As one of the most important events in the first half of the domestic game circle, today, the annual conference of Tencent Games, which arrived as scheduled, once again attracted widespread attention from players and peers.
Among the new products and content, the most exciting thing for domestic MMO players is that "Ark of Destiny" announced the news of "Summer Full Open Unlimited" at the press conference, and for the first time played its own slogan to all players: it became a legend in legends.
In fact, since its successful approval at the end of 2022, Ark of Destiny is arguably one of the hottest topics in the MMO community. Content such as basic teaching and Q&A, sharing of national service test experience, and speculation about the public test time have emerged one after another, reaching the overseas popularity.
In February last year, "LOST ARK (overseas version)" developed by SMILEGATE RPG and represented by Amazon suddenly became popular overseas, setting a record of 1.32 million simultaneous online players on Steam, becoming the second highest game in the history of the platform and the highest peak MMO of online players; After that, the popularity continued unabated, and the global users exceeded 20 million in 3 weeks after its launch...
During this period, a number of overseas review websites also gave quite high reviews - IGN called it "the best elements of MMO and ARPG"; The Gamer commented: "A game for almost everyone". Therefore, after the product has been reviewed, it is naturally praised by domestic players: "the most anticipated end-game MMO".
Under the continuous rising popularity, "Ark of Destiny" also released a national service promotion CG at the press conference, initially showing the magnificent world view, epic plot and exquisite graphics in the game... At the same time, "Ark of Destiny" national service distribution producer Jerry further announced that "this summer is fully open", which is full of users' expectations.
For the long-dormant end-game MMO market, with this "last" ark about to set sail, it means that the long-awaited "MMO summer" of domestic players is finally coming back.
The magnificent fantasy world view perfectly blends MMO and ARPG
In the starry wilderness, a mysterious bard plays alone around a campfire, and the legend of Accasia is told by her in song.
The gods disappeared, and the forces of chaos invaded the territory where humans were stationed. When people are desperate, the legendary Star of Destiny appears, inspiring heroes of every continent and reflecting as a ray of hope in the eyes of the bard. And this person is every gamer who listens to this song.
Even a novice who has never touched "Ark of Destiny" can get a glimpse of the game's mysterious and epic world view design from this magnificent CG picture.
It is in this fictional world "Accasia" based on the Middle Ages, players will successively meet the Knights of Lutlán, the martial arts family of Anyigu, the Mococo tribe of Totok Island, etc., feel the customs and customs of different regions, fight the Chaos Legion, and recover the lost Ark fragments.
If you just look at the "appearance", "Ark of Destiny" can be said to be a Korean MMORPG with a pure taste. The delicate and detailed character models, gorgeous and exaggerated costume shapes, and a large number of exaggerated and dazzling particle special effects in CG are also in line with the game's art style.
In addition to the iconic visual effects of Korean online games, such as gorgeous and complex particles and shocking and cool lighting effects, the overall picture is also suitable for the aesthetic requirements of current players. Taking the test version as an example, the lighting and shadow effects of each scene are full of vivid and realistic details, such as trees floating in the wind, babbling water in canyons, and mist clouds floating in the mountains in the distance.
In terms of the gameplay that players are most concerned about, as foreign media evaluations said: "Ark of Destiny" can be said to be the culmination of MMO and ARPG elements.
First, the game retains the MMORPG's signature deep BD combo. The national uniform currently announces four major classes: warrior, fighter, magician and shooter, each with three branches, providing a fairly rich skill combination. Players can either use combos with short cooldowns to quickly output or skill combinations to inflict higher damage.
In terms of core operation, "Ark of Destiny" actively moves closer to the ARPG full of blows. If you add the latter's unique dodge mechanic, you can roll every few seconds to avoid fatal damage. Coupled with a real-world physics engine and cool skill effects, it's a thrill like no other.
What impressed me the most in the author's experience was the sense of blow of the character's release skills. Especially just after the novice period, in the face of swarming enemies, an AOE skill instantly destroys a large area, coupled with the cool special effects flying around the screen, it gives people a deep mowing happiness in addition to the operation.
At the same time, the game is not sloppy in the team book, and each boss has a unique and complex mechanism, which ensures a diversified experience and high difficulty. In addition to operating online, players need to study tactics to achieve victory. For example, some bosses need different classes to fight different positions, and have higher requirements for team cooperation to meet the needs of hardcore players who are keen to open up land.
Happiness is unlimited and satisfies the needs of different types of players
Ark of Destiny clearly strikes a perfect balance between MMOs and ARPGs: a flexible and excellent combat system that takes advantage of action games, while a large amount of diverse content keeps the experience fresh. Not only that, but the amount of game content is so large that it can be said to be rare in recent years.
It is no exaggeration to say that both MMO and ARPG hardcore players, as well as casual users, can find their happiness here.
If you are a landscape party, you will definitely be addicted to the scenery of different continents with different styles and styles. Like the Anyi Valley with its natural scenery and oriental culture, Altaiin with steampunk characteristics, and the beautiful island style Totok continent... And each continent brings new stories and secrets to explore.
Assuming that players prefer to enjoy a deep and interesting story, they will also be attracted to the plot of Ark of Destiny, which is not inferior to World of Warcraft. The game's main narrative of more than 10 hours, rich side stories that seamlessly connect with replicas, and a large number of high-quality cinematic cutscenes are tantamount to bringing players audiovisual enjoyment like a Hollywood blockbuster.
Similarly, to meet the needs of players keen to explore the world, Ark of Destiny introduces a sailing system. Let players explore the sprawling, gorgeous Accasia at their favorite pace. During this period, you can also collect various interesting props and resources. Such as the Book of Adventures, the Heart of the Island, the Mococo Seed... No less than the surprise and satisfaction of accidentally finding an Easter egg.
If the player does not like to sail, he can get close to each NPC, and he will also get rewards after giving away items; or challenge quests, quests, and world bosses alone; Or unlock PVP and participate in various competitive modes... Different types of users can feel multi-dimensional fun here.
By all accounts, Ark of Destiny is a world worth investing a lot of time into deep experience. Almost everything can be played solo or in teams with friends, even the Zero Krypton Party can play everything. In GameLook's view, this may be the key to Steam users spending thousands of hours at every turn, and it also makes domestic players look forward to the upcoming national server.
Domestic end game MMO is declining, can "Ark of Destiny" turn the tide?
In recent years, it is an indisputable fact that domestic end-game MMOs have declined. Emerging categories such as MOBA, FPS, and two-dimensional have successively been born, but MMOs, which are firmly on the throne in the era of Duanyou, are becoming more and more silent. At the end of last year, the "World of Warcraft" national service was closed for some reason, which was tantamount to making things worse.
Many players began to worry: Will MMORPGs be eliminated by the market? While such concerns are justified, anyone who knows a little about the industry knows that the answer is never two: no.
The reason why it gives people the illusion of "MMO is thinning" is largely because the diverse needs of players cannot be met in one game. At the same time, the infinitely repetitive scrolling, clock-in work-style activities, and almost mandatory social interaction make it difficult to pique the interest of new and old players.
And "Ark of Destiny" can be hailed as the "last glory of MMO" by domestic players, because its excellent quality has been recognized by the more discerning overseas MMO market.
Most domestic players and peers know "LOST ARK" because of its sudden popularity in the European and American markets last year, but in fact, the game has become a phenomenal game after its launch in South Korea in 2018.
At that time, the game exceeded the 350,000 mark online at the same time shortly after its release. Although it is not as exaggerated as Steam's 1.32 million figure, the total population of South Korea is only 52 million, and if the game achieves the same results in China, the number of simultaneous online users will exceed 9 million. This is a number that has never appeared in the endgame era, and even far exceeds the ceiling of "League of Legends".
More importantly, around 2018, it was in the period of Korean mobile game explosion, but a terminal game became a phenomenal game at this time, which also stimulated more Korean manufacturers to continue to cultivate MMO, which has influenced it so far. Similarly, this high popularity has continued, and the financial report shows that the game earned 2.9 billion yuan in South Korea last year.
At the same time, SMILEGATE RPG received a share of 870 million yuan from the overseas version operated by Amazon, and the annual revenue of "Lost Ark" in 2022 may reach 60~6.5 billion yuan, that is, 1 billion US dollars in revenue, which can be called the absolute masterpiece of last year's game circle. It is worth mentioning that as early as the third year of game development (2015), Tencent announced the agent of this game on TGC. Looking back now, I have to sigh at its forward-looking vision.
Not only have there been countless overseas laurels, but from the feedback of the pioneer test, the quality of the national service of "Ark of Destiny" has also been recognized by domestic players, and the biggest requirement is the desire for more content updates.
Many of these first-time gamers have bluntly said that Ark of Destiny is the most fun MMO game in recent years. "The opening of the national server is very friendly to Mengxin, not only has a buffer period that allows you to understand the game from scratch, but also achieves a unified progression."
For some old players, the national server brings many surprises, the most direct is to solve the two major barriers of language and delay. "In the past, the delay of playing Russian and American servers was more than 200, and the national service was between 30-50, and the delay of good friends on the Internet could even be as low as 0, which was really cool. In addition, the skill changes are consistent with the international server, and the previous strategy is still available. ”
In contrast, because the Pioneer Experience has less content, players are more focused on urging content updates. "The character dubbing has not yet been matched, a lot of content has not yet been opened, and it has only reached the T1 stage, which is still a little small for old players, and the playability is still very high for new players."
In addition to the "anxious kings" speeding up the change, some players also recognized the cautious and new attitude of the national service: "Good food is not afraid of being late, but I don't want it to be in such a hurry, or do the best in Chineseization and servers, after all, there are not many end games worth looking forward to now." ”
It is worth mentioning that this conference also specially disclosed the slogan of "Ark of Destiny" - it became a legend in the legend.
It is not difficult to understand that the game is full of a strong epic tone, and the "legend" here is similar to the "legend of the ark" and "star of destiny" in the world view, which also means that players can create unique heroic legends; From a realistic point of view, the highly acclaimed but belated national uniform overseas has been dubbed "legendary game" by players, and "Ark of Destiny" itself is also expected to create a new MMO legend in China with excellent quality.
Nowadays, with the expectations of more and more MMORPG users, what kind of MMO summer will be opened by the upcoming "Ark of Destiny", and whether it can create a new market legend, people are doubly looking forward to it.
epilogue
Today, when many new categories such as two-dimensional and MOBA lead the market, as the first new MMORPG in 2023, the emergence of "Ark of Destiny" is expected to allow more players to re-experience the charm of MMO, and also brings a glimmer of hope for the declining market segment.