Looking at 2D games from ChinaJoy, are we really going to break the dimensional wall?

The hotter the two-dimensional market becomes, the more calm products are needed.

Sponsor of this article: Perfect World

One

ACG has become an essential product line for large and medium-sized game manufacturers.

In the two years since miHoYo has been quietly making money with "Honkai Academy 2", the industry has had a rough idea of ​​the potential of the 2D market, but it lacks enough "phenomenal" products to introduce 2D games to the mass market. On the other hand, from 2014 to 2016, manufacturers tried to test the water in the two-dimensional field from time to time, but most of them were piecemeal and settled, that is, "Nuan Nuan Around the World" is just one.

"Honkai Academy 2"

In the second half of 2016, the industry finally ushered in products that could break the deadlock, and there were three of them: "Onmyoji", "Honkai Impact 3" and "Fate/Grand Order". The characteristics of the large number of 2D users, high activity level, and strong consumption desire have attracted the attention of all manufacturers.

《fate/grand order》

So we can see that during this year, the second dimension has experienced a blowout, and almost all large and medium-sized manufacturers have launched their own two-dimensional games. At the just-concluded ChinaJoy, game manufacturers even unanimously focused on two-dimensional products as the focus of their promotions, with a tendency to "invade" three-dimensional products and move from the fringe to the mainstream.

For example, Tencent Interactive Entertainment exhibited "Jian Wang 3: Fingertip Jianghu" and "Fairy Tail Mobile Game" at ChinaJoy; NetEase Games exhibited the "A Certain Magical Index" mobile game jointly developed with Kadokawa; perfect focus The ancient two-dimensional mobile game "Dream Collection", which has many famous Chinese and Japanese CVs dubbed, was on display. Shanda's booth had a Japanese-style "Kannazuki".

NetEase's "A Certain Magical Index"

"Dream Collection" Cos Event at the Perfect Booth

In addition, Sina Games displayed the "EVA: Breaking Dawn" mobile game; Gaia Interactive Entertainment used last year's "Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress" derivative mobile game as its main two-dimensional product; and Caesar Culture highlighted the "Once Upon a Time" "Spirit Sword Mountain", "Silver Gravekeeper", "Saint Seiya: Rebirth" and other mobile game products.

Even Alibaba Games, which was founded less than a year ago, animation IPs such as "My Hero Academia" and "Time Ruler" have also appeared on the big screen on the main stage of Alibaba Games, indicating that these IPs may have their own game licensing program.

In addition to the enthusiasm from manufacturers, Apple officials have also shown their recognition of the "second dimension". It just so happened that during ChinaJoy, the App Store launched a special area called "Gateway Through Dimensions". To a certain extent, it symbolizes that the second dimension is becoming popular from platforms and channels to product development and distribution.

Two

The screenwriter Whale Whale, who became famous through "33 Days of Love", once again launched his own original work "Flash Girl" this summer. This film did not do well at the box office due to various reasons such as the title, poster, and publicity. But this movie is the first domestic movie to directly show the "second dimension" and the boys and girls living in it.

The poster is like "Flash Girl" from the cosplay event

It can be said that this film has a very sophisticated production team: the editor Mr. Kwong Zhiliang is the scissorhands of "Ashes of Time" and "Chungking Express"; Mr. Liang Qiaobai, who is in charge of the music part, is the music director of "I Am a Singer"; the investment The person is Mr. Jiang Zhiqiang, whose previous works include "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

In front of these big guys, Whale Whale, who can only be regarded as a junior, stated a PPT: "Why do you like the second dimension? The world of the second dimension, in my heart, is an absolute existence. It is Teacher Saitama who punches again and again , to crush those so-called "impossibles"; it is to believe in hard work, justice, teammates, and believe that there is a sea area waiting for us to fight."

And the answer from these big guys is: OK. This world is cool and we will try our best to step into it. This same sentence, if used to describe the current two-dimensional game market, is almost the same.

For a long time, domestic two-dimensional games have been in a state of "enclosure and cuteness": people outside can't understand it, and people inside don't want to explain. During this period, the two-dimensional game showed signs of becoming popular, and the production team was extremely happy, announcing that they had successfully conquered the dimensional wall and would soon reach the peak of their lives. But in fact, the two-dimensional games that were popular at the time were still only "popular within the circle."

"Girls' Frontline", which had high hopes in 2015, was a "popular" product at the time.

Chairman Mao taught us that revolution is not a dinner party, and two-dimensional games cannot solve problems by bringing in some authorized IP or even pirated characters. Two-dimensional games are a combination of character design, voice actors, gameplay, operations, etc. They are middle-schoolers who believe that the world behind the screen really exists. They are a theme park that accepts and interprets characters. Although the main consumption content of the second dimension is the image of popular characters, the more basic content and the tone of the world are established and maintained.

For example, last year's hit "Onmyoji" created the tone of a "peaceful world" through the game: it was based on Japan's Heian period, but it did not stick to its historical performance and added a large number of elements that two-dimensional users like. . Coupled with the likable characters, the biographies of each character increase the complexity of the character. Everyone has their own preferences.

After "Onmyoji" became popular, it caused some studios to follow suit and make Japanese-style games. Even some domestic IPs have to be packaged in a Japanese style. But blindly following the trend can only learn the outside world, and simply reviewing the market will not succeed. It should be noted that although 2D users are very loving, they are also very picky. Only when the content and tone of the game—the background, plot, style of painting, and characters—are naturally unified can it be favored by two-dimensional users.

After the success of "Onmyoji", not only major companies are following up, but some copycat games are also trying to get a piece of the second-dimensional pie.

In this regard, "Dream Collection" produced by Perfect World this year did a good job. The game personifies swords from martial arts novels and folklore, and creates a second interpretation based on their original depictions. Compared with the clichés of martial arts mobile games in recent years, the aesthetic fatigue of machine girl mobile games has become overwhelming. The famous cold weapons familiar to Chinese people (especially the famous weapons in Jin Yong's works) are personified to make domestic players feel more familiar.

The game not only has swords personified, but also fans, hidden weapons and other special weapons commonly seen in martial arts novels.

In addition, the characters in "Dream Collection" are mainly "handsome men", with exquisite character designs, luxurious CV lineup, and natural "lethal power" against female players. In terms of cultural inclusiveness, "Yumema Shu" also has a geographical advantage compared to the Japanese game "Touken Ranbu" that was previously known as "Sword Man". This tone, among the swarm of two-dimensional products that imitate Japanese games, is unique and has its own style.

Three

Two-dimensional games are popular, but the hotter this trend becomes, the more cold thinking is needed. Similar products burst out collectively, and the best-selling products are always the best. After several years of development in the mobile game market, the demographic dividend has now receded, and it’s time to focus on quality and features. It is basically unrealistic to expect that things will float just by standing in the wind as in the past. The market needs more competitive products.

As shown above, we can see some clues from the three games recommended on the first screen of Apple's "Through the Gate of Dimensions" feature. FGO is a highly popular mobile game in Japan, and the IP itself has a huge fan base. "Dream Collection" is a high-quality domestic product, focusing on female-oriented and ancient styles, with a clear positioning. As for "Synchronic Rhythm Meowsike", it is a stand-alone music game that was launched two years ago and has always received good reviews. The three games have distinctive features and are both two-dimensional, but their main directions and selling points are very different.

This kind of differentiated competition is what players are happy to see. We have seen too many homogeneous two-dimensional games before, especially when the "Machine Girl" series was in the limelight in the past two years, each company was imitating others and producing some "Machine Girl" games. The homogenization of high-quality products was very common. , most of them are "two-dimensional" for the sake of "two-dimensional", and the result is naturally short-lived.

At the same time, we can also see that "Dream Collection", which is based on Jin Yong's martial arts, is also the only ancient style mobile game on the "Gate Through Dimension" list. Today, when Japanese comics and Japanese-style mobile games appear together, this unique ancient-style mobile game proves that even in the secondary market of the second dimension, vertical segmentation still has great potential.