Not only that, but during this long journey (the derivation of "Odyssey" is a story of long-distance adventure), we can see the moon high in the sky in any world we look at, even in the sunny daytime, as if reminding us to rescue the princess (how to rescue the princess, again?). (how to rescue the princess again, numb). As with so many games with great art styles, even for someone like Clamp who doesn't have a lot of art skills, a casual screenshot is an excellent view, with the downside being that each screenshot is littered with a bearded uncle in a red hat (LOL).
Today, please allow me, as an ordinary gamer, to take you to see all the beauty of the moon in this game, and share this simple and beautiful touch with you, my friend, who is reading this article.
The Hat Country
The Hat Country, originally called Dabron (which is as random as three unfortunate little kanji characters taken at random from a dictionary), is the home of one of the main characters of the game, Kepi, and is the first world we visit when we enter the game. As a "newbie village", Hat Country is responsible for "attracting players to play for a moment". So in that moment, we saw the biggest, roundest, brightest, yellowest (eek) moon in the game.
In the black and white theme color scheme, the golden color, full to the point of distortion of the moon, like a freshly baked crispy biscuit (sucker) is as dazzling as it is enticing. Under the moonlight, the pallor and darkness also seem less monotonous. It illuminates the deep blackness of the night and hints at the location of our goal in this level - the white tower with the hat.
Gameplay guidance has never been Nintendo's strong suit, and in a large scenario like this, where the player explores on their own, wherever they're near an interaction point and within view, they're sure to see the next one. The eye-catching bright moon is likewise a masterpiece in this vein. It blends in nicely with its environment, and imagine what cue could be more natural and compelling?
The moon hangs ahead as Mario leaps onto the power lines and heads off into the unknown distance with Kepi. The bleak night sky is deep and dark, and the most striking things about it are the glowing poles of electricity, Mario, who is transformed into electricity, and the huge moon. This scene is actually quite meaningful, as it summarizes the entirety of the player's journey, as we are transformed into light, breaking through the darkness of the obstacles and running unresistingly towards victory, which ends at the moon. Compared to the moon, the shimmering destination in the distance is just a stopover. And in the next instant of this scene, the game's title pops up, signaling that our adventure has only now officially begun.
The Land of Waterfalls
The Land of Waterfalls, called Dajnavo, is a sunny location where rainbows can even be seen at the edge of waterfalls. In this setting, the moon is clearly no longer the star of the show. But even as wispy as a cloud, it can still be seen.
The Waterfall Kingdom is the second level of the game, and the difficulty is ramped up quite a bit, and the game's guidance is diminished. This is where the pathfinding, combat, and puzzle-solving experience we had in the first world comes in handy. It's at this point that a huge waterfall accompanied by a rainbow descends upon us, giving us a different kind of beauty than the moonlight, and a side show of daylight, which after all is so strong that you can't see straight. By the way, if you zoom in on the sun for a few seconds with binoculars, Kepi warns, "Don't look at the sun! It's bad for your eyes!" .
Waterfall Kingdom, with its giant dinosaur fossils and lush meadows, is also home to a variety of strange and bizarre enemies and mechanisms, so while Hat Kingdom is just a lesson in how to do things, Waterfall Kingdom shows the true charm of this game with its Hakata elements: endless, endless, and beyond imagination.
In this level, we'll find the Odyssey, which we've seen in Hat Country, the same kind of airship that floats around in the sky with white sails. It is an important means of transportation in the game, where we can buy souvenirs of our journey to decorate it, like those travelers who like to label their suitcases with the countries, we are travelers who visit all the different countries, although we are going through a lot of adventures to save the princess. This added a point of levity to our game, rather than being rushed like we were being rushed to save the princess.
The Land of Sand
Looking out at the moon from the start of Achernia, you can just about see the landmark of the place: a suspended inverted pyramid, which could lead one to believe that the theme is Egyptian. In fact, as you can see from this brightly colored building in the near distance, it's actually Mexican, and the pyramids tend to be more Mexican pyramid style.
And the waterfall country is different again, the country of sand without too much complex terrain, instead of a large area of rolling sand dunes, in situ turn around a few times can not distinguish between north and south-east and north-west, when walking, do not know which leg to take first (single bet). Nintendo also knows that their terrain is a little too big to carry, so arranged several wires and Led Bus (a kind of fast running stone lions) to facilitate the player to travel quickly in the desert. It's actually a bit of open-world exploration, and further guidance from Nintendo: our next maps are going to be this big, so hopefully players can get used to it quickly.
The Land of Lakes
The rocky walls of De Lacey Valley cascade like the skirts of a wedding dress, as it's wedding dresses that this area is known for producing. The buildings on the ground part have a Greek, Roman, or something like that style, and it feels like it's trying to portray an Atlantean style (since there are broken walls of the same style underwater).
But since it's the Land of Lakes, the focus is definitely on the lake and not this curved moon that's missing a large portion of it, not to mention that you can't see the moon at all in the middle of the lake, so maybe it's the game trying to lighten up the targeting and allow players to better explore the map.
The scenery in the lake is really beautiful, and the sunlight penetrates the lake to form a skirt-like soft light, which is a scene that can't be seen in reality, and I have to admire the imagination of the designers. There are also colorful fish and a sea dragon with a face like Yoshi's, which makes you want to swim with them. Of course, solving the puzzles themselves requires attaching the classic foe from the Mario series of games, the Bubble Fish, and the beautiful surroundings make for an enjoyable puzzle solving process.
The Land of Mori
The Siqimgatine (that's an awkward name) is a jungle filled with towering trees, and while strolling through the jungle, we'd mistake it for some kind of wild rainforest. But when we climbed up high and looked up, we were amazed to see that the jungle was enveloped in a giant glass greenhouse, with snow-capped mountains outside and white flowers at our feet. It turned out that this wasn't some wild jungle, but someone's garden! But too much time had passed, so long that the owners of the garden might have died, so long that the gardening machinery had begun to rust, so long that the gardening robots here had developed into a nation of their own.
The Land of Clouds
Players who have made it through the Land of Mori have mastered the basics of the game and the basic formula, and as per Nintendo's usual practice, it's time for a boss level. And so we traveled to Grand Haunch of Gran, the kingdom located on the clouds and overthrown to the point of being nothing more than a relic, to take on the King of the Cool Bastards. Calling it a kingdom is actually a bit of a stretch, as the map of the Land of Clouds, which serves as the middle boss level, is small, and there are very few collectible elements (what else would you want to find in the boss room).
But the moon in this level is once again full, becoming a full circle, a little darker in color, and a little larger in size, meaning we're close to our goal. A huge arch made of clouds mirrored the moon, and there were petal-like clouds gently drifting across the sky. It's also written in the tour booklet that this is a land with a strong connection to the moon, with patterns painted on the ground representing the phases of the moon. This may be another reminder to the player: hold your mind on that sightseeing, go save the princess! But the player is surrounded by dreamy clouds, so who cares about that?
The Land of the Lost
The Land of the Lost is called the Isle of the Lost, which doesn't sound like a country name. We crashed on this barbaric island after being knocked off the clouds by the trickster King Coolbadge during the battle of Cloud Country. Compared to Mori no Kuni, this place is much richer in species, giving you an idea of what a truly wild jungle is.
The Land of the Forsaken is surrounded by a purple sea, a classic element of the Mario series: poisoned water. But despite being surrounded by poisonous water that reeks of death, the island's sunset is exceptionally beautiful, dulling the sense of frustrated loss.
Looking up at the sky again, the moon is still a full circle, but it's incredibly distant, and the dark, dense clouds in the sky make you feel like you have a long road ahead of you, and that you have no goal, and that you're sad. At this point in the game also came to the second stage, the difficulty has increased, threatening the player's life is not only the king of the cool king's henchmen, but also the map's native creatures and terrain. If the previous boss battle was a traditional combat test, the Lost Kingdom is a test of maneuvering skills. After slogging through this level, I'm sure the player's skill can grow a ton.
Urban country
Urban country is called Newtown, just listen to the name to know what the prototype is, so it seems to feel that this so-called "country" is actually more like "city", feel the Japanese so-called "country" is more like "city", feel the Japanese so-called "country" is more like "city", feel the Japanese so-called "country" is more like "city". The Japanese so-called "country" is more like "village", just so big place, so a little bit of people far away.
Metroland is a map that Nintendo publicized heavily during the promotion of Super Mario Odyssey, with a promo featuring Mario dancing with its inhabitants, and scenes featuring all sorts of eggs related to the first Mario game Donkey Kong, with the mayor herself being the one rescued from Donkey Kong, and her singing of the theme song "JumpUp, SuperStar! arguably the most important level of all.
There are three times in the metropolitan country, the first being when the player first enters, when it's windy and raining, with dense rain clouds covering the sky and the moon completely invisible. When you finish the first boss, the urban country reveals its original appearance. At this time and then look up at the sky, can see the sun and the moon together with the wonders of the following there is a plane pulling line, the rain is over the soothing also let the player's mood become lighter.
The third time is after the repair of the power station, the urban country began to hold a celebration, this section is equivalent to revisit the FC Mario classic game operation, at the same time, we can also see the sky in the huge and bright moon, and constantly exploded brilliant fireworks. At this point the goal becomes closer again, and the lively crowd and the theme song sung by Mayor Pauline inspire the player to move forward. But it's only halfway through the journey at this point.
The Land of the Sea
Shuvashuwana's symbol is the Water of Oaths, a spring that spews from a spring in the sea into the sky to form four curved columns of water that come together in a giant glass. It's a bit like Hawaii in style, surrounded by sandy beaches and vacationers. The moon hangs below the water columns, a faint rainbow is faintly visible, and to the left is the slanting glow of the setting sun, a scene that just makes you want to lie down on a beach chair and get a good night's sleep.
Of course, there is not only the beach part, but also a lot of underwater scenes, which is when we have to attach ourselves to the bubble fish again and dive into the deep trench to explore. There's also a lot of coral here, reminiscent of the original Super Mario Bros. underwater levels. There are also a lot of enemies here, from giant eels perched in caves, to kelp sperm, to a starfish that squirts water out of its ass (the thing's official name is Boom Water), so in fact, while the underwater scenes are also beautiful, the player doesn't have much of a mind to look at them, and just runs for his life (LOL).
The Land of Snow
Padaboole is the land hidden underneath the glaciers, where the people grow hairy and apparently afraid of the cold. And of course, living in ice caves they can't see the moon, so if you want to see it, you have to come up and get frozen (LOL).
Flying snowflakes and cold glaciers, this time the moon and gradually become incomplete, seems to be a sign of the front again to encounter danger it.
This level is a modest excursion, with most of it being machine levels. Perhaps Nintendo also knows that after so many scenic maps earlier, a little more sightseeing maps will only make people aesthetically fatigued, of course, it may also be that the players are really tired of the aesthetics, so this level focuses more on gameplay fun, and arranges a lot of interesting things, such as blowing monsters, such as very slippery ice, such as the local characteristics of the race.
Cooking Country
Cooking Country Porbono sits at the foot of a huge, brightly colored volcano, its steaming heat distorting even the rim of the moon. The people of the cooking country are unperturbed by this volcano, which could erupt in hot molasses at any moment, and even use its heat to cook "blessed stew". It's ironic that the architecture of the surrounding buildings is modeled after Pompeii, which was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius.
Like the previous Forsaken Kingdom, there's a liquid that kills you on contact underneath your landing spot. Not only that, but there's a hot, ripe tomato among the enemies that explodes into a steaming puddle of ketchup at the slightest touch, and Mario screams and jumps all over the place with his ass in his hands, easily jumping into the lava, making it difficult to maneuver.
The theme of the previous countries featured natural scenery, and the theme of the cooking country is cooking, so naturally everything has to serve these two words, but it slightly feels like the designers have exhausted their talents a bit. The mountains here are formed from volcanic rock and covered in white salt, the squares are piled high with giant fruits and vegetables, the rocks that can be destroyed are hard cheese, and even the classic foe of the Mario series: the Hammer Brothers, nicknamed Draven (I've always wanted to spit out the nickname, Draven throws axes but the Hammer Brothers throw hammers) have put down their hammers and picked up pans, and the Hammer Brothers, the Red Wolves, say that it's established (and don't ).
The Land of the Taken
Just as we solved the crisis in the Cooking Country and continued to chase after the Cool Bastard, the Cool Bastard appeared out of nowhere and also commanded the Magic Dragon of Holobria to beat us to a crash, and we inevitably fought with the Magic Dragon for a bit.
The style of The Taken Kingdom has a very strong "boss battle before the big event" feel to it, with a huge dragon perched on a crumbling tower, its back leaning against the moon that fades out of the clouds, which roll in and out, surrounded by flying bats. The moon symbolizes the ultimate goal of the game, and the demon dragon spreads its wings across between us and the goal, like a barrier that must be crossed to reach the goal. The boss battle on this level is also the hardest boss battle in my personal opinion, even harder than the final battle with the Cool Buster, who is just a sandbag for fun.
The Kingdom of the Cooler King
The Kingdom of the Cooler King is called the Cooler King's Castle, and I think it's a bit of a joke. There is one thing to be said for it though, it's done really well. The whole place is Japanese style, the Japanese people do their own style of things is really good, and even mixed with Nintendo's own eggs, I can see is that you can buy here printed "Nintendo" quilt suit, and the tour booklet said that the industry here is flower cards, Nintendo is the first is the family business of flower cards, and later on, Nintendo is the family business of flower cards, and later on, Nintendo is the family business of flower cards. Nintendo started out as a family business making hanafuda cards, and then moved on to other things.
Colorful clouds cover the huge moon, which looks like the target is close at hand, and it's the second-yellowest moon in the game. These colorful clouds are not only above our heads but also below our feet, a Japanese-style castle built on top of the clouds, with an intense Japanese-style soundtrack and jittery flags urging us on. But this level is too difficult, there are a lot of organs set outside the wall, the foot is the abyss, and we can only be attached to a woodpecker, with the beak nailed to the outer wall, relying on the ejection, peck the wall, ejection, peck the wall to move, pincers play for a while after the heart can not stand it, palms are sweaty, the egregious batch of pincers already do not want to play for a second time.
The Land of the Moon
The Land of the Moon is divided into three parts: the Sweet Crater, the Bunny Crater, and the Final Crater, which are getting harder and harder, so that players who like a challenge can have fun. They are only progressively more difficult, and there is no difference in the style of the terrain.
After we finally set foot on the target moon after all the hard work, we realize that everything here is not as beautiful as what we saw on Earth, just a gray barrenness. The sun in the sky is still eye-catching, and the wedding hall standing in the distance is the end of our journey. It was almost time to pass, and at this point the heart suddenly felt a bit empty.
At this time and then look back to our hometown: the earth, and found that the huge earth is behind us, at this time this blue planet is reflected in the sun's glory, appear dazzling and beautiful. Until this time, we realized that this "Odyssey" journey, although long, but the process of the journey is the most precious, this journey has happiness, panic, and despair and these compared to the end can only be considered a scene.
The Mushroom Kingdom
A new map, Princess Peach's Castle, is unlocked after you pass the level, and its inhabitants love Princess Peach with a cult-like fervor, and of course, Mario is always there to save her as if she's possessed, which is an implausible view of the world. There's also a hat on the castle after you clear the final crater, and you can set off fireworks by interacting with the hat.
Princess Peach's castle has appeared many times in the Mario series, the shape is basically fixed like this, red roof of the European-style castle, and fountains and gardens, if it is played "N64 Super Mario" or other games with Princess Peach's castle players will not be unfamiliar with this scene, which even has a colorful N64 version of the egg level. Here you can fight the previous bosses, the only enemies in the map scene are the chestnuts, and there are many friends from other worlds who come to visit, it's a map filled with a friendly atmosphere that gives you the feeling of being back home. Although the moon still hangs in the sky, it now feels like it can be viewed with a normal mind.
Conclusion
Whenever we take off, the moon is with us, seemingly within reach and seemingly out of reach. As we chase the moon along the way, do we lose sight of the beauty of our journey? Yet whether I appreciate every detail of the game or not, I'm grateful for the touch it has brought me. Like the lyrics in the game's theme song, "You'restillour1upboy", the world forces us to be adults, but Nintendo will always spoil us like children.