Goddess of Victory: Nike celebrates its third anniversary in November. And at the moment, the largest in-game occasion thus far begins, together with the fruits of the principle Rapture Queen storyline and the largest battle in gaming historical past.
Goddess of Victory: For many who do not learn about Nikke, it is a free-to-play third-person idle shooter sport developed by Korean developer Shift Up and obtainable for Android, iOS, and PC. Downloaded greater than 45 million instances since its launch in November 2022, it options greater than 160 android troopers known as “Nikke” and takes them into battle to take again the floor world from an evil alien race known as Rapture who’ve pressured humanity to take refuge underground.
On this new story occasion, that battle involves a head as gamers face a remaining battle towards the evil Rapture Queen. However that is simply scratching the floor of what the anniversary replace has to supply. One other huge addition is the brand new Floor Beta mode. It options large-scale simulation-style fight the place you construct your Nikkei squad, battle Rapture, acquire sources, and seize fortresses.
And naturally, it would not be a significant replace with out some new recruitable characters. New SSR characters “Nayuta” and “Liberio” could be obtained by way of the common gacha system, and SSR “Chime” can be a free anniversary occasion character. Nayuta and Liberio take heart stage in new story content material, as Nayuta rallies the Pioneer Drive towards the Rapture Queen, whom Liberio worships as a mom determine.
The anniversary occasion will add new gacha costumes for Crimson Hood and cross costumes for Crown and Siren. Moreover, the highly effective Pilgrim characters can be returning, with the flexibility to decide on between Modernia, Dorothy, and Crimson Hood as unique occasion pulls. And there are additionally limited-time challenges, together with new boss fights, new union raids, solo raids, and a number of mini-games and occasions.
Because the third anniversary approaches, we spoke to sport director Yoo Hyun-seok. He’s a 15-year veteran of the Korean gaming business and began his profession as a fight planner for MMORPGs. Earlier work consists of serving as a director/planning director for video games akin to “Overhit” and “Misplaced Ark.” He joined Shift Up in 2020 and was appointed sport director for “Goddess of Victory: Nikke.” We spoke to him in regards to the sport’s three-year success, how the event crew approached new anniversary content material, future plans, and extra.
In accordance with the dwell broadcast, the content material of the brand new anniversary story will result in the “remaining battle.” Are you able to clarify why such a storyline would start at this level?
Yoo Hyun Suk: Since its inception, Nikke has developed a substantial variety of tales in all instructions. We felt the necessity to step by step deliver collectively the tales that had branched out over the previous three years right into a single story, and so we began this venture on the event of our third anniversary.
Nayuta, the featured character of the third Anniversary Replace, is exclusive in comparison with earlier Nikke characters. Might you inform us in regards to the growth idea for this character and the assorted talents every of them has?
Yoo Hyun Suk: All members of the Pioneer crew are primarily based on basic JRPG events. Snow White is a closely armored knight and tanker. Scarlet is an agile swordsman and DPS. Rapunzel is a therapeutic priest. That is the way it works.
Since Nayuta is the fourth member, he was designated as a assist monk. We did not need her to be stronger than the opposite three members in battle, so we developed her with a concentrate on practicality, which led to her present talents. Her predominant means is to be taught giant quantities of knowledge utilizing clones. A former member of DEEP, he’s additionally accustomed to over know-how.
It additionally introduces a brand new gameplay mode known as Floor Beta, which can be launched to coincide with the third anniversary. Might you inform me extra about that?
Yoo Hyun Suk: Because the title suggests, Floor beta content material permits gamers to discover Nikke’s largest world. With a view to create a extra immersive expertise, we determined to make use of a simulation model fight system as a substitute of the normal capturing fight model. The huge discipline is full of enjoyable components akin to discovering hidden areas and fixing puzzles. We primarily need you to expertise the battle towards the Lord class Rapture. Rapture has a primary gimmick sample primarily based on the terrain, so it is vital to decide on your squad placement correctly. Extra highly effective bosses will seem sooner or later, so please look ahead to it!
The event crew has constantly created new mini-games all through Nikke’s three years of operation. What components are usually thought of when deciding what kind of minigame to develop?
Yoo Hyun Suk: For giant occasions like this anniversary, minigames aren’t simply minis. Contemplating the significance of this replace, now we have put extra emphasis on the sport mode, which options distinctive visuals and overwhelming scale by no means seen earlier than within the style. It is a administration simulation model sport the place you rebuild Eden, which has been destroyed for mysterious causes.
Simply the truth that we’re celebrating our third anniversary right here reveals how profitable this sport has been and the way related we have stayed with the group. What do you suppose is the rationale for its success?
Yoo Hyun Suk: I feel our commander will benefit from the distinctive content material and story that’s completely different from different video games. On this age of content material overload, providing gameplay, visuals, and story just like different titles is nothing wanting boring.
Followers of our video games deeply perceive our content material and tales. We now have to proceed to ship nice content material and narrative with out disappointing our customers, so we attempt to emphasize to our whole growth crew that they need to actually love the sport and that it is not only a job. We’ll proceed to maintain this in thoughts and try to make even higher video games, so please look ahead to it.
What was the largest problem you encountered since launching Nikke and the way did you overcome it?
Yoo Hyun Suk: Over the previous three years, our largest problem has been determining the right way to adapt to those quickly altering instances and deciding what content material and tales to supply to deliver probably the most enjoyment to our gamers. This drawback has been happening for 3 years and can proceed. We’re sport builders and enjoyable is the core worth of any sport, so it is solely pure that we rise to this problem and proceed to deliver extra enjoyable and new content material to our gamers. So it is each a enjoyable and a tough journey.
That is an attention-grabbing perspective. Do you suppose having to adapt to that change helped maintain the event crew engaged? I feel it may be tough to work on the identical sport for years even after launch and take care of complacency and burnout. However do you suppose it helps that there are ongoing challenges to beat?
Yoo Hyun Suk: Certainly, in the event you set infinite objectives, you may run into issues akin to job burnout. Like boxers, we should continuously compete, show our talents and have sturdy psychological resilience.
That is why from the start, we emphasised to the event crew that “Somewhat than aiming for zero errors, it is vital to be taught from errors and develop.” After adopting this mindset, I noticed that frequently setting objectives truly helped my crew keep centered.
We have been capable of collaborate with some huge franchises, from Evangelion to Stellar Blade, NieR: Automata, and most lately Resident Evil. What’s your course of for deciding who to collaborate with?
Yoo Hyun Suk: Collaborations are determined after numerous discussions, however lately now we have been specializing in discovering IPs that even gamers who are usually not accustomed to Nikke can take pleasure in. We designed the Resident Evil minigames with this angle in thoughts. We hope all gamers will take pleasure in it.
Nicke additionally appeared at some shocking real-life occasions, together with a San Diego Padres baseball sport and New York’s Hudson River. Will we have the ability to see Nikke at different real-world occasions sooner or later?
Yoo Hyun Suk: after all! We’re happy to have the ability to ship multifaceted enjoyable that goes past gaming to commanders. It was a selected honor for us to look at Lapi throw out the primary pitch at Petco Park in San Diego. We’ll proceed to do our greatest, so please regulate us.
Talking of the longer term, what does Shift Up have deliberate for the Victory Goddess Nikke in 2026?
Yoo Hyun Suk: In 2026, we are going to proceed to try to offer pleasant experiences each inside and out of doors of the sport. We’re making ready numerous occasions and updates that can shock everybody, and we’re able to ship much more particular surprises for the three.fifth and 4th anniversary. I am already excited. In 2026, we plan to enhance the standard of our operations to offer a extra secure expertise. I hope you all benefit from the sport.
The theme of the third anniversary story is “The Last Battle”, might you give us any hints about future developments?
Yoo Hyun Suk: We hope that in 2026, our story will transfer on to the following stage. I intend to maneuver ahead by converging the numerous tales I’ve informed to date into one fruits.
In three years, Nicke has constructed a cult following world wide. As you have a good time your anniversary, is there something you wish to say to the gamers who’ve been on this journey with you?
Yoo Hyun Suk: This 12 months, we attended LA Anime Expo with Cosmograph and had the chance to talk immediately with American gamers. Many individuals expressed their gratitude, and a few had been moved to tears by assembly them once more. This left a long-lasting reminiscence in my coronary heart.
For these of us who spend all day within the workplace, this chance to satisfy the gamers face-to-face is extraordinarily beneficial. I am actually glad to have the ability to really feel the love of my followers immediately. Creating video games and offering dwell companies could be tough and tough at instances, however with the assist of our gamers, we will overcome challenges, bounce again time and again, and plan much more thrilling and pleasant occasions.
Goddess of Victory: Nikke could be downloaded without spending a dime from the sport’s web site. Official web siteor on the App Retailer or Google Play. You may as well be part of the sport’s group discord, Twitter, fbor YouTube.