Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 266: When the Enemy is Silent, They're Plotting Some

"Editor Simon, it's been over 72 hours since the ga's release. We really should publish our review score now."

Late at night in a two-story villa in San Jose, California, USA.

A man around 35-36 years old, wearing pink silk pajamas, paced across the wool carpet in the living room while listening to his assistant's voice on the phone.

"Up to now, nearly fifteen review outlets including Global Players, SLGars, TT Gaming, and Daily Gaming News have all scored and reviewed Sekiro,"

The assistant's voice sounded urgent:

"We really need to hurry."

Indeed.

As one of SNG Gas' chief editors, Matt Simon was always responsible for reviewing the hottest gas each quarter or even year.

This ti, the important task of writing the Sekiro review naturally fell to him.

Now, as Golden Wind's pioneering 3S-level masterpiece, Sekiro had undoubtedly achieved trendous global success.

Although the ga's standard playti of 25-40 hours made it quite demanding for reviewers,

those top international gaming dia still managed to complete the ga through day-and-night struggles and suffering within about 48 hours of release, rushing to publish their reviews.

Among these reviews, so focused on the ga's technical prowess, like SLGars' evaluation—

[9.9/10: An unprecedented ga. As ga designer Sam said, the future has arrived. The refined combat feel and rich, free-form movent not only elevate this ga to legendary status but also open up a more spectacular path for future motion-sensing action gas...]

So emphasized the ga's design philosophy, like Hummingbird Gas—

[9.8/10: It's hard to imagine a ga filled with negative feedback on difficulty could be so captivating. Those bosses are like insurmountable mountains in life—only when you conquer them can you experience that all-pervading sense of achievent...]

Others highlighted the narrative, like Global Players—

[9.9/10: Unlike any previous ga, here you piece together parts of the story—even crucial plot points—from scattered information and others' fragntary words. Though this fragnted storytelling often leaves players confused, it undoubtedly imrses them more deeply in the era's overwhelming tide. Here, you're just an individual swept along by fate, making insignificant yet all-out struggles against destiny...]

Beyond these, so praised the ingenious boss designs, others the innovative Prosthetic Ninja Arm, and so even analyzed the supporting characters' stories separately from the protagonist.

The list goes on.

Clearly, this ga that amazed the entire gaming industry had countless aspects worth analyzing.

After all, based on current information, it had four endings—

The first was [Shura], the earliest discovered ending.

Here, Wolf silently agrees to "resurrected" Father's proposal at Ashina Castle, abandoning Young Lord Kuro and handing him over.

Yet just as Father thinks he's secured power to gain immortality and rule the world, Wolf stabs him through the heart from behind, avenging the betrayal three years prior.

Patricide and betrayal make Wolf descend into Shura's path—even old Isshin can't stop him.

Standing atop Ashina Castle overlooking the hellish landscape, Wolf's Prosthetic Ninja Arm ignites with purgatory flas as he becos a killing machine...

The second was [Immortal Severance], the second ending unlocked.

Here, unable to find other ways to sever immortality, Wolf follows Kuro's plan step by step.

Ultimately, Kuro drinks the Cherry Blossom Dragon's Tear, and Wolf lifts the Undying Severer to kill Kuro personally, severing immortality.

The third was [Purification], the only ending Sam personally endorsed as the "canonical" ending—

where Wolf sacrifices his life for Kuro to beco mortal again and live an ordinary life.

The last, [Dragon's Hocoming], was unlocked by a Chinese player nearly 50 hours post-release—the ga's most complex yet perfect ending.

Here, players et the "Divine Child of Rejuvenation" at Immortal Peak Temple after obtaining the red Undying Severer.

Following scattered clues, players must kill the Great Serpent for its "Serpent Viscera" and the "Dried Serpent Viscera" it guards for the Divine Child to consu.

The Divine Child then becos the Cradle of Dragon's Heritage, producing the Frozen Tear.

In this ending, having Kuro ingest both tears rges him with the Divine Child to begin returning the Dragon's Heritage to its rightful place, erasing it completely.

Just these four endings alone could keep players engaged for multiple playthroughs!

There were countless aspects of this ga worth analyzing—both in-ga and beyond.

Yet precisely because of this!

Simon felt unable to comprehensively evaluate this ga with precise language.

It was a monuntal innovation in gaming, an insurmountable milestone.

If Titanfall's ti-travel level was the unsurpassable pinnacle of level design,

then Sekiro as a whole was equally astonishing—every part as impressive as that level.

However.

Simon didn't want to review the ga that way.

So how should he evaluate it?

[...This is the thwarted elegy of idealists, the lancholy of fading heroes powerless to change fate, the romance of bravely dying for one's beliefs, the story of a wolf transforming into a man.]

[It's both a beginning and an ending.]

[It's my Ga of the Year.]

—Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

[SNG Score: 10/10]

...Ten! A perfect score!

The next day!

With SNG—the world's largest gaming dia—chief editor Matt Simon's 10/10 review published,

discussions and reports about Sekiro reached unprecedented heights!

[Another Masterpiece! "Sekiro" Receives SNG's Perfect Score!]

[Lowest 9.8, Highest 10! The Uncrowned King of Ga of the Year is Born!]

[The Throne Follows Sam!]

—Unprecedented innovation, futuristic design—Sekiro becos Golden Wind's second perfect-score masterpiece after To the Moon!

[Gu Sheng and His Moving Throne!]

—Flawless performance makes Sekiro undoubtedly this year's most noteworthy 3S-level masterpiece, bar none!

[Victory from the Start! Golden Wind's First 3S-Level Ga is a Hit!]

—As Golden Wind's first 3S-level title after becoming a mid-sized company, Sekiro's exquisite production and innovative gaplay earned top scores across gaming dia, even securing the fifth perfect-score spot in SNG's history!

[...]

Reports kept pouring in.

Player discussions grew increasingly fervent!

In just over a month!

The popularity charts for Torii and Sekiro showed extrely exaggerated trends!

Sekiro's line kept rising endlessly upward,

while Torii's sank lower and lower toward oblivion.

By the ti SNG's 10/10 review went viral, Torii's popularity had nearly flatlined.

And this still wasn't the end.

A week after Sekiro's release, Golden Wind suddenly announced an update.

It would slightly adjust so boss and elite enemy AI logic, fix minor bugs, and—

open the Steam Workshop.

Players imdiately ignored all the minor adjustnts—

those last six words were too exciting!

Instantly!

Player enthusiasm exploded!

Within just one night!

Sekiro's Workshop already hosted over ten thousand mods!

If you were soone just returning from Mars seeing Sekiro for the first ti, you'd "enjoy" scenes like—

Atop Ashina Castle, Sakurajima Mai in a bunny girl outfit wielding a lightsaber duels Ash with his plasma curved blade, constant "clang clang" tal sounds and sparks flying...

In the Sunken Valley, as the protagonist swings between cliffs with the grappling hook, rocks tumble and the earth shakes—turning around reveals a sky-blotting Thomas the Tank Engine chasing with its creepy smiling face...

In the Aquatic Village, thick fog shrouds Nyanko-sensei playing a flute—if disturbed, it clumsily swings the flute at you before tripping over nothing...

In the lofty Fountainhead Palace, before the Cherry Blossom Dragon, Logger Vick boldly declares with his axe: "If this is all you've got, you're no match for my two old friends from Bear Valley..."

All sorts of bizarre mods flooded the ga.

So trolls even replaced the Shura ending's background music.

On the scorched hellish land, Wolf stands with Kusabimaru, his left hand ablaze, back to the lifeless bodies of Isshin and Nagamasa.

Then the music plays—

Dun dun! Dun dun dun dun!

Never gonna give you up!

Never gonna let you down!

"Rickrolled again—!"

As the designer, Gu Sheng almost wanted to shut down the Workshop when he first saw this mod.

Unbelievable.

How could people get rickrolled here too!

Making players kill wife Nagamasa and old Isshin in the Shura ending was evil enough, but changing the background music to trick others?

Even soone as ntally strong as him started doubting his players' sanity.

Thus!

Sekiro's popularity kept skyrocketing for over a week with no signs of slowing!

anwhile, Torii seed to vanish under the pressure.

Theoretically, this was strange.

After all, Torii was Kora's key 3S-level project this quarter—if not the entire second half.

While competing directly with Sekiro's current dominance was hopeless, even setting that aside, shouldn't they at least try to recoup costs?

Since the expo disaster, there'd been no recovery—no action except project leader Koizumi's backfiring "PR" move.

It was as if the ga was forgotten not just by players but by Kora itself.

Currently, Torii's popularity ranked below two other Kora titles—Wild Dunk EX and Hotspot Rally: Return!

"Those bastards must be plotting sothing evil again!"

In the office, Lu Bian set down the popularity charts for Sekiro and Torii, frowning.

Indeed!

This abnormality naturally caught Golden Wind executives' attention.

Clearly,

Kora's current "calm" was anything but normal.

How could a $200 million project perform so poorly—not just against competitors but even their own lower-budget gas—without Kora reacting?

Where was the marketing?

The promotions?

Forget saring us—

don't they at least need to promote their own ga to break even?

No plans.

That's what Kora seed to say.

At least for now, they showed no such intentions.

"When the enemy is silent, they're plotting sothing..."

Gu Sheng noticed this too.

He just couldn't understand why Kora's executives would abandon Torii like this.

Were they planning to attack Sekiro?

Unlikely.

Or rather—

impossible.

With near-perfect 9.9 and 10 scores across all reviews, an unprecedented celebration in gaming circles, even praised by IDC executive Jimmy Lawrence (one of GDC's organizers) as "a ga that defines an era"—

Sekiro’s reputation was beyond Kora’s ability to damage through re public opinion manipulation.

Frankly, if Kora still wanted to attack Golden Wind's reputation now, they'd be better off developing another ga—It might cost less than stirring up public opinion.

Then...

If not targeting us, what was Kora's endga with this sacrificial strategy?

Gu Sheng couldn't figure it out.

Because this—

"...makes no sense at all!"

anwhile, at Kora headquarters' top-floor shareholder eting, Uekoe Kagemasa pointed at the data behind him, adamant:

"This project had proper marketing arrangents and well-prepared targeted strategies. Both ga quality and planning were flawless,"

"So for this loss, this major failure, I ask all shareholders to consider carefully—"

"Doesn't this make no sense at all?"