More than 60 years ago, Japanese science fiction writer Shinichi Shin-chi wrote such a story—

A big hole appeared on the ground somewhere, and all experts and scholars could not explain the principle of the hole, nor could they measure the depth of the hole. This hole appeared like this, and no one knew what to do with it, until a speculative businessman saw the business opportunity, cleverly contracted the hole and opened a company to deal with scrap.

The businessman's business is getting bigger and bigger, and people are throwing more and more things into this big hole. From love letters from ex-boyfriend/girlfriend to confidential government documents, from corpses of animals doing infectious diseases to unclaimed tramps on the roadside, from domestic sewage in cities to nuclear waste from atomic energy reactors.

Year after year, as the cave absorbs more waste, people's living environment becomes cleaner and cleaner, and green water, green mountains, blue sky and white clouds come back like this. Until one day, the first stone that was thrown into the hole suddenly fell from the sky.

If you seem to have heard this story--it's normal, this is "Hey---Out" in the junior high school Chinese textbook.

After playing "Meg and Monster", I quickly found this story from my memory, not only because there is a "big hole" in the game that also deals with waste, but also because the same "trick" that breaks the one-way flow of time behind the two.

I was indeed a little curious about this game when I first saw the promotion of Meg and Monsters.

The pixel-style picture is only part of the reason. Although I am embarrassed to say it, the combination of "little girl increases monster" is indeed quite cute - although I am obviously past the age when I will be cute when I see a little girl sitting on the shoulders of a giant.

Although this combination that is visually impactful, it is not new in recent years, it is still very attractive to me. Think about it, a dull, powerful monster, and a naive and weak girl, this contrast starts with "Beauty and the Beast", and obviously does not end because of that story.

Four hours after opening the game, I got all nineteen achievements on Steam, and the story of the little girl and the big monster came to an end.

Did "Meg and Monster" make some differentiation based on the classic combination of "Little Girl Increases Monster"?

No.

This is a very orthodox story of "little girl enlarges monsters" - after hearing this sentence, you may have some plots and pictures.

For example, the little girl and the monster start a big adventure, such as the monster protects the little girl from any harm with its solid body, and for example, at the end of the story, the originally dull monster feels and learns how to "love".

Okay, if this is a spoiler, then you have been spoiled by me - I mean, this is certainly not a spoiler.

The Story of "Meg and the Monster"The kernel is as concise and clear as the composition of the method of three points.

So, if a game that focuses on narrative and players can guess the general direction just from the game name and promotional pictures, can this game tell a good story?

The answer is yes.

From the way of telling the story, Meg and Monsters combine gameplay and narrative well, which may be influenced by Under the Legend.

Look, although the monster has a conceptual blood tank like 99999, which looks so powerful, in order to take care of the little girl Meg, he will not only help Meg block all the damage, but also always pay attention to whether Meg is scared, and he also has to comfort Meg while fighting.

"You" seem strong, but in fact they are weak.

For those players who have played "Under the Legend", this situation is just the opposite. As long as you protect that kind heart, "you" seems weak, but in fact it is powerful.

Similarly, Meg and Monsters designed classic combat gameplay, but also successfully broke out of that shackle.

The so-called battle is just a narrative method in this work, and the growth of numerical values fully demonstrates the "numerical values are not important" - anyone can see that when the protagonist's health is 99999, the +2 offense/defense that advances with the narrative is just better than nothing.

After all, whether it is taking a different approach to combat narrative or expressing psychological activities from childhood to using dialogue boxes, it has a bit of the flavor of "Under the Legend".

But it is indeed difficult for you to say that it has paid tribute to "Under the Legend", or to learn some specific things.

This is like the relationship between Japanese comics and "New Treasure Island".

It is not the popular "New Treasure Island" of comics. The newcomer in the Japanese comics industry who had not yet become an "old senior" back then, and even elementary school students who had not started drawing comics may never have thought that comics could be drawn like this.

But after this, as the fixed frame was broken, the imagination of the new cartoonists exploding like corn kernels in the pot was obviously not entirely due to the work of the comic god "New Treasure Island".

So, can we say that without "Under the Legend", there would be "Meg and the Monster"?

Maybe it can't be said.

"Under the Legend" is a game that is so good that it cannot be better. It is a bit popular like "New Treasure Island" which was first published in a magazine. In the game world, it tells future game producers that games can actually serve all mechanisms in narrative.

So the game can do this.

Only after we have lost the shackles called "tradition", we will see more and more works like "Meg and Monsters" in recent years.

How to define a game like Meg and Monster?

This is a story with a setting similar to "Hey - Out", which brings gentleness and cruelty directly to the table.

This is a work that takes only four hours to pass the level, but may earn you two tears, with the right soundtrack.

This is a game where most mechanisms serve narrative, but it is actually more like a picture book that allows readers to participate in it.

This is a video game that breaks the "traditional" narrative framework and tells a "traditional" story of little girls and big monsters.

Meg and Monsters tell a story to players in the form of video games.

This story is not very new, but it is not bad either.

Want to be romantic? By the campfire, the girl and the monster roasted marshmallows picked up from the garbage dump.

Do you want to be warm? In the endless flower field, the monster slowly walked forward with the sleeping girl on her shoulders.

Are you going to be sad? At some point in your childhood, will you swear in tears and swear "XXX, I will never forget you" during a separation.

Is it cruel? Humans here will unscrupulously use similar or objects that hinder themselves as waste materials and throw them into a "big hole" with invisible ends.

After opening Meg and Monsters, players will spend four hours laughing and crying.

This may be the highest rating that a small-scale narrative game can get.