Chapter 921: Serent's Sinister Intent
After the design concept was presented, most of those present understood Serent's sinister intent.
It was probably a scheme to screw over the players without mercy!
*Dark Souls* laid out its difficulty right from the start. Even minor enemies could hurt you, and Gundyr directly discouraged you from continuing. Strictly speaking, the game was quite merciful—at least it gave you a chance to get a refund.
But *Monster Hunter* was trickier. The early quests were very simple. The first few monsters were things like Great Jagras and Kulu-Ya-Ku, pathetically weak.
However, the difficulty gradually ramped up from there. By the mid-game, monsters like Rathalos and Diablos had a very strong discouraging effect. As for the various cool Elder Dragons in the late game, like Nergigante, Kushala Daora, and Teostra, they would knock you flat in no time. The difficulty shot straight toward *Dark Souls* level. At least in *Dark Souls*, it was still about memorizing patterns—as long as you remembered the boss's attack patterns, you could get through. But the monsters in *Monster Hunter* all had self-awareness. They didn't just flee when low on health; predicting monster behavior became extremely difficult.
In other words, hunting in *Monster Hunter* was as tense and thrilling as real-life hunting, full of danger. Moreover, humans in this world had no physical advantage; they were completely crushed by the monsters. This was truly dancing on the edge of a blade.
But since Chen Mo wanted to do it, then do it. Anyway, it was the players who would suffer...
Maybe when this game came out, those masochists who loved *Dark Souls* would be cheering with joy!
...
The development of *Monster Hunter* was progressing quickly because the main workload was on the various monsters. As for building the entire scene, since there were many corresponding resources in the art resource library, it would be much faster to produce.
The different weapons, actions, equipment, etc., that players used also needed to be created from scratch, but those weren't technical challenges. With concept art in place, production was fast.
Furthermore, relying on the powerful effects of the Pangu Engine, the physical rules of the entire world were already in place, requiring no repeated adjustments. Only minor tweaks were needed for some characteristics of *Monster Hunter*.
For example... no matter how high a hunter fell from, they wouldn't get hurt.
Once everything was properly made, turning the entire jungle into a complete ecosystem, and then filling it with the various monster AIs that had been created, this jungle would immediately come to life, becoming indistinguishable from a real jungle.
On the other hand, promotional materials for *Monster Hunter* were also being prepared simultaneously.
This time, the protagonist of the promotional material was no longer the player, but one of the strongest monsters in the game—Nergigante, affectionately known as Nergi-boy.
...
As for why Chen Mo wanted to make *Monster Hunter*...
Simple, resentment points!
Although *Silent Hill* was also used to collect resentment points, the speed was still a bit lacking. After all, mainstream games like *The Legend of Zelda* brought players a lot of happiness, and it was generated continuously.
As for *Dark Souls*, by now, most players who liked this type of game had basically figured it out. And since no new Souls-like games had appeared on the market for a long time, a group of masochistic players felt very lonely.
It was time to let everyone re-experience the thrill of being abused!
Oh no, it was time to let everyone re-experience the thrill of charging through everything with a greatsword! (Just kidding)
...
...
On the internet, many players were discussing the new artificial intelligence.
The living cats and dogs had indeed surprised many players, but if you thought about it carefully, wasn't it a bit of a waste of talent?
"I've been petting cats and dogs these past few days, and it's been great! But it feels like something's off."
"Yeah, I think so too. Using such amazing AI technology just to make an electronic pet is a bit excessive..."
"But, thinking about it, what else could it be used for? A game about animals?"
"I heard that *Pokémon World* is going to incorporate this AI system, but it's just a rumor, no confirmation yet."
"I heard that in Europe, Vusoft is going to release a game called *Wild Hunt*, which is said to use the latest AI to freely hunt various prey over an area of dozens of square kilometers."
"Oh? Sounds good! I'll definitely play it when it comes out. Is it an FPS game?"
"Yeah, FPS. But it's not strictly an FPS game, because marksmanship isn't the most important thing. Think about it, even large prey would be instantly killed if shot in the head with a hunting rifle. And if it were a pure FPS, it wouldn't be able to showcase the AI. So, the key to this game is tracking prey and outsmarting it. When you actually pull the trigger, it's the decisive moment."
"Isn't that just a 'hunting simulator'? That's fine too. After all, most players have no similar experience. Being able to experience hunting in a VR world should be a pretty good thing."
"Huh? Wait, look at Chen Mo's Weibo! There's news about a new game!"
"New game? Right, it's about time for a new game. What game is it?"
"Uh... I don't know! Just look at the info yourselves!"