Chapter 53: Do You Remember the Fear of Being Dominated by the Lucky God Duo?
Due to her experience with Rita, Theresa realized that there were all kinds of people in this world. After temporarily labeling "Su Mu" as a dangerous individual, Theresa decided she had to go to miHoYo in a few days to see him in person.
As for today, and tomorrow... Theresa looked at the Honkai Impact 3rd screen in front of her.
Let's play the game first!
And so, Theresa resumed playing the content of Chapter 4. Chapter 4 wasn't very long, and she didn't have to exert much effort to clear it. However, the contents left her heart feeling quite heavy.
To resist Cocolia, Bronya did not hesitate to burn out her bio-chip to save Mei. She fell into a state of severe injury, teetering on the edge of death. Wendy was also killed by Cocolia, her Gem of Desire extracted to power the mecha MSR-7 "Wotan." Through the combined efforts of the Valkyries, Wotan was defeated.
But... Cocolia, the root of all the evil, escaped. Bronya was in a deep coma from her injuries, and Wendy was lost forever. Could this battle truly be called a victory?
[Hey, hey, hey, something feels wrong! It's only Chapter 4 and you're already handing out blades like this?]
[Writer, you guy, you have no heart!!]
[Bronya was so brave, willing to give up her life to protect Mei!]
[Cocolia is too loathsome! I really want to beat that woman up!!]
The bullet chat in the stream was either complaining about the writer "sending blades" (sad plot twists) or expressing admiration for Bronya's bravery. Naturally, many people developed a peak hatred for Cocolia, alongside regret over Wendy's death.
It had to be said that, at least in terms of emotional manipulation, Honkai Impact 3rd had everyone in a grip through its excellent presentation. Putting the plot aside, the battle against Wotan made viewers shout in awe. The sense of pressure from the giant mecha was simply too strong.
After finishing Chapter 4, Theresa, curious about Bronya's fate, wanted to continue pushing through the story...
[Theresa, seeking a way to save Bronya, heads to the central church of St. Freya Academy. Hidden beneath this church is Schicksal's most advanced life-support technology.]
However, the plot came to a screeching halt there. The story for Chapter 5, "Snowy Reunion," was marked as locked and would not be available for another five days.
"A-A cliffhanger?" Seeing this, Theresa nearly fainted from anger on the spot! "Why cut the story there! How despicable!!"
This cliffhanger was, naturally, Su Mu's handiwork. However, he felt he was actually being quite gentle. One must remember that when Honkai Impact 3rd first launched its fourth chapter in his previous world, the main story didn't update again for half a year, partly due to production capacity issues.
Because he had "been rained on," Su Mu knew exactly how despairing it was to have no main story updates for six months. Therefore, he decided to release a content update five days after the game's launch, prioritizing the continuation of the main plot.
Beyond that, there would be functional additions. For example, the difficulty of farming Valkyrie fragments would be lowered, and systems like the Foundry and Divine Keys would be added. The Honkai Chronicles would also receive new entries. Furthermore, in five days, a new batch of Valkyries would be added to the game as playable characters.
Su Mu made this choice not only to enrich the game content but also because the entertainment industry in this world was highly developed. Players possessed an immense passion for a good game... what one might call "incredible grinding power." If the "dead period" lasted too long, it would inevitably cause player dissatisfaction.
Plus, in Su Mu's honest opinion, the story of Honkai Impact 3rd only truly becomes spectacular starting from the "Herrscher of the Void" arc. The "Queen's Descent" was a major explosion for the game and one of its biggest turning points—a milestone in the narrative. Advancing the main story by another chapter would also make it easier to introduce side stories; otherwise, the experience would feel too disjointed.
Before the "Queen's Descent," Yae Sakura in the "Sakura Samsara" arc was the undisputed popularity queen. The story between her and Kallen, along with the reputation of a certain "Green Otto," was a hot topic among players. Just how popular was Yae Sakura back then? Her offline birthday parties were so overcrowded that police had to be dispatched to maintain order.
Su Mu would also never forget the fear of how the "Lucky God Duo" dominated the summer event that year... It was a pity that in the later stages of Honkai 3rd, Yae Sakura became more and more marginalized. No new battlesuits were released, and her story essentially ended after the Goushinnso Memento.
To be thorough, the Yae Sakura battlesuits appearing in the Sakura Samsara story were Gyakushinn Miko and Flame Sakitama. Memento was actually the battlesuit of the Previous Era's SAKURA, which Otto recreated through data as a boss in Kallen Fantasy. The player experience of the Yae Sakura and Kallen plot in Sakura Samsara was often confusing. One only knew that Kiana accidentally entered the Stigma Space and met Yae Sakura and Kallen, triggering a series of events. Most of the context had to be found in the manga, making the experience very fragmented.
So, without a doubt, the Sakura Samsara story had to be modified, integrated with the manga, and purged of contradictory bugs.
...
Adding so much content meant introducing many S-rank Valkyries... well, before Version 2.0, there weren't actually that many S-ranks. Excluding the initial trio at launch, only five new S-ranks were introduced leading up to Version 2.0. Versions 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 saw the consecutive release of three S-ranks: Shadow Knight, Phoenix, and Sixth Serenade. It's worth mentioning that since three S-ranks were released back-to-back, Sixth Serenade eventually became a "farmable" S-rank... though expectations for her power level shouldn't be too high.
Pushing the story to "Queen's Descent" meant facing the immense pressure of eight S-ranks, but Su Mu already had a countermeasure. The solution was simple: select some characters to be released as farmable S-ranks. For free-to-play players, being able to unlock S-rank characters through grinding provided a reason to keep playing. For average spenders, unlocking a character through gacha and then grinding fragments to increase their rank was also a strong motivator. As for the "whales," they have money, but they aren't stupid. If they can save costs, why wouldn't they? And if they were truly "mega-whales," they wouldn't care anyway and would just pull to the max.
Additionally, while Su Mu updated a lot of content, the rewards would naturally increase. If there were truly "Liver Emperors" who could grind everything, the number of Crystals they could earn would be staggering. Su Mu's measures, including the massive amount of gacha resources given at launch, seemed like he was giving away profits, but in reality, he wouldn't lose. The gaming industry is essentially a service industry; serving the player base well is the most important thing.
Players are not fools. Now that Honkai Impact 3rd was a global sensation, and this kind of high-quality free-to-play gacha game was the first of its kind, there were simply no substitutes. As a hero-collector/growth game, the most important thing is to have characters; otherwise, there is no "growth" to speak of. Once they have the characters, seeing that gacha-only Stigmata and signature weapons can vastly improve a Valkyrie's strength... wouldn't they just start spending heavily?
Occupying such a massive market share with such a terrifying user base... how could the revenue of Honkai Impact 3rd possibly be low?
Money, Su Mu wanted it. Fame, Su Mu wanted that too! Since he had been reborn in this world, he was determined to make up for all the regrets of his previous life. He would let this world witness what a "Good-Hearted" MiHoYo could do when its combat power was truly off the charts!
END OF CHAPTER
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