“Kabbalah M” won the best-selling list in Korea! Not the next-generation 3A, but a pixel mobile game?

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GameLook reports/When mentioning NCsoft, everyone may think of the image of greasy lady sisters such as “Sword Spirit” and “Paradise” for the first time. However, to the surprise of players, a retro 2D pixel style game has recently been launched.

The new IP work “Kabbalah M” developed by Ntreev Soft, a subsidiary of NCsoft, based on “Kabbalah” (Star Diamond Story), was officially launched on May 20. Before the game went live, the number of game reservations on official channels had exceeded 5 million. It can be seen how much players expect this game.

Thanks to the high popularity accumulated by the previous booking activities, “Kabbalah Island M” quickly reached the top of the Korean ios best-selling list in less than a day when it went online, and successfully reached the top in the Google App Store the next day. At the same time, this work will also support NCsoft’s own PC emulator platform Purple, allowing players to freely switch between the mobile phone or Purple for the game experience.

“Kabbalah” is an online game created by Ntreev Soft and operated from 2003 to 2014. Its 2D dot matrix style graphics and original stories derived from myths have been well received by many players. It is worth mentioning that it is also the first 2D cartoon online game introduced to mainland China, and it also has a large number of core fans in China.

Nowadays, after NCsoft acquired Ntreev soft and brought this game to the mobile terminal, what is it to grab users?

“Kabbalah Island M” Promotional VideoRetro and cute pixel art style

“Kabbalah” has accompanied many players through the lush years, but pure nostalgia does not make much sense. Therefore, the mobile game “Kabbalah M” is not only a tribute and inheritance to the classic Kabbalah, but also a lot of innovations in game content, especially gameplay, based on the characteristics of mobile devices.

The game plot inherited the world view of “Kabbalah Island”, and continued to expand on the basis of the original. The original islanders left after they did not send a large amount of gold, but the news of gold came on the island again, attracting again A group of people embarked on an adventurous journey. At the same time, players can also find important scenes and various hidden stories in the game, and experience the undisclosed ending plot of the original game.

Although the game still uses the retro 2D dot matrix style, this style is already very cute and still looks out of date. After the game’s graphics have been enhanced with modern technology, it is more in line with the aesthetic tastes of young audiences. . It not only pokes the feelings of old players, but also shows the characteristics of new elements.

The characters in the game do not adopt the greasy realistic style of the traditional Korean next-generation MMO, but restore the Japanese comic style of the end game to the greatest extent, whether it is the stunning character drawing and the gorgeous and smooth skill cutscenes. Animations all give people a “two-dimensional” taste.

In addition, in order to increase the strategy of the battle, the game provides players with 8 different professions, each of which has different attributes, and these attributes will react to each other in battle. When the attributes are overcome, the attack damage of the character will increase. Attack damage will be reduced when unfavorable.

“Kabbalah Island M” demo video

Unlike other MMORPGs that focus on combat, the core of “Kabbalah M” lies in adventure, and it runs through most of the activities based on this. Many exploration elements and daily elements also enrich the game experience.

In addition, the game also uses many improved systems, for example, the weather and environment will change over time, the conflict handling technology between characters and the seamless world, allowing players to explore freely on Kabbalah Island.

In terms of specific gameplay, as the first game with the theme of burrowing treasure hunting, “Kabbalah Island M” also inherits this core gameplay. Players can use the drilling machine’s detection skills to find “treasure points” and use drills to dig underground treasures. After the task is completed, the acquired treasures can be exchanged for in-game props to upgrade and strengthen the character’s strength.

It is worth mentioning that NCsoft used the previous experience of developing “Paradise M” and “Paradise 2 M” to successfully create a multiplayer PVP game similar to guild wars for “Kabbalah Island M”. Players can team up to explore the terrain and break through levels. During the exploration, players will also encounter powerful BOSS and start a team-based battle. According to the producer, he plans to make this game a cute version of “Paradise.”

Lower the game threshold and expand more consumer groups

In addition to the quality of the game itself, the reason why “Kabbalah M” can achieve such a result is naturally inseparable from the change of NCsoft’s operating strategy.

Since NCsoft shifted its business focus from terminal games to mobile game research and development, it is no longer targeting hardcore players, but casual players, in order to expand more audiences.

First of all, in terms of business model, “Kabbalah M” adopts a strategy of lowering the game threshold and making small profits but quick turnover. According to the developer, it will abandon excessive consumption induction since the launch, and plan to allow players to gradually consume according to the growth of the character. Compared with high sales, they expect a high purchase rate. This may be one of the important reasons why “Kabbalah M” can quickly squeeze into the top of the bestseller list.

In addition, the recent success of “Running Gingerbread Man: Kingdom” has allowed people to see a casual game market that has huge monetization potential and caters to female players. Especially in recent years, the number of female players in the Korean mobile gaming market has been increasing, and the potential value of this market reached 7.74 trillion won (US$6.9 billion) in 2019.

NCsoft is clearly aware of this. The end game IP of “Kabbalah” was very popular among female players in the early 21st century, and it just attracted female users and gamers who are familiar with the series. NCsoft’s survey of “Kabbalah Island M” reservation users also found that among the players who participated in the reservation, the proportion of 20-29 year olds and female players is higher than that of any existing company’s games.

In contrast, NCsoft’s other hard-core MMORPG mobile game “Paradise 2M”, whose male players have accounted for nearly 80% of the total user volume, therefore, the two major products converge on the bestseller list, thus forming a complementary trend , Has promoted the diversification of the user base.

On the whole, NCsoft actually deliberately jumped out of Korean traditional MMORPG routines and used “Kabbalah Island M” to make changes to the market.

Focusing on classic IP, Korean factories set off a wave of “new retro”

In recent years, with the development of the mobile game market, more and more mobile game MMO masterpieces have chosen to open up new battlefields on the mobile side, and have gained lasting vitality by virtue of high-quality content and refined operations. The trend towards boutique has gradually become The consensus of the game industry.

As we all know, Koreans have rich experience in using Unreal Engine. Korean MMO products have an absolute leading edge in technology and quality. Games such as “Seven Knights 2” and “Gran Saga” are constantly pursuing the next-generation art quality. .

Recently, some South Korean top manufacturers have done the opposite. Based on classic IP, they have started retro-style games. Many players can’t help but ask, is this a historical reversal?

In fact, it is not the case. The classic mobile games adapted from the IP of the mobile games are mainly targeted at veteran players who have grown up to about 30 years old. But South Korea’s recent IP adaptation of these new end-game products has unexpectedly attracted the likes and support of the 20th generation of young users. For example, “Heaven 2M”, “The Kingdom of Wind: Swallow”.

Their success also shows from the side that current players are not lacking in favor with this seemingly outdated end game IP. In fact, this is also related to the needs of Korean gamers. They are tired of repeated use of popular IPs, so it is not surprising that large Korean game companies shift their focus to the discovery of classic IPs. .

In fact, this also gave domestic manufacturers an inspiration to enter the Korean market, and Japan also has many old IPs worth exploring. Because in the same period, most Korean classic mobile games imitated Japanese games, so using Japanese classic IP to convert into mobile games to enter the Korean market may have unexpected effects.

For example, authorized by Extrem Co., Ltd., the classic IP mobile game “Dream Simulation War” developed by Zilong Games successfully topped the South Korean App Store best-seller list, attracting more than 15 million US dollars in the second quarter, and won the domestic mobile game revenue in South Korea in one fell swoop The champion of the list proves the possibility of the success of Japanese classic IP in the Korean mobile game market.

However, it should be noted that this does not mean that the content of the end game IP is moved over intact, but that it reflects the original feelings and reinterprets it according to the modern popular situation and the habits of today’s users. Only in this way can it get the attention of players in the market where IP is popular.

Conclusion

In general, the launch of “Kabbalah M” not only marks the re-nirvana of the classic game IP in 18 years on the mobile side, but also a casual work that is separated from the mainstream high-quality MMORPG in the market, and is abandoning the basis of homogeneity. On the mobile side, there may be a chance to extend a new style of mobile games on the mobile side, with more possibilities.

This Article is curated from Source and we only provide the English version of the Story.

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