Chapter 143: Rich Game Content
Lin Xue was astonished. Why were there so many attributes?
Clearly, the attributes on these Bagua diagrams were definitely those that the protagonist could use. These included not only conventional stats for martial arts games like internal skills, external skills, and lightness skills, but also seemingly unrelated attributes like calligraphy, cooking, tea ceremony, and so on.
There were only two possibilities: either these were all gimmicks, just things the designer threw in to intimidate players; or the designer had truly integrated these attributes into the game system, making them an important part of the game.
Lin Xue moved her mouse over the three talents and discovered that each talent had different effects.
Besides some attribute-boosting talents, there were also some bizarre ones. For example, [Sentimental] increased artistic skill experience gain by 100%, added one strategy point during combat, and raised the artistic skill cap to 120 points.
There was also [Venomous as a Serpent], where the lower the morality value, the higher the attack bonus.
Lin Xue randomized several times until her head spun. This design was really unfriendly for people with decision paralysis.
After struggling for a while, Lin Xue finally picked a set of attributes and talents she was relatively satisfied with and officially started the game.
The early game content was quite similar to typical single-player wuxia or xianxia games. It involved wandering around towns, collecting items, and talking to NPCs. This part could actually be understood as a large-scale puzzle game: using item A to trade for item B, then item B for item C, and after many steps, finally obtaining a usable tool or weapon for the protagonist.
As she played, Lin Xue explained things to the viewers in her live stream.
"The Chinese aesthetic in this game is pretty well done. Things like the town layout, NPCs, quests, scene art style, background music—they all feel authentic. It's not as iconic as Warcraft, but the overall feeling is very comfortable and serene."
"The quests here are also quite complex, with a certain puzzle-solving nature. But there are just too many attributes. I have no idea what they're all for, and I feel a bit confused."
In truth, the early part of Martial Heroes was relatively unfriendly to newcomers, especially when first wandering around Luoyang City. Since the protagonist barely knew any martial arts and spent most of the time just strolling and collecting items, it was easy for players to get bored.
However, Chen Mo had made some adjustments to the art, music, and early guidance, which somewhat compensated for this shortcoming.
This kind of flaw was hard to fully fix because the game content in Martial Heroes was so rich. Even with a planned beginner route and tutorials, it was difficult for players to master everything on their first playthrough. This was also one of the factors limiting the game's growth.
That said, the core appeal of Martial Heroes lay precisely here. It was a game with extremely rich content, worth revisiting and savoring multiple times.
Fortunately, Lin Xue was very interested in this type of game, so she played on with enthusiasm.
After wandering around Luoyang City for about an hour, Lin Xue had the protagonist meet up with Gu Yuexuan at a tavern. During a story event, they drank poisoned wine from Xuan Mingzi.
After a loading screen, Lin Xue was shocked to find that the game screen had turned into a chibi-style training interface.
"Huh? What the heck!"
Lin Xue was stunned. This was the first time she had seen a training interface in a game like this.
It turned out that after the protagonist was poisoned, Gu Yuexuan rescued him and brought him to Carefree Valley, asking their master Wu Xiazi to treat him.
This training interface amazed Lin Xue as well.
In other games—like most xianxia games on the market—the way the protagonist grew stronger was by constantly fighting monsters, leveling up, and gaining experience.
A training mode like this was usually only seen in Japanese simulation games or visual novel-style adventure games.
In the following story, the protagonist recuperated in the valley. After recovering, he formally joined Carefree Valley, becoming the third disciple. Then, Wu Xiazi began teaching him internal skills, sword techniques, and so on, and the protagonist's attributes started to increase.
Lin Xue exclaimed in surprise, "Hey, this training mode is actually pretty interesting!"
In training mode, the entire art style was chibi, paired with light, cheerful music and witty, humorous dialogue. Lin Xue found that the training mode perfectly matched the theme of studying in the valley.
Moreover, the content of valley study was incredibly rich. Besides martial arts techniques, it also included seemingly useless skills like medicine, music, chess, calligraphy, painting, blacksmithing, and cooking.
And surprisingly, all these skills were actually useful. For example, in certain story events, the player had to correctly apply relevant knowledge to complete the event; otherwise, the event would fail, and the related character's affinity would decrease.
The further she played, the more Lin Xue felt how fun this game was.
During the valley study period, the game remained in training mode. In this mode, she could freely arrange the protagonist's activities: go out wandering to trigger events, stay indoors to practice martial arts, or train other life skills. All activities were completely free.
Additionally, special events would trigger on specific days. For example, during the New Year, the protagonist and his two senior brothers had to pay respects to their master and offer New Year's greetings. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, the master would quiz the protagonist, and answering correctly would earn rewards.
During training, the master would occasionally assign tasks to the protagonist and his fellow disciples, such as going down the mountain to offer birthday congratulations, attending the Ullambana Dharma Assembly, or raiding Black Wind Stronghold.
When undertaking these tasks, the game would switch back to the world map exploration mode. The protagonist would visit locations like Shaolin Temple, Wudang Mountain, and Hangzhou City, experience new events, gradually meet new martial artists, and piece by piece come to understand the entire martial world.
Furthermore, the game's combat system also felt novel to Lin Xue.
The combat itself was turn-based tactical, which wasn't particularly new. But what surprised Lin Xue was how Chen Mo had perfectly integrated the martial arts from before into this combat system.
Internal skills functioned like passive abilities. Practicing internal skills increased the protagonist's inner energy value, and the special effects of internal skills could be combined with active skills.
Active skills—the martial arts themselves—had varying effects. Each martial art had two to three techniques, including single-target attacks and area-of-effect attacks, along with different additional effects. For instance, some fist techniques could trigger a combo effect, allowing two attacks in the same turn.
This combat system was a bit complex for Lin Xue, but fortunately, the protagonist learned martial arts one at a time. In the early stages, he only had one internal skill and two or three martial arts techniques, so it wasn't too difficult.
"This game is really fun! Once you get into it, you just can't stop!" Lin Xue exclaimed in surprise.
On the live stream, viewers were also discussing.
"Ah Xue is hooked..."
"Yeah, she looks so focused. At the beginning, she was chatting with the stream, but later she couldn't even spare a word."
"But this game does seem pretty fun. The content is so rich, and I never thought a wuxia game could create this kind of open-world feel!"
"Yeah, it's really complex. They even included stuff like music, chess, calligraphy, and painting!"
"I kind of want to play it too. Can I download it?"
"No, it's not released yet. You can only play it at Chen Mo's experience store."
"Why does Ah Xue seem so bad at this... I really want to play for her!"