Telling good stories in music games is a feature of Rhea.
The story of "Ancient Tree Melody DEEMO" is relatively obscure, and many players have analyzed the game plot through details after the launch of the game. Later, it was learned that the game told a moving story of "brother sacrificing his life to protect his sister", and players said that they had "great staying power".
Yesterday, the IP sequel of "DEEMO" "Flower Rain Melody DEEMO II." was launched on the international service, and then topped the Japanese iOS free list, and it was also located in the top 10 of the free list in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore, and the game was still concerned by many players around the world at the beginning of the launch, and the game new knowledge also experienced this game for the first time.
Fuse AVG's audio game to tell a more three-dimensional story
The storyline of DEEMO II is completely independent of the previous game, and even players who are new to IP works will not have too much of a threshold for understanding.
This time, the game is set in a station located in the center of the world. The world outside the station continues to rain heavily, and everything that is rained on it will grow white flowers and disappear from the world. Many residents live in the station to hide from the rain, and the player plays Ai Ke, a special being who has disappeared and reappeared.
The work depicts a realistic scene with a breath of life, and even if it does not dig into whether there is a deep meaning, it is already a complete story of another world.
Unlike the previous generation, which only told the story through stop-motion pictures, DEEMO II added 2D animation, 3D scenes, and Japanese dubbing. CG animation has a cinematic texture, which is easier to immerse people than the picture animation of the previous game. The new game can present the plot bluntly, the character image is more vivid, and the mass gamer does not need to study the details of the game to understand what story is being told.
In-game animations
Including the game UI animation also shows the raindrops in the clouds and the world under the water, through these details to portray the game and "rain" closely related themes.
The detailed plot presentation paves the way for the game's category integration. This sequel is positioned as "Music Game + AVG", in addition to experiencing music games, players can also talk to NPCs in the game and explore in the scene.
1. The sound play method is simple and easy to use
Purely as a music game, DEEMO II adopts a new story-consistent expression in the picture during the playing process, and the gameplay is still suitable for mass players.
The game makes some trade-offs in the details of the graphics played. In the previous work, a lot of black and white tones were used, and the background would appear from the judgment line to indicate the accompaniment of the piano keys, and there was also a background that changed with breathing, and the picture was not exaggerated but had a sense of atmosphere.
《DEEMO》
This time, the game screen has more small details that fit the story. For example, white petals will float from the top of the picture, and the judgment line will also produce ripples similar to rain falling on the water when playing, and if you look closely, you will find that the keys and the reflection in the water are found.
The tone of the picture has become a blue sheet, a white background and a black piano key, and the background of the accompaniment key and the sense of breathing has been cut off, and the keys have no blurred edges and become clean and clean. At first glance, DEEMO II pays more attention to freshness, and the hazy atmosphere beauty is not so strong, but the black keys, although slightly prominent, can also allow the player to focus on the keys.
《DEEMO Ⅱ》
The game's playing method has not changed much, except for the single key and the sliding key, this time only the long button has been added. Over the years, the falling music game has been seeking innovative points, some increasing the number and variation of the decision line, such as "Phigros"; some simply adding three-dimensional decision lines in the air, such as "Prosody Source Point". The innovation of gameplay brings freshness to the core players, but the new learning costs also dissuade a group of hard-working players.
Left: Phigros | Right: The Source Point of Prosody
Deemo II, by contrast, is a little easier to pick up and intuitively understands gameplay. For players who have only tasted the music game, even if there is no teaching content, it will not be too difficult to get started.
2. Integrate AVG content to optimize narrative
In the previous game, there were only 3 game scenes and 3 game characters, but DEEMO II. added a large number of 3D scenes and more than 50 scene NPCs, so it incorporated a lot of AVG elements to enrich the game content.
Three-dimensional scenes have more interactive elements. According to the game's plot, the rain outside the station will gradually become smaller or even stop as the music is played, and after the NPC repairs the station, more scenes will be gradually unlocked.
As in the previous game, players can also get musical scores (unlocking playable songs) through scene interactions. NPCs in the scene also bring side quests, and players can solve puzzles in the game scene after chatting, and also get new scores. With the addition of the elements of exploration and puzzle solving, the gameplay experience becomes richer.
Puzzle clues for side quests
Chatting with station residents is also part of the quest, complementing the worldview setting in a fragmented way. For example, through dialogue, it can be learned that the magician who created this world has left, and the residents have lost hope for the future. Past deeds can be learned little by little through interaction with residents, and the future development of the plot will require further exploration by players.
3. The integration of branding and commercialization
DEEMO tends to be a single-player music game, while DEEMO II is more of an online game.
The first is the setting of the "focus value". The "Focus Point" in the game is somewhat similar to the stamina value in other games, and playing the song when there is a "Focus Value" will advance the repair progress and further advance the plot development. It can also be played without "Focus Points", but players will no longer unconditionally complete the story in one day.
In addition, in order to cultivate the habit of players to log in and play continuously, the game has also set up a lot of rewards. For example, once a day to check in online will be rewarded; each day there are specific day tasks, complete three tasks to receive rewards; set up a weekly limited time activity section, the active tasks will only be unlocked day by day.
Activity pages that are unlocked day by day
On these basis, DEEMO II also tried to promote player consumption in the form of Battle Pass. Players can purchase unlocked content that includes skin skin skins for Echo and DEEMO in addition to the Track Pack.
There is nothing wrong with commercialization in order to operate the product, after all, DEEMO II has no social element, and it is not mandatory to pay for content. Consumables needed to participate in the event can be obtained through scene interactions or daily missions, and driving payment is secondary, and DEEMO II strongly shows a desire to stabilize the user base.
The 10-year-old Rhea aims to reach more users
Founded in 2011, Rhea has been more than a decade, in the past ten years, Rhea has launched a number of game products, even if you count the newly launched "DEEMO II." there are only 13 games, of which the most resounding name is "DEEMO" and "Cytus" two audio game IP.
Although the number of games is small, Rhea still wants to further expand the user base and does not want to limit itself to a music game company.
As a result, Rhea, which is moving towards multiple categories, is under constant pressure to commercialize.
For example, the buyout ARPG mobile game "JuBang" launched at that time was once impressive, after all, ARPG was much heavier than previous music games and casual games, and the difficulty of research and development was naturally greater.
After the launch of "Ju Explode", it has maintained the reputation maintained by Rhea, and has reached the top of the iOS download list in 55 markets around the world, and is now also in the top 100 of the iOS paid list in 24 markets. However, the one-time payment of the game's list price of 60 yuan was constantly plagued by cracking at that time, and it is estimated that the game's revenue was eventually greatly reduced.
High-priced buyouts are still uncommon to this day, and Rhea began experimenting with market-oriented categories.
The most representative is the elimination strategy mobile game "Vientiane Story", the elimination of gameplay has a wider user base, the game added to the ten consecutive draws and other commercial monetization content is more in line with the mainstream of the market. The game's total global turnover in the first month exceeded 100 million, which was once a product with better in-app purchase revenue, but the performance of long-term operation was not satisfactory, and now the ranking on the iOS best-seller list in various markets has seriously declined.
In fact, the game's art and plot have inherited a consistently high standard, and some players will even make and update videos specifically for the plot. However, the regret of the monotony of the gameplay has never been solved, especially in this slightly heavy PVE game.
After the RTS+TCG "Battle of Eden" and the co-developed TCG "Tenjin Academy" should also be a category with a large market scale, both of which have chosen to emphasize the confrontational gameplay of PVP and abandon the plot presentation of large-scale productions. As a result, the revenue performance of the two games is even worse than that of "Vientiane Story", and the highest ranking of the domestic iOS best-seller list is outside the 100.
Neither boutique nor commercial games make money, and Rhea began to hope for the fusion of the two development paths, and DEEMO II may be a further attempt.
DEEMO II still has the characteristics of a blended plot, and the game plot is simple and straightforward, and the gameplay is also kept low. It can be seen that the game not only targets IP fans, but also hopes that more players can experience the fun of music games.
Overall, Rhea still maintains a high level of quality in the field of music and tourism. Although other products under this aura also have features, "Music Game Company" is still Rhea's most eye-catching label at present.