After figuring out the details of "Animal Crossing", Ben and other players at the convention who had tried the game were stunned.
Because it was clear that this was a game that required players to keep playing to truly appreciate its unique charm.
Basically, players would only have two attitudes towards this kind of game.
The first attitude was to play for ten minutes or so, feel like it was completely boring, and immediately turn off the game.
For these players, simulation games were clearly not their cup of tea.
And the other attitude was to try it out with some doubt for ten minutes or so, and feel like this game was not bad and seemed worth playing.
When they felt the unique characteristics of the animals on the island, were attracted by the cartoon style, felt relaxed and happy, and developed a lot of interest in the game.
The game's features told you that this game needed to be played for a long time.
Some content would only be unlocked on the second or third day.
Even the fish and some insects were linked to specific months in real life.
Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't matter, of course.
The key was that this was a convention!
They were lucky enough to be chosen to try it out on the first day.
What about the second day and the third day?
And what about when the convention ended?
Even more importantly, the trial time this time was a generous hour and a half.
This was enough for many players to experience some of the gameplay and fun of the first day of "Animal Crossing".
For example, when fishing, in addition to catching all kinds of fish, you could even catch things like shoes.
And the DIY crafting table in the game could be used to make a lot of things.
In an instant, many players who had already been hooked by "Animal Crossing" were completely dumbfounded.
They wondered why the trial time was so generous this time, and why "Animal Crossing" was completely different from another game, "Super Mario: Odyssey", in that it was a complete version.
Because if you wanted to experience the later content of this thing, it followed real-world time!
Complete version or trial version, there was no difference at all!
Of course, some players with sneaky minds wanted to try changing the time on the Switch to see if they could experience the later content.
But unfortunately, Lucas had already anticipated this.
After all, in Lucas's past life, there were indeed many "time travelers" in "Animal Crossing".
They would change the game's time to collect items in the game more quickly.
The Switches at the convention had their time locked, so players had no way to play tricks with this aspect.
And Lucas didn't actually have any prejudice against these players who used special "magic".
Like with "Dark Souls" and "Monster Hunter: World", Lucas mainly limited the online aspects.
As for single-player, if players wanted to see the later content or collect everything, but their skills became a bottleneck, it was understandable to use cheat devices.
But using cheat devices would definitely prevent them from getting certain achievements.
When the Switch and "Animal Crossing" were officially released, players who had changed the time would also have some restrictions on some content, such as not being able to give items to others, and some time records would not be kept.
For example, a normal player has 31 days in a month, and every day is recorded if they play normally.
But for time travelers, only the days they played normally would be recorded, and all the changed time wouldn't count.
This was mainly to provide proof for "green" (honest) ordinary players.
.........
"I can only say that you can't outsmart Boss Lucas! When you thought there was no empty promise this time at the convention, he actually made a huge promise," Ben said with emotion.
"Yeah, a big pancake with filling, we took a bite of the plain dough, but we can only smell and look at the filling inside, that's the highest level of making empty promises!" Zack nodded in agreement, saying that Nebula Games was indeed a grandmaster in the art of empty promises.
"Zack!" Ben winked at Zack.
"No need to tell me," Zack snorted.
The two removed the Switch's controllers with great understanding, one red and one blue.
They went straight into the game, and the opening animation was the trailer Lucas had shown at the convention. Because the trial time was limited, the two skipped it directly.
"So cute!" Hannah next to them exclaimed.
The game had cartoonish graphics similar to "Animal Crossing", but it looked even prettier.
Players knew that this kind of game graphics was actually to save resources and adapt to the hardware.
But it had to be said that this style of art was really good.
And it gave the feeling that "Super Mario: Odyssey" had to be this kind of style.
If it was made realistic, it would be awkward.
"Why are you the main perspective? My hat can only follow you around?" Zack said unhappily after entering the game.
The first level in the game was the Cap Kingdom, where Cappy woke Mario up.
According to the dialogue, Bowser kidnapped Cappy's sister and turned her into a crown as a wedding gift in order to marry Princess Peach.
And now Cappy wanted to work with Mario to rescue his sister, so he became Mario's red hat and went on an adventure together.
In two-player mode, one player controlled the hat and the other player controlled Mario.
But the problem was that the game's camera followed Mario, and if the hat ran too far away, it couldn't be seen, only an icon on the edge.
"Nonsense, 'Super Mario: Odyssey', if I, Mario, am not the main character, who is? And your hat has much more interesting gameplay than me, it's all motion control," Ben rolled his eyes and said.
A very interesting part of the game was throwing the hat.
And the fun part of this was the player controlling the hat, waving the controller and controlling the hat as if they were really throwing a hat.
A platforming game with a bit of puzzle-solving, one person controlling Mario and one person controlling the hat.
It seemed like a game very suitable for two friends to cooperate on.
Of course, this was just the image in their minds. Players who had experienced "It Takes Two" and "Overcooked" understood what this kind of game was really like.
Some unfamiliar players were sitting together, especially two strong men sitting side by side, holding the blue and white controllers horizontally, looking very harmonious.
But the situation for those who knew each other like Zack and Ben was different.
'Hey, run over here! My controller just vibrated, there's something good here!' Ben stood near a Zack poster.
When discovering coins or some special hidden content in the game, the controller would sometimes vibrate slightly to give players a hint.
Ben had just felt his controller vibrate.
"You come over to me first, I think there must be coins hidden behind that box!" Zack also had his own different opinion.
"You come first!"
"I won't! You come over!"
"You're not coming over? I'm telling you not to come over!" Zack chuckled and controlled the hat to come to Mario's side, then shook the controller frantically.
In the game, Mario kept stepping on the hat, jumping around and couldn't stop.
"Alright! If you're going to do this, then I don't want to live anymore! Let's die together!" Ben realized that he really had no way to deal with this.
He jumped off the cliff next to him decisively.
I don't want to live anymore! Let's all die together!
Along with the game's playful graphics, Zack and Ben, who were already in their thirties, became a little childish at this time.
Clearly, the little boat of friendship had been poked with a big hole.
(End of chapter)
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