Looking at the Time, it was already past 2 AM.
It took me over three hours of playing to get here.
Oh well, Time for bed. I'll continue tomorrow.
Yamada Masaharu saved the game and then went to sleep.
The next morning, he woke up at around 6 AM.
After washing up, he made himself something to eat.
game continued.
...
After killing the Boar God, who had transformed into a demon, Ashitaka's right hand became cursed, covered in layers of brownish scars that looked terrifying.
According to the village shaman, this curse was irreversible unless Ashitaka died.
The clansmen gathered for a very important meeting.
The shaman extracted an irregular spherical iron lump from the Boar God's body. She placed it on the ground and explained to everyone:
"It was this thing that tormented the Boar God, making him wish for death. Under such circumstances, due to his hatred for humans and this terrible pain and torment, he transformed into a demon."
"This thing must have come from a distant land in the West."
Ashitaka was cursed by the Boar God. If Ashitaka remained in the village, he would only await death and might even bring disaster to the villagers.
However, Ashitaka could also choose to go West to seek the truth, to find a way to break the curse, if he could find out what this iron lump was.
"I believe something ominous has happened in the West," the shaman told Ashitaka. "You must choose whether to await Death or to bravely face your destiny by heading West. The choice is yours.
Once there, observe everything with clear eyes, and perhaps you will find a way to lift the curse."
To avoid implicating his clansmen and to find a way to remove the curse, Ashitaka resolutely embarked on a journey West to seek the truth.
Before leaving the village, Ashitaka cut off his topknot, letting his hair fall to his shoulders, transforming into a short, shoulder-length style.
His entire image changed instantly.
Yamada's eyes lit up involuntarily.
How to describe this feeling? It was as if Ashitaka had traveled through Time and become a modern person.
The neat short hair gave him a modern youthful look, and at the same Time, it made Ashitaka appear more refined and resolute.
...
Before leaving the village, if you talk and say goodbye to everyone in the village and meet Kaya again to talk to her, Kaya will give you a jade dagger.
The jade knife itself has no attack power, but it can be sold for money, and it is quite valuable.
Before leaving the village, Yamada Masaharu scoured every corner, obtaining a small amount of copper coins, some gold dust, as well as some herbs and arrows.
After defeating the Boar God, although the male protagonist's arm was cursed, he also unlocked a new ability:
Curse Power.
During combat, Curse Power can be activated. After use, it will continuously consume the male protagonist's health while significantly boosting his abilities.
However, this ability also has a limited duration and cooldown.
It's equivalent to adding a powerful, double-edged buff.
Moreover, Curse Power can be continuously strengthened during the leveling process.
It's all about burning oneself out.
Yamada tried it and found that this ability was more useful when fighting elite monsters and bosses; there was no need to burn himself out when fighting small monsters.
...
When using Curse Power, arrows are always on target. Even if you don't lock on or aim specifically, as long as the direction isn't too far off, the arrows fired will automatically fly and home in on the nearest enemy.
The power of the arrows also greatly increases.
The difficulty of this game instantly dropped.
The development team's intention in doing this was to highlight the power of Curse Power, which can make a person like a demon.
Not only will they die from the curse, but they will also gain a huge boost in abilities.
After leaving the Emishi village, Ashitaka headed West.
Ashitaka walked across vast grasslands, through forests, waded through River, and passed through thorns...
Along the way, he encountered many people and events.
He also encountered many samurai who were robbing, and this was the first Time Yamada Masaharu encountered mounted enemies.
So, the two sides engaged in a unique battle on the plains—
Mounted archery.
The opponents also shot at Ashitaka from horseback. You not only had to run and dodge their arrows but also shoot arrows yourself.
Of course, in such a situation, you could also choose to draw your sword for close combat, even dismounting if necessary.
However, fighting on foot in close combat would put you at a significant disadvantage.
In the process of fighting these bandits, Yamada Masaharu died at least 30 Times.
He deeply experienced the cruelty of war.
...
Now, Yamada Masaharu particularly enjoys playing mounted archery on Yakul's back.
It's incredibly exhilarating.
After defeating this group of rogue samurai, Yamada Masaharu arrived at a bustling town. In the town, there were not only places to stay but also places where you could pay to forge weapons.
You could also buy rice, medicine, and other things.
Because he had previously defeated the rogue samurai and successfully rescued some people from them, among them was a monk wearing a red vest and a red hat, named Monk Geda. To thank the male protagonist, he traveled with him for a while and even made him some food.
The two learned some information during their conversation:
Monk Geda said that not far to the West, there was a town capable of producing the kind of iron lump the male protagonist had seen.
And there, there was also a huge forest,
That forest was very ancient, and within it were many giant beasts.
The legendary Forest Spirit was in the forest.
Countless people in the world wanted to obtain the Forest Spirit's head, as it was said to grant immortality.
Because the Forest Spirit controlled the life and death of Time, possessing the power of revival and destruction.
As for whether it was true, Monk Geda said he didn't know.
...
So, after learning this information, Yamada Masaharu mounted Yakul and set off again.
At this Time, heavy rain began to fall.
Due to hardware limitations, Pokeni could not create realistic raindrop effects, so it was achieved in the game through filters.
It was like placing a layer of plastic film in front of the camera, except this filter had the effect of rain constantly moving back and forth.
princess mononoke itself is a 2D animation, and with this layer of filter, there was no sense of incongruity whatsoever. In fact, due to the misty rain effect, the entire picture became even more delicate.
In this Time, it was truly a player's fortune to be able to play such a high-quality game.
Although Yamada Masaharu didn't notice the implementation method, and didn't even detect anything amiss, he relaxed completely when he heard the sound of rain.
The greatest praise is, in fact, naturalness.
When you do well enough, the entire game screen is very harmonious. Players not finding any abrupt points doesn't mean you didn't do well. On the contrary, it might be because it was too good, so it was considered an extremely natural thing and simply went unnoticed.
Not long after, Ashitaka encountered a group of people on the mountain path.
They were pulling oxcarts, and the convoy was loaded with heavy goods, such as food and supplies. They were heading up the mountain path, not knowing where they were going.
Just then, a cutscene was triggered:
The camera zoomed up from the foot of the mountain where the male protagonist was, all the way to the position near the mountain top.
On the mountain path, the leading woman, wearing a red straw hat and a black raincoat, shouted, "Everyone, there's not much left, we can't let our guard down."
Beside the woman, a guard in a straw cloak held an umbrella-like weapon, fully on alert.
It seemed to foreshadow that something was about to happen.
Sure enough, just then, a loud shout came from ahead:
"They've appeared! It's the Dog Gods!"
In the dark, low sky, a few faint white dots appeared on the misty mountain peaks in the distance.
But these white dots ran very fast, rapidly enlarging in the camera's view.
When they ran closer, it was discovered they were two white wolves.
Both white wolves were huge, each nearly a person's height, and their body length was almost twice a person's height.
On one of the white wolves, a masked girl was lying.
This section was entirely performed with in-game animation.
That is to say, it wasn't a pre-rendered animation, but rather achieved through the real-Time performance of models and characters in the scene, along with dialogue.
So it looked very realistic, giving a sense of immersion.
...
Although Yamada hadn't seen the movie, the posters and various promotions had given him a certain impression of the characters in the film.
This masked little girl, at a glance, was clearly princess mononoke.
But is it really okay for the female protagonist to appear so late?
Among all of Pokeni's games, princess mononoke is the latest appearing female protagonist.
...
princess mononoke led two white wolves in an attack on the ox team, but the other side seemed to have anticipated their arrival. A group of guards were already standing by, taking out their giant umbrella-like weapons.
Yamada then realized that these were not umbrellas at all, but rather firearms.
More precisely, they were early flintlock guns. The group quickly loaded iron-block-sized bullets into the barrels, then stood them upright. One person shouldered a firearm, while another behind him lit the fuse.
Then came two loud bangs.
Fire exploded.
Seemingly aware of the power of these firearms, princess mononoke immediately led the two white wolves to turn after being attacked.
The leader of the ox team, the woman in the red hat, watched the events with a puzzled expression.
The loyal bodyguard beside her, a man with a large beard, said contemptuously, "The Mona Clan is nothing more than this."
The Mona Clan should refer to the white wolves.
The female leader, arms crossed, calmly said, "Those are just little brats. Why didn't the White Wolf God appear with them?"
Before she finished speaking, the people behind her panicked.
It turned out that a giant white wolf had appeared at the rear of the convoy, no one knew when.
It turned out that the Mona Clan's earlier attack was a feint, using the little girl and two smaller white wolves to draw the convoy's firepower, while the truly powerful White Wolf God had circled to the rear.
It immediately pounced, aiming to take the female leader's life.
"It's Mona!!"
The leader shouted.
The white wolf earlier was already quite large, about two people long and more than one person tall.
But the White Wolf God that appeared now was more than twice as large as the white wolves.
Its body stretched across the mountain path, directly blocking it.
And during its charge, it was clearly evident that humans were like a flock of little chicks in front of it.
The White Wolf God took down guards one by one, sweeping many of them off the cliff.
It then prepared to pounce on the female leader.
Just then, the female leader, holding a firearm, fired a loud shot at a very close range.
The flintlock hit the White Wolf God, and then it fell off the cliff due to the immense impact.
"That guy is immortal; he won't die like this," the female leader said coldly.
...
The camera pulled back from the mountaintop to the valley at the foot of the mountain.
It returned to the male protagonist, Ashitaka.
What had just happened was vivid in his mind, and then he saw two injured people lying not far away.
The river nearby flowed rapidly, but there was almost no 3D rendering.
The river's appearance was also achieved by placing a flat plane in the planned concave terrain and then playing special effects on it.
So the animation feel was very strong.
...
After rescuing two people who were not yet dead from the riverbank and bandaging their wounds, Ashitaka placed one of the more seriously injured on Yakul's back.
Just as he was about to leave and go to their village, Ashitaka heard a sound.
Following the source of the sound, Yamada Masaharu circled around and found a white wolf standing on the opposite bank of the river, behind some bushes.
Upon reaching this point, a cutscene was triggered:
Two small wolves followed the girl, and the giant White Wolf God lay half-reclined by the river.
The girl took off her mask, leaned close to the wound on the White Wolf God's chest, which had been blasted open by the flintlock, and then sucked out the contaminated clotted blood with her mouth.
She spat it out, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and her mouth was stained red all around.
Just then, the White Wolf God discovered the hiding male protagonist and let out a low growl.
Yamada Masaharu's heart tightened. Would he have to fight them?
Hearing the White Wolf God's sound, princess mononoke immediately stood up alertly, looking coldly in this direction with vigilant eyes.
Yamada couldn't help but feel a stir in his heart.
This shot was truly beautiful.
That kind of beauty was different from what Pokeni had expressed before, or from the beauty of the female protagonists in the galgames Yamada Masaharu had played.
princess mononoke's beauty was a very wild kind of beauty.
Especially when she gazed at you, the vigilance and sternness in her eyes were like a little wolf with all its fur standing on end.
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