Chinese Game Review: Chinese Parents 中国式家长

[StChris]

 

Platform(s): PC / Mac OS X

Price: £7.19 (regional pricing may apply)

Where to buy: here

System Requirements: OS: XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, Processor: Intel Pentium III 800 MHz+, Memory: 2 GB RAM, Graphics: 1024x768 High Color +, DirectX: Version 9.0, Storage: 500 MB available space

Release Date: 29 Sept 2018

Languages: Chinese only (just text, no audio) UPDATE: English available from 20th June 2019

Chinese Level Required: HSK4 + (this is very subjective of course. The game is text based, and most screens only move on when you click, so it is potentially accessible to anyone with enough patience to look up unknown vocab) 

Proportion of play time where you'll be using Chinese: 90% (mostly text based, so you'll be immersed in Chinese for a large proportion of the game)

Specific/specialised Vocab Learned: Childhood (toys, games), school (academic subjects, activities)

 

This game has been very popular since it was released on Steam last year, with over a million copies sold. You take control of a Chinese baby, and are responsible for raising him or her all the way to the all important 高考 (college entrance exam). Getting the highest exam score possible is the basic aim of the game. Along the way you'll have to make choices of how to spend your time (studying maths or playing computer games), which friends to hang out with, what to spend your pocket money on, and how to resolve moral dilemmas (do you let that classmate copy your homework or not?). You'll need to balance you parents' expectations with your own happiness. It's a turn based game, so you'll make all your choices and then the computer will scroll through various events and take you to the next turn (see the tutorial below for a deeper look at the gameplay). 

 

There are also various mini-games throughout the game. For example, every now and again someone (usually a neighbour or relative) will challenge your mother to a 面子 battle (battle of "face" or pride). The person will make caustic remarks in order to make your mum "lose face", and you'll have to counter with remarks of your own (usually by choosing to boast about any particular talent your child has). The more cutting the remark, the more HP the other side loses. It's fun to read the dialogue, and it was probably my favourite of the mini games.

 

 

Pros

- mostly text-based, so you'll be practising Chinese pretty much the whole time you're playing it

- addictive light-puzzle elements

- a fun and satirical, but affectionate, look at Chinese childhood. You'll learn a lot about Chinese attitudes to school and parenting along the way.

- cheap (a paid as much for my most recent textbook)

 

Cons

- can get repetitive as you play through the game a 2nd and 3rd time as each new generation is born (the same events, classmates etc tend to turn up game after game). On the bright side, this repetition could be good from a Chinese-learning perspective (helping with memorising new vocab)

- text-based/puzzle games might not be your cup of tea, but you're playing to learn Chinese, not to have fun, right?

- no audio (text only)

 

 

Basic Tutorial

 

Although it's a simple game once you get going, the first playthrough can be intimidating (I stopped my first one 5 minutes in and didn't come back to it until a few weeks later). I'm not going to cover everything, but I'll explain the most important mechanics, which will be enough to get you going. I'll be happy to answer any questions later if anyone gets stuck.

 

This is the main screen of the game:

 

 

Being a turn based game, there are a number of tasks you need to complete before moving on to the next turn. In general, the first thing you want to do each turn is to click on the little thought bubble appearing above your character. This will open up the following screen:

 

 

You can think of the little coloured "gems" as brain cells. Each time you click on one, it will develop a corresponding attribute, which you can see listed on the left hand side of the screen. The attributes are as follows:

智商 - intelligence

情商 - emotional intelligence

体魄 - physique

记忆力 - memory

想象力 - imagination

魅力 - charm/charisma

 

You'll notice that, apart from the coloured "brain cell" coloured gems, there are also other little cards to choose from. I'll let everyone discover the function of most of these for themselves, but I'll briefly describe the two most important. Firstly, clicking on the orange light bulb symbols will increase what the game calls your 悟性点数 (power of understanding/comprehension points). You can see how many of these you have accumulated by looking at the bulb symbol in the top right hand corner of the screen. You'll need these in order to learn new abilities (which I'll cover in the next screen), so I tend to prioritise the light bulb symbols over the coloured attributes. The second most important one is the symbol which looks like an old telephone with an arrow pointing at it. Clicking on this will take you to a new board, where each  of the attributes/lightbulb symbols will be worth more points than before. It will also replenish 50 of your move points. In most circumstances you are going to want to click on this as soon as you discover it.

 

Of course, it wouldn't be much of a game if there wasn't some kind of limit on your "moves" to force you into making choices. The number of "brain cells" you can choose per term is stated under the bolt of lightening symbol (行动力点) in the top right hand corner of the screen. Once this reaches zero, you can't click on any more attributes and it's time to move on to the next screen.

 

 

You will notice 4 buttons in the lower right hand side of the screen. The most important is the 学习 tab. Here you will be able to "purchase" new skills using your 醒悟/lightbulb points. To begin with these will be very simple skills (learning to walk, learning to talk etc), but later you will get the opportunity to learn more advanced subjects (algebra, piano, coding etc). Now, although the 醒悟/lightbulb points are needed to directly purchase these skills, the cost will depend on the level of each of your attributes. For example, the higher your 体魄/physicality attribute, the less the physical skills (such as walking, swimming, basketball) will cost in terms of  醒悟/lightbulb points, which is why it's important to choose carefully when doing the brain cell exercise in the previous screen.

 

 

That being done, it's time to move on the the final major screen, 安排 (on the far left of the screen). You have six time slots to fill with either studying (学习) or leisure (娱乐). At the top of the screen are two bars, 父母的满意度 (parents' level of satisfaction) and 我的压力 (pressure/stress). Too much studying will cause the stress bar to increase, and will eventually lead to a nervous breakdown. On the other hand, if your parents' level of satisfaction gets too low (by doing too many leisure activities), then they will admonish you. Because of this, it's a good idea to maintain a healthy balance of the two. Each activity will also have an effect on your attributes (intelligence etc). Once you've chosen, it's time to move on to the next turn by clicking the green 下一回 button in the lower right.

 

 

This is what the end turn screen looks like. It will cycle between 9 screens. 6 of these will just be the skills you chose to practise, and the remaining 3 will be various random events (you fall out with a friend, you get caught playing games in an internet cafe, you lose your homework etc). Once all 9 screens have been cycled through, the game will return to the main screen for your next turn. 

That's basically the meat of the game. You'll continue cycling through turns all the way to the 高考 (college entrance exam). After that, you'll get a couple more screens where you'll go to college and then get choose a husband/wife, whereupon the next generation will be born and you can start the whole process all over. You always seem to start off as a working class family, so don't expect t be able to get into Qinghua or Peking University until at least the 3rd or 4th gen.

 

Edit:

If anyone is looking for a deeper tutorial, here is a detailed analysis of the how the game mechanics work (in Chinese):

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1620393135

[StChris]

Just a couple more basic things. Apart from 学习, here are what the other buttons in the bottom right do:

 

社交 (social life) - this is where you can choose which friends to hang out with or who to pursue as a boyfriend/girlfriend

 

商店 (shop) - you can buy things using your pocket money. Some will help relieve stress (ice cream, movie tickets), some will help with your studies (exam secrets book), and some will help develop new hobbies (buying a guitar etc).

 

事务 (duties/jobs) - here you can do household chores (to earn extra money) or ask for things from your parents (eg a new games console - whether they get you one is down to the amount of face you have, which is earned by doing well in exams and doing things your parents approve of)

 

期望 (hopes/expectations) - your parents will have various hopes and dreams throughout the game. Normally these involve achieving something within a certain timeframe (eg learn the piano). You earn rewards if you complete these.

[agewisdom]

@StChris Thanks for the great review. It just might help me get started since I've just about completed HSK 3 and starting HSK 4. Couldn't come at a better time.

@roddy Thanks for highlighting the game was on the Steam sale, which I couldn't pass after seeing the good reviews on it.

[mouse]

Does this have audio? As in, do voice actors read the dialogue? 

[StChris]

@mouseNo Audio, unfortunately. 

 

@agewisdom good luck. Let me know how you get on with it.

[roddy]

@StChris Have you tried deliberately raising a delinquent yet?

[StChris]

@roddy Haha, not yet! Unfortunately, China seems to keep as tight control on the gaming industry as on any other part of the entertainment industry. While the writers of the game obviously had fun satirising Chinese educational and cultural norms, it seems they can only push things so far. For example, there are some events that let you choose how to act, but for the smoking one you're just told that you rejected the cigarette, you're not given a choice. It's all fairly wholesome.

 

What I could do is let the kid play computer games and basketball every turn and see how that turns out. Maybe we could all have a competition to see who can make their kid get the lowest gaokao score. ?

[agewisdom]

I went through the let's play. Looks pretty interesting, especially the dialogue part between the mom and her child. A lot of reading involved, definitely useful for learning Mandarin. Especially in bite sized chunks. Going to take a lot of persistence though.

 

Looks somewhat overwhelming on first pass.

[StChris]

@agewisdom The best method is to just jump in and start playing. Once you get past the first few rounds you'll soon get in the rhythm. My first kid only got a gaokao score of around 370, which I understand as being pretty low. 

[StChris]

If anyone is looking for a deeper tutorial, here is a detailed analysis of the how the game mechanics work (in Chinese):

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1620393135

[StChris]

Good news, the developer has announced that an English localisation is on the way:

 

Quote

Hi there,

We are happy to announce that we are working on the English and Japanese localization right now. And later we will work on more languages. 

We will try to finish the localization as soon as possible. Hope you will enjoy Chinese Parents by then!
 

 

[StChris]

English version coming 20th June:

 

[roddy]

A third off until Monday, and now in English. Had a flick through the screenshots and the translation seemed decent - couple of minor issues / typos, but nothing that would stop you enjoying the game.