Best-selling top 10 list for 1 week, after the Chinese MMO reached the top, Japanese MMO has become a new trend?

When domestic players are accustomed to using "kimchi flavor" to ridicule Korean MMO, have you noticed that the Chinese MMO represented by wuxia Xiuxian is also due to the phenomenon of supply loss and fading popularity due to high-quality new games?

Although the head of the Chinese MMO such as "Tianya Mingyue Knife" can still have a bursting market performance, and even the end game "Sword Net 3" is still growing, but behind this "a will be a success into a thousand bones" market law still makes those small and medium-sized manufacturers who can not invest high and large production feel how difficult it is for Chinese MMO to break through.

But at the same time, GameLook noticed that the MMO mobile game "Dragon Country Story" released by Purple Dragon Games still sat in the top ten of the iOS best-seller list in China a week after it was launched. Will this Japanese-style product, which is full of Japanese style from name to painting style, be a new answer to the MMO track that is rolled to death?

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Stylized packaging, highlighted

As the name suggests, the story of Dragon Country Story always revolves around the "dragon". 1,000 years after the end of the last "Human-Dragon War", the Dragon Nation was established. Humans, dragons, dragons, dragons and other races have coexisted in harmony for centuries, and everyone here is proud of being a "dragon hunter" with the dream of becoming the "greatest hunter". However, the evil dragon that was sealed 1,000 years ago has not been willing to fail, and has been trying to break the prison of time and space and rule this land again.

Hands-on demonstration

As the protagonist of the King's Road JRPG, the protagonist played by the player naturally has to go through an adventure that includes making friends, traveling, fighting and revealing the truth, and the entire adventure process also forms the core content of "The Story of the Dragon Country".

Like most MMOs, the player's connection with Dragon Nation Monogatari still begins with pinching their faces. However, due to the Q version of the character style, the game provides relatively limited face pinching options by default, but it is also fully stylized, so that people can feel the stark difference from the Korean MMO that focuses on realism and magic at a glance.

Once in the game, this typical fresh style derived from JRPG is even more pervasive, from the scene to the characters, and even to the enemies who need to fight it, it is extremely cute, except for the change of health bars and floating damage numbers, you can hardly feel the cruelty of the battle itself. In contrast, the attack effects of large monsters and fleshy skin in the large teams of Korean-style MMOs that are either violent or vicious always give people an inexplicable shudder.

It is worth mentioning that the R & D team has a very complete stylized packaging of the game itself, whether it is the UI or all the standing paintings and icon materials, there are strong JRPG characteristics - bright colors, cartoon style, and a hint of medieval simplicity. At the same time, the avatar of the character dialog box adopts exquisite dynamic CG, which also makes the overall look and feel of the game more modern and meets the aesthetic demands of young players today.

The benefits of this stylized packaging are self-evident: although Dragon Country Story is no different from traditional MMOs, from the core gameplay to the dungeon and map design, the completion of the game itself and the unique narrative language of the JRPG will give you a game experience that traditional MMOs do not have.

More importantly, due to the unique advantages of MMO, all the plot presentation can be dispersed between the rich main line and side quests, so the text of the traditional JRPG that is often a million words of face paste is transformed into a plot interpretation of less than 1 minute per paragraph in "Dragon Country Story", so that players can really "watch and play" instead of passively reading a large-scale Japanese novel.

From JRPG to Chinese manufacturers out of nothing "Japanese MMO"

As you may have noticed, in the above introduction to Dragon Country Story, GameLook did not use the term "Japanese MMO" and replaced it with "JRPG". Looking at the history of the development of JRPG, it is not difficult to find that "Japanese MMO" has some meaning out of nothing.

When it comes to JRPG, it's inseparable from one person and one brand. This person is Hayao Miyazaki, and this brand is Nintendo.

From Nausicaä to Castle in the Sky to Totoro and Witch House Rush, the Japanese ACG industry of the entire 1980s had a distinct miyazaki imprint. Compared with the "dark" magic theme that emerged later, Miyazaki's works undoubtedly have a fairytale-like fresh style, and their core idea is also to discuss the royal plot of "evil is not good" and the harmonious relationship between man and nature.

Totoro

Nintendo, which has always taken "family entertainment" as its mission, is naturally the best inheritor of this narrative language in the single-player era. In 1986, the first works of "The Legend of Zelda" and "Dragon Quest" (DQ) were released on the red and white machine, which not only became The National RPG of Japan for more than 30 years, but also profoundly affected the development of the entire Japanese game industry.

Dragon Quest

At that time, the Internet was still just a new thing, and online games and MMOs could not be talked about. Therefore, JRPG games have always followed the research and development logic of the single-player era and have not evolved in the direction of MMOs. The only exception is SE's "Treasure of the Town Store" Final Fantasy.

The first generation of Final Fantasy was also released on the Red and White machine, so it followed a very kinglike JRPG style. But later, with the lack of Nintendo console function, the Final Fantasy series began to migrate to Sony's PS platform, and with it came a european and American change of style. Today's MMO online game "Final Fantasy 14" is undoubtedly closer to the European and American magic theme in terms of style, although it can be divided into "Japanese MMOs" by region, but it is significantly different from the "Japanese MMO" label of "Dragon Country Story".

Final Fantasy XIV

Therefore, until now, there is still a view that the cuteness and freshness of JRPG are actually derived from the "lack of function" of Nintendo's host products, which leads to the inability to achieve the realistic style of those AAA masterpieces on the PS platform. But GameLook needs to point out that the global sensation of Zelda Legend: Breath of the Wilderness in 2017 is enough to show that JRPG's unique style is still a popular object for players today, and the dynamic CG of Dragon Country Story also proves that it is not that manufacturers cannot make better artistic performance products at the technical level, but that players really "eat this set".

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wilderness

If we look back at the exploration and achievements of Chinese manufacturers on "Japanese MMO", GameLook's argument may be more convincing.

Kill Japan and South Korea, Chinese manufacturers know more about Japanese MMO?

As early as 2018, Purple Dragon had released a two-dimensional Japanese MMO mobile game called Fantasy God Domain, and linked up with Falcom's "Empty Track" and "Flash Trail" two classic JRPG. It is not difficult to see from the linkage object that the JRPG online game is the most important mission of the "Japanese MMO".

Also in 2018, Purple Dragon launched a more JRPG-style MMO mobile game "Wind Continent", in addition to the fresh style and Q version of the character, the iconic "cute pet" character in Miyazaki's work has also become an important selling point of this game. The R&D team invited Sakuraba Tong, the royal composer of the "Legend Series", one of Japan's three major RPGs, to perform the soundtrack, and his determination to embrace the JRPG style can be seen.

Also concerned about the "Japanese MMO" is Sanqi Mutual Entertainment. In mid-2020, the open world MMO "Song of the City on the Clouds" issued by Sanqi Interactive Entertainment and developed by Shiyue Network also takes the cute pet as the main theme, and provides a fresh and interactive map design, once launched, it has become another hit of the MMO track, and the monthly flow is as high as 300 million yuan.

At the beginning of this year, 37 Interactive Entertainment took it a step further and launched the Japanese version of "Song of the Cloud City" in the Japanese market, "Empty Brave Regiment". With the fresh style of the Q version of the five-headed body and the very kingly JRPG plot, this game has also become the first domestic game to truly gain a foothold in the Japanese market this year, and is still stable in the forty best-seller list of Japanese iOS. In the Korean market, the home base of the "Kimchi MMO", this game is in the top ten of the best-seller list, and even beatSonic's cash cow "Paradise 2M". In Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, "Song of the City on the Clouds" also has a good performance.

From the killing of Japan and South Korea in "Song of the City on the Clouds" to the strong start of "Dragon Country Story", it turns out that in the context of traditional MMO themes such as magic and fairy tales, players' interests are also quietly changing. In the fast-paced, high-pressure modern life, the Japanese MMO with a stronger sense of decompression is undoubtedly more in line with the appetite of current players.

In the fierce market competition, Chinese manufacturers are also "Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet", earlier than the Japanese counterparts to realize this change in market wind, and then take the lead in opening up the "Japanese MMO" stylized track. In contrast, although the famous Japanese game manufacturer Level-5 conforms to the trend of the times and developed the "Two Kingdoms: Staggered World" that once swept Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, its distribution rights were obtained by South Korea's Netmarble, which makes people have to lament the hindsight of Japanese manufacturers in the "Japanese MMO mobile game".

Therefore, GameLook believes that in the future, "Japanese MMO" will still be a short encounter between domestic manufacturers. Compared with "Original God" and "Phantom Tower", the "Japanese MMO" that focuses on "fresh Q cuteness" and is not so "two" may also be an important channel for many established MMO manufacturers to seek transformation.

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GameLook Daily Game Industry Report

Global vision / depth is material