The Beheaded? Trash That Can't Even Attack Through Walls!

Without punishment, players might not take death seriously.

Through death after death, players discovered that this game's maps were like constantly flowing blood. Each time they died and respawned, they had a different experience.

It had a complete map-generation logic. The designers stitched together preset map templates to create new maps.

Combined with random items, equipment, and enemies, every new run came with subtle differences.

Players could not predict what lay ahead; every run was a brand-new experience.

If Ethan Vale had used Getting over it to make players rage and draw in the initial Dead Cells audience, then now, he was completely conquering players with the game's charm.

Since its release, sales had steadily risen day by day. In just one week, this 49-yuan game had sold over a million copies.

Every gaming community was discussing related topics, such as how to choose a build, how to pick weapons, and how to perfect parry...

Yes, perfect parries.

Only blocking at the exact moment an enemy's melee attack struck counted as a parry. Blocking ranged attacks did not count, nor did holding up a shield the whole time. A "Parry" prompt would also appear above the character's head.

It reflected ranged attacks and nullified melee attacks.

At first, even when players had shields, they did not know how to use them. They switched from the Blood Sword to the Electric Whip, from the Electric Whip to bows, and from bows to throwing torches.

Later, once they reached multiple Cells, parrying became a skill they absolutely had to master.

And the more they played this game, the more addictive it became.

As blades swung smoothly and fluidly, monsters sprayed blood everywhere, while the drumbeats in the background music grew increasingly rapid.

Leaping lightning wrapped around monsters, and thrown torches set clustered enemies ablaze. In that moment, the sheer exhilaration short-circuited their brains, and their hands seemed to break free from the brain's control.

Their hearts raced, pumping oxygen to their brains.

Their hands moved faster and faster, until every monster on the screen had been cleared. Only then did they finally let out a long breath.

It was like gulping down a bottle of chilled mineral water in the scorching summer heat, or lifting their heads to breathe after holding their breath underwater for too long.

The deadly rapid drumbeats threaded through endless combat were even jokingly called the strongest rhythm game!

The people at Yogame fell silent. A month earlier, they had aggressively suppressed this designer, believing he would never be able to make a comeback.

Yet only a month had passed, and he had pulled off a beautiful comeback.

Without the slightest hesitation, he had switched platforms to continue developing, relying on the few fans he had accumulated from his previous game to carve a path through the ocean of games.

"Silver, did you see the latest news? The designer hasn't said anything yet, but Yogame spoke up first." Silly Little Sis was playing games with Silver over a livestream connection.

"I saw it." Silver sighed. "Honestly, Yogame's behavior this time is absolutely disgusting."

They had actually hired a well-known game reviewer to write a lengthy review of Dead Cells.

Although those reviewers had not revealed that Yogame had invited them to review it, that sort of thing might fool outsiders, but it could never fool gamers within the community.

[Game Review: The game is far too simple. I cleared it in just half a day. The controls do feel comfortable, but it has an overly complicated equipment system, as well as complex things like scrolls and mutations.

The design is excellent, but for such a simple game, these elements feel far too superficial. Instead of spending so much effort designing all these equipment mechanics, the developer would be better off improving the game's quality.]

"I saw it. Hahaha, I laughed the moment I saw it." Silver could not help laughing out loud.

"I laughed too. He wrote it in such a rush, didn't he? He probably quit the game and wrote the review right after killing the King, thinking that clearing the level meant it was over." Silly Little Sis spoke while laughing.

"At the time, I thought I'd finally escaped this game's torment. I thought it was finally over. Who knew I'd only gone from 0 Cells to 1 Cell." Silly Little Sis could not help complaining.

She had thought the beginning was already the game's limit. When fighting the Hand of the King, her mind had been stretched to the breaking point.

Though she had finally made it this far, no one wanted to die and start all over again.

"His review was just posted, right? If nothing unexpected happens, he's going to get flamed soon." Silver watched with a pained expression as his character was beaten to death by a group of minor enemies.

He had already reached 3 Cells. By now, he had improved far more than before.

Sometimes, he could even remember when he had first started playing Dead Cells. Those had been his happiest days.

He had just learned the mechanics and kept experimenting as he tried to clear 0 Cells. Back then, he was terrible. He could not recognize every monster, could not perfect parry, and did not even know how to use a shield.

But back then, he had been relaxed. He could freely try whichever weapons he wanted.

Now, he had to be on edge even when fighting a single rat.

Sometimes, when he saw those minor enemies, it felt as though he could hear their thoughts:

The Beheaded? Trash that can't even attack through walls.

Trying to run? I'll fucking teleport over and slash you! Cursed? It's time for us rats, bats, and crawlers to shine!

Silver took a breath and temporarily closed the game. He opened the review.

Sure enough, after the initial period of silence, players had begun mercilessly tearing apart the review in the comments.

[The reviewer's called Little Huang, right? I won't trust a single game review he writes in the future.]

[A while ago, I saw his review of another game and was considering trying it, but after reading his Dead Cells review, I'm throwing out everything he wrote before.]

[He's not wrong, though. 0 Cells is very easy. Hahaha, I've already left a review for the designer.]

[I've been beaten so badly I'm losing my mind, and you people actually selected "very easy"?]

[Can we remove the game survey thing?]

[Don't remove it. Next time, I'm still selecting "very easy"!]

Silver carefully read the replies below. He did not say much, nor did he join in to respond to anything.

Players were the hardest group to fool, because anyone who had played a game would have their own understanding and feelings.

Everyone could feel the development team's sincerity.

The things this reviewer was tearing apart were often exactly what players loved most.

People were born with a desire to explore, and this game encouraged players to explore voluntarily instead of trapping them in a single linear path.

For example, not long after starting the game, players would encounter their first unsolvable obstacle: an elevated ledge they could not climb. Yet they could see vines on the ground that they could interact with.

This was actually a tutorial. It told players that some problems could not be solved immediately, while also hinting that there was a solution.