Wakfu / Dofus

About

Dofus is a massive multiplayer online tactical role playing game edited and developed by French company Ankama and released in 2004. Set in the heroic-fantasy world of Amakna, the game recieved critical acclaim and encountered commercial success, due to the quality of its animation (made with Adobe Flash) and its easily-accessible gameplay.

Wakfu is a sequel franchise to Dofus, set in the same universe, and still produced by Ankama. The franchise spawned a new MMORPG, released in 2012 (development however started in 2008), and an animated TV Series, that aired on the French national channel France 3 between 2008 and 2012. The show quickly became popular online for the quality of its flash-generated animations, and the comedic tone of its plot.

History

Dofus

Dofus (Video Game) is the first installment of the franchise, developed by Ankama Studios and released on September 1st, 2004. The game is a turn-based tactical MMORPG, animated with Adobe Flash and running on both client and navigator. ^[1]

The plot revolves around completing quests in the “Kingdom of the Twelve” located in the fictional heroic-fantasy world of Amakna, and taking part in the conflict between its two main cities. Players have access to sixteen different playable character races, each one forming a specific gameplay class.

Game trailer:

Gameplay footage:

On 2008, the game reached 10 Million players, and gained several international awards since then^[2].

Since the release of the game, several spinoffs works were created:
* Dofus arena (renamed as Arena Confrontation in 2011) a tactical turn-based fighting game set in the same world than Dofus. The game however closed in 2014. ^[3]
* Dofus: the Treasures of Kerubim (Original title: Dofus: aux trésors de Kérubim in French) an animated TV series set 200 years before the events of the main game. The series consists of 52 episodes airing on French national TV channel France 3 since January 5th, 2013.

Wakfu

Wakfu is the sequel franchise to Dofus. The main installment of the franchise is the eponymous MMORPG, designed to replace Dofus. The game uses a similar gameplay system to its predecessor, and is set in the same fantasy universe, several centuries after the events of the first game. The game was announced in 2008 and released on February 29th, 2012. In America, it is published by Square Enix.

Plot and context

The World of Twelve which the players of Dofus had known no longer exists. He was destroyed by a love story who badly ended. An ogre named Ogrest fell in love with Dathura, a woman of an unequalled beauty. To seduce her, Ogrest achieves an impossible quest: : find the six Dofus. The Dofus are eggs of dragon laid at the dawn of times who maintain the balance of the World of Twelve.

The one who possesses them gains a power greater than the gods. But this new power did not change the feelings of the beautiful Dathura who rejected him one more time. Not supporting to be rejected again, Ogrest lost control of himself and killed the poor woman in a fit of anger. Desperate by his action and what he have done, he climbed at the top of the Mount Zinit, to live in exile.

This mountain was considered to be the highest of the world and Ogrest thought he could find the tranquillity that he needed, but the gods did not plan to leave him in possession of a power so big. The Twelve Gods faced Ogrest to take back the six Dofus, but this attempt was a failure. Thus, Ogrest remained alone on his mountain to cry on his fate.

After their defeat, because the Gods knew that they couldn’t win against Ogrest, they used their last strenght to be able to protect certain key places and certain important people to avoid the end of world. This cataclysm was named the Chaos of Ogrest, he left the World of Twelve in ruins and signed the end of the Age of Dofus and the beginning of the era of Wakfu. In this New World, the human being has to choose if he wants to live his life by following the way of Stasis who consist to manipulate the world according to his desires, or by following the way of Wakfu and restore the natural balance of the World of Twelve..

[informations about the game are WIP]

Wakfu: the animated TV series

In parallel to the development of the game, Ankama produced an animated TV series adaptation. It spawned two seasons, three OVAs and two special episodes (one of them being produced in collaboration with Studio Ghibli in Japan) ^[4]. The plot of the show is set a few years after the events of the game.

The main protagonists of the show. from left to right : Evangelyne, Tristepin (Sadlygrove), Yugo, Ruel, Amalia

Plot and characters [may contain spoilers]

The show follows the adventures of Yugo, a 12 year old child, last survivor of the race of the Eliatropes, on his quest to find his true family. As an Eliatrope, he has the magical power of creating “Zaap” portals, in a similar way to Valve’s eponymous videogame. Many friends join him during his quest, including:

* Ruel Stroud, an elderly member of the race of the Enutrofs, and longtime friend of Yugo’s adoptive father. He is also a bounty hunter and former champion of gobbowl, the fictional sport played in Amakna. In the show, he is often described as greedy man, his money fetish being a subject of running gags.

* Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove (original French name : “Sire Tristepin de Percedal”), nicknamed “Percy” or “Grovy” (“Pinpin” in French), a 16 year old warrior of the race of the Iop, brave and fierce fighter and main comic relief of the group. He is also a Shushu guardian, keeper of a demonic sword called Rubilax.

* Amalia Sheran Sharm, princess of the people of Sadida (plant people). 13 years old, she fled her country to escape her royal duties, and decided to help Yugo in his quest after they met.

* Evangelyne, nicknamed “Eva”, a 17 year old archer of the race of the Crâ, and bodyguard of Amalia. She quickly becomes the natural leader of the group due to her intelligence. She often uses her magical bow in fight.

* Adamaï. Introduced during the second half of season 1, he is the draconic twin brother of Yugo.

Spread

The Wakfu animated series initially aired from 2008 to 2012 on France 3 on the kids program “Ludo”.

On January 20th 2014, Ankama started a Kickstarter campaign in order to produce an English dub of the show. On February 19th, 2014, the project gained over 483 000 $, largely surpassing the initial goal of 80 000 $ required to fund the English dub of season 1^[5].

Official promotional video for the Kickstarter campain

On September 2014, the show became available for streaming on Netflix, with both English and French version available^[6].

The rumors of the production of a third season of the show have never been confirmed either by Ankama or France 3.

Popularity

Due to the quality of its animation made in Flash, with a style very close to Japanese animation and due to the mature action /comedic theme of the series, rarely seen on French animated works, the show received overall positive critic feedbacks, most notably on IMDB and Netflix^[7].

The Franchise became also widely discussed online on several sites, including reddit ^[8]

Fan art

The popularity of the franchise spawned a wide range of fan-made works, most notably on sites like Tumblr^[9] and DeviantArt^[10], the latter one gathering 17 986 search results under the tag “Wakfu” and 17 132 results under the tag “Dofus”.

Related Sub-memes

Smug Duck

Smug Duck is the nickname of a black rubber duck with a smirkish grin on his face appearing in episode 14 of the second season of the Wakfu series. In a particular shot, main character Evangelyne is seen jumping in a bathtub fully naked, only to be censored by the duck conveniently drifting on the water in front of her, while adressing a smirkish glare to the audience.

Images of the scene and the duck began to circulate online ^[11], often associated with catchphrases like “Fuck you, Duck!” or “Give her the Duck”

Acknowledging the sudden popularity of the duck, the show staff decided to include it in the Kickstarter campaign, making it an official Kickstarter backer avatar picture, creating a stretch goal to include the Duck as a bonus interactive comic, and calling the fans for their support on social media under the hashtag #wakfusmugduck ^[12]