Recently, the "cooling off" of the second-hand game market has become a major topic of discussion in the industry.
As the year draws to a close and the new one begins, news of service closures and updates being suspended pops up from time to time. After yet another round of consolidation, the mobile gaming market has ruthlessly weeded out titles with vastly different themes and varying operational lifespans—a truly lamentable state of affairs.
Of course, amid the market’s turbulent waves, there are also stories of those swimming against the current. Quite a few second-tier games delivered solid results last year. Some have been established in their genres for a long time, while others are relative newcomers to the field, but all have found their own rhythm in the face of increasingly fierce competition thanks to their unique strengths, smoothly navigating the market’s ups and downs.
"Girls' Frontline 2: Exile" (hereinafter referred to as "GF2") should certainly be considered one of them.
Around this time in 2024, *Girls' Frontline 2* had just secured its first major comeback victory through its global servers. Following this pivotal turning point, *Girls' Frontline 2* seemed to sound the charge for a counteroffensive, repeatedly climbing to the top of the best-seller charts in Japan and South Korea throughout 2025, continuing to redefine the overseas market’s perception of the “Girls’ Frontline” IP.
"Onmyoji 2" Sales Trends in Japan and South Korea in 2025
After a year of steady progress, *Onmyoji Arena 2* recently launched its “Double Anniversary” update, marking both the second anniversary of the Chinese server and the first anniversary of the global server. Sanbao took this opportunity to release a wave of new content: in addition to the debut of the new characters DSR-50 Lorelei and Xia’an, as well as the implementation of the global server’s Grand Lounge, numerous new gameplay features, interactive furniture, and skins were also introduced.
Thanks to this update, *Onmyoji 2* not only made it onto the December 2025 list of fastest-growing mobile games overseas, but also set a new record for its Chinese server’s pre-release livestream, attracting over 3 million viewers and ranking among the top three on Twitch.
Seemingly capitalizing on the momentum, following last week’s (the 13th) post-anniversary update “Signal Wave Heavy Dependency”—which featured MK23 Bestie as the main character—*Onmyoji 2* has received a positive response from the community for its story arc, which combines depth with dark humor.
It can be said that the convergence of the domestic and international anniversary celebrations, combined with the first post-New Year update, has created yet another two-pronged offensive for *Onmyoji 2*, propelling the game—now past its second anniversary—into a period of stability across revenue, reputation, and production capacity.
In the industry context, data and feedback are often equated with commercial success, but at a deeper level, they represent the support that players worldwide have shown for *Onmyoji 2*.
Perhaps as a way to thank players for their support, *Onmyoji 2* has been showering players with rewards over the past month. In addition to the usual recruitment and skin draw resources, the game officially launched a login event called the “Stellar Plan” today. Players who log in and complete the daily check-ins can choose one limited-edition character—including the essential support character Haruta—plus a signature weapon.Additionally, the skin selection vouchers for the top-voted skins from the previous poll will be distributed on the 23rd.
In addition, in the Bestie version, players can earn a variety of rewards—including weapon skins—after completing the event quest "Heart Diary."
That said, in today’s highly competitive mobile gaming market, offering generous in-game rewards is nothing new. However, this is often just a tactic to boost short-term user numbers and doesn’t necessarily solve the problem of user retention.
Countless examples have shown that without true competitiveness, users will leave as soon as the perks dry up.
Having successfully weathered a market cycle, *Frontline 2* clearly has other strengths to rely on.
01
Benefits are not the goal
As long as the mobile gaming industry hasn’t moved away from its character-centric monetization model, the player experience has remained somewhat inconsistent.
There are two main reasons for this. First, the characters themselves constitute the "game experience" in mobile games; the absence of characters represents a fragmented experience. This leads to another issue: the methods for obtaining characters in mobile games are closely tied to limited-time gacha pools, and the time-sensitive nature of these pools creates a disjointed experience for players.
This disconnect means that for players who are actively engaged, skipping the current gacha pool is effectively saying goodbye to one of the core elements of the current update. Meanwhile, for players who have been AFK or are new to the game, the inherent incompleteness of their character roster can be a major deterrent, hindering both player retention and new player acquisition.
From this perspective, the barrier to entry for casual players actually tends to rise as the game’s operational cycle lengthens.
As one of the longest-standing players in China’s anime and manga industry, Sanbao should have a clear understanding of this issue. Therefore, in *Shouqian 2*, in-game perks serve more as a tool to lower the barrier to entry.
Photography by Han Feihan Grind (Used with permission)
The "Stellar Plan," which just launched today, is a perfect example. Giving away limited-edition characters is generally regarded by the player community as the ultimate perk—I’m sure I don’t need to explain why. By offering powerful cards, including Chun Tian, with virtually no requirements, while also maximizing resources for character development—such as Evolution Boost Boxes—the message is crystal clear:
Sanbao doesn’t want characters to become a stumbling block that hinders the player experience. The ability to choose characters, combined with a high volume of gacha resources, helps returning players fill gaps in their teams, while new players can use resources earned through story progression and events to build a team more reliably. As a result, the experience for both returning and new players is much smoother than it used to be.
For veteran players, the marginal benefit of perks like character selection seems relatively low, since their collections are generally already complete. However, in today’s highly competitive environment, a positive relationship between players and developers is often more valuable than a few gift packs or characters. Allowing veteran players to use character selection to fill in gaps in their teams and refine their lineups is undoubtedly a commendable way to foster a strong bond between the two parties.
Furthermore, characters in existing games hold a special place in players’ hearts. Sometimes, for various reasons—such as joining the game late—many players miss out on their favorite characters. The “Starlight Project” allows players to quickly get what they want. This should not be underestimated; often, players of existing games become core users because of a single character. There are also numerous examples within the industry of products that have been revived thanks to a character gaining widespread popularity—these are the best proof of this.
With the 2nd-anniversary update bringing a wealth of tangible rewards—such as recruitment tickets and skin vouchers—along with features like a gacha pool that guarantees a limited-edition character after 50 pulls and a character progression rollback system, it’s clear that *Onmyoji 2* has truly designed its operational strategy with the player’s perspective in mind.
A content creator has made a rough estimate of the resources players can obtain when they start playing the 2nd Anniversary update
The key point is that Sanbao’s expertise doesn’t lie in simply doling out gifts, but in trying to understand what players are truly lacking and then addressing those specific needs.
Whether it’s the targeted distribution of progression resources or the introduction of a custom character selection system, both measures aim to achieve the same goal: lowering the barrier to entry so that every player who chooses to stay can seamlessly experience the game’s core appeal.
"Onmyoji 2" has confirmed one of the core aspects of mobile game operations: rewards serve as the lubricant of the player experience.
Therefore, the rewards system in *Onmyoji 2* isn’t short-sighted; it’s part of a long-term strategy. Or perhaps it’s not so much about achieving a smooth short-term growth curve, but rather a genuine hope that players will stay on the Emon ship because of this tangible sincerity, and witness new stories with the humanoids.
In the gaming industry, it’s often the case that even the best products struggle to gain recognition if they’re hidden away. The dedication shown by *Onmyoji 2* in this release is its best advertisement.
Of course, as I mentioned in the introduction, perks can only help attract players initially; what truly determines whether a mobile game can retain them is the density and quality of its content. In particular, once the barrier to entry is lowered, players will make their core decision about whether to stay much more quickly.
02
Quality is what really counts
As is well known, *Onmyoji 2* suffered a major setback in terms of public reception and faced significant criticism; the harshness of the comments in the gaming community is something that both industry professionals and players have witnessed firsthand.
However, even if you go back and look at those old posts now, you’ll find that, no matter how you look at it, almost no one has expressed dissatisfaction with the art in *Onward 2*.
The reason is simple: *Onmyoji 2* is simply ahead of the curve in terms of character performance technology.
Even as 2D mobile game technology continues to advance—with Live2D becoming commonplace in 2D titles and the gradual introduction of the Glue system resolving many deformation issues, while Spine offers increasingly rich expressive capabilities—and with 3D mobile games engaging in a fierce race for modeling precision and rendering quality, the level of detail in the characters of *The Legend of the Condor Heroes 2* remains quite impressive.
Photography by @HanfeihanGrind
This is evident in the macro photos shared by players in the community. As shown in the image above, Bestie’s hair texture features distinct hair flow, and the semi-transparent rendering of the ends lends a touch of softness to the character’s eye contact with the player—a level of expressiveness that is not commonly seen in the industry.
In 3D animation, the most challenging aspect to get right has never been the characters’ faces, but rather their hair. In my humble opinion, *Onmyoji 2* generally adopts a hybrid approach combining layers and volumetric models. Typically, this approach is prone to slight jittering and blurred edges in close-ups, and when depth of field or ambient occlusion is applied, the sharpness and stability of the edges place even greater demands on the pipeline. However, Sanbao has handled this with great precision,and the characters in *Onmyoji 2* hold up remarkably well even in close-up shots.
The characters in *Onmyoji 2* have a key feature: their shading is closer to real-world parameters. Metal parts and fabrics are rendered with a high degree of realism, yet they don’t feel out of place alongside 2D characters. Visually, *Onmyoji 2*’s material rendering falls into the category of “physically rendered 3D, yet visually 2D.”Simply put, this is achieved through high texture separation and stable highlight behavior, ensuring that players consistently perceive the characters as high-quality even when repeatedly switching between animations or zooming in.
According to publicly available information, to achieve this unique realistic 2D style, Sanbao employed a hybrid NPR+PBR technology and iterated on numerous key parameters in the rendering pipeline to achieve this visual effect. In a sense, this is *Onmyoji 2*’s greatest competitive advantage.
Sanbao has never skimped on content when it comes to character customization. Take skins, for example: in *Onmyoji 2*, interchangeable parts are practically standard for character appearances, and there are even multiple sets of lounge animations for each skin.
As I’ve said before, in a sequel, it’s all about the characters. The strength of *Girls’ Frontline 2*’s character designs stems primarily from the legacy built up since the original *Girls’ Frontline*. As long as Sanbao doesn’t mess up the transition from 2D to 3D, they’re essentially sitting on a goldmine—and judging by the actual results, they’ve certainly lived up to the characters’ potential.
Given the high-quality character art, it would indeed be a waste not to build on it further, and *Onmyoji 2*’s “Grand Rest” feature serves to go beyond simply presenting the characters by introducing interactive elements.
The Great Lounge—or, more accurately, the Activity Floor—is an evolution of the dormitory system. Here, players can engage in deep, everyday interactions with characters beyond combat. Essentially, this feature provides *Girls' Frontline 2* players with a space to live alongside their characters.
In fact, there’s a universal retention principle in the mobile gaming industry: players will always pay for high-quality content, no matter how many times they encounter it.
Simply put, "high-quality repetition" refers to consistency in the player experience. In the context of mobile games, this means whether each new character can spark fresh excitement among players and whether existing characters continue to grow on players the more they interact with them.
The excellent character designs and highly detailed models from the *Girls' Frontline* era have met players' expectations, while the living scenes in the Great Lounge ensure that familiar characters remain by players' sides at all times.
The skins and interactive features added over time have given these character-centric assets a lasting quality; they do not lose their value as content is consumed. Every time players open the game—even if they’ve already completed all the combat stages and the latest story content—simply stepping into the main lounge brings back that familiar thrill of nostalgia.
This sense of companionship is the game’s greatest strength in using in-game rewards to attract players.
Of course, aside from character development, Sanbao has never stopped working to reduce friction in the player experience.
For example, the gameplay mechanics that once caused many players to quit are no longer a roadblock to progress in the main story or most event dungeons, now that players can enlist the help of friends. At the same time, Sanbao continues to push the boundaries of strategic gameplay, with some mechanic-based dungeons requiring players to make flexible choices and adjustments to their team compositions during combat.
In addition, the storyline—which previously caused *Onmyoji 2* to stumble—has been continuously refined and improved. Both the earlier "Far Day Point" version and the current "Bessie" version have received unanimous praise from players. Throughout the *Emmer*’s journey, both the Commanders and the Humanoids have become more well-rounded characters.
For the current generation of mobile games, storytelling and emotion remain at the core. The reason *Girls' Frontline* built such a strong reputation a decade ago was precisely because its narrative moved an entire generation. As for *Girls' Frontline 2*, the improvements made to its storytelling following a slump were less about closing the barn door after the horse had bolted and more about reclaiming the game’s soul.
But if we shift our focus back to the industry, we’ll see that *Onmyoji 2* is actually positioned quite cleverly.
The game is able to deliver such refined character art and expansive common areas because it neither relies on a vast open world to pad out content nor remains confined to the safety of a 2D format. Instead, by adopting an adventure-game-style approach to its main storyline, the development team has been able to allocate more resources to core elements that players interact with directly—such as characters, camera work, interactions, and environments.
At this point, we can safely say that *Onmyoji 2* has established an industrial-grade quality barrier that is difficult to replicate by focusing its resources on high-frequency characters and scene details. At the same time, the development team is using the high-quality art assets made possible by this technology to reduce players’ aesthetic fatigue, while leveraging game operations and in-game rewards to alleviate the pressure on the player experience.
Looking at the bigger picture, the content creation for *Onmyoji: Frontline 2* extends far beyond the game itself. For example, on social media platforms like Bilibili, Sanbao has continuously collaborated with seasoned creators from outside the gaming industry to produce a wealth of high-quality, cross-disciplinary content. For the game’s second anniversary, *Onmyoji: Frontline 2* teamed up with Bilibili’s “Sniper King” Captain Lao Li to thoroughly test the renowned M200 sniper rifle manufactured by the American company Shay Tactical.
This collaboration on modern military and weaponry content is undoubtedly in line with the tone of the "Frontline" IP. It not only educates players from a professional perspective on the real-world background behind the game’s character and weapon designs but also reaches a broader audience—truly killing two birds with one stone.
As a result, the video naturally garnered significant attention, with views quickly surpassing 5 million and continuing to rise. It’s worth noting that in the comments section of this collaborative content, players of *Onmyoji 2* and members of other communities interacted freely in a harmonious atmosphere.
This may be a unique experience exclusive to *Girls' Frontline* or to 2D game players who enjoy Sanbao's work, as Sanbao has always focused exclusively on the military-themed aspects of the *Girls' Frontline* IP.
It’s important to note that historical firearms-based adaptations are relatively rare in the mobile game market. While many similar titles may initially draw inspiration from real-world settings, as their market operations extend over time, they often shift toward general entertainment and hybrid genres. In contrast, the “Shouqian” IP has consistently remained true to its focus on modern firearms, tactical contexts, and military-industrial settings.
As a result, the core user base of the "Onmyoji" IP naturally overlaps with military enthusiasts; generally speaking, "Onmyoji" players are extremely knowledgeable about modern firearms and modern and contemporary conflicts. In other words, this deep immersion in hardcore military themes is precisely what gives "Onmyoji" an edge over other mobile games by setting it apart from the competition.
In addition, Sanbao has created a platform for countless Commanders to share their experiences—the official "Shouqian 2" community—and regularly organizes a variety of offline events, such as last year’s "Shouqian 10th Anniversary Concert: Humanoids and the Melody of Time." These online and offline initiatives work together to foster ongoing connections and a sense of community among Commanders beyond the confines of the Aimo.
Taken together, these factors have effectively created a unique gameplay loop tailored specifically for *Onmyoji 2* players.
Therefore, so-called perks are merely a short-term strategy; what will truly determine the future of *Onmyoji 2* lies in its quality and the comprehensive experience it delivers.
It is likely for this reason that the buzz surrounding this two-year anniversary has grown so rapidly, allowing *Onmyoji 2* to stage yet another successful comeback.
Conclusion
Not long ago, I was invited to Shanghai to attend the 10th-anniversary concert for *Girls' Frontline* hosted by Sanbao. If I had to say what left the deepest impression on me, it wasn’t the cheers from the players when Yu Zhong took the stage, nor was it the opening line, “Sharpening the edge to renew the world.” Rather, it was the restrained, intimate atmosphere of old friends reuniting.
The players in attendance represent the former glory of the "Shouqian" IP, and "Shouqian 2" has already proven its ability to bounce back from a slump. For Sanbao, the next challenge will be how to continue delivering value during this stable period, encouraging more players to board the Aimo and witness the next decade.
The other day, while chatting with some industry friends, we discussed a question: “What kind of mobile games can weather market cycles?”
I think *Onmyoji 2* may offer a model answer: attract players with quality, win their loyalty with rewards, and keep them with a great experience.
Only these elements can foster a true long-term perspective.
原创文章，作者：游茶妹儿，禁止转载：https://youxichaguan.com/en/archives/195310
