Grasping the wooden ladder, we climbed step by step onto this quiet "ship of truth and goodness."
3D games.
Despite the extreme optimizations, the NX is still an aging 16-bit machine in terms of performance.
The frame rate can only be maintained at around 20-30.
It would probably be better if there was an external graphics card.
Li An thought of it.
However, he was in relatively good physical condition and did not experience severe 3D dizziness symptoms.
After struggling to adjust to the seasickness-like sluggishness, he finally tried to move his character around.
Looking around, one sees sails and a bunch of rudimentary mechanical devices.
The layout is quite elaborate, clearly indicating that thorough research was conducted and the design was faithfully based on a real sailing ship.
I quickly scanned the ship.
His first impression of the game was... small! The map is frighteningly small!
Although Li An isn't usually a game enthusiast.
Even he knew that modern video games had already gone far too far in terms of map design and scenery.
Just like Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog, the entire map is made to be very large, and even at high speed, it takes a long time to complete the game.
There seems to be another game called Battlefield 1991 recently, which is said to be equally enormous; it would take a long time to drive a Hummer to the other end.
In comparison, the map in this game is far too small!
Not to mention the ship itself, even the entire ship only has its deck area that can be explored.
"Click"
He tried interacting with the doorknob of the captain's cabin at the stern.
It can't be opened at all.
It will only make a locking sound.
As for the interior of the ship's cabin, it's even more impassable; a wooden plank has been used to cover the stairs. Does this mean the only explorable area in the entire game is the deck?
Li An turned to look in the direction he had come from.
An endless expanse of sea.
Yes.
Although the Obra Dinn has returned to port, it hasn't docked yet; there's still some distance to the pier.
The boatman had already explained at the beginning that he was sent by the company to sail the ship and bring him to the Obra Dinn.
All these details seemed to be setting the stage for the cramped feeling at this moment.
But this feeling of cramped space only deepened Li An's impression of " 12 Angry Men " in his mind.
It's understandable that he felt that way.
To ensure the optimization was extreme enough, Return of the Obra Dinn made a very extreme adjustment.
If the player hasn't yet encountered the situation in a particular area, then there's no need to load that section yet. As the story progresses, various spaces such as the cabins and captain's quarters will gradually unlock.
In a sense, this is a simple phase lock.
This is not only to further reduce hardware performance overhead, but also to minimize the learning curve for players.
The less space there is, the less information there is, and the easier it is for players to understand and accept.
If the entire scene were open from the beginning.
Not only will the cost of understanding for players increase dramatically, potentially leading to a massive wave of players quitting, but it could also cause the entire game's flow to spiral out of control.
And after making this seemingly minor change for performance optimization...
After some exploration, Li An, like countless other players currently playing Return of the Obra Dinn, ultimately arrived at the same destination, seemingly freely guided by the designer, back to the corpse in front of the captain's cabin.
This is the only clue here.
If we're looking for a clue to move the game forward, this is probably the only one.
Can...
What should he do? He tried pressing the interaction button according to the instructions, but nothing happened.
Just as he was wondering how to continue, the boatman's voice came from below.
"Wow! This is so heavy!"
"Either you keep it yourself, or you open it here."
He was referring to a suitcase.
The equipment the protagonist brought with him when he arrived.
Upon opening it, one finds a thick investigation logbook and... a pocket watch.
Memento Mortem
This is where it guides excellent design.
Unlike other games that combine the initial familiarization process with the tutorial, Return of the Obra Dinn uses a cleverly disjointed approach.
When players first board the ship, they actually have no ability to investigate.
At this point, all the player can really do is wander around the ship. This is a small buffer.
While 1-bit video can effectively filter out video noise, the contrast itself is already a striking feature.
This brief transition period is for players to have a buffer.
Let players get used to the game's basic movement and interaction mechanics, as well as the visual presentation.
It's also a good opportunity to familiarize yourself with the ship's environment.
Once players have finally lost their initial curiosity and are starting to feel bored, the game will then introduce the next phase.
Only after acquiring this booklet and the pocket watch could the game truly begin.
The Obra Dinn Returns
[A True Account of Adventure Tragedy]
[1807]
This is the title page of this book.
Turning the page, you'll find a cryptic preface, table of contents, route map, ship structural plan, crew list... all the necessary information is there.
But to be honest, Li An was starting to feel dizzy.
Compared to the simple and unadorned feeling from before, this information either doesn't come at all, or it comes in a whole book at once.
The densely packed crew list made his head spin.
Theoretically speaking, all of this information should be part of the clues used in the reasoning.
But that's too much!
Li An flipped through the book to the end in one go.
Except for the section in the middle related to the case, which was completely blank, the rest of the space was densely covered with writing.
The book even includes a lengthy explanation of nautical terminology at the end.
A book with over a hundred pages, almost two hundred pages!
Is this a deduction game?
Li An suddenly realized that his earlier assessment of the game as a "low-budget production" had been somewhat hasty. "Let's take it one step at a time..."
He closed the book.
I flipped through the pages to the end, but couldn't find anything I could understand.
To this day, aside from figuring out what exactly happened on the ship, he still knows absolutely nothing about how to play the game.
But the interconnected guidance and mechanisms kept tugging at his curiosity, making Li An want to persevere a little longer and see.
Reboard the ship.
Without much hesitation, he went straight to the corpse.
And the game did not disappoint his intuition.
Almost the instant he approached the corpse, the protagonist pulled out the pocket watch adorned with a skull motif.
As Li An pressed the interact button again.
The pocket watch snapped open.
The pointer spun rapidly backward, and the screen began to go completely black. The first backtracking had begun.
The game finally officially began at this moment.
"Knock knock knock knock"
It sounded like someone was banging on the door.
Skywalker Sound may lag behind Hans Zimmer in terms of composition.
But when it comes to creating sound effects and sound field effects, they are definitely among the top professionals.
Although Li An was using the television's speakers, the stereo effect truly amazed him.
As a director, sound is also an important component of film.
His ears were instantly captivated by the sound.
Strangely, the game didn't show any visuals.
In complete darkness, only the subtitles in the center of the screen were visible.
Just like the boatman's opening lines, everything is driven by voice acting.
But for some reason, he imagined someone furiously pounding on the hatch.
Perhaps it's because the sound effects are realistic enough, or perhaps it's because the voice acting is so immersive.
In short, at this moment, his imagination was automatically mobilized.
"Captain! Open the door..."
"Kick the door open!"
Judging from the voices, it seems there was another person present.
"Otherwise, once we break down the door, we'll be taking more than just shells!"
Due to a lack of clues, the conversation sounded vague and unclear.
But it's roughly understandable that it seems two people were planning to steal something from the captain.
"You bunch of bastards..."
"This is all I have to give you!" The captain, who had only existed in the conversation, finally spoke.
As his angry voice rang out, a loud "bang" followed.
The captain had clearly kicked the door open from the inside.
Then came a muffled gunshot, followed by a scream from one of the men.
And at this moment, the game finally reappeared on screen.
That first glance left Li An speechless.
That was the dark muzzle of a gun, still glowing with fire.
Behind it stood a man holding a musket.
Based on the context, this is clearly the captain.
Visually striking!
In that instant, the scene that had just been conjured up in my mind perfectly merged with this one.
At this moment, Gestalt unleashed its great power. A complete story of a traitor's rebellion and the plunder of treasures began to take shape.
Li An froze for a few seconds, not moving, until he realized that the entire screen seemed to be frozen. Only then did he come to his senses and try to move the character.
The bullet had already been fired, or rather, it had already hit its target.
Li An turned around and was surprised to find that there was another person standing behind him.
Blood spurted from his neck, and the axe in his hand was about to slip from his grasp.
My whole body froze in that instant.
Another person stood beside him, with a serious expression.
He quickly matched the identities of the three people in his mind.
The captain fired the shot; these two were the traitors who had just been plotting to break down the door and steal the treasure.
And the one who was shot...
It was the body lying in front of the captain's cabin door.
"I see..." Now everything makes sense.
The true purpose of this pocket watch is to take us back to the moment the body died.
Is this how the investigation was conducted?
It's like... an abstraction of the investigator's, or rather, the forensic pathologist's, workflow.
What was originally a tedious process of analyzing corpses has been transformed into a more dramatic form of presentation.