Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 601 - 584: Ancient Gods Yimela

Chapter 601: Chapter 584: Ancient Gods Yimela

As everyone knows, the "God-making ending" of "Blood of Lies" is considered by players to be the most accepted true ending.

The previous endings, "Servant Ending," "Heartless Ending," "Slaughter of God," and "Freedom Heart," are mostly flawed in their own ways; you either become the dog of an Ancient God or have your ’fruit’ plucked by an Ancient God or an evil Puppet Master.

The best ending is simply the "Freedom Heart," where the puppet protagonist breaks free from mind control, but the escaped Ancient God Sasra still poses a threat.

All in all, these are quite unsatisfactory endings.

Whereas the "God-making ending" appears to be the most complete, having the player defeat Ilonak, Mel, and Sasra, the three Ancient Gods, and obtaining their divine authority, becoming a new Ancient God themselves.

Add to that the extremely stringent and almost abnormal conditions required to achieve this ending, and the "additional meanings" assigned by many streamers, most players consider it to be the officially sanctioned true ending.

However, in "Endless Fantasy Legend 2," the situation seems to have undergone a subtle change.

Because these invaders from the Water Country that invaded Great Liang basically all have beliefs, and the names of the gods they worship are somewhat troubling when you see them.

Yimela!

At first, players didn’t think much of it, assuming it might be the name of some high-level leader in the Water Country, but from the behavior of these NPCs afterward, they clearly worship the name Yimela as their faith.

Whether it’s shouting "For Yimela" before dying or occasionally taking out a strangely shaped statue to pray during camp rests, it all indirectly confirms this point.

Players quickly realized that this name is a combination of the previous three Ancient Gods!

This is clearly a combination made by taking one word from each name!

Nitiandang, are you doing this on purpose or accident?

Thinking about it, it seems it can only be intentional.

It’s not just an issue of a name; this name will also affect how the subsequent plot is interpreted!

From the beginning, the Water Country almost always existed as the villain.

Looking at it, there are a lot of villains in this game: Fire Country, Golden Country, Water Country, the neighbors to the south, west, and north of Great Liang are all those aggressive warmongers.

Among the remaining countries, Wood Country is still somewhat peace-loving, Penglai Immortal Island in the southeast keeps to itself, Thunder Country’s self-isolation makes it hard to tell if it’s good or bad, Wind Country has only ruin left, and Ice Country to the northwest... doesn’t seem like much good either.

But at the beginning, players didn’t feel there was anything wrong with this setup.

Because the worldview in "Blood of Lies" itself is quite dark, filled with Ancient Gods and Puppets. Controlled by the Blood of Lies, these people invading everywhere is understandable.

But the problem is that it doesn’t seamlessly connect with the storyline of the previous work!

Before the protagonist became a god, this place was in such a state, and after becoming a god, it’s still the same; didn’t the protagonist become a god for nothing?

But now, it seems that the protagonist indeed became a god for nothing.

His divine name is Yimela, taken from one character each from the names of Ilonak, Mel, and Sasra, the three Ancient Gods, essentially signifying to all the players that although the protagonist has become an Ancient God, he hasn’t managed to retain his humanity.

After obtaining the three powers of the Blood of the Ancient Gods, the Ancient God’s Eye, and the Ancient God’s Heart, although he’s lucky not to die, he no longer possesses human thoughts and morals, becoming a higher-dimensional being.

After a person becomes a god, do they retain human values?

In Cthulhu’s setting, obviously not.

Since the protagonist can’t retain his own values, what fundamental difference does he have from the previous three Ancient Gods?

The answer is none.

As such, the Water Country shouldn’t have any changes; it should remain as before, riddled with Monsters and people falling into madness due to the Blood of Lies.

Given this, it’s only reasonable for the Water Country to continue invading neighboring nations.

Not only the citizens of the Water Country are miserable, but also many who fled from Golden Country due to the robot uprising, are probably unable to escape the Blood of Lies.

The more you think about it, the more unpleasant it feels!

And Nitiandang has achieved this without really going out of their way.

They didn’t spend much narrative effort describing the specific details after the protagonist of "Blood of Lies" becomes a god, nor did they describe the misery of the citizens in the Water Country, everyone driven mad after imbibing Blood of Lies.

Just the simple three characters "Yimela" seem to say nothing, yet they say everything.

There’s no need for any narrative performance throughout, as the players’ own imaginations are somewhat broken.

...

Zhuge Jun scratched his head: "The plot in this version is truly toxic!

"Are they literally tearing the book apart, destroying the two best endings from "Ascension" and "Blood of Lies"??

"No, if it were just tearing the book, that’d be fine. At least players could righteously disown the narrative of "Endless Fantasy Legend 2" as being related to "Ascension" and "Blood of Lies".

"The crux is that Nitiandang’s arrangement fits surprisingly well with the original endings of "Ascension" and "Blood of Lies", even the logic is completely sound!

"It’s nearly impossible to disown it!"

Continuing a story in literary works has always been a major challenge.

Forcing an already complete narrative to progress further often ends up like a poorly-made sequel. Even if the author is talented, there is still a chance of failure.

This is the case with some classic literary and film works where sequels can be like tearing the original apart.

Such as the main characters behaving out of character (OOC), or the plot’s logic becoming contradictory, and so on.

After all, such narratives are usually epic sagas; the more content that is piled on, the easier it is to trigger all kinds of bizarre bugs, leading to the collapse of the entire story’s logic.

But if it’s just general OOC, it’s actually not that bad.

Because fans of the original can simply disown the sequel and be done with it. As long as they don’t acknowledge any of the new plot or character settings, although it’s still somewhat troubling, they can at least bury their heads in the sand like ostriches.

However, this approach is predicated on the existence of serious bugs in the sequel.

Only because of such bugs can fans of the original logically and proudly cut ties with the sequel.

Yet "Endless Fantasy Legend 2"’s plot takes a different route; it doesn’t have bugs. In fact, to some extent, it even inherits the storyline of the originals, fitting with the internal logic of the previous games!

The true endings of "Ascension" and "Blood of Lies" that were most popular among players actually used a lot of suggestive blank spaces.

This kind of ambiguity gave players plenty of room for imagination.

In "Ascension", the two worlds were completely separated, and AIs and Humans each lived their own happy lives.

In "Blood of Lies", the protagonist killed all the Ancient Gods and became a new Ancient God.

Since it’s the end of the game, there’s no need to display specific details, so players naturally tend to fill in the gaps optimistically.

For instance, in "Ascension", the two worlds really are non-interfering and regained peace, and in "Blood of Lies", the protagonist maintains his humanity, freeing Charlton City from the Blood of Lies, and Humans are released from the curse of the Divine Blood.

But does this positive speculation truly align with the original story’s internal logic?

Do these two endings really have no significant hidden dangers buried within them?

Of course, the answer is negative.

What we had originally was like a layer of exquisite gauze that kept some beautiful fantasies intact as long as it wasn’t thoroughly pierced.

Now, what Nitiandang has done, is like the company piercing through that gauze, presenting the logical and stark reality right in front of the players.

And the key is it’s hard for players to disown because the logic is too coherent, making it seem like this current dismal state is what "Ascension" and "Blood of Lies" true endings should actually be like.

This is really upsetting!

Just casually browsing online discussions, as expected, players are in an uproar.

Some people absolutely can’t accept such plot developments, especially fans of Vision·Lee and the protagonist of "Blood of Lies".

"It’s too tragic, the character doesn’t even have their own name in the entire game, and now they’re directly possessed by the will of an Ancient God, let it be destroyed, this world is beyond saving!"

Previously, the protagonist of "Blood of Lies" never had a specific official name because players would name the character when entering the game, and then the in-game characters would interact with the protagonist using that name.

That setup wasn’t an issue, many games do it that way.

But now, a protagonist without a name seems very pitiful.

Because they have truly lost their name, their past and experiences, replaced by an utterly inhuman Ancient God’s name "Yimela".

The price of becoming a god is erasing one’s past, future, and all aspects of human identity, becoming an incarnation, a symbol, the source of all evil that uses the Divine Blood to wage wars.

For players who liked this character, who went through tremendous hardships in "Blood of Lies" to help them ascend to godhood, this is like the ultimate blow.

And such controversy in the storyline will inevitably continue to resonate, generating more and more negative emotions among a wider audience of players.

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