The beginner tutorial was very simple, merely guiding some basic operations.
Following the instructions, Yamada Masaharu controlled the male protagonist, Ashitaka, to walk down the hillside.
Along the mountain path, he saw several young girls standing not far away.
The overall design style of Ashitaka was set by Hayao Miyazaki, referencing the Emishi people who were destroyed and disappeared by the Yamato regime in history. His hair was combed back into a bun, and he wore a blue outfit, but his hat was red.
Yamada Masaharu didn't know if it had anything to do with shrimp, but he felt that when the young man wore a red hat, his entire head really resembled a small shrimp, especially when he also wore a mask, only revealing a pair of eyes, just like a big-headed shrimp.
As for the several girls on the mountain path, their attire referenced the traditional Bhutanese national costume with a diagonal-opening half-length coat, a cotton cloth belt tied at the waist, shoulder-length short hair, and pointed hats.
Yamada Masaharu didn't recognize them well, but he always felt that these large round hats with pointed tops looked a bit like the Korean ethnic group.
However, he didn't delve into it too much and quickly controlled the male protagonist to walk over.
After a conversation, he learned that something had happened in the village.
The leading girl was named Kaya, Ashitaka's fiancée, but she called Ashitaka 'Brother'.
This was also a village tradition.
"Brother, Grandfather said something terrible happened on the mountain. You should go and see it quickly."
"Okay."
Ashitaka nodded with a serious expression.
Then he walked all the way up the mountain path.
Due to hardware limitations, a completely seamless large map couldn't be created yet, so there was a scene transition when reaching the end of the mountain path.
The screen first turned black, and then Ashitaka arrived in the upper part of the forest area.
He hadn't walked far when he discovered something.
Not far away, a group of mysterious people dressed as warriors were poaching in the forest, or more accurately, besieging the animals in the forest.
One of them, a rather shifty-looking merchant with a beard, laughed.
"Quick, kill a few more, it should be coming soon."
Who was it?
Yamada Masaharu was a little curious.
Next was a battle with the warriors, which was also the first wave of enemies encountered in the beginner tutorial.
To repel the warriors, Yamada Masaharu drew his sword.
The male protagonist Ashitaka's costume design was very detailed: a headscarf to prevent mountain leeches, and complete mountain gear, including boots, gauntlets, leg wraps, a sword, a bow and arrows, and a quiver.
In the tutorial, it first guided how to use the bow and arrow for shooting, which required holding down the RT button, also known as the right trigger button, without releasing it. The bow would automatically charge, and the longer the charging Time, the higher the damage dealt.
At the same Time, the camera could control the direction of the arrow, and then by simply releasing the finger, the arrow would automatically shoot out.
After the arrow was shot, there would be a short cooldown, during which the male protagonist would retrieve an arrow from his back and nock it onto the bow, a reloading process.
Although it looked like an animation, these operations were very smooth, and the details were meticulously crafted. In Yamada Masaharu's eyes, the character Ashitaka seemed to come alive.
It was truly amazing, Pokeni.
He had never played such a game before.
At first, Yamada Masaharu thought the combat would be similar to The Witcher, but after actually experiencing it, he gained a new understanding.
The 3D ARPG game combat was completely different, unlike any game he had played before.
It was a brand new game experience, like his own actions were happening in a real world.
To make the game operations simpler, within a certain range of the enemy, the closest unit would be selected as the attack target by default, and the camera would lock on.
The R button locks onto an enemy, and pressing R again cancels the lock.
Once locked, it's like focusing on the opponent, no matter how your character moves, it revolves around the opponent.
This set of mechanics was actually quite mature for Aoki Haruhi, starting from the legend of zelda: Ocarina of Time, and then developing all the way to the later elden ring. As long as it's a 3D action game, it basically follows this set of camera rules.
The advantage of camera lock is that no matter how your character moves and turns, the target is very clearly in the upper center of the screen.
This means you will never lose the target due to movement, unless you get stuck in a wall, or the camera is pushed into an obstacle causing clipping.
By doing this, the operator of the action game doesn't need to constantly adjust the camera to search for the opponent's position, allowing for comfortable combat.
However, for this Time, 3D itself was a very new thing, let alone a 3D mode for action game.
So this camera setting was a great contribution made by Pokeni to this Time.
...
Yamada Masaharu first aimed at one of them from a distance, pressing the R button to lock on.
Then he started drawing the bow.
After the charge was complete, the arrow shot out with a parabolic trail, accurately hitting the warrior standing on the mountain path.
With a scream, the man rolled down the hillside.
The other enemies, attracted by the firepower, immediately turned their heads to look at the male protagonist.
Yamada Masaharu instantly became nervous.
This feeling was truly completely different from playing The Witcher or Diablo before.
Because it was 3D, in your perspective, the opponent's model became larger the closer it got, following the rule of near-large, far-small for realism.
Moreover, the opponent's height was not inferior to the male protagonist's at all, even much taller.
When several people approached at the same Time, you could feel the immense pressure from the models.
Yamada Masaharu couldn't help but take a few steps back.
The bow and arrow were not very useful in such close-range attacks.
So, the next battle entered a new tutorial phase—
In addition to using a bow and arrow, Ashitaka could also use a Warabite-gatana, which was a straight-bladed sword with almost no curvature, somewhat resembling a large utility knife, almost like a piece of steel plate.
However, the blade was sharpened very finely, so it shone in the sunlight.
Switching to the Warabite-gatana made dealing with melee enemies much more comfortable.
Two warriors also drew their katanas from their waists and approached Ashitaka.
From a combat perspective, princess mononoke and The Witcher were completely different games. In The Witcher, characters had flashy combos, exaggerated special effects, and the damage numbers floating above enemies' heads when hit gave you a strong sense of satisfaction.
But in princess mononoke, enemies only had health bars, no damage numbers.
Moreover, the actions of both sides could be described as quite 'unpretentious'.
The male protagonist only had a few actions: horizontal slash, vertical chop, roll.
The opponents also had similar moves.
However, it was precisely these simple actions that gave Yamada Masaharu a completely unusual experience.
It was like genuinely facing the warriors, and Yamada Masaharu's hands were sweating.
This feeling was truly wonderful.
Perhaps it was this sense of realism that made people not dare to underestimate the enemies in front of them.
...
In fact, this game already had some characteristics of the Souls series, such as simple actions, where every enemy was a powerful opponent that needed to be dealt with cautiously.
However, some features couldn't be implemented due to the Time.
The most basic 'execution,' such as getting behind an enemy and stabbing them, or performing a flashy move to kill them when they were about to die.
Pokeni did not create this.
On one hand, it required corresponding animation actions, and at the same Time, a bunch of judgment mechanisms had to be added.
A set of actions had to be added for each execution target, which placed high demands on resource package space.
Similarly, character combo moves were also absent. Scenes like the Sword Saint in sekiro thrusting his sword, which the male protagonist parries or dodges directly, or realistic combat scenes from kung fu movies, were all very complex.
First, the amount of resources couldn't handle it, and then a bone animation system had to be added, and the program's judgment had to be intelligent. All of these required a lot of Time accumulation.
There were certain hardware constraints, and too much content needed to be improved in the development engine.
It was certainly impossible to achieve everything in one go, but Aoki Haruhi was keen to see a smooth transition.
Besides that, the game also didn't have parrying or counter-attacking features.
The physical collision effects of the models were not yet perfect; currently, it relied on a separate model bounding box for both sides to prevent penetration.
However, in the future, for more refinement, such as the separation of head, hands, and body parts, more basic work would be needed.
The current effect seemed to be in a state between Diablo and Souls-like games.
Or, to be precise, it was closer to a 3D top-down perspective Diablo.
...
After defeating two beginner enemies, he continued to walk up and encountered two elite monsters wearing wooden armor.
These two looked like they were not to be trifled with.
The game mechanics were 3D action, but the presentation was very Hayao Miyazaki, or rather, very much like an animated movie.
Yamada Masaharu even had an illusion, unable to distinguish whether it was 3D or 2D, but being immersed in such an animated world felt both real and dreamlike.
The first warrior ran over, and Yamada quickly pressed the attack button.
Attack, attack, attack!
Ashitaka swung the Warabite-gatana in his hand back and forth, cutting the warrior back repeatedly.
Golden critical hit outlines appeared on the opponent's body, and his health quickly bottomed out.
And just then, due to the camera lock, another warrior attacked from the right rear.
Having just been cut by the opponent, Yamada Masaharu immediately sensed something was wrong.
Because his health bar instantly dropped significantly.
Nani?!
However, the one in front hadn't been dealt with yet, and Yamada Masaharu couldn't turn around to fight the one behind him.
So he could only quickly retreat.
Who knew that before he could take two steps, both warriors attacked at once.
His health immediately bottomed out, and the entire screen flashed with an ominous red light.
A chill instantly spread from his feet, and Yamada Masaharu shouted, "Not good!"
Immediately after, the warrior in front of him chopped down with his sword.
Ashitaka let out a tragic scream.
The screen turned black.
A large character for 'Death' appeared on the TV screen.
It was written in Chinese characters.
The red font revealed a bloody effect, and Ashitaka, lying on the ground, died with his eyes open, showing deep unwillingness.
Nani?!
What exactly happened just now?!
Yamada Masaharu couldn't believe that these were just two small monsters, and this was the damage they could deal in the initial chapter.
He felt like he hadn't even reacted before he was directly hacked to death by random slashes.
This...
Is this a game normal people can play?
Is this a game for humans?!
Did Pokeni make a mistake?!
Yamada Masaharu was only 25 years old now. Although not in the prime age for the fastest reactions, he was certainly not weak in action games. He could even play street fighter without taking damage, so how could he be hacked to death by two small monsters here?
Was there a problem with Pokeni's numerical settings, or was there a bug?
It couldn't be my operation problem, could it?
He tried again, this Time Yamada Masaharu rushed in directly, wanting to take down one of the warriors with lightning speed.
But after continuous attacks, his own position was also stuck between the two warriors.
Yamada Masaharu thought, 'Not good!'
Immediately after, he was stabbed in the backside.
He couldn't last for a few seconds before Ashitaka screamed again.
A large character for 'Death' appeared on the screen.
Nani?!
Seeing the black screen, Yamada Masaharu covered his face in pain.
Ashitaka died with his eyes open once more.
It was all his fault.
He underestimated them too much.
Even fighting a small monster wasn't easy.
It seemed it was deliberately designed this way, highlighting a high monster difficulty.
In other words, if you encounter enemies head-on, don't challenge more than two enemies at once, otherwise, you'll easily expose your weak points to the opponent.
Once you are surrounded and attacked by two people, you will fall into a great disadvantage.
This setting is too realistic, isn't it?
However...
The next second, a sinister smile appeared at the corner of Yamada Masaharu's mouth.
Ah~
I'm so excited.
Yamada Masaharu felt his blood boiling. It had been a long Time since he had played a game that made his blood surge and his adrenaline spike like this.
The advantage of the sword was that it could not only perform single attacks but also area attacks, so when facing two enemies, if the attack range was close enough, it could deal damage to both at the same Time.
Of course, the risk involved was also quite high, meaning you would be attacked by two people simultaneously.
In terms of defense, princess mononoke and The Witcher were two extreme games. In The Witcher or Diablo, you could achieve a no-damage effect by stacking attributes, but in princess mononoke, taking a casual hit from an opponent would significantly reduce your health.
When two warriors attacked simultaneously, it was almost instant death.
So this Time, Yamada Masaharu chose to break through one by one.
After defeating the two warriors, Yamada Masaharu continued to walk up, chasing the merchant who had fled earlier.
...
Solving enemies along the way, he arrived at the dense part of the mountain forest. Then the system deprived Yamada Masaharu of control and began to play a cutscene.
The merchant from before was seen running out of the forest in a panic, carrying a large bundle on his back, and shouting in fear:
"Hurry! We got it! The Mountain Destroyer is going to be furious!"
Immediately after, a huge roar echoed throughout the mountain forest, and the ground trembled.
A group of wild boars burst out of the forest, goring anyone they saw. Several warriors were knocked to the ground and then impaled by the wild boars' tusks.
So in this situation, the warriors also dropped their weapons and fled in a panic with the merchant.
In the entire bamboo forest, only the male protagonist and a few remaining warriors were left.
The ground rumbled.
Immediately after, large sections of bamboo forest in the distance began to fall.
Black mist gradually spread.
A huge silhouette appeared in the darkness in the distance, though it was unclear what it was.
...
This animation sequence had strong expressive power, with a rich Hayao Miyazaki style, just like watching princess mononoke in a movie theater.
"Is something coming?"
An ominous premonition welled up in Yamada Masaharu's heart, and sweat appeared in the palms of his hands gripping the controller.
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