Introduction: When cloud players finally see clearly that the "Pokémon" series of games is the kind of hegemonic IP that "you scold casually, people don't worry about selling", will they also calm down to understand the charm of the work?
At the just-concluded Pokémon Face-to-Face Conference, game developer Game Freak unveiled for the first time the official ninth-generation work of the Pokémon series, Pokémon Juju/Purple. Influenced by the culture of Mr. Jin Yong's martial arts masterpiece Tianlong Babu, when "Zhu" and "Purple" appear together as related words, we always have a collective consciousness of wanting to summon Xiao Feng, but Nintendo and overseas players obviously have no impulse for this (an irrelevant cold knowledge: it was not until more than two years ago that Mr. Jin Yong's works were officially translated and published overseas by an Italian publisher).
In fact, what really sparked the discussion was whether the new picture could reach the minimum level. Are there new rules for versus battles? Can the full picture book be launched in the first stage? Can there be a communication transmission between Zhu/Zi and Sword/Shield? To what extent the open-world form presented by Arzeus can be applied to orthodox new works.
Xiao Feng and Arjun of the Eight Parts of the Heavenly Dragon
Next, in the form of self-questioning and self-answering, combined with my past experience of the Pokémon series of games (from the first generation to the present), I will talk to you about the changes that "Zhu/Purple" may bring, and the illusion that we should have given up early at the beginning, and the illusion that GF may open up the next generation of Pokémon games.
Q: Is it possible to let go of the illusion that technology is unrealistic?
A: Required.
Unlike games with certain functional requirements or play thresholds such as "The Last Survivor", "Eldon's Legal Ring", "Only Wolf", "Resident Evil" and so on (at least not timid, this alone will dissuade many people), there is no "waiting for the PC version" or "hand-wrecked" humility, cloud players in the face of "Pokémon", its attitude is always particularly condescending. The reason is that because of the popularity of Nintendo handheld and its PC simulator perennial still water deep current, and the dailyization of various peripheral products of Pokémon IP, many people have more or less accumulated the experience of Pokémon trainers.
As a result, the inertial thinking of the great evolution of the screen during the iteration of the game has become the biggest point of controversy in the public opinion of domestic players since the Pokémon series entered the NS console, and even the "indulgence" statement of "Crystal Diamond / Bright Pearl" has been moved out. Pokémon games are obviously so hot and sold, but it is difficult to bring traffic dividends to the anchor, and the poor viewing caused by poor screen is a major reason.
The confidence that Arzeus brings to players does not come from technical power, but from the optimization of gameplay
Nowadays, the frame drop of "Zhu /Purple" is obvious, the modeling is still not lost in the level of the previous generation of trailers, obviously far from the ideal state of some players, so players who want to play but can't stand the picture should not ask "how much technical power has evolved this time", can add details on the basis of "Sword /Shield", design more Pokémon dynamic modules, it is already GF's full strength, and it is self-evident that the picture party and gameplay supporters should "reflect".
Q: Will the open-world ecology and gameplay of Al Zeus be retained?
A: Partially reserved.
The two main features of the open world of Arzeus are the capture of Pokémon directly on the map screen in the form of an action game without cutting battles, and the ability for Pokémon to move freely on the map in real scale and grow wildly, thus creating many interesting interactive scenes.
"Zhu /Purple" trailer can be seen that the game map still retains the true proportion of Pokémon, the capture method is officially called "maintaining the classic gameplay of fighting and capturing Pokémon unique to the Pokémon series", so the efficiency of "obsessing with pitching and refusing to fight" in ten minutes and thirty ducks in "Arzeus" may be difficult to achieve, and the efficiency of the work such as brushing flashes will be reduced, how to adjust the core collection elements that occupy a considerable proportion of the game time will be lightweight. After "Arzeus" was integrated into the classic gameplay of "Zhu/Purple", the trade-off made by GF.
Al Zeus offers high-speed movements that allow players to explore the open world
In terms of open world, the so-called "degree of freedom" of "Zhu/Zi" should be limited to the degree of reading from town to field without switching, because with the NS function and GF's technical power, after entering in a region like "Arzeus", it is undoubtedly the most reasonable plan to launch a regional open map adventure. As for the seamless big map of the whole process, according to the frequency of the overturning of the epidemic in the past two years, even if he GF dares to do it, I will ask you if you dare to play?
Q: What region is the new work based on as a real prototype?
A: Spain.
Although the official does not say explicitly, but from the trailer's natural scenery and architectural style, it can be determined that the realistic correspondence of the "Zhu/Purple" game stage is Spain, and the remaining suspense lies in whether the player is stepping on spain or the entire Iberian Peninsula including Portugal as more information flows out in the future, and as a famous maritime country in history, a large area of pioneering land has been reserved for the expansion pack from the beginning.
The contrast between the game scene and the real Spain
Each realistic prototype of the Pokémon world will affect the specific settings of the game, such as "Sun and Moon" Arora prototype is Hawaii, the character understands the awkward dance moves; "Sword and Shield" chooses the United Kingdom, so the dojo battlefield is designed as a football field, and the character will also change into a white short-sleeved sportswear like the English national team.
I personally predict that if the wild Pokémon battle capture has a convenient way to throw the ball directly like Arzeus, it will take inspiration from the Spanish bullfighting, use the invincible time of the character's tumbling action, urgently avoid the wild Pokémon sprint attack, and then increase the success rate of throwing the poké ball within a certain period of time; or avoid consuming the wild Pokémon stamina, improve the capture success rate when it is tired, and so on. But anyway, the "paella" in the cooking system is definitely not running, no flash carp king, neon fish and octopus bucket please line up to enter the kitchen.
Q: Will there be a new battle rule?
A: Yes.
From new attributes, new features, new moves, to mega evolution with full performance effects, Z moves, and the polarization of "bigger than big" in Sword/Shield, the real symbol that divides Pokémon's works in each generation is the evolution of battle rules. Pokémon battle seems to be a turn-based battle between elves, but its underlying logic is similar to TCG construction and game, which is why in the first year of the release of the original Pokémon game, Pokémon cards can be launched synchronously, becoming a golden river that is no less than game products today.
Speaking of the game, we take the player's impressive mega evolution and extreme giant as an example, the former is not balanced (for a while the official contest even prohibits players from using mega rules), but the high-quality ornamentality brought by the change in pokémon appearance makes the player, especially the clearance collection party, feel very satisfied, and the specific mega evolution has also become a kind of collection element, expanding the length of the game process; and the polarization can be understood as the more reasonable rules of the mega evolution, but the presentation method is more monotonous.
Whether it is remade or reborn before and after "Sword and Shield", there is not much PVP battle value, or there is simply no PVP option, so "Zhu/Purple" is bound to come up with new rules and create a new battle environment, otherwise the annual Pokémon Competition will have no point to watch. I personally think that the concept of "transformation" has been played almost, according to the Japanese ACG setting convention, perhaps it is the turn of the "fusion", and in the Pokémon card, that is, the PTC, there has been an environment called "tag team", which is the main joint attack of the same attribute Pokémon, the game is to introduce this concept? Or is there something that GF can do unexpectedly? It will be the key to determining the reputation of "Zhu/Zi" among the core players in the future.
Q: Does the Pokémon setting return to the traditional style?
A: But what is the traditional style?
Starting from 3DS's "Pokémon Day/Moon", with the gradual increase in Pokémon created by European and American painters, the "Insect Army" led by the burst muscle mosquitoes destroyed the inherent aesthetic of Pokémon to a certain extent, and to "Sword/Shield", the stitching monster design that triggered "Big Brother ptsd" made the game, which was already questionable at that time, encounter a new crisis from art design. Of course, you can criticize my stereotypes of bugs and stitching monsters from the perspective of multiculturalism and even the equality of all sentient beings, but in the world of Pokémon, it doesn't matter if you have money (anyway, there is a king as a cash machine), and being "cute" is the biggest capital to do whatever you want.
I reject this setting of the bursting muscle mosquito
Therefore, the announcement of "Zhu/Purple" Yusanjia is a good start, and old players know the ecological logic of "the more cute you are when you are a child, the more fierce you are after evolution", but who can refuse grass cats and ducks? After the press conference, a large number of painters around the second creation of the new Imperial Three Houses once again let the industry see the soft power of Nintendo, and the last time this happened, it was traced back to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision, and the Star Kirby exposed the same cool heat of the car form. In addition to the Yusanjia, at present, "Zhu Zi" does not have any new Pokémon intelligence revealed, I am more concerned about starting from "Sun / Moon", GF likes to engage in the so-called "regional form", saying that good sounds is Darwin's law of natural selection, saying that it is not good is that the designers are lazy and casually change to facilitate delivery. The Iberian Peninsula is picturesque all year round, so don't make any variations.
Q: Did Masuda put away his household registration book?
A: The scolding that should be suffered, you can't hide from it.
The biggest controversy of "Sword / Shield" at the beginning was the drastic deletion of the number of picture books in the first stage, and did not support cross-generational communication, resulting in the pokémon that the player had pulled hard to pull was facing the big crisis of being kicked out of the environment, and even expelling the Pokémon, for a time the player's public opinion was very loud, crazy greetings to the producer Shunichi Masuda and his family, the scene was more tragic than the PTCG to open several swollen boxes.
However, the "Zhu / Purple" launch stage probability can not take into account the quantity and quality, not only the GF official first time of the announcement shows that the inheritance of the generation of "home" can be docked after the game is released, and considering that the development cycle of "Zhu / Purple" and "Arzeus" are quite multiple, the workload increases, the number of new Pokémon can ideally have 300 is good, when the time comes to land on the new work of "passport" will be issued to which original Pokémon, it is bound to cause a lot of controversy in the player love group, I only wish there were duck-billed fire dragons and electric shock monsters.
Q: Can I still buy Breath of the Wild 2 with my allowance?
A: Isn't "Zhu/Purple" fragrant?
Finally, let's try to evaluate the new game's year-round listing plan from the perspective of Nintendo's overall software distribution strategy. Since the release of the NS host, not only has the sales volume reached a new high, but the low function that was originally criticized has largely avoided the lack of production capacity caused by the chip shortage and has become the brightest star in the market during the epidemic.
In this process, the "Pokémon" of the handheld era has a great trend of aging, even if there is a reproduction and outsourcing, but whether it is "let's go Ibu/Pikachu" or "Arzeus" is an extension of the classic gameplay, rather than a pure regional product like "Shoot with Music" or "Pokémon Iron Fist", which is unique in the relatively low and convenient development environment of the previous handheld. "Zhu / Purple" in the first time of the announcement of the year-end release date, considering that Nintendo is not EA, there is no reason to snipe themselves, plus "Breath of the Wilderness 2" has not been new news after entering 22 years (even uncle news), the second half of the year first use "Witch 3" and "XenoBlade 3" transition, and then put "Zhu / Purple" to win the year-end business war is not a big problem, so look forward to "Breath of the Wild 2" and "Zhu / Purple" on the same stage friends, the probability will be disappointed.
Conclusion: I always emphasize a point of view, that is, "Pokémon" is not a simple game IP, or the game is just a piece of territory on the huge commercial map of "Pokémon", every time the Pokémon game conference, the most mentioned on the bullet screen is to ask the developer where the purchase link of those Pokémon dolls is, which is the magic of the all-age indiscriminate hegemonic IP.