The Curious Story of China's Indie Gaming Scene
Вставка
- Опубліковано 7 чер 2024
- One man's misguided attempt to understand one of the most important countries in the world's
complicated and changing relationship with video games by playing loads and loads of video games.
Introduction - 0:00
Part One: The Best History of video games in China - 5:27
Part Two: China's Surprise Successes - 20:07
Part Three: The Struggle of the Rest - 58:56
Part Four: Made in China for China - 1:21:54
Part Five: C********* - 1:54:03
Part Six: Conclusion - 2:10:45
/ neverknowsbestyoutube
Music List: pastebin.com/N53yWUwS
Some of the most common sources referenced:
www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/images/con...
store.steampowered.com/app/82...
www.pcgamer.com/uk/its-time-t...
egmnow.com/the-closing-walls-...
www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...
If I were to make this video again I would have kept better track of my sources and put everything in a pastebin, but this project started with me just playing some games in my backlog that happened to be Chinese and then before I knew it things had gotten seriously out of control.
Games covered include: Icey, Unheard, Dyson Sphere Program, Chinese Parents, Candleman, Bright Memory, Sands of Salzaar, Gujian 3, Amazing Cultivation Simulator, Detention, Devotion. - Ігри
Holy shit the Chinese Parents game having a New Years minigame balancing refusal and acceptance of the red pouches is so fucking hilarious and accurate
The sole fact of someone even willing to create a game with such concept reads to me as a working through childhood trauma. 高考, complicated culture of parenting in China. All of that is quite a surreal experience through the game lol
I need this game in my life. Lmao
can yall put the timestamp please, gonna watch this video later but realy curious
@@drewinsur7321 16:50
Can we also talk about how this game is literally Growing Up but with more personality and cultural references?
As a gamer who speaks both English and Chinese, I have to say that some of the best Chinese indie games are unbelievably difficult to translate into proper English. For example, The Scroll of Taiwu, which you mentioned at the beginning of Part 4, is basically considered by Chinese gamers to be the pinnacle of "ancient Chinese style writing".
And that means a load of insurmountable cultural barriers for almost all non-Chinese speakers. For example, one of the skills in the game is called "巨阙千钧剑". Where "巨" means huge; "阙" can refer to both an ancient Chinese building and "broken"; "千" refers to a thousand; "钧" is a rather large unit of weight used in ancient China; "剑" is a sword.
And even if you fully understand the meaning of each character in this name individually, you are still far from getting its real meaning, so it's time to go to the second level: the first two characters "巨阙" together are a new word, the name of an "acupuncture point". - This is a mysterious concept in ancient Chinese medicine, and to explain it would probably require a monograph. To keep things simple, it is only necessary to understand that the "巨阙" point is located approximately in the concave area between the human chest and abdomen. At the same time, "巨阙" is also the name of a famous ancient sword in China, and there are many legends surrounding the casting and use of it. In short, "巨阙" as the name of the sword roughly means a "large and broken" sword.
"千钧" together is also a special ancient word, but fortunately it is not that complicated. It is generally used to refer to an unstoppable and enormous force, and can also refer to a very critical and dangerous moment.
Thus, the five simple Chinese characters "巨阙千钧剑" together have a very rich multi-layered meaning in the eyes of a player who grew up with a standard Chinese education experience (which contains a great deal of basic knowledge of those pieces of knowledge) - a legendary broken heavy sword without a blade, one of the most vulnerable points of the human body, a huge and unstoppable force, a critical moment of life and death...... and such "highly compressed" textual information is literally present in every corner of this game. It's simply unimaginable to translate such kinds of texts into another language without losing their complex connotations.
You just discouraged me from learning Chinese :D
@@k_e_K_e___ In fairness, learning Chinese often discourages people from learning Chinese.
I wouldn't put an early access game on such a pedestal yet. Maybe Chinese gamers are new to the phenomenon of early access and don't know how poorly things can end up despite a glorious beginning. I am fluent in Chinese and can understand literary Chinese just fine, but I've held back on this game because it's still in early access. I don't play early access games. EDIT: 太吾绘卷 The Scroll Of Taiwu still in early access on 14 April 2022, recent reviews are poor at 42% positive. No surprise here I guess?
What a beautiful language.
You just encouraged me to learn Chinese.
Unironically, your 'bad design'/'spaghetti' speech was kind of inspiring at a personal level, as someone who compulsively restarts games when they realise they didn't build their character/base/city/etc optimally
I have done this since I was young, before it was called meta-gaming. Thought I was just critical about gaming but come to find a lot of people do this :)
Time stamp?
@@jash3881 54:32, my man
@@jash3881 it is at the final part of the dyson sphere review. I didn't check the timestamp but it's at the end of part 2.
That factory is totally un-scale-able, he has no hubs, lines or bus. Midgame would crush his soul and he should abandon it as soon as he reaches another planet.
In Dyson Sphere you have to build an equatorial bus or a distributed planetary hub based system and really you are supposed to start with a core factory bus and then go to a distributed system as soon as you have the tech.
Also DS is secretly teaching you coding principals/electronics and spaghetti in those realms is the literal devil.
As a Chinese game dev, I found your video very interesting. Chinese gaming industry is at a very interesting point in time...The Chinese Debate World Cup featured a topic on "Is Genshin the daybreak moment for Chinese gaming industry", but at the same time Xinhua News Agency(one of the Chinese gov official media) recently published an article called video games "electronic Opium"(sounds familiar huh)...Chinese game quality is rising and most importantly, they are not trying to mimic the western games and the Japanese games anymore, they are developing games that tells the stories about China. Think about it, when is the last time you heard some thing positive about China from the western media? Games with Chinese elements and kicks become our way to tell the world about Chinese culture and Chinese philosophy. Although the back and forth attitude of the government towards video games kinda sucks for the industry, I still believe more high quality Chinese games will appear in the future. Glad to see you played and introduced so many Chinese indie games, keep up the great work.
if I may ask you a question, how do older generations think about videogames in relation to their children school life and do they have a any kind of input at the time when the party makes their policy?
@@juanshot89 In my case, my parents never grow up with video games. So their attitude towards video games are not so positive. I belive the strict censorship and the video game policy is the result of the government listening to my parent's generation demand. When you are governing a country with such large number of population, you want rules that can be easy to execute on all levels. Most people in our parents generation asked to enforce these strict rules because most parents just can't educate their children properly. Like the video said, one child policy is one of the reason why children addicted to video games and the Chinese market is full of trash mobile games. Strict rules on censorship and video games is good in terms of the general stability of the country. But like the great firewall and the video game ban, Chinese gamers always finds a way to do whatever we want. These rules work very well for the children, so they formed a semi-healthy lifestyle and not get addicted to video games. Once people get older, they realize the existance of vpn and buying games is just very easy nowadays. Nobody will chase after you for using vpn or buying video games when the ban is effective. The rules are almost only effective to younger people. So yeah, people in China do have areally strong voice when making policies like these. I am sure that once the new generation that grow up with video games becomes adult, the policy of censorship with change. Not sure if I understood your question correctly, but hopefully I explained your concern.
@@DreamCloudLu actually you did respond and explained with detail my question, thank you very much. To tell you the truth your answer resonates with similar points of view that I've heard in a few places that do not demonize China. Seems like your government is pragmatic and proactive
indie games are the future.
Your sentence about wanting the world to know more about Chinese culture and philosophical standpoint is right on the mark. I am from Vietnam, and we have a lot of cultural commodity or similarity. I picked up for example Chinese Parents because I watched a streamer stream it once and fell it love with it for how accurate it is ... and relatable it is ... Now I'm studying overseas, and it never fails to grasp me how the most obvious mindset on a daily basis for me is completely alien to all my neighbors. I also cried when I see the last CG cutscene for Genshin Impact's lantern festival. It's been years since I can fly home and enjoy the lunar new year with the family after all ... The last one I teared up was the CG cutscene for Yun Jin's Divine Damsel opera. Reminds me of old chinese drama on television we used to watch back home. I grew up with Journey to the west.
Bless you and the growing Chinese gaming industry, so not only do we have more good games to play, but to show the global gaming sphere that every asian country has a lot of passion and quality in entertainment ( in this case video games ).
Somewhere between the hoover rant and the philosphic diatrade on spaghetti I realized making this video might have had a bit of an effect on your mental wellbeing.
I hate to be _that_ guy, but I think you mean *diatribe* or *tirade.* Diatrade isn't a word.
@@brettvv7475 This video clearly had a bit of an effect on their mental wellbeing as well.
@@brettvv7475 diabeetus
@@brettvv7475 I love how he just completely fucking ignored you and didn't change shit LOL. Warms my soul.
I realize I'm quite off topic but does anyone know of a good place to watch newly released movies online ?
I have to say that your reporting is not only really accurate but also endearing to see that someone cares enough to report about both the struggles of gamers and accomplishments/failures of developers in the region. I was really surprised you even attempted to learn Mandarin (I struggle with tones also), the history of gaming there, and the culture that has developed around it as a result of government intervention and wealth inequality. Thanks for taking so much time to do your research because regardless of the government there are lots of passionate and dedicated developers who deserve some recognition. Hope you have a great day man.
im sorry to say but you are wrong ! i like how you dont use any argument to back up youre story. nice try wolf warior.
@@MrKubben90 what?
@@MrKubben90 what
@@MrKubben90 what
@@MrKubben90 when even the propaganda is badly translated lmao
"My entire life is "bad design" and I will NEVER start over"
~NeverKnowsBest, 2021
54:25
They hit me hard, man. That hit me hard.
45:10 for your information, localization isn't usually done or even tested at all through actually playing through the game. Localization is basically you send a team a .resx file (basically an xml) and they translate every element in that file, which the game exe will then pull through at runtime. Easy for a typo to slip through.
It also removes all the context of text which can lead to errors, for example Europa Universalis German translation had vassals send their taxes to Liege, the city in Belgium (Which to be noted was independent at the time so the city exist as country, instead of their overlord.
I had no interest in this topic seeing the title and within 5 mins of starting the video I was hooked. Excellent work man. This is incredibly informative and interesting.
i will be watching now and am sure it is gonna be great :-)
I watch his videos on games and franchises I've never even played. They are always interesting and entertaining, and I try games I never would have played.
@@billlyons7024 same man. In fact, I’ve probably watched all of his videos 2-3 times and Ive played probably 1/3 of the games. There’s something very entertaining, interesting, and kind of cozy about his general style and he just seems like a great dude.
ok karen
To add to the point about Steam, one of the other aspects I've found strange (as a user in China who buys and plays games from the Chinese store) is that a lot of the games that are allowed are also not modified in any way from the original.
For example, many games are modified for sale in certain countries by toning down or totally removing certain aspects (Fallout 3 springs to mind because, assuming I'm recalling correctly, the German version of FO3 had most of the gore removed for it to be legally available there). However, on Chinese Steam - assuming the game wasn't straight up banned from sale in the first place, such as those featuring pornographic content - these games aren't censored at all. Full gore, nudity, the lot. Cyberpunk 2077 is a great example, none of it has been edited from the standard version for sale on Steam in China.
My assumption is that they're able to get away with it because the game isn't openly advertised as including this kind of content (well, violence certainly is but that seems to be an inconsistency in Chinese media, because fairly graphic violence IS a feature of some mainstream Chinese films, shows, etc., but nudity isn't front-page marketing material for it). Thus the only people who will likely be made aware of this kind of content in games like Cyberpunk would be the consumers, who aren't going to say anything because they wouldn't see it as an issue in the first place, nor is it particularly unusual/taboo content for some of them anyway (particularly when I think of Chinese friends, colleagues, etc. who I know played the game).
Still, even on a platform like Steam that is quite the mystery in how it is allowed to exist here, I do find it odd how little censoring is done with respect to the games that are allowed, particularly as there clearly IS some level of censorship in terms of which games are allowed to be sold at all on the Chinese store.
Anyway, excellent video on a topic that really isn't well understood, both inside and outside of China. Props to you for putting so much effort into educating people on it! :) also glad someone else has been converted to the religion of 叉烧包!
❤️叉烧包！
Steam's blocked games, other than pornographic content (which guys uses VPN to buy anyway), are mostly politically sensitive games that gained traction. Like Red Candle Games for example. Those politically banned games, if they are small studios, has a process where negative reviews spam and online harrassment to the developers.
That's a few example I thought of when Steam has games being censored usually have developers releasing an addon to patch the uncensored content back in.
Just a fun thing about censorship and steam to think about.
Probably some kind of backdoor deals with Tencent, like they allow Steam to have a very lax and tolerant take on their current video games publication, while allowing Tencent a percentage of the remuneration from the ongoing trading of virtual content, which probably is a gold mine in China due to how popular pay-to-win is, so they surely saw it as an opportunity to make mad dosh. Like imagine the TF2 hat or item trading community, but in China, I cannot even imagine the insane prices some item would get to, especially the weapons, if they don't straight up add more for the express purpose of favoring pay-to-win mentality. Like for exemple there was a MMO where the sole iteration of a really over powered sword was sold for the equivalent of 50 000 dollars, and like not even a real sword, but the ability to use it in game...
How are you commenting on UA-cam. UA-cam is blocked in China. You use a VPN that’s why.
Neither Fallout 3 or Cyberpunk 2077 were approved by the Chinese government (and knowing their criteria, it's basically impossible especially Fallout 3 no matter how much modification were to be made). You can buy them on steam or even some other stores in China (杉果 perhaps) but that doesn't change the fact that they are in a legal grey area (read illegal) as far as the Chinese government is concerned. They just never bothered to shut them down since there are always bigger fishes to catch.
Valve must have the hookup with some Chinese official. I would be intrigued to look at an investigation.
I know “gamers are oppressed” is a joke about gamer entitlement, but man Chinese gamers are the real oppressed gamers. Hearing how Chinese game developers suffer while chasing after their dreams made me really sad…
Think of China like working for Bethesda/Activision/Blizzard/EA/Ubisoft, only they're the CCP. And their idea of "firing" you may include sending you off to an indoctrination camp where they abuse you into conforming.
@@onecalledchuck1664 wow this is a crazy assumption here. unless u criticise gov online u shit on ur boss u get fired normally.
@@earlhujewa628 wow, thanks! You know, I’m actually Chinese. :P sure does feel good to think some ppl out there think you’re subhuman ;)
Imagine having your country literally research and create a bioweapon since 2018 and due to their ineptitude have it leak and infect its own citizens then send those infected citizens to random countries worldwide by the millions and by doing so dooming countless random people who had nothing to do with you in the process and leaving countless families grieving.
The sheer fact yall diabolists are still considered human astounds me 👍
@@earlhujewa628 i gont get ur logic here. so chinese gamers are evil? or the government? peek a side dumb dumb
It always shocks me just how little people in the West think of China, describing it as backwards in terms of gaming, when i lived there, as recently as 2016, they had degrees for running Gaming events.... its just how big gaming already was there long before MiHoYo's Genshin Impact.
I played Xuan Yuan sword and Chinese Paladin: Sword and Fairy and they were dealing with philosophical issues and concepts nearly 2-3 years before the big games like Planescape Torment shook up the western RPG market about how games could explore dense and topical issues and explore what it means to be human and not just be dungeon crawlers.
Also I have to say the Chinese industry is HEAVILY mobile based. Due to the high cost of consoles and gaming rigs (and despite its economic boom Chinese people still struggle with disparity of income). Also relative obscurity of consoles due to their being banned for a long time. It is common to see people playing mobile games... well.. nearly everywhere, from street corners, to Metro. PUBG was massively celebrated in China as their first international success... not Genshin Impact. China's rise in gaming will be commensurate with mobile gaming.
I don't think it's fair to say that 'people in the West think little of China'. There is a bias, yes, first for historic reasons, because it often takes at least a generation to fully realise that the state of things have changed, and 'made in China' doesn't mean low quality knock-off anymore. Secondly, people move production to China, or import Chinese primarly based on price. Every country will be protective about its own industry, and prefer to do business with countries both allied geopolitically and with a long history of smooth cooperation. For the most part, it doesn't make sense to pay a comparable amount for overseas production to what you would pay locally, especially that setting up production in China is always a logistical nightmare unless you are a giant corporation. This means that people tend to see much more poor quality Chinese products, but those more aware know well that it is not because everything Chinese is bad, just because it makes the most financial sense to import poor quality. Yes, a lot of 'muricans are completely uninformed about the real China, but they are completely uninformed about all countries other than USA, so what do you expect? It's not a 'western' issue, it's an american one. The rest know that half a decade ago 'made in Japan' was also a synonym of poor quality, while today it's probably the highest reputation, and that China is quickly following the same path.
Sir, your dry humor is just gold. Rare, but precious, I'm always get caught off guard.
I wish my students would dive so deeply into a culture and language as you did for this video :). My favorite quote from you this video is (roughly), “Gosh darn it, China, where is the easy mode for this language.”
alright
Simplified Chinese IS easy mode.
You wouldn't want to learn it with zhuyin and traditional Chinese characters. (Which is more complicated)
tfw it is the easy mode lol
@@cyncynshop Man, the real pros learn chinese through classical chinese texts that you read using japanese kanbun methods, that is reading classical chinese as classical japanese which you then understand thanks to you being fluent in Japanese and both pre and post reform japanese chinese characters! :D I haven't actually learned chinese this way but I did get into classical chinese like that a few years ago and rather went onto studying modern Japanese literature because classics can frankly screw themselves.
@@andrewcheng2852 One thing that English speakers don't realise most of the time is how hard English pronunciation is for most people... Like how many different vowel qualities English even has?
neverknowsbest: "I knew i'd need to explain cultivation."
me: "jokes on you, i've been reading chinese martial arts novels for the past 5 years!"
Ditto
i've been reading cultivation webnovels for years now and have played a lot of amazing cultivation simulator but i think i would still struggle to accurately describe what cultivation is to someone who has never been exposed
"ok so like imagine if goku was religious and his main goal in life was living forever and doing good on exams"
@@Fottrel it's pretty easy to simplify it for other people if you ask me. I'd take the approach of giving it an analogue that would resonate with gamers.
To give a rough understanding I'd say, cultivation is something like a leveling system that uses names for the levels instead of numbers and experience is gained through a bunch of seemingly meaningless activities that have ties to chinese culture but "sometimes" you also get it from combat.
Then when it comes to explaining all the other intricacies you could come up with more direct explanations cuz you already established a baseline with the analogue to rpg leveling so things can be viewed as xp boosters or direct xp items and other factors can be described as xp percent debuffs.
You could also use it as a framework to go further into detail like, when you undergo the level-up process if you don't have enough accumulated xp beforehand then it decreases your level cap, but if you have enough your level cap isn't altered or if you stockpiled more than needed your level cap can be increased depending on the game/novel.
I've always just assumed, after some very different ways cultivating was depicted in different media is "training in spiritual/metaphysical containers/abilities to become uber strong and hopefully immortal before you die." since sometimes it's spiritual root "elements" and someone times it's just spiritual energy in cores.
Most webnovels and games material-ify and game-ify it a lot, and everyone makes up their own system. The core concept is basically ascending into an immortal, divine being by rigorous metaphysical self-improvement over a very, very long amount of time.
With plenty of ways to fail, such as running out of lifespan before actually getting immortality, or simply getting shanked.
It's so relaxing just sitting back and letting you take me on a 2,5 hour ride through a topic I didn't know I had any interest about! Really well done!
When you start crying over a fucking candle...man :'(
same 😢
that candle hits hard. never once i thought that a candle would one day be the lead of a amazing story at least it sounds like a amazing story.
Chinese audience here, really amazing one! appreciate it.
Starting to follow this channel after Genshin Impact video. Videos which related to China are usually attractive to me. Only after watching this video, did I realize the situation that Chinese game developers in and the challenges they face.
About censorship, I used to have a vague feeling and little knowledge about censorship in China. I did not think too much and just accept it and literally like mentioned in video, I feel like I cannot do anything since I have no idea to how to address this kind of problem and ignore it as always.
When it comes to stuffs being banned in China, I think UA-cam and some other social media being banned in China makes sense in some way according to things I know. However it sucks that people lost access to the other side of the coin (the great contents) on these platforms. Seldom people know VPN and can actually use it. I started to watch UA-cam a lot since I came to Taiwan for university. I also seldom use VPN in China due to reasons including it costs money for a good quality one.
Looking forward to more videos like this.
Still struggling with my English. Hope this comment makes sense.
"My entire life is bad design and i would never start over" is, unironically, a beautiful line
I really appreciate that someone took so much time and effort to learn and understand about our situation.
As a gamer myself, I've been wanting to learn a lot more about what gaming is like in China and this video has been... Great for that. Honestly it was Arknights of all games that opened my eyes to the ideas of Chinese games being actually really good and having lots of passion in them. I fell in love with the story and characters in Arknights and it made me interested in the Chinese gaming scene and the Chinese independent gaming scene in general.
@@AstralPhnx Türk oyunlarını tanıtan videoda yapın lütfen...
Why did multiple YT staff lie to you about the reason for your demonitization over the course of months and dozens of emails? They have the results of the automatic filtering, but they hid it in multiple ways and refused to tell you why even when you were attempting to fix it. Why even respond to your support requests at all? What are they hoping to accomplish through this process?
Honestly, I think many of those customer support staff he talked to don't know the actual problem. They probably just see what he sees and try to extrapolate from there. Since it was apparently only one misunderstood word, I also imagine it would be difficult for a manual reviewer to pinpoint the problem, in effect just unlocking the video, only to have it be shut down by the algorithm again.
@@Healthpotion If that's so, the question is "Why isn't support staff told the results of the filters?" This would be worse than kafka: Both human sides are equally confused and ignorant of a uncaring, unnaccountable, inscrutable line of software. Who benefits from this?
@@jasonjayalap The system is designed for 5-15 min videos with issues that will mostly be able to be addressed quickly by a human just watching the video. In the future there are almost certainly going to be more and more revisions that fix edge cases like this one better tools are good and google obviously benefits from making the better tools as well.
In terms of talking to support staff specifically, if you have talked to any customer service in your life you can easily understand how they can be useless or even make problems worse. If you walk into a Home Depot and ask someone at the customer service desk what aisle something is in there is a pretty high chance you are going to end up in the wrong aisle. Support staff is a low paying job that has minimal training that exists mostly to help solve really basic problems that people could likely solve faster by typing the correct phrase into google with a much smaller team of actually trained helpful people that real problems get escalated to which often ends up getting backed up by weird niche problems that require a lot of attention.
Exactly. It's all about escalation of issues. The sheer size of youtube content means that in-depth analyses of every submitted problem is just not feasable. So they do the obvious stuff first and if it doesn't work, it gets escalated until it eventually gets looked at more closely. Unfortunately, with the way revenue is generated on youtube, that means a substantial downtime of affected videos during the process and therefore loss of income for the creators. There isn't really a solution to this beyond just trusting the creator's word and leaving stuff monetized while analyzing, or employing literal millions of people to check videos.
@@Healthpotion I'm optimistic that improvements in the automated systems themselves will reduce volume of mistakes by enough that claims that employees actually need to look at will become rarer and rarer fringe cases so more attention can be payed to them but that reality might be longer off than I'm hoping
Title and thumbnail probably need work for the Algorithm's sake. But this is your best god damn video so far.
if you werent chainsmoking in a dimly lit room with no ventilation in 90 degree heat eating barbecue duck neck snacks, you werent fully immersed in chinese gaming
This took me a few weeks, but I believe this is one of the most important videos you've made. I've definitely learned a lot, and I feel like I'm walking away with a new perspective and sense of appreciation for something I once dismissed.
Damn to paraphrase something you said into a more generic form: "For everything lost in translation, something is gained in being lost." I really like that a lot and am actually clapping. This video is awesome.
thank you based kageaki
Comments on Part Four:
- Watching up to this point in the video has really made me far more appreciative of the Chinese games. I feel that I should really give them more of a chance.
- When I tried Gujian 3 a few months ago, I had an opposite reaction to yours.
- - Unlike you, I loved the story, characters, and cutscenes. The thing is I am ethnic Chinese and a lot of the themes in the narrative of the game can be more deeply appreciated if one were already familiar with aspects of Chinese culture, especially the idea of Xiayi (vaguely translated as honour). Xiayi is a lot about character and conduct, and the appropriate use of martial ability for helping others, not solely for self-benefit. Chinese culture as a huge tradition of respecting authority and seniority, yet this aspect is also often juxtaposed in situations where the authorities or seniors are corrupt or misguided, and the right course of action is uncertain. The best Xiayi stories rarely have clear-cut good or evil, they often present problems that challenge the audience's views, and leave them thinking and interpreting. What I saw in Gujian 3 so far (I only got through a few maps) wasn't outstanding, but the underlying Xiayi theme was certainly present, and I was happy to see them a video game brought to life for once.
- - However I found the gameplay to be very janky and unsatisfying. It never feels like you are truly in control. For the hard fights the best strategy seemed to be to play like a coward and occasionally take a jab or two and then retreat. This essentially made the greater part of the moveset redundant. And the alternative playstyle is to spam potions, and given that potions are more more abundant in the later half despite the bosses in the earlier half being mechanically more difficult it makes the difficulty very poorly tuned.
- - I didn't complete if after running into an infamous very difficult boss in the early third of the game. Yet, I feel that I really should give it another chance. With a better idea of what to expect, I can prepare better this time.
- The comparison of Chinese games to JRPGs is very apt. The main appeal of Chinese games is because they are Chinese. They have something unique to say, something different in the culture that can allow them to make games unlike anything else in the world. They don't have to make Western games, because we already have plenty of them. And like JRPGs, although there is something lost in translation, there are still much to be gained from the ways the games are presented, set thematically, narrated, and designed mechanically.
- Made in China for China is only partially accurate. Chinese themes like Xiayi are popular and well received in other parts of Asia such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and parts of Southeast Asia. (Gujian 3 received a Japanese translation!) That's not to mention also Hong Kong and Taiwan (which are outside the great firewall and reside in the same internet as the rest of the world), and the increasingly growing population of Chinese descendants living outside of China. I am myself not from China. I am ethnic Chinese, but live in Southeast Asia. My first language is English, and my source of gaming content is UA-cam and Reddit. While I am fluent in Chinese, I only sporadically read/watch things on the Chinese internet because they really feel so disconnected from the rest of the world's internet and I have to actively seek them out. So in some sense, to reach people like me, they need to put their games on Steam and promote them on UA-cam and other Western media channels.
At 1 hr 27 min without realizing.. didn't think I'd be watching this whole thing, looks like I'm here for the long haul. Right on. Getting the Chinese indie gaming scene some love
I planned to watch 10 mins, then I watched 2 hours of it. It's not just amazingly detailed, but at the same time, the self deprecating humor and off the wall comments are incredibly interesting. I hugely appreciate this kind of video. I might actually consider supporting the channel on patreon for the first time in my life. Great job!
NeverKnowsBest: Shackled by his forever alone status, he continues to struggle up the nearly unscalable
mountain that is the UA-cam Career path
Patrons and Subs: "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!"
Your videos are always great, but this one is truly incredible. I appreciate the well-researched deep dive into a topic that gets little attention on UA-cam and in the West in general. Thank you for making such an informative video, and for your empathy towards the Chinese developers.
Incredible video! This one landed you on my recommended and I've watched like 6 or so of your videos in the last few days. Keep it up man!
Didn't expect to watch this whole thing in one go, especially right after finishing the last hour of your Genshin video, yet here I am. I am quickly becoming very fond of your work, and leave this comment in hopes that it pleases the algorithm and brings you more views.
Great work, as always : informative, synthetic, well-written. I am loving this new-ish format of yours, with broad scope themes or series, although I do hope you keep up with your in-depth analyses of some single games. Thanks a ton.
Synthetic? Succinct perhaps?
@@brettvv7475 Succinct :)
Gotta love that Everything is Going to be Okay track from Prey at the start of the video.
Edit two days later: now that I've finished watching the video, I see you used music from Prey at the end too - it somehow fits really well. Other than that, absolutely amazing video, as always.
GOD I love Prey
@@AstralPhnx don't we all?
Loved the video as always. You are creating some of the few long form content on UA-cam that i actually watch without doing something else in between, so please keep it up. Also, i fully agree with your ending statement.
I love how unusual the topics on this channel are. And how thoroughly they are explored and how entertainingly they are delivered. Astonishing work.
you are criminally undersubbed, love your vids dude keep it up!
You're a SSS+ list UA-camr to me.
Wonderful video, again. I found you via your elder scrolls trilogy. That was mostly nostalgic for me, but I have now watched many of them, and they're so informative. Thank you. It's over two hours of my life I don't want back.
This was fantastic. Thank you for committing to the vast amount of research that must have gone into this. Can’t wait to see what you do next.
A lot of effort put in. I can appreciate the sheer amount of work that went into this. Good on you.
'There's a difference between a country's government and it's people'. THIS.
This is something so many people forget, and today it's more relevant than ever be it gaming related or not.
I have never watched a youtube video that's longer than an hour without fast forwarding or listening on 2x speed until I found your channel. The multifaceted way you explore the topics in these videos and the research you do is amazing. The entire video is very engaging (I'm not even a hardcore gamer!). Thank you so much for creating videos like this when the most of the internet is hopping on the fast food-esque style of short videos and trends . Cheers mate!
One of the best videos I've seen on UA-cam. You consistency in quality and upload rate is seriously underrated.
It sounds like you had a lot of fun making this one. Great job! I loved the bit about Henry!
This is a very sweet video. I really like that you made an effort to learn about Chinese culture and history, and that you shared that knowledge with the viewer as well. Some of these games I'm really interested in installing now!
Also very sad to hear what happened with your other video. I'm even more glad I subscribed to your patreon now.
Thanks for the video. Was a great documentary into a developer culture I had no idea about. The huge amount of effort you put into your script, fact-checking, and the humor were really apparent. I had a good time watching this.
I don't always have 2+ hours to watch one of your videos, but whenever I do get that time I always feel like it's time amazingly spent. Thank you for your artistic integrity and incredible passion; it comes through in every paragraph.
Love this mega long format, thank you for the video 👍🏻
Might not be the best video for pulling in viewers but I'm glad you made it and I'm glad I watched it, thank you.
Thank you for opening the xianxia genre for me! I've bought Amazing Cultivation Simulator even before finishing the video. And googled some novels as well. How have I never known that such a thing exists??!
And thank you for the video in general. I watched most of your works, but left that one behind for some time, and kept postponing to watch. Maybe something is with the thumbnail or the topic of Chiese videogames industry didn't seem appealing? But, man, I am happy I've finally given it a try. Wonderful job! 👌Wish you the number od subs you deserve, which is much much more than it's now.
Great video! Haven’t played any of these games myself, or really plan to, but the explanation was very good, and the in-depth research was clearly high quality. Subbed after watching this. Keep it up!
Incredible work as always, I wish this one got as many views as relative to the amount of work you clearly put into it.
I know this isn't a super hot topic but I really appreciate the effort you've put into this video. The care you've dealt the subject with makes me care, too, and in the future I'll be sure to keep my eye out for Chinese indie games to support them!!
If you ever find a way to get this game called Crazy Tao... this video just unlocked a memory I had of playing it obsessively when I was younger. It's a Chinese MMO and I feel like it must have been popular because I played with a decent number of Americans and they sold cards for it in Game Stop!!
10 minutes in and this is genuinely the most interesting video i've seen in a while
Superb video man, Simply amazing stuff. Fascinating, as well as informative. You rock, bud
I genuinely want more videos like this, this was such a fascinating video.
I was hoping someone would make a video exactly like this, thank you for the unique insight
Fantastic video, love the part at the end addressing the people versus the government of china.
Thank you so much for your hard work.
This was a brilliant video, glad I caught it in my subscription feed finally.
slowly grinding your videos bud, each is a masterpiece
Thanks, very interesting analysis, as always! I find the Russian gaming industry to be quite interesting too - even more interesting since they're high-quality games and have taken the lead in CRPG games. An incentive to look further into this is update #53 of the Kickstarter Encased, "History behind Russian Fallout" (unfortunately we can't paste URLs here), which is one interesting view on the phenomenon. It's not only the CRPG genre, but flight sim, development tools and other domains. And they don't have game dev schools, but they could tap into that potential and find what appealed to both the Eastern and Western public.
Man, Russian gaming industry in the 90s and early 00s was so lit. You had your K-D Labs with Vangers and Perimeter, your Katauri with Space Rangers 1 and 2, your Nival with absolute bangers such as Etherlords 1 and 2, Rage of Mages 1 and 2, Blitzkrieg and Silent Storm with an addon. And of course you had your Ukrainian GSC's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with a couple of sequels for good measure. And that's just the popular stuff. And these days the incredibly talented Nival guys went on to establish Owlcat Games (on Cyprus) to create the amazing Pathfinder: Kingmaker and are currently working on the sequel. Putin's regime really hates entrepreneurship though and now it's mainly scams, trashy MMOs and mobile games.
I thought you where talking about Atom RPG for a sec there, thanks for your recomendation I'll check Encased out.
@@FairyRat I recognize a few very good games, indeed! I have no idea how they make it through the current regime over there, but fortunately there are still great teams like Owlcat Games, Dark Crystal Games, AtomTeam, and so on.
@@TheCoolCore It's been delayed quite a bit (which happens in indies) and has not left Early Access yet, so you may still find a few bugs, but it's very playable. It's certainly worth checking it out.
Ya I remember Metro series, it is quite some work
Just coming back and realizing how relatively small this channel is in comparison to the quality and I’m both shocked and honored to be around for a great channel that will soon grow to be huge.
I've seen almost all your videos, you're really good, thanks for publishing this awesome critiques/documentaries!!
Thanks for the interesting video : )
Your humor throughout felt like it was on point for my tastes
This is games journalism.
Thank you for following your passion. We’re all the better for it.
1:40:00 The game I never knew I needed in my life.
Lately there have been quite a few Cultivation novels trickling into the western LitRPG genre which are not just an easy read to listen to at work but in case of Cultivation are truly fascinating. In case of the western adaptation it's a unique blend of Chinese mysticism, religion and fables, typical JRPG concepts, multiversalism and western superhero stories.
It's always a little perplexing to me, what with Taoism being an actual religion and people out there believing this stuff.
But Scientologists and Mormons are real too...
Cool History Bro, another UA-camr, talks about cultivation in some of his Chinese history and philosophy videos.
@@planescaped i dont think they actually believe in gaining superpowers from sitting in a cave. its more so just like Buddhism but less depressing
Really appreciate this! I've been intrigued by these games for a long time.
2 hours 20 mins. I have not been able to sit through a movie in a single sitting this whole lockdown but barely noticed it with this video.
Fantastic work, will defo check out the rest of your vids and subbing for more.
This is very interesting! I haven't seen any videos covering gaming in china...
to be fair its pretty difficult to find much information about the industry and the gaming culture there because of the firewall on the countries internet
hmmmmm, i wonder why 🤔🤔🤔
And now steam is banned in China :(
Veni, vidi, spent 2 hours and a half on this, subscribed.
Keep up the good work mate.
What a beautifully in-depth and poignant analysis, the level of research you did is incredible. Have you considered turning on community contributions for subtitles/translations? I feel like the video would be able to reach a larger audience in Chinese speakers if they could understand what the video is about. I'd love to be able to send this to some Chinese friends of mine who work in the gaming industry, and would also be willing to contribute to the subtitles.
Im not sure if you're aware but... UA-cam shelved Community Contributions for captions months ago. one of the worst things they've done to the site, in my opinion. but now, the only way to add subtitles is for the uploader to do it directly. some youtubers have a system where translators can send their srt file to them through email or etc; hopefully you can reach out to NeverKnowsBest in some way
He said to @ him on Twitter to get his attention. Try it.
Amazing cultivation Sim was one of the best surprise hits I played in the last year. Such a unique game and absolutely loved my experience with it.
This video was incredible, its definitely one of your best! I think your videos are getting better with each release and also you are quite funny :)
Man, (all) your videos are what I would call an herculean effort. You've got my respect!
this video prompted me to wishlist/buy several of these games so thanks. and as someone with a degree in mandarin im not surprised you gave up immediately but there are a lot of harder to pronounce sounds than 你
Great video! The subject needs more exposure, and this is a great move towards that. I gave ICEY a try a while back, and while it didn't grab me, I'm glad to know I'm supporting devs that really need it. Hopefully, if the Chinese government can at least see the economic potential of facilitating game development and publishing, they may be more willing to expand availability.
Commenting for engagement stats - this was a super interesting video and deserves more visibility.
You are the best channel I found in UA-cam myself and it is thanks to the very DA video, it is a really good deep dive in the series. .
Btw this is my favourite video of all time in your channel. Thank you for making these videos
On the Dyson Sphere Program / Spaghetti discussion, I both understand and admire your words on it. I also understand and admire that people DO constantly strive to become more streamlined, more optimized, more efficient with their designs and builds. This applies to inside of the game, in personal life, in careers, in real world infrastructure and so on. To make things orderly, to learn and do better this time than last time, to grow, to become more efficient, cleaner, longer lasting, more stable. I find that's a great part of being Human.
So the massive chinese market Steam has monopoly on explains all those Chinese localizations of various Steam workshop mods you find for Paradox games. I finally found the answer!
If you take the time to make a video I will always take time to watch it and you never disappoint. Your high-quality content level makes all viewings a pleasure. This one took me by surprise with content that wasn't on my radar. I am going to be trying two games mentioned for sure.
Before I continue watching I just wanted to say that you're not a D-list youtuber, your channel is amazing, it's the best thing I found on UA-cam lately, and it's making my quite shitty day a lot better now. Thanks! :)
I laughed hard, I thought hard. Hope this blows up soon.
You're the best person talking about video games on youtube man. Mandalore, bunnyhop and skillup are all great, but you've genuinely never made a point I disagree with. Keep it up!
Mandalore is my fav, but this guy is pretty good and has nice long videos.
Possibly your best video yet! The deep dive on Chinese video games I didn't know I needed. Well done man.
I have to say, honestly your channel is pure gold
It's videos like this that keep me awake during my stand-by shifts.
“Life isn’t about starting over, it’s about continuing forward.”
Deep.
Best video since your H.P. Lovecraft video! Fantastic work! Thanks for introducing me to Darkwood, The Last Door, and UnderRail
*UnderRail flashbacks intensify*
Amazed for an another time. You are really the best!
Very interesting video with.. some slight pacing issues, haha~ Still worth watching the whole thing! You trying to say 'Kurzgesagt' gave me a good chuckle too - oh wait, gotta post that on Twitter now, huh..
"China is the future..."
Oh boy see you in 2 hours
go china go
@@adeldell8275 on
@@adeldell8275 to hell
@Redsand yet
@Redsand . Uh Tibet? They just took it over a few years ago, and continue to suppress people there. They fight with India at their border. They are looking to invade Taiwan and are currently doing drills.
Learn basic history or you will end up as an NPC.
Wow. I'll have to watch this another couple of times just to wrap my head around it. Well done.
Amazingly interesting video! Honestly you could make a one hour long video about a main menu in a game and I would still watch it, keep up these interesting videos!!!
I hope you can review Outward at some point. Love to hear your take on that game.
Amazing gem for sure!
NeverKnowsBest
: There are no reviews of Gujan3 on youtube.
Iron Pinaple: AM I A JOKE TO YOU?
Was it in one of his Souls-like compilation reviews?
That may be why it was missed
I just wanted to say thanks. I didn't really think I'd like this video, but I love your content, and I trust you. It was SO much more educational than I thought. Thanks for giving me more information than I expected. It was a lovely break from the 'standard' video. I don't know if I'd like to see them all the time, but I will always give your videos the benefit of the doubt and am now looking forward to the next 'mildly off topic' video of yours. Keep it up. I can't wait to get a real income and support creators like you. I have probably watched all your videos at least twice. Top Tier Content.
I think I've watched every one of your videos (along with many other long form video game critique creators) and this was probably my favorite. I know it didn't get the views that a popular game critique will - but this was an absolute masterpiece. You threaded the needle perfectly between an entertaining and informative video around a very touchy real-world issue. Thanks for making this, because many others wouldn't have.
So many people wouldn't touch this topic with a 10 foot pole out of fear of being jumped on by people going "Nurrr China apologist! China is 100% awful!". I'm glad he did make this video though. Bringing attention to some really important stuff and a growing but important scene in a wonderful way. Totally gonna check some of these games out
A small but important correction about the removal of Devotion on steam:
While Devotion was removed (delisted) from Steam, this was due to the publisher requesting Steam take it down, not censorship from Steam itself.
I assume China made them an offer they couldn't refuse?
Otherwise why not just patch the game?
Oh, according to wikipedia, "Red Candle removed the game from Steam globally to fix technical issues, as well as to confirm that no other hidden messages remain."
Yeah it wasn't Steam taking it down.
@@TheAssassin642 Yeah the publisher who ultimately has the rights over how the game is handled abandoned ship quickly after it blew up for fear of retaliation from the CCP.
Devs were caught in the crossfire and Steam doesn't take kindly to already approved and for sale games asking to be delisted so there was probably no chance of them accepting it back.
Didn't red candle games put devotion up on their own site if you want to buy the game?