Nostalgic Game Review
Welcome to a new episode of the Nostalgic Game Review, where each month I muse over an old game I played long ago. Other than indulging my own nostalgia, this column also hopefully shed some light on game design and reflect on how gaming technologies have evolved.
Without further ado…
俠影記
Yeah… it pronounces like ‘shia-ying-gee’. Quick Chinese lesson for the curious ones: the first two words (俠影) is the name of the protagonist’s most famous kung-fu (more on this in a bit) which can alternatively be interpreted as ‘the shadow of the chivalrous.’ And the last word (記) essentially means ‘story‘.
What is it?
This is a kung-fu / martial art (武俠) role playing game developed by 智冠 (soft-world) in 1992. Apparently the game didn’t go to any markets other than Taiwan, and there’s not even an attempt to have a English translated name 🙂
But this is a gem with beautiful art works, impressive music and vocal for its time, simple storyline but interesting game play. What made the game play unique is that the main character’s most famous ‘kung-fu’ was his light speed footwork (輕功, 俠影步) which means you get to leverage his quick speed during puzzles and battles. And when you find the enemy too strong, especially the first half of the game, you always have the choice to evade them or escape. The battles actually happen in the same ‘world screen’, instead of switching the view into a ‘battle scene’ (like in the already popular Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest series), so there’s no transition screens and everything plays fluidly (some people actually find it ‘too fluid’, or too fast, when re-attempting the game with a more powerful PC)
Rings a bell? Yes, basically this might have been the first Action RPG I’ve known, with the hack-and-slash gameplay (like, in Diablo series). This also means there are maze/dungeon as well as speed sensitive obstacles to get through:
Even though the story was simple to be more palatable by the general public, the characters were very unique with interesting back stories, as well as beautifully made portrait, interesting dialog.
The game also added in plenty of humor which made it more memorable 🙂
My impression
Absolutely love it! Despite the main story being very linear and short, the beautiful graphics (I played it on a monochrome display!) and multiple ways to battle various enemies made this game fun to replay.
Here is a video showing the opening scene as well as the beginning of the gameplay
Apparently somebody made it available to play online here
That’s it for this episode of Nostalgic Game Review! Thank you for visiting! I appreciate any comments/feedback or if there’s a game you would like me to cover 🙂
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