If you're an SLG planner and haven't heard of Last War, you may be a little out of step with the industry, because these days "SLG planners all over China" have gone inside to learn from it.
Of course, there is an element of exaggeration in saying this, but the matter actually originated from a screenshot that has recently circulated.
In it, a player named "Happy Dog Trick Planning" said on the channel "Trick planning, don't copy it, just come and do it", while the following users are sighing "All of China's SLG planning is here". On the left of the screenshot is an alliance called "Planning Army". In other words, a large number of SLG planners have come to learn from this game.
A practitioner close to LeGou and Lilith told me that this new product, which was quietly tested in some parts of overseas a few days ago, but "alarmed" the whole industry, is the second SLG developed by Le Dog after "The Awakening of All Nations" (ROK).
The "planning army" has poured into a new tour learning that has just been tested, which shows the industry's recognition of Le Dog and ROK. Earlier, the game seemed to have been endorsed by Lilith. Zhang Zilong, the head of distribution, once said in an interview that after ROK, Le Dog's new products still maintain cooperation with them, which is likely to refer to "Last War".
To be honest, because the experience of the first few minutes gave people too strong a sense of ROK déjà vu, I once thought it was a "skinning product", but after a deeper understanding, I found that it fully met Hou Ke's definition of category evolution, and thought that "Last War" may be expected to continue the glory of ROK and bring new changes to SLG again.
01
A strong combination of classic themes and European and American cartoons
From the perspective of UI layout and art style alone, it is normal to have a strong sense of vision.
Top: Last War Part 2: ROK
The difference is that the theme of "Last War" is more classic Western magic. Needless to say, it will still be an SLG that targets the global market, only this time it is more targeted.
The background setting of the game is also more classic: the story takes place on a continent called "Tamaris", where there were originally three major forces of elves, alliances and orcs, until one day, the evil dragon fell from the sky, the homes of the people were destroyed, and the situation on the continent suddenly changed... It is not difficult to guess that players need to develop and expand their base areas, resist evil, join the alliance, and then dominate the world.
The multi-faction setting corresponds to the multi-civilization of ROK, and all three of them also have their own stylized architectural shapes, classes, and exclusive development buff blessings. It is worth noting that Last War shows differentiation more thoroughly.
First of all, the architectural styles of the three are highly recognizable. For example, the overall style of elven architecture is mostly embellished with vegetation, representing nature; the alliance is dominated by stone buildings, which is a symbol of civilization; and the wooden buildings of orcs are mostly spiked and wild.
Secondly, the three classes are truly tailored to the forces themselves, not only in appearance, but also in terms of ability attributes.
Western magic, classic three-ethnic combination, these elements themselves in Europe and the United States are very popular, coupled with a highly recognizable European and American cartoon style, "Last War" can at least quickly gain the attention of a large number of players in the early stage with a very low cognitive threshold.
Speaking of fine arts, "Last War" strengthens the picture quality and detail performance on the basis of retaining THE highly recognizable European and American cartoon style of ROK, which is more advanced.
For example, the big map, I was born in the north at the beginning, the whole land is covered with snow, white. Compared with ROK, it is not difficult to find that the whole picture of "Last War" is more plump, with a large amount of vegetation cover, and there is a stronger sense of dynamics, trees and grass will sway with the wind, if you look closely, you will find that the sky and snowflakes are falling.
With seamless zoom technology, you can enter the main city directly from the large map, and you can also see the rocks and vegetation that make up the city wall around the base are also dressed in silver.
The key details are better interpreted on the hero unit. Look closely at the two heroes below, the first male mage has a worn treatment at the cuffs of her coat, and the second female knight has obvious scratches on her shoulder and breastplate:
At the same time, by comparing ROK, it is obvious that the art style of "Last War" is more realistic. Although the characters of the two are the same proportion of exaggerated European and American cartoon shapes, the latter's material is closer to reality, the armor and weapons are permeated with a cold metallic luster, the texture of leather and cloth is extremely strong, and the lighting is more realistic.
If we simply and crudely understand category evolution as a higher level of game quality, Last War does evolve in terms of graphics compared to its predecessors. Of course, the simple theme change and art upgrade, in the final analysis, lacks some real points of view, and many people are looking forward to another subversive gameplay innovation.
02
It's not a simple ROK skin change
Last War's gameplay doesn't, at least not the kind of disruptive innovations you can recognize at a glance.
Some players with slightly richer experience and a little more anxious SLG may immediately characterize it after walking through the city construction guide, training soldiers, jumping on the big map to fight the wild, exploring the fog, and joining the alliance of this whole set of beginner tutorials, and will immediately characterize it - a proper ROK framework.
Admittedly, Last War's big framework is still "ROK-like", but it is not a "skinning game". When asked how he views category evolution, Hou Ke believes that "breakthroughs can be sought from gameplay and business models... Any of these two points can be a breakthrough and solve some pain points, which I think is a category evolution."
Previously, the free march was the answer given by ROK. Le Dog obviously believes that there is still value in this regard, so he added on the basis of the free march and introduced the design of manual release skills for Last War.
(Note the skill icon in the upper right corner)
This skill system has two characteristics worth emphasizing, one is strong functionality and the other is replaceability.
Strong functionality means that skills not only have simple and rough damage types, but also displacement types such as acceleration and teleportation, control types such as stuns, and even acceleration types that reduce the construction time.
Replaceability means that active skills are not tied to heroes, but to equipment, and once equipment is replaced, the skills will be replaced.
Aggressiveness and replaceability have two more obvious effects:
One is the enhanced micro-exercises, which further enhance the player's sense of participation on the basis of the RTS free march.
The use of active release skills to enhance the player's sense of participation reminds me of the "legend of Xiaoice Ice (Dota Legend)" a few years ago, which was also designed to manually release the big move skill, which was regarded as a deep innovation of the card play system at that time, effectively solving the problem of insufficient player participation, once popular throughout the country, known as a national card game.
(Official definition: National Action Card Mobile Game has a profound impact on future generations)
The second is to expand the strategic depth of the game. Players must not only consider the fit of heroes and equipment, but also flexibly change skills according to the actual situation. It is conceivable that in GVG, excellent commanders can use this mechanism to use a reasonable team division of labor to play more exciting team battles.
In terms of enhancing the depth of strategy, Last War also proposes the concept of "air combat", and the three major forces currently have their own exclusive flying units.
Hou Ke also said in the interview, "Before ROK, many SLGs only had war reports, and the presentation of the battle process was not intuitive enough, and light players may not be interested." The design of adding the manual release skill this time may be Le Dog's further attempt to break the circle.
From the perspective of breaking the circle, "Last War" also has another attempt that surprises me - it has transferred the traditional card mobile game, especially the character good feeling cultivation system of the two-dimensional category, to the game.
In the novice stage, I could clearly feel that the game had spent more effort on the narrative, but it wasn't until I clicked on the hero wandering around the main city, triggered the dialogue, and then successfully improved the good touch, unlocked a series of rewards and character stories and voices, that I reacted that Last War actually wanted to try to make the player "pay for love".
(Unlock character stories and voices with favorability)
Judging by the attributes of a regular SLG audience, this is a bold attempt. However, Lilith co-founder Zhang Hao also revealed that in the ROK user group, the proportion of original SLG players is only 50%. At the same time, the female users of ROK are also much higher than the average SLG.
Therefore, following the idea of going out of the circle, the cultivation system of "Last War" that digs deep into the emotional level can play a role in diverting the attention of light players in the middle and late stages, and at the same time, with the help of the emotional connection between players and characters, effectively strengthen the user's loyalty and stickiness. If the free march solves the problem of retention in the early stage, then this cultivation system may become a weapon to improve the server ecology in the middle and late stages in the future.
In short, it will be mistaken for ROK's "skin changing product", only because many of the innovative attempts this time are hidden more deeply, and only after in-depth experience can we realize that this game still contains Le Dog's thinking on the evolution of the category.
03
The future of SLG is to fight for the understanding of categories
As early as 2020, the total turnover of ROK has exceeded $1 billion. At the same time, it also ranked second in SensorTower's 2019 and 2020 annual overseas revenue list, second only to "PUBG MOBIL", which was the well-deserved first SLG at that time. The latest data shows that as of April 2021, the total overseas turnover of the game has exceeded 1.6 billion US dollars.
Debut is the peak, followed by spotlights and applause, there is certainly pressure and challenge. And this kind of pressure and challenge is not only brought about by the crown of ROK, but also the result of increasingly fierce competition in the outside world.
After ROK, countless SLG rising stars have emerged on major overseas lists, and even showed a good ability to absorb gold from the former. The latest data report from SensorTower mentioned that in the past year, the payment of U.S. players on strategic mobile games has increased by 23.5% to $4.2 billion, of which 4X (SLG) accounts for about two-thirds.
There is no doubt that the fierce competition will continue. And when the big manufacturers are adding SLG, what will they compete for?
"The key is whether your understanding of the category is deep enough."
"Looking back at some new products, the art style does not have a particularly brilliant point, and the gameplay has not formed its own understanding, but just draws the scoop according to the gourd, so it is certainly difficult to attract the core users of other games to their own products." 」
This is the answer that Hou Ke gave in an interview with us, and looking back at "Last War" at this time, it is not difficult to find that this game is the best annotation of these two sentences.