Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 64 Preaching
It's no exaggeration to say that Final Frontier is a gacha simulator.

If you open YouTube at this time and randomly click on any live stream tagged "Final Battlefront," you'll almost always see people playing gacha games, and so on.

"Wow!! I've never fought such a rich battle before!!"

"Whew!! Another gold drop!! Ah, so satisfying, so incredibly satisfying, look at that animation effect!!"

"Re-equipped, wow, so cool!!!"

"M4!! Ah!! M4!! Stepping on my face, ah!!!"

"No!! I want the complete Pokédex!!!"

There are many bloggers like this on YouTube Japan channels. Some of them received business deals from StarCraft Games, but unexpectedly...
Many video bloggers also followed suit after seeing other YouTubers doing the same thing and getting views, following the trend of gacha pulls following the success of "Final Battlefront".
This feeling is somewhat similar to when Bilibili's "Strategic World" appeared in the past, and many people didn't discuss whether the game itself was fun or not, but rather that the game's price was lower than other similar products.

Although this is actually quite strange.

Yet it feels very real, because players of this type of game have been fed up with the pay-to-win strategies of many manufacturers, and the world has long suffered under the "Qin" regime.

As a result, "Strategy of the World" relies on a low-price strategy and a mature game framework, even though its so-called low price is just a gimmick.

But with just this gimmick, it can still crush several other competitors.

This also illustrates from another perspective that games don't necessarily make money just by having more pay-to-win elements or forcing players to spend money more aggressively.

Similarly, at this point, Final Frontline, in terms of both game quality and monetization strategy, is a complete game-changer for Japanese anime games.

The quality is impeccable.

The price is unbeatable.

It was no surprise that it eventually became a huge hit.

In addition, Chu Chen discovered something very interesting: in both the Apple Store review section and Twitter discussion threads, there were a large number of "veteran players" guiding new players through the game.

Some of them were normal, just forwarding guides.

There are also those with "ulterior motives," such as "New players, look here! A must-read guide for beginners! Step one: enter my invitation code!!"

There are also those who simply repost "battle reports," such as, "[Breaking News] 'Final Front' has climbed to ninth place on the bestseller list!!"

These posts were so ubiquitous that Chu Chen found them rather strange.

Is the first day on the Japanese server really that exaggerated?
Chu Chen was somewhat puzzled.

However, upon closer inspection, it turns out that this is not the case. This group of people who are highly active on the Japanese internet are actually the same group of Japanese players who were the first to play on the Chinese server.

That's why they're so proactive now.

On one hand, Li Suhao had previously given them the title of "Pioneers" in the game.

Not only did he give them official titles, but Li Suhao also sent thank-you letters to these "pioneers" in the game, along with some virtual items as rewards.

Although they are all very abstract things.

Seeing your favorite game being liked by others is a very pleasant thing in itself.

While they wouldn't say they'd "die for a friend who understands them," they were far more willing to share and promote *Final Battlefront* than the average Japanese player.

This kind of word-of-mouth marketing, which relies on organic growth, may not have much effect in the early stages.

However, as the game gained momentum, by that very evening, this group had already demonstrated something that conventional promotional methods could not achieve.

They not only continued to "preach" on the Internet, but also spread the "victories" of "The Final Battlefront" in Japan everywhere, and even copied the reports of "The Final Battlefront" in China.

For example, there's a news item circulating in Japanese online communities right now: "[Breaking News] Final Frontline's China Server Tops the Bestseller List!!!"

When Chu Chen saw this message, he almost burst out laughing. It reminded him of how some games in later generations, when their Chinese server revenue wasn't good, would use their Japanese server revenue for promotion.

Besides that, he was also somewhat gratified.

Whether Li Suhao did it intentionally or simply did it, this chemical reaction just happened to occur.

All of this shows that Li Suhao has at least some talent in operations.

~~~
"Mr. Chen!! You have to come to Japan!! With such a great start, we need to keep pushing..."

"I didn't say I wasn't going; I said next month."

Chu Chen had originally planned to go to Japan, scheduled for after the server opened, but after Li Suhao successfully established himself in Japan...

He wasn't in such a hurry anymore.

After all, the reason he let Li Suhao go to Japan was to reduce his own work pressure. Now, although the 1.0 version of "Final Front" has been launched.

However, the development of version 1.1 followed immediately. When version 1.1 was launched, it coincided with the launch of the first wave of competing products from Tencent and NetEase, which shows its importance.

In addition, Starry Sky has been hiring more people recently for the new project. As Starry Sky's current "pillar of stability", Chu Chen's daily workload has naturally increased.

If there are problems with the Japanese server, he will definitely go there immediately.

But now that the Japanese server is operating normally, he is not in such a hurry. Instead, he lets Li Suhao experience things on his own, which will allow him to grow faster.

However, Chu Chen had his own ideas.

Li Suhao also had reasons for needing to ask Chu Chen to come out of retirement.

As the head of Starry Night Japan, Li Suhao was under a lot of pressure after a "perfect start".

Almost immediately after "Final Front" showed signs of becoming a hit, Shiokawa told Li Suhao that they needed to adjust their next promotional strategy.

Before the Japanese server of "Final Battlefront" was launched, many of their preparations were to figure out how to handle the promotion in case the Japanese server of "Final Battlefront" was not popular.

How to "relaunch the server" and how to transition to normalized marketing.

From a tactical perspective, it is prudent to consider defeat before victory.

But with the unexpected explosive popularity of "Final Battlefront," the two have become dramatic. They're only thinking about how to win when things are going against them, and they haven't thought about how to win when things are going well.

For the time being, the only aggressive promotional campaign that could be thought of was Chu Chen's "Don't Do the Humanoid Girl's Challenge" on the Chinese server.

The two also wanted to do one on the Japanese server, since female voice actors on the Japanese server are popular not only in Japan, but also in China.

If done well, it can not only influence the Japanese server, but also the Chinese server.

"Why are you bringing this up? You invited guests from the Japanese server, so what? Didn't I send you the script? Just follow the framework, right?"

"Mr. Chen, I'd like to do it myself too!"

Lee Su-hao actually originally wanted to do it himself.

After confirming the promotional methods, Li Suhao immediately began preparations. He contacted an outsourcing team that could record programs and even sent them the Chinese version of the derivative program.

But after reading it, the other party said this.

(End of this chapter)