Titan, there is still a clear Minotaur impression on the appearance.
Although the Ancient Giant God weakened the impression of the Minotaur by changing the shape, he still left a lot of "cow" elements.
Today, both the classical style and the Warcraft style Minotaur setting have long been widely known, and there is no lack of them in the game works, and even with the increase in the acceptance of this setting, developers have even found the practice of maintaining the core of the "cow" element while "improving the taste" for different regional cultures, such as the Dorafs who appeared in the Japanese factory's work "Turquoise Fantasy", which is actually a variation of the organic combination of the "Minotaur" and the oriental aesthetic, similar to the race in "Ark of Tomorrow" "Abundant hooves", summed up as human characters with horns and possibly a little other related elements, can be called "horned people" or "human heads" (big mistake), which makes people have to sigh at the strong tolerance ability of Oriental culture under the premise of obsessing with aesthetic expression (laughs).
The "Hoofed" race operator "Horned Peak" from the Ark of Tomorrow is a typical "Horned Man" type of character.
In addition to the above-mentioned myth-related cows, there are many cows that appear directly in well-known games, such as the Bull Demon King of Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, the Raptor Dragon of Monster Hunter World, the cow in Ranch Story, the big milk pot in Pokémon, and so on. The full version of this article has been published in the 506·507th issue of "Practical Technology of Game Consoles", the content is more detailed and complete, interested readers may wish to buy books to support a wave of Oh~
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