To be honest, when I saw the name "Brawl Westward Journey 2", I, an old player who came from the Saipan era, was quite emotional. I think back then, mobile games were still Snake and Sokoban written in Java. Being able to play "Prince of Persia" felt amazing. Now, mobile games have developed into MOBA, which requires real-time battles and teamwork. It can also be selected as Apple's annual selection, and even become a designated project for e-sports events. It really feels like it's a world away.
To be fair, I have been playing the game "Westward Journey 2" on and off for more than half a year. NetEase Leihuo's technical foundation is indeed solid. It combines the Journey to the West theme with MOBA gameplay very naturally, and the hero design is also creative. It is not just a matter of putting on a skin. The operation feels smooth on a mobile phone, and the screen is not blurry during team battles, which is very important. The key is that it has done a lot of subtractions, simplifying the tedious last-minute finishing and ward insertion in traditional MOBA, and is more in line with the needs of fragmented time - after all, who has time to sit and stare at the phone for ten minutes to replenish troops?
From an industry perspective, this game actually represents a trend: mobile games are transforming from "light entertainment" to "professional competition." Around 2015, the world was dominated by cards and RPGs, and everyone was competing to see who was more interested in them. Now, more and more manufacturers are beginning to focus on fair competition and strategic confrontation. Products with e-sports attributes like "Westward Journey 2", to put it bluntly, capture the psychological change of players from "passive reception" to "active participation". If you operate well and your teammates cooperate well, you will win. It has little to do with how much money you charge. Behind this trend is actually the fact that players have higher requirements for game quality - people are no longer satisfied with automatic hang-up and numerical crushing, but want to be able to truly show the pleasure of operation.
Of course, it's not without its flaws. For example, hero balance can occasionally be annoying, and new heroes always have a bit of a "numerical explosion" when they are first released. However, NetEase has been quite diligent in making adjustments in this regard, and is at least more conscientious than some domestic mobile games that “get stronger by just charging money”. The charging model starts from 0 yuan, which is quite rare. As long as ordinary players are willing to work hard, they can assemble the mainstream lineup, which is relatively friendly to old players.
Finally, a little digression. I read the news two days ago, saying that China's mobile game market revenue has increased again this year, but top products are becoming more and more solid, and it is getting harder and harder for new games to break through. A game like "Brawl Westward Journey 2" can survive in the cracks between a bunch of chicken games and two-dimensional games, and it can also be turned into an e-sports event, which is indeed something. If you are a player who likes MOBA but doesn't have much time to delve into the hard-core operations of "Honor of Kings", or simply wants to find a game with a Journey to the West theme that is not eye-catching for retirement, you might as well give this a try. Recommended by a ten-year-old player, at least it won't let you down. 😊