The flavor and mechanics of part-playing games are all more than the sector these days. The way you create capabilities, statistics, gear, and even worlds borrow from the suggestions we 1st saw in tabletop war games, Strat-O-Matic Baseball, and Dungeons & Dragons.
But I know exactly where RPGs have been. I’m more interested in exactly where they’re going.
So I’m going to devote the rest of 2021 speaking to men and women who make RPGs of each and every genre. Of course, we’ll speak about the games they’re working on, and we will via the lens of what the sector is like now and exactly where they see points going in 2022 and beyond.
I’m beginning 1st with Dennis Bernardo of Nexon. He’s a producer working on a handful of games, such as Darkness Rises and Konosuba: Fantastic Days. These are each RPGs — Darkness Rises focuses on action (a mobile Diablo-like), even though Konsuba is a mobile IP game of a Japanese anime.
Both represent well-liked types of RPG on mobile, a space in which no cost-to-play, microtransactions, and gacha mechanics reign and can influence style at a game’s most granular levels. Yet developers like Bernardo also want to push what they enjoy about RPGs — story, constructing characters, and fiddling with gear loadouts.
This is an edited transcription of our interview.
GamesBeat: What are the RPGs that you are working on appropriate now?
Dennis Bernardo: Two of the games I work on, Darkness Rises and Konosuba, are each RPGs, but they’re each various in style. Darkness Rises is an action-RPG with actual time combat. The art style is traditionally a tiny bit more gothic, a bit darker, sort of like World of Warcraft or Diablo. Konosuba is based on an anime IP created in Japan. The style is more turn-based, a Japanese RPG.
GamesBeat: And these are each on mobile?
Bernardo: Correct, they’re each mobile games. I’ve been at Nexon for about six years now. Previously, I worked in the Computer division on Maple Story, which is one of our most well-liked MMORPGs.
GamesBeat: Darkness Rises is an internal IP, and Konosuba is an IP game. Those two markets are extremely various. What’s it like handling two various games like that?
Bernardo: It’s undoubtedly one thing we have to juggle. A lot of what we do at Nexon America especially, a lot of what my part is, is overseeing how we connect with North American players, European players, players in Australia and New Zealand, all more than the planet outdoors of Asia. We speak to them and see what they’re responding to, what they like in other games that are well-liked in these regions. It’s a balancing act. It’s extremely various based on the IP and the game.
For instance, with Darkness Rises, it has a lot of similarities with Western-created IPs like I pointed out just before, in the art style and the gameplay. It’s more action oriented. We have to take that into account when we strategy our sales, strategy our events, strategy the collaborations we want to do with other IP to see if it fits with these men and women. Konosuba is going to be released this year, so we’re nonetheless performing a lot of analysis on that, but as you pointed out, it is based on an current IP, and so we attempt to look at that audience. What did they respond to for that home? What do they like about these characters and this planet? That’s what we want to bring out in the sales, events, all the marketing and advertising and preparing that we do for the game.
GamesBeat: What is an action-RPG in 2021? How is it various from what we perhaps feel about in games from 5 years ago, like Dungeon Runners or one thing like that?
Bernardo: I really feel like there’s a lot — the term RPG is sort of nebulous. There’s a lot of various games that fall into the category, a lot of various components. But some of the points we’re attempting to concentrate on with these two distinct games are constructing immersive worlds, constructing worlds that men and women want to be in, character development, and player decision. For instance, for Darkness Rises, it is actual time combat, and so we attempt to make certain that the combat feels impactful. The player feels like they’re these warriors defeating monsters. That’s how we attempt to immerse men and women into the planet. For that game especially, also, deep customization. There are tons of various selections in the weapons that you can equip, costumes you can place on, and just the look of your character, various facial characteristics, hair colors, all these points we attempt to instill and add to the game. For an action-RPG, it feels like we’re attempting to concentrate on the moment, mainly because it is actual time combat. We’re attempting to make certain men and women really feel like the combat and immersion is visceral.
GamesBeat: You speak about decision. For this game especially, the selections are about what your character appears like, how your character fights, and not as considerably about the story.
Bernardo: Story selections, there’s not also considerably in the way of various paths you can go down, but there are various characters you can pick out that have their personal storylines inside the game. There’s various content you can engage with. Tons of PvP content and PvE content. Aside from the story mode, there are various side modes telling their personal various stories. There’s a lot of decision in the wide variety of activities that you can do in the game.
GamesBeat: Over the previous 5 years, how considerably has visual customization turn out to be vital to action-RPGs on mobile?
Bernardo: It’s turn out to be increasingly vital, and I feel that is due to the raise in technologies. Every year brings far better phones and other mobile devices. 2020 and 2021 had been no various. You’re beginning to see these characters in higher fidelity, and that is thrilling from an RPG standpoint, mainly because we’re in a position to show more detail and give the player more decision in the various eye colors they can have, various footwear they can put on. All these various points, you couldn’t see that just before in older games. It wasn’t technically achievable. It’s thrilling for us to be in a position to boost that and present various visual selections.
GamesBeat: Is that visual decision a gameplay element, or is it also a monetization element?
Bernardo: For Darkness Rises, for instance, we have costumes and armor and weapons, a lot of these points with various stats. You can earn a lot of them via just playing the game. Some of them we sell in the in-game shop. There are a number of avenues to obtain various things. For one thing like Konosuba, we have costumes and characters based on what you see in the anime, what you see in the films, what you see in the light novels. We have these characters in various costumes that you can obtain as effectively, either via gameplay or via the in-game shops.
GamesBeat: How have monetization approaches changed more than the final handful of years and heading into the 2020s?
Bernardo: With monetization, we attempt to augment the gameplay, rather than make the players really feel like it is needed. A lot of the monetization we’re performing, even for mobile games, is cosmetic. It’s that player decision in how you want your characters to look. It’s a sense of pride for players, to be in a position to customize the way their characters look, show them off in game in the lobbies and competitive or cooperative modes we have in the game. We’re attempting to use that and what the players want out of the customization to augment the gameplay via our monetization.
GamesBeat: Do you see that augmentation as a trend that is continuing? Or with alterations like IDFA coming to Apple, do you see no cost-to-play games hunting at more points like season passes and other offerings you acquire in chunks as element of their monetization?
Bernardo: We’re hunting at a lot of various models out there as far as monetization. We do not have a distinct overarching strategy that we want to apply to various games. It depends on the game. For instance, with Kart Rider Rush Plus, we do have a season pass. We have that battle pass program that is becoming increasingly well-liked, and we’ve observed achievement with that form of monetization program. But we also have more standard monetization systems in the game, acquiring points outright. It depends on the game. It depends on how it fits into the general style and the planet of the game. I cannot say for certain what path and what trends we’re going to be going for in our future games. We’re evaluating that on a game-by-game basis.
GamesBeat: Has there been any interest in bringing games like these to Computer, going cross-platform?
Bernardo: I do not feel we have plans for that at the time. We’re focusing on the mobile aspect for now. I cannot speak also deeply into the cross platform method mainly because I do not work on these other games, but if you look at one thing like Maple Story, we brought that from the Computer to mobile, and they have some interactions. One of the most current points some of my colleagues on my group worked on was V4, which we released on each Computer and mobile simultaneously. Players can interact with every other on what ever platform they pick out. That’s one thing we’re interested in, and we’ve experimented with it, so it is not new to Nexon.
GamesBeat: As a designer working at a organization that is multiplatform, do you see cloud gaming as one thing that can make future titles — one thing exactly where you do not restrict it to mobile, but just do it on each and every platform.
Bernardo: Again, I’m not a technical professional or a style professional, so it is challenging for me to speak with authority about how the trend will go. But personally I’m excited about cloud gaming. As you mentioned, it affords these possibilities to be platform agnostic. I’ve attempted some of the services out there myself. One factor that some of our territories may perhaps need to have to catch up on is just that latency problem and the bandwidth problem. I do not know if we’re fairly there but. But once again, I cannot speak to something Nexon-connected on that.
GamesBeat: Let’s speak about mechanics for a second. The one factor that could occur to any action RPG, be it Diablo or an independent game, is that it gets repetitive and boring. What techniques do you feel Nexon and other designers are going to look at to make these games more replayable in the future?
Bernardo: That’s one thing we’ve constantly believed about with all of our games, even on Computer. Because all of our games are live service games — Maple Story has been about for more than 15 years now — we’ve attempted to listen to players to see what they’re asking for, no matter if it is top quality of life improvements, new content, new bosses, new cosmetics. What do they want? And once again, it differs based on the game and the player base that is excited about that game. For Kart Rider Rush Plus, our update method is adding new karts, new tracks. These are the core focuses for attempting to continue that lifetime of the game. For Darkness Rises, we add new characters, new weapons, far better armor for players to accomplish, and more bosses. Again, it depends on the game, but in basic, more content, more points for players to do, more points for players to engage with, and engage with the points that they currently like to do in the game.
GamesBeat: As a designer, are there action RPG mechanics you feel need to have to go by the wayside even though you come across new points to do?
Bernardo: One factor we attempt to do in all of our games, action-RPGs especially, is attempt to boost that new user encounter and make it significantly less obtuse. That’s one factor I do as a producer. I look at all the various methods players are engaging with the game and hunting for these discomfort points, seeing exactly where they drop out, and attempting to alleviate that. A lot of our concentrate when hunting at analytics is that 1st new player encounter, generating certain players realize all the systems. I’m not certain that there’s any one program that is antiquated or demands to fall by the wayside, but I feel the methods we teach the player the game need to have to be updated based on new technologies we have, switching from Computer to mobile. There are various focus spans amongst players, various tolerances for the quantity of data they can retain. We have to figure out how to instill that into the player and capture them from the get-go.
GamesBeat: After so quite a few years of generating action-RPGs, how do you make loot one thing that is nonetheless thrilling to a player? Especially a person who’s been playing because as far back as perhaps the 1st Diablo.
Bernardo: Again, this is more of a designer factor. I haven’t believed about it also considerably. But with any game, any RPG, there’s constantly going to be loot. There’s constantly going to be, like I pointed out, methods to enhance your character, boost your character, develop your character. Inevitably that constantly boils down to loot, stat points, these forms of points. My private opinion, it is more about generating certain all of these points really feel meaningful when you get them. Trying to respect the player’s time. That’s what we attempt to do in all of our games, making certain that any new content we release, any new function we add, any new factor that we want the player to work for and toward, we want to make certain that the players really feel an accomplishment when they get it. Whether it is a loot drop, no matter if it is the next level, going from level one to level two, all these various points have to instill in that player a sense that, I’m developing with this character. It’s exciting for me, what ever it is that I’m performing.
GamesBeat: There are two paths for action-RPGs. There’s one exactly where you level up and get to new powers, and one more exactly where your skills are tied to weapons and gear. Do you have a preference among these two?
Bernardo: I play a lot of various MMORPGs. One instance I seriously like that I’ve played a lot is Final Fantasy XIV. I enjoy the way the class program in that game is based on the weapon that you are holding. That dictates the capabilities you have, what you can do. For me personally, that is one thing I appreciate. Seeing how various weapons and play types differ with the various capabilities you get from these.
GamesBeat: Looking ahead to the next decade, how do you feel action-RPGs on mobile are going to evolve?
Bernardo: The uncomplicated answer right here would be, with the new technologies, you are going to see larger worlds. More characters. More immersive environments. There have constantly been mobile MMOs that have been well-liked in the east, in Asian territories, but that have by no means seriously broken out right here in the west. We’re just beginning to see that, even inside the final two years. There have been some of these breakout hits lately. We’re going to see more of that. We’re attempting to instill a lot of that in our current games, like Darkness Rises, but also this year’s releases like Konosuba. We’re attempting to bring that audience that loves Japanese RPGs, that loves anime, and may perhaps have skilled that style in other media and other platforms — we’re attempting to bring that to mobile. We’re excited about Konosuba mainly because I feel it is a superior chance for that, just via the nature of this IP. It’s a bit more approachable, more accessible. That’s one thing we’re hunting forward to this year.
GamesBeat: It’s funny that you see it as more approachable, mainly because I’ve constantly felt that IP games from time to time are not if you do not know the IP. How do you get men and women who may perhaps not know that IP interested in that game?
Bernardo: It goes back to what I was saying just before about figuring what it is that men and women like about that IP. What drew them to it? And then exposing that to a wider audience. Anime, manga, all these Japanese media and pop culture have a niche audience at the moment, but there’s a wide wide variety of various forms of this media, various forms of anime. Trying to bring Konosuba especially to the mobile marketplace, there’s a entire pool of mobile gamers, RPG gamers, that do not know about that IP. They may perhaps come across some of the similar frequent points about it attractive. For instance, Konosuba is a comedy IP. We’re attempting to instill that humor into all the things we do — marketing and advertising, PR, neighborhood. It’s about exposing a bigger audience to what draws men and women to the IP. I’m a sort of light anime fan. I dabble right here and there. But I’ve by no means observed one thing like Konosuba that is so in touch with itself and its viewers.
By that I imply, it tends to make a lot of — it parodies a lot of frequent anime tropes, frequent tropes about the genre it is in. It’s an isekai series, about a particular person in the actual planet becoming transported to a fantasy planet. That’s what occurs in the story, but it puts a one of a kind spin on it. What drew me to the IP and the anime, even just before I began working on the game, the interaction among the characters feels extremely considerably like a sitcom. You want to get to know these characters. You want to see the interactions among them. It’s not so considerably about crazy action or the crazy planet about them. It’s about these characters, a extremely character-focused IP. That’s what I feel may perhaps be attractive to a lot of men and women out there who haven’t heard of it.
GamesBeat: Is it fair to say that it is a lighter take than one thing like Sword Art Online?
Bernardo: Absolutely.
GamesBeat: Sword Art has one thing like 5 or six years of extremely superior video games behind it, games that seriously do really feel like the show. The show’s premise of becoming in a video game planet assists with that. How do you capture a lighter tone in a mobile RPG?
Bernardo: What we’re attempting to do with Konosuba is introduce the characters and the planet to the player in exciting methods. We have seriously stunning 2D illustrations that look like the anime. We have stunning cutscenes that look like the anime. But the dialogue among the characters feels extremely considerably like the IP. As players play the game and go via missions, even as they’re scrolling via the menus and points like that, there are tiny touches right here and there, sound effects, UI style. All of these have a character that exhibits the lighter nature of the anime and the IP in basic. That’s how we’re attempting to make certain we’re staying faithful to Konosuba, with all the things in the game. Again, the UI, the sounds, the music, the dialogue, all that stuff. It even plays out, once again, in our marketing and advertising, PR, and neighborhood.
GamesBeat: One factor I’m curious about when it comes to generating an IP game — you play one thing like the Shin Megami Tensei series and its mobile game. It’s Shin Megami Tensei, but as you play it, it does not seriously really feel like the franchise in some methods. It feels like one more type of gacha game. But you speak about points like paying focus to the UI, the sound style, cues like that, is one thing developers are going to need to have to concentrate on more going forward when it comes to IP RPGs? Just generating each and every interaction really feel like element of the IP?
Bernardo: Absolutely. I’ve worked on a lot of IP games in my profession. One of the frequent points that I feel players respond to is when the creators of the game, the men and women publishing it, the developers — when it feels like they realize that IP, when they’re fans of the IP in basic. That’s one cause I was excited to work on Konosuba. I felt that from the moment I played the game. I felt that from going via the missions and seeing all the characters, the enjoy and care they place into the artwork and the storylines. This game has all the characters from the anime, or most of the characters from the anime, but we also have completely new characters made especially for the game.
Even in these characters, we have to scrutinize them heavily. Does it really feel like this fits in the planet? I feel our developers have accomplished a superior job with the way these characters interact with characters men and women may possibly know from the other media. It feels extremely organic. That’s one of the essential points we attempt to do with our IP games, and even collaborations we do. For instance, with Darkness Rises we had a collaboration with one more IP lately. We did concentrate a lot on understanding that other game, understanding that other IP, and seeing how it would naturally match into our game. It’s undoubtedly vital.
GamesBeat: Looking toward the next decade of RPG improvement on mobile, what is it that you cannot do appropriate now that you are hoping either technologies or procedures or the marketplace will adjust and let you to do?
Bernardo: We haven’t had a actual breakout MMORPG on mobile right here in the west. That’s one thing I’m hunting forward to, with our titles we just released as effectively as upcoming titles we may perhaps release in the future. Building these interactive worlds, interacting with tons of players in actual time, is one thing that is extremely thrilling, and one thing we could do in the future. We just haven’t had the chance and the technologies but to seriously capitalize on that. Bringing the accurate MMO encounter to mobile is one thing we want to do.
GamesBeat: Asking this of Dennis the player, not Dennis the producer, what RPGs are you into appropriate now?
Bernardo: I just completed Cyberpunk. That was a extremely lengthy, extremely exciting game. I loved it. I play a lot of MMOs. I’ve been playing Final Fantasy. I’ve been playing Genshin Impact. On the console side, RPGs — like I mentioned just before, RPG is a nebulous term appropriate now. There’s RPG components in a lot of games. One of my favourite games I’ve played lately was Assassin’s Creed, and that has a lot of RPG components in it, but you wouldn’t contact it an RPG. It’s these forms of games I’m drawn to and enjoy to play.