In the mobile game circle, due to the serious tendency of audience fragmentation, the pursuit of short and fast has always been the trend of product development. But outside the mainstream, there is no shortage of products that do the opposite and turn to the hardcore route, such as the netease new game "Codename: Candle", which was recently tested overseas.
This is not the first time codename: Candle has been tested, since last December, the game has been tested several times on the domestic Android side. At a time when the "Eldon's Ring of Law" trend is still spreading, talking about hardcore will inevitably think of soul games. In fact, whether it is domestic or overseas players, the impression of Codename: Candle is also mostly focused on the soullike.
But if you think that soullike is all it is, it is obviously somewhat underestimated NetEase. After playing GameLook found that the game is not limited to the hardcore design of soullike, but on this basis, it integrates part of the design of MMORPG, which is precisely the area where NetEase is best at.
Overall, the combination of elements makes the game's experience unique.
Game Demo:
A little more MMO than Soullike
It's no exaggeration to call Codename: Candles an MMO-like soullike game. The reason why it has a soullike game face is because the game inherits two significant features of soul games: fragmented deep narrative, and hardcore combat style.
Turning to the narrative side first, the game's backdrop is built on a burning world. But the world is about to burn out, and the plague of darkness is coming. In the areas most affected by the plague of darkness, most of humanity has been torched to ashes in the darkness, turning into demons driven by sins. In the name of the Messenger of Ashes, the player will save this shattered world.
At first glance at the background setting of the game, as a player, you only know that it is a story of a brave man who saves the world. However, it is not conventional that the protagonist played by the player is not a nobody, sitting on a huge throne in the opening teaching level, and with puzzling lines in his mouth, it has foreshadowed that there may be other hidden plots behind it, which is quite similar to the riddler plot in "Dark Souls", requiring the player to solve the mystery one by one in the subsequent exploration.
And in the highlight of the play- hardcore combat, "Codename: Candle" is also deep in the essence of the soul system. For example, in terms of professions, the game abandons a variety of career settings in other MMO mobile games, and the initial characters of different players are more only different in appearance and gender, and all beings are equal in ability, which is officially called "no job restriction".
The jobless limit is not completely classless, but the official power of class building is given to the player, who can freely equip weapons such as double knives, fist sets, axes and bows and arrows, with the corresponding attribute points, as well as the unique skill tree corresponding to different weapons, to create a highly personalized exclusive class. You can either wield a large axe and be a berserker with a powerful Max, or you can use a double sword to become a dexterous swordsman with a high-level shift.
In terms of the most soul-tasting combat experience, the game is obviously based on the guarantee of hardcore, and makes trade-offs for mobile terminals. The classic slot bars, executions, and other mechanics in Soullike games were reproduced in Codename: Candles, and when the player emptied the slot bars under the monster's health bars, they could execute the monsters to deal a lot of damage.
In addition, when facing the boss of the game, the player can not be crushed, because in the case of the same level, the player only has light and heavy attacks and two weapon skills, and there is no situation where more than ten skills in the MMO game scare the boss face. The means of defense are limited to dodge, and the boss's damage is much higher than the player's, and it is always the latter who is brainless and hard. Therefore, this forces players to familiarize themselves with the boss's attack mode, find the opportunity to dodge steal damage or play executions, and finally defeat strong enemies.
In order to further emphasize the hardcore features, the game does not have automatic pathfinding and combat, and players rely entirely on manual running to take over tasks. But probably fearing that players would not be able to adapt to the weak guidance of the Soul System, Codename: Candles still made some compromises, adding task lists and arrow guidance. At the same time, the energy bar of the character when fighting is no longer limited, and the game of attack and defense according to the energy in the soul system is not much reflected in "Codename: Candle".
As mentioned earlier, Codename: Candle is not a stand-alone game, but an MMO mobile game. Therefore, in terms of multiplayer social networking, the game still has the shadow of other MMO products that are familiar, such as multiplayer dungeons, leaderboards, PVPs, trading lines, etc. But on the whole, these MMO elements do not affect the hardcore attributes of the game itself, but give players who like hardcore games more places to gather and communicate.
Still YYDS's NetEase artist
In the game circle, the art style of NetEase Games has always been praised by players, and there is even a saying: NetEase artist YYDS, spray no one can spray his art. From "Fantasy Journey to the West", "Yin and Yang Division", "Celestial Oracle", to today's "Harry Potter Mobile Game", "Forever Doom", etc., the artists of NetEase Games have withstood the test.
However, as a dark wind game, the art style of "Codename: Candle" is quite different from NetEase's previous works, the overall style is relatively dark and realistic, and the aesthetics of soul players are not the same as the Japanese and Korean aesthetics of mainstream mobile game players, and under the premise of taking into account various circles, how to make choices is also a problem faced by NetEase.
Judging from the content that has been made public, the enemy design of Codename: Candle is actually more elaborate, and most of the bosses have the more typical design of the Dark System, such as demons, ownerless fire, ownerless candles, branders, undead, humans, etc. In these basic settings, the game also carefully designed systematic enemies, such as demons, undead, etc., to make the entire game world more fulfilling.
Among these art designs, the most impressive is undoubtedly the BOSS. Among them, many bosses are designed with great soul characteristics, such as Aduba Musa, skeleton trolls, funeral queens and other oppressive bosses, which will make many players who meet for the first time call out to the taste.
Especially in the last domestic test in February, the boss tyrannical general Caligula in the PV at the beginning of the game gave people a sense of déjà vu in Western magic literature. Interestingly, the final boss of the last test was Caligula, and the oppressive shape combined with the epic background music made the immersive experience of the battle rise a lot.
In terms of screen performance, in order to improve the texture and accuracy of character modeling, the official said that the next-generation PBR technology of the AAA standard is used. From the perspective of actual performance, whether it is as big as the devil's hill flying yellow sand, the mysterious elephant palace, or as small as the characters, grass and trees, there are good performances, coupled with the game's day and night system, presenting an immersive Western-style magic world.
It is worth mentioning that the game also comes with a sophisticated face pinching system, only the head has 7 large subdivision categories such as eyes, nose, ears, eyebrows, etc., and each large subdivision item also contains 6 small subdivision options, which almost meets the personalized needs of most players. Perhaps in order to take care of the aesthetic direction of more players, the overall style of the character model is more Korean.
When hardcore is no longer niche, will mobile games be the next piece of land grazing?
It is not difficult to see from the sales champion of "Eldon's Ring of Law" steam for 6 consecutive weeks, and the short-term sales of more than 10 million sets are not difficult to see that hardcore games that were once considered niche have now gained a large number of fans.
In fact, hardcore games, including the soul system, have already quietly broken the circle unconsciously. For example, Fromsoftware's well-known IP "Dark Souls", which has always been regarded as a niche, has accumulated more than 27 million sets of global sales in 2020.
In addition, at the 2018 TGA Festival, "Dead Cell", which is also a hardcore game, won the "Best Action Game of the Year" award that year. And in 2019's TGA, Fromssoftware's new game, the more hardcore "Only Wolf", even won both "Game of the Year" and "Action Game of the Year" awards. Among the criteria for these awards, sales volume is one of the important measures.
While hardcore games are attacking the PC and console markets and constantly expanding their circles, many mobile game manufacturers have also discovered this new blue ocean and began to try to make the hardcore category mobile games with thorns.
In January 2020, Giant Network's Tipsworks Studios officially launched the hardcore soul action mobile game "Pascal Contract". The game has been on the Apple new product conference with a game experience and expression comparable to the host, and is still considered by many players to be the best domestic soullike mobile game.
"Dead Cell", which won the best action of the year, was renamed "Reborn Cell" and obtained the domestic version license, and officially launched the mobile game version in 2021. As a 2D horizontal version of the hardcore Dark Wind action game, Respawn Cell is slightly weaker than the typical Soul series of games in Duanyou, but the game's smoothness, sense of blows and playability are recognized by players as high-quality.
Nowadays, NetEase carries "Codename: Candle" into the hardcore mobile game market, which actually represents the recognition of this new blue ocean by big manufacturers. As the market continues to wash the products, and the player's ability to control the mobile phone is becoming more and more strengthened, hardcore mobile games may not necessarily grow into towering trees like the once niche two-dimensional elements.
····· End ·····
GameLook Daily Game Industry Report
Global vision / depth is material