Chapter 595: Theme Song?
After three days of hellish journey, even many of the undead veterans who had weathered countless battles in Dark Souls were starting to feel their minds blur from the torment.
However, a portion of players instead had their masochistic souls ignited. Not only did they not back down from the challenge, but they actually found it strangely exhilarating!
After all, weren't everyone hoping for the Dark Souls prequel precisely for this feeling of suffering?
Dark Souls had already been thoroughly studied by many players. Even numerous high-NG-cycle veterans could now speedrun through the entire game. To them, Dark Souls had, to some extent, lost that initial sense of crushing despair, and with it, a lot of the fun.
Once you truly turned the game into a lawn-mowing experience, you actually started to miss that timid newbie cowering behind a shield, trembling in fear.
But now, the Dark Souls prequel was bringing back that heart-pounding sensation!
So, many players with masochistic tendencies actually showed extraordinary enthusiasm for the Dark Souls prequel!
As for those players who were driven away by the torment, they were all emotionally stable.
After all... players who came to try the Dark Souls prequel all had a foundation. They had been tormented more than once or twice, and their threshold for enduring suffering was constantly rising...
...
Those test subjects who had experienced the game at the demo stores also went online to post, sharing their experiences with players who couldn't get their hands on it.
Some streamers also came to try it out, like Lin Xue. But these streamers tacitly agreed not to livestream or record videos at the demo stores.
This all stemmed from an unwritten rule within the Dark Souls player community: to preserve, to the greatest extent possible, the game's initial joy of discovery for new players.
No one knew exactly when these rules started, but they had now become a code that most veteran Dark Souls players voluntarily followed.
These rules mainly consisted of two points.
New players must complete their first playthrough entirely on their own before they could seek help from veterans.
In other words, during the first playthrough, new players could only challenge bosses by summoning NPCs (a gameplay mechanic allowed by the game) and could not ask veterans for souls, embers, good weapons, or other items.
Only after completing the first playthrough and posting a screenshot of their achievement could they happily engage in trades with the big shots.
Furthermore, all streamers and video creators were not allowed to leak too much information about the Dark Souls prequel before the game's official release, much like how many anime series forbid spoilers on the first day of airing.
Of course, after the game's official release, these streamers could livestream or make guide videos without any issues.
In fact, both rules served the same purpose: to avoid spoilers, to prevent new players from skipping content, and to preserve the game's core fun to the greatest extent possible.
Although many people said playing Dark Souls was suffering, suffering itself was the essence of the game. It was like attending class—class could be boring and tedious, but you actually learned something; skipping class felt good in the moment, seeming like a shortcut, but in reality, you would eventually lose a lot.
So, although many people had already experienced the Dark Souls prequel, some details of the game had not been leaked.
On the official forums, only a few fragmented words had slipped out, and they were deliberately vague, making the curious onlookers itch with anticipation.
"These people who've played the Dark Souls prequel sure can keep their cool! It's been this long, and no one has even posted a video?"
"Yeah, forget videos, they're all tight-lipped. Did Chen Mo put a curse on them or something?"
"And what's with all these completely contradictory statements? Some say it's hard, others say it's super easy?!"
"Super easy? Yeah, right, I don't believe it..."
"Well, you never know. Maybe Chen Mo lowered the difficulty to expand the player base?"
"Heh, do you believe that?"
"..."
The more information and the more chaotic it was online, the more curious everyone became about the Dark Souls prequel...
Among these were many deliberately misleading posts, aimed at steering everyone's attention in the completely opposite direction. No one knew what kind of mentality these people had.
But the effect was pretty good. Many veteran players, who were absolutely certain the Dark Souls prequel wouldn't be easier, actually started to believe it after being tirelessly brainwashed by some test players...
Many players who had never even been to the demo stores were randomly stirring up trouble, talking nonsense, mixing true and false information together until it was impossible to tell them apart...
But it didn't matter much anyway. The game was about to be released, and curious players could just go experience it for themselves.
However, what surprised many players was that, one day before the game's release, Chen Mo actually updated his Weibo!
Many people found it strange. The game was coming out tomorrow. What was the point of posting now?
A warm-up? A bit too late, wasn't it?
Posting at this time felt awkward, with an unclear purpose...
Many curious players clicked on Chen Mo's Weibo.
"The latest theme song for the Dark Souls prequel is out! [Click here] for an early listen!"
Seeing this Weibo post, the players were stunned.
What the hell? A theme song for the Dark Souls prequel?!
Since when did this kind of game need a theme song?
Chen Mo had indeed released theme songs for some games before, like "Sword and Dream Like" for Wuxia Legends and "Gokuraku Jodo" for Onmyoji. But those were released early to build hype, and the games themselves were well-suited for promotion with such theme songs.
But for a game like Dark Souls, what the hell did it need a theme song for? Games like this usually had more sacred or melancholic background music. Adding lyrics would just ruin the game's atmosphere.
Besides, if they were going to release a theme song, they could have done it much earlier. Why wait until the day before the Dark Souls prequel's release?
Many players clicked on the link in Chen Mo's Weibo with suspicion.
It was a pure audio file. Apparently, the singer wasn't some big-name star, but a relatively unknown second-tier singer named Zhao Zhang. Although his singing skills were decent, he had been struggling without any particularly good popular songs, so he was a very niche singer.
Looking at the lyrics and composition, yep, both were by Chen Mo. No surprises there...
Many players were still a bit confused. Chen Mo writing the lyrics and music was expected, but why did they hire such a niche singer to perform it?
Chen Mo had previously collaborated with big-name singers like Zhou Yifeng. With Thunderbolt Interactive's current deep pockets and near-universal fame in the gaming circle, what kind of big-name singer couldn't they get?
And on top of that, this was a song sung by a Chinese person? That meant it probably wasn't an English song?
Dark Souls was a Western fantasy setting! Having a niche singer sing a Chinese song as its theme song was like putting a square peg in a round hole!
Huh, something felt off, but it didn't matter. The key question was: could the song be good? Could it fit the theme of the Dark Souls prequel?