Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 613 - 596: The Power Was Taken Back Again

Chapter 613: Chapter 596: The Power Was Taken Back Again

In "Endless Fantasy Legend 1", each type of Elemental Power corresponds to a single Skill, such as Wind Elemental Power only possessing the ability to bind objects.

However, "Endless Fantasy Legend 2" upgraded this mechanic.

Not only does it retain the original abilities, minor skills have now become super powerful ones, such as this combination of creating a wind field and grouping enemies—who wouldn’t be amazed by this?

Of course, the "powerfulness" in this context mainly refers to the mechanics, and not particularly outstanding in numerical values.

"Is this it, the ultimate Hero?

"Let me check the other elemental skills!"

After a series of tests, Zhuge Jun’s hypothesis was fully confirmed.

Yes, the ultimate Hero indeed!

The maneuvers that the Hero could perform in "Endless Fantasy Legend 1" could now also be flawlessly executed by the current Hero.

For instance, the widely used "Justice from the Sky" involving sticking stones with Water Elemental Power, lifting them with Wind Elemental Power, and then detonating them with Fire Elemental Power.

The current Hero could also do the same, with no significant difference in operations.

"Isn’t this invincible now?

"Oh boy, Nitiandang must have been waiting for this, right? There had been a lot of criticism about this sequel being a downgrade, chopping off the most popular mechanics of the predecessor.

"Now it seems, they weren’t chopped off; instead, they were gradually made available to players as part of the game mechanics.

"Only when the Hero travels across all nine nations and masters all the Elemental Powers, can they naturally integrate them all.

"If the previous game’s Hero is seen as a legendary Hero, born with incredible talents, then this generation’s Hero is inseparable from effort and timely luck.

"He may not possess the formidable talents of his predecessor, but he still bears the responsibilities of this era.

"Not bad at all!"

Zhuge Jun was very pleased, even feeling like he had already got content for his next video.

It’s true—this way of handling is indeed more exciting than just making this function available right from the start.

If Nitiandang had given full access to these abilities to players from the beginning, it would have severely affected their gaming experience.

Without being able to seriously experience each version of Elemental Power’s utilities, continuing with the mindset from "Endless Fantasy Legend 1", they would fail to appreciate the essence of "Endless Fantasy Legend 2".

Conversely, when players genuinely master all nine Elemental Powers and diverse complex skills, and then this function is unlocked, players will have a blast.

With pride, Zhuge Jun approached the final battle.

The battle scene was indeed grand. As a single Chapter story mission, it lasted for three hours, and the entire process was quite thrilling.

Zhuge Jun also enjoyed fighting.

But after completing the whole mission, he felt something was off.

"Hold on, this new ability of the Hero, why was it hardly used?

"And after exiting the storyline, how could I go back?

"How did it become limited to only one Elemental Power again?"

Zhuge Jun scratched his head in confusion. He initially thought he had completely figured out Nitiandang’s thought process, but now realized he hadn’t.

This great battle was indeed thrilling, but when Zhuge Jun tried using strategies like "Justice from the Sky", he found himself being pummeled by monsters.

It was not practical at all!

In "Endless Fantasy Legend 1", this Skill was a powerful weapon—its explosion impact was lethal to monsters.

But in "Endless Fantasy Legend 2", it was like tickling the monsters.

Moreover, the final battle’s monsters were very strong, not just in their stats, but also various game mechanics like different elemental shields, total damage shields, frequency shields, or various strengths and immunity, etc.

These newly activated fancy mechanics seemed impressive in action, but the damage output of 2.5 when hitting the elemental shield was almost negligible.

Eventually, Zhuge Jun could only resort to using elemental reactions the old-fashioned way, with the Hero reverting back to being just a tool.

And this wasn’t even the most infuriating part.

The most infuriating was, as this grand battle concluded, the world’s existing Elemental Powers were significantly depleted to vanquish evil, and the Hero’s special abilities were gone!

After the storyline ended, Zhuge Jun tried to bring up the Elemental Power switch menu by holding down the skill key, but got no response.

Even the Skills he had mastered were gone, totally reverting to the state before the battle started.

"So, it was just a limited-time trial version!!"

Zhuge Jun was profoundly disappointed.

The words he had intended to praise Nitiandang with were all held back.

It turned out, Nitiandang had the capacity to implement that set of Elemental Reaction mechanics in "Endless Fantasy Legend 2," not even needing significant changes since they use the same engine and might even reuse a lot of code. Simply unlocking this limitation and then making certain optimizations and modifications would suffice.

The performance in the storyline is solid proof.

Nitiandang deliberately didn’t implement it, and even in the final battle, they only briefly enabled it for players as a token gesture, then eagerly revoked it once the battle ended.

What does this mean?

It means it’s not a technical issue; it’s intentional on Nitiandang’s part!

"You might as well not have activated it at all! Just teasing me briefly and then pretending nothing happened, huh!"

Zhuge Jun couldn’t help but hold his forehead; he even started to doubt how he could defend Nitiandang anymore.

If they hadn’t activated that quest before the final battle, the Hero would proceed with the original skill mechanics, and players wouldn’t find anything odd; instead, they would have found the battle exciting.

But now, after such a grand spectacle, they let the Hero activate nine kinds of Elemental Power with the freedom to switch between them, and even acquired the same capabilities as the previous Hero, raising the players’ expectations suddenly.

Then came two consecutive strikes:

First cut: The activated abilities look fancy but are not practical at all; they only look similar to the previous protagonist’s abilities but are worlds apart in terms of combat power.

Second cut: Having made these fancy abilities, they deliberately kept them away from players, disappearing after the quest.

That’s just outrageous!

It was supposed to be a decent plot, but now it only makes people more and more angry; those great scenes that should have been moving or shocking are completely forgotten.

...

Online, players are also full of complaints.

Everyone feels like they’ve been made fools by Nitiandang.

To note, there were already two clear factions regarding the Elemental mechanism design of **Endless Fantasy Legend 2**: the "Lazy Faction" and the "Improvement Faction".

From **Endless Fantasy Legend 1** to **Endless Fantasy Legend 2**, the design of the elemental mechanism was clearly simplified.

Initially, there were very complex chemical reactions between different elements, even extending beyond the game’s mechanics, but now it has been reduced to simple numerical changes.

Regarding whether such changes were justified, both factions had already thoroughly debated in various versions.

And prior to this, the "Improvement Faction" had been overwhelmingly dominant.

The "Lazy Faction" believes that Nitiandang did this for commercialization, just out of laziness!

Technically speaking, Nitiandang had all the capabilities, they could have even directly used the engine and code from the previous games with some further optimization.

Nitiandang didn’t go for it because they wanted to avoid out-of-norm mechanics and unexpected complexities.

Ultimately, it was for commercialization, to keep the game’s score inflation under control and thus sell more characters and scores.

Put simply, it was all about making money!

The "Improvement Faction," on the other hand, opposes this view, considering **Endless Fantasy Legend 2**’s elemental design a progress.

Their opinions are more varied.

For instance, some improvement-minded players think that the game has grown significantly, the mechanics have become too complex, and using the original setup could exponentially increase the bugs and uncontrollable risks;

Others believe that simplified game mechanics are easier for players to understand and adapt to; the original complex mechanics, though appealing, are practical for only a minority.

Some players think too powerful protagonist abilities would overshadow other characters; this game is an ensemble narrative, thus ensuring other characters shine is not just for monetizing, but to accommodate the fans of other characters.

Both factions have been quarreling since the game was launched, and up until now.

The reason that the "Improvement Faction" predominated was simple: **Endless Fantasy Legend 2**’s popularity has been rising, its commercial success growing, and its game mechanisms increasingly accepted by more players.

But the presence of this legendary quest in the new version is a direct play by official Nitiandang, harshly slapping the face of the "Improvement Faction," almost officially supporting the "Lazy Faction."

Mechanisms too complex? No no no, they can be done.

Bugs will exponentially increase, risks uncontrollable? No no no, it’s done, with no particular bugs.

Original mechanics too complex? No worries, both setups can coexist without interference.

The protagonist being too strong will make other characters dull? Not the case because the protagonist’s highlights can be placed at the end; he is the main character after all, such level of focus is entirely reasonable.

All of the "Improvement Faction"’s arguments just fall apart!

At the end of the day, if the Hero’s abilities had been retained after this major battle, it would have been a happy ending for all.

But Nitiandang just had to take them back, proving only one thing: they could do it, it was feasible, they just intentionally didn’t give it to the players.

How could this be?

"Lazy Faction" players seeing the situation reversed, immediately rose up, but more precisely, they turned from "Lazy Faction" to "Disgusting Faction."

That is, this setup wasn’t because Nitiandang was lazy, but because they intentionally wanted to disgust people.

And this is even more despicable!

Charge! Charge ruthlessly!

Especially at that Zhuge Jun, charge him first!

Who made him the biggest beneficiary of this game?