Recently, we often make excuses for excellent console games, dreaming that they go to the RS. The subject of our today's thoughts will not get to the RS. Let's say more: even for the PS3 conceptual exclusives, such a game – overcoming. Well, if it’s very straight, then before us something is so not from this world that shameless Bayonetta , Where the Dragon is devouring a giant baby woven from the hair, it will seem to you the most ugly pop. After meeting with El Shaddai: Asceence of the Metatron It will be difficult to surprise the player with anything.
This is a bold attempt to bring an unusual Japanese indie to the international market. Company Ignition Entertainment together with a religious adventure designer Okami Creates a surrealist action. In it, the enlightened Christian warrior is a couple of with the devil trying to save the earth from the World Flood, and the visual design simultaneously resembles a highly artistic cartoon and hallucinations of the heroes of the film “Fear and Hatred in Las Vegas”.
The plot of the game is based on the text of the Old Testament "Book of Enoch". This is a very free fantasy on the topic of Christian teaching, more reminiscent of ancient Greek myths. Angels here completely calmly go down from heaven to earth, communicate with people, teaching their possession of weapons and talking about the secrets of sensual pleasures.
According to the script of God, such behavior of subordinates frankly does not like. The angry Lord decides to overthrow the flood to the earth, which will cleanse it not only of the many fallen angels, but also from those who have visited the same people what about themselves. Before moving on to the embodiment of the plan, the Creator gives a chance to rectify the situation to one of his faithful servants, the earthly priest Enoch. There are several tasks in front of him: to return to heaven the immortal souls of the fallen celestials and simultaneously send numerous samples of divine weapons there simultaneously.
“Our team created an original story, retelling the motives and the most important events of this Old Testament text. The idea does not seem too risky for us, because in terms of visual design and plot this is an absolutely original product. For example, in the book itself, Enoch is trying to simply persuade the angels, and in our game he fights with them. In fact, this is a completely different story, ”the game designer Takeyasa Savaki tells us.
The task is not easy, and the main character cannot be dispensed with outside help. In addition to numerous archangels, including Mikhail and Gabriel, a certain Lucifel becomes one of the most important allies https://sister-site.org/triumph-casino/ of Enoch, although it is easy to guess that the true name of your forced ally Lucifer.
In the best traditions of Japanese gamemeraduers adoring a grotesque, a simple priest who performs a divine mission has a chic hair, sports Hollywood appearance and luminous white clothes. His assistant, on the contrary, resembles Yakuzu: short -haired dark hair, mysterious look, shirt of the exit and mobile phone in the pocket of tight trousers.
Enoch mainly performs dirty work, and his partner assists him in adventures. For example, in one scene Lucifel asks a comrade if he needs a more worthy armor, to which he immediately receives a negative answer. After this, the hero is cruelly beaten, but the devil immediately interferes, decides Enoch into ultra -strength armor and again sends him to battle. Lucifel will become a kind of analogue of the princess from Prince of Persia (2008). He is a walking point of conservation, a guarantee that the hero will never die or get bored.
Drawing lesson
Brief certificate of the author.
Thirty -seven -year -old Takeyasu Sawaki is not as famous as many Japanese colleagues like Siger Miyamoto (author of Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda) or Hideo Code of Code (creator Metal Gear Solid). Nevertheless, the contribution of this person to the development of the game industry of Japan is difficult to overestimate. In the mind of this particular artist, one of the most recognizable games of games from Capcom was born.
Savaki was the chief designer of the monsters in Devil May Cry – it was he who created the monastery that opposed Dante. He also developed technology models and painted illustrations for Steel Battalion – thought out to the smallest detail of the simulator of a huge walking robot, which was supplied with expensive accessories imitating the cabin of a futuristic combat vehicle.
Subsequently, Savaki became a prominent Clover Studio characters specialist, working his shoulder to shoulder with Hidecki Kamia, Viewtiful Joe, Bayonetta) and Sinji Mikami (Resident Evil 4, Vanquish, God Hand, Killer 7). One of his most important projects of that period, no doubt, can be called Okami-a folklore Japanese adventure made using Cel-science technology that allowed the player to draw hieroglyphs on the TV screen. After the collapse of the studio in March 2007, he completely and completely devoted himself to El Shaddai: Asceence of the Metatron.
By gameplay El Shaddai is a hardcore action with platformer elements. The ratio between these components about three to two. The battle, of course, is one of the most important parts of any action movie, and given that the author of the project was directly related to Devil May Cry , There is no doubt about the quality of the battles with divine enemies.
“At the beginning, Enoch is unarmed, since one of his main tasks was the return of divine guns back to heaven,” Savaki claims. First, the hero inflicts crushing blows to opponents with fists and heels, demonstrating dexterity worthy of Jet Lee. After one of his opponents will shook under a hail of cuffs and falls to the ground, the hero will have a chance to grab a valuable magical weapon from the paws of the villain, which must be cleaned from sinful filth before use.
Having received saving tools, the protagonist will easily deal with other fallen angels and in the blink of an eye will come out of the battle the winner. Given that all the combo in the game is single -flowing (only the attack keys, jump and block are involved in the battles), there should not be special problems with spectacular ligaments. The difficulty is that every villain needs to choose his own key.
Meeting with new opponents, the hero must choose the following weapon wisely, exploiting various weak and strengths of enemies. In the arsenal of the Divine Messenger, the strange curved sword of Arch (English. – arch, vault), more like a bow, a couple of gloves that are especially good for protection, and a certain long -range gun shooting divine energy.
There are probably other interesting means of struggle, but their existence has not yet officially confirmed. Judging by the information available today, the battles take place on special closed arenas arising during the study of the surrounding virtual world, as happened in Okami.
In addition to fights with numerous opponents, in El Shaddai you have to travel a lot along a variety of locations. This can be done in the usual form from a third person, when the camera hangs behind the hero’s shoulder, or in an old-fashioned 2D-scroll format. In this case, we see the image with only one perspective, and the hero is forced to jump over the abysses, like Mario from Super Mario Bros. The authors assure that various puzzles will also be present in the game, but so far there is practically nothing about them.
Religious background
Book about visions and dreams of distant relative of Noah.
"The Book of Enoch" is the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, the author of which was Enoch, who was considered a great -great -grandfather Noah. The book is not canonical and is not recognized by the divine majority of Christian churches. It is believed that the collection of stories was first compiled in the first century BC.
The first part of the Scripture tells about the fall of observers – angels who went down to the Earth and began to morally decompose the already not too virtuous humanity. Along the way, the adventures of Enoch – a simple person to whom God appeared and opened his eyes to many truths. The main thing that the hero of the work was incredibly lucky is that he ended up in heaven, being alive, as he was distinguished by exceptional righteousness. There he was explained many secrets of being, including the end of the world. These revelations were recorded in the book. History with angels is only one of the episodes. In essence, the "Book of Enoch" is only a great preface to the story of the Great Flood.
There is also the so -called “Slavic book of Enoch”, which is a mirror reflection of Dante's “Divine Comedy”: Enoch rises from the first sky to the seventh, simultaneously discovering more and more new features of the paradise.
El Shaddai looks like an alien from another galaxy. Armed with the well-known Cel-Hading technology, Takeyasa Savaki managed to create a unique visual series where the elements of Okami, Killer 7 and Devil May Cry are combined. The picture is very bright, rich, but with a minimum of details – and this is a deliberate solution.
There are no sophisticated architectural ensembles, realistic castles and other excesses. As a rule, everything boils down to the sky and the earth where strange overflows of colors occur, stunning confusing patterns occur, clouds are rapidly running. Flower combinations are reminiscent of the exquisite paintings of artists of the surrealists … or shots of “dying” of the graphic chip on Xbox 360.
A strip of life/mana and other informational elements, which the authors prudently refused, will not interfere with local extravagant landscapes. In a similar surrealist, numerous animated inserts are also performed, accompanied by choral singing and pulsating electronic tracks. Note that the author himself is modestly refraining from equating his game with the work of art: “You can judge this only after many years. In our age, El Shaddai is a video game. I hope that the descendants will appreciate its artistic potential. In any case, I am so far only worried about the creation of an excellent entertainment product ".
El Shaddai is perceived primarily as an original artistic idea made in an unexpected manner on a completely unexplored material, and only then as an unusual game. Gameplay is largely incomprehensible. In particular, it is not entirely clear what Enoch will do in breaks between travels according to intricate decorations and the methodical destruction of numerous opponents.
Are the developers going to offer some freedom or close the player as part of a well -defined linear narrative? The abundance of questions, however, is not so much disappointing as interest spurks.
In fact, we have before us an attempt by the Western studio to make an ambitious arthouse under the leadership of the Japanese exempted from producer oppression, who made a huge contribution to the development of the legendary studio Clover (Okami, God Hand). Even if he doesn’t succeed, the novelty should be seen for the sake of amazing artistic design, from which he literally breathes breath.
We will wait? Elusively beautiful and theologically deep militant, capable of fans of both hardcore action and indie.
Percentage of readiness: 80%