The two-dimensional game circle of these two days seems to be particularly lively.
Since yesterday (March 16), new products have been exposed to PV and tested one after another, including some popular new products with relatively high attention. For example, Perfect World and Sega jointly created the well-known IP work "Persona: Phantom of the Night" (hereinafter referred to as P5X), and the battle flag elimination mobile game "White Night Aurora" issued by Tencent.
Gyro Jun has sorted out the 5 popular two-dimensional new products that have been announced to open recruitment tests in recent days, and up to now, these 5 works have all been listed in the TOP20 of the Haoyou Fast Explosive New Product Reservation List. Judging from the volume of sound in recent days, some of their products may be able to shine their own light in the two-dimensional track of life and death.
TOP20: "Codename: UH" - TPS+Roguelike, can a novel combination of gameplay stir up a wave
"Codename: UH" is a sci-fi third-person action shooter game from Gravitational Wave Studios, which officially opened for pre-orders on March 16 and opened the test qualification recruitment, and is expected to open a limited deletion test on April 7.
According to the production team, the game was developed using Unreal Engine 4, and the gameplay incorporates roguelike elements into the 3D action shooting experience. Roguelikes, TPS, action shooting, these classic elements alone do not have much freshness, but after being combined, there seem to be not many similar products in the current two-dimensional game environment, and the new attempt on the combination of gameplay may be the biggest magic weapon of this work.
Judging from the in-game recording video first exposed yesterday (March 16), the combat part of the game is mainly fast-paced action shooting, and a smooth combo strike is demonstrated in the internal recording video, and the development team seems to have put a lot of effort into the action design of the game.
The classic cultivation system is also not absent, from the current video information, it should be based on the cultivation system of characters + weapons, according to the official video introduction, the growth of characters has different branch systems, which expands the depth of cultivation to a certain extent.
In terms of gameplay, Roguelike Combat + Exploration is the mainstay, creating different combat experiences through the combination of different weapons and skills and the buff of Roguelike random buffs.
The in-game recording of "Codename: UH" was revealed mainly for the first recruitment test, because the work is still in the first testing period, there is still a period of time before the official launch of the work, and it is unknown how different the final product form will be from the current one, but from the discussion of major platforms, the two-dimensional + TPS + roguelike has still been expected and recognized by many players.
TOP16 "New Moon Companion" - Chinese Weird Talk, horizontal exploration + turn-based
On March 17, "New Moon Companion" ushered in the recruitment of "Orange-level Test" for Android limited deletion, and will start testing on March 30. On the same day, the official also announced the latest real machine demonstration PV on the Internet, showing the gameplay of the game.
Last year, new weird tale-themed games exploded like a blowout, and weird mobile games such as "Back to the Future: 1999" and "Echo of the Vision" were exposed one after another, and players were also very concerned about this novel theme. And this mobile game "New Moon Companion" developed by Candlepay Network, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shenzhen Yihai Interactive Entertainment, with a Chinese background style, is a member of the weird talk genre.
From the perspective of the actual PV, the game scene is similar to the Guangzhou neighborhood of the last century, showing players the fireworks atmosphere close to Guangdong life. Its daily actions are 2D planes, and the switching of scenes when walking in the game should be exploration-based gameplay. In the second half of the PV, the design of the player's sneaking crouch is also shown, which shows that the gameplay of the exploration part also has a certain degree of playability.
The combat gameplay is mainly turn-based combat, with two perspectives: horizontal perspective and over-the-shoulder perspective. Each character has 4 different skills, and the unleashing move is accompanied by animations, plus beautiful art and an over-the-shoulder perspective for added immersion, making even turn-based combat a little more exciting.
In addition to showing the gameplay, the publicity effect of this PV has also been well received by players. The short 1 minute and 12 seconds video is divided into three parts of the trailer, using a fast-paced explanation, leaving a lot of suspense points in the copywriting, and even built-in QR codes to provide clues to players, quite a sense of déjà vu of the next episode of the ancient anime. At the same time, the copywriting also played some memes of anime dramas, such as "The pink elephant boy will not dream of iceberg stationery seniors," and the dubbing explanation of the meowing throughout the trailer in the third part is even more memorable.
Although the stylized characteristics of "Companion New Moon" are obvious, and the niche weird theme is destined to have a limited audience for the game, from the current publicity, at least in terms of art and text, it has aroused the interest of many players.
TOP4: "White Night Aurora" - Top Art Two-dimensional "Returnees"
"White Night Aurora" is a two-dimensional game developed by Tencent's subsidiary Yonghang Technology's Touring Dog Studio, which officially opened the qualification recruitment of the "Sailing Test" on March 17. The game's first beta will officially start on March 30.
At the same time, the official release of the animation OP jointly produced with the Japanese animation company Wit Studio (representative works: "Attack on Titan", "King Ranking", etc.), focusing on the game's graphic style and world view background, with this first test event played a better publicity role.
In fact, "White Night Aurora" has been launched overseas in mid-June 2021. At that time, labels such as Tencent's two-dimensional and large-touch artist circuit dogs made this game a bombshell of the year. According to Sensor Tower data, "White Night Aurora" reached about 17 million US dollars in half a month of its launch in the first month, and also won the top ten download lists in 16 countries, the first in Japan and South Korea, and the top ten best-selling in Japan and South Korea, making it the best performing overseas game in the Japanese market that month. It wasn't until January this year that the domestic version of the game was officially reviewed.
To say the most attractive part of "White Nights Aurora", its top-notch art expression is undoubtedly the strongest part of the game. Whether it is standing painting, CG, promotional posters, etc., you can see that the production team has piled up a lot of details in the art design, even the low-star cards that are not commonly used are not vague at all, and the fineness is comparable to most high-quality illustrations.
In terms of gameplay, the game adopts the strategy of combining line elimination and RPG battles, and introduces the color elimination board mechanism, players need to strengthen character damage by connecting the same color grid on the board according to the character's attribute color and skill characteristics, and play the maximum role of the team.
TOP3: "Code: Hitomi" - the collision of traditional culture and cool cool
In December last year, a PV of "Secret Word: Hitomi" independently developed by Funplus' studio Tianren Lab, using oriental style horizontal action mobile game, attracted a lot of attention from players with its unique graphic style, exquisite art and characteristic dialect dubbing such as Cantonese and Hokkien. On March 16, "Secret Word: Hitomi" officially released its first concept EP "Day and Night", and announced that the first "trial test" will officially open on March 31.
Similar to "New Moon Walking", "Secret Word: Hitomi" is also a weird talk game with a Chinese background. "Secret Word: Hitomi" is more manifested in the design of a large number of traditional Chinese culture and architecture. Among them, the scene of the game refers to buildings with regional characteristics such as Hong Kong's Kowloon Village and Chongqing's Hongya Cave. In the clothing, qipao, horse face skirt and other clothing are used, combining elements with traditional Chinese culture such as ink painting and embroidery. With some trendy style elements such as two-dimensional, the combination of the two shows the charm of the national style.
The game's background design is also quite interesting, the player takes on the role of a film director, who explores this bizarre city by forming a crew, ostensibly filming, but actually discovering the secrets hidden in the city.
Judging from the previous actual machine demonstration, the game is a horizontal action combat gameplay, showing exploratory levels and challenge levels, the former mainly has exploration plot and part of the box court gameplay challenge, the latter is similar to traditional horizontal games, emphasizing operability.
TOP1: "Persona: Phantom of the Night" - Will the mobile game of god-level IP set off a new frenzy?
Veteran gamers are no strangers to the palace-level JRPG IP of "Persona" (hereinafter referred to as "P5"), and in 2022, with the spread of the line "P5 is the world's number one game" in the popular online drama "The Beginning", "Persona" has also begun to be known by many audiences outside the game circle.
The exposure of "Persona: Phantom of the Night" was very sudden, and on March 2, an account called "Persona of the Night" appeared on Weibo and other platforms, and was verified as the "Persona: Phantom of the Night" (hereinafter referred to as "P5X") mobile game. This also corresponds to the "CODE NAME: X" announced by Perfect World in 2021, although Perfect did not specify that "CODE NAME: X" is the IP work of Persona, but combined with the publicity phrase at that time "palace-level Japanese RPG mobile game, tens of millions of word-of-mouth sales god work authorized for the first time", "CODE NAME: X" is most likely the currently officially announced "Persona: Phantom of the Night".
Perfect World's announcement this time is very direct, perhaps because of the confidence in this IP and the product itself, "Persona: Phantom of the Night" directly released the official PV of the game without pre-publicity warm-up, and opened the test qualification recruitment today, and is expected to open a limited deletion test on March 29. In the nearly 4-minute PV, there are many game timing pictures, which can be said to be full of sincerity.
According to Perfect World, "Persona: Phantom of the Night" not only obtained the genuine license of SEGA, but also the P5 original development team ATLUS was deeply involved in the supervision during the entire development process. From the current content of the PV, the overall game temperament of "Persona: Phantom of the Night" inherits the unique and strong artistic atmosphere of P5, in the words of players, "bad news, copy P5" and "good news, all copied".
Let's start with the most intuitive art and music styles. Players who have played P5 believe that they will be attracted by the bright and intense colors of P5, the strong contrast of red, black and white, and the bold UI design, which is enough to make people fall into the game world of P5 at a glance. "Persona: Phantom of the Night" continues the art style of P5, whether it is the use of color or the design of UI, it is no different from P5.
For veteran P5 players, the graphic art style that is unified with familiar works can be immersed in it faster; For new players who are new to this IP, they can also feel the excellent graphics and art charm of the IP "Persona".
We can also see many similarities with P5 in the scene, because the plot setting of P5 is a bizarre adventure for high school students, the design of schools, streets, and mazes P5X still continues the design style of P5, and some classic scenes have also been well reproduced, such as the classic velvet room.
The same is true for music, we even heard the classic track "Life Will Change" from P5 in the PV, and I believe there will be many similar Easter eggs in the official work.
In terms of gameplay, the classic design of P5 has been restored and retained a lot in P5X. The game's classic turn-based, gun attacks, attribute restraints, single-player executions and total attacks, and hand-changing attacks are all presented in the PV.
In general, the PV of P5X allows us to see Perfect World's emphasis on the IP of "Persona", and "restoration" may be the core message that Perfect World wants to convey, after all, there is a P5 endorsement in front of pearl jade, and the ultimate restoration P5X is worthy of everyone's attention and expectations.
epilogue
In any case, the test information of many products exposed in the past two days has made the industry see a lively atmosphere, and there are some heavy product IPs among the products tested, such as "Persona: Phantom of the Night" once the work is successfully introduced to the market, perhaps we will see more classic host IPs in a similar form to be put on the mobile terminal to shine.
For more manufacturers, the two-dimensional track is now not decent, and it is not an easy task to break through. Even in this environment, we still see a lot of new product reserves, a lively week has passed, and we look forward to the next week of this industry, with more lively and happy information.