"Editor Simon, the game has been on sale for more than 72 hours. We really should release the review scores."
That night, in the western United States, in a two-story detached villa in San Jose, San Francisco.
A man in his mid-thirties, wearing pink silk pajamas, was walking on the cashmere carpet in the living room on the first floor of the villa, listening to the assistant's voice on the phone.
"So far, nearly 15 review media, including Global Players, SLGamers, TT Video Games, and Tiantianyou News, have rated and reviewed Sekiro,"
The assistant on the phone sounded a little anxious:
"We really should hurry up."
Yes.
As one of the editors-in-chief of SNG Games, Matt Simon has always been responsible for reviewing the most popular games of the quarter or even the year.
This time, the important task of writing a review for "Sekiro" naturally fell on him.
Today, as Golden Wind's first 3S-level masterpiece, Sekiro has undoubtedly achieved huge success worldwide.
Although the regular game time of this game is as long as 25-40 hours, it is considered a very tiring masterpiece for the review media.
However, those top international gaming media still managed to complete the game and make a review about 48 hours after the game was released, after fighting and suffering day and night.
Some of these reviews focus on the technical capabilities of the game, such as SLGamers' review:
[9.9/10: An unprecedented game. Just as the game designer Sam said, the future has come. The refined combat feel and rich and free action realization not only put this game on the altar, but also opened up a more exciting road for future somatosensory action games...]
Some focus on the design concept of the game, such as the Hummingbird game——
[9.8/10 points: It is hard to imagine that a game full of negative feedback in terms of difficulty can be so fascinating. The bosses are like insurmountable mountains in life. Only when you climb over them can you experience the sense of accomplishment that reaches your toes...]
Some focus on the narrative of the game, such as Global Players——
[9.9/10 points: Different from all previous games, in this game, some of the plots you learn, even some important plots, are pieced together through scattered information and other people's words. Although this fragmented narrative will always make people confused, there is no doubt that it allows players to experience the immersion in the torrent of the times. Here, you are just an independent individual carried by fate, making a trivial but desperate struggle against fate...]
In addition to this, there are those who say that each of its BOSS designs is exquisite, those who say that its ninja prosthetic arms are brilliantly and novelly designed, and some even single out the stories of its supporting characters that are independent of the protagonist for special analysis.
The list goes on.
Obviously, there are indeed many aspects that can be analyzed for this work that is enough to amaze the entire gaming community.
After all, according to the current situation, it has four endings alone -
The first one is [Entering Shura], which is also the first ending to be played.
In this ending, Sekiro nodded in agreement to the proposal of his "resurrected" adoptive father on the castle tower, no longer protecting Miko Kuro, but handing Kuro over to his adoptive father.
However, just when the adoptive father thought he had the power in his hands and was about to gain immortality and rule the world, the wolf stabbed him in the heart from behind, avenging the knife he had stabbed three years ago.
After killing his father and betraying his master, Sekiro embarked on the path of Shura, and even Old Isshin could not stop him.
Standing on the castle tower, looking at Ashina Castle, which looked like hell on earth, the wolf ninja used his prosthetic hand to ignite the hellfire, completely turning into a killing machine...
The second one is [Cut Off Immortality], which is the second ending that was conquered.
In this ending, the wolf did not find any other way to cut off the immortality, so he could only follow Jiulang's method step by step.
In the end, Jiulang took the Sakura Dragon Tears, and Sekiro raised the Undying Slash and killed Jiulang with his own hands, cutting off the immortality.
The third one is [Return to Normal], which is also the only ending that Sam personally liked, and can be regarded as the official ending in Sam's mind.
That is, Sekiro used his life in exchange for Jiulang's return to normal and living an ordinary life.
As for the last one, [Homecoming of the Dragon], it was unlocked by a Chinese player nearly 50 hours after the game was released. It is also the most complicated yet perfect ending of the entire game.
In this ending, players will get to know the "Son of God" in Xianfeng Temple when they obtain the red Undying Sword.
According to the clues of various fragments, the player needs to kill the White Snake God, take out the White Snake God's 'Snake Persimmon' and the 'Dried Snake Persimmon' it guards and let the Son of God eat it.
Afterwards, the Son of God will turn into the Cradle of Dragon's Blood and shed icy tears.
In the end, Jiulang takes the Ice Tears and Dragon Tears, and the Son of God will merge with Jiulang. Then they will embark on the journey of the dragon's homeland, sending the Dragon's Heritage back to where it should be, making the Dragon's Heritage disappear completely.
That is to say.
These four endings alone are enough to make players play the game multiple times!
There are so many things to analyze about this game.
From in-game to outside of the game, there are countless.
But that's exactly why!
Simon felt that he really couldn't use precise language to comprehensively evaluate this game.
It is a great innovation in the gaming industry and an insurmountable milestone.
If the time-travel level of Titanfall back then was the ceiling of level design that no one has been able to surpass to this day.
Then the entire work of Sekiro is a stunning monument just like the time-space travel levels.
only.
Simon didn't want to comment on the game in this way.
So, how should we evaluate this game?
[…This is a tragic song about an idealist’s unsuccessful attempt, a story about the loneliness of a hero who is powerless to change the situation, a romantic story about daring to die for one’s beliefs, and a work about the transformation of a wolf into a human.]
[It is the beginning of a journey, but also the end of the journey]
[It is the game of the year in my mind]
——Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
【SNG Rating: 10/10】
…
Ten points! Full marks!
The next day!
Following the 10-point release by Matt Simon, editor-in-chief of SNG, the world's largest gaming media website.
Discussions and reports about the work "Sekiro" have also been pushed to an unprecedented climax!
《Another masterpiece is born! "Sekiro" received a full score from SNG! 》
"Minimum 9.8, maximum 10! The uncrowned king of the game of the year is born!"
《The altar is following Sam! 》
——Unprecedented innovation, design that takes the future into consideration, Sekiro becomes another perfect masterpiece produced by Golden Wind after Going to the Moon!
"Gu Sheng and his mobile altar!"
——The impeccable gaming performance makes Sekiro undoubtedly the most watched 3S-level masterpiece of the year, no doubt about it!
"A successful start! Golden Wind's first 3S-level work is a hit!"
——As the first 3S-level work after Golden Wind was promoted to a medium-sized game company, Sekiro, with its excellent production and innovative gameplay, has won high scores from major game rating media, and even successfully ranked among the fifth full-score games in the history of SNG evaluation!
《……》
Various reports are emerging one after another.
The players’ discussions are getting louder and louder!
In just one and a half months!
The popularity curves of the two games "Tori" and "Sekiro" show an extremely exaggerated shape!
On Sekiro's side, it's getting higher and higher, infinitely upward.
On the other side of the Torii, it gets lower and lower, infinitely downward.
By the time the "SNG 10 Points Review" became popular, Torii's popularity curve had almost fallen to the freezing point and was beginning to be infinitely close to being forgotten.
And this is not over yet.
Just one week after the release of Sekiro, Golden Wind suddenly announced that it would update Sekiro.
In this update, we will slightly adjust the attack AI logic of some bosses and elites, fix some minor bugs, and then -
Open creative workshop.
When the news came out, players even skipped a bunch of the previous messy small adjustments.
after all.
These last six words are so exciting!
In an instant!
The players' enthusiasm was instantly ignited!
And after just one night!
There are already tens of thousands of mods available in Sekiro's creative workshop!
So if at this moment, you are a friend who has just been rescued from Mars and is watching the live broadcast of the game "Sekiro" for the first time, you will be "fortunate" to see the following picture -
On the castle tower, Mai Sakurajima, wearing a bunny girl costume and holding a lightsaber, was fighting with Ash, who was holding an arc scimitar. The clanging sound of iron forging was endless, and sparks flew everywhere...
In the collapsing valley, as the protagonist keeps flying up and down in the canyon with a hook rope, there are waves of broken stones behind him, and the ground is shaking. Looking back, a Thomas train that covers the sky and the sun is licking a devilish smile on its face and chasing...
In the aquatic village, the fog was thick, and the bewitching Meowpass was playing the flute . Once startled, he would clumsily come over and hit you with the flute in his hand, and then you would fall flat on your face if you were not careful...
In the Palace of Origin high in the sky, in front of Yinglong, Guangtou Qiang held an axe and arrogantly declared war on the earth-shaking Yinglong: "If your strength is only this high, you can't compare to my two old friends in Gouxiongling..."
All kinds of weird and outrageous mods have been added to the game.
There were even some bad guys who changed the background music without permission in the Shura ending.
On a scorched land like purgatory, Sekiro holds a wagimaru in his hand, with a blazing fire burning in his left hand, and his back is turned to Isshin and Eishin who are dead.
At this time, the music started——
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Never gonna give you up!
Never gonna let you down!
"I've been cheated !"
As a designer, Gu Sheng even had the urge to close the creative workshop when he saw this mod for the first time.
I give up.
How the hell can I be cheated here!
It's already bad enough for Shura to kill Yongzhen's wife and Lao Yixin, but he even has to use the background music to deceive others.
Even a psychopath like him couldn't help but doubt the mental state of his own player group.
that's all!
The popularity of "Sekiro" has been rising for more than a week, and not only has there been no sign of decreasing, but it has continued to soar!
As for "Tori-gai", it seems to have disappeared under such heavy pressure.
In theory, this is a bit strange.
You know, Torii is Konami's key 3S-level project this quarter and even the entire second half of the year.
Although it is hopeless to compete with the currently popular Sekiro on a frontal battlefield, even if the factor of competing with Sekiro is excluded, this game still has to make a profit!
Since the end of the exhibition, it has been in a slump until now.
During this period, apart from the "public relations" operation by chief designer Koizumi that ended in failure, there was no further action.
It's like this game has been forgotten not only by the gaming market, but also by Konami itself.
In fact, the popularity of "Toriy" is not as high as that of two other games from Konami, "Wild Dunk EX" and "Hotspot Rally: Returns"!
"Are these grandsons up to something bad again?"
In the office, Lu Bian put down the heat curve chart of Sekiro and Torii, frowned and spoke.
good!
Such anomalies naturally attracted the attention of Golden Wind’s senior executives.
Obviously.
There is something absolutely wrong with Konami's 'calmness' right now.
A project with an investment of more than 200 million US dollars performed so poorly in the market. Not to mention competing with its competitors, it couldn't even beat its own games with lower investments. How could Konami remain indifferent?
What about publicity and promotion?
What about marketing?
Let’s not say you are slandering us.
Don't you need to do some promotion for your own games, at least to make a profit?
Not prepared.
Konami said so.
At least for now, it seems that Konami is not prepared at all.
"The opponent is silent, he must be doing something strange..."
Gu Sheng naturally noticed this.
But he didn't understand, and couldn't figure out why Konami's top executives would be so cruel to "Tori".
Is he planning to get a wolf?
Won't.
You can’t say no.
It's impossible.
All evaluation media gave it high scores of 9.9 and 10 points, creating an unprecedented carnival in the gaming circle. It was praised as a "epoch-making game" by many media and even Jimmy Lawrence, an executive of the International Data Corporation (IDC), one of the organizers of GDC.
Today's Sekiro is definitely not a game whose reputation can be ruined by Konami simply stirring up public opinion and changing the rhythm.
Let's just say that.
If Konami is still planning to attack Golden Wind in public opinion and pull them down from the altar at this time, it might as well turn around and develop another game, which might cost less than hyping up public opinion.
So……
Since they are not going to attack us, what is the purpose of Konami's self-torture tactic?
Gu Sheng couldn't figure it out.
because of this--
…
“…That makes no sense at all!”
At the same time, at the shareholders' meeting at the highest level of Konami headquarters, Keiji Kamikoshi pointed at the data behind him and vowed:
"This time, the project's publicity and promotion were well planned, and the targeted strategies were well prepared. Both the game quality and the layout were flawless,"
"So regarding this loss, this major failure, I implore all shareholders to think carefully about it—"
"Doesn't this make complete sense?"