Chapter 541: Keep Spinning Your Tales!
For three straight days, the players in the experience center were tortured to death in *Dark Souls*!
These players quickly summed up some of the game’s patterns.
The bosses were extremely twisted—no, let me rephrase—the bosses were extremely twisted, one-shotting players without any discussion.
The minor enemies were also extremely twisted, one-shotting players without any discussion either.
Players without armor were as fragile as a sheet of paper; players with armor were as fragile as a piece of kraft paper.
In short, in this game, dying anywhere or at the hands of any monster was not surprising at all…
Moreover, in this game, you could feel the designer’s malice everywhere.
It was one thing to encounter monsters that players simply couldn’t beat in the normal progression, and it was barely tolerable that various strange corners had minor enemies lurking by the walls waiting to ambush players. But the most outrageous part was that even the very first treasure chest you encountered in the game was actually a freaking monster!
It could be said that basically 90% of players who played *Dark Souls* fell for it. Who would have thought that thing would be a monster?
However, Chen Mo very thoughtfully prepared the bloodstain and message systems according to the original game. When players were playing, bloodstains or messages from other players would randomly appear in the scene.
The so-called bloodstains meant that when another player died at a certain location, you could see a pool of blood on the ground. Touching it would show you what happened before that player died.
So, players who entered the game later would see a bloodstain in front of the mimic chest. As long as they touched it, they would understand that this chest was problematic.
The function of the messages also amazed everyone.
The so-called messages meant writing a line of text on the map to remind everyone of what would happen at that location.
This was also a unique help system in *Dark Souls*. Actually, when Hidetaka Miyazaki first came up with this idea, it was only to save production costs, but it unexpectedly became very popular.
Starting from the beginner area, Chen Mo used some official messages to prompt players on how to perform certain operations and about some special location events. Later, players also began writing messages on the ground to remind other players.
Of course, some of these messages were true, and some were false. Players who saw the messages could choose to rate them up or down.
At this point, the players were still relatively kind-hearted, so the messages also brought a little warmth to players in this world of despair: Well, at least there are other idiots suffering here with me…
Moreover, the modified messages allowed players to write any text on the ground, no longer limited to template text. (Of course, there was a filter for blocked words. If a player left abusive messages and was reported, the account would be penalized.)
After all, since *Dark Souls* was ported to the VR platform, inputting information had become easier, so there was no need for so many restrictions.
Soon, these pioneers began leaving a large number of messages in the map. For example, leaving "Please use parry to fight" in front of Gundyr, or "Don't attack the NPC" at the entrance of Firelink Shrine.
There were also some monsters that were simply unbeatable, like Crystal Lizards, the Sword Master, and Lothric Knights. Many people left messages where they appeared, telling others to bypass them and come back later.
Some players were also surprised to find that the NPCs in *Dark Souls* could actually be attacked!
However, the consequences of attacking were very severe. Some NPCs would refuse to sell you items, while others would chase you relentlessly, even after you died. This would directly cause you to lose their related quest lines.
A few players were so desperate about this that they deleted their save files…
If this were in another game, players would definitely be cursing, but in *Dark Souls*, everyone quickly accepted this setting…
After all, the players who stayed were all masochists. Who cared about such trivial details…
However, switching characters and starting over in this game wasn't a big deal, because many players who chose mages or clerics were tortured to death by the bosses at the beginning and had no choice but to delete their characters and start over as knights.
As for the even more tragic Deprived class, it made players doubt their very existence…
During these three days, the *Dark Souls* players in the experience center could be said to have experienced the ups and downs of life. Although a large number of players were deterred by the game's extremely high difficulty, those who stayed all chose to continue moving forward without exception.
At the same time, many players' trial information was posted online, and some haters cursed *Dark Souls* on the internet.
"Damn it, what kind of garbage game did Chen Mo make? This game is not a hack-and-slash game at all. You go in and get one-shot by minor enemies!"
"Playing this game is pure torture. Chen Mo is taking revenge on society again!"
"After the release, don't buy it, everyone. Whoever buys it is an idiot!"
But many players also refuted these claims.
"Who said that? This is clearly a true hack-and-slash game. How can people be so dishonest?"
"This game is really fun. Don't listen to those paid trolls stirring things up. Everyone, go buy it and play!"
"Yeah, this is a very heart-healing game. It can effectively relieve mental fatigue after work and is good for physical and mental health!"
"I can testify. This game is really great. There's video evidence!"
The players who supported and opposed *Dark Souls* each uploaded videos, but this made other players even more confused. From the interface, it was clearly all *Dark Souls*, but why was the effect so different?
The players who said *Dark Souls* had monsters that one-shot you uploaded a video of a fight with Gundyr. Sure enough, in the video, Gundyr's long sword swung with great force, taking the player away in three hits. It was miserable.
But there were also players who uploaded a video of wielding a greatsword and slaughtering enemies on the High Wall of Lothric. In the video, this player swung the greatsword, and the skeleton minor enemies were no match at all. Even the Lothric Knight was beaten into submission by the greatsword's continuous ground-smashing attacks, successfully proving that this game could indeed be a hack-and-slash.
The players who hadn't come to the experience center were confused. Who was telling the truth?
Actually, that player with the greatsword was one of the loyal *Dark Souls* players. He had basically been soaking in the experience center for these three days and had made good progress in clearing the maps. To record this video, he even specifically ran back to the High Wall of Lothric to bully the minor enemies there, successfully creating the effect of a hack-and-slash game.
There were also many troublemakers who just wanted to watch the world burn. With a mindset of "I can't be the only one suffering," they frantically upvoted the greatsword guy's video.
"That's right, this is the normal state of *Dark Souls*. I'm also slaughtering like this in the game, hehe."
"See? Isn't this greatsword awesome? Doesn't it take down monsters in two hits? Even the knights have no chance to fight back. And you still say *Dark Souls* is hard? Don't your consciences hurt?"
"Exactly, exactly. It's obviously your own lack of skill, but you blame the game. Your way of playing is wrong!"
The other players who didn't know the truth were dumbfounded. Who was right? Why was the evaluation of this game before its release so polarized?
Many players smelled a hint of conspiracy in this, but it only made some people's curiosity and desire for knowledge grow even more. Because from the video, the greatsword guy really did look very satisfying when killing monsters. Under the effect of the Pangu Engine, cutting down minor enemies really did feel like mowing grass!
Although there were many players who had been tortured into quitting and were spreading the word about how much suffering this game caused, most players still felt they should buy it and give it a try. After all, its reputation was so big. How could they know how hard it really was without playing it themselves?
Besides, wasn't this game refundable? What was there to be afraid of?