知名販賣數位遊戲啟動碼的網站Fanatical，在上個月為了推銷遊戲啟動碼，訪談了軒轅劍製作人楊淵升，介紹這個歷史悠久的系列作。以下由我風城之心個人進行簡單的翻譯，感謝巴哈挖料小能手xyz198852挖出這篇文章。

Xuan Yuan Sword - Origins, adaptations and the future of RPGs
角色扮演遊戲　軒轅劍 - 的起源，改編和未來

2018-11-18　By Sam Jones



There aren't many game franchises that can boast being in the industry with a solid 25 years' service under their belt - but Xuan Yuan Sword is certainly one of them.

沒有多少系列遊戲可以在業內達到25年的經歷，但軒轅劍肯定是其中之一。


Developed by DOMO and published by Softstar Entertainment, the games predominantly feature a combination of ink-paint style with refined graphics, as well as smooth combat and an explorative, cultural game experience.
由DOMO小組開發並由大宇資訊發行，系列遊戲主要包括水墨風格與精緻圖形的組合，加上流暢的戰鬥和探索性的文化遊戲體驗。

至今發佈了12款遊戲，第13款遊戲正在開發中，可以說大宇資訊在軒轅劍方面仍然有很多創意。



"It was created by a group of friends now called the 'DOMO' team," says Yang. "The idea was to develop a pure oriental and Chinese originated RPG game, to give players more choice in the era full of Japanese and Western-style RPGs. The combat was referred to the classic game 'Dragon Quest', but it was the very first title of its kind and still took a lot of time to explore and try out.

“這是由一群朋友創建的，現在被稱為'DOMO'團隊，”楊說。 “我們的想法是開發一款純正的東方和中國原創RPG遊戲，讓玩家在充滿日式和西式RPG的時代有更多的選擇。縱使戰鬥系統堪稱經典的遊戲'勇者鬥惡龍'，位居同類作品中的領先者，也仍然花了很多時間去探索和嘗試。


"By the time the lead designer, Mr. Tsai [Hsiang Jen Tsai] had to go to military service in Taiwan, the game has not finished yet. They were forced to cut the length of the whole project.

“當首席製作人蔡明宏不得不去臺灣服兵役時，遊戲尚未開發結束。他們被迫縮短整個項目的時間。


"An interesting fact is that the main characters in the game couldn’t get the actual 'Xuan Yuan Sword' weapon until the next episode [Xuan Yuan Sword 2] had been released."

“一個有趣的事情是，直到續作軒轅劍２發行之前，遊戲中的主要角色無法獲得真正的'軒轅劍'武器。”

譯注：這邊是指軒轅劍１提前發行，導致在軒轅劍１的遊戲當中玩家拿不到軒轅劍，要到二代才能拿到真正的軒轅劍。


From then on, it was clear to the original team, and Softstar, that the Xuan Yuan Sword franchise has huge potential - giving gamers a new experience and fresh take on the RPG genre.

從發行的時候開始，軒轅劍的創作團隊和大宇很清楚，軒轅劍系列具有巨大的潛力 - 為玩家帶來全新的體驗，並提供全新類型的RPG遊戲。

譯注：這邊是指過去沒有中國風RPG


"Back to 1990, Chinese culture was full of European, American or Japanese imported games and RPGs," says Yang. "Xuan Yuan Sword was the very first and pioneer of oriental, martial-art style RPG, and is the longest-serving RPG series in Chinese culture as well. Xuan Yuan Sword has been adapted into two TV dramas, 'Xuan Yuan Sword: Aoki Kagayaki' the co-developed animation series with TV Tokyo has been broadcasting since October.

“回到1990年，華人地區充滿了歐洲，美國或日本的進口遊戲和角色扮演遊戲，”楊說。 “軒轅劍是東方，武術風格RPG的第一個和先鋒，也是中國文化中服役時間最長的RPG系列。軒轅劍已被改編成兩部電視劇，與東京電視臺共同開發的動畫系列《軒轅劍：蒼之曜》自10月起開播。


"We even have several chances relating to movie production!

“我們甚至有製作電影製作相關的幾次機會！”
"As you can see, we have various product lines on Xuan Yuan Sword. Those products also helped to broaden our fan base gigantically, some items or weapons are so memorable that players misunderstood that they existed in history - the Xuan Yuan Sword itself was created by Softstar but was once wrongly described as a weapon used by a traditional emperor in some forums."

“正如你所看到的，我們在軒轅劍上有各種各樣的產品類型。這些產品也有助於擴大我們的粉絲基礎，某些物品或武器令人難忘，玩家甚至因此誤以為這些東西在歷史上真的存在 - 軒轅劍本身就是由大宇創造出來，但在某些論壇上曾被錯誤地認為是黃帝真正使用過的武器。“




We asked Yang whether Softstar expected to see the likes of TV adaptations created as a result of their video game series, and how involved has the video game development team been within these other projects.

我們問楊大宇是否期望看到由他們的電玩遊戲系列而產生的改編電視劇集，以及電玩遊戲團隊如何參與這些衍生項目。
"No, we didn’t about the potential success of TV adaptations at first," insists Yang. "We just tried to focus on the game itself and make every detail better - such as the script, characters, historical reference checks on items, costumes and weapons.

“不，我們一開始並沒有預期電視劇集改編的潛在成功，”楊堅持說。 “我們只是試著專注於遊戲本身，並使每一個細節都更好 - 例如劇本，角色，對物品，服裝和武器的歷史資料參考與檢查。
"We appreciate that the effort is widely accepted by players and fans, and is also great materials to adapt to TV series, therefore the game catches the attention of TV producers. We mainly joined in with the supervision part, including the character setting, costumes and script to make sure it keeps the core of the Xuan Yuan Sword story.

“我們感謝這些努力被玩家和粉絲廣泛接受，這是電視劇集的絕佳材料，因此遊戲引起了電視製作人的注意。我們主要參與了監督部分，包括角色設定，服飾和腳本，以確保它保持軒轅劍故事的核心。
"We also recognize that the TV series is a different product and we gave them a lot of space to adapt and combine new ideas, but the most important thing is that the TV story and setting can’t deviate from the original setting."

“我們也注意到電視劇是一個不同的產品，我們給了他們很大的空間來適應和結合新的想法，但最重要的是電視故事和設定不能偏離原來的設定。”



With a number of titles released over 25 years, surely the Softstar have a few favorites among the list that stand out for various reasons?

隨著25年來發行的各代遊戲，相信大宇手上也有最受歡迎的遊戲名單，而他們脫穎而出的原因是什麼呢？
Yang picked out three Xuan Yuan Sword games from the pack and explained why they were memorable.
楊從裡面挑出了三款軒轅劍遊戲，並解釋了為什麼它們令人難忘。
Xuan Yuan Sword 3: Beyond Clouds and Mountains (1999)
軒轅劍３：雲和山的彼端(1999)

"The adventure crosses three different cultures - Europe, Arab, and Chinese Tang Dynasty - and cleverly integrates historical events like AnShi’s Chaos (755 A.D., Tang Dynasty), Battle of Talas (751 A.D.), and earlier stage of Cruciata (8th Century A.D.). The gigantic story structure, difficulty of reference checks and script writing impressed both the development team and players, and still a very popular and memorable today.

“冒險橫跨了三種不同的文化 - 歐洲，阿拉伯和中國的唐朝 - 並巧妙地結合了歷史事件，如安史之亂（西元755年，唐朝），怛羅斯之役（西元751年）和十字軍東征發生前的背景年代（西元8世紀），龐大的故事結構，參考資料的檢查、腳本編寫的難度，給開發團隊和玩家留下了深刻的印象，遊戲至今仍然非常受歡迎和令人難忘。


Xuan Yuan Sword: The Scar of the Sky (2000)
軒轅劍３：天之痕(2000)

"The most popular episode in Xuan Yuan Sword series, and it has the most co-operation in game, the most game awards, and was the first TV adaptation. The TV series also has the most 'click rate' among all of the Softstar’s TV series.

“軒轅劍系列中最受歡迎的一代，它也是系列作中最多合作機會的一款遊戲，擁有最多的遊戲獎項，並且是第一部電視劇改編作品。在所有的大宇電視劇集中，它也是點擊觀賞率最高的。
"The story adds more of a romance factor to make it more appealing to adolescent players, and also successfully created few atypical antagonists. It was also the first time that we tried a multiple story ending, making it unforgettable for the player.

“這個故事增添了更多的浪漫因素，使其對青少年玩家更具吸引力，同時也成功創造了一些非典型的對手。這也是我們第一次嘗試多重故事結局，讓玩家難以忘懷。”
“此外，軒轅劍的重要要素 - '符鬼系統' - 是在這一代中創造的。”
軒轅劍：蒼之濤(2004)

"This episode tells a story about the 'Mohist' in the Chinese Warring State Period (5th B.C-221 A.D), which does not feature heavily in the majority of history. The main character travels through time and experiences two big wars across the millennium.

“這一代講述了一個關於中國戰國時期（西元前第二至西元221年）'墨家'的故事，墨家在主要歷史當中並沒能產生重大的影響。而主角穿越時空，並參與了跨越千年的兩場大戰。

譯注：原文的Mohist就是墨家，而且從西元221年來看，楊淵升上一句話應該是指蒼之濤的本傳作品軒轅劍４的背景，然後才介紹到蒼之濤的背景
"An important and popular part of the game is the 'Gimmick Technic' in ancient China, which is seen as a Chinese robot. The ending was also voted in the 'Top 10 most popular endings in Chinese games' in China.

“遊戲中一個重要且受歡迎的部分是中國古代的'機關技術'，它被視為中國版的機器人。而蒼之濤的結局也被評選為中國遊戲中的“十大國產遊戲結局”。


"These features and successes also attracted TV Tokyo to choose this episode to do an animation adaptation as the first collaboration with Softstar."

“這些特色與成功，也吸引了東京電視臺選擇這一代，作為與大宇第一次的合作改編動畫。”




Turn-based combat plays a huge role within many of Softstar's games, so we asked Yang what is it about this particular game element that is so appealing - from both a developer and gamer's perspective.

回合制戰鬥在許多大宇發行的遊戲中，扮演著重大的角色，所以我們問楊淵升從開發人員和遊戲玩家的角度，來看這個特別吸引人的遊戲元素是什麼。


"Chinese RPG are widely influenced by Japanese style RPG," says Yang. "Therefore, we thought a turn-based game leads to a more strategic approach. Players can think before they act and have more options.

“中國RPG受到日式RPG廣泛的影響，”楊說。“因此，我們認為回合制遊戲會帶來更具戰略性的方法。玩家可以在行動前思考並有更多選擇。


"The achievement comes from thinking and strategy, just like playing chess. However, we know these days that esports and MMO games are more popular, and that real-time battle plays a more important role.
“這個成就來自思考和策略，就像下棋一樣。但是，我們知道電競和MMO遊戲更受歡迎，而即時制戰鬥起著更重要的作用。”


"We are trying to add more fun and excitement to turn-based battle. We’ll keep improving as well and accept all possibilities, so maybe other battle modes will appear in our future titles."

“我們正試圖為基於回合的戰鬥增添更多樂趣和興奮。我們將繼續改進並接受所有可能性，因此我們未來的遊戲中可能會出現其他戰鬥模式。”


Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament is available with seven additional Steam games for just $3.99 in the time-limited Bento Bundle. Softstar have also announced that they're developing a brand-new Xuan Yuan Sword, so be sure to come back to the Fanatical Blog for more information nearer to the release date.

《軒轅劍：穹之扉》與其他7個Steam遊戲，合捆包正在限時特價3.99美元中。大宇並宣佈他們正在開發一款全新的軒轅劍，所以一定要鎖定本站知道更多關於發布日期的訊息。

譯注：合捆包期間為2018年11月13日至21日，特價目前已經結束


原文出處：
https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/xuan-yuan-sword-origins-adaptations-and-the-future-of-rpgs