Vortex Gaming

Genesis War's mobile project, 'Genesis War Mobile: Asura Project,' took place over two days, from the 4th to the 5th. Following the sudden announcement of development news without any prior notice last October and the announcement of its release in the fourth quarter of this year, this is the third surprise in a row.

Anyway, with news that 'Genesis War' is about to be revived, it's natural to feel excited, but the immediate reaction feels closer to 'let's wait and see.' The reason is that the trial version of 'Genesis War: Remnants of Gray,' which is being revived as the original SRPG, albeit with a different developer and platform, was too disappointing. The trial build was a demo from February, and it's said that it will be improved for the release, but the shock hasn't worn off yet, so it's hard not to be skeptical.

In that situation, it's inevitable to wonder what the mobile version that suddenly appeared this year will be like. Although the developer and platform are different, and even the graphic style is interpreted differently, it's still one of the attempts to revive the IP based on the original form of 'Genesis War' as an SRPG.

To describe the first impression of 'Genesis War Mobile' in a word, it would be 'classic.' SRPG itself is a classic genre, and Genesis War 2, which officially announced the start of the IP, was released in 1996, so it's a natural thing in a way. The character illustrations and designs were referenced from Genesis War 4, which was released relatively recently in 2016, but even then, parts like the armor with unusually protruding shoulders weren't completely gone.

Although the evaluation of character design is a matter of personal preference, 'Genesis War Mobile' felt not only classic but also rough. Many of the mobile collectible RPGs that have been released recently are subculture-friendly, so the lines of 'Genesis War Mobile,' which pursues a completely different style, may seem thicker. In fact, the cartoon rendering is applied somewhat differently from the cell-shading feel that is commonly thought of, and seeing that it's almost the same as the character design of 'Remnants of Gray,' it feels like they're trying to match the tone even if the style is somewhat different. However, the slightly jagged outlines and the somewhat exaggerated armor design made the overall character's body shape look swollen, which was a somewhat negative factor.

Anyway, considering that it's 'classic,' 'Genesis War Mobile' shows a pretty good composition. It's not just a mobile collectible RPG-style compatibility structure, but also the compatibility between defense and attack attributes, structure destruction and cover, and strategic elements such as dealing additional damage depending on where you attack the enemy or having allies of a class that can perform close-range attacks behind the enemy and then attacking to cooperate. The spear inflicts damage to the enemy directly behind it, and the dagger always attacks first when countering. In addition to character passives, various characteristics are given to each weapon used to add strategic operation, which was also noticeable.

Also, the structure of filling skill points one by one with normal attacks and using them to use skills was also an element that added strategy. The ultimate skill consumes 5 skill points and has a skill cooldown, so it was difficult to use it often, and it was necessary to look for opportunities. It's fun to design whether to save the skill points given at the beginning and use the ultimate skill after two turns, or to cut off threatening enemies first with skills and cooperation and then clean them up one by one. The more complicated it is, the easier it is to make mistakes and ruin the big picture, but the burden was lowered by allowing you to rewind the turn up to three times.

The content other than the strategic elements expected in classic SRPGs is faithful to the typical mobile collectible RPG-style routine. Various resource dungeons and PVP, and content like the Tower of Infinity are solved in accordance with the worldview of Genesis War. In addition, it was confirmed that it followed the recent trend of collectible SRPGs by supporting automatic battles and lightening the load with 'sweep' instead of automatic repetition.

SRPG has the taste of carefully placing one move at a time, but isn't the recent trend of mobile games to extremely reduce the fatigue of farming daily quests or resource dungeons? Or, the proportion of play routines that just automatically push through sections that are not important stories with well-raised allies and then check only the story is also increasing. 'Genesis War Mobile' showed a composition that faithfully matched that grammar. After the initial tutorial, you automatically run it until a certain point to learn the routine, and then in some sections, you manually run it again to recapture the fun of strategy, that kind of tempo.

In fact, the Blue Seed Pirates and Goblin Subjugation in the resource dungeons are methods of eliminating as many waves as possible, and in Story Chapter 3 or Mission Hard difficulty, there are places where you have to carefully calculate various gimmicks or enemy movements. Isn't the placement of these stages, considering the story and direction, the charm of SRPG? Of course, it was ambiguous to say that the quality of the direction was outstandingly good. However, only the part where G.S had a conflict with Locarno due to the battle with Caliber has been introduced so far. So, it remains to be seen what kind of composition will be shown in other major scenes, including the Thunderdome Fortress strategy mentioned briefly at the beginning.

As mentioned earlier, the CBT story of 'Genesis War Mobile' only implements the situation where Iolin aimed for the Hall of Glory, was chased by the Geisir Imperial Army, took refuge in Bifrost, and then a conflict arose with the Caliber tribe on the way back to Dagal. Since it follows the story of Genesis War as it is, old fans will be reminded of their memories, but for those who don't know the story of Genesis War, there is a possibility that it will be somewhat loose. Of course, it was a good choice to speed up the main story development compared to the original and to separate the stories that would be considered side branches as 'missions' to obtain rank-up materials, focusing on selection and concentration.

Personally, the reason why I only did this CBT for one day was to verify the tempo of consuming activity to raise characters and breaking through based on this to unlock content. Although the rewards are slightly added, the growth and progress tempo was structured so that you could clear all the prepared content in one day. Of course, I would have doubts because it's a 'gacha' game, with character gacha and equipment gacha. However, Iolin, who is given as a basic character, is quite strong from the beginning, and the gap between high-grade characters and low-grade characters is not that big until they grow to some extent and change jobs, except for some stat differences or passives, so there are currently no restrictions on pushing missions with basic characters.

However, the fact that the attribute structure is a bit unusual and that the point at which growth materials themselves become drastically insufficient to raise multiple characters comes quite quickly was a bit unsettling. Such a design may be inevitable given the SRPG characteristics of strategic operation, placement, and the pleasure of somehow defeating a large number of strong enemies with a small number of units. I have often experienced these problems when playing other mobile SRPGs, so it could be said to be convergent evolution.

It seems that the original job change system was adopted and implemented in this dimension. It wasn't that you could learn all the skills if you had the resources, but wasn't it the taste of carefully selecting and strategizing your job change according to your character or play style that was the classic SRPG? Of course, at the time, there were many cases where well-raised characters suddenly disappeared or became half-baked or the build became trash later on depending on the story development, so I ended up following the strategy, but didn't I do that until I knew it? There are resources available to change the skill tree so that you don't repeat those nightmares, but the method of obtaining them was not disclosed separately in the CBT. Depending on how this part is implemented at the time of the official release, the scale of evaluation for BM may tilt to one side, so it is necessary to keep an eye on it.

In particular, BM was a problem that I had no choice but to think about in various ways, reviewing similar cases and the ecosystem of mobile games, although it has not been disclosed yet. Isn't it an important point in mobile games these days? Also, it's a live service game, not a package game, and it even has PVP, so there was more room for concern about that part. To maximize the performance of the character, it is necessary to break through the limit, so you have no choice but to gacha, and some characters even have special effects attached to their exclusive equipment, so the efficiency was different from other equipment.

Of course, in the original work, there were many restrictions, such as characters not being able to use ultimate skills if they didn't have their own weapons, so it might be seen as a gentle solution to the elements of the original work. However, this composition seemed quite risky at the current CBT stage. Only PVP was disclosed as end content, and the content prepared for character limit break or high-grade equipment farming in games of a similar type was not visible in 'Genesis War Mobile'. Of course, it's hard to say that I've shown everything, as I've only shown enough to end in a flash for half a day. Raids were not mentioned even in the introduction video. As such, it may be necessary to watch a little more.

Currently, expectations for the Genesis War IP have decreased. To put it a bit exaggeratedly, Sirano Bernstein's famous line has been digitally weathered and transformed, leaving only 'poison' in 'poisoned wine.' The fandom's opinion is not very good to that extent, but despite that, 'Genesis War Mobile' is said to be not bad.

However, the problem is that it shouldn't end with just 'not bad' to support the expectations placed on 'Genesis War' and the weight of that IP. To compare it to Steam reviews, I hope it will attract positive reviews, or at least mostly positive reviews. In the meantime, all the IP games related to 'Genesis War' have had many shortcomings in satisfying that thirst, so I think it's more appropriate to hope that it will be 'wine' at least.

Although only a very early part has been shown as a taste, 'Genesis War Mobile' seems to have some potential. The basic composition itself is well-organized, and the story is already a guaranteed check called 'Genesis War,' so there is not much to worry about if it is well-solved with updates.

However, the design that wraps it is very rough. Character style and details that have not yet been refined are the first things that catch my eye. Of course, the characters in the original work cannot deviate from that framework, but I wondered if there was a need to do that for the characters that had to be newly drawn because they were not described in detail in the original work. However, it seemed like a good choice in terms of pushing the main characters of the original work to lead the flow of the original work. However, the UI/UX convenience was a little different. The main routine is to farm equipment and look at the options that are randomly added each time you set effect and rank up, and then repeat the process of grinding and matching, but if you do that for each character, you have to come out one by one and do it again, and it is difficult to see the necessary information such as how many set items there are right away. In particular, you have to check the type of various growth materials or enhancement material item boxes and then go to the warehouse and find the required amount one by one, so the convenience features expected in recent games are lacking.

In addition, because only the very early content was released in this CBT, I had no choice but to wonder what kind of updates and tempo the story and content would be released with. If it was a console game demo, I wouldn't have to apply these complex grammars, so I could have easily said that it was a signal flare for the revival of classic SRPG just by looking at the current stage. However, since 'Genesis War Mobile' has chosen the 'mobile' platform, there is still a lot to prove. The basics of the game itself were somewhat rough, but it showed a way of solving traditional grammar in its own style, but I only showed enough to analyze the routine in one day, so I can't help but worry about content depletion and long-term operation.

It would have been different if 'Genesis War Mobile' was said to be released next year instead of in the fourth quarter of this year, but I can't help but feel uneasy because it's like this when this year is about to end. Of course, the CBT build will not be the same as the official build, so there is a good chance that the problems mentioned here will be improved and released at the time of the official release. However, looking at the entire 'Genesis War' IP, it is another repetition of a similar type of mistake, so it is not unreasonable that users who have been waiting for Genesis War do not see it favorably. In particular, after waiting for the console game for a long time, the mobile project was suddenly announced and released this year, so it is difficult to look at it positively.

Some people say to just stay in my memories, but isn't it human psychology to want to try a masterpiece in my memories again? In fact, after Genesis War 3 Part 2, the path of the Genesis War IP was, to put it bluntly, trusting only that psychology and doing something awkwardly or grandly, but it felt like it self-destructed because it couldn't be handled. So the expectations of the fans were being eroded over time, but unexpectedly, 'Genesis War Mobile' was the closest to the model answer for the revival of Genesis War that I had been expecting so far. I was only able to experience the CBT build for two days, but potential and expectations came to mind before various complex emotions. So, I hope that it will lay the foundation for continuing to appeal in the long term so that it will not shine brightly at the beginning and then fade away with the name of 'Genesis War'.

웹진 인벤윤서호 기자
2023-12-06