Butlers in the usual sense have come to an end, according to Japanese market analyst Serkan Toto. JRPGs come in their place.
The analyst came to a similar conclusion after watching a whole series of mobile announcements from DeNA and GREE. New projects of the companies (Raldessia Chronicles, Magic & Cannon, Dragon Eclipse, Saga of Fantasy: A, etc.) are seriously different from the long-familiar Rage of Bahamut and Blood Brothers. They have a full-fledged plot, outwardly they look more like the latest projects for PS Vita than crafts that grew out of releases for feature backgrounds.
Ideologically, Raldessia Chronicles is already a new generation game
However, can we say that a series of such releases is the finale of history for an entire genre, the fruits of which, by the way, have not reached the Western market (not counting, of course, Marvel War of Heroes)?
We think not.
We have already written about Magic & Cannon
The new releases of the Japanese giants are nothing but butlers in a beautiful wrapper. The key gameplay does not change, it acquires additional content and graphic design.
So we are witnessing another jump in requirements for mobile projects in general (in other words, it’s not just about butlers). Following the need to release constant updates, switch to the f2p model, and introduce tournaments, the user will very soon require graphics at the level of console games. And this will be the last nail in the coffin of independent development. Indie will finally go into a niche.
Saga of Fantasy: A – classic butler with beautiful graphics
And if earlier there was an opinion that butlers are very cheap projects in production, then in the next six months or a year (after the worldwide release of new Japanese butlers) the situation may radically change.