Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 32 Synopsis
Small storylines like these don't appear very frequently in the game because they actually serve as an emotional buffer.

In any story, regardless of the medium, repeated emotional tug-of-war will tire the audience.

Why do many people feel that, despite the great filming, they can't get excited after watching some blockbuster movies?

It's because in some movies, the director repeatedly pulls at the emotions without stopping from beginning to end, causing the audience's emotions to be pulled too hard, resulting in a kind of emotional fatigue.

Although games present storylines in different ways, the underlying principles are the same.

After players have reached a relatively high point in the story, engaging in some daily activities can effectively reduce this sense of fatigue, and these daily activities are also very effective in increasing character affinity.

Just like now, after the exciting battle at the beginning, listening to the cute girl in the game being jealous of him, Huang Wenfeng's lips involuntarily curled up like an AK.

He wasn't really interested in the character WA2000 before, he just thought the character art was nice and the black stockings were nice to lick, but now, whenever WA2000 is mentioned, he can already associate it with the codename "Swan".

And inexplicably, he developed a liking for the character WA2000.

After a simple daily scene, Huang Wenfeng moves on to the next part of the story.

After playing for a while longer...

Huang Wenfeng quickly realized that the plot of "Final Front" was quite different from almost all current anime games, and the entire plot progressed very smoothly and naturally.

This comfort comes partly from the character's lines.

Most games, not just anime-style games, including online games, single-player games, and even domestic film and television productions, have writers who, when writing stories...

They all have a strange quirk.

This problem mainly manifests in not speaking human language.

For a simple example, there's a line like this in "Red Dead Redemption 2".

"Leave this damn place and become a real man."

Domestic copywriters often write in this way if they want to express the same meaning.

"Go before this cursed, scorched earth devours the spark in your eyes, boy. Cross the rusted rails and blood-soaked debt contracts, become the hunting rifle that tears through the eternal night, let the mountains remember the outline of your spine, let the dead witness the flowers blooming in the marks of your boots. There are no crowns here, but under the heavens, there must always be someone who lives as an unyielding monument."

It seems that as long as their language is fancy enough, they appear to be highly skilled.

In reality, the core purpose of playing a game and experiencing the story is to feel the story itself; text is merely a tool for conveying emotions in this context.

It's one thing to use a sentence like this once or twice, but to have the entire game filled with this kind of copywriting is unacceptable.

That would be so difficult to read.

The abundance of adjectives and deliberate riddles, in turn, make some otherwise good plot points obscure and difficult to understand, and even hurt the eyes to read.

However, these problems are completely absent in the plot of "Final Front".

From the beginning until now, Huang Wenfeng has felt very comfortable throughout the game. He knows who he is, a frontline commander, what he needs to do, to guard the space elevator, and what kind of crisis he is facing, with countless intelligent machines outside.

Think carefully.

This set of copywriting doesn't seem to have any highlights.

But it gives the feeling that you can play smoothly and look forward to the subsequent plot.

It sounds strange to say that.

But Huang Wenfeng felt that "Final Front" was a bit like playing "Ace Attorney" written by "Takumi Shu" or, more accurately, "Ghost Tricky".

It's not about the plot, but the feeling. You can clearly sense that the world-building is grand and complex, but when playing the game and going through the story, you don't feel lost. Instead, you feel like the world-building is being unveiled little by little.

For example, in "Ghost Trick", the male protagonist dies right at the beginning, and the player needs to control the ghost to carry out actions.

If this were used as the main storyline for a secondary game, the scriptwriters would immediately throw in a dozen or so jargon terms like "phantom energy," "soul entropy," and "echo."

In addition, several riddle-solving characters from different factions came up and started bombarding the protagonist with all sorts of nonsense.

In short, it's high-end, sophisticated, and incomprehensible.

However, in Shu Takumi's writing, players of "Ghost Trick" will never feel confused from beginning to end. In fact, they will feel a sense of wanting to uncover the world's secrets while playing.

That's the feeling Huang Wenfeng got from "The Final Front".

Anyway, Huang Wenfeng, who usually clicks, fast-forwards, and skips through storylines, had absolutely no intention of skipping at this moment.

Furthermore, as the plot progresses...

The humanoid figures that were once just pieces in PVP gameplay have gradually become more three-dimensional.

The first chapter of the game's story continues.

"According to observations from the front lines, the enemy has retreated."

"Commander, a call from headquarters."

As the virtual projector shook, an elderly man in military uniform appeared before the player. According to the prompt, the man was the commander-in-chief of the Earth Federation.

Next, the plot roughly involves the commander-in-chief asking the various commanders at the front whether they should launch an attack to pursue the enemy.

Here, several frontline commanders will offer their opinions, but the general consensus is that they should pursue the enemy.

And now, immediately, right now, we must catch up.

"If we don't take advantage of the enemy's losses and catch them off guard, are we just going to wait for them to come back stronger next time?"

At this point, players can also choose to vote.

However, before making a choice, the commander would "talk to himself" and discuss with the 95s at the front line, expressing that the omnics might not have suffered as many losses as imagined.

After listening, Huang Wenfeng thought it made sense, so he chose the option "Chase them! Let's give them a good kick in the ass."

Once the options are complete, the game's story will enter its second phase.

The commander who made the decision, along with other frontline commanders, came to the main command room to prepare for joint command operations.

Immediately afterward, with the counterattack order confirmed, the gate of the giant circular ring opened, and the humanoid girls began their rapid advance in transport vehicles and helicopters.

The animation at that time was also very impressive.

The entire space elevator, despite its name, is actually a huge urban complex, surrounded by a massive high wall.

This high wall looks a bit like the city wall in the popular anime "Attack on Titan" from a few years ago.

Of course, this is because the settings are different.

Therefore, the city walls in "Final Battlefront" have a more technological feel.

As the camera pans across the city wall, you can see the electromagnetic turrets with automatic target acquisition slowly rotating their muzzles, the dense missile launchers hidden under the armor plates slightly opening, and the huge energy deflection shield generators humming rhythmically.

(End of this chapter)