食物语 ShiWuYu ~ Guide + RIEview – Part 2

Continuing from my previous post, in this post we will be covering the remaining basic game mechanics that were not covered in Part 1. At the end of this post is the review of the game, so read till the end! If you haven't read Part 1 of the guide, click here. If you have, read on! 

Table of contents:-

• Start Journey
• Gallery
• Alliance
• Food Spirits
• Review

START JOURNEY

Story stages are divided to Main 普通 [PuTong] and Difficult 困难 [KunNan] mode. The difficult mode will only be unlocked after players completed the respective chapter in the main mode. The final stages of each chapter in both main and difficult mode will drop SR (both) and/or SSR (some difficult chapters) Food Spirits so don't miss out! 

Illusion Boss 绀珠虚影 [GanZhuXuYing] – (Top Left) Begins at midday on Saturday and Sunday. You get 3 chances daily to achieve an accumulative score for the ranking

Resource Forests 资源关卡 [ZiYuanGuanKa] – To get items necessary for: 

Ascending Food Spirits with nuts from JinQiu Wish Forest 金秋愿林 [JinQiuYuanLin] (top to bottom: Cashew 腰果, Hazelnut 榛子, Walnut 胡桃, Almond 金杏); 

Equipping Tableware sets dropped with random chances in LinLang Dream World 琳琅幻境 [LinLangHuanJing], each world only opened on certain days; 

Feeding rabbit buns filled with character experience by spinning the Rabbit Roulette 兔来运转 [TuLaiYunZhuan]. For JinQiu Wish Forest and LinLang Dream World, players can join other players and form teams 组队 [ZuDui] to challenge the forests too difficult for new players to grind for items. 

Beginner Training 教学关卡 [JiaoXueGuanKa] – New to the battle system? Not sure how each skill should be best utilised? The stages in Beginner Training will guide you step-by-step, and even though language is a problem for players not fluent in Chinese, you can complete the stages to get valuable rewards helpful for new players.

Cook-off 厨艺大赛 [ChuYiDaSai] – Put your Food Spirit squad to the test by pitting them against other players' defence team. Whether you win or lose you will still be able to get Peaches 蟠桃 [PanTao] to exchange for items at the store. When you win you will move up in ranks; when you lose you remain the same instead of dropping in ranks. By winning more frequently you can ascend to get the multiple-tiered titles, of which first time achieving will score you first time rewards! After 2 weeks the game will tally and award you according to your rank and title. 

Banquet Mode 珍馐盛宴 [ZhenXiuShengYan] – First time clear to get special rewards, or you can just grind on a cleared level to get the randomised rewards. Keep in mind that players have 5 chances daily.

New time-limited events will appear on the bottom right of the Start Journey page, else you can also access the event page via the Main page. 

GALLERY

For Sketch Collection 掠影篇 [LüeYingBian]:

• Scenery 风物 [FengWu] – collection of beautifully drawn sceneries seen throughout the game

• Memories 回忆 [HuiYi] – CG art of important events taken place throughout the main storyline

• History 典藏 [DianCang] – As players progress through the main story stages, the shards dropped from each stage will be combined here to form a piece of history that is vital in explaining the true events

For Group Collection 团队篇 [TuanDuiPian]:

Here you can see some Food Spirits having special relationships with each other. By ascending Food Spirits can unlock different rewards, which may include a special Group furniture related to each relationship groupings.

For Story Collection 故事篇 [GuShiPian]:

• Main storyline 主线故事 [ZhuXianGuShi] – Records of unlocked main storyline can be accessed here, plus there's also rewards for first time re-reading the chapters!

• Food Spirit storyline 角色故事 [JueSeGuShi] – The 3-part story series unlocked by achieving the required affection levels of each Food Spirit residing in your KongSang can be re-read here

• Event storyline 活动故事 [HuoDongGuShi] – Records of unlocked event storyline can be accessed here, including your birthday story 庆诞辰 [QingDanChen]. Unlike the main storyline there are no rewards for re-reading.

• Customer conversations 餐厅笔记 [CanTingBiJi] – Conversations overheard by LuWu 陆吾 in the restaurant can be re-read here in case you missed it the first time. Each conversation is triggered by different dishes requested by different customers

• Food Spirit letters 书信 [ShuXin] – Every time you ascend a Food Spirit to a higher star, you will receive a letter from them. Here is where all the letters are kept, including the anniversary letter 空桑之约 [KongSangZhiYue]

• KongSang Newsletter 空桑小报 [KongSangXiaoBao] – LuWu 陆吾 reports and delivers newsletter when there are important milestones and events happening in-game

For Craft Collection 天工篇 [TianGongPian]:

Here you can view the crafted furniture series and the collection status 收集进度 [ShouJiJinDu].

For Character Collection 相逢篇 [XiangFengPian]:

Character refers to the NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) that appear throughout the main storyline. Each showcases the voice actor, brief character introduction 简介 [JianJie], the character's first appearance 出处 [ChuChu], and the option to view the character in dynamic 动图 [DongTu] or static 立绘 [LiHui] mode.

For Food Spirit Collection 食魂篇 [ShiHunPian]:

Here you can view your collected Food Spirits via their rarity 品质 [PinZhi]: SSR 御 [Yu], SR 珍 [Zhen], R 尚 [Shang], N 良 [Liang]

You can also assort them according to cuisine type 菜系 [CaiXi].

For Tableware Collection 膳具篇 [ShanJuPian]:

Different sets of tableware bring different boosts to the equipped Food Spirit. For players managed to collect a complete set of each type for the first time, you can collect the rewards gifted by the game here. Tableware sets also have rarity, where their higher boosts reflected according to their higher rarity.

ALLIANCE

The main page is fronted by the chosen Food Spirit as the mascot of the alliance. Upon formation each alliance is given a serial number 编号 [BianHao] and a name, which is the blackened horizontal line below the mascot avatar. The alliance level is determined by the overall activeness 活跃度 [HuoYueDu], which requires Alliance Gold 协会资金 [XieHuiZiJin] to level up 升级 [ShengJi]. However, the higher the alliance level, the higher the maintenance cost 维护费用 [WeiHuFeiYong]. 

The other information can be found are: Number of members 成员 [ChengYuan], Alliance Leader 会长 [HuiZhang], Cuisine type of mascot 菜系 [CaiXi], Alliance noticeboard 协会宗旨 [XieHuiZongZhi]. 

The Journal 日志 [RiZhi] is the alliance system notice marking members joining and leaving the alliance. You can view the full list of current members at 成员, which also displays other information like player level and name, alliance contribution, and their in-game status. The top right displays your current Contribution Medals 协会贡献 [XieHuiGongXian] for completing alliance tasks. 

Alliance Square 协会广场 [XieHuiGuangChang] is where the Alliance Hotpot 围炉聚餐 [WeiLuJuCan] will be held once the alliance achieves 8000 Hotpot points per week. The Alliance Shop 协会商店 [XieHuiShangDian] is the same shop accessed from the Shop 商店 [ShangDian] at the Main page.

Alliance Activities 协会活动 [XieHuiHuoDong] gives access to: (Left to right) Wish Tree 许愿 [XuYuan], Poem Game 诗酒令 [ShiJiuLing], Training Hall 较艺堂 [JiaoYiTang], Alliance Tasks 协会任务 [XieHuiRenWu], and Alliance Hotpot 围炉聚餐 [WeiLuJuCan].

For Wish Tree 许愿 [XuYuan]:

You can wish for your favourite Food Spirit's Token 信物 [XinWu] here, as long as you have at least 1 Token to begin with. This is a slow but steady way (provided you are in an active and helpful alliance) to get that Food Spirit that refuse to appear from the Summoning circle. 

For Poem Game 诗酒令 [ShiJiuLing]:

Players need to submit 1 of each word token (i.e. 诗, 酒, 年, 华) to complete 行令 [XingLing] the phrase 诗酒趁年华. You have two chances daily to submit the complete phrase. For insufficient word tokens, you can request up to 3 word tokens from your fellow alliance members. 

For Training Hall 较艺堂 [JiaoYiTang]:

You can get 3 chances daily to battle the boss unlocked by the alliance. This is also where you will receive random word tokens for the Poem Game. Click start on the bottom right 备战 [BeiZhan] to begin. You can check your rankings at the bottom left 排行榜 [PaiHangBang], whereby the end of each week players ranked 1st to 20th will be rewarded with Contribution Medals and Shell Money. 

For Alliance Tasks 协会任务 [XieHuiRenWu]:

There are 4 Alliance Tasks to be completed daily, with each completion rewarding the players Contribution Medals, Alliance Gold, Personal active points, and Hotpot points. 

At different points of the gauge players will get: (100 points) 100 Contribution Medals, (500 points) 20 Gift boxes, (1000 points) 5 Random Food Spirit Tokens, (2000 points) 200 Contribution Medals, (4000 points) 50 Heaven Craft Stones, (6000 points) 5 Medium Rabbit buns, (8000 points) 1 Spirit Core

FOOD SPIRITS

Food Spirit 食魂 [ShiHun] – Here is where you can view the full list of Food Spirits residing in your KongSang, you can also sort them by ascending 升序 [ShengXu] or descending order 降序 [JiangXu]. The top most right button shows two ways you can sort:

• Order 排序 [PaiXu] – Default 默认 [MoRen], Level 等级 [DengJi], Rarity 稀有度 [XiYouDu], Order of arrival 入手时间 [RuShouShiJian], Ascension level 星级 [XingJi], Life/HP 生命 [ShengMing], Attack 攻击 [GongJi], Defence 防御 [FangYu], Evolve 突破 [TuPo]

• Specialty 筛选 [ShaiXuan] – All 全部 [QuanBu], Material 材料 [CaiLiao], Healing 治疗 [ZhiLiao], Poison 附毒 [FuDu], Control 控制 [KongZhi], Taunt 嘲讽 [ChaoFeng], Group attack 群攻 [QunGong], Cleansing 净化 [JingHua], Support 補助 [BuZhu], Sure-Shot 必中 [BiZhong], Breaking defence 破防 [PoFang], Explosive 爆发 [BaoFa], Inhibit Healing 禁疗 [JinLiao], Disperse 驱散 [QuSan], Immune 免疫 [MianYi]

Healing Room 调理 [DiaoLi] – When Food Spirits are injured and you chose not to revive them using the golden flower petals (bottom left of the battle scene), send them to take a medicine bath here. Picking the correct bath type will result in a shorter bath time, so check the comment box for the specific bath type. Use the speed-up soap 加速肥皂 [JiaSuFeiZao] to shorten the bath time. 

Tokens 信物 [XinWu] – Here you can see your current collection status for each Food Spirit. Different rarity require different amount of tokens to summon the specific Food Spirit.

Dismantle 分解 [FenJie] – Have too many excess Food Spirits taking up room? Dismantle them here to get Spirit Jade 魂玉 [HunYu] to be used in the Shop

The key feature in the 'Food Spirit' page is to improve your Food Spirit. In this post the example will be based on RouGuCha 肉骨茶, or Bak Kut Teh as Singaporeans and Malaysians refer to the dish. On the left of the Food Spirit you will see the rarity (i.e. SR 珍 [Zhen]), the Food Spirit's name and the voice actor's name, and the cuisine type (i.e. 普 [Pu]). The lock indicates the Food Spirit will not appear in the dismantling screen. 

View 查看 [ChaKan] allows players to see the full-size portrait of the Food Spirit in both normal and injured state, note injured state will only be unlocked if players chose not to revive them in battle and allowed them to return from battle injured. Be aware also that when Food Spirits return injured, their affection level will decrease – unless they have reached the maximum affection level (i.e. Level 15). Like in the Character page, you can access the Food Spirit's comment box 评论 [PingLun] and character skin 时装 [ShiZhuang] here too.

Details 情报 [QingBao] – At the top is the specialty 特性 [TeXing] of the Food Spirit, in RouGuCha's case he is a Support. Below is his current level, and you can manually add character experience by feeding him rabbit buns with the plus icon. You can also see a brief overview of the current ascension (i.e. 4 stars), evolve status (i.e. 1 petal), and if he is equipped with any tableware (i.e. yes, indicated by the golden icons).

The component for each Food Spirit is given a numerical figure and a grade: Life/HP 生命 [ShengMing], Attack 攻击 [GongJi], Defence 防御 [FangYu], Evade 闪避 [ShanBi], Chances of Critical attack 暴击 [BaoJi], Critical Damage 暴伤 [BaoShang], Sure-hit effects 效果命中 [XiaoGuoMingZhong], Resisting effects 效果抵抗 [XiaoGuoDiKang]

Skills 技能 [JiNeng] is usually 3 part: normal attack (left); attack or specialised to Food Spirit, sometimes it is activated as the Food Spirit is attacked by opponent (centre); major skill specialised to Food Spirit (right). At times there are additional daily life boosts, e.g. Food Spirit specialising in cooking will have reduction in cooking time, or more coins earned per battle, etc.

Ascension 升星 [ShengXing] – Each Food Spirit can be ascended 5 times to unlock the maximum level by using the corresponding rarity of nuts. By ascending to the 5th star using the SSR nuts (150 Hazelnuts and 150 Walnuts), RouGuCha need to first reach the 4th star's capped level of level 80 (i.e. 等级需求 [DengJiXuQiu]). Upon ascending to 5th star, the maximum level is now shifted to level 100 (i.e. 等级上限 [DengJiShangXian]). 

Every ascension you will also receive a letter from the Food Spirit, as well as some boosts to either daily life boosts 生活技能 [ShengHuoJiNeng] and/or skill level-up 属性提升 [ShuXingTiSheng]. 

Evolve 突破 [TuPo] – Evolving Food Spirits can increase their skill boosts, but can also drastically increase their specialty move in battles. Evolving requires either the same Food Spirit or DiaoLiao 调料, and the number required will gradually increase as per the flower petals seen. The first 4 petals require 1 Food Spirit/DiaoLiao each time, but the last 3 petals require 2 Food Spirit/DiaoLiao – meaning a total of 10 Food Spirit/DiaoLiao will be needed to fully evolve the Food Spirit.

Tableware 膳具 [ShanJu] – Here you can equip tablewares, which consists of cutlery, drinking vessel, and flatware. A matching set of tableware will trigger the skill of the set 套装效果 [TaoZhuangXiaoGuo]. In this case the Food Spirit squad that has RouGuCha will have a HP shield that lasts 3 rounds, where the additional HP being 0.5 times that of RouGuCha's defence skill amount. 

R(I)EVIEW 

Game Plot

The story begins with the protagonist (male or female depending on the player's choice) waking up to what it is supposed to be a normal day. Instead, KongSang gets invaded by a villain with a Godzilla-sized monster that proceeds to wreck havoc. The villain also gets hold of the sacred "ShiWuYu" book, which contains contracts formed between Food Spirits and the protagonist, the heir of KongSang, and proceeds to corrupt the book. This also results a corruption in the Food Spirits, which eventually forces the protagonist to make the tough decision of nulling the contracts to save their spirits. 

This decision meant that the Food Spirits would disappear and reintegrated back into their original timeline, with no memories of the protagonist nor their lives in KongSang, which is traumatic for the protagonist as she basically grew up with them. Fortunately, the book releases a Food Spirit named GuGeng 鹄羹 who helps the protagonist to rebuild KongSang and search for the missing Food Spirits through the timeline. 

Verdict (5/5)

The story is engaging and compelling for players to get invested in the storyline, as well as being sympathetic to the situation our protagonist finds herself/himself in. At the same time, there's a lot of questions that is raised as you progress through the storyline. When there is not only 1 villain, when there are spies, ShiWuYu has done a really good job on keeping players hooked to the storyline. 

Character Diversity & Personality

Rather than diversity as seeing how many races there are in ShiWuYu, it is safe to say that there is only one race due to the setting of the story. The history and backstory of the Food Spirits all reference real events that happened in the long Chinese history, which is unsurprising as the game developers are based in China itself. The diversity of the characters are shown through the timeline – where Food Spirits are seen dressed and spoke differently in accordance to when the dish was developed throughout Chinese history. Of course, in between there are some foreign cuisines, like RouGuCha who's a Singaporean-Malaysian dish developed by Chinese migrants migrated to these two countries to seek greener pastures. 

Each Food Spirit comes with their own personalities too, which becomes a fun combination for players to see how they will interact with each other through the main storyline but also the individual Food Spirit's 3-part stories. 

Verdict (5/5)

Usually I would nitpick why only dishes and cuisines from one country. But! The reason ShiWuYu can pull off such a move is all thanks to the rich history of China. People may disagree on politics, but we can't deny that China's history is worth discovering, and ShiWuYu has skilfully showcases this through food and sneaking in history at the same time. 

Game & CG Art

The art style definitely gets the anime style treatment, with extra doses of ensuring all Food Spirits (which are all male, in case you didn't know yet!) are cleansing to the players' eyes. There is of course a distinct difference: ShiWuYu uses more softer colours, and what seems like watercolour method that is obvious seen through the background. With a huge character lineup, ShiWuYu deploys the same method as Touken Ranbu of hiring different artists to draw different Food Spirits.

Verdict (4.5/5)

Love the art style and colours, but it's the character inconsistencies that throw me off sometimes. I'm not too sure with the specifics behind the contracts in the creative industry, but special skins are often drawn by another artist instead of the original, and when equipping the skins players can notice differences in the art style – even more so if it's their favourite character!

Game Mechanics

As explained throughout the 2-part series, the different aspects are only difficult if you are not a native Chinese speaker/reader. As a person who only studied basic Chinese in elementary school, the language used in the game is easy to be understood – and if you ever forget what function the page you're on does, you can click on the exclamation mark button to check for more details (in Chinese, of course). 

Some players require visual explanation, so they would tend to search YouTube to see the actual gameplay. The ShiWuYu official Facebook group also has members posting strategies and tips before the event starts in the Singapore-Malaysia edition, thanks to these members having also played by trial-and-error in the Mainland China edition. 

Verdict (4.5/5)

There are lots to do in ShiWuYu, if one excludes the mere language barrier. Each new event brings with it new mini games just to spice things up. While it may be overwhelming at first with the amount of things need to do, gradually it is easy to fall into routine on what needs to be done. Note that like a lot of P2P games, with every new events and updates in-game mean an increase of pressure on F2P players to keep up with P2P. F2P will need to assemble squads strong enough to keep in pace with P2P, and often times that meant F2P will need to heavily invest time instead of money – while P2P could be investing a lot on money but can afford to play less with all the perks that come with each financial investment. 

Again, I'm a F2P player that just aim to collect as many Food Spirits as I can, but I have decided to stay Zen in hopes of scaling the ranks to beat a P2P player. Going into games like this, it is best you weigh wisely on how much you're willing to spend on a long-term. That way you can avoid making decisions that will leave you regretting over money that won't come back.

In-Game Events

ShiWuYu has lots of events, with each event involving new event-limited Food Spirits that you can try your hand at the summon to bring them home. The event storylines tend to exist in the same timeline as the Main storyline, saved that there is no direct reference to the main storyline to pinpoint at which point in the main story does the event story occur. The only exception to this rule is the Lunar New Year event story which references events post-Chapter 10. 

Verdict (4.5/5)

My gripe with the events is how frequently the events are hosted. One of the reason I say so is because in Mainland China edition, there were long periods of rest in between one event to the next. This allows players to have the time to level up, save up Golden Jade, or what have you. Long periods are nonexistent in latter editions, as developers already have events to churn out – at most it is the translators that have to be pressured to work faster to complete the translation. 

This speed of churning out events have players refer to the process as "Bullet Train", like how us players are forcefully seated on a bullet train, hurtling through one event to the next with almost no time to breath. My personal opinion is that I could only keep up with the pace of the game is because 1) I was mostly unemployed since the start of the Singapore-Malaysia edition, so I had time, and 2) ShiWuYu kept me absolutely fixated on the characters and storyline, despite my lack of interest in rankings. Students and/or working individuals have minimal time they could spent on the game, saved for weekends, which would force them to choose to either play in Zen mode or to spend money to keep up with the rest. 

Compared to other games, I would say that overall ShiWuYu is a good game worth playing, especially for the history and the Food Spirits. However, there is a hefty choice that players need to make when going into the game – that players need to invest time and/or money in order to keep up with the pace that changes with every update. Obviously, P2P players will have the bigger advantage with money spent in-game, and even more so should these players also have the time to spend. Other players will need to fork out even more time, else they need to come in terms that playing as Zen mode may be the better option for their sanity. 

For me, when I started working for short period, I did not have access to the game as it is my personal policy to not touch any games at all. The only time I had during weekdays was in the morning (before going to work) and night (after washing up from a long day in the office), in addition to the weekends. Sacrifices need to be made because at times, real life is harsh and players are also humans that have responsibilities, which increases with age. My advice: play wisely with the option that is best suited for you.

Til next time! Happy Gaming!

~ RieRie