Text/Lin Zhi

Zu Long's card RPG mobile game "Dragons: Kassel's Gate" (hereinafter referred to as "Dragon Card") was in open beta today (September 12) and quickly topped the IOS free list.

"Dragon Family" is a big IP spanning more than ten years, and it has a certain scale in terms of both the number of fans and the influence of the IP itself. And Zu Long suddenly got the double genuine authorization of the novel and animation of this big IP, which shows that they really want to do a big ticket.

Zulong also smashed a lot in the publicity, not only the circle of friends, QQ space can see the figure of "Dragon Card", but also the opening screen of Lu Mingfei and Eri Yi in Baidu search for dragons.

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In fact, it is not the first time that the IP ancestral dragon of "Dragon Family" has done it. At the end of 2018, Zulong's self-developed MMORPG "Dragon Fantasy" distributed by Tencent has achieved good results: the cumulative turnover has exceeded 4.4 billion yuan, and the global registered users have exceeded 44 million. Given the excellent performance of the previous game, it is likely that Zu Long also invested a lot in "Dragon Card".

In everyone's stereotype, Zulong is a major MMO manufacturer with obvious technical longboards, and it produces MMO games such as "King of Kings" and "Dragon Fantasy". Before "Dragon Card", Zulong had not developed his own card RPG category, and this product may have pinned Zulong's desire to achieve a breakthrough in the category.

"Dragon Card" won the top 1 on the free list on the first day of the open beta, although the follow-up results remain to be seen, but for Zulong, this is indeed a good exploration in the new category, it may broaden the path for Zulong and accumulate experience for similar projects.

01

Is the old IP hot and fried?

In the open beta stage, the test qualification of "Dragon Card" was once very sought-after, and the pre-registration stage also had 3 million followers.

It was able to gain such attention, partly because the influence of the "Dragon Family" IP itself is very good.

The cumulative sales of the "Dragon Family" series exceeded 21 million, and the author Jiang Nan ranked first on the list of rich Chinese writers in 2016. In addition to the novel, its comic version was also serialized simultaneously on "Bosom Friend", and later in 2022, the animation will be broadcast exclusively on Tencent Video, and at the beginning of August this year, Dragon Animation officially released the second PV.

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To this day, "Dragons" still has many core fans. They are constantly following new trends in IP and are keen to share them on the Internet.

For example, during the recent typhoon in Hainan, many fans made dragon stalks for it.

Some people jokingly commented on whether the official investigation into the resurrection of the King of the Sky and the Wind was made.

Others simply sent text messages or emails in the guise of the college's supercomputer, Norma, or the principal, Angers, to notify the Operations Commissioner to take over the scene.

Another example is the PV title officially released by the animation is "Rainy Night! Viaduct! Maybach! See you in 2025!" , which is also a very classic bridge in the original work. Many people took this opportunity to make Amway to outsiders, and even directly took out paper books and took photos.

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In the comment area of related content, many people feel that this is their youth.

Linked to the memories of youth, this may also be an important reason why the IP of "Dragon Family" is so vigorous.

In addition to "Dragon Family", "Tomb Robbery Notes", "Full-time Master" and "Dumb House", which were serialized at the same time as it, also influenced many people. These four works are known as "Thieves and Dragons", and there are still works among them that still maintain considerable influence today.

In Grape Jun's view, these works filled the gap in the market of youth literature in the initial stage of domestic online literature, and the young people of that generation had basically heard and read these works. The time spent reading these works is itself part of the memories of youth. After making new content on these IPs, many original parties will say that they will come back to see it anyway.

It can be seen that this IP still has a lot of mining value, and the stickiness of core fans is also very strong, and as a fantasy-themed work, the "Dragon Family" series has gorgeous rhetoric, building a grand fantasy world, and also has a good portrayal of urban culture and youth experience, which is indeed more suitable for adaptation into games.

Not only that, but many of the characters are "unsettled" by fans, which is good for card play. However, in terms of content, how to dig out attractive highlights and how to make new ideas, this game still faces a lot of challenges.

02

Will there be a day of HE in "Difficulty in Peace"?

"Dragons" tells the story of Lu Mingfei, an ordinary teenager, who accidentally enters the Kassel Academy, a secret organization that trains dragon hunters to fight against the awakened dragon threat. In the academy, Lu Mingfei got acquainted with the powerful and ruthless senior Chu Zihang, the free and easy senior sister Nuo Nuo, and the unruly student president Caesar and other partners, and experienced various life and death trials with them, gradually discovering his mysterious connection with the dragon clan.

The premise of Dragon Card is basically the same as the original: the player is awakened in the Kassel Academy and saves the world with the main character. However, the player is not from Lu Mingfei's point of view, but has become an independent individual, and sometimes he can save the protagonist from fire and water.

The gameplay is a more classic turn-based combat + home cultivation system.

Before the battle, players can play 5 characters, which are divided into three types: output, support and defense, and can adjust their positions at will.

Combined with the relationship between the characters in the original game, there are bonds between different characters in the game, and the combination of bonds will also significantly affect the battle situation.

In addition, players can freely assemble alchemy weapons before the battle, synthesize them according to the battle situation and release them manually, and they can also release the five elemental alchemy fields that change the battlefield during the battle.

The character development is also relatively rich, with various elements such as equipment, dragon text, and enlightenment to improve the player's combat power.

The "Seven Deadly Sins", an important weapon in the original game, was also implanted into the game as a key development. Once the forging is complete, players can choose weapons with different effects to bring into battle and play a key role.

There are also pets, workshops, fishing, processing stations and other leisure activities in the home, creating a daily life at the Kassel Academy.

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After understanding the basics, let's talk about the highlights of the game. "Dragon Card" pursues a degree of restoration in the character setting, and chooses to adapt on the basis of the original work and animation, and some adaptations make fans shout "or you want to do animation"; In terms of plot, it chose to co-create the IF line with players, and wrote a lot of gratifying HE for the main line full of "knives".

In Grape Jun's view, since he is making a game with a classic IP, it is very important to see whether the character creation is recognizable, whether the plot highlights can be restored, and whether these two aspects can restore the expectations of fans. Only when these two points are done well can it be said that the homework of the IP has been done enough, and the game has reached the passing line, and then we can say whether various details can bring surprises.

In order to ensure the original character, "Dragon Card" has put a lot of effort into it.

First of all, the art and dubbing polish of the characters of "Dragon Card" respect the feelings of fans of the original book as much as possible.

In order to make the vision as close to the memory of old fans as possible, "Dragon Card" got the authorization of Dragon Animation, and chose to shape the characters on the basis of animation. "Dragon Card" not only retains the impressive character characteristics of players in the animation, but also makes many details of optimization, and finally presents a recognizable and memorable character image.

Lu Mingfei is still a decrepit boy, and the white and green hoodie is basically the same as the animation.

Caesar is still red-clad and blonde, but more details have been added to make the image of the noble son more convincing.

In addition to the sassy red hair, small details such as Nono's choker and four-leaf clover earrings have also been taken care of.

is also depicted on the viaduct Odin's appearance, the game PV's evaluation of Odin's image is much higher than that of the animation, and it was even animated by Aite in the comment area.

The left is the game PV review, and the right is the animation PV review

The character's voice excerpts have a lot of classic lines. For example, when Uesugi uses his skills, he will say, "Although thousands of people will go to me", and when he leaves, he will quote the Bible as in the original book: "I have finished fighting that good battle".

Considering the richness of the roles, the dubbing is also in Chinese, Japanese and English, and there are also many well-known voice actors: Nono is played by Akari Onitou, who has dubbed "Demon Slayer" Midouzi's CV, and Lu Mingze's CV is Tsumi Horie, who has dubbed "Rental Girlfriend" Kazuya Kinoshita.

Secondly, the character traits are closely integrated with the gameplay.

In terms of character positioning, take Lu Mingze as an example: he is a little devil who makes a contract with people in the story, and everything he does is to help Lu Mingfei realize his wishes, so it is quite reasonable to set him as an assistant. And because he's a devil and not a human, his Q version of the villain in the game is floating.

The emotional connection of some of the characters in the original book also turns into a fetter in battle in the game. According to the players of the closed beta, many bonds are close to the original book, and there will be additional benefits when they are bound to the game: for example, Xia Mi is basically bound to Chu Zihang, and Nuo Nuo is basically bound to Caesar - their settings in the story are all couples.

Third, the amount of content in the character is sufficient.

To ensure that the player's love does not run out quickly, the amount of content for the character must be sufficient. Horizontally speaking, as many important characters appear in the story as possible, vertically speaking, a single character should be done in depth, and by digging into the details of the original work, write a good character biography and lines for each character.

In addition to the design of recognition and character traits, the difficulty of obtaining characters in "Dragon Card" is lower than that of mobile games of the same type, and it is more friendly to the Bestiary Party. Specifically, 130 draws on the first day, 400 draws in the first week, and you can give 7 SSRs by logging in to the 7th character, and there is also a wish system to prevent players from drawing cards crookedly.

After making a number of attractive characters, "Dragon Card" did not choose to kidnap feelings and sell characters, but decided to make it relatively easy for IP fans to get their favorite characters.

And in terms of plot, "Dragon Card" obviously has a lot of ideas.

"Dragon Card" has made an IF line in terms of plot, so that players have the opportunity to usher in HE (Happy Ending) for stories that are difficult to settle.

On the basis of the same main framework of the original plot, they provide another ending in the form of IF lines for some of the "unsettled" plots, and the regrets of the original work may be made up for in the main line and subsequent activities. Moreover, the design of the IF line also distances "Dragon Card" from the plot experience of the same story line no matter how you choose.

For example, many fans of Xia Mi's emotional line are uneasy, and the scene of Xia Mi and Chu Zihang embracing each other is shown in the form of illusions in the PV. And the plot of Erika, which is unforgettable for many people, seems to have become less "knife".

It is worth mentioning that the HE in the plot is actually not the official himself, but the opinions of players in the IF line co-creation solicitation activity.

Generally, IP adaptations will face the problem of balancing restoration and innovation, should they choose the original plot reproduction, or do some adaptations that are in line with the current situation? This matter is a matter of opinion, but "Dragon Card" is more cunning, it chooses to put the pen in the hands of fans.

In addition, in terms of the theme song, in addition to the animated theme song "Ivory Tower" composed by the well-known composer Hiroyuki Sawano, "Dragon Card" is also adapted from the same song "The Last Trip" played by more than 3 million people on Station B as the blueprint of the theme song, and adds more stylized content that is in line with the tonality of the cooperative product, which is re-sung by the well-known singer Luhuo.

It may not be much to do it in line with the love of fans, but the difficulty is to take everything into account and restore the memories of fans on as many layers of senses as possible.

From a business perspective, the huge fan base of well-known IPs is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can effectively reduce the cost of marketing and bring a good start to the game's initial performance. On the other hand, it also means that more development costs need to be invested to ensure quality in order to meet the high expectations of fans. If the quality of the game is not up to standard, it is more likely to lead to player disappointment and a rapid loss of trust.

Therefore, manufacturers need to pay more attention to community voices in long-term operations, think clearly about how to serve core fans well, figure out what everyone likes, and do this well, maybe they can cultivate their own one-third of an acre.

03

Category breakthroughs of major technology manufacturers

In the inherent impression of the industry, Zulong is a veteran MMO manufacturer, with shortcomings in content and gameplay, but the technical advantages are very large. Wang Yi, CEO of Zilong Games, once said that Zulong is "one of the very few game companies that have truly realized the industrial production of high-quality games".

In recent years, they have invested in the women's track "In the Name of Shining", which was originally rushed out with the technical highlights of realistic clothing details, but it is obvious that they hope to find innovative points in content and gameplay, and continue to seek breakthroughs in categories.

Compared with the previous MMOs such as "King of Kings" and "Dragon Fantasy" that have achieved good results, the card RPG "Dragon Card" is indeed a new attempt by Zulong.

In terms of category selection, card RPG may also be the most suitable decision for this IP.

First of all, since Dragon IP has already launched a high-quality 3D big world MMO, it makes little sense to develop a similar product again, unless it invests heavily in competing with T0's products. If you choose to take the content-oriented two-dimensional route, you will also have to face the competition of two-dimensional games that have gained a firm foothold in the market.

Secondly, compared with the high-flying MMO, the volume of numerical cards is relatively small, and it is a differentiated market. The development cycle of this category is relatively short, and the iteration and verification speed is relatively fast, and it can quickly respond to market feedback and make adjustments.

Third, many fans of the "Dragon" novel are more familiar with the expression of 2D art (illustration, comics, animation), and the expression of the two-dimensional art style may also be a choice that conforms to the user's preferences.

In addition, IP players hope to draw their favorite characters, and "Dragon Card" satisfies players through high benefits and a high probability of card drawing, and the stickiness and activity are guaranteed to a certain extent.

Winning the top 1 on the free list on the first day shows to a certain extent that Zulong's exploration of this new category has achieved some results, and it also means that Zulong has the potential to accumulate content and gameplay design capabilities in the card category.

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