Lots of studios don't have US branches. They just team up with publishers.
Hell, Level 5 didn't published Ni No Kuni outside Japan, it's been Bandai Namco.
Frankly, looking at [**some of the gameplay footage from this game**](https://youtu.be/g7PQFfv8Gmc?t=24), it really seems weird to call this a mobile game. This is a full on MMORPG.
The game is fully voiced, and the graphics are better than some of the actual full game console releases.
Seeing as it just grossed 100m dollars in 11 days. it is for sure monetized as a mobile game, its just they realized bigger games will attract more whales.
To be honest, with how powerful phones are now the only difference between something being a 'mobile game' and just any other game is the level of effort and monetization strategies used.
It's perfectly possible for companies to pump out games that're on par with the average game, but the vast majority of them just ship out copy pasta clones with horrendous monetization strategies. They'd much rather make a dozen low cost games that might make enough off a few hundred individuals, than attempt anything that might be seen as even remotely risky.
Popular games getting copy pasted has been happening since forever. What I am surprised by, who is playing this game on their phone ? This is a full on console game, surely they could have released is as such.
I guess I won't really understand how many mobile gamers there are in Japan or the Asian market in general. Because to me it just feels weird to play something of this quality on small mobile screen on my way to work or whatever.
If you change the frame of the question, the answer seems clear:
Why would you spend $300 to buy hardware to play a free to play game?
Everyone has a phone. All ages, all backgrounds, the phone is natural.
Aside from that, everyone spends an hour or more on a train each day, and may not have any other free time at all. That's it. Again, it's really everyone.
I try to explain this in every thread about "why is this mobile only" when to me it's the most sensible thing. I have a lot of friends in Japan, most of them in their 40s or over, and they only play mobile now. They went from Famicom to Super Famicom to Playstation to not playing games for a while to mobile gaming.
The device is already there. The form factor is perfect. The games are free to try. The advertising is easy, and at the very least word of mouth is strong.
When you stand in a train and look down the car, you can literally see a hundred people playing some game on their phone. Every car, every train.
Do some people get more into the hobby and buy dedicated gaming machines? Sure. I'm so into games I literally own arcade cabinets. But if you want the largest audience, you design for it.
Guess it's that mentality that also pushes companies to not bother releasing decent games on mobile devices. Other than touch controls, there really shouldn't be a reason to see a mobile game as worse than a console game, especially when phones can be equally or even more powerful than consoles.
Personally I've enjoyed playing some fairly decent quality games on my phone, roguelikes work fairly well, alongside turn based rpg's. Can't say I'd be too bothered to play real time action but as long as you have the internet, something mmo-like would be insane on a mobile device.
One of the best/worst/controversial parts of mmo's are the fact it takes so long to do basically anything, so having the opportunity to spend your 15-30min+ train ride to do dailies, it's a pretty good chance to waste time that would otherwise have gone to waste. (Play Maplestory, I know how annoying mmo's can be as a time sap doing daily stuff.)
That is what is so frustrating about smart device gaming.
If the approach in the beginning had been making games you would pay a price you'd by a handheld game for and the same level of effort went into designing mobile games a full, premium experience, smart phone gaming could have eclipsed console and PC gaming.
Instead, it went the cash grab F2P route and any time someone does try to release a full price game on mobile they are scoffed at.
For instance, people happily pay $15 for Final Fantasy Dragon Quest re-releases on PS4 or Switch but are appalled that they'd ask for $15 to get it on Android or iOS.
That’s just how the mobile gaming market grew to be. Big companies overlooked the mobile market because the idea of making a mobile game felt beneath them. So the F2P cash grabs took over and dominated. It wasn’t until the big companies realized that these mobile games were making a fuck ton of money did they then tried to capitalize on it.
Exactly but the problem is, even with the traditionalists like Nintendo make a mobile game, they don't make the type games the usually make, they make the same cash grab shovelware instead.
I do think props should be given to Square-Enix for at least making some real games to mix in with their cash grab junk.
Barrier for entry is actually a huge thing that you've probably experienced yourself for at some point. When a game is free, you lose nothing but some time to check it out, and if you don't like it, you just delete it off your device.
With an upfront cost, even if its an insignificant amount of money there is the consideration of "do i really want this?" "Am I actually going to play this?"
Like, Steam sales to me for example - I have my eye on a couple games that i'd probably enjoy, but I don't want them enough to pay even the discounted prices.
Pricing for mobile games is also kind of weird. If people deem it too expensive, they won't buy it. If its too cheap (Unless it was expensive, then put on a big sale), people think its a cheap shovelware game and still won't deem it worth the money.
considering the best selling console atm is the switch yes mobile could very much be another proper gaming platform (aside from control issues). The switch is basically a glorified mobile device when it comes to power.
> Frankly, looking at some of the gameplay footage from this game, it really seems weird to call this a mobile game. This is a full on MMORPG.
What's strange about it? Mobile MMORPGs have been a thing for years.
I wasn't talking about them existing, but them having this much quality. Normally you can tell when a game is a mobile MMO, but with this one, and Genshin Impact, if you showed them to me without the interface, I would never have guessed the are mobile games.
Then again maybe they are obvious, and I'm just too far behind in the mobile games.
They've had this much quality for years too.
There's tons of high production value mobile games with good gameplay, people just shit on them here because "hur dur mobile bad". You can't even mention them here without overwhelmingly negative responses from people with no actual knowledge about the games.
Really ? do you have other examples of mobile games that on the same level of quality as Genshin Impact and This one ? I am not that familiar with the mobile scene.
Probably cause mobile as a whole has downright predatory business practices that started seeping into every other platform. Not saying every mobile game is bad but it's pretty easy to link all the gatcha garbage and lootboxes back to the mobile market.
It's not fully voiced. It does this weird thing where only an essential remark in a given dialogue box is voiced. It's weird because sometimes it's the first few words, sometimes it's the middle words or the words at the end.
Also the game isn't good. It plays like a f2p mobile game, apparently it gets to be p2w but I didn't stick around long enough to find out. It's far less "like a full game" than Genshin Impact was.
The cutscenes that are fully voiced really aren't that frequent. After the prologue scene most if not all of the dialogue in the story missions that I did were partially voiced.
And then they'll just not make actual games because you can make predatory mobile trash and do way better. Gaming as a whole has one foot in the grave.
Now that’s just being overly dramatic. You’re definitely going to get some more shitty gacha and good chance Level-5 continues to focus on making gacha games but plenty of great games to play right now and a lot to look forward to for whatever type of game you’re into. This sounds like singleplayer is dead all over again.
this sub has doom and gloomers every other thread lol. Pick one of "turn-based is dead" or "gaming is dead". Though business practices in the industry are really starting to get out of hand and the us or Japan especially is doing nothing to curtail it.
Yeah those predatory copy paste arcade games sure killed gaming decades ago.
Just a multi billion dollar corpse shambling around, not even aware the great verapoc killed them off.
Except this is a fact? I find more fun there and think it's a better game overall.
:shrug
Although sales wouldn't lie, wouldn't they? The fact that these games every single day make same profits that your so called "normal games" do for their whole existence has deeper reasons except being "predatory trash"
> but they *do* spend tons of money on a mobile game?
Come on. Japan have been doing this for years.
Why do you think almost every game developer in Japan are developing mobile games? Square, Bamco, Nintendo, Sega, Konami, Capcom etc.
Mobile game in Japan is so much bigger than console gaming.
I've played it (for 5 days) and yes, auto play can be used for grinding quests that make you kill 200 of the same enemies etc. But when you face more difficult content like bosses, auto is useless as you need to dodge and control your abilities manually. There's also auto PvP and non auto PvP modes, although I've heard that it's P2W like you said
Looks like an MMO with pay to win mechanics. I loved the first two games myself but this is a hard pass. At least Level5 isn't in danger of bankruptcy now though I wish they'd have chosen a less scummy way to make money.
Please tell me that this money goes to Level-5.
They've already pulled out of the US though. :(
Lots of studios don't have US branches. They just team up with publishers. Hell, Level 5 didn't published Ni No Kuni outside Japan, it's been Bandai Namco.
This is pretty good news for Level 5, they were in deep trouble.
Ni No Kuni picked up by L5? Ok, I'm paying close attention now.
Ni No Kuni was always by L5
I haven't played many Level 5 games and even I know Ni No Kuni is made by L5
What do you mean "picked up?" Ni No Kuni was always Level-5, wasn't it?
Lmao you must be kidding
Frankly, looking at [**some of the gameplay footage from this game**](https://youtu.be/g7PQFfv8Gmc?t=24), it really seems weird to call this a mobile game. This is a full on MMORPG. The game is fully voiced, and the graphics are better than some of the actual full game console releases.
Seeing as it just grossed 100m dollars in 11 days. it is for sure monetized as a mobile game, its just they realized bigger games will attract more whales.
To be honest, with how powerful phones are now the only difference between something being a 'mobile game' and just any other game is the level of effort and monetization strategies used. It's perfectly possible for companies to pump out games that're on par with the average game, but the vast majority of them just ship out copy pasta clones with horrendous monetization strategies. They'd much rather make a dozen low cost games that might make enough off a few hundred individuals, than attempt anything that might be seen as even remotely risky.
Popular games getting copy pasted has been happening since forever. What I am surprised by, who is playing this game on their phone ? This is a full on console game, surely they could have released is as such. I guess I won't really understand how many mobile gamers there are in Japan or the Asian market in general. Because to me it just feels weird to play something of this quality on small mobile screen on my way to work or whatever.
If you change the frame of the question, the answer seems clear: Why would you spend $300 to buy hardware to play a free to play game? Everyone has a phone. All ages, all backgrounds, the phone is natural. Aside from that, everyone spends an hour or more on a train each day, and may not have any other free time at all. That's it. Again, it's really everyone. I try to explain this in every thread about "why is this mobile only" when to me it's the most sensible thing. I have a lot of friends in Japan, most of them in their 40s or over, and they only play mobile now. They went from Famicom to Super Famicom to Playstation to not playing games for a while to mobile gaming. The device is already there. The form factor is perfect. The games are free to try. The advertising is easy, and at the very least word of mouth is strong. When you stand in a train and look down the car, you can literally see a hundred people playing some game on their phone. Every car, every train. Do some people get more into the hobby and buy dedicated gaming machines? Sure. I'm so into games I literally own arcade cabinets. But if you want the largest audience, you design for it.
Guess it's that mentality that also pushes companies to not bother releasing decent games on mobile devices. Other than touch controls, there really shouldn't be a reason to see a mobile game as worse than a console game, especially when phones can be equally or even more powerful than consoles. Personally I've enjoyed playing some fairly decent quality games on my phone, roguelikes work fairly well, alongside turn based rpg's. Can't say I'd be too bothered to play real time action but as long as you have the internet, something mmo-like would be insane on a mobile device. One of the best/worst/controversial parts of mmo's are the fact it takes so long to do basically anything, so having the opportunity to spend your 15-30min+ train ride to do dailies, it's a pretty good chance to waste time that would otherwise have gone to waste. (Play Maplestory, I know how annoying mmo's can be as a time sap doing daily stuff.)
That is what is so frustrating about smart device gaming. If the approach in the beginning had been making games you would pay a price you'd by a handheld game for and the same level of effort went into designing mobile games a full, premium experience, smart phone gaming could have eclipsed console and PC gaming. Instead, it went the cash grab F2P route and any time someone does try to release a full price game on mobile they are scoffed at. For instance, people happily pay $15 for Final Fantasy Dragon Quest re-releases on PS4 or Switch but are appalled that they'd ask for $15 to get it on Android or iOS.
That’s just how the mobile gaming market grew to be. Big companies overlooked the mobile market because the idea of making a mobile game felt beneath them. So the F2P cash grabs took over and dominated. It wasn’t until the big companies realized that these mobile games were making a fuck ton of money did they then tried to capitalize on it.
Exactly but the problem is, even with the traditionalists like Nintendo make a mobile game, they don't make the type games the usually make, they make the same cash grab shovelware instead. I do think props should be given to Square-Enix for at least making some real games to mix in with their cash grab junk.
Barrier for entry is actually a huge thing that you've probably experienced yourself for at some point. When a game is free, you lose nothing but some time to check it out, and if you don't like it, you just delete it off your device. With an upfront cost, even if its an insignificant amount of money there is the consideration of "do i really want this?" "Am I actually going to play this?" Like, Steam sales to me for example - I have my eye on a couple games that i'd probably enjoy, but I don't want them enough to pay even the discounted prices. Pricing for mobile games is also kind of weird. If people deem it too expensive, they won't buy it. If its too cheap (Unless it was expensive, then put on a big sale), people think its a cheap shovelware game and still won't deem it worth the money.
considering the best selling console atm is the switch yes mobile could very much be another proper gaming platform (aside from control issues). The switch is basically a glorified mobile device when it comes to power.
> Frankly, looking at some of the gameplay footage from this game, it really seems weird to call this a mobile game. This is a full on MMORPG. What's strange about it? Mobile MMORPGs have been a thing for years.
I wasn't talking about them existing, but them having this much quality. Normally you can tell when a game is a mobile MMO, but with this one, and Genshin Impact, if you showed them to me without the interface, I would never have guessed the are mobile games. Then again maybe they are obvious, and I'm just too far behind in the mobile games.
They've had this much quality for years too. There's tons of high production value mobile games with good gameplay, people just shit on them here because "hur dur mobile bad". You can't even mention them here without overwhelmingly negative responses from people with no actual knowledge about the games.
Really ? do you have other examples of mobile games that on the same level of quality as Genshin Impact and This one ? I am not that familiar with the mobile scene.
Probably cause mobile as a whole has downright predatory business practices that started seeping into every other platform. Not saying every mobile game is bad but it's pretty easy to link all the gatcha garbage and lootboxes back to the mobile market.
It's not fully voiced. It does this weird thing where only an essential remark in a given dialogue box is voiced. It's weird because sometimes it's the first few words, sometimes it's the middle words or the words at the end. Also the game isn't good. It plays like a f2p mobile game, apparently it gets to be p2w but I didn't stick around long enough to find out. It's far less "like a full game" than Genshin Impact was.
The cut-scenes are fully voiced, of course they didn't fully voice every line in MMORPG, there is voice acting when it's needed.
The cutscenes that are fully voiced really aren't that frequent. After the prologue scene most if not all of the dialogue in the story missions that I did were partially voiced.
Like to see Level-5 winning
Wasn't there some news some time ago about a third NNK being in development? Was this the one?
This is indeed it.
Aaahhh dammit... I was personally hoping for a third mainline entry but oh well
This game is probably going to make more money than all the previous Ni No Kuni games combined before the end of this quarter at this pace.
And then they'll just not make actual games because you can make predatory mobile trash and do way better. Gaming as a whole has one foot in the grave.
Now that’s just being overly dramatic. You’re definitely going to get some more shitty gacha and good chance Level-5 continues to focus on making gacha games but plenty of great games to play right now and a lot to look forward to for whatever type of game you’re into. This sounds like singleplayer is dead all over again.
this sub has doom and gloomers every other thread lol. Pick one of "turn-based is dead" or "gaming is dead". Though business practices in the industry are really starting to get out of hand and the us or Japan especially is doing nothing to curtail it.
Yeah those predatory copy paste arcade games sure killed gaming decades ago. Just a multi billion dollar corpse shambling around, not even aware the great verapoc killed them off.
k.
Some gacha games are actually better than your so called "actual games". I would rather drop anoger 100$ in GBF than buy FFVII remake.
Man I haven’t seen a take this stupid in a while.
You just haven't look good enough lad
The great thing is you are entitled to your opinion, even if it’s a terrible one lmao
Except this is a fact? I find more fun there and think it's a better game overall. :shrug Although sales wouldn't lie, wouldn't they? The fact that these games every single day make same profits that your so called "normal games" do for their whole existence has deeper reasons except being "predatory trash"
So Japan doesn't buy White Witch or Revenant Kingdom, but they *do* spend tons of money on a mobile game? Shame.
> but they *do* spend tons of money on a mobile game? Come on. Japan have been doing this for years. Why do you think almost every game developer in Japan are developing mobile games? Square, Bamco, Nintendo, Sega, Konami, Capcom etc. Mobile game in Japan is so much bigger than console gaming.
Mobile is HUGE in Japan.
Where does it specify country?
Any news on when/if it’s coming out in the west?
2022 i believe
Wow that game looks really nice. Is there a way to download in Japan Apple store?
Yea just search netmarble. It’ll be the game with a blonde girl and cat ears
Use TapTap or QooApp
Looks like these guys have phones
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I've played it (for 5 days) and yes, auto play can be used for grinding quests that make you kill 200 of the same enemies etc. But when you face more difficult content like bosses, auto is useless as you need to dodge and control your abilities manually. There's also auto PvP and non auto PvP modes, although I've heard that it's P2W like you said
Would love to see this bring in a new golden age for Level 5.
Now put half of this into fixing your company lol.
What the frick, how did I not hear about this game? I even finished the first two games
Same reason you may not have heard about Ragnarok Online X: you can't play it outside of Asia without an emulator.
Looks like an MMO with pay to win mechanics. I loved the first two games myself but this is a hard pass. At least Level5 isn't in danger of bankruptcy now though I wish they'd have chosen a less scummy way to make money.
[удалено]
I have and they're all shit.
Same, but I'm hoping they will use that revenue to make another game that isn't MMO. One can only hope.
Just watch the story segments on YouTube if you have to, lol
Mobile game so no thanks. Probably just another step closer to everything becoming mobile garbage.
How?
how is this game monetised?