For the remastered version
- "Thirty years ago, a strange young man with a peculiar behavior appeared in the world of Wulin. He looks... just like you."
Heroes of Jin Yong is a Turn-Based Strategy RPG developed by Chinese company Heluo Studios for the DOSBox, loosely based on the works of esteemed Chinese author Jin Yong. Released in 1996, it's widely known as one of China's first forays into the RPG genre.
A long, long time ago... in the 90s, the game's protagonist, Hsu Xiao-hsia, unexpectedly wakes up after a night-long video game binge and finds himself in ancient China, having been transported into the works of Jin Yong without any explaination. To find a way out, players in control of Hsu will exploring the world of wuxia, interacting with various characters from Jin Yong's works, collect allies and NPCs to form his own team of heroes, and choose to form alliances with various factions of different martial arts clans, may they be lawful or evil, with Hsu's decisions impacting the game's outcomes.
Heroes is a moderate success upon release, spawning two sequels - Wulin Legend (2001) and Heroes of the Three Kingdoms (2002), both made by Heluo, with players referring to the series as the "Heluo Trilogy". Both sequels more or less follows the same plot as the original - an unassuming modern-day protagonist waking up in ancient China, realizing himself to be trapped in the world of Chinese literature (respectively, back into the world of Jin Yong's novel and Romance of the Three Kingdoms) and must figure a way to leave.
The original game receives a 3D Video Game Remake in 2022.
Heroes of Jin Yong (1996 original, 2022 remake) contains examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The 3D remake of Heroes is at least three times longer than the original, with lots and lots of extra stats for the player to explore, far more locations, and wider range of interactions between the player character and NPCs.
- All Monks Know Kung-Fu: There's a Tibetan Monk sect serving as a faction in both the original and remake, and their members are highly-skilled warrior monks armed with staves or their fists. Also, the Shaolin monk stage in the remake.
- Animesque: The remake's character designs are heavily-inspired by anime, compared to the original which are much more pixellated.
- Battle Aura: In the remake, the player's sprite will emit a bright, glowing chi aura when he's about to attack enemies.
- Boss Bonanza:
- All four brothers of the Plum Mansion challenge are fought as individual bosses, in four different areas, before eventually becoming a Wolfpack Boss where you'll need to defeat the quartet together.
- The last stage is essentially one long Bonanza of Wulin challengers, where you've proven your worth as a fighter and must now challenge the various major wushu experts of different Jin Yong novels, one at a time. You even let out this Badass Boast:
"I've rested enough already, who's next?" - Cut and Paste Environments: The amount of unique environments in Heroes can be counted on one hand, where the same interior design is used for taverns, temples, mansions and all that. There's also the underground cave which is blatantly remodeled into a winter-themed stage, but with the brown parts repainted white and grey. The remake on the other hand does a much better job with level designs.
- Defeat Means Respect:
- How the player gains the trust of the Hengshan Temple Clan - by challenging a dozen clansmen to a duel (with the player and two AI-controlled partners in tow) and defeating all of them.
- The Four Brothers of Plum Mansion, initially a Boss Bonanza and later a Wolfpack Boss, who reveals the next location to you after their last defeat.
- Defeat the last Masters of Wulin, and they'll declare you as their next leader and grant you an exit back to the real world.
- Demoted to Extra: Various iconic (at least, to wuxia fans anyways) Jin Yong characters like Lin Hu-Chong, Wei Xiao-bao, Duan Yu, Hu-Fei, Shih Po-tian and the like appears in all the games, but they're merely supporting NPC characters for the player to recruit.
- Distant Sequel: Wulin turns out to be set a century after the events of Heroes. A Memorial Statue of Hsu in honor of his deeds from the first game can be seen as a Continuity Nod.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: The Mingjiao Cult have mooks who uses flamethrowers made of Bamboo Technology. In ancient China. Somehow. But what's even more baffling is that their flamethrowers can barely inflict greater damage than swords (the maximum damage inflicted by flamethrower enemies are 50 points, while your sword can easily shave between 70 points to triple digits from an enemy's health per swing).
- Giant Spider: Oversized arachnids are another common enemy in the underground caverns.
- The Great Serpent: Giant snakes are among the non-human enemies in the underground caves. Their sprites are larger than yours, though they die on just a few hits.
- Healing Potion: Potions can be used as a health boost in all the games.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The player is free to choose their onscreen protagonist's name, though the default option is "Hsu".
- Hooks and Crooks: Mooks from the Shen-Long Cult all uses Tiger-Hook swords
as their weapons. - Leaning on the Fourth Wall: There's a few moments in the remake where you do this, though it's justified since you're well aware that you're a character from the real world, transported into a wuxia universe.[upon coming across a tavern]
"Isn't that the kind of inns that keeps popping up in wuxia novels?" - Massive Multiplayer Crossover:
- The first two games amalgamates elements and characters from all of Jin Yong's works, where you can meet - and recruit as Guest-Star Party Member(s) - characters like Zhang Wuji from Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre, Shih Po-tien from Ode to Gallantry, Duan-yu from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, Chen Jia-lo from The Book And The Sword, Ling Hu-Chong from The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, Yuan Cheng-qi from The Sword Stained With Royal Blood, Hu-Fei from Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain, and even more heroes from several other novels.
- The sequel even throws in Zhou Bo-tong from The Legend of the Condor Heroes, Yang Guo from The Return of the Condor Heroes and Wei Xiaobao from The Deer and the Cauldron, the latter being from another later dynasty.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: A new challenge in the 3D remake, the "Pond of a Million Crocodiles" have you traversing a criss-crossing maze of stone platforms and bridges, but crocodiles will periodically crawl out and try chomping you down. Thankfully, despite the name, you don't fight a million of them (maybe around twenty).
- Notice This: In the remake, some NPC characters are merely extras who either can't be interacted with, or speaks random words that doesn't really help your quest. However, NPCs who gives out plot-necessary information will be marked by a red aura that twinkles when you're near.
- Palette Swap: The 1996 original game is a painfully blatant example, where it's obvious the player character, Hsu, have his sprite recycled for a dozen NPC and enemy designs, from heroic swordsmen to random bandits. It's especially obvious in battle scenes where all their sprites move the same way!
- Shockwave Stomp: One of the most powerful attacks from the original, when your chi is high enough you can inflict a carpeting shockwave that covers nearly half the whole arena and deals damage to everyone not on your side.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: Hsu in the first game wears a brown tunic that forgoes sleeves, and is a well-trained, capable martial artist by the game's conclusion. Partially averted in the remake, where you do have short sleeves but most of your biceps are still visible.
- Stock Wushu Weapons: Expect to see every wuxia-themed weapon showing up throughout the game, from the iconic jian to several qiang, gun and dao users and even some obscure ones like the gou and ji.
- Sword Lines: Inflicting slash attacks with bladed weapons, either from your jian or onscreen enemies, will result in white curving lines. You executing a special move can even lead to a wave of sword lines capable of hurting a row of mooks.
- Trapped in Another World: The premise of all three games, where you're trapped in the world of Chinese literature for unknown reasons. You'll need to relive events from the stories and choose a path, either as a hero or villain, to escape.
- Weapon Specialization: The various clans can be categorized by their weapons (applies for both original and remake);
- Iron Fist Gang specializes in using curved broadswords;
- The Shen-Long Cult uses hook-blades;
- Acolytes of the Five Poison Clans are all whip-users;
- Hengshan Temple acolytes prefers the taoist coin-swords;
- Wudang trainees tends to use short, thin blades;
- Xing-Hsuo members all carries bouncing red projectiles, that explodes on contact;
- Sun Moon Hmong tribesmen tends to use glaives;
- For Hsu / the player protagonist, his only weapon is the iconic jian, a straight sword, and he's the only character who uses one to identify his status as The Hero.
- Win to Exit: The very premise of the games: you're trapped in the world of Chinese literature (specifically, the works of Jin Yong) and must re-live the storylines of various novels in order to find an exit.
- Wolfpack Boss:
- The Four Brothers of Plum Mansion originally appears as a Boss Bonanza that the player fights one at a time, in four areas. But when they're about to exit, they meet the four again, this time all of them attacking in tandem and must all be defeated.
- In the remake, at least six martial artists stands in your way as the final challenge, in order for you to unlock the portal to leave Jin Yong's novels.
- Wuxia: All three of the games, but especially evident in Heroes and Wulin, since you're exploring the world of the great wuxia maestro, Jin Yong.
- Yeti: There are yeti enemies in the ice caves, identified as "Big Snow Monsters". The remake however turns them into human warriors wearing furs with a yeti motif.
- Goodbye, to all the Heroes of Jin Yong, I look forward to my next return to the world of Wulin! Farewell!
