Is it impossible to do mobile games without forcing krypton?
This should be a very controversial issue both at the industry level and at the player level.
In the early years, mobile gaming emerged with the popularity of smartphones. Subsequently, with its low threshold and fragmented characteristics, it firmly embraced the trend of short-term and fast, and in just a few years, it occupied half of the global game market.
Domestically, this proportion goes even further
However, the gap with the booming development momentum of mobile games is that at the player level, some people do not buy the "emerging force" of mobile games. For example, the chain of game disdain, which has a long history and is widely spread in the player community, is actually ironclad evidence that some console and PC players are "persecuting" mobile games and mobile gamers.
Objectively speaking, games are essentially consumer goods that meet the spiritual needs of players, and players should evaluate games based on their own quality, rather than bias against the platform. Although the statement that "games despise the chain" is biased, to some extent it reflects the attitude of some players towards mobile games.
In fact, mobile games have been criticized for their gameplay, graphics, and operability since their inception. Whether it is natively developed on mobile platforms or ported from consoles or PCs, manufacturers will make certain compromises in operability, gameplay and graphics due to the hardware conditions of mobile phones.
Looking back from today's perspective, we will find that the main reason why mobile games are "discriminated against" by players is not its birth defect, but the real culprit is someone else.
Can mobile games not force Krypton?
To put it bluntly, it is likely that a considerable number of players do not hate mobile games, but hate the mainstream business model of mobile games in the past - numerical payment, and in the eyes of players, it is often referred to as Krypton.
Here is a stack of armor, the payment form of mobile games is not only "free + in-app purchase", such as "Sword of Plunder: Shadow Continent", "Gathering Explosion" and other widely acclaimed mobile games still use the buyout system. However, compared with the hot long-term service-oriented free-to-play games in the industry, stand-alone games on mobile platforms are only a small category after all, and it is difficult to change people's inherent impression of the mainstream business model of mobile games on a large scale.
Of course, among the many free mobile games, it is not excluded that even if some games have in-app purchase elements, it will not cause players to be repulsed. For example, games such as Octopath Traveler: Overlord of the Continent, which are based on traditional JRPG gameplay, although there will be commercial content such as krypton gold card gacha inside, there is no forced PVP element and "krypton tricks" common in mobile games such as creating intensity anxiety.
However, like buyout mobile games, compared with mainstream mobile games on the market, this kind of product is still a "rare species".
Speaking of numerical payment, since the era of online games, this model has always been the specialty of domestic game manufacturers. After years of intensive cultivation, mobile games on the market have formed a fairly mature business model. To some extent, it is precisely because of the numerical payment that the mobile game market is booming.
Logically speaking, the health of a game in the long term should depend on its ability to output content, but numerical payment completely changes this. For example, in order to improve the stickiness of players, the planner often uses numerical competition to force players to roll up and forcibly extend the online time, and such a "lazy" method is not uncommon in mobile games in the past.
The biggest problem with numerical payment is that it hurts the gaming experience of most players. Under the basic logic of numerical payout, it is the commercial design that determines the gameplay. Therefore, when designing gameplay, the first consideration for developers is not whether players can feel fun from it, but how much revenue metrics can be driven. In addition, when numerical payment dominates the gameplay, the gap between Kryptonians and ordinary players will further widen, and eventually ordinary players will be reduced to Kryptonian's "game experience".
In fact, it is not only players who reject numerical payment, but many game manufacturers are also willing or have to be willing to look at the negative effects of numerical payment.
On the one hand, in recent years, the decline of traditional MMORPG and other strong categories of numerical payment has given game manufacturers a sense of crisis. The first issue is to get rid of the dependence on numerical payments and explore new ways to generate revenue.
On the other hand, the fierce competition in the mobile game market in recent years has led many manufacturers to take the initiative to step out of the comfort zone of numerical payment and turn to gameplay content. And players also enjoy the benefits of the manufacturer's involution, as the saying goes, it is difficult to make it difficult to be frugal from luxury, in order to attract players, major manufacturers will definitely focus more on polishing game content.
For example, the vertical painting of mobile games has been rolled out of the sky
Whatever the reason, the mainstream business model of mobile games has ushered in a change, and major manufacturers are willing to abandon the past "forced krypton" payment point design and instead explore a more stable business model.
Moreover, the success of a number of popular mobile games has proved that it is easier for players to reject the payment model of paid in-app purchases than racking their brains to fill the payment point "forcing krypton", using high-quality game content to make players willingly open their wallets, and it is also more conducive to the sustainable and stable operation of the product.
The aforementioned "Octopath Traveler: Overlord of the Continent" (hereinafter referred to as "Overlord of the Continent"), which was launched on the national server today, has tried to explore a possible path for the industry with excellent game content.
How "The Overlord of the Continent" stands to make money
As an orthodox spin-off of Octopath Traveler (domestic players prefer to call it Octopath Traveler), Overlord of the Continent has been created and operated from the beginning with the concept of "a continuously updated stand-alone game". As it is, you can hardly see any social content in the game, and all the gameplay can be fully experienced in single-player.
In terms of game content, "Overlord of the Continent" continues the consistently high level of the series. It is not so much that "Overlord of the Continent" is a derivative mobile game, but rather an unusually exquisite "transplant". For no other reason, the advantages and highlights of "Octopath Traveler" are all retained by "The Overlord of the Continent".
As one of the most talked-about JRPGs in recent years, the game has conquered many players with its unique retro flavor. The exquisite pixel art style, the royal story, the memorable character creation, and the strategic combat experience all make retro JRPG fans want to stop.
And while the game reproduces these classic cores, "Octopath Traveler" also has an excellent audio-visual experience, giving this traditional JRPG with a new sense of the times. The game pioneered the presentation of pixel images in the form of HD-2D, creating a delicate three-dimensional world, bringing a strong visual impact in terms of audio and visual performance.
In "Continent Overlord", the game's art style is not only still the signature HD-2D pixel art style, but you can also feel the mellow sense of the retro JRPG: whether it is the interactive exploration gameplay of the original game or the turn-based gameplay with strategic depth, it is fully reflected in the mobile game.
For example, "Overlord of the Continent" perfectly reproduces the "fancy interaction" between the original and NPCs. In addition to the fixed responsibilities and identities of NPCs in the game, players can also take on their quests, trade, fight, or recruit them. These unique interactions make NPCs no longer just carriers of a certain function, but living people that players get to know during this journey, which greatly increases the player's immersion during the game.
At the combat level, "Overlord of the Continent" continues the turn-based gameplay of the original game with great strategic depth. Focusing on the "Break" and "Weakness" mechanics, players need to think about how to make the enemy quickly enter the state of breaking defense and concentrate fire output according to various factors such as the enemy's armor value, weakness attributes, and the order of the character's attacks. In addition, the game has a lot of characters to fight, and each character has their own advantage range. This also requires players to flexibly adjust their team according to the characteristics of the enemy, so as to achieve more with half the effort when fighting.
It is worth mentioning that "Overlord of the Continent" has been upgraded on the basis of the classic combat gameplay of the original game. The mobile game increases the number of players from 4 to 8, and divides the front and back rows into battles. The increase in combat roles means that there are more diverse ways to deal with battles, which greatly increases the game's strategic ceiling.
In addition to the upgrade in terms of combat, "Overlord of the Continent" adopts a more linear narrative method in the plot, and the mission-based plot structure based on a single character is also easier for players to understand. At the same time, the game also cancels the sub-class and prop system that requires a certain degree of liver, simplifying the cost of character development and the operation during battle, which is more suitable for the game habits of mobile game players.
Since its launch in October 2020, "Overlord of the Continent" has won wide attention inside and outside the industry with its excellent game content. Regarding this, it can be seen from the commercial achievements and reputation of "The Overlord of the Mainland" in foreign services.
Famitsu, a veteran Japanese game media, gave "Overlord of the Continent" a high evaluation of "an RPG that can constantly arouse all kinds of emotions". After entering the continuous operation phase, the number of players soon exceeded 10 million.
Caption: When the game was officially launched, the game quickly topped the charts on both Android and iOS.
At the user level, "Overlord of the Continent" has received unanimous praise from most players, with 7,000 people on the Google Play Store scoring a 4.4 out of 5 points. For a long-term service game that has been in operation for three years, it is indeed rare to receive such a reputation.
Is it too late to switch to the national service now?
At the beginning of this year, when "The Overlord of the Continent" got the version number, many players were looking forward to what the national server should look like. But to be honest, when I saw that the domestic agent was NetEase, the inherent impression of the past could not help but make people worry that they would have another rebellious incident. And now, as the public beta is gradually approaching, we can also see NetEase's sincerity at the operational level.
First of all, it is reflected in the publicity strategy. Generally speaking, the publicity strategy when a new product is launched is to "cast a wide net" as much as possible, attract passers-by into the pit in the form of investment and purchase, and then start the stage of screening users.
The publicity and distribution strategy of the national server of "The Overlord of the Continent" is abnormal, and the official has made clear its core audience from the beginning, and even bluntly said that "players who are not interested in the plot will not like this game", and there is a sense of "the game chooses players".
Of course, this does not prove that the official wants to keep other players out, but more to show that the game has the confidence to meet the demands of JRPG fans both in terms of game content and follow-up operation, and now NetEase's series of actions before the game's open beta also proves this.
For example, in response to the feedback of foreign server players, NetEase and SE have made exclusive optimizations to the national server version.
In fact, compared with the two "Octopath Traveler", due to the landing on the mobile platform, "The Overlord of the Mainland" has shrunk to a certain extent in terms of graphics. Therefore, NetEase and SE have focused on upgrading the game's graphics performance. In addition to supporting the "original picture quality" of the host with a refresh rate of 60 frames, it further evolves the audiovisual experience. There is also an option for a refined version of the skill effect, allowing players to adjust the graphics according to their own configuration and preferences.
On top of that, the game also adds the option of "wide field of view". When turned on, it expands the field of view of the game's screen, making the overall look and feel closer to the specifications of the original game on consoles, making it more immersive.
In terms of game content, in addition to retaining all the original upgrades of the outer server, the national service also launched an exclusive five-star character - Jacraret, who is dressed as a chivalrous person and shows the oriental classical aesthetics to the fullest.
Players can get it for free just by signing in
Whether it is a picture upgrade or an exclusive national style character, the exclusive content of the national server has made some players of the traditional Chinese server envious for a long time, and bluntly said that they want to switch to the national costume.
In fact, NetEase's sincerity in operation is not only in the game, on the eve of the game's launch, the national service and T3 Travel carried out a painful car linkage, starting a series of warm-up activities.
In the previous exclusive offline event of the national server, the official also invited the female streamer and game producer Yuto Suzuki to interact with the players.
Not only that, but the official offline event today also has a lot of "Coser" ladies who are difficult to take their eyes off to help, from exclusive online content to bonus offline activities, the "supreme status" of national server players is self-evident.
Let's just say if this dancer can let you stop here for two more seconds
Although the game has only just entered the open beta period, officials are already actively trying to create a healthy community environment. From this point of view, players do not need to worry about the occurrence of a situation where they can run away with a penny, and this time NetEase really wants to do a good job in long-term operation.
epilogue
In today's mobile game industry, which is full of deformed modes such as ro-ro servers, forced PVP, and numerical payment, it is rare to have a game like "Overlord of the Continent" positioned as a "pure single-player experience".
Now, with the official opening of the public beta of the national server, "Overlord of the Continent" will also face the test of domestic players. Whether it can replicate its overseas success will only be judged by time. However, I still hope that Octopath Traveler: Overlord of the Continent can prove to the industry and the majority of players that it is a road worth trying to make mobile games with a single-player content-focused approach.
What is certain is that regardless of its commercial success, Octopath Traveler: Overlord of the Continent is still a great game to try for JRPG fans.