风行者

Windwalker

1985 年，Origin 出版了《莫比乌斯：天体和谐之球（Moebius: The Orb of Celestial Harmony）》，一个由格雷格・马龙（Greg Malone）的奇怪的 RPG 游戏。这是一款平庸的《创世纪（Ultima）》克隆游戏，但它因其基于中国的设定、怪异的艺术风格，特别是其实时武术战斗而脱颖而出，灵感来自于《空手道（Karateka, 1984）》等格斗游戏。

续集《风行者（Windwalker）》又走了一步。虽然其前身的战斗是基于反射的，但现在您可以以回合制战斗，从而创建了一个引人入胜的战斗系统，让你可以从菜单中仔细选择下一步。而且，之后可以看到实时重播，看起来就像一场激烈的武术对决。

那么，为什么这样酷的游戏没有被更多人谈论呢？因为战斗很快就成为《风行者》最糟糕的方面之一。攻击有一种石头剪刀布的逻辑——一旦你了解对手的动作，你就知道如何反击他们的攻击。但你只能使用两种战斗方式，而且游戏中只有四种敌人类型——其中一种是最终的 Boss！更糟糕的是，敌人不断产生，把战斗变成了一种苦差事，拖累了整个游戏。

不管怎么说，反正这里没有什么可看的。没有角色创建、状态或技能——你只是在游戏中变得更加强大。世界很小，由小小的岛屿、巨大的空旷海洋组成，NPC 很少，只有三个任务。因此，频繁的战斗让人感觉像是在为本来只有 2-3 个小时的游戏进行懒惰的填充。

手册中对中国特色的设定进行了丰富的描述（还附有参考书目！），甚至其中还有一个 NPC 会用《易经》为你算命，但可悲的是，它没有得到充分利用。您会得到一些古法颂歌，一个几乎不相关的荣誉守则，神话生物，仅此而已。尽管如此，该游戏的确看起来非常独特，使用头像作为图标并使用垂直滚动的透视图，就好像世界是一个圆柱体。

In 1985 Origin published Moebius: The Orb of Celestial Harmony, an odd RPG by Greg Malone. It was a mediocre Ultima-clone, but it stood out due to its Chinese-based setting, bizarre art style and, especially, its real-time martial arts combat, inspired by fighting games like Karateka (1984).

The sequel, Windwalker, went one step further. While its predecessor's combat was reflex-based, you can now battle in turn-based mode, creating a fascinating fighting system that allows you to carefully choose your next move from a menu. Moreover, a real-time replay can be seen afterwards, making it all look like a fierce martial arts duel.

So why isn't such cool game talked about more? Because combat quickly becomes one of Windwalker's worst aspects. Attacks have a rock-paper-scissors logic to them – once you understand your opponent's moves, you'll know how to counter their attacks. But you can use only two fighting styles and there's only four enemy types in the game – one being the final boss! Worse yet, enemies spawn constantly, turning battles into a chore that drags the entire game down.

Regardless, there isn't much to see here anyway. There's no character creation, stats or skills – you just grow stronger as you play. The world is small, composed of tiny islands, a huge empty ocean, very few NPCs and only three quests. Thus, the frequent battles feel like lazy padding for what's otherwise a 2-3 hours game.

The Chinese-inspired setting is richly described in the manual (with a bibliography!) and there's even an NPC that will read your fortune using the I Ching, but otherwise it's tragically underused. You get some magic chants, a mostly irrelevant honour code, mythological creatures and that's about it. Still, the game does look very distinctive, using heads as icons and a perspective that rolls vertically, as if the world was a cylinder.

在《莫比乌斯：天体和谐之球》和《风行者》中，你会被格雷格・马龙的另一个自我——莫比乌斯引导。马龙后来参与了《创世纪 VI》的制作，并导演了《毁灭公爵 3D（Duke Nukem 3D）》

In Moebius: The Orb of Celestial Harmony and in Windwalker you're guided by Moebius, Greg Malone's alter ego. Malone would later work on Ultima VI and direct Duke Nukem 3D.

最后，有一个聪明的保存和永久死亡系统：守卫只会在您失败之后抓住你，而不会杀死你。而且你可以在任何地方保存。但如果你死了，游戏会自动保存——死超过 10 次，游戏就结束了。

归根结底，《风行者》是我非常想喜欢的游戏之一——它看起来非常有创意和原创性！

可悲的是，看起来它最大的特色——战斗——只会拖累它。而游戏的其他部分根本不足以弥补这一点。

Finally, there's a clever save and permadeath system: guards will only capture you if you lose, not kill you. And you can save anywhere. But if do you die, the game autosaves – die 10 times and it's game over.

In the end, Windwalker is one of those games that I really wanted to like – it looks so original and creative! Sadly, what looks like its greatest strength – the combat only drags it down instead. And the rest of the game simply isn't good enough to make up for that.