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Cultural authenticity is one of the development pillars the publisher has emphasized publicly for Blood Message. The team at 24 Entertainment Lin'an Studio has framed the project not just as a Tang-era action-adventure but as a historical-research effort, anchored in a collaboration with the Gansu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and grounded in primary historical artifacts rather than stylized reinterpretation.
The Collaboration
The studio partnered with the Gansu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism on the historical groundwork for the game. The collaboration spans four areas the publisher has named directly: historical site scanning, geomorphological restoration, cultural relic digitization, and ecological detail reproduction. All four feed into how the Hexi Corridor and the broader Tang-era setting are rendered in-engine.
Research Area | What It Means |
|---|---|
Historical site scanning | Surveys of preserved Tang-era and adjacent locations along the corridor, used as direct reference for in-game architecture, ruins, and natural landmarks. |
Geomorphological restoration | Reconstruction of how the 9th-century corridor would have read on the ground: how deserts and oases, river courses, and mountain passes have shifted over more than a thousand years. |
Cultural relic digitization | 3D capture of period artifacts including armor, tools, weapons, ritual objects, and everyday items, so the game's material culture matches real surviving pieces. |
Ecological detail reproduction | Period-appropriate flora, fauna, and weather across the desert and oasis biomes the player crosses. |
The Cave 156 Mural
The most direct historical reference in the reveal trailer is an in-engine reproduction of the Tang dynasty mural from Cave 156 of the Mogao Caves. The mural is a real artifact, preserved across more than a thousand years of cave maintenance, and depicts the army of Zhang Yichao on campaign during the historical rebellion the game dramatizes. The studio reproduced the artifact accurately rather than inventing a stylized version.
The choice to use the real mural rather than a fictional set dressing sets the standard for the rest of the visual research. Tang-era weapons, costumes, architecture, and ritual elements visible in the trailer follow the same approach.
Visual Result In The Reveal Trailer
The June 2025 reveal trailer is composed entirely of in-game footage, with no CGI. The studio has been specific about this point. The scenes visible in the trailer that draw on the cultural-authenticity research include:
Mountainside Buddha figures and cliffside cave openings consistent with the real Mogao complex.
A reproduction of the Cave 156 mural as an in-engine asset, not a still image overlay.
Tang-era candlelit sanctuary interiors lined with shelves of votive lamps and offering cups.
Tibetan-pattern armor and gear on the enemy patrols visible in the stealth scenes.
Tang-era pagodas and architectural elements consistent with surviving Hexi Corridor sites.
Sunlit cliffside pilgrim paths overlooking sandy plateaus, matching real corridor geography.
Themes The Research Supports
The publisher's framing positions the research effort as more than a visual exercise. The game is sold as "the last tale of loyalty in the Great Tang," and the historical content is meant to make that loyalty feel earned. The Han communities of the Hexi Corridor really had spent two generations under occupation; the people the Messenger represents really were preserving a culture across that gap.
The publisher's tagline frames the protagonists as "unsung heroes" rather than emperors or generals; the research effort gives the world they walk through enough material weight to make that framing readable. A corridor that looks like a generic desert would not carry the same thematic load as one that visibly preserves Tang-era objects, signage, and ritual practice.
What Has Not Been Disclosed
Specific historians or cultural advisors: no individual researchers from the Gansu collaboration have been named publicly.
Scope of the digitized relic library: how many objects were captured, and how many appear in-game versus only as reference, has not been described.
Additional reproduced murals or artifacts beyond the Cave 156 piece have not been confirmed individually.
Languages and dialects: whether period-accurate spoken languages appear in dialogue, and how localization handles them, has not been laid out.