The Pale City

[h1] 已联系作者进行本地化，应该不久就能把中文加上 [/h1] 整个游戏体量不大，通关时间约10小时，对于这种故事驱动的黑暗奇幻作品我一直很喜欢，作者提到自己受到PST、异度装甲等作品影响创作了这部作品。游戏有着最近几年来我最喜欢的的黑暗奇幻世界观。远比我熟悉的绝大多数后启示录设定都更残酷、更虚无。在这个世界里，整个已知世界仅仅是一个被称为“平台”的巨大结构，建立在死寂的“黑暗之海”上 。生命是从“隧道”中爬出的偶然幸存者；死亡是被脚下的“平台”迅速吸收，成为整个世界有机体新陈代谢的一部分。在这种设定下，个体的挣扎与奋斗显得渺小而无意义，存在本身就是一个冷酷的循环。 在这个绝望的世界里，神明并未缺席，沉默者梅尔基奥尔 (Melchior the Silent)是最接近人形的神，一位居住在高塔中的古老巫师。然而，他早已陷入沉默，拒绝与人类交流，其存在本身甚至会辐射出一种疯狂，让那些聚集在他塔下寻求答案的信徒们精神错乱 。贪婪者莫拉加 (Moragar the Ravenous)是一个隐藏在平台内部的巨大、愚钝的生物，其唯一的本能就是永不停歇地挖掘隧道，吞噬着构成平台的千年尸骸 。他似乎是宇宙盲目、无意识的物质力量，是一种只知消耗与扩张的原始冲动。 黑暗巴尔蒂尔(Balthier the Dark)是一个更加神秘的存在，本质是一团活着的黑暗，盘踞在平台的隧道深处。那些在地下爬行的怪物是祂的免疫系统 。地表上一个巨大的裂口“深渊”让凡人得以窥见这片黑暗的地方，它吸引着疯子和绝望者前来朝拜，然后跳下去 。 一个沉默，一个愚钝，一个充满敌意，三个冷漠的神明；在这样的宇宙中祈祷是无意义的，因为宇宙本身就是一台恶意的机器。 游戏主角瓦塞克是一个灵魂早已倦怠的雇佣兵，是一个典型的反英雄，他居住在沉沦区，沉沦区类似巢都的贫民窟，毫无秩序可言，充斥着欺骗与污秽。所有人的情感都在此被消磨殆尽。沉沦区有着最原始的生存斗争，是一个霍布斯式的“一切人对一切人的战争”的舞台，沉沦区的生命之屋是一个追求永生的食人教派。他们相信通过吞噬死者可以获得不朽 。瓦塞克曾是他们的雇员，在隧道中为他们猎取尸体 。这是一个令人作呕的世界，充斥着连环杀马犯、食婴者和因为一时兴起就杀死朋友的人.。 瓦塞克冷酷、实际，被对世界和自身的愤怒所吞噬 。他是一个厌世者，说话直率而粗暴。游戏强迫玩家进入一个他们可能鄙视的角色的躯壳。也就是拒绝让你成为英雄，瓦塞克所行的善举通常是出于偶然 。游戏的主题“在一个连众神都找不到存在价值的宇宙里，要如何找到自己的意义？”以及随后的一系列事件和对话有时会让我想起《异域镇魂曲》，PST是一个宏大、包罗万象的愿景，The Pale City是一个“疯狂世界中的微小个人故事” 。无名氏的旅程是关于恢复记忆和定义自我，其核心问题是“什么能改变一个人的本质？”；瓦塞克的旅程关于直面一个固定的、可耻的身份，更像是“你能否承受你既定的本质？”。虽然可能没有“什么能改变一个人的本质”那么宏大深刻的命题，但是作为个人独立开发的游戏，游戏的写作很好的把自己抛出的题目接住、接好了，这点真的很难得。 最后说说缺点，游戏的战斗难度相当大，数值拿脚填几乎不能通关，感觉是叙事的累赘 。它用RM制作，在RM制作的一大票游戏里的美术也不算好，比起今年我玩到的同为奇幻故事的Felvidek差得很远，游戏色彩单调，动画僵硬 。一些音乐相当刺耳 。对于游戏的文本，受限于10小时的体量还是有相当多内容没能展开，文本量还算大，可能有8万字左右，但整个世界观只开了个头故事就快结束了，看了作者的blog和Twitter，后面继续写小说去了，对这个世界观也没有继续填充下去。但是这些缺点我都看作是一个个人化的、作者驱动型项目的粗糙边缘，作品提供了一个足够强大、足够真诚的故事，这个故事依然能够触及人类经验中最深邃、最黑暗的角落。 在重复游玩多次后，游戏我可以给到7/10 考虑到使用RPGMaker制作的游戏很容易修改，如果使用修改工具跳过大部分战斗还可以再加上一分

10/10 - This game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome. It might be a matter of taste but I found it to be an example of my "ideal" game play experience. Story-driven dark fantasy that is mechanically challenging as well. There is a particular way you have to defeat certain enemies. And there are no "random encounters" which I always found very annoying, every fight was part of the plot, to say the least. No grinding or anything. Do not let the graphics fool you. Although I think that they actually enhance the mood of the game, some may skip this title simply because of the graphics. Do not do that. If you are interested in narrative-driven RPGs, you must get this game. It has the same amount of story and value one would receive from a well written book, making it well worth the price. I paid $3.99, since it was on sale, but I may purchase a second copy to send to a friend because I feel that this game deserves it. My favorite part is how well developed the characters seem to be. They are used to weave a fascinating world and a unique story. I feel like this game is great example of how video games can be used as a narrative art form. I visited the developer's website, and it says he is a writer. That is certainly true. Kyle Muntz is going places with this project. It also says he spent seven years to make this game. The effort shows. I hope this game wins a much wider audience so the developer can continue to make content. Edit: I did discover a few grammatical errors, though it by no means affects the story or playability of the game and I am sure that they will be fixed.

[h1] <-- Review written for [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35180752/] 3 Point Play [/url] --> [/h1] Doing everything right when it comes to RPG Maker games, The Pale City is one of those, not-so-known hidden gems that shine amidst the darkness in which RPGM games usually are. How come it's both hidden and it also shines? Well, that would be because the story is pretty grim, that's a bit of an analogy I tried doing there. No? Okay. So, don't get discouraged by the basic RPG Maker assets, since this game is not about that. The scenarios are well made, but the main focus, point of interest of The Pale City is its story, which even while being a bit short for RPG standards, has nothing to envy to some other titles which seem to stretch as long as the horizon, while not delivering anything consistent. I like this new trend of non-programmers, non-professional, non-game-makers making games, bringing their knowledge to the table. In this case, refeering to my last paragraph, what we have here is a young novelist called Kyle Muntz, whose Wikipedia page you might want to check here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Muntz I reckon I'd be more inclined to know about the behind-the-scenes content and the whole game when I happen to get to know who is working on the stuff I enjoy. Whilst I haven't had the chance to read any of his novels, I'd like to do so in the near future. Going back to the game, it might be a gateway towards getting to know a new author. That comes down to how much you enjoy books, however. Either way, what we have here, in sinthesis, is a pretty "generic"-looking game which however, packs a mean story. If you're interested on story-driven, and more specifically, character-driven stories, and you enjoy dark fantasy, or feel a bit inclined towards games or stories such as Blackguards, or The Dark Company (novel series), you'd be probably interested on The Pale City.

First, my playtime is not reflective of how long it takes to complete the game, and I was a tester on the original version, so I got this copy for free. With that in mind, this is roughly a 7--11 hour game (depending on whether you get stuck, and on how much side-content you do), and it *may* be worth the $8 price tag depending on what you're looking for from it. The Pale City is, like Wooden Ocean, an rpgmaker gem. It leans on stock tilesets, but it makes up for them with its writing and world design. Unlike Wooden Ocean, however, Pale City is bleak and existential. It also starts en medias res, and it feels very much like a playable novel in how it introduces its characters and either wraps up (or leaves unresolved) their storylines. Pale City takes place in a world called The Platform, a subterranean slum built atop a sediment of aeon-old spontaneously-generated corpses. You control what is basically a typical character for the setting---half criminal, half noble---as he tries to find meaning in his life. The setting is a weird mix of old-school sword and sorcery, Steven Brust-esque crime-fantasy, cosmic horror, and Kameron-Hurley-style unflinching violence. It's also revealed in dribs and drabs, and it's easy to become confused or lost if you're skipping through the dialog or not talking to the NPCs. Much of the game is just reading, and I'd almost argue that this is closer to a visual novel in genre, but it does have a combat system, and it's a fairly technical one despite how simple it is. Inspired by another rpgmaker classic, The Way (which is freeware, and very worth checking out, although you should play with a walkthrough), Pale City's combats are basically all swordfights. To that end, you have two stances you can shift between (defensive, where you take less damage, and offensive, where you get an extra action per turn), and a few basic moves that build meter for several more powerful moves. In a typical fight, you'll cut at your opponent until you've built up enough meter, and then you'll light them up with your special moves and hopefully take them down in one volley. (Un)fortunately, lots of fights aren't just the one-on-one style sword duels of The Way, and the game likes throwing borderline unfair situations at you for you to figure your way out of. You do have extremely scarce consumable items, and you *can* buy new equipment, but you should also save fairly often. There's not a lot of rng, but some fights will torpedo you if you don't know what to anticipate. While I did enjoy the combat, I think the primary draw here is the writing, and how you feel about it (and about the type of story that's being told) is basically going to determine how you feel about the game. I think if you enjoy post-soviet Russian scifi, or if you like stories that have some lovecraft but aren't going whole-hog on the mythos, and if you don't mind stories that *aren't* going to reassure you that everything's going to be okay, this is worth a try. If you want an rpg that's more about the mechanical crunch than the narrative, or if you want something quick and easy to get into, probably don't get this. Again, I liked it, but this is a *very particular* game, and I'm not going to blanket-recommend it to all rpg fans the way I would final fantasy.

At this price, you’re getting approximately 10+ hours of quality writing with a decent story backed by a unique setting and good world-building. For people wanting to spend these lockdown days playing something thoughtful, The Pale City is a decent choice as long as they don’t mind the generic combat. For others on the fence, keep the game in your wishlist and wait for a sale.

Я добавил эту игру в список желаемого сразу после того как прочитал описание: Мир, где дети не рождаются - они выползают из туннелей в земле. Одинокий город, под пристальным взглядом безмолвного бога, дом странных культов, поедающих мертвых. Бледный город - это история наемника, нанятого для того, чтобы найти последний, самый могущественный артефакт колдуна, который исчез много лет назад. Но поиски наталкивают его на могущественных людей в потайных местах, на секрет, похороненный где-то в ужасной темноте. Дети выползают из под туннелей, чтобы жить в мрачном месте? Вау, такое я люблю, - подумал я и взял игру на карандаш. В итоге, похоже, что я 1 из 2 человек поигравших в эту игру в стиме – ну да, если вы видели графон то понимаете почему. Честно, я не придирчив к графике, вот вообще, если игра хороша и даёт какую-то атмосферу и хороший геймплей. Бледный город это даёт, однако он СЛИШКОМ сконцентрирован на повествовании. Т.е. у нас есть понятный жрпг геймплей – общаемся с нпс, убиваем врагов получая опыт, редко находим деньги и покупаем на них экипировку, коей тут очень мало, ибо это обосновано лором, однако очень часто мы будем, просто подойдя к какому-то месту, читать нарратив – мысли и рефлексия героя, рассказ рассказчика: описание объектов, шумов запахов и т.д. То есть игра написана для истории, и чтения по большей части, имейте это в виду. Атмосфера есть, но вовсе не та, на которую я надеялся – это скорее атмосфера пустоты, отчаянья и депрессии, чем мрака (который я люблю всей своей душой). Лор и мир весьма уникальны, но побродить по ним вдоволь нам не дадут, локаций мало, по ходу игры становится чуть больше, но ни о каком исследовании тут речи не идёт. Ну а насчёт истории – в принципе норм, но я не смог понять всех её аспектов, т.к. игра на инглише и неплохом, моего уровня знания не хватило, чтобы понять всё, однако некоторые вещи я всё же для себя вынес, но всё таки лучше быть носителем языка. И вот тут опять встаёт вопрос оценки. Я не хочу давать игре красный свет, потому что она правда неплохая, но и рекомендовать всем (особенно не владеющим английским на должном уровне) я не могу, я бы поставил нейтральную оценку, но в стиме таких нет. Что делать? Я x3. Ну пусть будет положительная, но я настаиваю на нейтральной, просто использую обзор, чтобы рассказать пользователям что игра собой представляет. Если хотите немного демотивации и депрессии, и знаете язык на должном уровне – вам сюда, но лично я бы хотел больше боевого геймплея в этой игре, боевка мне тут понравилась, заставляет подумать.

If you're a fan of extremely dark lore, well written dialogue (or maybe downright vulgar at times) and a variety of personalities for characters in your games. This is absolutely for you. It looks retro-ish/very lore heavy/well written (Though there is the occasional typo. I've only seen 2 thus far.)/combat does require a bit of thought put into it. As of writing this review I only have 3.2hrs and I'm sold. I love it. Keep it up developer you beautifully creative person, you!

While [i]The Pale City[/i] might be both grim and dark, but you’d be absolutely remiss to discount it as “just another grimdark RPG.” Immediately indelible, the setting feels like it takes place on a neighboring plane adjacent to [i]Planescape: Torment[/i], and sole indie creator, Kyle Muntz’s story driven narrative is tightly-written, propelling the player headlong into the world of [i]The Pale City[/i], “a city on a platform above an ocean of dark water.” If you’ve got the fortitude, the game offers an incredible mechanical challenge and an instantly lasting impression. Even just under two hours in, I can tell this game is something special and can’t wait to play more!

设定独特、文本水准极高的黑暗奇幻故事，作为RPGmaker制作的作品可以打满分。综合可类比同样是rm制作的独立神作Felvidek，剧本水平可比肩异域镇魂曲。 全流程13小时左右。攻略可参考https://thepalecity.com/或本人的b站视频

The writing is surprisingly good, so if you're up for a really, really, really dark story and graphics aren't important to you, you may like this one.