They wanted to make a trashy game, but how come it sold like hotcakes again?

Chapter 42 Promotional Video

Within three days of its launch, Tangdou Talent sold over 5 units.

This is without any large-scale promotion. After the system triggers the Dragon King's Return in a few days, the sales should be able to increase even further.

But Tang She didn't care about Fall Guys' sales at all, or rather, after seeing the game's current performance, he no longer needed to pay attention to it and could leave it to the newly recruited team in Group Two to manage.

He was in his office at the moment, and there were several other people sitting in the room: Xiao Li, Wu Yu, Lin Chen, and Tang Wei.

The projector in the office was showing the most popular game forums in China, but this time it was the single-player game section.

The discussion about the game "Tang Re Ren" was delightful, but unfortunately, it was filled with negative reviews.

"I didn't believe it when people on the forum said that Tangren Games' success was all due to marketing. Now it seems that's really true."

"Three Kingdoms Kill, Plants vs. Zombies, Pokémon, and now Fall Guys. Can any of them be considered serious games? Just one? They're all just for livestream entertainment, then they get a bunch of players to blindly follow the trend and buy them. Isn't that just ripping people off?"

"Heh, that's about the limit for Tangren Games. Domestic games still have to rely on those quietly dedicated game companies that focus on creating high-quality content."

"Remember what that Tang She guy said back in the Lunar New Year? He said the next game would definitely be better than Pokémon. I won't discuss whether Pokémon is actually good or not, but this Fall Guys game, let's not try to piggyback on that."

"How do you get your colleagues to take turns praising you at the company's annual party? The answer, of course, is to sleep with your boss."

Scrolling through the posts, I could tell what they were about without even clicking on them.

Xiao Li, Tang Wei, and Wu Yu watched calmly. To be honest, they were already indifferent. When they were making bad games, the online criticism was even worse than it is now.

Although these people are using very offensive language, at least there are still some people willing to speak up for them.

Lin Chen, however, felt an extraordinary surge of anger.

To be honest, he had previously thought that these posts made some sense, since he joined Tangren Games out of personal preference, rather than because he genuinely believed that Tangren Games was a top-tier game company in China.

On this kind of forum, even if you are the world's number one game company, you will still be cursed to the point of being condemned to heaven, let alone a second-rate company like them.

But things are different now. He has read the Zelda project proposal, and having played games since he can remember, he can certainly understand what this game represents. It is a complete revolution in the gaming industry.

Of course, not everyone will like it, but once you accept the gameplay, you'll definitely be hooked and unable to tear yourself away.

Just as he was about to pick up his phone, log into his account, and engage in a fierce online battle with the trolls, Tang She stopped him:

"Isn't this good too? At least the publicity goal has been achieved."

Lin Chen wanted to refute something, but then he saw Tang She's smiling eyes.

This was indeed the best time. In fact, during the Chinese New Year, Ren Wei and Tang She had already contacted the best CG companies abroad to make promotional videos for Zelda.

After all, there is no Lunar New Year holiday abroad, and today is also the day Su Yi and her team finish their work.

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Hao Zheng breathed a sigh of relief as his Fall Guy crossed the finish line, shifting his attention from the game to the live stream chat.

Although he wasn't as bad as the Bancheng and Laoxian brothers, he still had to give it his all and concentrate fully in the final rounds to have a chance to win.

Otherwise, if he plays while watching and replying to the comments, he'll easily get hit by the traps on the field.

However, none of the praise, doubts, or jokes he had anticipated appeared in the live chat.

All the comments on the screen at this moment were exactly the same, with only one message: "Go to the Sugarman Games official website to watch the latest episodes."

Seeing that he had finally noticed the comments, the chat stopped spamming and instead began to exchange their own thoughts.

"Brother Hao, go check it out, Tangren Games is really awesome."

"It's impressive, but it's just CG. Brother Hao, do you think you can pull it off?"

"Look, look, look, look! If you don't look now, you'll miss out on the freshly made food!"

"Brother Hao, I heard that this almost-almost Fall Guys game was actually made by the second team that Tangren Games recruited this year. Their old team is working on something big right now. The trailer for the new game is out, go watch it."

Seeing all sorts of comments, Hao Zheng decided not to continue boasting about his crown. He opened his browser and entered a familiar website.

Upon entering the official website of Sugarman Games, a three-minute video is displayed in the center of the webpage.

The video's name is right above it.

"Three Minutes to Tell You How Strong Link Was 100 Years Ago".

Hao Zheng tilted his head. This name didn't look like a game promotional video at all.

Just as he was about to raise some questions, the comments section started urging him on again.

"Look, look, look, look!"

The screen was scrolling frantically. He could only swallow his doubts and press play.

As he pressed play, a half-naked man lying in blue liquid appeared on the screen, and a wise yet fragile voice rang in Hao Zheng's ears:

"Link! Link, wake up! Link!"

The man in the video opened his eyes as he was called out. The scene then flickered, and he appeared in a sea of ​​flowers. In the distance, a medieval European castle stood atop a mountain, shrouded in red mist.

The girl's voice didn't stop there; she continued to whisper:

"Wake up, Link! Wake up!"

The music in my ears grew increasingly oppressive until a bell rang, followed by stirring piano music, and the screen went completely white.

Then, a man wearing a cloak appeared again, facing off against a golden centaur wielding a giant hammer.

The centaur charged toward the man named Link, wielding a giant hammer.

Link, meanwhile, held a shield in one hand and a sword in the other, the sword emitting an increasingly sharp buzzing sound as it aimed at the charging troops.

Just before the golden centaur was about to strike Link, he slashed out with his sword, cutting the charging centaur in a semi-circular arc, and then did a backflip to dodge the centaur's attack.

While he was in mid-air, time around him slowed down, and he charged forward again with his sword, beginning a merciless slash at the centaur's chest and abdomen.

At this moment, Hao Zheng finally understood what the comments meant. He pressed the pause button and then said to the comments:

"No, although I am Tang Yi'er, is this really a game that Tangren Games can make? Isn't it a bit too hasty for a company that makes all sorts of small games to jump into making a large-scale action game that relies heavily on controls?"

There were also dissenting voices in the comments section, but they were just players and couldn't influence Tangren Games' decisions.

After several strikes, time resumed its normal flow.

The centaur swung its giant hammer at Link again, but Link used the same tactic, stopping time again to attack it several times.

The golden centaur was clearly enraged by the attack. He raised his giant hammer above his head with both hands, ready to strike, while the protagonist Link took the bow and arrow from his back, aimed at the centaur's head, and delivered a headshot.

The attacked men staggered and fell to their knees.

Link then took out a giant axe almost as big as himself from his backpack and used Whirlwind Slash on the centaur. The golden centaur was tough enough that Link couldn't kill it. After regaining its senses, it quickly fled far away and drew its bow and arrows from its back to shoot at Link.

Link, on the other hand, chose to use his shield. He lightly waved his shield, and the arrows shot by the centaurs were returned to him exactly as they were.

The centaur, with only a sliver of health remaining, was also hit by its own attack, emptying its last bit of health.

Hao Zheng was completely stunned at this moment.

"No way, even the CG is too cool! How did they come up with that? If this kind of operation could actually be done in a game, I'm telling you, it would definitely be the game of the year. It's too perfect! Although other games have similar operations, absolutely no game can be as smooth and perfect as this one."

I'm Tang Yi'er. Tangren Games will definitely let me be one of the first to play this game, right?

But the barrage of comments in front of him kept him watching. Hao Zheng, already shocked by Tangren Games, gaped with disbelief.

"No way? There's more?"

Although the video is 3 minutes long, he felt that the opening scene of fighting the centaurs was the most impressive, and the rest was probably just filler content.

But the excited comments in the live chat told him that things might not be as he imagined.

The video continued playing, showing a monster more than ten times larger than Link sleeping. Link walked to its feet, took out a rocket, and ignited it, shooting it at its thigh. At the same time, the rocket ignited the dry grass on the ground, and then an updraft appeared.

Link pulled a paraglider from his backpack, and then a green bird called out beside him. It took off with the updraft, even higher than the Cyclops's head.

Then Link pulled a giant hammer from his backpack and smashed it into the Cyclops' eye. He switched back to his glider, using the updraft to gain altitude again, and then pulled out the giant hammer again to smash it into the Cyclops' eye.

Repeating this process, the seemingly powerful Cyclops was eventually beaten to his knees. Then, he pulled a spear from his backpack and threw it with all his might at the Cyclops's covered eye.

As the spear exploded in a blue light, the Cyclops disappeared into the forest.

Hao Zheng was speechless. He could only open his mouth wide, his face full of confusion. Then he pointed to the computer screen, then to himself, and solemnly said:

"Really? Tangren Games, give me a trial access, and I'll call Tang She 'Daddy' on my live stream."

The comments that had been urging him to keep watching suddenly stopped, and then turned into personal attacks accusing him of being shameless, with many comments saying things like "Let me test it, I can scream too."

The video continues playing.

This time, the opponent was a golden minotaur. Just as it was about to attack, Link used something to stop the time of the beast in place, then took out his bow and arrow and shot it.

When the time stop ended, the monster collapsed. Link then switched to an ice weapon and began a whirlwind attack. At the same time, he transformed his weapon into a bow, and the speed of his spin increased significantly.

The minotaur was frozen as soon as it got up, and then frozen again by Link's attack as soon as it thawed, and so on. As Link's stamina bar gradually decreased, the minotaur was eventually killed by this relentless attack.

"That was fire and wind elements, and now it's ice? Tangren Games, what's with this elemental reaction stuff? No way..."

As the sound resumed, the images in the video began to change rapidly.

Link threw several boomerangs, and just as they were about to return to his hand, he jumped up to dodge them, causing the boomerangs to spin around him. Meanwhile, the mechanical creature in front of him, wielding two swords, was constantly being attacked by the boomerangs.

In the rain, thunder rumbled in the sky. Link's weapon crackled with electricity, and just a second before the lightning struck, he hurled his iron sword at the minotaur in front of him. The sword had barely struck the minotaur when the lightning bolt struck, blasting it to smithereens.

Then came a mechanical monster that looked like an octopus, shooting lasers from its eyes. Link swung his shield, and with a "beep," the laser, now twice as thick, was deflected back.

Next, a monster resembling a ninja swung its battle blade at Link, but Link perfectly dodged the attack with a backflip.

The scene flashed again, and countless flames and explosions appeared behind Link, who continued walking forward leisurely, perfectly embodying the saying "A real man never looks back at an explosion."

Next came the centaurs, minotaurs, and goblins scattered everywhere, their weapons strewn about. Link, meanwhile, stood leisurely in the middle of the battlefield, lit a campfire, and began cooking dinner.

At the end of the video, Link plunges his sword back into a dense forest.

Then the intelligent female voice rang out again, and Link, who was lying on the blue-glowing stone bed, finally opened his eyes. He sat up instantly, looked around at the empty space, then moved to the edge of the bed and got up to leave.

When he got out of bed, his feet couldn't even touch the ground.

As the screen gradually darkens and then brightens again, a grassland swept by the wind and a mountain peak that appears to have been split in two appear on the screen, along with the game's title, "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild."

Next came the Tangren Games logo, followed by a 350-day countdown.

The comments section was flooded with messages, mostly discussing whether Tangren Games could achieve even half or a tenth of the quality of the CG animation.

After all, the game was too good, and the time was too short.

350 days—this level of quality is something that no game company in the world, let alone Tangren Games, could achieve.

Hao Zheng's opinion was completely different from all the comments.

"The main character in the video is clearly named Link, so why is the game called The Legend of Zelda?"