On March 28, the national server of "Ni no Kuni: Staggered World" released the first exposure PV and officially opened the pre-order. This MMORPG game, which has been online overseas for more than a year and has been in version for 3 months, has finally been expected by mainland players.
Now pre-order the game and pre-order pack>> click to pre-order
For the IP of "Ni no Kuni", my impression is basically stuck on the stand-alone version many years ago. The mobile game version that has been launched overseas obviously wants to build a more vivid world for players with the mainstream MMO framework while inheriting the characteristics of the series. Although the appeal of the look and feel is still outstanding, the situation does not seem to be optimistic based on the feedback after the launch of the overseas version before.
So under the pressure of the overseas version of word-of-mouth, how to break the game in order to reawaken players' confidence in the game?
Recently, Game Gyro participated in the roundtable meeting officially launched by the national service. Not only did he communicate face-to-face with the two main creators of the national service, but also glimpsed the true appearance of the national service version through the real machine demonstration, but also conducted in-depth "torture" of the official, and jointly discussed what improvements and optimizations the national service will make to combat and cultivation modules.
After this pragmatic face-to-face meeting, I have reason to believe that the national service version of "Ni no Kuni: Crossed World" deserves to be examined by a new standard.
Audiovisual feast: Ghibli animations that can be played
I believe that players who know the "Ni no Kuni" series will be impressed by its Ghibli-style rich art and master-level music. As a highly anticipated version of the national server mobile game, the pedigree of "Ni no Kuni: Staggered World" is also very pure.
The high-specification lineup, curated by Level-5 and animated by Studio Ghibli, ensures the quality of the game's art design, and the animated cutscenes interspersed with the game will provide players with an immersive look and feel unlike other MMO products on the market. At the same time, Hisaishi let the team carefully create more than 100 soundtracks, which also continue to inject soul into the game. In the latest CM officially announced by the overseas version, the specially invited music master Hisaishi let the live conductor MV have attracted a lot of attention.
It can be said that "Ni no Kuni: A Staggered World" fulfills many people's fantasy: to create a Ghibli animation world that you can plunge into and start an animated film adventure. At the face-to-face meeting, the official also said that while implementing the core charm of IP, the national service will not only be restored and continued. In the future, the national service will try more breakthroughs in the dimensions of plot and gameplay, and continue to dig deep into the IP expression of "Two Kingdoms".
With the blessing of high-standard audiovisual perception, world shaping is also the top priority of "Two Kingdoms: Interlaced Worlds".
At the face-to-face meeting, the official gave us a specific introduction to the worldview of the game. The player will be transported to the virtual world "Ni no Kuni" through consciousness as a "consciousness traverser". After witnessing the fall of the nameless kingdom, he travels the world with "Kuwu", who claims to be the guardian of the kingdom.
In this journey into the unknown, players are free to choose their destiny and that of the world – embark on an adventure to revive the unnamed kingdom, forget their worries and build a beautiful home in another world, or set themselves on finding a way to return to the real world.
In order to give players the real feeling of "living in it", the game first focuses on building a "multi-level non-forced social experience" to encourage players to participate in all aspects of the world.
From the perspective of traditional MMO product ideas, social networking is usually done more mandatory and deep, so that players can deeply integrate into social relationships such as guilds, thereby improving user stickiness. However, the creator of the national server of "Two Kingdoms: Staggered World" said that the game will do the opposite, not to do a particularly strong social design, but to create a more free social atmosphere.
The main creative team of the national server said: "We are considering removing the world chat, keeping only the current channel, and bringing players together through some active NPCs, thereby creating a unique social environment." This will allow users to experience the meaning of social behavior, make it an active purposeful behavior, and even cherish hard-won social interaction. ”
In terms of specific gameplay, players can form a battle team to fight monsters together, and enjoy a small range of combat socialization in the process of quest challenges, career development, and participation in PK. You can also feel the charm of large-scale multi-person social interaction in the process of participating in the management of the kingdom and building the strongest kingdom.
In short, it's about untying players from the forced socialization of regular MMOs. It's up to the player to decide which social style to try and how deeply to socialize.
Secondly, the game pays great attention to the creation of immersion. As the main creator of the national service said at the meeting: "I hope to create a fantasy world that can take risks and live in a way that deeply revolves around IP." ”
Even if it is a regular process running map, the main creative team of the national server hopes to make players engaged enough: "We hope that players can immerse themselves in the animated movie, rather than simply watching the game characters automatically running the map there, completely ignoring the scenery along the way." We've removed auto-pathfinding and laid out a lot of scene Easter eggs to let players feel the enjoyment of the sound and graphics of Ni no Kuni: Interlaced World. ”
At the same time, the national uniform also further fills the richness of life and leisure play.
For example, in the actual demonstration of the face-to-face meeting, the main creative team of the national server emphasized that the home gameplay of "Two Kingdoms: Staggered World" will be very independent, even if players do not want to experience too much MMO content, they can continue to play in the homeland. The cycle of planting, selling, ordering, cooking, and manufacturing is a complete "Farm Story" experience. Hundreds of objects that can be decorated by themselves, dozens of animals, can also be DIY in the home. In the future, the official will add more content integrated into Chinese culture to expand the homeland system.
Overall, Ninokoku: A Staggered World is a product that looks beautiful and has a mature internal structure. For the portrayal of Ghibli animation elements, the game does not look at the surface or simply sell feelings, but uses a multi-gameplay framework to shape a living world, allowing players to live and grow in the world of Ghibli animation.
Two worlds: national service optimization that directly hits the pain point
The "appearance" of "Ni no Kuni: Crossed World" has attracted many players, but the arrival of the national service does not seem to be completely reassuring. So where is the core of the previous problem of overseas service?
In this regard, the views of the two veteran players who have played the foreign server in depth are very clear: the more traditional MMO framework, some complicated cultivation content, and the lack of operation space combat system make the gameplay fail to give full play to the advantages of audiovisual perception.
In response to these problems, the national server team said that they have been lurking in the player community for a long time, and have done a lot of analysis on different users, hoping to understand the real needs of players.
First of all, in response to the problem of liver degree, the main creator of the national service said that the first optimization core set by the national service is "reducing the burden and reducing krypton". The game will comprehensively reduce the difficulty of cultivation, reduce the time consumption of pure hang-up gameplay, recast excessive commercial design, and on this basis, enhance multi-dimensional fun such as combat and leisure, and avoid players only taking revenue as the core drive and falling into the dilemma of "going online like going to work".
Secondly, on the somewhat sensitive issue of "krypton gold", the national service has also made in-depth reflection. The creator of the national service said that the national service will refer to the user response of the previous foreign server to make all-round optimization.
The official hopes to convey a relaxed atmosphere to players, so that players can fully immerse themselves in the world of "Ni no Kuni: Crossed Worlds" and experience the feeling of "purifying the mind", so they will balance and tune the game commercialization. For example, heavy krypton gameplay such as equipment extraction will be deleted, and players can get a version of the graduation suit as long as they pass daily activities to keep up with the army. In addition, the national service has also deleted the cultivation content. For example, three phantom beasts can be fought in the outer suit, while mainland players only need to concentrate on cultivating one.
"Commercialization is not a one-size-fits-all problem, and the national server will reconstruct the overall economic cycle and commercial design, and strive to bring players a relaxed and free feeling." The main creative team of the national service concluded so.
As for the core section of combat, the game has also been optimized in all aspects. The national server of "Ni no Kuni: Staggered World" cancels the so-called "pile output" and instead increases the movement position, which greatly enhances the player's operation feel and operation space. The new 4+2 skill board, reconstructed class skill effects, and cooperation between different classes will intuitively improve the player's combat experience.
In the actual demonstration of this face-to-face meeting, it can also be seen that more mechanics have been added to the copy of the national server, and players can feel the surprise brought by scenes, bosses, and random effects every time they enter the copy. Richer quest content and a heavier combat system are sure to make players feel the excitement of everyday play.
In addition, from many settings and details, it can be seen that the national service considers the comfort and convenience of user experience. For example, players do not need to re-level after creating a second character, but can directly share all the levels, assets and mission progress of the previous character, and experience the fun of different combat genres at will.
On the whole, one of the official general policies for the transformation of national uniforms is to strengthen the sense of immersion, remove routines, and even many gameplay experiences are single-player-oriented, and will pay more attention to the PVE experience.
"After all, everyone's daily work and study are now very saturated, and we just want to give players a haven where they can relax." The creator of the national server said: "We want to allow players to complete various gameplay methods alone, and obtain a better experience simply through operation and strategy, without giving players too much pressure and not restricting players' autonomy." ”
Obviously, Ni no Kuni: Staggered World is trying to avoid the game falling into the cliché "values decide everything", and instead tries to enhance the player's experience feedback in many aspects. This kind of subversive reconstruction based on the fundamental needs of players makes the national service version of "Ni no Kuni: Staggered World" expected to bring a real "new world".
As the two main creators of the national server repeatedly emphasized at the meeting: the national server is not a port version of the overseas version, but a new form obtained after repeated verification and analysis according to the opinions of players, which is a new world and adventure built by solving the pain points of players' previous experience in a lighter gameplay direction. Although I haven't yet started to experience it, in this exchange, the national service team's ideas and courage for improving the product form are indeed in line with the direction of change required by the mobile game "Two Kingdoms: Crossed World".
Fresh sail: an adventure full of unknowns
Due to the poor reputation of the previous overseas version, the national service team of "Two Kingdoms: Staggered World" is obviously under a lot of pressure. They know that the only way to re-establish trust with players is through enough sincerity and proper communication. Therefore, at the end of the face-to-face meeting, the team creator launched a collection of opinions called "National Service Quality Inspection Plan", calling on players and friends to jointly supervise the subsequent growth of the national service version.
In this regard, the main creative team of the national server emphasized: "This quality inspection plan is simply to hope that players can participate in irregular version testing, and we will provide quality inspection rewards, and will not let everyone do it for nothing." At the same time, we will strive to collect player suggestions and actively implement the opinions of quality inspectors in the next version. ”
In my opinion, this "quality inspection plan" on the one hand is to ensure that the product update direction meets the needs of users, on the other hand, it is also very similar to a supervision and vigilance to themselves - they are determined to make the national uniform a "restart" full of courage and sincerity.
In the more than 40 minutes of face-to-face communication, I can clearly see the thinking and planning of the national service team for the national service version of "Two Kingdoms: Crossed World". They are well aware of the test faced by this product in the mainland market, what new forms the game needs to use to satisfy users and retain players, and at the same time, when the product is not launched, they have basically established long-term user communication channels to prepare for subsequent content updates. With such a thorough optimization determination and optimization ideas, I think the national service will be an unknown journey worth looking forward to.
With the launch of reservations, I believe we will soon see the results of this innovation. And where this unknown adventure will lead, let's wait patiently and wait and see the quality of the subsequent test version.