What kind of game is this?
With such a high difficulty, is it meant to make the players frustrated?
After playing the game for an entire day, Murakami Ichiro, exhausted, lay back in his office, staring at the ceiling and lost in thought.
During his playthrough, this game really made him angry. It felt like death was always around the corner, always failing, and losing progress upon failure—it was incredibly frustrating.
But, strangely, he couldn't be mad at the game itself. His anger was directed more at himself for dying over and over due to small mistakes. He knew he could do better, but his small oversights led to failure.
The difficulty, however, shouldn't be the reason for the game's bad reviews.
A little dazed, he closed the game and opened the sales page to check the game's reviews.
Mostly bad reviews?
Murakami Ichiro started to carefully read every review about the game.
...
...
The bad reviews were all about the game's difficulty. Most people were asking for a refund, claiming the game was way too hard.
On the other hand, the positive reviews were different.
Some players praised the game's equipment combinations, claiming to have found some amazing setups.
"This game is awesome! I used to die all the time, I was on the verge of giving up, but in one session, I discovered a super strong equipment combo—Hunter's Trap and Turret, plus a bleeding effect. With a weapon that doubles the damage on bleeding enemies, I just wiped out everything! It was such a thrill!"
Hmm? There's such a strategy?
Murakami Ichiro was taken aback by the first comment. He immediately forgot about checking more reviews and quickly switched to Dead Cells's start page, opened the game, and dove back in!
The equipment in Dead Cells is randomly generated for each run, so it's not always possible to rely on one specific combination. But this comment mentioned an equipment combination that was easy to find.
Murakami Ichiro quickly found the corresponding gear and gave it a try. To his surprise, it worked just as the person had described. Dealing with monsters wasn't as difficult anymore.
At that moment, he felt like he had discovered a whole new world.
Before, he had only tried a couple of equipment combinations, never realizing that pairing different pieces of gear could multiply damage in a way he hadn't expected.
Though he still died at the final boss, the satisfaction he felt was different from the frustration he had experienced before.
Now, his only thought was to find even better gear combinations. Next time, he would definitely deal even more damage and take down the boss for sure!
And at that very moment, he felt like he had discovered something crucial.
But at the same time, his brain was urging him to jump into the next run.
The Undying, working towards an even better equipment combination!
His eyes began to burn with excitement.
He had been tired before, after playing all day.
But at that moment, something inside him seemed to be quickly releasing, making his brain feel revived and full of excitement.
He wasn't even tired anymore!
Murakami Ichiro felt like he could play dozens more rounds!
Wait... what was I going to do again?
Ah, whatever. I'll just play another round!
So, he played for a long time without realizing it.
By the time he came to his senses, it was already past 2 AM.
During this time, he had tried countless combinations of gear.
And it was only now that he realized another big advantage of this game.
No matter what equipment you used, as long as you paired it right, it seemed like it could create unexpected effects.
With the right gear synergy, sometimes you could produce incredibly high damage.
After successfully defeating the final boss multiple times, the sense of satisfaction lasted for a long time, and it was truly addictive.
Looking at the clock, he suddenly remembered that he had meant to check the reviews, but somehow got so caught up in playing the game again.
It was that positive review that had influenced him.
But the review didn't praise the game much in terms of its overall qualities. It was just a suggestion for gear combinations that made him want to jump back in and play again.
He closed the game and immediately went back to find that review.
When he found the comment again, he noticed there were new replies.
"Thanks for the tip! I finally understand how to play this game! I had no idea what the core gameplay was before!"
"Aha, this combo is amazing! It's like 'kill everything in your path!' As a thank you, here's my own combo: A spear with reflect damage and a flame effect. When enemies attack you, you don't have to do much to make them lose health quickly. It works great, you should try it!"
"Thanks to the person above, this move is incredible. As a thank you, let me share my combo too: It's..."
Murakami Ichiro rubbed his eyes.
The last time he checked these reviews was around 10 PM.
Now, over four hours later, he saw that there were 70 or 80 new comments under that review.
And every new comment expressed how the players had discovered the fun of the game, sharing their excitement and enjoyment.
Sharing. Discussing. The random fun of the game.
Suddenly, a few words popped into Murakami Ichiro's mind.
Then it hit him—wasn't this the true fun of Dead Cells?
"Thanks for the great review! Because of you, I didn't miss out on a great game. I apologize for my earlier negative review. I'll buy two more copies of the game and give them to my friends so they can experience the fun too. This is my way of making up for my premature bad review!"
Murakami Ichiro read through the reviews one by one, and he realized that these comments were like a slap in the face to his previous judgment.
Many players who had previously left negative reviews were now slowly changing their minds.
When he first checked the game's reviews, most were negative. And they still were, but looking at the ratio of good to bad reviews, he noticed that the percentage of negative reviews was decreasing.
It was clear that more and more players were beginning to understand the game's essence and its appeal.
As time went on, many of the reviews were from players who had put in at least five or six hours of playtime.
And among those players, the positive reviews were steadily increasing.
This was definitely a good sign.