Chapter 143
Chapter 143
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 143
Chapter Title: E3 - Hellic 4 (3)
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With the community handle ‘PoppyLetsGoForAWalk,’ gaming reporter Jin Woo-hyeong had once again made his way to E3 this year.
Despite being a veteran with over ten years of experience, he insisted on attending events like this for one simple reason.
‘It’s a chance to play games before anyone else, isn’t it?’
It was because he loved games that much.
His decision to become a gaming reporter out of all the possible fields, his activity in online communities, and his continued presence on the ground, chasing stories—it was all fueled by his passion for gaming.
This year was especially different.
He had a reason to be here, deliberately ignoring his boss’s suggestion to pass on overseas assignments to his juniors.
“Woo-hyeong, don’t you have a lot of other work…”
“Hellic 4.”
“…You have an interview next week…”
“Soulslike.”
“…You son of a bitch.”
His boss’s sigh, at least, was not something Woo-hyeong was meant to hear.
That’s right.
This year at E3, Hellic 4 would be unveiled.
The one and only god of Korean console gaming was throwing down the gauntlet, and in Woo-hyeong’s favorite genre, no less: Soulslike (or more accurately, Souls-lite).
Woo-hyeong’s obsession with the Soulslike genre had a long history.
To explain it all, one would have to go back at least as far as ‘King’s Game’… but that was a story for another time.
Even setting that aside, there was one particular anecdote.
Back when Hellic 1 was released, it was Woo-hyeong who had relentlessly championed *Evil’s Souls*, a game that was poorly received immediately after its launch.
Recalling that fact, one could understand just how serious he was about the Soulslike genre.
And one could also gauge how immense his expectations were for Hellic 4.
Woo-hyeong let out a low chuckle, “Heehee,” and made a vow to himself.
‘This time, I’m going to be strict.’
It was a common gamer sentiment to be even more critical of one’s favorite genre.
Moreover, for a title not from the original creators of the genre, the scrutiny was bound to be even harsher.
Would Studio Rewind, known as the “GOTY Hunter,” live up to its name once again?
As he lifted his head, lost in thought, the massive Studio Rewind booth at the E3 venue filled his vision.
And just as expected, something that did not betray his expectations appeared before his eyes.
‘…What is that monstrosity?’
There, a man in a white spandex suit, best described as “shiny” or “gleaming,” stood with a soulless expression.
What made it even more grotesque was the long octopus leg attached to his waist.
Why was one of the legs dangling toward his crotch?
He didn’t dwell on the thought for long.
The moment he saw that hideous cosplay, he had an epiphany.
*Click!*
With the sound of the shutter, Woo-hyeong was certain.
‘This is definitely getting featured.’
This year’s Hellic 4 cosplay was destined to be a masterpiece that would make it to the main featured posts.
The face looked quite familiar.
‘Director Yang Gil-sang of Studio Rewind’s business department.’
*Please, be the sacrificial lamb for my featured post.*
That day, a post with a certain title appeared on a Korean gaming community site.
*[PoppyLetsGoForAWalk: The Hellic cosplay is top-tier again this year ^^]*
Woo-hyeong had no way of knowing that this post would circulate and eventually reach the woman Yang Gil-sang was dating with the intention of marriage.
Honestly, even if he had known, he probably would have posted it anyway.
The people’s right to know, and freedom of the press.
Was that not the duty of a reporter?
Woo-hyeong was a born reporter with an upright journalistic mindset.
In any case,
“We will now begin admission!”
The Hellic 4 booth opened.
* * *
The moment he entered the booth was always tense.
It was a tremor heralding a new encounter, like a celebratory firework set off to mark a festival.
His heart pounded harder.
Woo-hyeong savored the pleasant stimulation as he took his seat.
The first thing he did was put on the headset and pick up the controller.
When he turned on the screen, the title [Hellic 4: The man is] appeared in a stylish font, just as one would expect from Studio Rewind.
What reason was there to delay?
Woo-hyeong immediately pressed the start button.
[Aaaaaaaah!]
They say that was the scream of Rewind’s art director. The signature sound, now an open secret, echoed out.
Woo-hyeong was suddenly reminded of an anonymous user on the community site who had boasted they would drown themselves in a puddle if that story were true.
‘I heard it from the director himself, so how could it not be true?’
A smirk escaped his lips.
Of course, Woo-hyeong wouldn’t reveal the truth.
He knew that leaking information obtained outside of an official interview wouldn’t do his relationship with the company any favors.
The screen immediately transitioned to the in-game demo.
There were no cinematics, story videos, or scripted scenes.
The demo time was 25 minutes. Rewind likely wanted to compactly showcase the in-game fun of the Soulslike genre within that timeframe.
For Woo-hyeong, who valued story and narrative, it was a bit disappointing, but that was fine.
It was a Soulslike, after all.
This was a genre whose technical difficulty was by no means easy compared to other games, one that required delicate, frame-by-frame systemic detail.
‘Let’s see… the guide…’
The beginning displayed the controls and various basic skills.
The UI was simple, utilizing negative space to draw focus to the game screen itself.
Recalling prior information from the conference, Woo-hyeong tested out the Souls staples: movement, dodging, and attacking.
In the process, he was surprised by something.
‘It’s this smooth?’
The movements were incredibly fluid.
The reason this surprised him, as mentioned before, was that he was an avid fan of Soulslikes.
Games that tried to imitate the original Souls series usually had one thing in common.
They would misinterpret the signature high difficulty and weighty feel, expressing it as ‘clunky controls.’
In that respect, the first impression was a pass.
The foundation of the Souls genre comes not from clunky controls, but from pressure.
The slow attack pacing was meant to give the average person’s perception enough of a grace period to make decisions in a combat system where every single hit mattered.
‘But…’
If this was all there was to it, he could never give it a high score.
Simply implementing the basics correctly was only worth about a 5 out of 10.
The important thing was whether it had its own unique characteristics as a standalone game.
If you release a game that emulates another company’s genre, you have to show how it differs from the original to shed the label of being a mere copycat.
And that thought was somewhat alleviated when he encountered the ‘Revolving System.’
Woo-hyeong left the guide and tutorial area and entered the main map.
Considering the short playtime typical of a booth demo, there probably wouldn’t be any need to take side paths.
He moved in a straight line, and it was at that point, after killing the first regular monster, that it happened.
*Kk-ri-rik!*
In the center of the screen, one of the six dots that only appeared when locked onto an enemy turned red.
It looked like the cylinder of a revolver viewed head-on, and the red smoke effect that appeared around his character upon it being charged allowed Woo-hyeong to make an intuitive deduction.
‘So this is it.’
The rather flashy execution system he had seen at the conference.
There was no need to hesitate.
Woo-hyeong passed through an alley, immediately encountered the next enemy, and used the execution system.
It was activated by hitting an enemy with an attack triggered by a specific button.
‘If I miss, wasting a stack is going to sting a bit.’
Just as he was having that thought.
*Vrooom!*
The controller vibrated.
That wasn’t all.
The screen suddenly switched to black and white, and time began to flow in slow motion.
A guide notification popped up.
[Select the number of cartridges to use. (L1)]
‘Ah, so this is where I decide how many execution stacks to use.’
Woo-hyeong pressed the L1 button.
It wasn’t just a simple press.
‘Oh.’
It was quite stiff.
To make an analogy, it felt like pulling the trigger of a gun; it seemed they had adjusted the button’s pressure sensitivity.
It was a truly minor detail, but this was the kind of feature that elevated the game’s immersion and impact.
As he pulled the trigger, the ‘*kk-ri-rik*’ sound that tickled his ears made him feel as if he were actually loading a revolver.
And so, the actual execution began.
*Thud!*
The protagonist slammed a fist into the enemy’s face, grabbed its neck, and shoved the muzzle of a gun into its mouth.
The process was shown in detail through shifting camera angles.
Immediately after, the protagonist pulled the trigger.
The screen was filled with the image of the trigger being pulled, the hammer drawing back, and then striking the rotated cylinder to fire the gun.
*Bang—!*
The camera zoomed out with the gunshot.
Along with a brilliant effect, blood sprayed from the back of the enemy’s head.
Woo-hyeong’s eyes widened.
‘Whoa, insane.’
What kind of ridiculous impact was this?
From the moment the execution was triggered and hit the enemy, through the slow-motion black-and-white transition, to loading the bullet and watching the execution cutscene, the tension and excitement never faded.
No, that wasn’t all.
That whole sequence was clearly starting to build various expectations within Woo-hyeong.
‘Is this a one-bullet execution?’
Then how would two, three, and four bullets work?
No, considering the appearance of the boss from the cinematic, this kind of execution would be impossible. Did they create separate animations?
That would mean there are special execution animations for each boss.
Setting all that aside.
‘The feel of it is just too good.’
Woo-hyeong was captivated by the entire technical process of the execution itself.
It was a shock that made it impossible to see Hellic 4 as a mere copycat of the Souls genre any longer.
‘It’s different.’
That didn’t mean it was better.
It could only be described as literally ‘different from the original.’
It started with the visual aesthetics.
The way it oscillated between restraint and spectacle, the obsessive detail in its art and sound, the sudden systemic shocks, and the fact that there wasn't a single flaw in the details throughout the entire process.
It was all thoroughly perverse—in other words, quintessentially Rewind.
Amidst it all, one worry lingered: what if this lowered the game’s difficulty too much?
Of course, this wasn’t something to worry about before the official release.
Woo-hyeong set his worries aside and moved forward.
What he saw there was Hellic 4’s second main system: the ‘Profiling Journal.’
[You have obtained a Bloodstained Dagger.]
[Analyze?]
The effort the development team had put in to simplify the profiling process to this extent was something Woo-hyeong could never know.
All Woo-hyeong had to do as a player was press ‘yes.’
A script appeared.
[—Signs of a reverse grip are visible.]
[—Blood spatter is directed toward the hilt.]
[—Likely used to stab downwards into a major artery, such as the carotid.]
[Profiling Journal: You have obtained the first clue for ???.]
This was a deepening of the concept.
The expression of narrative through game systems—one of the reasons Woo-hyeong liked Studio Rewind—was on full display here.
‘Ah, so this is how it leads up to the boss fight. The profiling is like a bestiary.’
A structure where you collect clues to gradually reveal information about the boss before finally seeking them out and defeating them.
So, the protagonist is a detective who uses a revolver and profiling, and the enemies are people with murder records who have come to hell.
Until his thoughts expanded this far, Woo-hyeong had no concrete clues about the protagonist’s identity.
This was all a deduction based on clues naturally woven into the game’s systems, and Woo-hyeong judged the possibility of it being wrong to be very low.
A faint sense of amazement surged within him.
‘This is good.’
Only then did a remark from Yeon-ho cross his mind.
“It’s a Souls-lite.”
Lite.
It was definitely lite.
Of course, dangers befitting a Souls game were scattered everywhere, but it was an undeniable fact that a degree of casualness was melted into it.
Letting out a dry laugh, Woo-hyeong pressed on.
The moments waiting for the execution gauge to fill were nerve-wracking, and when he finally got to use the finisher, a thrill shot through him.
But alas, if there are good times in life, there must also be sad times.
If he had admired the quality, there must also be a moment to face the developers’ malice.
Now was such a moment.
*Ssplat—!*
A very, very wet and sticky sound suddenly pierced through Woo-hyeong’s headset.
The protagonist staggered. What had struck his body like a whip was the white leg of a mollusk.
Startled by the chunk of health he’d lost, Woo-hyeong turned the camera.
Something was standing there.
‘…An octopus?’
A glistening, three-legged octopus was squirming its body as it stared at him.
Woo-hyeong looked at the middle leg that had just struck his character.
Squirm, squirm. The moment he saw the undulating leg, his eyes darted away from the screen.
He looked toward Yang Gil-sang at the booth entrance.
‘…Ah.’
Realization.
And then, the feeling that arose as he looked back at the octopus on the screen.
‘Th-this is disgusting…’
An indescribable, cosmic horror-like sense of unease washed over Woo-hyeong.
It was the debut of Hellic 4’s mascot, the Whip of the Abyss, which had infuriated countless QA team members.