“Forked Road Traveler 2” 50 hours of thunder-free experience: stable and error-free, a more refined sequel | 4Gamers

Developed by Square Enix and ACQUIRE, and represented by Bandai Namco Taiwan, “Forked Road Traveler 2” will be launched next week. We played the official version in advance this time, and with about 50 hours, the game process has not been fully cleared. No spoilers Way to talk about this game.

The journey of the new eight protagonists begins here

The “Forked Road Traveler” series can be said to have inherited the concept of SE’s early work “LIVE A LIVE” (Hurricane Knight), with seemingly unrelated multiple protagonists unfolding their stories. In the end, 8 seemingly unrelated plots will be collected. Beam to the real mainline.

In this “Forked Road Traveler 2”, players have to play the swordsman “Light”, the pharmacist “Castie”, the hunter “Oshette”, the thief “Sologne”, the priest “Temenos”, The scholar “Ozbald”, the dancer “Agnia” and the businessman “Partetio” have a total of eight characters. The occupation part is the same as the previous work, but the characters and stories are completely different, and have nothing to do with the generation, so New players can play directly.

At the beginning of the game, players have to choose a character from the above 8. This choice is very important, because like the first generation, there will be a very long period of time, and this character cannot be replaced. This also means that the character you choose first will inevitably become the main force of the highest level team.

After that, the player can start looking for other characters. When they arrive at the towns of other characters, most of them can see them quickly or trigger events. They can choose to experience the first chapter of the character’s plot first, or continue to go down when they are free. Play back, but it is basically recommended to play the first chapter first, so that the level can be improved first and some basic equipment can be obtained.

In order to understand many people’s criticisms of the previous work, more efforts have been put into the characters this time, and the character design is more full and distinctive, such as a scholar full of vengeance, a priest who investigates the case, a prince who staged the story of the restoration of the country, etc. The story with a few characters is really good.

However, since the progress of the story is given to the player to choose freely, the eight stories are all independent before the final conclusion. Therefore, the point that was criticized by many people in the previous game is that although the eight travelers form a team, the whole game process is almost like strangers. This point has been improved in the second generation, adding two new systems.

One is the “team dialogue” between two people that will happen in some mainline passages. It is basically a dialogue between the character of the mainline and another character, which is extended from the previous mainline plot. The other is the “cooperation story”, which is an exclusive story that appears between two characters during the journey, and is triggered according to the progress of the main story of the characters. The plot content is an independent event and has a certain length.

It’s a pity that after playing for 50 hours, I only encountered two people’s cooperation stories (unless there are new combinations in the future), and not every combination has it, which also means that all the character interactions this time are the same. For one, I didn’t see any conversations with more than 3 people.

But after all, as mentioned earlier, free choice of stories cannot guarantee the interaction between characters, and this time the characters have more distinct personalities, so it is hard to say that there will still be some incompatibility at times.

Another problem with free choice of stories is that because of the hierarchy, it is almost impossible to complete the journey of one person at a time and then change people. Instead, all the characters finish the first chapter first, and then start the second chapter one after another. The continuity of each character’s story will be interrupted, but this seems inevitable. It can only be said that it is a necessary sacrifice in exchange for freedom.

More complex map commands

The biggest change in the system this time is to allow each of the eight characters to have day and night map commands. For example, a swordsman can find someone to duel and learn skills during the day, and at night, he can get the information of the opponent’s NPC by paying. Day and night can be controlled by the player.

It seems that the 16 commands seem a bit complicated, but instead of looking at the differences between these 16 skills, it is better to understand what the NPC has. Basically, these 16 skills look at the NPC’s “information”, “position”, “holding items” ”, and “Strength and Skill (Related to Hiring)”.

Information can be used to obtain information on hidden props, more content in stores, hotel discounts, and many side missions also rely on intelligence. The position is that some skills can stun some NPCs that block the door, so as to enter places or areas that were originally inaccessible. Holding items is to find a way to find things on NPCs. This is an important means of growth and promotion. Strength and skills are related to employment. Hiring powerful thugs can make up for the lack of attributes in the battle, and even surpass the protagonist. Group of strong damage.

This is actually the same example in the previous work. For example, in the generation of “Forked Traveler”, if you want to get the items on the NPC, you can use the thief’s “steal” or the merchant’s “purchase” to get them.

In “Forked Road Traveler 2”, there are four ways to get things from NPCs, namely “stealing” by thieves during the day, “purchasing” by merchants, and “begging” by dancers and “snatching” by scholars at night. And each requirement is different, there is a chance of stealing, money is needed to buy, a specified level is required to beg, and the combat power enough to win the NPC is required for snatching.

The interesting point is here, maybe an NPC has a very powerful weapon at present, but the probability of stealing it is too low, it is too expensive to sell, and the current level is not enough to ask for it, but the NPC’s combat power may be very powerful. Poor, so you can grab it directly with a scholar.

Some people may wonder whether it would be too troublesome to check all four skills? But because some NPCs in “Forked Road Traveler 2” will only appear during the day/night, not every NPC can actually watch a round with four skills. In addition, some magic weapons in the later stage will also design the four conditions so that you cannot obtain them in the early stage.

But I have to say, maybe there are too many things to do. After the actual game, I started to feel a little homework. Every time I arrived in a new town, I cut it into the daytime and replaced it with a team suitable for exploration and search during the daytime. Cut it into the evening, and then change to a team suitable for dispatching at night to go around, and meet a guy with peerless martial arts on the way, and then specially recruit them for use.

Incidentally, since there are more occupations that can be branded this time (dancer, businessman, priest, hunter), if the team happens to be these occupations, it will become a long line of people on the map.

New combat system “Potential”

Same as the previous game, the encounter with enemies this time is still randomly triggered by hidden mines on the map. In terms of combat, this time “Forked Traveler 2” follows the system of the previous game and “Brave Doomsday”. It is also turn-based, and the main weakness is “BREAK battle System” with “BP Command”.

First, I will explain to players who have not played the previous game. In the game, each monster has a certain defense value, which can only be reduced by fighting with weak weapons or attributes. After returning to zero, it will enter the Break state, which will pause the enemy’s round and greatly reduce the defense. , This is also the best opportunity to attack.

In the BP system, every character can accumulate 1 point of BP in each round, up to 5 points. At the same time, players can release up to 3 points in one round of attack. When released, the number of combos of common attacks can be increased, or skills can be strengthened. damage or effect.

In other words, players can choose to consume BP as soon as possible to break through the defense with a quick attack, so that the enemy will faint before they can touch you, or accumulate BP to cause a big burst of damage when the defense is broken, which is quite deep in the strategic level.

Since the weapon types, attributes, and even some skills are the same as those of the previous game, the combat system of “Forked Traveler 2” is 87% similar to the previous game. The biggest difference is the introduction of the “Potential” system, which can be regarded as a special big move of each character. It is only a gauge that will be accumulated when the defense is broken and attacked. These skills are quite unique, such as the “afterimage” of the thief. “It can act twice in one round, and the merchant’s “motivation” can fully restore BP.

The potential can also be strengthened with the BP system, so some characters’ ultimate moves can deal huge damage in an instant, or have the ability to reverse crises. When to use it also tests the player’s strategy.

In addition to this potential, you can also learn special “EX skills” through the hidden altar on the map and special conditions. Each profession has two EX skills. Some of these skills make up for the original lack of skills. of.

In the previous game, there were free choice of side jobs, hidden inheritance jobs, and hidden elements after customs clearance are still built. Among them, sub-professions can obtain more licenses through the tasks of the guild. For example, the licenses of the merchant guild are bought with money. The first one will be given away when you find the location of the guild. The second one costs 100,000 to buy. Three cards are 300,000.

You can have up to three licenses for each profession. If you get all of them, you can let three people choose merchants as sub-professions at the same time. Adding the original merchants, you can gather a whole team of merchants to rob monsters for money.

The combat system of “Forked Road Traveler” has been well received in the previous work, but it is not vegetarian in terms of game difficulty. This time, the combat system can be said to have played the safe card. If you like the system of the previous game, not only will you have no problem getting started in “Forked Traveler 2”, but even because the occupation, weapons, and skills are similar to the previous game, you will have a strong sense of familiarity.

Still captivating art and music

Since the appearance of HD-2D pixel art in “Forked Road Traveler”, it immediately attracted the attention of most players in the market. In 2019, the screen of “Forked Road Traveler 2” this time has been significantly improved compared with the first generation. The scene details are the same as “Triangle Strategy” and the number of objects is higher.

In addition, this time the second generation also raised the head-to-body ratio of the characters at the same time, and there are more details in the presentation of some actions. At the same time, the voice actors throughout the whole process are also quite good. Classification, so when it comes to handing out bento boxes, it is not as real as “Triangle Strategy”.

The official has mentioned in the past that HD-2D style games are not built with an old engine, but a presentation method. In fact, they are still made with a modern engine such as Unreal. Therefore, if you think that the pixel style does not consume hardware resources, then you are very wrong. With the pixel resolution and light and shadow are better than the previous generation, if you want to fully present, you will need a better one. Hardware.

This time I edited and played the PS5 version, which sometimes triggers a bug that the voice cannot be played (all main lines in the game have voice), and the game needs to be restarted. In addition, when browsing the map, in some places with rich close-range scenes, the FPS will be unstable (frame drops) when switching the depth of field. These points depend on whether the official will release a correction file in the future.

The music of the previous generation has received quite a lot of praise. This time “Forked Road Traveler 2” has the same creative lineup, and it also runs through the whole process with an intoxicating symphony style. And as the day and night switch, the theme song of each town will be presented with different instruments and arrangements. The battle music is also very memorable. I believe it will be a work that people will mention when talking about music in recent years.

The inconvenience of the system is still

There are still many inconveniences in the game inherited from the previous game, such as changing team members must go to the tavern, and teammates who are waiting in the tavern will not get experience points, and there is no sorting mechanism for equipped weapons. In our recent interviews with the producers, it seems that the producers said that these are deliberate. On the plus side, this retains the atmosphere of the Japanese RPG in the past. On the downside, it is a design that deliberately delays the money, so as to prolong the player’s playing time.

The need to practice was extended in the previous game to use the dancer’s “Incredible Dance” to practice. This skill is still built in the second generation, so it seems that there is knowledge about how to practice to be efficient.

Finally, I would like to summarize “Forked Road Traveler 2” this time. First of all, in terms of the story, the interaction of the eight characters in the previous work was criticized for being too little. This work has indeed improved in this part, but whether the degree of improvement can satisfy everyone is likely. Different people have different opinions. In addition, there are some necessary sacrifices mentioned above.

In terms of combat and development, it is similar to the previous game, so in terms of system, the second generation this time is more like an “enhanced” version of the first generation, so if you like the first generation and do not reject the same gameplay again, then start steadily The second generation is no problem.

As for brand-new players, it is also recommended to try. The HD-2D style with full voice is a presentation that further sublimates the old RPG in the past. It is also very suitable for those who are curious about the past JRPG but are always unable to get excited. 2》Start to try.

The only thing to consider is that the battle in “Forked Road Traveler 2” is not easy, and if you don’t read the strategy, you need to visit the map to farm more levels. As long as you can accept these points, then I recommend “Forked Road Traveler 2” to Dear players. Last year, the SE of many cannian works was launched, and the first work in the spring of this year is quite good.

“Wild Road Traveler 2” is expected to be released on PS4, PS5, and Switch on February 24, 2023, and the Steam version will be released on February 25. The downloadable trial version is currently open.