Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 524 Simple and Brutal Pleasure

All these years later, the last game that he longed for so much was Monster Hunter during the PSP era.

No, if we really have to compare, this game feels like it provides even stronger feedback because it's more direct, like short videos compared to long videos—faster pace and more satisfying.

Final Frontline Squad doesn't have a complicated world view for you to understand, nor a lengthy storyline for you to experience; it has only one purpose: to give you a good time.

This kind of enjoyment can captivate teenagers, and for those in their 30s and 40s who have experienced games like Diablo, it's a particularly strong hit.

The BOSS fell, and a pillar of light rose.

This light is faith, it is the motivation to live.

It wasn't just Kenichi Tanaka who was attracted by this purity; a short video suddenly went viral on YouTube in the US, Titok in Japan, and Bilibili in China.

The video shows an American family living room where a young man is staring in disbelief at his father.

A typical blond, middle-aged elite was suddenly jumping up from the sofa like a child.

"Oh my God! Yes! Yes!"

As he shouted, he let out a loud cheer, the wrinkles on his face smoothing out with extreme excitement, and even his gray beard trembling slightly.

The camera then zoomed in, and on the television screen, a huge mechanical BOSS wreckage was still emitting black smoke, while in the center of the wreckage, a unique beam of light stood silently.

Then the man started shouting wildly, like a soccer goal had been scored.

"Dark gold! It's dark gold!!!"

~~~
This video has almost no content; its popularity is entirely due to the popularity of "Final Squad," the contrasting images, and the emotional release.

Along with this video, another phrase that became popular along with the game is, "Four times the waifus, four times the fun, naturally also four times the grind, that's fair."

I don't know who came up with this famous quote.

What Kenichi Tanaka saw was just a small microcosm of the storm that "Final Destination: Squad" was stirring up worldwide.

Although "Final Squad" is not a large-scale game and is not a AAA title, its explosive popularity this time has an extremely wild, even brutal, attitude.

In the past, whether it was the main game *Final Battlefront*, *Final Battlefront: Origins*, or *Fate/Grand Order*...

Its core audience has always revolved around the two circles of anime and hard science fiction. What Starcraft is doing is actually expanding outward from these circles.

To give a more vivid example.

The products that Xingchen made before were somewhat like Bilibili, radiating outwards from the core of anime and manga.

While "Final Squad" still has a two-dimensional anime skin, the essence of the game is more like TikTok, a game that simply pursues mindless fun.

The biggest change resulting from this.

The game "Final Squad" has become a hit in Europe and America. On Reddit, the largest overseas gaming forum, the discussion surrounding "Final Squad" once surpassed that of several annual AAA titles.

~~~
A few days later, it was the weekend.

Suburbs of Houston, Texas, USA.

Warm yellow light shone from the windows of a typical American detached house, bringing a touch of warmth to the cold winter night.

"Hey Bowen!! Have you finished your pizza?! Don't eat pizza while playing!"

"Okay, Mom!" A slightly annoyed boy's voice came from the second floor.

If you've actually interacted with American high school students, you'll find that the images in movies of them throwing pool parties every week and driving recklessly around campus are ultimately a minority.

Reality is far more tedious than that. Just as high school students in idol dramas and high school students in reality who are overwhelmed by workbooks are completely different species, the same is true in the United States.

For a student like Bowen, who attends an ordinary high school, life revolves around academics, exams, and dealing with his parents' occasional nagging.

Even if they smoke marijuana, it's the same as high school students smoking in China—it's all done secretly.

Bowen Roberts is just such a boring sixteen-year-old high school student.

His room was covered with posters of various video games, including God of War, The Last of Us, and Red Dead Redemption.

If you only look at the posters, you might think that Sony and Rockstar are his idols. However, next to his PS4, there aren't even a single disc of these big-name games, let alone a few.

For an average American high school student, money is a scarce commodity.

Each AAA game is a significant expense for him. Buying the disc? That's out of the question. He can only rent, and even then, he has to be very selective.

This predicament continued until Bowen discovered the Star Game.

At first, he only saw a few games he had never heard of on the PSN store's best-selling and free charts.

Then he got hooked.

The first game he became addicted to was *Final Battlefront*.

While this game doesn't have the exquisite graphics of a AAA title, its 2D cutscenes are quite unique, and animation is a fairly mature form of expression.

Animations from ten years ago still feel perfectly natural today, but 3D animations from ten years ago are simply not good enough for today's audience.

Although Final Frontline is a game that has been online for two years, the opening animation still greatly shocked Bowen.

The entire storyline can be played in one go, from the initial defense to the counterattack, and then to space. Each chapter is like a movie, and the auto-chess gameplay is quite novel for Bowen.

The most crucial one!!

This game is free!!!
For Bowen Roberts, free is justice; he never imagined that free-to-play games could achieve this level of success.

After playing all night, Bowen even had a strange idea.

He felt obligated and responsible to promote this conscientious company to the people around him and let them see what a real game is like.

He felt like a Columbus who had discovered a new, unknown world of games.

The next day, as soon as Bowen arrived at school, he found his good friend Chris.

"Hey Chris! You'll never guess what I found out last night."

Chris, without even looking up, replied, "So you finally realized your stinky socks needed washing?"

“Ten thousand times more important than that.” Bowen ignored his friend’s teasing and said in an almost missionary tone, “A game company from China called Starry Sky, their games are simply masterpieces!”

What Bowen wanted to see was a surprised or puzzled expression on his friend's face.

However, reality did not unfold as he had envisioned.

(End of this chapter)