Ressya no Tabi - The Train Travel - GrandmasterJ
The author of this map has made Sven famous with his or her other map, Pizza ya San. This map is very similar in style, the gameplay is completely changed so that players can take a nice sightseeing tour around Japan travelling by train.
Author: takedeppo.50cal
Date of final release: 2019
Maps in package: 1
Map review of Ressya no tabi - The Train Travel -
(originally posted on SCMapDB)
by GrandmasterJ | January 30, 2022 | 8977 characters
This map is great. The entire premise is that the players are taking a train trip to various locales There is a train station at the start of the map where players board the train, then players are teleported onto the train, already in motion, and get to explore all the cars. The first stop is some market in a downtown area, the second stop is a Japanese castle, then a pond, a pottery studio, a giant buddha statue, and finally a temple, for a total of six stops. Throughout the map players use cell phones to take pictures to react to things and take pictures.
The train was a really fun hub. The train section was controlled by a timer, three minutes on the train to the next stop. The train is pretty big and took the first full three minutes for my teammate and I to adequately explore it from front to back. There is a cockpit filled with black ops conductors, bathrooms, a bar car, and of course a bunch of passenger cabins. In the bathroom there was a vent that allowed access to the roof. Going all the way to the front of the train spawns in a mounted gun in the shape of a 50 cal sniper rifle. It was pretty hard to hit my teammate when he popped up after me.
There is a bunch of stuff scattered around the train, food (medkits that could be picked up even at full health), throwing stars, dice, baseballs, a staff, liquid in a jar I assume is alcohol. There are many scripted weapons that do interesting and unique things. The baseball can be thrown and damages NPCs but will immediately be caught by a player. On the first stop, the market, my teammate and I played some catch in the middle of the street. There are dice that can be picked up, up to a total of three. Left click will throw one down and right click will toss down all of them. As far as I can tell they act just like real dice. The throwing stars act like one would expect with the added bonus of flying really far and fast and ricocheting off whatever it hits, even NPCs' heads. The jar of what I assume is alcohol can be drunk making the screen shake for a short time.
The biggest scripted addition, or at least the most used addition, was the cellphone. When left clicked it brought up a screen to react positively with a 'good' (another left click) or negatively with a 'shit' (right click) accompanied by the player model flipping off whatever is in front of them. The right click will turn the phone sideways and the screen will become transparent making a really fun camera phone effect. Using the camera will make these icons appear scattered throughout the stops. Players would then go to these points to either take pictures or react to them. These icons were everywhere and easily accessible, but each stop had one or two special ones that were hard to get to.
The first stop was a market in some downtown area. There was a shop, a restaurant, and a little elevated park overlooking a diorama of a city, meant to evoke the feeling of looking at a distant metropolis. It had those mounted binocular things typically found in scenic tourist destinations. The special icon here was at the top of a building. You reach it by going ot the elevated park and jumping across buildings. There is a bus that shows up after a while and it spawns in a swarm of zombies. There are throwing stars in the shop and they are perfect for dealing with the sudden enemies. After the bus arrives you can jump on that to get to the roofs as well. A huge quality of life addition in this map is a timer for everything. After you finish an area a timer starts for the train to arrive, it is always one minute and appears on the screen counting down. The timer is there for the train segments, counting down from three minutes, and lets players know exactly how long they have to wait for the map to move along, and lets the players know the map isn't broken.
The second stop was a Japanese castle. Some reviewers, unaffiliated with myself, took particular umbrage with this section. The entire thing is a platforming puzzle to the top of the castle. There is a box that must be positioned to start. The box goes on a ledge overhanging a kill trigger so I was nervous that the box would fall into this area and render the segment unbeatable. This is not the case, the ledge has a lip to make sure the box doesn't fall off. It's always nice to see the authors of these maps take some consideration for the players. Up a ladder and over a tightrope players get on to the first roof of the castle proper. There are some jumps players need to make, some really steep slopes that you will need to jump over, and lasers. There are laser puzzles on the outside of the castle. I struggled with this part, because I am not good with first person platforming, but my teammate scampered right up. He got to a section where the roof collapsed and he fell to the previous level. That happened four times. The good thing is that shortcuts up the castle opened up as he hit certain areas, so it wasn't a total slog to go back up. But without shortcuts and with the mean decision to sabotage the players four times in a row things began to look bleak for our playthrough. There are some rope ladders that I had massive difficulty getting up, I would attach to one side and then get stuck under a ledge on my way up, or I would jump to the correct side but the ladder mechanics would launch me off or make me go another direction at the top. Eventually he made it to the top and the special icon that was there and got on his phone. I celebrated on the ground floor (jumped into the kill trigger) while we waited the minute for the train to take us away.
The third stop was a pond. The pond section had us taking trash floating in the pond up to a dumpster. This was not very fun for me. The scenery was nice but dragging big clunky objects through the water and then up onto a dock, up some stairs, was annoying. I don't think dragging or pushing objects works well in goldsrc, and this was chore using the mechanic. After all the trash was gone an ichthyosaur appeared in with a bunch of babies. We opened the bait box and baby headcrabs fell into the water where they were gobbled up. The special icons here were at the bottom of the pond in some weird holes.
The fourth stop was a pottery studio, players had to drag blocks of clay onto big platters and then use them to form them into pots. They automatically fly into the furnace until they bake and come out. There is pottery around the studio which is fun to break at the cost of negative interaction points. This map was more dragging objects and then automatic completion of objectives. The special icon here was in a corner up by the ceiling, I have no idea how to get there.
The fifth stop was a temple with a big Buddha statue. There was a tower next to it and a big bell. I didn't really pay attention but my teammate used a sign and placed incense strategically in a box, then rang the bell. When the puzzle was done correctly the Buddha would slide forward. The special icon in this map is suspended in the air over where the Buddha needs to eventually end up. I spent the map trying to platform up the tower to jump over to the Buddha, but ultimately could not actually get there, which is a reoccurring theme in maps with platforming sections.
The last stop was a temple with some wooden basins full of coins in front. The goal was to take the coins out, drag them to an offering box, and then put them in the box. This was incredibly tedious and not fun. There were waves of male assassins that spawned in at intervals who were there to steal the money. It was the most combat in the entire map and it was not bad. Dragging the coins in was certainly not fun so I appreciate the combat. I don't actually know where the special icon is in this section, if there is one.
After that map we went back to the train for three minutes until the final stop. The final stop is probably home, as the map ends here. This was a completely different experience that any other Sven map. I know the author has made some wild stuff before, most notably Pizza Ya San the most famous Sven map, but this was my first time playing a map made by the author and it was a crazy experience.
Pros:
- Unique and interesting gameplay
- new weapon scripts, cellphone
- charming level design
- unique and interesting map design, teleporting players to and from new destinations works well
- the schedule is presented to players clearly, with timers
- fun aesthetics, fun custom models, cute Japanese textures.
Cons:
- A lot of the puzzles are dragging things
- I am not a fan of the castle platforming, crumbling floors and bad rope ladders
- the map is kinda long, this is not a complaint, just a warning that it looks quick and simple but it is not.
Score: 9 / 10
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