Title Map: Jeopardy Zero, hurry up!
On November 24th, miHoYo's new work "Jeopardy Zero" officially opened the second internal test "noise reduction test". As the "youngest daughter of the Mi family", she has never lacked attention since its announcement, especially the discussion of the game's cool art style. 
Li Zhenyu, the producer of "Jeopardy Zero", mentioned in an external interview that this is a product that focuses on differentiation, involves the theme of trendy culture, and takes a cool style. In fact, "trendy cool" is indeed the first impression left by "Jeopardy Zero" to most players, with skateboard seats, graffiti walls, huge trendy toy models, etc., which are quite urban and fashionable. 
Of course, the core selling point of the two-dimensional game is the character. For players, a number of avant-garde characters are also the "cool" part of the game, and their design integrates a variety of elements and cultural characteristics to meet different XP, which becomes a reason to "have to play now". 
Highly recognizable characters add points to the gameIn the process of character design, in addition to the internal parts such as personality and behavior, it is necessary to match the worldview of the game, and the appearance also needs to be the same, so as to create the uniqueness and recognition of the character. There are four major camps under the world view of "Jeopardy Zero", namely Victoria Housekeeping, White Tsumi Heavy Industries, Lesson 6 and Cunning Rabbit House, in addition to the neutral organization where the "Rope Maker" brothers and sisters controlled by the player are located. In the game setting, the members of the "Crafty Rabbit House" are all from the streets, and their styling style is also biased towards street trends, focusing on personalization. For example, Nicole, who was ridiculed by players for "single-handedly raising the age limit of the game", is a standard hot girl, ** and delicate, just as flamboyant as her performance in the plot. 
The equally high-profile robot Billy has more middle-two temperament, with an eye-catching red biker jacket and a Saiyan-like hairstyle, which is worthy of a male robot who opens his mouth and closes the lines of "Star Emblem Knight". 
"Shiratsumi Heavy Industries", which runs a construction business, naturally has a handsome and capable style of its members, mainly in the style of tooling. 
However, on the tall and burly orc Ben Bigg, the pure white topstitch design overalls can also wear the sense of "sumo wrestler", and with the gold chain and scarface is even more "social", and the player has to be called "Brother Bear". It's just that when I learned that Brother Xiong's low-grade pants were designed because Xiong's hind legs were too short, and he himself worked as an accountant in "Bai Yi Heavy Industry", no one could help but laugh with a strong sense of contrast. 
If the "trend" of "Jeopardy Zero" comes from the street culture and pop elements in the character modeling, then the "cool" may come from the subculture contained in it. Producer Lee Jin-woo mentioned in an interview that one of the inspirations for "Jeopardy Zero" is subculture, and of course, from the perspective of game performance, these subcultures have been deconstructed again and presented in a more acceptable way to the public. The character design of "Victoria Housekeeping" is partly inspired by horror films, corresponding to the common elements in the film, such as werewolves, sharks, chainsaws, dolls, etc., and its shape is not blindly close to the trend, but is based on the classical and elegant Victorian style, including lace, bows, multi-level cake cutting and other elements. 
The "Brother Wolf" deacon with the highest concentration of Fury is dressed elegantly and rationally, and the facial decoration with an integrated muzzle and mask makes people feel restrained but wild. 
The two-ponytail girl Kryn is a classic maid appearance, and at the same time incorporates elements such as grenade shell lines, straps, and chainsaw saws, these aggressive details form a strong contrast with her well-behaved personality, and poke at the preferences of many players. There is also the "shark girl" Elaine who is always impatient, and the sharp teeth run through the whole body, and contrast with the girl's body shape, bringing a different "shark girl**".
In the "Air Six Lessons" camp, the previous popular character Hoshimi Ya is also the dual identity of the samurai inheritor and department manager, with a calm personality, abiding by the rules, and integrating ** epaulettes, ties, pleated skirts and other elements to create a "white-collar" sense of déjà vu. But it is such a seemingly unapproachable eldest lady, but she has soft animal ears and cold mechanical arms, and the integration is not ingenious.
Since the announcement of "Jeopardy Zero", there have been a large number of character-related secondary creations, not only the characters that players can get by drawing cards, but even the Street View NPCs are also loved by players, contributing a lot to the popularity of the game, and there is no shortage of players who sigh: "miHoYo deserves to be the master of XP remodeling". Characters have always been an important bridge between games and players, and excellent character design can not only enhance players' feelings about the game, but also increase the fun of the game.
"Differentiation" is good, and the technology is higherIn fact, judging from the content released in the second test of "Jeopardy Zero", in addition to the characters that reflect diverse cultural characteristics, there are many easter eggs hidden in the game world. In the video store, there are also many posters of tributes by the creative team to classic works such as Mamoru Oshii, Kim Min, and Quentin. There are also the protagonists' brother and sister who prefer psychedelic rock, jazz, hip-hop and so on in the playlist. These easter eggs may come from niche cultures or subcultures, but in the end, they all coexist harmoniously in the highly inclusive carrier of games.
In the game market, there are many works that carry the expressions of diverse cultures and creators. For example, "Call of Cthulhu", which is based on the "Cthulhu Mythos", incorporates more popular horror, adventure, and puzzle-solving elements, and this mysterious world has the opportunity to be understood by more people.
There are also examples of refining and condensing niche culture and expressing it in the form of symbolic symbols, and the "gram character" takes into account the soft and cute painting style while retaining the classic elements of Cthulhu such as tentacles and eyeballs.
Ark Command, Cthulhu.
Games are a kind of carrier of culture, from the theme of the early stage of creation to the specific plot, characters and other game content, will be affected by the cultural environment in which the game creator lives. From art, subject matter to gameplay, content, in order for their products to stand out from the fierce competition, each manufacturer rolled up all the aspects that can be rolled, and finally gave birth to "Back to the Future: 1999", which chose "New Strange Talk", "High-energy Figure Group" based on figures, or "Leap Traveler" with sci-fi pixel art style, etc., until the road of "differentiation" became more and more crowded, and the ending was divided into winners and losers.
With a large number of cultural elements added to the game, it is natural that some players will understand the "differentiation" mentioned by Li Zhenyu, the producer of "Jeopardy Zero", as miHoYo wants to rely on niche themes and content to win, after all, this is one of the trends in the domestic secondary game market in recent years. The "differentiation" of "Jeopardy Zero" is compared with "Genshin Impact" and "Honkai: Star Dome Railway", which is an attempt by miHoYo's young team and a self-breakthrough of miHoYo's existing ideas. For the young team behind "Jeopardy Zero", they hope to introduce their understanding and creation of trend art to the world, so that the trend culture loved by the new generation of China can be seen by more people.
Whether it is the first test or the second test, if it is not mentioned in popular science content, most players who pay attention to "Jeopardy Zero" rarely discuss the game design inspiration and related cultural elements in depth, because the "simple and crude" technical power shown by miHoYo in Jeopardy Zero has completely "mastered" it, with high-precision modeling, vivid and diverse facial details, and a smooth combat ...... with low threshold and high feedbackPerhaps this is the confidence of the young team behind "Jeopardy Zero" to express and try freely.