Is Tencent's IP mobile game adaptation moving too fast or too slow?

"Monster Paru" is undoubtedly one of the most popular games this year. The game will update its new Sakura Island version on June 27, introducing new Paru, new islands, arenas, new BOSSes, and more. Meanwhile, the game's multi-platform porting is also progressing steadily.

Regarding the Switch version of the game, players have speculated that due to legal issues, "Monster Paru" cannot land on the Switch platform. After all, Nintendo, as a company with the "strongest legal department on the planet," has some monster designs in "Monster Paru" that are too similar to the famous IP "Pokémon," which may cause many problems.

In a recent interview, Pocketpair CEO Gougoubu Takuro stated that "Monster Paru" may not land on the Switch for technical reasons rather than legal ones. The company has never received any formal complaints from Nintendo or the Pokémon Company.

This game, which has sold over 10 million copies, is now less popular than before. As veteran players consider returning, Tencent quietly launched a Paru-like mobile game, "Create! Our Planet," which has hit the best-selling list. But it's unclear how much market share this latecomer domestic Paru can capture.

01 The main course has cooled down, and being a "domestic Paru" is not easy.

Although Tencent's "Create! Our Planet" was initially aimed at "Monster Paru," no one expected it to be such a complete replacement.

The game's underlying framework is "survival + shooting," with core gameplay focusing on exploring and capturing pets, collecting and building, and BOSS battles, which is identical to "Monster Paru." You can not only command cute pets like "Chirp" to help you plant, mine, cook, and fight, experiencing the joy of being a cyber farmer, but also explore planets, build homes, and tame various elite pets with others in multiplayer mode, creating a sci-fi post-apocalyptic survival atmosphere.

Although the two games share the same basic gameplay of exploring and capturing pets, building and surviving in a vast world, Tencent's "Create! Our Planet" has the advantage of "plenty of content." Not only are there 158 pets available for capture at launch, but the game's official promises to update 10 Chirps every month. It has also announced a player co-creation plan, giving players the opportunity to have their designs in architecture, fashion, pets, etc., selected by the official. Pets captured in the wild can be freely traded, fully satisfying players' collecting desires.

Although the game has made many designs to reduce the burden, there are issues such as long pet development paths and uneven resource distribution. In the early stages of the game, it is difficult to obtain gold coins and survival construction resources, and they are consumed in large quantities. For example, low-level star spirit cubes cannot capture high-level Chirps, and later stages require feeding to capture pets. Dungeon resources are also limited in variety.

In addition to the most basic exploration, combat, and construction, the game also has some basic attribute values, such as hunger, stamina, and hygiene. Especially the obsession with the cleaning system, reminiscent of Tencent's "Dawn of Life: Awakening," where characters can defecate anywhere.

In terms of combat system design, the game mainly provides gun weapons, with rifles, pistols, shotguns, and sniper rifles as the main weapons. The secondary weapons have a strong "techno" style, including lightning grenades, energy shields, and orbital cannons. However, the overall attack attributes of the characters are relatively low, and the core of combat development is still placed on the pets.

The main multiplayer gameplay in the game is the Penrose Sphere, which consists of four scenarios: the Black Hole Energy Center, the Great Pyramid, the Hanging Gardens, and the Gravitational Wave Antenna. The Black Hole Energy Center is a resource mining point, the Pyramid allows players to defeat mutated monsters to obtain weapons and resources, the Hanging Gardens can cultivate crops, and the Gravitational Wave Antenna is a player-versus-player mode where players can raid resources from other planets.

Overall, "Create! Our Planet" is a combination of "Civilization Restart" and "Delusions of Grandeur," incorporating some of the pet-capturing gameplay of "Monster Paru." However, both the attack modes of humans and pets and the world view design are relatively monotonous. The design of Chirp's image is also based on minor innovations from monster images in various games, making it difficult to say that there are eye-catching designs.

"Monster Paru" has been struggling with updates, content scarcity, and repetitive gameplay. Five months after its explosion, its popularity has dropped from a peak of 2 million to around 20,000. As a "replacement" with not many highlights, Tencent's "Create! Our Planet" does excel in terms of freedom and game content.

But with Paru cooling down, how long can Tencent's alternative Paru last?

02 Will the Pokémon IP flourish in Tencent's hands?

"Create! Our Planet" was first proposed in 2019 as a new project under Hero Games' flagship sandbox construction exploration game "Creation and Magic." From its promotional content, the game's early promotion focused on open-world exploration and multiplayer socializing, with the game's official frequently liking and sharing news in the aerospace field.

After the explosive popularity of "Monster Paru," Tencent quickly adjusted its promotional direction, with "capturing pets" becoming the new buzzword. At that time, Timi Studio Group's recruitment advertisements revealed a large-world SOC project, which involves a combination of a vast world, monster capturing, and SOC. This is a common strategy of Tencent to turn popular genres into star projects.

According to public information, the Pokémon Company was jointly founded by Nintendo, GAME FREAK, and Creatures, primarily responsible for the comprehensive development of the Pokémon IP, including video games, TCG cards, apps, movies, stores, licenses, and derivatives. In three years, the company's sales have grown by more than 2 times, net profit has increased by 3.4 times, and annual revenue has exceeded 13 billion yuan.

However, in the gaming industry, Pokémon adaptations have always been a lingering pain for fans.

The 2019 official sequel "Pokémon: Sword/Shield" cut the national Pokédex, sparking outrage among fans. The next generation, "Pokémon: Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl," had numerous bugs, setting a new low in user ratings for the Pokémon series. Yet each generation still manages to sell steadily over 20 million copies, showing the Pokémon IP's solid fan base and profitability.

Tencent obtained the Pokémon IP license in 2019 and will jointly develop a new Pokémon game, "Pokémon Unite," with Timi Studio Group, a leading studio under Tencent Games.

The game won three Google Play awards in 2019 and launched in 73 countries and regions on mobile. Within 2 hours, it topped the free game charts in over 65 countries and regions. By October, "Pokémon Unite" had surpassed 25 million cumulative downloads on Switch and mobile.

Although "Pokémon Unite" adopts Timi's strengths in MOBA games, it incorporates Pokémon's unique combat characteristics, dividing roles into defense, offense, support, and more. This design not only enriches strategic combinations and teamwork possibilities but also enhances the game's visual appeal and competitiveness.

Each Pokémon in the game is highly还原, featuring exclusive finishing moves that showcase their highlights and classic Pokémon IP features like "field battles" and "evolution" mechanisms, further distinguishing it from traditional MOBA gameplay. Unfortunately, the classic element of attribute weaknesses and strengths is not incorporated into the game.

The game's modeling and graphics are highly还原, with smooth and fluid Pokémon combat effects and animations. However, elements like map design, grass patches, dragon appearances, and some characters' attack animations all reveal a "King of Glory" flavor, a common issue in IP adaptation mobile games.

NetEase also released an IP adaptation game, "Pokémon Quest," in 2021, but its performance was lackluster, falling out of the top 500 best-selling charts within two months. This shows that having an IP alone is not enough to guarantee success, which may be Tencent's main concern about not releasing the game despite obtaining the game license.

With the world's largest IP and adapted into the hottest MOBA genre in esports, "Pokémon Unite" is a pilot project between Tencent and Nintendo. Nintendo needs to expand into the mobile game market, while Tencent needs the influence of a major IP. Currently, the game's national server has over 15 million pre-registrations. If Tencent can seize this opportunity, it may be another step forward in its internationalization efforts.