Chinese gaming juggernaut NetEase is now one of the country’s top anime-style games developer and publisher, with a heavy focus on targeting the otaku market. The latest offering from them is Genesis Masterwork Apocalypse (幻书启世录), a title with a rather interesting backstory. The player has been chosen as the Liberian, or Guardian, of the Akashic Library (should be based on the Akashic Records). Subsequently, players will have the power to draw out the powers of the books kept inside the library.
As you would have expected, the summons in this game are all based on books, scrolls, and everything found in a library. For example, there are summons which are based on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Compendium of Materia Medica, and even Night Parade of One Hundred Demons. Interesting! So, there are dark forces which have invaded the human realm seeking the powers of the Akashic Library, and it is up to players and their book summons to stop them.
My main complaint about such character-collection games have always been the number of characters which can be allocated. I always believed 5 is the sweet spot, and unfortunately Genesis Masterwork Apocalypse only allows up to 4. There are 5 different categories of characters, including AOE DPS, Single target DPS, Protection, Healing, and Crowd Control. There is also a select group of characters with skills which can drag large groups of enemies into 1 spot to facilitate AOE attacks. Awesome!
Like most of NetEase’s recent anime-style games, Genesis Masterwork Apocalypse comes with great music, Japanese and Chinese voiceovers, and high-quality 2D artwork. Hopefully the game will be considered for a global launch, as my main concern is localizing all those book names into ones which make sense. Some are pretty famous with their own Wikipedia pages, but the lesser-known ones will be a tough job. Stay tuned for updates on Genesis Masterwork Apocalypse!
