Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 197 Occupying Japanese Twitter
In the future timeline, 17 years after the release of the Fate/stay night movie, the box office on its opening day more than doubled that of the second-place film, War for the Planet of the Apes.

The box office in Japan has exceeded 20 billion yen.

What does it mean to be at the height of one's power?
This is what is called being at the height of one's power.

The huge FATE fan base is a significant advantage.

So what is the right timing?

The answer is DEW, the original developer of FGO, who was completely inhumane throughout 15 and 16.

Although it sounds a bit hellish to say it like that.

It's no exaggeration to say that Japanese FGO players have really experienced the "defense" process. The original FGO from 15 can be considered a compilation of such defenses.

Various serious bugs keep popping up. Things like abnormal item drops, inability to obtain cards in 10-pull draws, and incorrect display of experience synthesis are minor issues. Have you ever seen a bug where clearing the cache causes account loss?
Have you ever seen a game undergo intermittent maintenance for more than 48 hours?

Have you ever seen a game that was removed from the Android store because it had too many bugs?

Have you ever seen a game where you get a character in ten consecutive draws, but all you get are weapons?

Hmm... I've seen all of these Japanese players before.

Many people think that Japanese FATE players are crazy, but in reality, even Japanese players have been constantly criticizing FGO for 15 years.

Criticizing the developers had even become a daily routine for Japanese FGO players during that period.

So much so that domestic players all know the "Shoji Fei Ma" meme.

Why curse?

It's not just because FGO is a trap, but also because players who love FATE "can't see any hope," which is like watching their beloved character being ruined by a blond guy.

The more you are a Moon God, the angrier you get.

Faced with criticism and player attrition, until FGO was truly on its deathbed, its developers remained indifferent to everything except making money.

This leads to many FGO players feeling quite "unsatisfied" when they quit the game.

Even players who manage to get through the game will generally not recommend it to others, and when discussing details, they often express their disappointment and frustration.
This is why Japanese players were so overjoyed after StarCraft Games took over FGO.

It's not just because Starry Night Games has a good reputation.

Furthermore, StarCraft Games brought what they needed most, and what's most important for a long-term game: a sense of novelty and vitality.

Among the various promotional videos for the Japanese remake of "FGO", the two most widely circulated videos are the one that Shiokawa announced the remake of "FGO" at the Starry Night Direct in July.

This video has not only been widely circulated.

In Japan, there are also numerous "reaction" videos, featuring groups of Japanese, domestic, and American anchors who, upon seeing the news, exclaimed, "Eh!! Eh!! Eh!!"

Japanese gamers even uploaded videos of American streamers with only a few hundred followers to their YouTube channels just to watch these kinds of reactions.
Besides this video, another one is Chu Chen at the end of September.

We invited Ayako Kawasumi, the voice actress for Saber; Rie Takahashi, the voice actress for Mashu; and Maaya Sakamoto, the voice actress for Jeanne d'Arc, to China to record a preview program for the FGO remake.

In this program.

Chu Chen's understanding of the game mechanics and his vision for the future, which he described as "pie in the sky," inexplicably gave many Japanese players a certain feeling.

"If it's this person!!" "Chen-san understands Fate!!!"

This includes Star Wallpaper. Star Wallpaper was promoted to all users the day before the Chinese version of FGO remake was launched. This means that all Star Wallpaper users could use Star Wallpaper when they used it.

For the first 30 seconds, you'll see a classic live wallpaper of Saber wielding a sword.

Of course, the purpose of Star Wallpapers placing this ad was ultimately to "remind" players that they could claim a free FGO live wallpaper.

This set of live wallpapers consists of three images: Saber wielding a sword, Rin Tohsaka wearing stockings, and Jeanne d'Arc dancing with a flag.
This marketing strategy was originally intended as a side project in Japan.

After all, without Tencent's promotion in Japan, Starry Wallpaper's installation count isn't very high, with less than a million daily active users. However, this time, Starry Wallpaper acted as an "advertisement" in Japan.

Not only did they not lose followers, they also gained a lot of new followers.

Why did the gift box released by Starry Night Games before the launch of "FGO" cause such a sensation in Japan?
It's because Japanese players, after being manipulated by StarCraft Games for months, watched the press conference, read StarCraft's development logs, and watched Chu Chen's preview program, started to genuinely believe that this company could truly make *Fate/Grand Order* a success.

All these expectations can be attributed to favorable timing.

When the timing is right and the location is favorable.

Starry Sky Games ultimately delivered a finished product that completely exceeded the expectations of all Japanese FGO players.

Even the most optimistic Japanese FGO developers didn't expect that the final FGO remake would be even better than what was announced at the press conference!

The use of 2D-HD technology brings the game to another dimension.

While this may sound a bit exaggerated and strange, it reflects the feelings of many Japanese players when they actually got their hands on the FGO remake.

The feeling is very similar to that of people in later generations who eagerly awaited a 3A game and finally played the official version of Black Myth.

Even though the remake of FGO has its problems, the excitement you feel when you see a framework, a dream, being realized is indescribable.

Players can sense whether a development team has put their heart into making a game.

In terms of player base, the Japanese version of FGO has an incredibly large player base.

In terms of marketing and promotion, FGO in Japan had already generated considerable buzz even before its official launch.
In terms of game quality, FGO Remake delivers a top-tier experience among anime-style games.

The right timing, the right location, and the right people are the elements that ultimately come together to create this.

It was a "monster" that even Chu Chen had never seen in his previous life, a monster that swallowed the entire Japanese game whole.

The words "FGO Remastered" swept across the Japanese internet like a tsunami in a very short time.

The 17 years that FGO was most popular in its previous life.

According to the official Japanese Twitter account, the most popular hashtags of 2017 were: Monster Strike first, Nogizaka46 second, FGO third and fourth, and Dragon Ball fifth.
And now...
Japanese Twitter has gone completely crazy; six out of the top ten trending topics are related to the FGO remake.

A total of 6!!!
Even the number one trending topic on Twitter in Japan is #FGORemastered#, and the flame icon following this topic has caused its popularity to skyrocket to an unbelievable level.

Its popularity even surpassed that of "The Full-Time Wife Escapist," the most discussed Japanese drama in October.

Clicking in reveals a constantly refreshing page of new content, with countless players expressing their emotions in the most excited, even incoherent, language.

(End of this chapter)