Steam] First Day of GW! Let's enjoy it like a traveler! PC Indie Games from Abroad - China Edition

How are you doing, Akiba Research Institute readers? This is Nero Hyakkabe, a writer who buys too many games. How are your plans for this year's Golden Week?　Some of you may go on vacation every year during this time of year, but in this day and age, there may be many of you who are staying at home and refraining from going out or traveling this year. Therefore, in this issue, we would like to introduce a special feature on indie games from abroad that may make you feel like you are traveling abroad, while staying at home.

Click here for previous Steam features.
Item
Chinese Parents" is a parenting simulation game that is sure to get you hooked!
Japanese anime-style Taoist action game "Zenjon
　Low price & high quality music game "MUSYNX


  • Chinese Parents
  • Genre: Simulation
  • Released on September 29, 2018
  • Price: 980 yen (as of April 9, 2021)
  • Copyright: (C) 2018 墨鱼玩游戏


In China, we often hear about the fierce university entrance exam wars that are unparalleled in Japan.
The "Chinese Parents" game we are about to introduce to you is a simulation game about the Chinese parenting experience, including such university entrance exams.

The protagonist of the game is a child born to a Chinese family. The player's objective is to raise and develop the child's abilities in order to pass the university entrance exam, known as "Gao Xing," which is to be held 48 turns later. The game features unique illustrations with a slightly surrealistic touch and a somewhat relaxed atmosphere.



Children have five types of statuses: IQ, EQ, Imagination, Memory, and Physical Strength.
The player performs two actions each turn to raise the values of these five statuses: "collecting shards" and "executing plans.

In "Piece Collection," players play a mini-game in which they collect pieces of their abilities on the board, which is divided into squares.
The key to the game is how to collect shards efficiently within a limited number of actions.

The key is how to collect shards efficiently within a limited amount of time. Some shards are special, such as one that allows you to acquire all shards of the same color at once or all shards in the surrounding 8 squares at once, and it is an exhilarating feeling when you make full use of them to acquire a large number of shards and improve your status at once.



In "Execute Schedule," you select the skills you have learned from the two categories of learning and entertainment, and make a schedule.
The schedule is then executed one after another with random events, and the parameters are raised or lowered according to the results.

Skills that can be scheduled can be learned by "collecting shards" to increase parameters and collecting comprehension of light bulb symbols that appear mixed in with the shards.

For example, as a baby, the initial skills are "turning over" and "clapping to music," but gradually the child learns "walking" and "talking," and as the child progresses, "running" and "patience" can also be learned. Skills are greatly enhanced when they are learned, so one of the keys to success in this game is how efficiently you learn them.



As the title "Chinese Parents" suggests, the relationship with "Parents" is very important in this game.

A typical example of this is "Expectations. These are so-called "missions," such as "pass a prestigious elementary school," which requires an EQ of 500, or "run an errand," which requires bicycle riding skills, and by meeting the parents' expectations within a certain time frame, players receive a bonus to their status. This is a unique aspect of the game that shows what the parents want from you (the child), rather than just in the form of a mission.

Along with "expectations," "parental satisfaction" is an indispensable element in the strategy of this work. Parental satisfaction basically goes down when the child engages in the scheduled entertainment activities, and goes up when the child studies. This system of watching your parents' faces, in which you study hard to raise their satisfaction level while mixing in a moderate amount of entertainment to lower your own stress, has an overwhelming rawness to it that is unmatched in other games.



One of the unique systems in this game is called "Menz battle.

This is an unusual NPC battle event in which the player's mother boasts of her child's special skills to her relatives, friends, and neighborhood mothers, who then battle to mount her child.

It is a command battle RPG-style system where you choose the special skill to use and reduce the HP of your opponent, but when your cousin sarcastically said to you, "Nothing has changed at your house since the old days, so I feel at home! and was damaged by his sarcastic comment, "I spent three nights at the pool. And we ate fish, shrimp, and crab for all three meals! The scene of the battle at ...... is so novel that the contestant fires back at his opponent by boasting about his trip. It is said that in China, "Menzoku is more important than life," and that Chinese people value menzoku so much that the battle of menzoku depicted in this film may not be completely fictitious.



As students experience various events such as examinations, class president elections, and romance with classmates, they finally reach the third year of high school, and the "High School Examination," or university entrance examination, is just around the corner.

After completing the "High School Examination," which is described in the game as "the battlefield of life," the final status and acquired skills will determine your occupation, and the epilogue will be told to you.

There are more than 100 different professions in this work, making it very challenging to complete. Moreover, you can raise your own children who will inherit some of the statuses from when you cleared the game the next time you play, so you can say, "Let's aim for better results the next time! and you can enjoy circling back and forth over and over again. Chinese-style parenting, just like a swamp ......!



Chinese Parents" is a fresh and fun game experience that combines a slightly surreal, black worldview with a vivid glimpse into actual Chinese life and culture. If you got hooked on the fun of simulation games through the popular "Uma Musume Pretty Derby," you will surely be hooked on this title as well!　If you are interested in this game, please try the addictive "Chinese parenting" experience.

Click here for "Chinese Parents" Steam



Have you ever heard of the religion of "Taoism?" One of China's three major religions, along with Confucianism and Buddhism, Taoism is an indigenous Chinese religion with the Tao as its central concept and the ultimate ideal of attaining a body of immortality. Taoism is somewhat unfamiliar in Japan, but "Zenjun" is a work based on such Taoism.


This title is an action game with a low-down perspective. It features pop graphics, and the character design is in the style of Japanese anime. At first glance, the game appears to be an indie game originating from Japan, but it has formed a unique worldview with unfamiliar types of character names in Japan, such as "He Wakarin" and "Yuan Lioyu," and words with a very Chinese atmosphere, such as "Dharma Power," "Jodan Protection," and "Dongtian Fortune," scattered in the story.



The story of this work is about the Dongtian Puchi ward, which was destroyed by someone during a lunar eclipse a few months ago. In order to restore the boundary, a group of apprentice boys and girls, under the direction of a hermit-like old man named Nanzi Xian Shi, go into battle.

Dongtian Fortune Land" is the generic name for "Dongtian," a cave where Taoists believe that immortals live, and "Fortune Land," a place where hermits have been cultivated. The fact that the story is based on ancient Chinese Taoist ideas, despite the modern visual style of the game, is a unique point of this work that can be said to be one-of-a-kind.



There are a total of five control characters in this title. The player selects one of them before the game begins.

Each character has four types of skills: "normal attack," "dash (evasion)," "special attack," and "summon guardian god attack," and each character has different performance.

For example, Yuan Lioyu, a red-haired boy with a scarf, specializes in close-range attacks, while Hou Shuhiko, a downer girl with trademark sleepy eyes and pink headphones, excels at long-range attacks.

This title also supports online multiplayer play, so it will be fun to divide up the roles between friends, such as the vanguard and the rear guard.



After deciding on a character and difficulty level, the game finally begins.

The map is randomly generated, and players proceed to the next stage, which is a warp point to the next stage.

The game is played from a slanting, downward viewpoint, reminiscent of the "Diablo" series, which is synonymous with Huxla action, but the main feature of the game is the large number of enemies that appear.
The exhilarating experience of wiping out hordes of enemies by making full use of skills is also interesting and similar to "Diablo.
Skills other than normal attacks have a cool time before they can be used again, so the key to success is to use them appropriately while assessing the battle situation, rather than blindly hitting them in rapid succession.



However, although there are a variety of skills in this game, there are a large number of enemies, some of whom attack at long range, and if you are not careful, you will be killed in no time at all.

This is where the "Huxla" (hack and slash) style of dropped items comes into play.
In this game, by obtaining randomly dropped items from item boxes placed throughout the stage, players can obtain various power-up effects, such as "40% more damage from fire element" and "a 50% chance of recovering 5 HP each time an attack hits". .

Furthermore, most of these effects can be duplicated, so the more of the same item you take, the stronger you become. The feeling of your own continuous growth is a very conventional game, but it is very pleasant, and it has a charm that makes you keep playing, wondering what item you can get next, without knowing when to stop.

Incidentally, the item box is decorated with a "tai chi" symbol, which is a yin-yang symbol, and I found out that it is also a symbol closely related to Taoism.



Zenjon" is a solidly made game with popular action game elements: a huxla element in which players acquire items that appear randomly and become stronger and stronger, and a thrilling roguelike element in which players lose all items in random maps and game overs. It is a solid game with popular action game elements. Huxla and roguelike lovers, as well as those who are attracted by the character design and unique worldview, should definitely give it a try.



Click here to download "Zenjon" on Steam.


A rhythm action game, or "ongae," in which players press the corresponding buttons at the right moment to play a song in time with the flowing music. In Japan, arcade titles such as the "BEMANI" series and "Taiko no Tatsujin" are the mainstream! PC games featuring beautiful girls", there are also many indie titles available on Steam. MUSYNX" is another music game from China released on Steam.


This title is an orthodox style music game in which players play by pressing the notes that flow in time with the song at the right moment. The illustrations of each song's jacket, which can be seen on the song selection screen, are all unique, beautiful, and eye-catching, but the greatest feature of this title is the large number of songs it contains. The most important feature of this title, however, is the large number of songs included in the game. Although more songs can be played by purchasing paid downloadable content, the number of songs is more than enough to enjoy without the DLC.



The songs include a wide variety of genres such as rock, techno, and classical, but most of them are pop songs with vocals. Since this is a sound game from China, many of the titles in the song list are written in Chinese characters, and the majority of the vocals are in Chinese. Some of the songs use Chinese VOCALOIDs, which are hard to find in Japan, giving a glimpse into Chinese otaku culture.



Another feature of this work is that there are not only original songs, but also many collaborative songs. The music of the sound game "Muse Dash" featured in the "PC Games Featuring Beautiful Girls" section, the puzzle-like novel game "WILL: A Wonderful World" featured in the "PC Visual Novel Games" section, and the parenting simulation "Chinese Parents" introduced at the very beginning of this article, are also featured in the "PC Games Featuring Beautiful Girls" section. and the parenting simulation "Chinese Parents" introduced at the beginning of this article. I think gamers will be especially happy to be able to enjoy the collaboration of indie games that transcend national borders and genres. Incidentally, there was also a song by "NEKOPARA," which I have been secretly planning to feature in a "slightly echi game feature" at some point. Hmmm, it's cute. ......



The performance screen is in an unusual 3D format, with notes flowing from the back of the screen. In addition to the normal notes, long notes that require a long press will also come down, giving the player the feeling of playing a classic arcade title such as "beatmania IIDX" or "pop'n music".



Incidentally, the performance screen can be changed from 3D to 2D in the settings. Players who usually play music games may find this screen more familiar and easier to play.



The major feature that cannot be overlooked when talking about this title is, without a doubt, the "feel of playing". In some sound game titles, no sound is heard when a note is pressed, or a bell or percussion sound that is different from the performance in the song is heard. This is a thrilling experience, as if you press the wrong button at the wrong time or if you fail to press the right button, you will not be able to play the whole song.



The game has a 4-button mode and a 6-button mode, which can be switched freely at any time.
It is a nice point to be able to choose between 4-button mode for light play and 6-button mode for more confident players, depending on your skill level and mood. In addition, all songs are available in two difficulty levels, easy and hard, so everyone from beginners to experts can enjoy playing music games. Furthermore, this title also supports online ranking, allowing players to compete with players all over the world by using the "SYNC RATE" score recorded for each song. Players can enjoy score attacks as if they were in a game arcade.



Although sound games are a genre that tends to be perceived as somewhat difficult for inexperienced players, this title has many features and specifications that allow even beginners to easily enjoy the fun of playing music.

One such feature is a sound enhancer option that can be set before the start of a song. This is a function that allows music to be played without discomfort even if the timing of button presses is slightly off. There are four different correction settings: "Auto," "Strong," "Week," and "Off." If the setting is "Off," the music will sound toothless unless the button is pressed, but if the setting is "Auto," the music will always play perfectly even if the button is not pressed. For beginners, it is recommended to start with this "Auto" setting to learn the music, and then gradually reduce the correction to "Week," "Strong," and "Auto.



MUSYNX" is a high-level sound game with an orthodox performance system familiar to sound game players, a large number and high quality of recorded songs, and a full range of options and difficulty settings that make it easy to play even for beginners. With an affordable price of less than one coin, "MUSYNX" is a title that can be recommended to both inexperienced and expert sound gamers alike.

Click here for "MUSYNX" Steam

Let's enjoy a pseudo-overseas trip by experiencing foreign cultures through games!

So, we have introduced three recommended titles.


We have featured a wide variety of titles from China, including simulation, action, and sound games. It is interesting to be able to feel the national character of the country through the game. In these days when it is difficult to easily travel abroad, it would be fun to experience foreign culture while playing games at home during Golden Week.
Author: Nero Hyakkabe
Freelance writer who buys too many games. I currently have more than 300 games in my stack. Also a novelist. Author of "Goaken Unrated Edition" (Kodansha) and "My Mother's Lie" (in "Malicious Kwaidan") (Takeshobo).
Twitter: https: //www.twitter.com/KINGakiko
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