Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 193 The Theory of Sharpening Knives
Sharpening the knife → Swinging the knife → Obtaining a whetstone → Sharpening the knife
This core gameplay loop is the same one commonly used in early pay-to-win games. Dragon Nest and Dungeon Fighter Online are typical examples. Their gameplay is essentially the same.

First, let players enjoy grinding to obtain whetstones, sharpen their knives, and continue grinding. Then, at some point, make sure players don't have enough whetstones, so the grinding becomes less enjoyable.

Then they lure players into spending money to hone their skills, and then continue having fun.
If we start from this set of theories...

Whether it's FGO or many domestic sequels, the main problem isn't the character progression system.

After all, even if your character development system is terrible, can it be worse than DNF?

So why do the character development systems in many anime-style games feel so awkward?

The answer isn't that the "sharpening" training system is flawed, but rather that the "sword-wielding" and "sharpening stone" are the problem.

On the one hand, most second-generation games have too little "sword-wielding" element. Simply put, players have nowhere to use a powerful character they've raised.

You've sharpened a holy sword, but there's nowhere to slash. Even if there are places to slash, it's not satisfying enough.

Secondly, there's the "sharpening stone." Since "card drawing" is the most important resource in the second game, what do players want most during the process of "sharpening" and "wielding" the sword?
It's naturally a gacha item, but this is precisely what the manufacturer can't provide.

So many players, after grinding for a long time and participating in a bunch of activities, find that they're all just small gains, and naturally lose the motivation to continue "sharpening their skills".

At this point, if the main storyline is also weak and you can't explain it clearly...
Didn't Bao Si deserve to die?
Conversely, why were the first batch of "old-school anime games"...

For example, could "Warship Girls" or even "Girls' Frontline," which Chu Chen has been criticizing, perform well?
That's because their core follows this set of rules.

Once a player acquires a character, whether they're farming corpses or leveling up Blacksteel, the resources they obtain can be used for direct "card draws," or large-scale construction. Therefore, this process of honing skills remains the same.

Players tirelessly grind for resources because it's fun. No, it's because the "sharpening stones" obtained from grinding resources can be exchanged for wives. The new wives can make them stronger, allowing them to sharpen their weapons even better.

Why does Final Frontline use a PVE roguelike approach? Why are new levels updated with each major version update? Why doesn't Final Frontline have a "speed bar" system?

This is to make up for the lack of large-scale construction in the chain.

In Final Frontline, while players can't directly draw cards with the resources they farm, they can still obtain card draw tickets by reaching a certain level in PVP and PVE.

So this approach can still be effective.

Although many players of "Final Front" often complain about the fact that the character development in "Final Front" cannot be "rushed," saying that the development process is tedious and time-consuming...
However, apart from adding a small amount of universal experience packs to the PVE rogue, Chu Chen did not make any other adjustments.

Because the core logic of PVE in "Final Front" is no different from that of pay-to-win games like DNF, which encourages players to enjoy grinding while using PVE rewards to draw cards, sharpen their weapons, strengthen their characters, and then continue grinding.

New challenges, new levels, new season, world rankings.

These systems all revolve around this core concept: to make players, while running dungeons, discover, "Hey? I feel like my new waifu is even more comfortable and enjoyable to use! I want to pull for her!"
However, Final Frontline doesn't encourage players to spend money in the game.

Even average players can pass this level with a little effort.

Therefore, this gameplay can maintain the daily active users of "Final Front" while preserving its reputation.

Many outside analysts only see the auto battler gameplay of "Final Frontline" and always assume that it is the auto battler gameplay that maintains the game's daily active users, but they have not seen this core.

Of course, Chu Chen never said this to anyone else.

He waited, waiting for those plagiarists who only copy superficially to fall into the pit, falling inexplicably and thinking, "Wait a minute, how come I became Bao Si after copying this?"

Although he didn't say it to outsiders, Chu Chen still had to get things done internally.

Based on this theory.

Chu Chen didn't make any changes to the character development system in FGO; he simply added a system that allows players to "replay" daily clears to reduce the amount of manual intervention required.

His main focus was on enhancing the satisfying feeling of "swinging the sword" for players and giving them a stronger incentive to "sharpen their swords." To some extent, improving the combat visuals and optimizing the battlefield art style are all ways of enhancing the "swinging the sword" aspect.

However, if that's all there is to it...

It's still not enough.

Therefore, Chu Chen added a new core gameplay to these underlying architectures, a PVE Tarkov + Roguelike gameplay called Imaginary Maze.

~~~
Just as Li Mingzhe came out of the toilet and began to "train" his wife.

Tokyo, Starry Night Japan Studio.

Despite being called a studio, it's really just a simple backdrop with a sofa.

Players who frequently watch the voice actor programs for "Final Battlefront" will be very familiar with this place, as it is the location where voice actor gameplay demonstrations are recorded.

Ayana Taketatsu's previous global live streams were also held here.

However, instead of a cute girl in a dress, two middle-aged men were sitting on the sofa.

"So, Nakamura-san, are you ready?"

"what to prepare?"

"Join Zeon, for our eggs!"

As soon as Sugita Tomokazu's voice came on, the density of the comments immediately increased several levels, especially since he specifically used the voice from Gintama. It has to be said that his voice is particularly well-suited to the word "egg".
On his other side, Yuichi Nakamura appeared much calmer.

"Well, next we're going to play the new mode added to the FGO remake, Imaginary Number Labyrinth..."

Aren't you going to complain?

"What are you complaining about?"

"My balls..."

"Hey you, don't start the show with 'eggs,' 'eggs,' okay? It's really rude to the audience!"

"Feel sorry.."

"So, Nakamura-san, are you ready? Chaldea's latest simulation system, the Imaginary Number Labyrinth, is about to unfold before us!"

"Well, we say we're ready... but actually we know nothing about what we're going to play."

"It's not that we don't know at all. The setting is that the Chaldea Association discovered an infinitely recursive imaginary space of history generated by an unknown force. As the Master, the player needs to send out Heroic Spirit clones to explore this ever-changing mysterious area and successfully evacuate."

As the two read from their scripts and joked around, the live stream chat was already flooded with comments.

As two relatively representative voice actors in Japan, Yuichi Nakamura, who has played many harem male protagonists including "Oreimo", and Tomokazu Sugita, who is represented by "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" and "Gintama", are both highly regarded.

It's quite popular in Japan.

At the staff's prompting, Yuichi Nakamura picked up the controller, and then the live stream switched to the game interface.

To be honest, these two are among the most game-obsessed male voice actors in the industry. They not only co-host game shows, but they also play games in their private lives.

After FGO was released in 15, Yuichi Nakamura even changed his mobile phone specifically for it.

(End of this chapter)