In recent years, BW flooding has become an annual tradition, to the point that many people prepare for BW with this in mind. For example, many choose to cosplay Yuan Hua's classic fisherman outfit, performing "Stabbing the Hedgehog" at the BW site when it gets flooded—
And so, this year's BW added a group of unlucky souls.
Another unlucky soul is the official team of "Lord of the Mysteries." As the game approaches its launch, this development team has been constantly pulling pranks. Since prank-pulling requires the right time, place, and people, they prepared a whole plan for BW getting flooded, such as flash-delivering a speaker to the site to play the famous "Sailor's Song" from the original work right there. Amidst Alger's heavenly vocals of "Charge! Charge! Charge!", they aimed to give the onlookers a big laugh.
However, in the past two days, let alone BW being flooded, there wasn't even a drop of water during the event. You can't really "Charge" on dry land, so the prepared soundtrack and speakers went completely unused.
Perhaps BW was sunny and clear because Derrick struck a pose in the previous PV as if he was about to "Praise the Sun."
But I'm not worried about them at all. Given the level of abstraction they showed at this BW, that idle speaker could easily be used to play the background music for "Happy Landlord" at any minute. If one prank fails, the next one comes right after.
The only thing they could be considered serious about at this BW was the announcement of their official launch date.
If you have any knowledge of the original work, it's hard to keep a straight face when you see their BW site. Take one look inside, and you'll see Farmer, Klein, and Audrey prominently playing "Dou Dizhu" (Fight the Landlord) in the venue—which is "Fight Evil" in the original work. Watching Klein gently pat the Farmer's shoulder, I don't see the great love of a god for mortals; my mind is filled with "I have seventeen cards, can you beat me?"
Besides these, there were also the free tote bags they distributed, which were tacky to a certain height, bearing the news of their open beta launch date.
And, a magic show for you to digest the "Magician" potion on the spot.
Honestly, it's hard to find such an abstract scene at any other game's official booth. Let alone when the main attraction is an MMO with a grand worldview and diverse gameplay.
However, when applied to "Lord of the Mysteries," all this feels strangely appropriate. Because although the original work has a very desperate and oppressive worldview, the overall tone is not lacking in humor. Many characters act like comedians even if they aren't intended to be. For example, Alger mentioned at the beginning, after understanding the Acting Method, really went singing when acting as the "Ocean Singer." But thanks to his shocking talent that previously got him kicked out of the choir, he nearly caused the protagonist Klein to lose control on the spot. Together with the True Creator and Mr. Door, they are known as the "Big Three Death Metal Singers of Lord of the Mysteries," perfectly demonstrating what it means that "the Sailor pathway is the pathway governing natural disasters."
In addition, the original work features characters like the sharp-tongued Miss Xinsi and the perfect sycophant Arrodes, highlighting a tone that is both serious and lively. The game's official team has clearly inherited this trait, constantly pulling pranks and creating memes even before the game's launch.
On the eve of launching the "Gray Fog Test," they specially invited an "Old Li" to plant rice as a "Holy Meal" for Klein, allowing "Mr. Fool" to enjoy a taste of home-cooked food on time. The entire process of transplanting seedlings, fertilizing, and field labor was recorded, making it a classic must-watch video for "Cultivator" role-playing.
Fortunately, Old Li wasn't planting mushrooms.
At the same time, during the recruitment period for the "Gray Fog Test," they launched a multi-platform content creation incentive campaign. Participants had the chance to win custom gold coins, cash rewards, and other prizes during the event. Such activities are standard for major publishers during promotional periods, and most participants usually assume they are just there to make up the numbers. However, "Lord of the Mysteries" pulled a prank in this activity too—they forcibly inserted "a piece of old iron" as a bizarre consolation prize into the prize pool, directly turning "investing in iron bars" into a meme. Moreover, this H5 page was released every Monday at 3 PM, corresponding to the Tarot Club's meeting time, making Everythinggj align perfectly.
During Bilibili World (BW), they also announced that the open beta would launch on August 21st, releasing several videos to mark the occasion. These announcement videos were full of memes themselves. One of them directly played on one of the most famous memes from "Lord of the Mysteries"—the "Lavatory" meme, aka the toilet meme—making it a "Public Toilet Announcement Video."
The video seriously takes you on a tour to review the "public restrooms" in various scenes of Tingen City, faithfully recreating the recent viral trend of the "Public Toilet Survey Corps." The content includes toilets, more toilets, and even more toilets—after watching, I feel they should negotiate with Andy Lau for the song rights to "Toilet." Among them, the "Golden Toilet" placed on the streets of Tingen City, crafted by Emperor Roselle, is particularly dazzling—Emperor Roselle is indeed an "Emperor," flawless and loyal. However, does anyone really dare to sit on it?
Not only did they heavily play on the "public toilet" meme in the announcement video, but this development team's liveliness index is so off the charts that they even dare to play with memes about the Goddess.
Klein's predecessor as a transmigrator in the original work, a witness to the mythological era when "gods walked the earth," one of the biggest chess masters behind the world of mysteries, the Crimson Lord, the Mother of Secrecy, the Empress of Misfortune and Fear, the Lord of Slumber and Silence, the Evernight Goddess who is higher than the starry sky and more eternal than eternity herself, personally appeared to unveil the curtain for the open beta.
The Evernight Goddess has always been the core concept of the open beta announcement segment. At the BW site, there was a segment where a "Curly Baboon" handwrote the game's open beta launch date—a segment that echoes the settings in the original work. The Evernight Goddess's authority is "Secrecy." Before She officially confirms the date and reveals it by handwriting, this date remains secret information unknown to others. The development team shaped the open beta announcement into a mystical event of secrecy followed by revelation.
In the video, the "status" of the Evernight Goddess's appearance is interpreted to the fullest: amidst grand and sacred human choral singing, the Evernight Goddess appears with her eyes obscured, mist swirling behind her, holding a Gothic silver-white building. The video directly showcases her protection... and control over Tingen City. Players unfamiliar with the "Lord of the Mysteries" IP can indeed feel the unique "Mystery Aesthetics" in this PV, marveling at the "big production" of this work within its sublime and secretive atmosphere.
But if you know a bit about the original work, you might struggle to keep a straight face after seeing the Goddess's image. Although the gods in the world of mysteries are indeed not entirely "human" and mostly possess their own unique mythical forms, with the Evernight Goddess having many characteristics related to demonic wolves, it's still hard to avoid thinking of the classic meme from the original work, "The sea is all water, the Goddess has eight legs," when those beastly features actually appear as two hairy legs on the Goddess.
Connecting this with the BW site, where "Lord of the Mysteries" specially recreated those HD-realistic, furry-leg-loving Goddess's big hairy legs, I gradually understood Everythinggj—
So, the Goddess appearing at BW was also waiting for that rain. Once BW was flooded, they could naturally play on the meme "BW, you're all water; Goddess, you have eight legs"... Now, there's one more plan ruined because it didn't rain that day.
What makes it even harder to hold back laughter is that on the day of the event, "Lord of the Mysteries" launched an H5 activity themed "Pray to the Goddess to help you pay off your Huabei bills." If Old Neil could pray to get the Goddess to reimburse his thirty pounds back then, today I, Lian Po, can do the same.
However, fortunately, although "Lord of the Mysteries" enjoys playing with memes, it remains reliable where it counts, not exceeding the limit of being "serious yet lively."
While announcing the open beta date, their first actual move was to review the issues that arose during the previous "Gray Fog Test" and adjust based on player feedback. In their official announcement, they were straightforward about the existing problems in the game and clearly explained the development team's solutions.
Actually, in the "Gray Fog Test" that just ended on July 6th, the gameplay features of "Lord of the Mysteries" received a certain degree of affirmation from players. Even though many players did not approve of presenting "Lord of the Mysteries" as an MMO before the test began, as the test started, the series of gameplay improvements made by the development team on top of traditional MMO mechanics, along with the integration of "mystery" elements into the gameplay, were showcased. The unique "European ancient style" theme and diverse gameplay experiences indeed led many players to acknowledge the attempts made by "Lord of the Mysteries."
However, the testing process still exposed some critical issues that urgently need to be addressed by the development team. For instance, many players reported that while the gameplay was diverse, the game had optimization issues. Also, high-end graphics cards like the 50-series couldn't show a significant performance gap compared to mid-range cards in terms of visual presentation.
Therefore, in the upcoming open beta version, the development team will further add gameplay and storylines that were not implemented during the test phase into the game. Whether for PVE players, PVP players, story enthusiasts, or casual players, they aim to provide sufficient gameplay to ensure the game offers enough fun. At the same time, they will continue to optimize support for 50-series graphics cards, providing more expressive visual effects in subsequent updates.
Of course, more importantly, the open beta version will "add more content" to the storyline part, which received the highest praise during the "Lord of the Mysteries" test period.
The narrative experience in the game "Lord of the Mysteries" is very special. To reflect the depth of the original work and meet the expectations of its fans, the development team actually created three different types of storylines. There is a complete recreation of the stories from the original novel, newly written storylines, and many side quests featuring supporting characters from the original work to tell stories that left readers with lingering regrets, such as those of Dunn and Daly.
The game's complete recreation, expansion, and writing of new storylines are areas where "Lord of the Mysteries" has performed quite well, especially in its restoration of the original plot. The gameplay approach to the original story in "Lord of the Mysteries" is designed to single-player game standards. High-spec visual presentation and a genuine one-to-one representation allow players who are already familiar with the original work to still gain a unique experience in the game.
In the upcoming open beta version and subsequent game updates, the development team will continue to advance the game's storyline, running three plotlines in parallel. This allows "Lord of the Mysteries" to fully showcase the charm of the original story while also delivering a fresh narrative experience.
Capable of both meme-making and sincerity, both seriousness and liveliness, "Lord of the Mysteries" has demonstrated traits quite similar to the original work's atmosphere in every aspect, from testing to the open beta announcement. As a work with a style vastly different from existing MMORPGs on the market, it is truly a good thing that "Lord of the Mysteries" remains active, respects the source material, and continues to listen to player feedback to improve the game.
If you also want to see whether this unique MMORPG lives up to its name, why not check out the officially launched open beta of "Lord of the Mysteries" on August 21st.