April 1, April Fool's Day.
But for the players of "The Way of The Man", this day also has a special meaning - "The Way of the Man" released a major update to the plot of the third year. But no one could have imagined that it was this long-awaited update that countless players had been waiting for, which had plunged the game, which had always maintained "special praise" for the past two years, into the abyss: after the third year of content updates, the number of bad reviews soared.
You know, even in 2020, when "The Way of The Hero" (then called "Hidden Cabinet") was just released, countless players had already expressed their affirmation of the game, and it has maintained "special praise" for nearly two years. Such praise is worthy of the name for "The Way of The Man" that has been improved many times. But the reason why "The Way of Heroes", which has just been released full of BUGs, can achieve "special praise" is largely because of the player's support for domestic stand-alone machines and even "sympathy". Players are willing to tolerate all its imperfections with the highest enthusiasm and patience, and the support of players is even more valuable in the extremely difficult situation of The Way of Man developer Heluo Studio.
In fact, Heluo Studio has indeed been very bumpy and difficult along the way, and Zhiguan Technology has sued Heluo Studio's "Xia Yin Ge" for infringing the copyright of its own "Xia Yin". Heluo Studio, which lost the game IP, could only rename "The Hidden Pavilion" to "The Way of the Hero". A similar situation was also staged in 2017, when Zhiguan Technology filed an appeal, claiming that Heluo Studio's "Legend of the Heroes" copied its own "Legend of the Heroes of the Wulin Group" and listed many "evidences". Two years later, Heluo Studio lost the famous IP of "Heroes and Heroes" in its hands.
But such an accident does not seem to have much impact, while renaming "The Way of The Hero", the game launched the second year's plot update, the unconventional plot and novel gameplay, all of which make "The Way of the Man" maintain a high praise rate.
It can be said that the name change storm not only did not affect "The Way of The Hero", but made the producer Xu Changlongping add a bit of sadness to the martial arts character. "A diligent domestic single-player has ruthlessly taken away the game IP by the capital." I guess that's what most people, including me, think. Players out of support for domestic stand-alone and capital hate, and then attached to the producer Xu Changlong "Jin Yongqun Hero Legend father" name, gave a very high evaluation of "The Way of Heroes", hoping that Heluo Studio can turn around with this game, but also to send players a good enough domestic martial arts single machine.
And this may be the first time in the life of many players to experience such a "PUA".
Just a few days after the release of the third year story update on April 1, a flood of bad reviews poured in. The questions posed by the players covered various aspects and indicated that there was a serious shoddy of the content of the third year of The Way of Man.
Due to the time constraints of The Way of The Man, players need to make trade-offs between character growth and plot advancement, and it is especially difficult to find a balance between the two. But it doesn't matter, many people out of love for the game, through the retracement of the game process, while ensuring the growth of the character, as far as possible to take into account more NPC side quests, so as to pursue a happy ending.
It was only after the april 1st update was launched that the player's dream was shattered.
The first thing to know is that "The Way of the Man" has always been able to improve the favorability of multiple characters at the same time, and this "multi-point blossoming" arrangement seems to have given players a hint: the harem ending is waiting for you. So the player spends a lot of energy in order to cultivate their favorability. But in the end, there is no expected harem ending, and the player can only adhere to the principle of "three thousand weak waters, I only take one scoop" - after successfully attacking a character, others can only be "friends". Players are constantly planning the route, and the full-character plot that they are trying to pursue is completely frustrated. The hard work of the past was thus burned.
What also makes many players "sick to their stomachs" is the bad plot design of "The Way of Heroes", which can be called "diode". Most of the characters in "The Way of The Hero" have their own positions, whether they are the same "White Lotus Virgin" as Lord Chu Ge or the "exorcism of demons" like Duan Xiaolie, they are fixed early, and no matter how high your liking with them is, you can't have an impact. The front foot said, "Never sword each other", and the back foot Duan Hong'er came to you with a knife.
The plot of such a "diode" is already very uncomfortable simply watching, and the subsequent impact is even more painful. If you choose the killing line of happiness and revenge like me, then Nan Fei, who wants to be the "Virgin", will leave the protagonist. As a T0-level character that I have been vigorously cultivating, he ran away with the "best equipment in the village" and stabbed the protagonist several times when he came back, and the feeling at this time was really difficult to say...
In addition to the hard wounds in the plot, the excessive plot killing of "The Way of the Hero" has also made many people shout that they can't be stopped. This is not against the design of "story killing", but the numerical design of the boss in the game has not kept up with the growth of the protagonist: even if the enemy in front of him can easily kill, he can still be revived indefinitely, because in the plot he can't die, and then kill the protagonist with a backhand knife, because "you should die".
Speaking of this, many people should be able to understand where the problem is, and many bosses like "rotten fish and rotten shrimp" have been arranged to kill the bridge section of the plot, which is really too dramatic. For a linear game like "The Way of Heroes", whether the player is practicing with a mind or pushing the plot, the producer can estimate a general range, and then give a strong enough BOSS to complete the story killing, so that it makes logical sense. But he did not, but a weak chicken completed the operation of locking blood and killing with the plot. "I've worked so hard to raise a character for three years, and in the end I'm just a marionette who can't do anything", which should be the voice of most players, including me.
In addition to these hard wounds on the surface, the jianghu line and the court line that were directly cut off in a hurry, and a large number of characters with da lotus juice were abandoned without being reduced to "vases", which further highlighted the shoddy creation of the plot update in the third year. Not to mention that many people have encountered "classic" vicious bugs, and cases of being stuck in corners and unable to trigger the plot abound.
As a martial arts RPG, the plot of the first two years of "The Way of The Hero" has been praised by players, but the update of the plot in the third year has completely become a dog-tailed sable, playing a good hand in the hand. What's even more ironic is that at the same time as the "Way of Heroes" update was released on April 1, producer Xu Changlong unveiled two other ongoing projects at Heluo Studio. But it is clear that the "three open" Heluo studio not only failed to win more, but also "pulled the egg" because the steps were too big.
And now the word-of-mouth death of "The Way of The Hero" reminds many players of the "Legend of the Heroes of the River Luo Group" that was announced at the first time.
Looking at the "legend of the Heluo Group" that is now "particularly praised", many players who have started late or have not started cannot imagine that the "Legend of the Hero of the Heluo Group" was bombarded with bad reviews when it was just released. Under the combined influence of these negative factors, the recommendation rate of "Heluo Qunxia" on WeGame was only 36.5%. But then Heluo Studio responded quickly, focusing on improving the plot development and BUG problems that players were dissatisfied with in the follow-up update, and pulled back the word of mouth in the past few years.
The Way of the Heroes is still in the "Early Access" stage at this stage, which means that there is still room for improvement in the game. The official has also given a promise that it will fix the bug and start to make up for the plot. With the success story of "The Legend of Heluo Group", many players are still very confident in the ability of Heluo Studio to "make up for the dead sheep".
But the player's patience and enthusiasm are ultimately limited, just like the child who was eaten by the wolf in the "Wolf Is Coming" story. After this "PUA", how many players can still believe in the "child" of Heluo Studio as always?