I am not afraid of your jokes. I am an example of being trapped by the so-called "fan economy", which may have something to do with my growth environment. It is a typical third tier tourist city. In my more than 20 years of student life, I seldom meet people who also take "video games" as a hobby, and no one will discuss cultural diversity with you.
In a sense, my world outlook has been completely changed by my experience after drifting to Shanghai. A variety of exhibitions and performances, subcultural blocks in downtown areas, and various offline activities with animation or games as the theme have given me a new hobby - "coffee shop tour", just to be as close to my favorite works as possible.
SQUARE ENIX Cafe
A few days ago, under the guise of "drawing materials and writing articles", I got half a day from the leaders for the purpose of "SQUARE ENIX CAFE" (hereinafter referred to as SE Cafe), the most famous game themed coffee shop in Shanghai. I am a regular visitor there, which means that I will go there once or twice when I am free. Personally, I like the atmosphere there - all the people who patronize there like games, and most of the topics revolve around the theme of the season. It is probably the same feeling that I have been to SE Cafe in Akihabara, Tokyo when I was on a business trip before.
So, of course, "taking materials" is true, but most of them are "selfish". I like to collect coasters, and the theme of this issue of "Travelers in the Wrong Way: Dominators in the Mainland" is just right for me. If you are lucky, you can meet several colleagues there and enjoy the fun of "exchanging coasters"
In SE Cafe, many players come to collect coasters
Interestingly, the SE coffee shop on weekdays has become a place for "purification". It is not affected by people who stop at random on weekends. The only people who come here specifically are "old birds" who go straight to the theme. Salamanda, who also works on the Internet in Shanghai, is one of them.
You can probably guess from the name he chose for himself that "Salamanda" is a truly veteran "SE fan". As a player, he is often active in the front line of some console games, and he will also come to the cafe every time the theme is changed. He told me that last December's Final Fantasy VII was actually much more lively than it is now - and now there are many empty seats in the coffee shop.
"But what can I do about it? After all, it's a weekday, and 'Eight way Traveler' is a thing with higher reputation than people... If it opened a little later, it would be much better. You know what I mean."
Travelers on the Wrong Road: Dominators of the Mainland
Although his words are not very direct, the meaning is very clear - compared with the famous AAA IP of SE, "Travelers on the Wrong Road" is still a small thing after all. Everyone can see that the theme of this wave is mostly related to the national service which will be launched on May 16 this year. But until recently, only the international service is in operation in this game.
Sharamanda is a loyal fan of the "Traveler at the Wrong Road" series, and is also a true portrayal of many mainland players: he started to wear the platform clothes at the end of 2022, and has been playing at random for more than a year. For them, the platform clothes are mainly for the convenience of watching the story in Chinese, because the story of mobile games is directly or indirectly related to the original "Traveler on the Wrong Road", and the story stage is also set in the "Olustra Continent" many years before the original story happened. From the perspective of the host version players, it should be a part of the world outlook that has been supplemented, In Japan, where the original works were born, there are never few manufacturers who put important stories into mobile games, and SE especially likes this practice.
There are many selling points of "Travelers on the Wrong Road", and "plot" is always one of the most attractive places
Before the appearance of Fanzhong, these players would translate the story of the online sun chasing service, but in the end, they could not help but choose to leave the game in person. The music that Nishiki Kangzhi practiced in person and the main story full of adult fairy tale temperament always make those old players hard to resist. Salamanda in the coffee shop ordered a drink called "Fei Jing Medicine and Serum", which was the key prop of the "power" chapter in the first chapter of the main story in the game "Travelers at a Wrong Path: The Overlord of the Mainland". In his words, the "energy drink" ingredients in this soda may be the most original game setting in the whole menu.
"Fei Jing Medicine and Serum"
In real life, many domestic players look down on the national service and think that it will be reformed in order to cheat money. But for many people who have really played with it, there is really not much room for magical transformation in Traveler at a Wrong Path: The Overlord of the Mainland. Unlike the traditional "second tour", which dominates the market today, its selling point is too much for the game design itself. In addition to the grand occasion in the early days of service opening, its daily service revenue has never been comparable to those of popular mobile games. After more than three years of user iterations, only a group of extremely core JRPG players remain. Their user stickiness is basically reflected in the practical way of playing.
As a free mobile game, the daily service still maintains a super high average score of 4.6 after more than three years of operation
In fact, Traveler at a Wrong Path: The Dominator of the Mainland is not the first game with such a situation. In 2018, a card game called "Poetry of Shadows" entered China. Although it appears to be a game with a strong "two-dimensional" attribute, the real main users are "card players" who have studied the playing method deeply, and domestic players are more likely to say "NetEase's last conscience".
The common point of both is that they do not need to piece together a complete game experience on the premise of "Krypton Gold".
Just as "Poem of Shadows" focuses on the fun of playing cards and battles, the biggest selling points of "Travelers on the Wrong Road: Dominators of the Mainland" are concentrated on its thick story, world view setting, special Japanese fantasy atmosphere, and classic but not outdated command style battles. As a mobile game, it has rarely attracted the attention of console and traditional role-playing game players, but it is not the kind of game that can "suddenly explode" among blue ocean players. To put it more harshly, there are many projects that can make money, and smart people will not point to these two games for profit.
This is why we have reason to believe that the national service of "Traveler at a Wrong Path: Dominator of the Mainland" can provide the same high-quality experience. Earlier last year, Fanzhong Edition announced the change of agents. Although the user data was smoothly inherited, it still made those "Taiwan clothes" players who had a lot of krypton sweat, You will find that after all, this is due to the unsatisfactory revenue performance, and medium-sized agents are eager to stop losses. At the same time, the exchange rate of Krypton gold and various problems of network connection are also a high threshold for ordinary players who are afraid of trouble.
Some people worry that NetEase will adopt the same strategy of "disinvestment without making money". But with the example of "Poem of Shadows", "Travelers on the Wrong Road: Dominators in the Mainland" can undoubtedly give players a reassurance because everyone knows that this is a matter of losing money and making money. If you don't invest too much in other versions in advance, you can take the national service as a new starting point. What's more, the national service version of Traveler at a Mistake: The Overlord of the Mainland also provides some more competitive conditions - the image improvement and special content of the unique company.
There is no need to explain more about the improvement of the picture. Guoxun repeatedly emphasized at the beginning of Traveler at a Mistake: The Overlord of the Mainland. They upgraded the original picture performance - richer light and shadow effects, more comfortable screen aspect ratio, all of which made the game picture further upgraded on the basis of the original motherboard. In fact, this is a very rare thing. After all, in today's view, the first generation HD-2D in 2018 is exquisite, but there is a huge gap between it and the sequel. And the daily service mobile game between the two generations is naturally a simplified version of the original design concept.
In fact, since the launch of "Traveler at the Wrong Road II" last year, many folk players have been hoping that SE will thoroughly strengthen the image expression of mobile games based on it. But it's easier said than done, and it involves a lot of problems at the program architecture level. For a game that is still in the operation stage, such an upgrade is not realistic.
Picture comparison between the original and the national clothes
But who would have thought that three years later, the "late development" of the national service has become its biggest advantage. Relying on mature industrial technology, the picture of the national service version has made great progress, which is second only to the full investment of our daily service, and makes SE regard this overseas authorization as the highest priority. In order to take care of the cultural background of the national service players, the original team stepped off the stage in person, taking the "female Xia" image in Chinese martial arts works as the blueprint, It has created a special role of "Jekyll Ritter" in the national service, which is also the only regional special role in the world since the opening of the Japanese service in 2020.
Jacquaret
This kind of treatment is undoubtedly the "ace" that NetEase has been preparing since it won the agency right of the national service. After putting aside all subjective prejudices, you really can't find anything wrong with it. Some time ago, when I was talking about the national service with an old editor who had left the editorial department, his answer was almost the most authentic player response.
"I want to change to national service"
To be honest, there should not be any disdain chain or advantages and disadvantages in Taiwan and Japan. New players have the right to choose what is suitable for them, but the introduction of the national service is a chance for those "scattered" players to get together again.
This short adventure in SE Cafe is like the meeting of tourists in the game - we are strangers, but the common goal has created an opportunity for us to travel together.
Players always need a companion on the way. Travelers meet here, and the journey will start again.
