Info about 镇邪:

Official game description:
关于我们
====
*   官方玩家交流2群：813894820  
*   官方玩家交流4群：362395685（已满）  
*   官方玩家交流3群：796499360（已满）  
*   官方玩家交流1群：137175409（已满）
    About the Game
    ==============
    《镇邪》是一款单机国风道士题材游戏。根据大量的民间故事改编。在游戏中，玩家将扮演道门弟子前往神秘村庄调查身世之谜，不想却无意中卷入一场巨大的阴谋。除了体验丰富的游戏主线剧情之外，玩家还可以体验到摸金寻宝，驱邪镇灵，开坛做法，画符炼尸等多种传统的国风元素。游戏引用了先进的ASMR立体环绕音频技术以及全人物中文配音以便达到沉浸式的视听盛宴。  
    神秘村庄隐藏惊天阴谋，离奇真相横跨前世今生。空前绝后的人鬼较量，灵异邪祟的无尽纠缠。二十载宿命，难抵一生夙愿。一切尽在《镇邪》。
    开坛画符，布阵炼尸
    ---------
    在这个游戏中你扮演一名道士，不仅可以开坛画符，替人驱邪看病，还可以招鬼为你所用，或者抓鬼超度，更可以养尸炼尸，让你过足道士的瘾。  
    下墓摸金，画符炼器
    ---------
    在这地下有不为人知的秘密和陷阱，更有着珍贵无比的宝物。面对墓穴中的僵尸和厉鬼，你必须准备充足后再下墓，下墓前为自己画好足够的符纸保命。极具特色的盗墓题材，设计精妙的烧脑机关，让热爱解密动脑游戏的你有超乎寻常的游戏体验。  
    水鬼上岸，公鸡引魂
    ---------
    精彩的游戏剧情引人入胜，根据大量的民间故事改编，招魂，水鬼上岸，公鸡引魂，配冥婚......让你在了解民间恐怖故事的同时，也能感受到不一样的感官视觉体验。  
    特殊机遇，吉凶随缘
    ---------
    野外充满了机遇，你可能遇见厉鬼假扮的村民向你求助，趁你不备时候给你狠狠的捅上一刀。也可能遇见真正受伤的村民，在你救助之后给与你特殊的物品。同时野外的义庄、乱葬岗、破庙、祖坟等，不同的地方都有各自不同的事件，让你在野外探索时也充满刺激。

Release date: 4 Nov, 2022

Categories: Single-player, RPG, Open-World Exploration, Monster Management, Crafting, Spell-based Combat, Resource Management, Puzzle Solving


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Authentic Taoist Simulator (weight 0.67): The game excels as a Taoist simulator, fulfilling childhood fantasies of becoming a Taoist priest. It deeply integrates elements from Hong Kong zombie films and traditional Chinese folklore, offering immersive experiences like talisman drawing, corpse refining, and soul summoning.
- Engaging & Novel Gameplay Experience (weight 0.48): Players find the game highly enjoyable, addictive, and replayable, appreciating its unique ideas and significant improvements over its predecessor. The gameplay offers a fresh and distinctive experience, making it a standout title.
- Immersive Chinese Horror Atmosphere (weight 0.41): The game masterfully crafts a suspenseful and scary atmosphere, particularly at night, through eerie sound effects, appropriate background music, and various ghost encounters. This creates a strong sense of cultural immersion, reminiscent of classic Chinese horror films.
- Dedicated Small Development Team (weight 0.17): Players acknowledge the significant effort and dedication of the small, two-person development team. Despite limited resources, they have created a game with authentic style, novel experiences, and consistent updates, demonstrating a genuine passion for the genre.
- Cohesive & Immersive Story (weight 0.11): The game features a well-crafted story and plot that aligns perfectly with traditional Chinese spiritual and ghost legends. Key narrative elements like out-of-body experiences and underworld journeys enhance immersion and are deeply rooted in folk customs.
- Rich Folk & RPG Systems (weight 0.09): The game cleverly integrates traditional folk customs like exorcism and tomb exploration with classic RPG elements such as good/evil paths, karma values, and villager favorability. This provides players with meaningful choices and a diverse gameplay experience.
- Quality Voice Acting (weight 0.06): The game features comprehensive and interesting voice acting, even for minor characters and side quests. This attention to detail significantly enhances immersion and overall player experience.
- Positive Chinese Game Representation (weight 0.05): The game is celebrated as a very good Chinese game, effectively addressing a perceived lack of quality Chinese-style RPGs. Its high positive review rate, even with only Chinese language support, highlights its success within the domestic market.
- Darkwood-Inspired Mechanics (weight 0.05): The game's operation and perspective show clear inspiration from 'Darkwood,' making it easy for players familiar with that title to pick up. Despite stylistic similarities, it offers a distinct gameplay experience.
- Impactful Righteous Path Ending (weight 0.04): The righteous path ending of the game left a touching impression on players, indicating a well-executed narrative conclusion for this specific moral alignment.
- Spirit Medicine for Progression (weight 0.04): High-level items, particularly spirit medicine, are crucial for character strength and progression. Consuming these items allows players to easily clear the game, even with basic equipment, by efficiently defeating high-level monsters.

Common complaints:
- Awkward & Unintuitive Controls (weight 0.97): The control scheme is frequently criticized for being stiff, illogical, and 'anti-human'. Players struggle with complex item usage, lack of controller support, and general clunkiness, making basic interactions frustrating.
- Poor Technical Execution & Polish (weight 0.86): Players consistently report rough graphics, simplistic modeling, and a generally unpolished feel. The UI is described as rudimentary and difficult to use, contributing to a perception of the game as unfinished or rushed.
- Challenging & Unfair Difficulty (weight 0.82): Many players find the game, especially early on and at night, to be excessively difficult. Powerful enemies, limited resources, and awkward controls create a frustrating experience, particularly for casual players.
- Monotonous Audio & Visuals (weight 0.79): The game's music is described as single-looping and monotonous, becoming annoying over time. Visuals are criticized for being crude, with stiff animations and a fixed camera that attempts to hide rough models.
- Insufficient & Repetitive Content (weight 0.76): The game's main story is too short, leading to an abrupt ending and a lack of motivation for replay. Players feel there's too little to do, with many activities being repetitive or lacking depth, resulting in a hollow experience.
- Lack of Quality of Life Features (weight 0.76): Players are frustrated by the absence of essential features like auto-save, in-game pausing, and inventory sorting. The small inventory size, lack of storage, and cumbersome item management further detract from the experience.
- Poor Quest Guidance & Progression (weight 0.56): The game offers insufficient guidance for quests, leaving players confused about objectives and destinations. This lack of clarity, combined with a limited number of quests, contributes to a feeling of aimlessness.
- Lack of Post-Launch Support (weight 0.51): Players express disappointment over the absence of subsequent updates and optimizations since release. Developers' broken promises regarding features like a creative workshop further fuel this sentiment.

Gameplay feedback:
- Corpse & Ghost Mechanics (weight 0.46): Core gameplay revolves around managing corpses, summoning, catching, and refining ghosts. This includes specific mechanics like corpse driving, raising corpse kings, and using talismans for control and healing.
- Diverse Gameplay Paths (weight 0.42): Players can choose between righteous, evil, or mixed paths, influencing story, abilities, and available actions like corpse refining or soul devouring. This offers significant replayability and moral choices.
- Taoist Exorcism & Combat (weight 0.42): Players embody a Taoist priest, utilizing traditional tools like peach wood swords, talismans (fire, thunder, healing), and rituals. Early game combat can feel more physical, evolving into spell-based exorcism.
- Open World & Exploration (weight 0.39): The game features an open world with elements of Chinese horror and traditional spiritualism. Players can explore maps, undertake various side quests, and engage in activities like tomb raiding and treasure hunting.
- Variable Playtime & Difficulty (weight 0.37): The main story can be completed in 10-15 hours, with full completion extending to 20-30 hours. The game offers multiple difficulty settings (easy, normal, hard) and is described as hardcore on higher difficulties.
- Developer's Vision (weight 0.22): The developer considers the game a full release, not early access, and plans to expand on the gameplay with a new framework and multiplayer features, focusing on a story-driven experience.
- Resource Management & Strategy (weight 0.06): Success, especially for beginners, requires careful planning of resources, talismans, and skill book purchases. Certain skills, like 'Five Ghosts Carry Coffin', are highly recommended for optimizing gameplay.
- Unique Game Perspective (weight 0.04): The game utilizes a top-down perspective, with operations and camera similar to 'Darkwood', providing a distinct visual and interactive experience.
- Economic & Trading Systems (weight 0.03): Players can engage in trading at ghost markets and with mysterious merchants to exchange spoils of war for money and skill books, adding an economic layer to resource acquisition.
- Post-Game Experience (weight 0.02): The game's horror elements reportedly diminish after the first playthrough, suggesting a shift in player perception or familiarity with the game's scares.
- Early Game Challenges (weight 0.02): Bandits in the back mountain pose a significant challenge in the early stages of the game, requiring players to be cautious.
- Boss Rush Potential (weight 0.01): Based on limited feedback, players might be able to bypass the main story and directly challenge all bosses, suggesting a potential speedrunning or challenge route.

Performance notes:
- Optimization and Performance Issues (weight 0.04): Players are experiencing a regression in performance and visuals due to recent optimization efforts. This indicates that current optimization attempts are negatively impacting the game's stability and graphical fidelity.
- Good Performance on Specific Hardware (weight 0.04): Some players report excellent performance on mid-range hardware, with a GTX 1070 achieving 144hz and a GTX 1050 estimated at 100fps. This suggests that the game can run well on certain setups, contrasting with the optimization issues reported by others.

Recommendations:
- Expand game content and features (weight 0.58): There's a significant demand for more content, including additional maps, quests (main and side), monsters, skills, and gameplay mechanics. Players suggest incorporating more Chinese folklore, new professions, and a creative workshop for user-generated content.
- Improve game optimization and polish (weight 0.54): Players hope for continuous optimization, better graphics, improved modeling, and enhanced playability. Specific suggestions include refining combat feel, adjusting screen brightness, and addressing general game polish to elevate the overall experience.
- Enhance UI and quality of life (weight 0.53): Numerous suggestions focus on improving the user interface and overall quality of life. This includes adding auto-save, confirmation prompts for exiting, better inventory management (e.g., one-click organize, direct item use), and more quick slots.
- Game is highly recommended (weight 0.5): Despite some flaws, many players highly recommend the game, especially to fans of Chinese fantasy horror and top-down view genres. They find it a unique and worthwhile experience, praising its potential to showcase Taoist magic and folklore.
- Developers should persist and thrive (weight 0.48): Players express strong support for the development team, encouraging them to continue their work, maintain their original vision, and achieve success. There's a hope that the developers will earn enough to fund future projects or DLC.
- Add multiplayer and movement options (weight 0.39): Players are interested in a 2-4 person co-op mode to play with friends or partners. Additionally, there's a desire for faster travel options, such as mounts or teleportation items, to improve exploration efficiency.
- High anticipation for sequel (weight 0.3): Players are eagerly awaiting a second installment, hoping for expanded content, improved graphics, and a richer story, with many expressing intent to purchase immediately upon release. There's a strong desire for the sequel to build upon the current game's foundation.

Other player notes:
- Gameplay Mechanics & Tips (weight 0.23): Players shared various gameplay tips, such as early-game purchases, merchant refresh times, and item acquisition locations. There's also a specific concern about not letting refined zombies die, especially in the early stages.
- Game Size & Performance (weight 0.23): The game is noted for its small installation size, which allows for quick downloads. However, there's an observation that the potential sequel might be significantly larger.
- Desire for Sequel Improvements (weight 0.16): Players are eagerly anticipating a sequel, hoping for significant improvements in optimization, story length, and overall content. There's a strong desire for the next installment to expand on traditional Chinese culture and horror elements.
- Acknowledges Small Team Limitations (weight 0.11): Players understand and accept the game's technical issues, limited mechanics, and graphics quality, attributing them to the small development team and potential funding constraints. This indicates a forgiving stance towards the current game's state.
- Miscellaneous Observations (weight 0.1): Players made various minor observations, including character appearance details, specific ghost attachments, and general hopes for the improvement of domestic games. These points are less critical but reflect player engagement.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.23): Players found satisfaction in the game's unique Chinese Taoist and folk horror theme, immersive atmosphere, and enjoyable gameplay mechanics. The game's overall quality, value for money, and the feeling of fulfilling a childhood fantasy also contributed to positive experiences, despite some acknowledged shortcomings.
- Frustration (weight 0.17): Frustration stemmed primarily from numerous bugs, particularly game-breaking ones, and a poorly implemented save system. Clunky controls, lack of clear guidance, inventory management issues, and high difficulty spikes also significantly detracted from the player experience.
- Disappointment (weight 0.15): Players expressed disappointment over the game's unfinished state, short story length, and lack of content, especially in the late game. Poor graphics, rough production quality, and unfulfilled promises regarding updates and mod support also contributed to this sentiment.
- Excitement (weight 0.07): Excitement was generated by the game's novel Chinese horror open-world theme and its potential as a domestic 3A title. Players enjoyed the immersive and scary atmosphere, unique gameplay features like the talisman system, and anticipated future sequels and expansions.
- Hope (weight 0.07): Hope was largely tied to the anticipation of future improvements, updates, and sequels. Players expressed a strong desire for continued development, optimization, and the addition of more content and Chinese Taoist cultural elements, believing the game has great potential.
- Desire (weight 0.05): Players desired more content, including additional maps, missions, and story elements, as well as a sequel. Specific requests included better graphics, optimization, controller support, a larger inventory, and more diverse gameplay mechanics.
- Anticipation (weight 0.03): Anticipation was focused on future updates and, most prominently, the release of a sequel or second installment. Players looked forward to new features and more evil path gameplay.
- Appreciation (weight 0.02): Players appreciated the developer's effort, especially for a small team, and the game's unique theme and atmosphere. The voice acting and dedication to the cultural theme were also points of appreciation.
- Fear (weight 0.02): Fear was a direct result of the game's strong horror elements, immersive scary atmosphere, and eerie Chinese folk music. Playing alone or at night intensified the frightening experience, particularly in the early game and deep ghost realms.
- Anger (weight 0.02): Anger arose from the game's overall poor quality, numerous bugs, and worsening optimization. Players were also frustrated by repeated defeats, anti-human operations, and losing progress due to UI issues, as well as negative reviews based solely on difficulty.
- Admiration (weight 0.02): Admiration was directed towards the small development team's effort and the game's potential to be a masterpiece. Players recognized the author's deep understanding of Taoist magic, passion for the theme, and the game's pioneering role in Chinese open-world spiritual horror.
- Amusement (weight 0.01): Amusement was sparked by humorous bugs, interesting voice acting, and the contrast between expected Taoist duties and mundane village tasks. Player choices and comments about adult content also contributed to this emotion.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.01): Nostalgia was triggered by the game's theme, atmosphere, and graphics, which reminded players of childhood zombie movies, stories, and classic games like Red Alert and Legend.
- Joy (weight 0.01): Joy was experienced through fun and addictive gameplay, fulfilling a dream, and a general love for the game process. Players found genuine enjoyment in their overall experience.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion arose from a lack of clear guidance on what to do, getting lost, and unusual game behaviors like ghost spawning patterns or potential plot-related bugs.
- Understanding (weight 0.01): Players showed understanding regarding the game's bugs and limitations, attributing them to the challenges faced by indie developers, small teams, and technical/funding constraints.
- Caution (weight 0.01): Caution was expressed as warnings to other players about the game's bugs, difficulty, and the importance of careful zombie management and saving practices.
- Helpfulness (weight 0): Helpfulness was demonstrated by players providing tips, gameplay advice, and workarounds for bugs to assist others in their game experience.
- Surprise (weight 0): Surprise came from unexpected game behaviors and the unexpected variety of tasks available within the game.
- Regret (weight 0): Regret was expressed by a player who felt remorse over their purchase of the game.}