Title Diagram | "Echoes of Fate: A Sigh on the Strings".

Statement | This article does not include commercial cooperation

Author | Night Wind

The classical music anthropomorphic card game "Echo of Fate: Sigh on the String" (hereinafter referred to as "Echo of Fate") launched by Japan game company DeNA was launched in the mainland market on October 18, topping the iOS free list on the first day, reaching 79th on the iOS best-selling list, and the current number of downloads on the whole platform has reached 2 million, which is a decent achievement. Its publisher, Frog Flutter Network, is actually a branch of DeNA in China, so it can be said that in the mainland market, this is a relatively rare game that is developed and operated by a Japan company itself.

From the point of view of the game itself, it can indeed bring us some different "Japan ideas". It's more of a monetization form of "a story" than a game. Around this game, whether it is the outstanding strengths or some puzzling mistakes, it is really quite Japan.

The wife is the most important, but not the only thing

When it comes to Japan's two-dimensional system, anthropomorphism and "motherhood" can be said to be classic operations. "Echoes of Fate" is a game that personifies classical music: several strange meteorites that have fallen from space to Earth continue to produce monsters that threaten the survival of mankind; The girls known as the "musicians" have the power of classical music in their bodies, and they are the only ones who can fight monsters; Some humans, led by the protagonists, have the ability to be "conductors" and can resonate with the "performers", command them in battle, and maximize their potential. Players and the performers then have to run into each other and save the world together.

This inherently makes it easy to establish an emotional connection between the player and the "wives". Since the style of the music is different, it is easy for the personality of the musicians to make a corresponding distinct design. This constitutes the most important core emotional experience of two-dimensional games. For example, Mozart's "Little Star Variations" is born from a nursery rhyme, and the "Little Star Variations" is also a lively and cute little girl; The virtuoso "Carmen" is derived from an excerpt from the piano piece from the opera Carmen, so she is a mature and enthusiastic red dress dancer, which is in tune with the gypsy girl, the protagonist of the opera.

In addition, the game is also trying to show a story with strong plot tension to better empathize with players, and at the same time, special attention is paid to many gameplay details to match the overall tone, showing a good sense of immersion. The most outstanding performance is that it puts a lot of effort into the "telling" of storytelling.

The use of Live2D dynamics is now the "basic" of similar games. However, the Live2D dynamics of "Echoes of Fate" are quite vivid and rich, and the look and feel is relatively smooth. On closer inspection, the hair of the characters, the streamers of the clothes, and even some of the fluffy fabrics have made independent dynamic effects, and the overall look is more vivid and realistic. This is the most direct and effective means to visually show the emotions of the characters.

In addition to showing the story with text dialogue, the game also designed simple map scenes for each episode. Players can control their character (the Q version of the bice) to move around the top-down mini-map, talk to the character, investigate clues, and face monsters. Although the degree of freedom is not high, and you can only follow the plot in general, this extra space for exploration and interaction makes the game more RPG and enhances the sense of substitution.

Animations are also inserted into the plot from time to time, especially when it comes to large scenes. The style and quality of the animation are similar to normal dramas, which not only makes the story more expressive, but also easy to leave the impression of "sincerity" to the player.

These additional performances enhance the storytelling experience and allow players to feel the story more immersively. In addition to the story, many of the gameplay designs are also quite remarkable, which has become a part of improving the game experience.

For example, the game doesn't actually have a "Home" in the strict sense of the word, instead it has a top-down minimap mentioned above. As soon as the player enters the game, they will appear on the map they were on the last time they exited the game, which feels more like some MMO game. Many of the day-to-day functions are not directly displayed in the form of icons, but are distributed throughout the map in the form of interactive NPCs, items, etc., which require the player to walk over and interact. For example, to view daily tasks, you need to talk to the small robot in the lobby; To enter the dungeon level, you need to go to the "Training Room" and use the training equipment. Of course, there are also corresponding animations when interacting.

The players they have already earned will also be scattered throughout the map, and they will have to talk to them to unlock their friendship stories. In addition, some of the materials used to increase friendship will randomly refresh a few around the map every day, and players can explore and collect.

The scenes are actually not very large, and the modeling is not very detailed and beautiful, that is, it allows the player to walk freely without feeling like a drama. Surprisingly, some of the objects in the scene are also interactive and animated, such as chairs to sit on, push-ups on the mats in the training room, and even hopscotch on the street. These small interactions don't have any rewards, but they can also make the protagonist and the world they live in seem more real and cute.

Of course, the game is also left behind, in case the player gets bored with it in the later stages. In addition to "leg passing" to different locations, you can also click on the map to teleport. The map can also retrieve and display the location of different functions and players, so that players don't remember where they are or don't bother to look for them. If you're too lazy to walk, the game also has a foldable sidebar where all kinds of features are readily available, just click on them, ensuring that players with different needs can find a way to play that suits them.

In addition, the UI interaction feel is also a detail that is easy to overlook. Since the story is about music and conductors, the interactive effects of the UI in the game also follow the elegant style of classical music, and use more flowing lines to express the smart beauty of music. On the Player Development page, up to three different sets of Live2D portraits will be smoothly switched between different tabs. If you look closely, you can see that the dynamics of the switching process are that the sonic contours appear first, and then the sound waves form the figure of the performer, which can be said to be quite nuanced.

On the whole, it is precisely because of the three-dimensional packaging in all aspects that the game gives people a very harmonious and comfortable feeling, which is also what many Japan game manufacturers are good at. At least in terms of packaging, "Echoes of Fate" still has a certain competitiveness. In addition, it is also interesting to add some RPG-like gameplay experience to the card game.

Relatively gentle means of commercialization

It's a relative pity that "Echo of Fate" doesn't have much innovation in the core gameplay. However, by adjusting the values and some details of gameplay, the game feels more moderate in terms of commercialization, and is more acceptable to players in a clever way. In the case of not daring to make too many changes to the mature core gameplay, this can be regarded as an improvement idea.

To put it simply, the game's combat is based on the usual side-by-side turn-based system, with four positions on each side. A slight reflection of the depth of strategy is the distinction between the front and rear rows, which are divided into two front rows and two back rows according to their positions, and some skill attacks are only effective against specific rows, while others can change the position of oneself or the opponent. Correspondingly, many monsters are also designed based on the idea of the front and rear rows. For example, the monster in the picture below that looks like an anti-theft door will be greatly weakened from the right side, and some skills can skip it and attack from the left side. However, in fact, the game's auto-battle AI is quite intelligent, and this strategic depth can basically allow the "automatic transmission" to do the work for you.

If there are any highlights in the battle process, it is probably at the packaging level. On the one hand, the skill performance is more gorgeous, on the other hand, when the character releases the ultimate, the battle BGM will switch to the corresponding music of the player, which has a refreshing feeling of "no one can beat me in my BGM", which sets off the battle atmosphere very well.

GIFs compress the image quality

The cultivation dimension of the game is quite a lot.,If you take "Genshin Impact" as an analogy, it's also a weapon.、Constellation.、Holy relics are all available.,And the holy relics also have to brush entries.。 To fully graduate a character can almost be said to be a long way off. However, judging from the actual experience of the past two days, the feeling of card combat power is actually not obvious, and the progress cannot be pushed more directly due to physical limitations. At least in the early game, this seems to be a little more acceptable and beneficial to retain than card power.

How exactly is it "directly limited by physical strength"? In addition to consuming a small amount of stamina, the main level of the game also requires the player to reach a certain "Adventure Value", which needs to be obtained through a separate dungeon "Simulated Battle". Each level in this quest requires a lot of stamina to open.

 Moreover, this dungeon is not just a combat level. Every few levels, the dungeon will be presented as a dungeon-style mini-map with relatively simple exploration and puzzle-solving elements. Compared to the boring "automatic transmission", these simple puzzle content will not cause too much burden on the player, and at the same time, it can make people interested because of the more substantive content. At the same time, the addition of more content also lengthens the chain between cultivation and combat, further weakening the feeling of "forcing krypton" that may be brought about by the cultivation process.

In addition, when it comes to gacha, the game has also made some concessions. It seems to be a big guarantee of 75 draws, but in fact, the probability will gradually increase after 45 draws, and there is a small guarantee for each "crooked pool". Combined with the game, on the first day, it found a variety of benefits for about 40 draws, and players will not feel too tight in terms of card drawing.

Therefore, although the core gameplay is relatively mediocre and burdensome, at least in the early stage of the game, the player's attention will be distracted by elements such as story performance, map exploration, puzzle solving content, etc., and will not be overly focused on improving combat power. From the perspective of players' feelings, it seems that the commercial atmosphere is not so heavy, and it can leave a better impression. It's just that the problem of gameplay will still affect the long-term game experience after all, and may become a shortcoming that affects the long-term operation performance of the game.

It's a pity that it's a good hand

There's another reason why games place so much emphasis on "storytelling" and "storytelling".

The IP "Echo of Fate" is actually a project jointly launched by Bandai Namco and DeNA, which was first released in March 2021 and currently has three products: animation, derivative manga, and mobile games. The first anime was broadcast in October 2021, then a spin-off manga that began to be serialized in August 2022, and the mobile game was not launched in Japan until June 2023. This span is quite long for an IP project.

DeNA did put a lot of effort into the project – at least at a cost. The animation "Echoes of Fate: Beats of Fate" (hereinafter referred to as "Beats of Fate") is jointly produced by the well-known animation production company MAPPA and MADHOUSE, the former's representative works include "Jujutsu Kaisen", "Attack on Titan" and "Chainsaw Man", and the latter's representative works include "Card Girl Sakura", "Full-time Hunter" and "One Punch Man", all of which are well-known cards. The quality of the fight scenes in "Rhythm of Destiny" really doesn't have to be said.

However, the final response of "Rhythm of Destiny" was not very good, and the score of station B was only 7.4 points, which is really low compared to the quite tolerant rating standard of station B users. Let's put it this way,Arrange all the current dramas of station B from high to low,There are a total of 179 pages (20 per page),142 pages and later dramas are not rated because the ratings are too small,9.0 points or more dramas can be ranked to 111 pages,And "Rhythm of Destiny" is ranked on page 133。 This is completely the bottom ranking.

Negative reviews are mainly focused on the problem of unfinished business. To put it simply, the girl "Kozette" turned into the performer's "fate" after her death, and the previous plot has almost always rendered the emotions between the protagonist and the "Kozette" before her death and the "fate" after that, and without enough foreshadowing, the character "Anna", who has always been regarded as a big sister by the audience, suddenly kissed the protagonist at the end. At the end, the protagonist is dying, and "Fate" sacrifices himself to save the protagonist's life, and "Anna" seems to have become the "Destiny" of the new generation...... What is the emotion of the three people? Is the personality of the performer "Fate" independent, or is it "Kozette" or "Anna"? Whether it is the plot or the emotion, it is not clear.

In response, producer Hotta Masaichi admitted in an interview with the media, "Due to the number of episodes, there are many plots that we can't describe in detail. Especially in episodes 11~12, there are some plots that have to be curtailed, which must have made many viewers puzzled. This is also my dereliction of duty as a producer." In addition, considering that the animation is also part of the project, it seems that it can also be understood that the blank space at the end of "Rhythm of Destiny" is to pave the way for the launch of the mobile game, and guide players into the game to learn about the subsequent development.

It stands to reason that continuing the popularity of animation and launching a mobile game while the iron is hot should be the best time. The Japanese server "Echo of Fate" was originally expected to be launched in 2021, but in November of that year, during the release of the anime, the game announced the postponement of the launch. This postponement was only in September 2022, when the official announcement described the development process of the game.

It turned out that the game had been established as early as the winter of 2017, and by the spring of 2021, a α version had been completed and the direction of the game was determined. However, the broadcast of the anime at the end of 2021 was a huge response, and "the development and management teams felt that the expectations for the game were higher than when the project was first announced". By this time, five years had passed since the project was established, and the production team was beginning to discuss whether to continue with the original design or adapt the project to the current market preferences. "In the end, we decided that the most important thing was to make a game that could be delivered to everyone with confidence, and we decided to make significant adjustments to the game to suit the current times." Therefore, it was not until June 2022 that the game made a "new α version" and redefined the direction of the game. At a time when the market is changing more and more rapidly, this seems to be a helpless move.

As a result, it was not until June 2023 that "Echoes of Fate" was launched in the Japan market, and it was obvious that it had already missed the period of the highest popularity. Although the game reached No. 16 on the iOS best-selling list, it rarely entered the top 200 after about two months. Not to mention the national server version that has only been launched now, it is basically difficult to rely on the popularity of the animation for promotion.

In fact, in the current Japan market, especially in the two-dimensional and female-oriented tracks, "planning" is a very popular business model. After initially designing a set of world views and core character stories, the plan is to establish a more three-dimensional IP through animation, comics, games, music, novels, stage plays, peripherals, etc., and also create more ways to monetize. School Idol Project", "Hypnotic Microphone", "Paradox Live", etc., of course, including "Horse Racing Niang", which is now more well-known in China. From this point of view, the original idea of "Echo of Fate" is actually very full, but it seems to be affected by many arrangements such as the hasty completion of animation, changes in mobile game R&D plans, etc., and has become a set of negative teaching materials that have not been played well, which has weakened the possible influence of IP to some extent, which is inevitably a pity.

In addition, there seems to be a constant stream of skepticism surrounding DeNA's ability to operate. From the perspective of the Chinese branch, most of the games they publish are classic IP works, such as "One Piece: Set Sail", "Gundam Decisive Battle", "Saint Seiya: Rebirth", "Realm-Death Fight", "Legend of the Seven: Heroes Assembled" and so on. However, of the 15 games that have been removed from the shelves, 7 games have only been in operation for about 1 year or less than 1 year, accounting for almost half. In the comment area of the official blog of "Crush Mania", which has been taken off the shelves, the voice of accusation can still be seen.

All of this seems to make the future of "Echoes of Fate" even more unpredictable.

epilogue

Looking back at the game itself, although "Echo of Fate" also has weaknesses such as the lack of novelty in the gameplay, it is indeed very thoughtful in all aspects of packaging, and the game as a whole can leave a relatively refined impression, which is worth learning from. By the evening of the 19th, the number of downloads of the game on all platforms had reached 2 million. After bringing some "Japan style" to the mainland market, it is worth looking forward to how far this game can go, no matter how you look at it.

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