Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 456 - 439: Opening and Operation

Chapter 456: Chapter 439: Opening and Operation

What was somewhat unexpected for Zhuge Jun was that "Blood of Lies" didn’t start with the typical opening CG, but launched directly into a game scene.

The original game title screen background featured a person seated by the roadside.

Clothed in the standard Hunter attire and wearing the game’s signature Hunter triangle hat, he was completely covered from head to toe, making it impossible to discern his specific looks and physique, and even his gender was indeterminate.

Blood was splattered all over his clothes, suggesting that this Hunter had just been through a quite fierce battle.

At that moment, he was leaning against the shadows beside a streetlamp, which seemed to be malfunctioning and did not light up as expected, flickering only faintly with crackling points of light.

The surrounding environment appeared somewhat disorderly, with glimpses of a destroyed iron fence, gravestones that had fallen to the ground, and carriages blocking the way, all damaged.

The Hunter’s left hand had clearly been modified into a Puppet Prosthesis, but at that moment, it seemed to have suffered severe damage, with its tough wooden skin cracked open and steel skeleton broken, and the entire limb was bent at an unnatural angle, revealing springs and gears inside.

When Zhuge Jun pressed the button to start the game, the Hunter’s right hand slightly moved, reaching for his weapon, and then subconsciously grasped the hilt of his sword.

Soon, the Hunter seemed to regain consciousness. He briefly checked his current state and observed his severely damaged Puppet Prosthesis repeatedly.

After standing up with the support of his sword, the Hunter touched the gas lamp in front of him and paused for a brief thought or a prayer. Then, miraculously, the gas lamp lit up, though the Hunter had not activated any special switch throughout the process.

Afterward, the Hunter sat down again beside the gas lamp, took out tools from a small pack at his side, and started to perform a basic repair on his Puppet Prosthesis.

He skillfully poked a special mechanism inside the Puppet Prosthesis with an object resembling a screwdriver; with a "pop," some sort of internal structure of the Puppet Prosthesis sprang open.

The Hunter removed a beautifully shaped but obviously damaged critical component from it and then fetched a new part from his bag and installed it. After that, he fiddled around briefly to realign some slightly deformed parts, fitting them back into the prosthesis as best he could.

Finally, the Hunter inserted a special crystal interwoven with red and blue into a specific slot in the prosthesis.

A marvelous scene unfolded, with only the faint sound of crackling. The beautifully crafted core part that was inserted seemed to start operating, and the twisted and deformed parts that had been forcibly fitted back were remolded by some unknown force and gradually adjusted to fit properly.

Last, the Hunter pressed the fragmented wooden skin back in place and applied a special gel or repair agent.

Once all the repairs were complete, the Hunter tested the fingers of his left arm prosthetic, confirming they were as flexible as before.

Finally, the Hunter took out another crystal, connected it to a special bulky syringe from his backpack, and abruptly plunged it into his thigh.

As the crystal was injected into his body, the Hunter’s physical condition seemed to improve significantly, and he finally regained his health and stood up.

Although the process involved many steps, it didn’t take very long in reality.

It’s worth mentioning that during some of the key actions in the game, corresponding button prompts appeared in the form of QTEs to guide players through these actions.

For example, lighting the gas lamp used the B button on the controller for interaction, repairing the prosthesis used the down arrow on the directional pad, and injecting himself with the crystal to restore health used the Y button.

After the Hunter stood up, the game transitioned from real-time computation into the regular game sequence, and at this point, Zhuge Jun could control the character to do anything.

The game further introduced a regular key tutorial, such as using the left joystick to move, the right joystick to switch views, the X button to attack, and holding the A button to roll or run, with a Heavy Attack (right shoulder button RB) during the run performing a Jumping Slash, and so forth.

As an experienced gamer, the first thing Zhuge Jun did was to confirm and adjust the key bindings.

After all, every player has their own familiar setup, and playing an action game with unfamiliar controls is as uncomfortable as trying to eat noodles with a spoon.

Considering the common light and heavy attack key bindings, current mainstream games feature two distinctly different designs: one uses XY as the light and heavy attack buttons, while the other uses the right shoulder button RB and the right trigger RT as light and heavy attack buttons.

Each design has its pros and cons; using XY for light and heavy attacks frees up the RB and RT buttons for special functions and allows for more content through combination buttons; using RB and RT for attacks is suited for games with less complex combat systems, where players can easily attack while running.

"Blood of Lies," however, had a rather odd default control scheme, using the X button for light attacks and RB for heavy attacks, while the Y button became the item use button.

As for the RT button, it was used for Transform Slash, as had appeared in promotional videos.

At first, Zhuge Jun was rather puzzled by this arrangement of controls, but he soon realized the reason:

While the game lacked a specific "jump" button, characters could still jump. This was achieved by triggering a Heavy Attack while running, which would transform the attack into a Jump Slash, effectively replacing the jump function since it allowed players to leap a substantial distance upwards and forwards.

Given that the game’s run button was a long press on the A button, the combination of A+RB was naturally more user-friendly than A+Y.

Zhuge Jun then tried out other controls, quickly mapping each key to its function within the game.

The directional pad could be considered a quick switch button, with the up arrow switching "Spells"—as in many games; the left arrow switching Prosthetic Limbs; the right arrow switching weapons; and the down arrow switching usable items.

If you press the direction pad, it cycles through the equipped items.

Holding it down doesn’t reset to the first item but rather brings up a quick menu; move the right joystick to quickly select the desired item, which automatically gets equipped or used upon release.

As for the left shoulder button LB and the left trigger LT, their remaining functionalities are naturally obvious: they are "Defense" and "Puppet Prosthesis" respectively.

The RT button, which represents "Puppet Prosthesis," has its functionalities too. A short press uses the current Puppet Prosthesis ability, but a long press also brings up three different methods of use, which can be combined with "Light Attack X," "Heavy Attack RB," and "Transform Slash RT" into three different combination keys.

The current character has only one Puppet Prosthesis, whose ability, as shown in the demo video, is related to fire.

Pressing LT briefly enchants the weapon with fire.

LT + Light Attack X executes a series of continuous fire-enchanted attacks, integrating the Flame Prosthetics’ action in the player’s light attack combos.

LT + Heavy Attack Y sets a Flame Trap on the ground, serving a special purpose.

LT + Transform Slash RT requires a simultaneous long press, during which the character uses the full power of the Puppet Prosthesis to breathe fire on a fan-shaped area in front.

That is to say, a short press and three combination keys can be considered four different uses of the prosthesis: "enchantment," "additional weapon combo derivation," "special function," and "high-risk, high-output move."

Of course, Zhuge Jun believes he will definitely acquire more varied prostheses in the future, and he doesn’t rule out some being purely functional, potentially corresponding to some entirely new functionalities for these four key positions.

After getting accustomed to the controls, Zhuge Jun wanted to try changing the key bindings, such as swapping the Heavy Attack RB with the Use Item Y button, or changing RB to Light Attack, RT to Heavy Attack, and the X button to Transform Slash.

But after trying it out, he felt that the original key bindings were somewhat more intuitive, so he eventually gave up on making the changes.

Suddenly, Zhuge Jun seemed to think of something.

"Right, I still don’t know what exactly this controller’s paddle is used for!"

He quickly pulled the right rear trigger, and saw that the character in the game performed a crisp Transform Slash.

"...Is that it?

"Never mind, what was I expecting..."

Zhuge Jun couldn’t help feeling somewhat deflated, because it was clear that the rear triggers on the left and right were merely mapped to the LT and RT buttons, respectively.

This felt like an unnecessary duplication, akin to overdoing something trivial.

But on second thought, it seemed normal, since "Blood of Lies" must cater to the general gaming audience, and players who didn’t buy the special controller also need to enjoy the complete content of the game.

Peripherals like this can slightly enhance the gameplay experience for paying players, but should not affect the experience of average players.

So, it’s unlikely these rear triggers could introduce any revolutionary gameplay changes.

But if they truly just replicated the left and right trigger buttons, they wouldn’t even meet the basic objective of "enhancing the experience for paying players," which doesn’t seem like something smart President Gu would do.

Therefore, Zhuge Jun believed these rear triggers should still have some special functions; if he could figure out these special functions, then he could completely free up the LT and RT buttons and further adjust his key bindings.

As for whether these rear triggers really have any special uses, that’s something he would have to figure out during the further gameplay.

Zhuge Jun continued forward, controlling his character and encountering a few small monsters, all decisively eliminated.

These small monsters were basically humanoid zombies, with low attack power, logically consistent movements, and not much health.

Even when Zhuge Jun killed each small monster and their blood splashed onto him, it had a healing effect, essentially allowing him to absorb health.

This further decreased the difficulty of combat, even giving Zhuge Jun the illusion that he was playing a lawn-mowing game.

He could fight however he wanted.

With light attacks, each slash would cause a small flinch, enabling mindless combos.

With heavy attacks, as long as the distance was timed well, a single slash could put the opponent in a state ready for execution, followed by a light attack to trigger the execution move for a quick finish.

Using Transform Slash or Jump Slash could also leave the small monsters completely defenseless.

The only thing that Zhuge Jun found slightly amusing was the "Defense" action; even this design could be described as "bizarrely absurd."

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