Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 395: The streets were deserted.
The hashtag #塩川に女装させよう (Let Shiokawa wear women's clothes) on Twitter surged to the top of the Japanese Twitter trending list within just one hour, followed by a bright red "Explosive" sign.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Japanese people are "ruthless nodding machines" in real life; their "perverted" nature on the internet is also quite exaggerated.

And they are extremely enthusiastic about "cutizing" and "meme-ifying" everything.

Shiokawa's image was photoshopped onto various female anime characters, from the classic Saber to Rin Tohsaka, from magical girls to the Idolmaster, creating a sense of incongruity and humor.

Some people have even started to seriously analyze which Heroic Spirit's clothes Shiokawa's body proportions would be most suitable for.

Besides Shiokawa, the trending topics on Japanese Twitter were almost entirely dominated by the FGO anniversary celebration.

Of the top ten trending topics, six are related to FGO.

This is Twitter!
Even Honor of Kings is unlikely to occupy 6 out of the top 10 trending topics on Weibo.

Of course, FGO's popularity is also related to some celebrities joining in the fun. For example, the fourth most searched topic in the top 10 was related to Yui Aragaki.

On his personal Twitter account, he posted a screenshot of his victory in the game "FGO Kill", with only one sentence in the caption.

"わーい! 胜てたぁ"

Then, this matter became a trending topic...
Unfortunately, Yui Aragaki was indeed at the peak of her popularity at that time. From last year's hit drama "The Full-Time Wife Escapist" to this year's "Code Blue 3", she gradually earned the title of "national goddess".

Although Yui Aragaki posted this largely because she also accepted an advertisement for Starry Night Games this year, that's not important.

Importantly, it wasn't just her; Satomi Ishihara also tweeted.
In addition to becoming a hot topic online, Japanese media have also been following up on the story.

For example, this morning, Yahoo News' headline was a special in-depth report titled "Social Phenomenon? FGO Ushers in a 'Second Birth' Due to a New Mode."

The article provides a detailed analysis of how "FGO Assassination" successfully broke through the traditional mobile game player circle and attracted a large number of general users by virtue of its "social icebreaker" and "easy-to-learn" features.

Even the radio in the car, hosted by two morning radio hosts whom Chu Chen didn't recognize, was discussing this topic.

"...Speaking of which, Nakamura-san, have you been playing that lately?"

"Which one? Ah...you mean that one, right?! We played with it! Of course we played with it!"

"Last night, I was hanging out with some friends, and before I could even finish speaking in the first round, Sakuma voted me out. It was a complete personal vendetta!"

It can be said that, whether on the internet or in reality, even though Chu Chen did not live in Japan, he had already felt this heat wave, and this heat wave was even stronger than when the FGO remake was released.

When the remake of FGO was released, most people's perception was still, "Wow, this game made so much money!"

This time, it's "Hey~ Is this game really that fun?"

The scope of influence may be similar, but the methods are completely different. In addition, there is a very magical phenomenon in the Japanese market, or even in the global Internet.

Once something becomes "popular," it generates a powerful social inertia that draws everyone into it.

This is especially true in Japan.

Because in Japan, it's not just popular online, but also discussed among colleagues offline.

Pokémon GO, Ice Bucket Challenge, Titok, PPAP, etc.
They all use the same formula.

Take Pokémon GO, which became a huge hit last year, for example. At its peak, Pokémon GO had more than 3000 million players in Japan, and it was discussed on various TV programs, the internet, and in the news.

That's 3000 million players in Japan! You have to understand, Japan only has a population of over 1 million, so nearly a third of them play Pokémon GO. Can you believe that?
Of course, FGO wasn't quite at that level yet, but its momentum after gaining popularity was very close. At that point, whether you played the game or not was no longer important; what mattered was that you couldn't be "out of place." If you were completely unaware of what was going on when your colleagues, classmates, and friends were all discussing "who I lied to last night" or "who the mole was," you wouldn't stand a chance.

They will naturally be excluded from social circles.

And based on this popularity...

StarCraft's move to "gift a limited-edition skin" became the last straw that broke the camel's back, or rather, the last spark that ignited this dry tinderbox.

The rhetoric that "not claiming it would mean losing a hundred million" and "Yanchuan must be made to wear women's clothing" has spread virally on various social media platforms.

For many Japanese people, the allure of such "limited-time" and "free" offers is irresistible, especially since the cost of obtaining this benefit is merely downloading a game.

Therefore, FGO, an "old game" that has been operating for over two years since its launch in 2015 and has a relatively stable core user base, is now considered to be in good shape.

On the Japanese Apple download charts, it seems to have taken off like a launch pad, charging back towards the top of the charts from an incredible angle.

In just one day, it regained the top spot on the download charts.

It's not just the download charts.

It also undisputedly topped the bestseller list.

Apple's App Store indirect popularity metric also ranks first.

This indicator is not only number one in Japan, but also number one in the world.

On StarCraft's own Android platform, StarCraft Tap, the Japanese version of FGO shows a clear lead in popularity, downloads, and discussions.

Leaving all other games far behind.

Faced with this situation where "the streets are deserted," Chu Chen, as the boss, naturally couldn't be in a bad mood after seeing these news reports.

However, Shiokawa, who was sitting opposite him, had a rather complicated feeling.

Looking at the overall market data these past few days, FGO's performance has been undeniably impressive, with new user registrations, daily active users, and average player online time all showing a beautiful upward curve.

However, of these curves, only one is decreasing.

That is, the completion rate and discussion volume of the new version's main storyline.

In fact, the FGO team put a lot of effort into the script and presentation of this anniversary version of FGO. The cutscenes for this anniversary version are an astonishing 40 minutes long.

The various performances, battles, and details are all very well polished.

The script was also written by Mushroom himself.

There are also skins and events that fit the script, a new imaginary maze, and all sorts of sincerity that can be said to be completely full.

Many hardcore gamers also found the new storyline incredibly enjoyable.

However, most players, especially new players, still plunge into the "Pseudo-Holy Grail Feast" room after logging in, starting game after game of "FGO Assassin."

The two models have generated completely different levels of discussion.

(End of this chapter)