In my thoughts, The legend of Tianding is a perfect gaming experience. Not because it can do anything, or because it allows the player to do anything. It is perfect because it achieves all of its aesthetic and storytelling goals without exceeding its reception. Though it only features six story-driven chapters, its somber depiction of colonial Taiwan feels full of mystery and opportunity. That surprised me as the game has nothing to do with his depressing attitude.
The legend of Tianding is a narrative platform game set in the busy Dadaocheng district of Taiwan around 1909. Long before the events of the game, the Japanese Empire defeated the Qing in the Sino-Japanese War and gave Japan control of Taiwan. In LegendIn the world, ordinary Taiwanese citizens work endlessly to enrich their colonizers, overseen by relentlessly brutal police. Locals sell one another for favor, and only collaborators who help Japanese police exploit their own land can live comfortably.
In the midst of this cynical historical backdrop, you play Liao Tianding – based on the legendary real “Robin Hood” figure– who steals from the police to give something back to the poor. He’s also so personable that it should be illegal. Tianding is boyishly charming, outsmarts his cartoonish evil pursuers with devious tricks, and it is really important to him to improve the lives of his people. Never tempted by power or personal wealth, the protagonist’s old-school heroism kept me clinging to his story, even if the rather predictable plot beats offered no anticipation. When the police beat older people on the street, I don’t want to deal with moral ambiguities. I just want to drop the request. And this game gets you kicking lot of the colonizer ass. Most of the time, you beat down the Japanese police. Sometimes you fight against Taiwanese who have allied themselves with the colonial government.
Legend is secretly a Kirby Game that disguises itself as a Streets of anger. The cops Tianding fights wield a variety of weapons, and you can command any of them with a special “steal” button during the fight – but not before you reduce their health with your knives. Whether bamboo stick, pistol, bazooka or grenade, all of these weapons have a durability value. So it’s a constant scramble to grab something new when the last weapon is used up. Sometimes what you can grab isn’t the ideal weapon for your particular situation. That’s bad luck – but you can always rely on Tianding’s standard knives.
One of my little criticisms is that the ability to “steal” is very difficult to aim. While the theft animation is stylish, it is also a few seconds long and can grab enemies who are holding onto nothing. So if I caught the wrong enemy I would have cut my combos in vain and would have to reposition myself to steal the guy I was originally targeting. While this is probably realistic about how a real-life skirmish would go, I prefer a fight that feels fluid than the frustration of grabbing the wrong enemy twice in a row.
Otherwise, Legend is a tightly designed platform game that never leaves you puzzled about your next move. At no point did I feel that the levels were too long or padded. The game uses platform hazards to challenge fights. You can throw enemies into these dangers as easily as you can do the same to them. While it is easy for the body to lose track of tianding in the sea, constant situational awareness is essential to survive longer fights. Overall, I found the fight exciting despite a lack of different enemy types. As long as I had something to steal, I could experiment with different play styles. Some weapons had high penetration, a shield could be distracting, and melee weapons often had high recoil potential. While certain spells allow Tianding to always steal certain weapons, I preferred to stay on my toes.
I also like that the game is not only tell To them that Tianding is a popular folk hero but that gets that message across with his gameplay. While you can use your stolen money to buy upgrades in stores, the bulk of it comes from giving alms to NPCs begging on the street. They will give you talismans that will slightly improve your performance in combat, which will make you feel like you are fighting evil cops on their behalf. The fight is fluid and quick, but nothing is more satisfying than distributing the money at the end of a long level.
While your relationship with them is transactional, you never pay for any particular upgrade. All of them are completely random. Even if I prefer to use a specific weapon, I may receive an upgrade that doesn’t suit my style of play. This forced randomization diminishes the direct benefit I get from helping those in need. In contrast, my talismans were customizable. When I bought upgrades from dealers, I knew exactly what I was getting beforehand. My generosity led to far less predictable results. I actually liked this approach to weapon upgrades because the exchange created reciprocity between Tianding and its beneficiaries, but the randomization prevented me from seeing the upgrades as my ultimate goal.
I get nervous when a game tries to be too many things at once; Mashups that mess up their creative visions are usually completely forgotten. Legend manages to find the perfect balance between street brawler, platformer and visual novel. If you love any of these things individually, it is very easy to accidentally fall in love with the other aspects of the game.
I’m usually a complete monster when it comes to narrative scores. I killed the elven clans several times Dragon time Play and let the protagonist’s whole family die Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. But when I realized I got it lotBecause of the “bad” ending, I immediately felt compelled to play again to see how I could change Tianding’s fate. He’s a hero I really want to put down roots for, a stark contrast to the grueling vigilante groups that normally star in single player action games.
Also, I could really feel the designers’ love for Taiwan. Every time I picked up a power-up, my collectibles tab was updated with a little history about Taiwanese popular culture. The various commercials and alcoholic beverages inform players directly about Taiwan’s “low culture” rather than just giving a top-down historical overview of this stormy period in history.
The game underlines its heroism by using a beautiful comic book style. Every piece in the game is entirely hand-drawn, and although I hesitate to call the art style “Manga”. The way it dramatically renders Tianding’s heroic exploits in bold, flat colors, with heavily textured scenes that don’t rely too much on negative space, looks more like Manhua, which I read in video game form. I’ve played a lot of games that use comic art as a superficial wallpaper over a video game.Borderland is an obvious example – but Legend stubbornly refuses to compromise his identity as a game or comic, which helps him stand out in a crowded field of 2D platformers.
Legend is spoken primarily in Taiwanese, with the exception of the police characters that speak in Japanese. Western audiences often experience Asian animation from a Japanese perspective, and their former colonies are often portrayed the lower. Legend reverses this dynamic by showing the Japanese police as overwhelmingly corrupt and the Taiwanese as heroic and brave. To play lot, I quickly began to associate spoken Japanese and Japanese images with colonial oppression. Despite his exaggerated comic art, Legend is a highly effective narrative that demonstrates the immersive abilities of indie games.
The game has a few flaws in the display of the characters. The first boss is a greedy landlord whose weight becomes a constant subject of Tianding’s ridicule. Personally, I felt that his actual personality flaw was his kind of retirement. The localization also uses “Jap” as an abbreviation for “Japanese”. While the word is unlikely to be a problem in Taiwanese, “Jap” is a racial slur that white Americans used to refer to Japanese Americans during World War II. A little more care in checking the unintended English meanings might have helped Legend avoid this embarrassment.
The legend of Tianding comes close to trying too many ideas at once but still manages to hold the landing for the most part. It feels smooth to play and still manages to impress artistically. lot reinvents several established genres by drawing a powerful story through all of its independent elements. Even now I feel compelled to repeat the game in order to find its true ending.
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