The Rise of the King: Is the protagonist of Benevolence King 2 really just a tool man?

The IP concept of Benevolence King originated from a multi-platform cooperation project based on the manuscript of the late great director Kurosawa. When it was first announced in 2004, the project also included products from other media, such as movies, in which games were handled by Glory-specifically, by Glory Studio (note). The project named Ghost is a story about "Blonde Warriors Fighting Ghosts" based on Kurosawa's manuscript. Later, as we all know, the project didn't go well in the end. The development of the game was temporarily stopped because it did not meet the expectations of the president, and the film did not come out at last. Later, it was redeveloped by the Ninja Group, but after the Ninja Group took over, it was stopped because it was too similar to the legend of ninja dragon sword, until it was published in New Wang Ren in 20 15.

The setting of Benevolent King inherits two important elements of Kurosawa's "samurai from the west" and ghost theme at that time (but now glory doesn't mention Kurosawa at all), and chooses the historical theme that glory is best at, and determines the protagonist as a real foreigner warrior in history-San Pu. The advantage of this choice is that it not only conforms to the strange setting of White Warrior (of course, it is not strange at all now), but also can use the most popular Warring States story in Japanese history in the game. But it also brings a small problem: 1600, when San Pu reached Japan by pressing the needle, it was the end of the Warring States Period in Japan. What should I do with the sequel? In this case, generally speaking, there are two choices: either make a sequel into a prequel and keep the popular theme of the Warring States period; Either give up the strong connection of series stories and let the series only keep some common settings and elements.

Now that King Ren 2 has been released, on the surface, the Ninja Corps seems to have chosen the first path. Game promotion is still using the label "Death Game in Warring States". However, if you pay attention to some details in the game, you will find that in fact, they have reached "I want everything" (just like their thinking of playing games), which not only further improves William's story through prequel+later talk, but also paves the way for the possibility after the series with many details. According to the foreshadowing of this work, as long as this IP has a chance to continue, it is no problem for the series of "Benevolence King" to become a ghost version of Japanese history spanning more than a thousand years. So today I will be a "king" and see what the heavenly sword secretly buried in "King Benevolence 2" that may be useful in the future.

Note: The development team of the old glorious strategy game has developed the works of housekeeping strategy games, such as The History of the Three Kingdoms, The Great Sail, The Walk, etc. At the same time? コ This name is also the pseudonym of Yoichi Nakagawa, the glorious founder. After the merger and reorganization of Glory and Tecmo, the concept of "シブサワ Studio" basically no longer exists. Players can change the current シブサワ? コ This brand is understood as the main development team of "Old Glory".

This article contains serious spoilers of the story of Wang Ren 2. Please read it carefully for those who have not passed the customs clearance.

Let's talk about the settings clearly given in the game: three Japanese monsters: the boy who swallowed wine, Tamamo no Mae and Dayue Maru. The origin of this setting was first put forward by Kazuhiko Komatsu, a Japanese folklore scholar, and the reason why these three monsters are listed as the "Big Three" is not only because their related legends and stories are very famous in legends, but also because it is said that after the Crusades, their remains or some of them were kept in the royal treasure house, which is Yuji Treasure, which is said to be located in the southwest of Amitabha Hall in Byodoin Temple.

"Benevolent King 2" obviously adopted this setting, and the three monsters in the game were officially sealed in Byodoin Temple. Byodoin Temple is a Buddhist temple located in Yuji, Kyoto Prefecture. It was listed as "Ancient Kyoto Site" and 1994 was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. In addition to the Phoenix Hall, Amitabha Buddha and many other Japanese national treasures, the Byodoin Temple reflected on Pipa Lake is also a scenic spot in Kyoto when the weather is fine. Obviously inspired by this, the Ninja Corps designed a map of the temple of Byodoin in the game.

In the game, the Byodoin temple in the lake is not a reflection in the water, but a hidden temple hanging upside down at the bottom of the lake, which can be said to be a very good idea. In the seventh year of Yongcheng (1052), Fujiwara rebuilt the Byodoin Temple on the basis of Yujitang. According to legend, the key to Yuci treasure was passed down from generation to generation by the head of Fujiwara family. Fujiwara Laitong became a dragon after his death to protect Byodoin Temple, which is obviously the origin of the "Dragon Ball Organ" of Byodoin Temple in the game. As can be seen from the text of the game reading screen, the Ninja Group also directly adopted relevant legends as game settings in the game.

On the other hand, the Byodoin Temple is engraved on the back of the 10-yuan yen coin, which shows the position of this temple in Japan, and some friends can learn about it.

Then we talked about going back to Byodoin Temple in the game. In the story, the protagonist played by the player, under the guidance of his mother, came to Byodoin Temple to explore the secret of "Chu Ye Ya Wan". In the deepest part of the temple, he meets Dong Ichiro (Toyotomi Hideyoshi) possessed by Wan Yue, and Dong Ichiro then solves the other two "three monsters" sealed here: the boy swallowed by wine and Tamamo no Mae. Tamamo no Mae, whose type is Kyubi no Youko Fox, escaped immediately, and the boy who swallowed wine was later defeated by the player as the boss.

In The Resurrection of the Boy Who Swallows Wine, we can see that the bodies of the boy who swallows wine and Tamamo no Mae are both sealed with their own bodies. This is because, in the subsequent plot, the protagonist also sealed Dayue Pill again in the same way. It can be clearly seen that one of the weapons used for sealing is the boy scissors.

So there is no doubt that this man is the famous Yuan. Of course, he sealed this boy with wine. There are many versions of the legend that Yuan Guang Lai killed the boy who swallowed wine. Generally speaking, in Dajiangshan, there was a monster leader who swallowed boys with wine and stole boys and girls everywhere, including the royal family. Ming Chengzu ordered Yuan to take the "Four Heavenly Kings of Guang Lai" (Junichi Watanabe, Sakata Kintoki, Bubu, Ishii Shin) to make a crusade. On the way, I was instructed by the gods, and learned that the wine had swallowed the young man's good wine, and I was given "God made the ghost poison the wine". Later, Guang Lai offered wine under the pretence and killed the boy when he was drunk. And bring its head back to the capital, where it is collected in the Byodoin Temple. Guang Lai's famous knife "Angang" was used to kill a boy who swallowed wine, hence the name "Boy Cut".

Judging from the introduction of lines and weapons "Boy Car' Angang" in the process of fighting drunken teenagers in the game, the game basically adopts this legendary story. In the battle, boys who swallow wine will shout, "Give me more wine! In the game, it is also mentioned that Yin and Yang teacher Abe Harumi attached the soul of Lai Guang Zhi to the boy by secret method, and in legend, Abe Harumi officially divined the boy's residence with wine.

On the other hand, the person who sealed Tamamo no Mae was obviously wearing the clothes of Yin and Yang, so many players thought it was Abe Harumi, but it wasn't. The reason is simple, the age is wrong. The prototype of Tamamo no Mae's legend is the son of Fujiwara, the emperor's bird feather queen. Legend has it that the emperor Bird Feather was seriously ill, and the cause was unknown after seeing a famous doctor. Finally, the teacher of Yin and Yang, Abe Tae-sung (Abe Tae-chin's father is the great-grandson of the sixth generation of Abe Ching-ming), came to the palace, read the nine-character mantra, cast spells, and revealed the true queen of Tamamo no Mae-the nine-tailed fox. After the current situation, Tamamo no Mae fled in panic. Later, the emperor ordered San Pu Xie Yiming, Chiba Xie Changyin, Shangzong Xie Guangchang as generals, and Abe Zhaohui as strategist to go to the crusade.

Finally, San Pu shot two arrows at Tamamo no Mae's abdomen, and Shang Jie Guangtong often killed him with a long knife. But that's not all. After being beheaded, Tamamo no Mae became a huge poisonous stone. The released poisonous gas will kill all living things nearby, so it is called "killing stone". Until the Southern and Northern Dynasties (Japanese Southern and Northern Dynasties refers to the period of 133 1 392 between Kamakura and Muromachi), it was crushed by monk Xuanweng (source Weng Zhao Xin). There is a weapon "Xuanweng sledgehammer" in Benevolent King 2.

Since then, the legend of Tamamo no Mae has also absorbed some stories of enchanting women from China and India who brought disaster to the country and the people, and gradually became the image of monsters in various places. Shang Zhouwang's famous demon princess da ji, Queen Zhou Youwang's praise and Lady Huayang, Princess of Prince Banzu in Nantianzhu, are all considered as examples of the rebellion of the nine-tailed fox (Tamamo no Mae).

The ninja team also combines this. In the first generation of Renwang's DLC, Toyotomi Hideyori's mother Diandian (Asai Chacha, Oichi's daughter) was set as Osaka War because she was possessed by Tamamo no Mae. If you beat the nine-tailed fox twice in a generation, you can see the description of Tamamo no Mae in the illustration of the nine-tailed fox. The editing of "Benevolent King 2" can also be regarded as an explanation of the origin of the last BOSS nine-tailed fox of DLC. It's just obvious that the ninja group at that time didn't consider the subsequent plot, and the nine-tailed fox, which became the guardian spirit after the fight, didn't match the setting of the second generation of "Three Monsters". However, these are all details after all, and there are many reasons to explain them (a generation is explained by the fusion of soul and desolate soul). Generally speaking, it is roughly round. At present, the description of the second-generation nine-tailed fox has nothing to do with Tamamo no Mae.

Next, I finally want to get to the point-the last big moon pill of the three monsters. Similarly, there are several versions of the legend about Sakamoto Muramaru and Suzuka's crusade against Dayue Maru. The prototype of Sakamoto Muramaru is the famous Sakamoto Muramaru, who is considered to be the first general to truly conquer foreign countries. In Japan, he is regarded as Wu Shen and the God of the Army, and his status is similar to that of Guan Gong of China (hereinafter, for convenience of description, he is called Ma Lu of Sakamoto Honda Village). The legend of Suzuka conductor comes from Eboshi, a female thief who worships the goddess Suzuka in Suzuka Mountain. Later, with the evolution of the legend, the two merged into one and became the goddess of Suzuka command.

There are many versions of related legends, and the details are quite different. But now it is widely known, and it is also based on the legendary story of benevolent king 2. Here's the thing: In Emperor Kanmu, a monster "Dayue Maru" was found in Jingliu Mountain in Yi Shi, and the Emperor ordered Ma Lu in Sakazanaka to make a crusade. However, Dayuemaru's magic power is high, and it always rains. Although Ma Lu Tamura led an army, he was at a loss. So he made a wish to the gods, and an old man in his dream told him, "You need Suzuka's command to help you fight against Dayue Maru." . Later, Ma Lu Tamura made Suzuka Mountain easily meet a beautiful young girl, who was the conductor of Suzuka.

She told Ma Lu Tamura: "The reason why you can't beat Dayue Pill is because he has the sword of Sanming, so God sent me to help you crusade." It turns out that Dayue Maru has long coveted the beauty commanded by Suzuka. In order to spend a good night with it, she has tried everything, and all of them have been seen through by Suzuka's command. That night, Dayue Maru changed into a handsome guy and came to the residence of Suzuka Command. Suzuka Command lied that a general had come to kill me and borrowed Sanming Sword from him for self-defense. So Da Yue Maru handed Sanming Sword's Datong Company and Xiaotong Company to Suzuka Command. And the last one was hidden in Tianzhu by Dayue Pill.

The next night, Ma Lu Tamura was waiting for the big moon pill of Suzuka. The two sides fought like immortals: Dayue Pill was ten feet long and covered the sky. As soon as I raised my hand, I shot three hundred swords at Ma Lu Tamura. Ma Lu Tamura was shot down by the divine power of Guanyin Bodhisattva (it is said that Ma Lu Tamura is the embodiment of Guanyin with a thousand hands), Dayue Maru became a thousand ghosts in two places, and Ma Lu Tamura shot a thousand whistling arrows with the divine power of Bishamon. Each arrow was split into thousands of arrows, and countless sharp arrows were fired at two places in Dayue Pill in one place.

Finally, Ma Lu Tamura successfully killed Dayue Maru with Rapier ソハヤノツルギ (the Chinese translation in the game is the sword of Chuyeya). After that, Ma Lu Tamura married Suzuka. A year later, Dayue Maru was resurrected by moving her soul to the last Sanming sword placed in Tianzhu, and made an insurrection in Lu Ao. After a hard struggle, the couple beheaded it again, and then Dayue Maru's head was hidden in the Uji treasure.

Back to the game, in Wang Ren 2, after the player defeated Dayue Maru in the body, three invisible ancient heroes appeared in the protagonist's mind:

This first place, as can be clearly seen from the helmet and the scene, is the original meaning. The scene in flashback is the famous Battle of Temple. According to legend, in the battle of Tanzhe Temple, the Pingjia samurai could climb the Pingjiao Sutra, knowing that it could not be defeated, so they had to take Yuan Yi Sutra to death and rush to Yuan Yi Sutra, while the Yijing was as light as a swallow, jumping from one ship to another. In order to catch up again, I Ching flew to another ship and jumped eight ships in a row. This is the famous "Eight Spaceships" of I Ching.

Yuan Yijing, holding the sword of Chu Yeya, appeared in the flashback of the protagonist, indicating that in the setting of Renwang, Yuan Pinghe's war should also be related to monsters, more likely to be related to Dayue Pill. For example, someone in the Ping family was actually possessed by Dayue Pill.

The second in the flashback. Obviously, this is a woman, and judging from her dress, it should also be a period of peace. From the legend of Dayue Maru, it is natural to speculate that Suzuka is in command. In some versions of the legend, there is also a saying that the sword of Chu Yeya (?ハヤノツルギ) originally belonged to Suzuka, and was passed on to Ma Lu Tamura after his death. Another possibility is that Tamura Shinji and Suzuka actually have a daughter named Xiao (commonly known as Kobayashi), also known as Xiao or Ji. Kobayashi also has three daughters, so this may be one of the descendants of Ma Lu Tamura and Suzuka. Of course, the possibility of other historical celebrities being "feminized" is not ruled out. If this is the case, it is basically impossible to guess.

The third person in the flashback was none other than Ma Lu Sakanoda himself. There is a simple reason. The pre-order special edition of Benevolence King 2 presented a set of equipment called "Armor of Early Warrior", which was the armor of Ma Lu of Banye Tamura. The hero in the flashback is wearing this armor.

Another important detail is that the image of Malu Sakamada in this scene is exactly the same as that of the player, and if the player changes the character image, the appearance of Malu Sakamada will change when watching this scene again, even the videos such as blindfolds and glasses will be exactly the same. I deliberately changed several completely different appearances to verify:

In addition, in the decisive battle with Dayue Maru, the game will switch three scenes respectively, corresponding to the scenes of the three heroes in the protagonist's flashback:

This seems to imply that the memory of the protagonist (past life) who fought against Dayue Maru is gradually recovering, and the reason why the protagonist can use Chu Yeya's sword (ソハヤノツルギ) is because the protagonist has some connection with Tamura Ma Lu and ancient heroes. This leads to the topic of the protagonist's identity, which also involves another person in the game who is set to look exactly like the protagonist: Saitō Yoshitatsu.

In the game, the protagonist's parents are He Shen, who are both real people in history. Saitō Dō san was a famous country in Minos during the Warring States Period, and Sandao, an oil merchant, was also famous for his "name". The three knives, known as the "Meinong Agkistrodon", succeeded in stealing the country step by step through power tactics. But as the saying goes, everyone who comes out to mix has to pay back the money. Finally, after he gave up the position of head of household, he also died at the hands of his son Saitō Yoshitatsu. Historically, Shen Yuan was Tu's beloved concubine, and was later given a wing room. Shen is known as the first beauty. It is said that she is six feet two inches tall (about 187cm), and Saitō Yoshitatsu was born to her.

Another story about Saitō Yoshitatsu's killing his father became popular in the late Edo period. That's because Shen gave birth to Yi Long shortly after he was given the gift (about a year), so in fact Yi Long is not his son, but Twitch's son. In fact, Yi Long, who was the head of the family, after knowing the truth, crusaded against Sandao to avenge his real biological father (Twitch Yun Yun was exiled after being usurped by Sandao). Or it can be said that no matter what the truth is, Saitō Yoshitatsu is more willing to believe and be believed by others. His biological father is actually a native of Yunlai, because it is more beneficial to him.

The setting in "Benevolent King 2" is roughly in line with the historical relationship between the characters, but it turns into a monster (it's not surprising that there was a woman who was nearly 1.9 meters tall during the Japanese Warring States period). In the first half of his life, Sandao was set as the leader of the monster hunter group "Chu Ye Ya Zhong". Famous for knowing Shen. He collects lingshi, trying to create a world where "people and demons can * * *". Of course, the most important difference between games and history is that they have an extra child, the protagonist. According to the setting of the game, the original name of Sandao was "Xiulong", so he gave these two words to his two children respectively. So our protagonist Saito Hideyoshi's real name should actually be Saito Hideyoshi.

Although the relationship between Shen and Yi Long is completely avoided in the game, Yi Long is also set to look exactly like the protagonist, so it is very likely that they are still twin brothers (sisters). Anyone who has played games at the same time knows that when fighting Saitō Yoshitatsu, you will find that Yi Long can also change into the three monster forms of the protagonist. Does this mean that Yi Long and the protagonist have the same semi-demon physique? But this also leads to another mysterious question: Why did Shen leave the world with only one child? Afterwards, I didn't say a word about this brother (sister) of the protagonist.

In fact, there is another BOSS that can change why the protagonist has the same monster form in the game. Yes, that's the final BOSS Dayue Pill. Therefore, the more likely explanation is that this may be the power from Dayue Pill. As a hero who once sealed Dayue Maru, the protagonist was reincarnated. Because he used to seal Dayue Pill with his own body in his last life, the power of Dayue Pill still exists. In fact, Saitō Yoshitatsu has no such power. He is just possessed by Dayue Maru, so he is the same monster form as the protagonist (reusing materials and modules can save some money). Maybe in the setting of the game, he is probably not Shen's child at all (so Shen didn't mention him at all), but this doesn't mean that Yi Long is exactly the same as the protagonist. So we can only think that only one of the twins inherited the mother's monster constitution.

There is another explanation, of course, that Yi Long, like Toyotomi Hideyori in his previous works, is not a real human being, but a "dummy" created by the force of Lingshi (so it turned into a pool of blood in the end, but it was not the case after Hideyoshi was defeated by a fruit-obsessed scholar), but it will lead to more unexplained things, and we can only put it here as a possible hypothesis for the time being.

The last question we need to discuss is the "ignorance" in the first half of Sandao's life and the sword of Chu Ye's arrow. As soon as you listen to the name of Chu Yeya, you will know that this organization that specializes in hunting monsters must be related to the heroic blood of Ma Lu, whose ancestors were Sakano Tamura. The other half of the protagonist, except the demon ghost, as a hero reincarnation, mostly comes from his father's three knives.

Personally, I think this setting is probably because there has always been such a heroic lineage in Japanese history that constantly fights demons (Japanese version of Belmont? ), major events and wars in various periods in Japanese history may be related to monsters, and related historical figures and heroes may also be included in this blood (such as Yuan Guangse and Yuan Yijing mentioned above). The so-called Chu Yeya is the descendant of this lineage, and the sword in Chu Yeya is the thin sword, the leader handed down from generation to generation. In this way, Saitō Dō san can be said to be more unfilial than Richter Belmont. What nonsense is it to create a world where people and demons can exist? To put it bluntly, it is nothing more than the deep and wild body of greedy people. As a result, the fine sword of the ancestors was destroyed once, leaving a huge mess for future generations.

In fact, there are follow-up stories about the command of Ma Lu and Suzuka in Sakamoto Honda Village. It is said that the conductor of Suzuka is only 25 years old because of fate. In order to love his wife, Ma Lu Tamura chased him to hell, waved his pursuer companion brought from Maruna, Da Yue, and knocked off the bull's head, which enabled King Yan Mo not only to return his daughter-in-law to him, but also to give him the elixir of life, thus reviving Suzuka's orders and enabling them to continue their marriage. In the game, Dao Sanhe and Shen also mentioned that the sword of Chu Yeya has some immortal power besides killing demons and ghosts.

So there is also a hypothesis that the so-called "immortal sword" may mean that every time a hero seals Dayue Pill (and perhaps other monsters), he attaches his soul to Chu Yeya's sword, thus making human beings "immortal" in a sense. The Mori disc seen by the protagonist is not from his own memory, but from Chu Yeya's sword. The so-called Master Chu is the person who has guarded this sword from generation to generation. Of course, when necessary, the leader will seal the demon ghost again as a "pillar" and join the ranks of ancestral heroes. If so, that's even more ridiculous. For a leprechaun, he destroyed the soul gem of his ancestors' heroes. ...

As we all know, there is still an ignorant person in the game, and that is our sister Boju. Since she is called an ignorant person, it means that she is the current leader of Chu Yeya. At the same time, she still holds the blade of Chu Yeya's sword, so it is almost impossible to say that she has nothing to do with Sandao. In the game, Sandao and Wu Ming have seemingly meaningless scenes of "swallowing mutton kebabs" in the cutscenes, suggesting that what they can say is self-evident. In real history, Sandao has more than one daughter.

This may explain why at the beginning of the story, Wu Ming has a hatred for monsters beyond the identity of a "professional hunter". Because even without mentioning the above speculations, his behavior, no matter how grandiose the reason, is the most serious betrayal for Chu Yeyazhong, and the reason for this behavior is Shen, a demon ghost.

As for why the game deliberately avoids all the direct interaction between Tao San and ignorance, I personally tend to leave a hand for this DLC. Compared with the turbulent historical stories mentioned above, ignorance is obviously much smaller, and it is more suitable to be solved in the generation of Wang Ren II. Therefore, I personally think that the story of DLC is mostly about ignorance. And the stories of those ancient heroes, any one can hold up a work.