Just a few days before the Spring Festival, Pokémon's latest work, Pokémon Legend: Al Zeus, was released. As the first time in the series to introduce a super open map exploration, as well as the addition of action exploration of the first work, hindered by the attractive sales, as well as the further performance of the previous remake of the game, whether it is the core fans of the series, or many ordinary players who are waiting on the sidelines, the expectations are not high.
The level of picture performance given by PV publicity is difficult to make people expect too much
However, once it was released, the sound of "true incense" was incessant, and it was so fascinating to catch Pokémon and interact with Pokémon in this open world. It has not been expected, the first week of sales have also been released, up to more than 6.5 million sales, has been the series of many sequels, expansion of the record all broken, according to the "Pokémon" series has always been sales stamina, the game to break through 15 million sales does not seem to be difficult. This achievement is quite impressive even in the canon system, and the final sales of Pokémon: Pikachu, which was once the record holder of the highest sales of a single version, stopped at 14.6 million. This heat is also unexpected by many people.
Source from overseas sales data website vgchartz
Beautiful first-week sales, making it the number one on the weekly sales charts in most countries
However, in other words, the results came suddenly, or the players waited too long for this change in gameplay. As the first IP in the game industry, this behemoth has been relatively solidified in the development of the game under the precipitation of more than 20 years, and the long-term reform route hovers above the battle and cultivation of Pokémon. To see how special the changes in Al Zeus are, we have to start with the game development of Pokémon over the years.
Pokémon is a hardcore game
Cute image filter aside, Pokémon is a very special game, it was quite unexpected when it was on fire! Then quickly occupied the high ground until now. Looking back now, it's incredible, because although pokémon games are positioned for all ages, their core gameplay is a fairly hardcore game.
The original Pokémon started out selling very dismal
After experiencing many aspects of promotion, the second wave of sales boom triggered by the illustrated comic "Pippi" has become a hot game
This has to start from scratch, starting with the creative concept of tomomo Tadajiri, the father of Pokémon, the genius designer, with the idea of the traditional summer bug catching game of Japanese teenagers, splitting the whole behavior into:
1: Adventures with Teenagers [Japanese Turn-Based RPGs]
A clip from the anime Gintama, the summer catcher is once a traditional japanese culture
The most common battle in Pokémon is the NPC, the Bug Catcher
2: Capturing farmed insects has become Pokémon capture, breeding, exchanging, collecting and other behaviors, which have also transformed into the most successful basic framework of the game, especially the exchange system is a must for Pokémon games, whether there are plot exchanges from various NPCs, as well as friendship interaction with real friends, from the beginning of the pokémon series, the Pokémon series has not given up the communication evolution of some elves and the communication exchange system between players.
The earlier and more famous exchange evolution Pokémon Ghosts
3: The battle system evolving from the fighting insects, especially the human-to-human battle, has always been a major selling point of the game.
Pokémon foreign players are very large, with large and small matches and activities
The richness of these gameplays has gradually differentiated players and evolved into various genres, such as battle players, collecting players, cultivating players, hatching players, warm players, weekly plot players, etc. Different players have different expectations for Pokémon. Pokémon, which every different player can have fun with, is one of its invincible magic weapons.
Egg hatching players are quite common in China, and even a large piece of the consumer market that helps incubate eggs has been derived
What serves this whole set of cultivation and battle is the richness of the pokémon series's numerical system ahead of most similar genre works. This is a very well-established numerical system, including but not limited to:
Individual values of Pokémon [innate hidden values, individual differences in each Pokémon]
Pokémon's race values range from 0 to 255 per race, corresponding to each Pokémon's abilities such as Attack, Defense, HP, and so on.
Effort value, as the name suggests, is not innate, and the day after tomorrow is made up. In the old Pokémon series, it is a hidden value, which is a kind of accumulation of base points that is mainly obtained through combat with experience, and the Pokémon that take advantage of the base points will be much more powerful than the average Pokémon, and the difference between self-cultivation and monster collection is also compared from here. So slowly cultivating Pokémon from a low level is a very common option in the series.
Game item for Rescue Effort [Base Points].
Finally, there are elements including character and the most basic racial restraint. Each value is a stroke that moves the whole body, deeply affecting the cultivation effect and battle intensity of the elves. And especially harmonious, even if the Pokémon is now more than 900 only above the volume, it is still particularly suitable for control, there is no phenomenon of data collapse, the whole database can not only be explored in depth, but also very rich, combined with specific different ways to play, as long as you are willing to learn, it is easy to immerse yourself in it, can not extricate yourself.
From the RPG mainline to the cute Pokémon to attract new players, rely on a rich enough, repeatable and highly playable inner experience to conquer players who want to play deeply and cultivate them into fans of the series. This is the way the Pokémon series has always looked. However, due to various reasons in recent years, this framework has had some problems.
Pokémon's dilemma in recent years
1: The huge impact of the lightweight environment of single-player games
This kind of hardcore, especially the depth of numerical rather than operational, may not be a bad thing in the era of Pokémon, but in the current trend of games with a lightweight entry threshold, it is particularly difficult for players to see the inherent numerical richness through images and physical systems.
The developer GAME FREAK is also well aware of this, although thanks to the precipitation of IP, game sales have not been affected, they are still precautionary, in order to ensure that new players can smoothly experience the core part of the game, the "Pokémon" series has been working hard for many years to do some lightweight attempts in the core value, hoping to achieve this goal as far as possible without destroying the system, such as some hidden values such as hard value to pick out, or a lot of advanced values become easy to obtain and cultivate, For example, in Generation 8, you can use trait plasters to get hidden traits, or add some very easy-to-understand variable gameplay to add some new tricks to the battle. Such as mage evolution, polarization and so on.
The once fiery evolutionary model of evolution, evolution, does not continue to be used
But the effect can only be said to be average, especially some new combat mechanics, often only applicable to one generation of games, the next generation of Pokémon is likely to be torn down and restarted.
2: Under the condition that the technical force cannot keep up with the generation, the production cycle is greatly shortened
At the same time, the development cycle has not been lengthened with the times, but has been compressed, from a 2-3 year game, into a new year game is also a problem for the game to face. In the limited development time, GAME FREAK is difficult to work out fine work quickly, and even the situation that the two ends cannot be taken into account. Judging from the results, the new heel pillar that once relied on excellent single-player experience was the most hit, and the RPG weekly experience that was rich to tens or hundreds of hours in the past was cut and slashed by recent generations of orthodox sequels. This is a heavy experience for many Pokémon players who have no intention of cultivating and fighting.
One of the things that Sword/Shield has been criticized for is that the main line is crossed
For fans of the series, many changes in the value are also affected in experience. Since Black/White and Black 2/White 2, it has become more and more simple and less acceptable for many core players; this has also created the Pokémon series, although often poorly reviewed, but different audiences have very different views on its bad points.
That's why there's Alzeus! GAME FREAK found a reform area that is different from the previous routine, and the experience is as satisfying as possible for most players. This is also a return to the original point, looking back at the past, we can find that in the gameplay, the control and optimization of the core value of cultivating and cultivating is the point that the series has been trying to maintain. It is also the most mature core part of the Pokémon series. However, the Pokémon series, which has changed from a game of catching insects, has relatively ignored the process of capture.
Those changes in Arzeus
Capture gameplay improvements
Past: Pokémon's idea of capturing Pokémon is not particular now, and the basic logic is to maim the opponent through battle and then capture it. Even if you are fishing, as weak as the carp king, you have to fight with it and enter the battle screen. This form of relying on RPG combat to subdue enemies is not uncommon, and it is also found in many turn-based RPGs.
Even in the mobile game "Pokémon GO", which focuses on capturing Pokémon, the gameplay improvement of the capture is quite limited
The game is more about discovering and exploring Pokémon
Now: First of all, Arzeus is still a turn-based game, but there are two important changes.
1 is the first use of open large maps, when the game was open, many people thought that "Arzeus" is a turn-based battle mode to change the action control to a more free action game, such as "Breath of the Wild" like the action RPG game, but in fact, the purpose of this open map is to capture the elves to provide a large enough ecological space. Therefore, the map is also some distance from the open world Pokémon that the player expects, and it is regional, divided into several large areas of different terrain, climate style regional maps.
A complete map of Arzeus
However, each map is very large to explore. Rich terrain conditions liberate Pokémon from specific areas in the past, such as grass, water surface, etc., and Pokémon are truly scattered on the big map, with a more obvious sense of natural ecology. Encounters with Pokémon are no longer confined to certain terrains or grass.
2 is to further split the capture behavior, action, and at the same time unravel the strong binding of the past and the RPG gameplay. Become a unique mechanism. This mechanism is simply to give the protagonist a certain amount of mobility, while capturing Pokémon in the form of stealth gameplay.
In Al Zeus, the normal mechanism for capturing Pokémon is as follows:
When pokémon are discovered, the player cats and hides in the direction of the pokémon's visual dead end, or hides in the grass and slowly approaches
If it is not discovered by Pokémon, it does not need to enter the battle, you can directly rely on throwing out the poké ball to capture; if pokémon are alert, different Pokémon also have completely different countermeasures, some Pokémon will choose to fight with the player, not only will chase the player on the large map, close contact will also directly enter the turn-based battle, and then the game returns to the traditional Pokémon capture mechanism, maiming the opponent and capturing.
Scenes and battles are seamlessly switched between the same scene, which is also a big improvement in the game
Some will run away, ignoring the player's reaction, as long as they do not attack you, the player can still continue to throw poké balls at pokémon to capture Pokémon, and the success rate will be much lower than the success of the sneak attack. In addition, the sprite ball also has parabolic and range requirements, and different sprite balls are not only the difference in the success rate of capture, but also the difference in adaptation conditions, and also a little change in operation.
The act of projecting the poké ball is action-oriented and gameplay-oriented, and it can also enhance the player's satisfaction with the Pokémon
Similar to stealth games, in the process of capture, various props will also be used to interfere with it, which is convenient for capture. For example, projecting smoke bombs to block the line of sight, throwing out pokémon's favorite fruit, and catching it when it eats the fruit to relax the boundaries, it also has a miraculous effect.
This set of gameplay first includes the capture form of the RPG mechanic of the past, and its stealth-based capture gameplay may be common to other games. But there is no most special, only more appropriate, for Pokémon, this kind of mediocre but brings a huge improvement in gameplay, on the one hand, in several major gameplay sections, this capture Pokémon gameplay in the past is the roughest place, there is a huge room for improvement, for new players and old players, are to make a huge improvement can be quickly perceived place. At the same time, the behavior of capturing Pokémon is also more intuitive, which is a design that most players can easily experience fun.
Bringing some action from pure turn-based system not only enriches the gameplay, but also enriches the interaction between players and Pokémon
In addition, as mentioned earlier, "Pokémon" is a game that does not lack data, the number of Pokémon has accumulated for many years, it is already an incomparably large database, the current official accumulation of Pokémon has exceeded 900, if you say that the general development map game with stealth mode, you have to face a few opponents, as many as dozens of differences, then even if "Al Zeus" currently comes up with 242, compared to the experience is rich enough, even if it is to call part of the Pokémon, Even relying on the form of DLC to continue to add, the Pokémon of this game are enough to capture the needs of gameplay.
And after entering the open map, the shaping around the Pokémon can also be displayed to a greater extent, the space provided by the open map allows the player to do a lot of direct interaction with the Pokémon, and no longer rely on the past game to use some small mechanisms to perform, put into nature, but also more natural, a lot of interaction is also reflected in the capture and ecological mechanism, with the most intuitive way to reflect the characteristics of Many of the pokémon's past text descriptions. For example, Pokémon that are not afraid of people, such as small fire horses, etc. see that people will not run, and even curiously observe closely. Some group Pokémon will call out to their companions to come and beat them up, such as the crow head.
Some Pokémon features will even bring a lot of variables to the capture process, such as the magic wall puppet will use the magic wall skill to block the player's frontal thrown elf ball, so it can only sneak attack. For example, the north-facing nose will always face north, and the Tyrannosaurus rex will fly in the sky as set.
The source of the picture comes from the B station up main morning sun neuf
At the same time, the relationship between Pokémon and the player is not just confrontational. Many Pokémon are also designed to be more like an animal than just data. For example, the docile character, the auspicious egg that served as a nurse in the previous game, the player will also replenish the player's blood when encountering the player in the wild, and some lively Pokémon such as Geng Ghost will take the initiative to lick the player to play and so on
[The source of the picture comes from the B station up main Sai Sai Sai Sai Sai] The player is injured, and the auspicious egg treats the player
GAME FREAK also understands the improvement of ecology, strengthen the recognition of Pokémon personality, the game's picture book collection has also made a detailed task table, so that players can arrange according to the unique arrangement of each Pokémon, side quests are also designed around this aspect, there is a tendency to supplement and enrich the player's cognition of Pokémon, and the characteristics of these Pokémon, many of which were only reflected in the text in the past, are now all expressed from the physical system, and also further excavate the image depth of the image of these Pokémon over the years. No matter what pokémon type you belong to, you will feel a strong desire to explore this.
There are also various indicators for collecting atlases
Some regrets and future expectations of "Arzeus"
Although it is said that another way, the big framework has changed the things that many Pokémon conventions have become in the past 20 years, and the transformation has become more abundant in the capture gameplay, but in the past, the RPG elements and battle gameplay that were good at the past, the core combat mode of the game has become relatively rough, the new fierce and rapid play, as well as the ordering of rounds according to the speed, there are also some problems in the balance, such as some fast Pokémon can attack multiple times first, and the partial meat shield + high-attack Pokémon, it is difficult to make up for this loss, In particular, this generation of attribute restraint is more extreme, the damage is higher, and the game is often played in the rhythm of mutual seconds.
Compared with the main plot of "Sword/Shield", the scale of the city has become small, and at these traditional strong points, due to the construction period and development capabilities, there is still no way to guarantee, making the game appear a bit of a semi-finished product.
Particularly small-scale urban agglomerations
At the same time, the data lightweight is still in progress, this time the game will change the effort value to an intuitive struggle level, and divide the echelon of 10 levels, players can rely on props to improve, and the entire interface is also particularly eye-catching and intuitive, which is enough to make this piece stupid. It can be seen that even if there is a big breakthrough in the gameplay of capture, GAME FREAK has not given up on the reform of values.
What is in the red circle is the level of struggle, which has been done on the surface interface, and it is particularly clear to see
Although the traditional content has been simplified, the whole set of motion capture forms is really too fresh, and it is a very rare experience for players to be able to contact Pokémon in this way. This makes the author very much looking forward to the birth of the next generation of orthodox sequels, when the new capture gameplay is integrated into the system of orthodox sequels, it will be a huge improvement in the game experience, and for novice players, it will also make up for the shortcomings of the main line RPG mode to a certain extent.
It depends on how the next generation fuses the old and the new, but perhaps the biggest problem in front of GAME FREAK is the development schedule that is constantly being compressed.