In 2018, Nintendo launched its first original mobile game: Dragalia Lost. The ARPG tells the story of Euden, the Seventh Prince of Alberia, a kingdom where dragons live. All those in the royal family of Alberia have the ability to take the form of a powerful dragon during battle. One day, strange events occur in the capital and the Holy Shard that protects the kingdom begins to lose power. To save his people, Euden sets out on a journey to make a pact with a dragon. Overall, the plot of Dragalia Lost follows a typical hero's journey.
Earlier this month, Nintendo announced that Dragalia Lost is shutting down sometime in July 2022. While Nintendo's original mobile game may have reached the end of its lifespan, Dragalia Lost is a strong first effort that lays the foundations for future projects. With the increasing quality of mobile games, and more powerful smartphones releasing every year, Nintendo's Dragalia Lost should only be the beginning of more original Nintendo mobile titles.
The Significance of Dragalia Lost
Nintendo's entrance into the mobile game market only dates back to 2016 with Super Mario Run. Even then, the Japanese gaming giant would only stick to its popular IPs. It compensated for this lack of experience by partnering with prolific mobile game developer Cygames for its first original mobile game, launching as Dragalia Lost in 2018.
Dragalia Lost managed to surpass 300,000 pre-registrations in Japan. The game also grossed $100 million US within its first year of service. The direct contributions of Cygames to the project cannot be understated; Dragalia Lost featured frequent in-game crossover events with other successful Cygames mobile titles such as Rage of Bahamut and Princess Connect. Dragalia Lost wasn't only a completely new franchise, but also the first time Nintendo had released a mobile title that hadn't appeared on one of its home or portable consoles. Without a doubt, the whole project was a gamble, and it paid off.
Mobile Gaming at Nintendo
Mobile games have a dubious reputation in the gaming community, as many of them are low-quality microtransaction mills. That said, some mobile games are very popular, and many of them have brought innovations to the table for future developers to follow. For example, the popularity of Fate/Grand Order in Japan was largely due to the preexisting prominence of the franchise in a society more likely to embrace mobile games. This showed that it was possible to bring a known franchise to mobile and find players.
For its part, miHoYo's Genshin Impact allows cross-play between all suppoted systems, including mobile. The biggest problem that players face with mobile gameplay is not having a powerful enough phone. Nintendo's presence in the mobile game market could be significant in that regard, as Nintendo games are often simpler and the manufacturer has experience with working on lower-powered hardware manufacturer.
As time passes, the share of mobile games in the market will inevitably increase. Longstanding established titles are already porting their games to mobile. Call of Duty: Warzone coming to mobile is a good example of this phenomenon. Hopefully, this will also increase the quality of mobile games overall by raising standards for the platform.
It would be wise for Nintendo not to fall behind the times, and Dragalia Lost is a step in the right direction. With the high number of prominent IPs in Nintendo's library, it would be foolish not to take advantage of that. Something like a Legend of Zelda 2D dungeon maker could be in the cards, for example. On the other hand, Nintendo has the resources to take risks with original mobile games, and it shouldn't shy away from that.
Dragalia Lost is available on mobile until July 2022.