Can *Lord of the Mysteries*, with a total investment exceeding 1.2 billion yuan, become the breakthrough point for Kuaishou's self-developed games?

By | Guopu

The MMO online game *Lord of Mysteries*, adapted from the IP novel of the same name, has finally been officially launched today.

Since its first reveal in 2023, *Lord of Mysteries* has drawn massive attention. Its debut trailer gained over 6 million views on Bilibili, and the subsequent in-game scene demo soon exceeded 7 million views.

Before launch, the product accumulated 2.1 million pre-registrations on TapTap, making it the most pre-registered new MMO work on the platform. Against the backdrop of the gradual decline of the MMO track, this figure is quite remarkable. As expected after its release, the game immediately topped the iOS Free App chart.

iOS Free App Chart from Qimai Data

It is undeniable that *Lord of Mysteries* is absolutely a highly ambitious product that was born "with a silver spoon in its mouth". Its original IP novel is one of the most breakout phenomenal works on Qidian in recent years, having broken multiple web fiction records. The development team is Finger Universe, a game studio under Kuaishou, which has abundant talent and sufficient capital support.

Message from the original novel author

According to the official announcement, the entire game is built on UE5, with a project team of more than 600 members. The total cost of the project including promotion expenses has exceeded 1.2 billion RMB so far.

QA post on the official WeChat public account

Across the entire industry, such a starting configuration is quite rare.

"What kind of game on earth should we adapt this IP into?"

This was not only the question the project team repeatedly pondered in the early stage of the game's first reveal, but also the biggest curiosity of all IP fans.

As the self-developed game brand under Kuaishou, *Lord of Mysteries* is undoubtedly the most significant project of Finger Universe to date, as well as the highest-risk Joker card in their hand.

If the game turns out well, the Joker will naturally become an ace. *Lord of Mysteries* will surely gain huge profits with the strong support of the big IP, IP fans will get a satisfying result, and the game can also attract a large number of new users who have never read the original work. But if the project fails, the Joker will turn into a real clown. From the project team to Finger Universe, and even Kuaishou, all parties will pay a price in terms of cost and public reputation.

Official game poster

Judging from the final solution presented in the public beta, they finally chose a relatively restrained but extremely cost-intensive development strategy.

Around the second beta test, the official *Lord of Mysteries* team voluntarily disclosed the background of the development team. The producer is Xu Jie, former director of the Leihuo ZhuRong Studio and former producer of *Justice Online*. Most of the core team members come from top gaming companies in the industry, all of whom are developers with years of MMO development experience.

Therefore, *Lord of Mysteries* finally took the path that the team is best at and most experienced in, which is to replicate the path NetEase took when adapting Wen Ruian's novel into the MMO *Justice Online*.

In terms of actual gaming experience, this path has been replicated very thoroughly — even the official account's marketing style has been imitated by 70% to 80%.

Many gameplay systems and commercialization models of *Lord of Mysteries* can find traces from the multiple successful versions of *Justice Online*, ranging from the resource scheduling and rhythm arrangement of daily dungeons, weekly dungeons and the premium battle pass, to the underlying design logic of system framework and operation mode.

For example, *Lord of Mysteries* divides players' daily activities into two major sections: gameplay and reward acquisition. Players can experience the recommended daily gameplay in the "Lay-and-Win" system and gain Vigor (stamina) rewards, which can be used to unlock various rewards. Of course, Vigor can also recover naturally over time.

"Lay-and-Win" system

This series of designs has been verified by *Justice Online* for several years, and there is almost no risk of stepping into a pitfall.

However, as some netizens said, it is actually unfair to simply equate *Lord of Mysteries* with a "Western fantasy themed reskinned *Justice Online*".

Just like the Warrior-Mage-Prize trinity forms the core class framework of MMOs, the overall framework of *Justice Online* is undoubtedly the safest choice at present, and it is also the design that Xu Jie and his team know best. When they are determined to make a traditional MMO, it is reasonable for them to reuse this familiar framework.

Game class poster

With a more solid and safe foundation, *Lord of Mysteries* also has the conditions and extra budget to develop some original designs with no reference. Broadly speaking, it is about how to create a new generation of MMO based on UE5. Narrowly speaking, it is about how to design the art, narrative and other game content around the IP.

After all, everyone thinks *Lord of Mysteries* has a perfect starting hand, but its creation is also on one of the most difficult tracks in the gaming industry. Right now, the market popularity of MMOs is declining, and IP adaptations are inherently not favored, which means the game has many buffs, but also quite a few debuffs.

For example, the team has put a lot of effort into the art design. The Victorian style in the game's setting lacks existing designs that fit current aesthetic standards in the market or even in history. To do this part well, the *Lord of Mysteries* team essentially has to start from scratch.

So far, the game's art design is generally praiseworthy. From the earliest in-game scene demo, to the landscapes, costume designs and cultural wonders across the entire town of Tingen in the game, even players who are not familiar with the IP will feel refreshed. Users who know the original novel well will most likely quickly connect the various scenes in the novel to the game.

CG of first entering Tingen

However, the IP story also emphasizes all kinds of unpredictable Lovecraftian expressions, which also require appropriate art design to assist the presentation. If the intensity is too low, the sense of mystery and horror cannot be conveyed. If the intensity is too high, it will easily turn into messy special effects flying all over the screen, and the design difficulty is quite close to that of Chinese horror games that focus on atmosphere building.

Animated image of rainy scene

In terms of atmosphere design, the UE5 engine can undoubtedly provide a very high upper limit. However, the game did not unlock too much main storyline on the first day of launch, so it is still too early to draw a conclusion on whether this part is well done.

What is certain is that *Lord of Mysteries* has already delivered a passable performance in narrative and derivative gameplay.

In terms of narrative, the initial impression of the game is that players play the role of the protagonist in the novel and re-experience the original plot in the form of a game.

Original in-game scene and story dialogue demo

This seems to be a safe and risk-free option, but it actually brings more problems: on the premise of respecting original IP users, it is difficult to make major changes to the plot, which means the game system and version rhythm will be greatly restricted. In the end, the *Lord of Mysteries* game team chose to "have it all".

The game currently has two storylines. The original plot line takes place two years after the end of the original novel. Players play a character selected by Klein, or even the entire Tarot Club, who arrives in Tingen with the mission to save the world from crisis. With the supervision of Cuttlefish That Loves Diving, the original novel author, the entire original content line is basically consistent with the tone of the original work, and some original side stories have received a lot of praise from players during the test phase.

NPC "The Magician"

At the same time, *Lord of Mysteries* also fully retains all the plots of the original novel through the "Above the Gray Mist" quest line — even every line of the original lines is completely preserved without any addition or deletion.

Some trivial plots in the towns are distributed in the streets and alleys of Tingen, and players can choose to trigger them by interacting when passing by.

The house-moving plot from the original novel

This is undoubtedly great news for IP users, after all, players have suffered from too many IP adaptations that "ruin the original work" in the past.

In addition, the game also provides a third-person over-the-shoulder immersive perspective for players to choose. Even users who are not very interested in MMO content can completely experience it as a standalone IP derivative product.

Of course, the premise is that you can ignore some designs that are too typical of MMOs. For example, to smash a box in the plot, players need to interact twice in a row.

In terms of side gameplay, *Lord of Mysteries* has also laid out a large amount of playable content.

In the "Exploration" system, the game is divided into two major modules: "World of Order" and "Dark Side of the City", which cover a variety of interesting mini-games including shooting, puzzle solving, roguelike and even tabletop RPG sessions.

Taking the "Dark Side of the City" section as an example, it includes a large number of long side plots that fit the dark tone, and provides various gameplay challenges such as speed races and combat. After 8 PM every day, the game will also launch "Rush Night", where NPCs and players are no longer restricted by Tingen's laws, and compete for resources on the map with each other like "model citizens".

If players are lucky enough, they can get a "Free Purchase Voucher", which can be used to redeem any directly sold outfit in the mall for free. And according to the list, the game will launch an additional "Prison Break" gameplay tomorrow.

"Exploration" system section in the game

In addition, the game also adds a unique GVG gameplay mode "Battle of the Four Emperors", which allows up to thousands of players to compete on the same screen divided into 4 camps. For hardcore players, the team has built a special "Strategic Server", which only allows the top 4 clubs in the division to enter, for a total of 16 clubs. The winning club can get a set of exclusive outfits and a permanent battle flag.

Frankly speaking, in the MMO track, the volume of such inserted content is so large that it is almost cost-disregarding. And with the subsequent version updates, the official will most likely maintain this rhythm and continue to launch more side gameplay content