This seems like clickbait, and it kinda is, but I’ve been wondering about 4 things:
Dragon Island Red. A DIB sequel was promised on the first question here. Later, rumors started to spread about a new game called ‘Dragon Island Red’. After some investigation, I can’t find any confirmation from devs, but the info came from people in contact with the devs, so it seems credible. What are the plans? Has this been forgotten? Was the plan canceled, or did Ryan leave? I’m looking for credible sources, not fan theories.
The future of Neomon. None of the ‘Islands’ trilogy games have survived their successor. HI killed DIB, Neomon killed HI. Every time, the devs promised that they wouldn’t abandon the old game, every time the community forgot the previous game anyway. What will happen to Neomon? Will the devs keep it running? Will YOU, dear reader, keep playing? If the devs stop maintaining the servers, there won’t be much offline gameplay that you can access, since the offline sometimes requires you to go to an event.
More sequels. Zigzagame has 5 game universes. DIB, HI, Neomon, Micromon, and Evertale. At best, Dragon Island Red comes next, and Neomon is already a sequel to HI, meaning that 4 out of 6 would be connected, but that still leaves 2 games. Will they get sequels? Or are they just making more games with vaguely similar premises that have no real connection? Are they abandoning Micromon because it came from Pocket Trend, not Zigzagame?
Art and gameplay. The games have been getting more humanoid monsters, and lighter, more Anime /cartoony artstyles. Are we going to continue? Will we ever go back to the darker art of DIB? I know a lot of old fans would love that. Also, will the number of monsters you can have on the field change more? We have had 1, 3, and 4. How about 2? Will they add more names(like ‘Arkadians’), or keep ‘monster’ as the name for the creatures forever? Will they keep on changing the names of TUs/Secs? These are all very surface-level, but the answers matter a lot, since I think part of the success of the older games where their unique, charming superficial qualities.
I would appreciate if @Dev_VKC, @Dev_BRD, or anyone with actual information could respond.
The earliest mention of Dragon Island Red was around here. This may seem weird to some, since this was before HI was even released. If you can find any earlier info, please tell me.
Lol at one point they actually announced an NM sequel, with considerable fanfare… prolly like a year and a half ago. Doesn’t appear that anything’s come of that though. Suppose they just decided to keep on riding the NM train the best they can while it’s still ahead.
Eh… Neo was ‘announced’ 1 year before it came out, and HI was announced 2 years before it came out. If DIR really is next, it will have been unofficially announced almost a decade before it comes out, so never lose hope
Also, since I feel like this question got buried, is Ryan still on the team? He felt like the driving creative force behind the first 2 games, so what happened?
It’s quite easy to discover from public sources how ZigZaGame’s company strategy was to build a game, run it for ~2 years then leave it to gather dust and have a sequel come out with an updated battle system, testing new ideas and built for the current market. “Dragon Island Red” was most likely their internal name for Hunter Island before it was properly named. I believe it was meant as a sequel to the game. Then Neo Monsters was a sequel to Hunter Island and what happened was it did surprisingly well, topping charts and making lots of money. At that point they changed strategy and decided to not do NM the same way they did the previous two games (with power creep and milking money out of people with no long-term plan because the plan is to close it). That’s why NM has stuck around for 5 years.
I believe Evertale was originally NM2 in concept which they proposed to the community of NM and it was met with huge uproar. It became independent and a different art style, going for the anime girls that are the market trend right now (which we’ve seen slip into NM this year as a marketing strategy to capitalise on the trend).
Personally I am totally against the idea of creating sequels and planning for each game to only have a short lifespan. There’s no way I would want to put money (or encourage others to put money) into something that would be gone in a year or two. For me it feel immoral, even if it’s not actually in reality because people are having fun in the meantime. It’s easier to make money that way but I believe strongly in creating a good quality game that can be managed and developed with low-ish attention to make money over a long period of time. I think it’s far better to the consumer and grows a more devoted fanbase that will bring steady income for the company. Once you have a good game like NM it’s possible to develop it over time to keep it modernised and to hold onto the long-term spenders.
From a company standpoint, Evertale is a big money maker and Neo Monsters is a good long-term project. Evertale is bringing in the big bucks right now because it’s capitalising on the market trend and it was successful bringing in an audience. However, it’s easy enough to see they are not managing the meta properly and power creep is giving it a short lifespan. The “upgrades” to the battle system and balancing of archetypes are fun and were well done at the start but over time it’s got a lot of limitations. It’s probably going to join DIB and HI when the market changes or people flock away from it. I’m counting on NM being managed well and outlasting Evertale. I think it’s got a good core of content and monsters that it should be quite resilient to market changes and with periodic marketing / flash sales to get new players in should continue to make the company money.
Pretty much agree, except for one thing: As mentioned earlier, DIR was originally going to be Evertale, not HI. I still don’t know if they will actually make it.
If they made a Neo 2, I would definitely abandon Neo and play that instead. Although Devs have done a lot to improve Neo and been successful with it as well, I am a firm believer that Neo needs a design overhaul which can really be done only through a new game.
For example the whole online part is actually kinda bad because it constantly needs to “connect to the server”, you just don’t see that a lot in other games anymore. Additionally, the game has become artistically inconsistent. The new monster designs do not match the old ones at all. The waifus, Lavamane, Deathgazer, Torazou etc. look all out of place. The music and sound effects are really outdated, bad quality, simple and ‘annoying’. The power creep needs to be reset because the new movesets have become direct upgrades over old ones so there often simply is no reason to use an older legend over a new one. Etc.
From my understanding Evertale was supposed to be Neo 2. I think Devs pretty much have cancelled it at this point. Although Evertale in general was a huge disappointment for me, the gameplay is very similar than in Neo yet refreshing. I could see a “spirit” or “mana” system in Neo as well to balance out the stronger moves.
Honestly I wouldn’t mind a new Neo Monsters at all. The concept is great, the battle system is excellent. What we need imo is a stronger foundation, more consistency and a fresh coat of paint. That would keep me hooked for the next couple of years which I don’t see happening with Neo at this rate.
Yeah. Neo is the DIB to the next game’s HI. They are templates that are good at one thing, DIB is exploration, Neo has online, eventually, Monster Island or Cosmic Island or whatever they call it(Hopefully a name ending in the word 'Island)will come with a more diverse set of abilities, and be a better game. Or maybe DIR will come next, and Neomonsters will go the way of HI. Who knows? We sure don’t, so all we can do is have hope, or be pessimists. I know that I’m cynical, but be a better, more trusting person then me. The future of the Islands series depends on it.
Ya know what’s funny? That was exactly what people said about DIB and HI. Reviewers said that DIB needed more consistency and a stronger foundation. They said that HI delivered on that. They said that they loved HI and all of its features. Look how well that worked out.
My point is, improving on the previous game does not always make a successful game sequel. Neomon is so successful partially because it is so similar to Pokemon. If the sequel differs from that, it won’t be as popular, quality notwithstanding.
Yet the monster designs on release were much more consistent than the abominations that are goddesses. Those hentai characters belong to a different game (or website). They never should have been implemented into Neo Monsters, it makes zero sense. The sole reason they were added is to take advantage of people’s sexual urges which is disgusting.
