Hello, dear audience friends, everyone, today we're playing a recently popular small game, slay the spire.
Bilibili, Wang Lao Ju's live stream.
Having just started his stream, Wang Lao Ju skillfully opened slay the spire and entered the game.
As a card game enthusiast, he had already purchased and downloaded this game days ago and had easily completed the game with all three classes at 0 Ascension.
Hearing that the game had new content, he naturally couldn't wait to jump into the game.
Even the freeloaders in the bullet comments were frantically urging him.
"Quick, quick, let's see what's been updated."
"They just opened twenty difficulties at once, this is too cool!"
"I felt like this game was missing some content before, and I was right!"
"To drop such a big update when other companies are trying to leech off its popularity, this Designer is awesome."
Most games on Steam are buy-to-play and can't generate continuous revenue like online games, so they usually don't put much effort into updates and maintenance.
slay the spire suddenly adding so much new content naturally received great reviews from players.
Entering the game, Wang Lao Ju expertly navigated to the character selection interface, and sure enough, an Ascension option had appeared below.
Ascension 1 to 20.
Each Ascension level's difficulty would increase.
You have to clear one level to proceed to the next, and so on.
"That's interesting, it's not just a simple stat increase."
Clicking on the Ascension introduction, Wang Lao Ju seemed a bit surprised and very pleased.
Ascension 1: Elite enemies appear more frequently.
Ascension 5: Health recovery after Boss battles is reduced.
Ascension 10: Start with a curse.
Ascension 15: Some events become more unfavorable.
You should know that during the climb, health does not automatically fully restore.
Even items mostly only restore a portion.
The higher the difficulty, the more health is lost, and the harder it is to reach the top of the tower.
With layers of difficulty stacked, it's hard to imagine how difficult the highest Ascension 20 would be, and it immediately sparked players' desire for a challenge.
"I've already cleared all three classes at 0 Ascension, so let's try Ascension 1 difficulty first."
Wang Lao Ju is relatively cautious, so he chose the most conservative Warrior healing build at the start, then entered Ascension 1 difficulty.
Sure enough, as soon as the game began, the elite monsters marked on the map increased significantly, with many even blocking the necessary paths.
If one were to enter an elite stage with low health, there would basically be no chance of passing.
"What's that elite icon with flames? Why have I never seen it before?"
At this moment, a sharp-eyed viewer in the live stream suddenly noticed the change on the map and couldn't help but ask in a bullet comment.
Prompted by him, others also noticed this change.
"It's true! I remember that wasn't there before."
"Could it be an enhanced elite?"
"Or does it give artifact rewards?"
"Who cares, let's go check it out first."
Urged on by the bullet comments, Wang Lao Ju was also full of curiosity.
As an old player who had cleared all three classes, he could certainly spot this change.
"Since that's the case, then we'll change our route and go see what it is."
With that, he opened the map, switched routes, and headed straight for that elite icon with the flame.
When he finally fought his way through, his deck gradually took shape, and he clicked on the icon to enter the stage, he found that it was no different from the elite monsters he had encountered before; even the deck skills hadn't changed at all.
"Strange, did the game have a bug?"
Wang Lao Ju looked puzzled, repeatedly observing the elite monster opposite him, but he really couldn't see any difference from other elite monsters.
The bullet comments were also full of question marks, thinking it was a problem caused by the update.
After several attempts at investigation yielded no results, Wang Lao Ju had no choice but to use his newly formed deck to kill the monster, and then a reward list popped up.
Gold, relics, functional options, and...
"What is this?"
Wang Lao Ju looked at the list in confusion, at an item called the "Emerald Key."
Unlike the other two functional relics, this item didn't even have a description; it was just sitting there on the reward page for him to choose.
"No description, is it a new item?"
"Doesn't look like it, it should be a bug after the update."
"There are quite a few bugs, is it because the update was rushed?"
"Probably, with so many companies trying to get in on the popularity, they must have rushed the update to keep players."
"The Designer was still too hasty, so many problems in one update, without even reviewing it."
"No choice, if they don't capitalize on the popularity, they'll lose their chance when the big companies make their move."
Although they felt some regret, they still largely understood the Designer's actions.
After all, with big companies monopolizing the market, it's really hard for independent Designers to stand out.
One could only say that they were a bit too eager, didn't manage quality control well, and thus missed this excellent opportunity to make a name for themselves.
And just as they were discussing, other players who had just entered the game also discovered this bug.
For a time, the comment section gained many voices of doubt, and they were spreading rapidly at a visible rate.
Seeing this, the lurking haters immediately went wild.
"See, I told you independent games don't last long; too few people to maintain the game itself is a big problem."
"So many bugs appear with one update, is this the most popular card game?"
"Clearly a half-finished product rushed out to maintain popularity, do they really think players are fools?"
"I'm out, am I the only one who finds this game boring?"
"My review is: absolute garbage."
Among these haters, many were paid trolls sent by game companies.
Seeing that their own games couldn't compete, they all came out to fan the flames, frantically slandering the game in the comment section.
With a little attention, one could easily notice that their playtime was generally very short.
Some even quit the game and posted comments as soon as they met the conditions, their intentions obvious without even thinking about it.
But paradoxically, casual players fell for it.
Seeing so much slander in the comment section, they believed it to be true and canceled their plans to buy the game.
This delighted those companies.
Once these players left, with no similar alternatives, couldn't their newly released card games easily rise to prominence with a little promotion?
Soon, one company after another began to promote their games with full force, boasting about how well-made their games were, how rich the gameplay was, and that they had no bugs, truly presenting themselves as if they were going to revitalize card games.
However, to everyone's surprise, just then, the seventh episode of the slay the spire animation had just finished updating, and a brand new storyline was revealed to all the players.
In the animation, the protagonist, after enduring countless hardships, finally managed to defeat his corrupted soul, which was imprisoned in the high tower, with the power of cards.
When he merged with that half-soul and, dragging his heavily injured body, ascended to the top of the tower, he discovered that the curse on the high tower had not been lifted.
Even what he had always believed to be the top of the tower was not the true top, but a illusory space that imprisoned their souls!
An ancient, rustic door blocked his path.
It had only three keyholes, red, green, and blue, forming a San Ye pattern on the door.
The moment he saw that green keyhole, Wang Lao Ju in the live stream was surprised.
This shape... it seemed to be the same as that unknown item he got from killing the elite monster just now?