This is a short essay I've written a couple of years back to compare and contrast side-scrolling 2D mobile action games and PC-Console-end 3D action games, using “Naruto Mobile” and “Sekiro” as examples.
Side-Scrolling 2D Action Games vs. 3D Action Games
The Action Game genre contains various types of action games that present themselves in various ways. The most commonly known titles such as “Street Fighters”, “Hollow Knight”, “Cuphead” and Chinese-published “Naruto Mobile” and “Dungeons and Fighters” are defined as side-scrolling 2D action games. Whereas, titles such as “Dark Souls”, “Bloodborne”, “Assassin’s Creed” franchise and “Sekiro” are defined as 3D action games. These two types of games fundamentally differ in terms of style, presentation, and themes.
While endless games under these two genres are being created, I have drawn my own opinions on how and why these two types of actions games differ from each other, using “Naturo Mobile” and “Sekiro” as the examples for each. From the most visually obvious to the more core mechanics of the game. First of all, 2D side-scrolling action games has lost the camera control that is unique to 3D action games, and because of the differences in the freedom of camera control, the game mechanics changes along with it. Then, through these mechanics, the game presents different levels of player challenges, which creates differences in terms of player control, player strategy and game presentation. And the relationship among the three can be presented as such:
1.1 Player Control
The side-scrolling action games’ camera control is limited; thus the player view of the level is limited. With limited line of sight, the player also has disadvantage on how much information they perceive within the level. Moreover, with the limitations of the 2D view, the game mechanics changes along with the 2D view limitation, therefore changing the challenges of the player skills posed in the game level. In “Naruto Mobile” and “Dungeons and Fighters”, the physical player control required for the player is Reactionary Input, and “Sekiro” is Window of Opportunity Input.
1.2 Player Strategy
The camera line of sight of 2D side-scrolling action games gives less information than the usual 3D action games’ camera view. In 3D action games, the player usually looks at the enemy with a cone-shaped line of sight, and the player can also uses the advantage of the camera view to perceive more information in each level. However, in 2D side-scrolling action games, the lock on camera view makes less information available at each level, therefore the player strategy in the 2D side-scrolling games could be less complex than the strategy used in 3D action games.
For example, in “Sekiro”, the free moving camera allows the player to receive a lot of information about the level they are in, such as the positions of enemies, the enemies in the next level, the surrounding environment, grapple hook points, and ledges that allow players to hang off. Through this information, the player can calculate multiple strategies that will help the player to go through this level, either through confronting all the enemies head on, assassinating all the enemies with stealth, or going around the level without being detected at all.
Compare to the side-scrolling action games, Sekiro has higher camera freedom, therefore more complex strategy. Players can move in more than four directions (up, down, left and right), players can also move the camera in 360 degrees. These features can help players put distance between their main character and the enemies or put themselves in positional advantage.
On the other hand, in “Naruto Mobile”, the game has a limited freedom of movement in the z-axis, creating an illusion of 3-D control. Since players do not have camera control in the game, players are unable to perceive as much information as a 3-D environment, and the limitations of information on the screen making the decision time, between enemy appearance and enemy attack, a lot shorter, therefore limiting the complexity of player strategy in the game.
1.3 Visual Presentation
Due to the difference in camera dimensions between side-scrolling games and 3-D action games, the positioning between the player character and the enemy characters creates various types of tension and combat pacing.
Most side-scrolling action games use a two-way split screen to represent the tension between player character and the enemy character, as shown below. Usually one character will take up one side of the screen, and the enemy character will occupy the other side, their positioning remains as such while the camera moves left and right to keep the two characters in the center of the screen.
There are also side-scrolling games that try to keep only the player character in the center of the screen during fights, encouraging player movement and accentuates player-enemy tension by surrounding the player with unsafe environment. This type of presentation is common in a single player action game, where the main character is the main focus for the player and the importance of the main character needs to be highlighted.
On the other hand, 3-D action games uses the advantage of camera depth to create space between the main character and the enemy. The line of sight of the camera creates a fan-shaped line of sight for the player to perceive enemy movements.
With this camera angle, the game can also put both the main character and the enemy character in the middle of the screen, with the main character in the near-ground, and enemy further out. This kind of presentation also allows the player to focus more on the enemy throughout the fight. With a higher-level focus, the player can be more focused on the game, and the enemy movements will receive more attention from the player. Then, this increase in player attention creates an opportunity for designers to put in more complex move sets and combat design for player enemy. “Sekiro” becomes an excellent example for this type of combat design, with advantages from the camera angle and its 3-D level design. With all of these advantages utilized in its game design, Sekiro has one of the most intense combat gameplay in 3-D action games.
All in all, the differences created by the freedom of camera movement and camera angle are vast between 2-D side-scrolling games and 3-D action games. It is the differences that allow each game to tap into the advantage of its camera movement and create an experience that fit its expected design goals the most.
Creating a Sense of Attack in “Naruto Mobile” and “Sekiro”
Among various ways to present the sense of attack in games, Sekiro’s main sense of attack features in its combat and parkour movements throughout the game. In Naruto Mobile, the sense of attack is mainly presented during combat. The presentation of the sense of attack completes a player’s input-output loop, namely the feedback loop that starts with actions players input into the game and ends the designed sensory feedbacks that players receive, so on and so forth. The sense of attack presents itself in terms of visual, auditory and touch, which can be achieved through camera angles, animations, special visual effects, and special sound effects. Moreover, the advantage that console and PC games have over mobile game is that, the sense of attack can also be achieved through controller vibration.
2.1 Visual
2.1.1 Camera Design
In both Sekiro and Naruto Mobile, the camera angles are tactically used to coorperate with different states and events in the game. Especially during combat, the combinations of shots and angles used in Naruto Mobile creates a strong sense of attack.
Furthermore, Naruto Mobile utilizes frequent screen shakes to accentuate the sense of attack of each character. It does not only adds to the effect, but also compensates for the lack of sensory feedback that is present in controllers and not on mobile.
2.1.2 Animation
Hit animation in “Naruto Mobile” has dramatic animations and special effects throughout the game, and such utilization of animations and special effects are one of the most important elements that accentuates the sense of attack in the game. With normal attacks, the sequence of preparation key frame, key animation, and attack feedback frame dramatizes the feedback of the player’s control input. During the ultimate attacks, each character has a specialized CG animation that recreated the special sequence in the original anime series. Combining the effects of the two, the sense of attack in Naruto mobile compensated for of the lack of controller vibration with maximum visual and auditory experience.
Sekiro’s animation sequence is less dramatic than the ones from Naruto Mobile. Every boss character in Sekiro has their own animation sequence that derived from their unique character design and character-specific weapons. The animation created in Sekiro also helped the game creating and maintaining its rhythmic beauty thoughout the game.
From preparation key frame, to character attack key frame, to the hit frame, these make up the attack output sequence that is the direct feedback of the player’s input. These sequence can be seen in Figure 13, 14, and 15.
2.1.3 Visual Special Effects (VFX)
The important special effect in Sekiro would be the sparkles when Sekiro’s sword and the enemies’ characters clash, as well as the special effects that follows character’s sword’s tracks, as shown in Figure 16.
In Naruto Mobile, the combat special effects are just as dramatic as its animations, the input and special effects overlap over each other to maximize the visual experience of the player’s control input, as if cooler the special effects, the harder the characters are going to hit.
In Naruto Mobile, the visual special effects of each attack consists of different shape, color, curature and lighting focal point. These visual special effects does not only highlights the effects of each character’s skills, but also accentuates their attack range and the strength of their attacks. These visual special effects also provided players with a quick and obvious visual feedback of their high-speed input (usually button spamming).
2.2 Audio
In Sekiro, many different action combos and tools are matched with appropriate sound effects, including but not limited to, the normal attacks and blocks, Shinobi tools and the grapple hooks. These sound effects, combined with the visual effects and animations, created an immersive experience with its sense of attack. It makes the combat in the game feels a lot smoother, but also creates such beauty within its rhythm.
On the other hand, in Naruto Mobile, the sound effects assisted the exaggerated animations and visual effects, creating a very strong feedback of its sense of attack, making the scene dramatic and flamboyant. It is a very accurate and fitting recreation of the style of the original IP series.
2.3 Touch
Sekiro consists of a small amount of controller vibration during combat and cut scenes, especially when the character is heavily hit. The small amount of controller vibration allows the player to experience a feedback of their input through touch, therefore, creating another dimension of experience for the game. It is worth noting that controller vibration is unique to console and PC games, so Naruto Mobile is unable to utilize this effect to design for better combat experience.
References
[1] “如何理解动作游戏的‘打击感’？-腾讯游戏学堂.” Accessed: Dec. 18, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://gwb.tencent.com/community/detail/112371
[2] “Games by Ryan R Burns,” Games by Ryan R Burns. Accessed: Dec. 18, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://ryanrburns.com/sekirostudy.html
[3] 老戴在此, “08 苇名玄一郎【简单打法】_哔哩哔哩_bilibili.” Accessed: Dec. 18, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Nb41177ja/
[4] notchips, “3苇名弦一郎_哔哩哔哩_bilibili.” Accessed: Dec. 18, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1fJ411C7wY/
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