Text/Liang Lotte

"One Piece Bloody Route" can be said to be the first game of Byte to make a big splash in the market.

In April 2021, on the day the game was launched, it topped the iOS game free list, and the highest reached the top 3 of the iOS game best-selling list.

Different from the comic mobile games in the past that used big IPs to play a wave, "One Piece Bloody Route" adopts a 3D ARPG gameplay with high investment, and after 3 years of operation, it still maintains a group of core players.

Player reviews under the game's 3rd anniversary feed

However, with the adjustment of the company's business at the end of 2023, the game entered a downturn, and its ranking on the best-selling iOS game list once fell to 150.

But recently, Grape Jun noticed that "One Piece Blood Route" has returned to the top of the best-selling list of iOS games, and the game's reviews have also improved a bit. These changes may be related to the series of work done by the project team after the reboot of Byte Games and the addition of the newly established Shanghai ZERO36 studio.

01

Quality iteration

Although after the end of 2023, "One Piece Bloody Route" has entered a downturn, the project team still continues to iterate in terms of scenes, plots, and characters. To put it in an exaggerated way, today's games can be said to be like two games compared to the past.

First of all, the most intuitive is the change of perspective. When it was first launched, the game used a fixed 2.5D perspective, but this led to two problems: one was that it was easy for players to feel depressed and tired if they were played in this perspective for a long time, and the other was that players could easily be obscured by buildings when controlling the character.

Early 2.5D maps

Therefore, in April 2024, the project team upgraded the main scene to a 360° true 3D scene, and updated early maps such as Windmill Village.

In the current version of the map, players can freely zoom in, zoom out, and rotate the surface according to their personal preferences, and can even adjust it to an over-the-shoulder perspective. This shift in perspective not only improves the player's sense of immersion, but also allows the player to observe more details about the characters and the game scene.

Newly launched 3D maps

Coincidentally, this month the Japan Hegemony Agency announced the latest news on the remake of "One Piece". Among them, they carried out 3D modeling and design of the windmill village scene, which coincides with the 3D map of "One Piece Blood Route".

Screenshot of the video of the UP active comic workbook

At the same time, in terms of plot, the game has successively updated important chapters in the original work in the past three years, such as the judicial island chapter and the top war chapter, since the sky island chapter when it was launched. At present, the game is also following in the footsteps of the original work, and has been updated to the "Wano Country" version.

In the past, in order to meet the expectations of IP fans, the project team tended to cooperate with the manga animation to restore the famous scenes in "One Piece" when presenting the original plot. For example, when the game depicts the plot of Ace's death in the top war chapter, the scene where Ace fends off Luffy's attack is used in 3D CG of the burning funds.

Now, in the process of recreating the story, they have gone one step further and made up for some of the regrets in the original. For example, in the original game, Ace, Sabo, and Luffy were unable to reunite, but the game reunited the three of them when they grew up, helping fans make that wish come true.

Screenshot of the video of the UP main new world Marugami

In addition, since the launch of more than 20 characters, the game has also continued to introduce new playable characters. As of now, the total number of characters has exceeded 100.

In terms of character creation, the project team used to directly adopt the settings in "One Piece", such as Luffy's "rubber machine gun" that used rubber fruit to carry out the exhibition, or the red-haired "Seeing and Hearing Killing" that could not be avoided.

Now, while respecting the premise of the original game, they have innovated in the combat mechanics of the characters. For example, when designing the character "Wano Country Memories · Whitebeard", the game not only restored the ability of the Shock Fruit, but also introduced an advanced mechanism for the Arcane skill: by default, the Mystery is "Armed Color", and after certain conditions are met, it can be advanced to the more powerful "Overlord Color" and "Seeing and Hearing Color".

At the same time, they are also constantly optimizing their character moves, iterating on combat mechanics such as supremacy, blocking, and grabbing.

For example, when using the character of "Light Moon Palace", players often have a bad grasp of the trigger timing of the overlord "martial arts" action. As a result, the game has recently tweaked the character to slightly extend the time window for triggering "Martial Arts" after a normal attack, allowing players to use the mechanic more smoothly to perform combos.

In terms of character art, the project team continued to "roll" 3D quality. Compared with the earlier characters, whether it is the hair material or the texture of the skin, the current character models are more refined.

Comparison of the two versions of Luffy

Recently launched persona models

02

Competitive adjustments

In addition to content iterations, the project team also adjusted the game's 3D fighting gameplay.

In the past, in the competitive mode of One Piece, both sides could choose three characters to play, and each character could be paired with a different support role. In the course of the battle, players need to use a variety of character skills, play combo moves such as levitation and interruption, and cooperate with the supporting characters to win the final victory of the game.

Compared with other competitive games, in addition to character development, this game introduces the "competitive exclusive partner" mechanism, separating the competitive gameplay from the character acquisition in the story gameplay. When players experience the competitive mode for the first time, the game not only gives away 30 competitive partners, but also lowers the acquisition price of competitive partners, ensuring that novice players can get the IP characters they are looking for.

However, in the face of today's consumption downgrade, liver reduction and krypton reduction, the road of traditional competition mode should be more and more difficult to walk, and everyone is also exploring new routes.

The solution of the "One Piece Blood Route" project team is to adjust the balance of the characters while introducing new competitive gameplay to keep players fresh. For example, this month, the game launched the "Martial Arts" gameplay, which adds the "Stamina Bar" mechanic to the normal gameplay, increases skill damage, and increases the game space between players.

In the duel, players can consume stamina bars to achieve various operations that are different from normal modes: each "dodge" consumes one stamina, and the longer the stamina bar, the more dodges are available; In the case of an attack, the player can use two blocks of stamina to "disengage" and interrupt the opponent's control; Players can also use stamina to "burst" to block the opponent's attacks, similar to "blocking" in other games.

Compared with the normal mode, this mode relies on the "stamina bar" mechanic on the one hand to balance the strength difference between character skills, and on the other hand, encourages players to use "dodge" and "block" to take into account the physical condition of the game and cycle output, rather than brainless recklessness and skill confusion.

Screenshot of the video of the One Piece Ye Paper in the UP Main Touching Village

After the experience, many players said that the new mode is more refreshing than the normal mode experience, which not only provides a chance for old characters to re-play, but also allows players to try some new lineup combinations.

In addition to the game, "One Piece Bloody Route" also regularly holds a game event - the Captain Fighting Competition. By hosting events, games not only increase community discussion, but also motivate players to pursue higher goals, thereby increasing player activity.

Unlike many events that eventually disappear after high competition, the Captain Fighting Tournament has always maintained a stable audience base from the S0 season in the closed beta stage of the game to the S11 season, the regular season and the annual finals every year, and has formed a periodic competitive boom in the game.

For example, at the 2023 year-end finals, the game offered a total of 200,000 yuan to the top 8 players. In the S11 Captain Fighting Tournament in July this year, with the birth of the finals champion, the audience also left messages to celebrate.

After a series of actions by the project team, with the launch of a new version in July this year, and the addition of the popular character "Wano Country Memories · Whitebeard", it is not surprising that the game has returned to the top of the best-selling iOS game list.

On station B, you can see that many old players have returned to the pit, and there are even well-known up masters who praise the manufacturer for listening to persuasion, saying that the game "has made great progress".

03

What happens after changing your life?

In 2021, the game industry experienced an unprecedented highlight moment: salary and benefits increased exponentially, large and medium-sized manufacturers invested intensively...... "One Piece Blood Route" was one of the star projects in the limelight at that time.

However, in 2022, the user's ability to pay will decline, the version number will affect industry expectations, and the capital market will take a sharp turn...... "One Piece Blood Route" has become one of the surviving IP mobile games, not only operating for three years, but now it has reversed the game's reputation through a series of actions.

On August 9th, following the linkage with the theatrical version of "One Piece: The Red-Haired Singer" the year before last, the game officially announced the linkage with the theatrical version of "One Piece: The Strongest", which will be re-released, making fans of the original work ecstatic again.

In the comment area of game-related videos on station B, I can often see such a word: Hate iron does not become steel.

As a comic game of the "One Piece" IP, "One Piece Bloody Route" can be said to be unique in the past few years with its 3D art and fighting gameplay. However, as the plot unfolds, the deterioration of the competitive ecological environment caused by the performance supermodel of the new characters has caused dissatisfaction among players, coupled with the fatigue of users after long-term play, these factors have all contributed to the decline in game data.

Today, the game solves these problems to a certain extent through continuous iteration in terms of both content and gameplay. At the same time, it is undeniable that in the past 3 years, whether it is from 2.5D to full 3D perspective of the sea scene, or from the animation of the "little black" to today's real-time calculation, "One Piece Blood Route" has been working hard to keep up with the market environment and the times.

Screenshot of the video of the UP master love empty big Chobasan

Judging from the current update, in the future, we may see a richer story in the game, more interesting and fresh gameplay, and further adjustments to the balance of the characters by the project team after listening to players' opinions.

If it can be done, then "One Piece Blood Route", which is 3 years after its launch, may really become an evergreen mobile game.

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