Translating Genres: Arknights and Endfield
I’ve been playing the tower defense strategy game Arknights for over a year now, and it’s easily my favorite mobile game. It’s a tower defense strategy game where the ‘towers’ are different characters with different abilities. It updates frequently and maintains high-quality art, writing, and game design. I adore Arknights .
Last January, Arknights developer Hypergryph released Arknights: Endfield , after months of development and teasers. Though created by a separate team, it takes place in the same universe as the mobile game. However, Endfield is an open-world RPG similar to something like Genshin Impact . It felt like a weird choice at first, taking the lore of the strategy game and building an RPG on it. After thinking about it, however, an RPG is a natural place for Arknights as a series to go.
I’m curious about this kind of genre shift and what parts were successful. I will go over how Hypergryph took elements from their strategy game and how they added them into their new RPG. As a brief note for clarity: when I talk about Arknights in this article, I’m referring to the mobile game only. Arknights: Endfield will just be Endfield.
When I first saw the announcement for Endfield , I was confused. Why was Hypergryph taking their successful strategy game and making an open-world RPG in the same universe? What was extra strange was that there is no overlap in setting between the two games. Endfield takes place hundreds of years in the future and on an entirely different planet. It wouldn’t give me an opportunity to explore the places I already know and love, which was a real disappointment. I started playing Endfield in January shortly after its official launch, and the longer I played and the more systems opened up, I felt more at home with Endfield . Sure, the icons and item names were different, but the basics were the same.
[caption id="attachment_188070" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Where Arknights used 2D sprites, Endfield is fully 3D.[/caption]
The most immediate change is the art style. Arknights uses 2D backgrounds and character sprites in its story segments, and 2D sprites on a 3D grid for gameplay. Endfield, by contrast, is entirely in 3D, so right out the gate, the different visual styles means each game presents both its gameplay and its narrative differently.
Arknights stories are told in visual novel-like cinematics that take place at the start of a level and at the end. Arknights has no voice acting in its story segments. This is understandable considering that the word count for a single event can rival that of a full novel, and after six years, the game has an enormous cast. As much as I would like it, I understand Hypergryph not wanting to produce and translate an entire visual novel every month or so. Each playable character has voice lines they’ll say in a game level, and that’s it.
Endfield , by contrast, features voice acting for every named character who appears in its story. It also means the characters are less likely to go on long speeches than in the mobile game. It's very easy to get into the game's story this way, it's much more accessible than Arknights , especially since Endfield's introduction is much more active and interesting.
[caption id="attachment_187428" align="aligncenter" width="640"] This is where Arknights players will be pointing at the screen and saying, "I know that guy!"[/caption]
It’s very much a tradeoff, by adding voice-overs Endfield exchanges density for accessibility. Even as an enjoyer of Arknights' story, I’m willing to say it can be dense with exposition and meanderings. On the other hand, Endfield does not tackle its narrative concepts as well as Arknights , as it's given less space to do so. I'll talk more about this when I get to story comparisons later, but the different styles inform how the story is told and how much is told.
Since I had background with the original game, I already knew important information about the setting and generally how things work around here. Important ideas, as presented in Endfield, are largely consistent with what I know from Arknights . The only thing I’m not sure of is how it comes across to a newcomer, and I suspect they’ll be a bit confused. Concepts like “what is Originium and why is it important?” weren’t something I needed explained, but the game may have waited too long to inform a new player why this weird rock is important. Or that it can spread like a cancer both through the land and the human body. Arknights lore gets pretty wild.
[caption id="attachment_188487" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Activating multiple combo skills at once is a reward for good team building.[/caption]
One of the strengths of Arknights ’ gameplay is its balance around powerful teams, rather than expecting players to rely on one or two overpowered units. It's possible to do that, but for most players, it's better to build a diverse roster to have more tools to tackle different problems. The combat gameplay, being centered around team building, carries over into Endfield in interesting little ways.
In Endfield, players battle with a team of four characters, and every character has a different role and set of skills; it's pretty standard. What Endfield added is giving all characters a combo move. When the requirement is met (which varies by character), players will see see a pop-up with that character’s portrait, and if you used, that character will attack the player's target with a special move. Combos can even be chained under the right conditions, and it's so satisfying.
Even outside of combat, the team is present and active. Team members are always visible when the player is exploring the world. Sometimes they will alert the player to nearby treasure; once, an operator even led me a short distance to a hidden item. When resources spawn in clusters, when they are collected, teammates will also start breaking nodes and picking up resources. All of it goes into the same bag, so it’s useful! It’s a small thing, but I do appreciate that my bot-controlled teammates are attentive and active.
[caption id="attachment_186028" align="aligncenter" width="640"] An example of what the AIC looks like[/caption]
Endfield Industries, the protagonist faction in Endfield , is a construction company, and the industrial theming runs through not just the aesthetics of the game but also in its gameplay. This is done not in combat, but through the Automatic Industry Core, or AIC. This is the part of the game I suspect will make or break someone’s opinion on it. Players who enjoy setting up and fussing with complicated factory-type systems will enjoy working on the AIC. The AIC is the biggest element that separates Endfield from other games in the genre and gives it a unique identity. Sometimes factories will need defending. The player is given gun towers to place around the area to stop enemies from reaching important locations. It's a cute callback to the original game.
While Arknights doesn’t have anything exactly like the AIC, it does have a game mode called Reclamation Algorithm that shares similar gameplay. It’s not a popular game mode, so there have been very few updates, but I am glad to see some ideas from the previous game implemented somewhere they fit better. However, there is a base-building system in Arknights that returns in the form of the spaceship Dijiang in Endfield , and it was a cozy feeling when I realized how similar these systems were. This recognition includes progression structures. Since Arknights was focused on leveling and developing a roster of characters, the systems for leveling up and empowering characters translated very well into an RPG.
[caption id="attachment_188115" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The change in visual style allows Endfield to have more visual spectacle than the more limited style in Arknights[/caption]
The music in these games deserves a mention ; Endfield’s music is good , Arknights’ music is amazing. There’s a running joke among fans of Arknights that Hypergryph is actually a music company that also happens to produce a game. If there’s one thing Arknights should be famous for, it’s the music. There are many collaborations with talented artists who work in many different styles and genres. Each story event comes with unique music for its lobby and game stages, and most six-star characters have their own theme songs. There have been full live concerts featuring music from Arknights . Endfield loses a bit of identity without the variety and quality of music Arknights has. It did just launch, so I'm willing to wait and see what Endfield does with its music next. It would be a shame if it didn't follow in Arknights' music tradition.
I’ve saved talking about the story comparisons for last because it’s where I’m most disappointed with Endfield in comparison to Arknights . It’s also the area I’m willing to give it grace because it’s so new. These two games take different approaches to storytelling. Arknights’ style allows it to tell long and dense stories with complicated characters at the cost of demanding more effort from the player. Endfield aims for a more accessible story that anyone can enter into easily, but sacrifices character and thematic depth to achieve it. One style is not better than the other, however, in this case I feel Endfield lost something important in this trade.
There's a tidy microcosm for how I feel about the two stories: the way the games engage with its antagonists. The main antagonist faction in Endfield are the Bonekrushers. Endfield portrays them as wild fanatics, and that's pretty much it. A perfectly fine choice, especially for a video game. Arknights, however, would at least ask: why are the Bonekrushers like this? What were the circumstances that led these people to become this? Even if they remained strictly villains, there would be an effort to see humanity in them and to understand what struggles they faced. Endfield had a rich world to draw from and leaves it underutilized. On the other hand, the thing that did translate perfectly from the original game is its sense of humor. Endfield is delightful when it’s silly.
[caption id="attachment_188071" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The player getting hyped up by local silly creature.[/caption]
I’ve been repeating myself with ‘ Endfield just released, and though it lacks something I feel is important it could be added later’. I want to give it grace and space to grow, but I do feel there are places where it falls behind Arknights . In my case, I think my experience with the other game had a mixed influence on my time spent with Endfield . However, I can only judge the game as it exists now, and judge it fairly as its own entity. Setting aside my gripes about the story, I had a great deal of fun playing Endfield ! I’m not sure how long I’ll stick with it, but I do think this is a game with a bright future, even if it's not what I personally would have wanted. The most recent release was patch 1.1, the first major patch since the game launched, and I want to see Endfield continue to grow and be a fun experience.
The post Translating Genres: Arknights and Endfield appeared first on RPGamer .
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