I still remember when I was in high school, hiding under the covers and playing "Golden Sun" on the GBA. The little pixel man on the screen slowly showed off his skills, and it took me half a day to read a single battle scene. At that time, I thought this was top-notch visual special effects. Every time I saw the elves summoned, I would say "Wow" stupidly. Now turn on your mobile phone to play "Douluo Dalu: Reversal of Time and Space", click on a game, my dear, 334 sets of dynamic special effects are directly in your face, Tang San's blue silver grass wraps around Xiao Wu's soft bone rabbit, light effects are flying all over the sky, the phone is almost too hot to hold it🔥. This gap is really like jumping directly from a black and white TV to a 4K curved screen.
But to be honest, what surprises me most about this game is its "one card, two forms" system. Back then, when I played "Final Fantasy" on the PSP, I had to go to the menu to switch professions, and there was no way to change positions on the spot during the battle. In this game, characters can directly switch between soul rings and martial arts in battle. One second Tang San was using hidden weapons, and the next second he switched to Blue Silver Grass to control the position on the field. This sense of real-time strategy was unimaginable in the cassette era, but when I switched to a mobile phone to operate it, it felt as smooth as if it were played on a mobile phone.
But there are some things that no amount of magic can change. For example, card development. When I played "Pocket Monsters" on the NDS, I had to slay hundreds of wild monsters to catch a Shiny Pokémon. Now, in this game, there is also a probability of drawing cards as a "non-chief identifier". I saved ten draws in a row, but they were all R card fragments. I was so angry that I almost dropped my phone - luckily the phone was much more expensive than the GBA, so I held myself back😅. But think about it, back then, I was flipping through the strategy book until midnight for a hidden item. Now, the time travel plot in the main line of the game can actually affect the ending branch. This kind of "obsessive-compulsive choice" happiness is exactly the same as it was back then.
In terms of painting style, it has evolved from pixel villains to dynamic vertical paintings jointly designed by Chinese, Japanese and Korean painters. It is indeed gorgeous. Xiao Wu's rabbit ears were fluffy, and there were dewdrops rolling on Tang San's bluesilver grass. But sometimes I still miss the jagged-edge simple drawings on GBA. One action only takes three frames, but it can make people's brains create the coolest look.
Overall, this game is like taking that old RPG cartridge that you were reluctant to throw away and stuffing it into the latest Switch OLED - the code has been upgraded, but the soul has not changed. I stayed up late playing until three o'clock in the morning yesterday, and when I saw the part where Tang San broke through time and space, my eyes actually got a little hot. Youth is indeed back, but I have changed from GBA to mobile phone, from classroom to bedside where I can secretly charge my phone under the covers🌙.