Mr. Masato Shimada, who is the producer of Lost Ark in Japan, has talked about his feelings at the start and the factors behind his popularity, in addition to defining some aspects about the style of development and the plans for future roadmaps.
The producer is inspired by Gunpei Yokoi‘s lateral thinking philosophy, which encourages finding new and radical ways of reusing existing technology, instead of going for the cutting edge advancements in game development. The director was able to solve the problem of lag, among other things by only presenting the important information in 3D, and conforming the rest to 2D styles. Lost ark is a kind of game that focus on what the players need first and foremost.
The Fun of Lost Ark
Mr. Shimada’s general impression when he first touched the game “Lost Ark” that it was a game that “conveys fun without thinking.” The producer has been playing the Korean version at the time, and he thought it was amazing that he could understand the flow of the story even without understanding Korean. He is also praising the game for being more accessible to customers who are not very familiar with MMORPGs, and that it should be not viewed with the narrow perspective of the MMORPG market.
Another great feature the developer points out is that despite being a new RPG, it can run on a PC with not so high specifications. (Geforce GTX460 – RAM 8 GB). He leveled up the characters 20 times during the test play and enjoyed the process a lot. He is also worried that there are not many opportunities to interact with customers because of Corona, but he is trying his hardest to listen to players feedback and is thankful for them.
Target Audience
In Japan, the popularity of the MMORPG genre was a bit declining, but the popularity of the game exceeded the producer’s expectations. From the start, Mr Shimada predicted that it would be mainly men in their 30s who would play the game, but there was a lot of players in their 20s playing the game as well. Many who have experienced this kind of game in their childhood, younger people who like to watch YouTube and follow YouTube influencers.
The producer is from the generation of Maple Story and Red Stone, so he felt happy that people are still playing MMORPGs even when they became adults. However, he was surprised that there were many comments on social media saying that it’s their first time playing MMORPGs. The commercials also played a big part in encouraging people to wonder about what an MMO is, and broke through the stagnant mindset. He also compared the appearance of the screen to “League of Legends.”
Pressure and Communication
Mr Shimada was in charge of “Red Stone” for several years, which was a mobile title, but now that he has moved to a PC title, the pressure was high. On the bright side, he was able to make use of his experience on mobile titles in Lost Ark. The main selling point of Lost Ark is the enhancement of equipment, unlike Red Stone which had a lot of content to work with, so the fundamentals to each game were very different.
The producer also compares the state of the market nowadays to cooking. Games have to be delicious from the moment they are tasted, and have to be easy to understand, otherwise they won’t be popular. Communication between players is also a crucial aspect in قخthese hard and isolated times. Lost Ark was developed purely as an RPG game, but players can try it and see which aspects they would like the most, weather battles or training or social aspects, and the later contents will reflect of how players can enjoy Lost Ark differently in a variety of ways.
The popularity of Animal Crossing, according to Mr Shimada, is owing to the fact that people were looking for a “Play ground” to use for communication in the corona era, so Lost Ark is not just made with a particular intention of selling the game itself, but for brining back the appeal of MMORPGs as a mean of online communication. Guild-related content will be included in the future (already included now in the English version) but it won’t be bothersome like other games.
Players are free to form a party and charge without actually deciding the roles in a meeting. The game actually doesn’t emphasize player roles all that often, and each class can hold out on its own, but it still requires a balance so every class will feel different and needed. Mr Shimada promises that the highest priority is always the voice of the customers, and there is much evidence of how their opinions are incorporated into Lost Ark.
Lost Ark is not a hack and slash game
Lost Ark have received many evaluations from Hack and Slash fans, and it has gotten a reputation as such. But according to Mr Shimada, the game does not appeal as a hack and slash game, rather than “defeating the enemy and collecting good equipment”, the basic style is “strengthening the equipment you have taken”. The producer thinks that the influence of Diablo 3 and 4 news around that time was the main reason for that perception.
The hack and slash elements are not zero of course, but Mr Shimada prefers more to call it “cinematic action RPG”. A term that has a nuance of an action-rich RPG where players can enjoy quality video productions and stories. Though that applies to the game until the player reaches level 50, and after that, the joy is about strengthening the equipment. There is also content prepared specifically for enjoyment of the second half of the game, so players who leave early won’t get everything.
There is also plans to release more guides, and solve the problem of gender being specific to a certain class. This has been an issue that was raised often, and the developer is aware of it. Unknown continents and new playable characters are also two major factors in deciding the road map. But the emphasis lies in introducing many players to the joy of MMORPGs through more accessible methods. The guides the developer talks about are strictly in Japanese, but you can opt for our handy guides that cover every aspect of the game on our website.