Moreover, the stories like Prometheus stealing the fire are simply too cliché for audiences.
Young viewers simply don't like them. They prefer something trendy, something more anti-classical.
MiHoYo understood this well, which is why they portrayed the Flame Reaver as a villain.
So the problem was never with them. The problem lies with the theme itself!
A storyline where someone sacrifices themselves for humanity's future and lives only for the wishes of others has long fallen behind the times.
"We simply suffered a disadvantage in terms of theme."
"But failure is the mother of success. As long as we learn from this failure and change direction, we will definitely achieve a complete victory."
"Our financial strength is still very much intact."
This was Herdo's final conclusion.
After that, he made a shocking decision.
He scrapped all the footage that had already been filmed for the episode meant to compete with Amphoreus and started over from scratch.
Actors, directors, script, special effects. Everything began being reshot again at an accelerated pace.
And this time, the direction was tragedy. The explosive popularity of Amphoreus Episode 2 had already proven this point.
The core of the stories of Mydei and Tribios both carried a tragic undertone.
And the Olympus could do the same. Moreover, they were confident they could do it even better than Amphoreus.
As for whether the rushed production would affect quality, Herdo wasn't worried at all.
Because this time, he had gathered all his connections.
And he wasn't throwing away everything that had already been filmed. Only certain parts would be replaced.
So the progress would be very fast.
At the same time... In order to build momentum, many media outlets around the world began releasing coordinated press statements, loudly announcing that the next focus of Olympus would center on tragedy.
On one side was the explosive popularity of Amphoreus Episode 2. On the other side was the relentless news bombardment from Olympus.
Together, the two directly became the focal point of global traffic.
...
"Who can't make tragedies? The reason Olympus wasn't as popular as Amphoreus was simply because the theme wasn't suitable."
"That's right! Olympus is real mythology after all. Now it's time for a counterattack, we're definitely going to see a tragic story far better than Amphoreus!"
"I can't wait already."
"The popularity of Amphoreus won't last much longer."
"This is mythology deeply ingrained in the world. How could MiHoYo possibly compete?"
"I said it before, Prometheus should never have been the first appearance of Olympus. The story is too old. Young people simply aren't interested!"
"Even MiHoYo didn't dare make the Flame Reaver a main character. But that doesn't matter. This little trick will definitely be crushed once Hollywood reacts!"
····
Large numbers of suspicious accounts began appearing across various social media platforms, following media reports and speaking in support of Olympus.
Of course, no matter how many people they hired with money, they still couldn't suppress MiHoYo fans all over the world.
Moreover, because Olympus had already been building hype about competing directly with MiHoYo before Episode 2 aired, they poured enormous promotional resources into the campaign, drawing the attention of countless casual viewers worldwide.
But no matter how Olympus smeared things or guided how many uninformed passersby into criticizing the community, one fact could not be changed.
Negative traffic is still traffic.
Among the massive number of casual viewers being guided by the narrative, there would always be quite a portion of people who, out of curiosity, or the desire to criticize, would begin watching Honkai: Star Rail.
And once they started, they would immediately fall into the pit. Then they would become loyal fans of the series.
Herdo didn't realize this at all. Even the person responsible for this promotional campaign failed to notice it.
Their promotional resources were actually helping the community expand rapidly. The more fiercely they portrayed the battle between Olympus and Star Rail, the bigger the traffic became.
And the faster Honkai: Star Rail attracted new viewers.
That was why Xia Wen had been so pleased when he first learned about his opponents actions.
After all, MiHoYo's competitors all wished for MiHoYo to collapse as soon as possible.
But Olympus and Herdo were different. These people genuinely seemed to want MiHoYo to become even more popular!
And so, with the frenzied promotion helping to build momentum, discussion about Amphoreus across the global internet kept growing.
Whether good or bad, the result was the same. As long as you were online, you would definitely know about Honkai: Star Rail and Amphoreus.
Every day, new viewers kept joining. And when Episode 3 aired, these people would become part of the record-breaking statistics that were bound to appear.
A few days later.
MiHoYo headquarters. Inside the company building, Xia Wen leaned back in the boss's chair, staring at the large screen in front of him, deep in thought.
"Episode 2 of Amphoreus has already finished airing."
"The groundwork that needed to be laid and the settings that needed to be shown have basically all been presented."
"But the next two segments of the story, if they're made into only Episode 3 and Episode 4, the scale is actually a bit insufficient."
Xia Wen pondered silently.
After Mydei and Tribios, the next characters would be Anaxa, Castorice, Aglaea, and Hyacine. The four characters had complex setups and stories.
But in terms of the main storyline, it was still the usual pattern, defeat the related Titan, obtain the Coreflame, and reveal more of the setting.
However, this approach, once in a series is fine. Twice is also acceptable.
But if it happens too many times, it starts to feel repetitive.
Amphoreus was currently explosively popular, but that also carried the risk of "burning too hot."
If they didn't take advantage of this momentum and strike in one decisive push to crush those troublesome opponents, they might lose a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Especially in Greece. MiHoYo's allies there had already sent word.
They told MiHoYo to prepare for retaliation from the Art Committee and Cinnati.
They even had to prepare for the worst-case scenario: the entire Amphoreus series might be subjected to censorship and be unable to broadcast normally in Greece.
Of course, the other side would not just sit quietly and accept it. They also had their own political backers and powers.
For them, lifting censorship would not be difficult.
But the Art Committee was the stronghold of the hardliners.
Therefore, they needed to deal with the other side, funnel money, and allow the big shots to exchange interests until a consensus was finally reached.
And the problem lay right here. For MiHoYo, for Xia Wen, and for their allies in Greece, the key was not whether censorship could be lifted.
But how long it would take. If the time dragged on for too long, Star Rail's popularity in Greece would run into serious trouble.
A once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity could not be compensated for with money or works alone.
And if they wanted to resolve the censorship as quickly as possible, relying only on the strength of their allies was not enough.
They needed more. For example… Public opinion.
As long as public opinion grew large enough, large enough that the big figures above risked losing their positions, then no matter how many connections that honorary chairman of the Art Committee had, no matter how many benefits were exchanged behind the scenes, the big shots would have no choice but to lift the censorship.
"What a coincidence," Xia Wen said. "According to the wishes of the Mavromi family."
"The moment when that honorary chairman of the Art Committee pushed forward the censorship against Amphoreus happens to coincide with the time I originally planned to air Episode Four."
Xia Wen stroked his chin, calculating silently.
Episode Four… Originally, it belonged to Hyacine's moment in the spotlight.
But if he merged Episode Three and Episode Four together, then at that moment, what would appear on the screen would be the conclusion of the first half.
The story of Khaslana.
"Hehe…"
"Public opinion, huh?"
Xia Wen's eyes flickered. A plan had already formed in his mind.
Perhaps fortune itself was helping. Originally, the volumes of Episode Three and Episode Four were not very long.
In the game, quite a large portion of the playtime was taken up by puzzle-solving. The actual narrative content, when combined, was roughly the same length as Episode One.
From a structural perspective, this approach posed no real problem.
In terms of content, it could also conveniently dilute the drawback of the main plot having the same objective.
The first half would be the stage of Anaxa and Aglaea, and Aglaea's storyline would finish in the second half through Hyacine's story.
It was practically perfect.
Phainon's growth would also run from the opening all the way to the end, forming a complete chain. It would not be split awkwardly into two separate episodes.
And in the end, everything would connect perfectly to the final explosive climax of the first half of the Amphoreus storyline.
"…Hmm."
"All benefits, no drawbacks."
"In the game it was divided into two versions because many factors had to be considered."
"But for a TV series, none of those are real problems. That's the advantage of adapting it into a series."
Xia Wen curled his lips slightly, sat up straight, opened his computer, and began typing on the keyboard, drafting the plan:
Merge the content of Episode Three and Episode Four and broadcast it as Episode Three.The original Episode Five, For the Sun is Set to Die, will become Episode Four.
Depending on the situation, they should lay groundwork for Phainon's appearance, especially Phainon's "Coronal Radiance" PV. This task will be handed to Sunday.
Then comes the "main battlefield," namely Greece itself. Their allies there must cooperate, once news of the censorship is released, they must push the emotions of the public forward, at least until Episode Four airs.
Finally, the various character PVs can also be released one after another.
"That should be enough." Not long afterward, Xia Wen, satisfied, sent the message.
The current MiHoYo, under the management of Sunday, Aventurine, Topaz, Jade and others, had already built an enormous administrative structure.
Xia Wen only needed to determine the strategic direction. Everything else would be executed through the efforts of those talented individuals.
Xia Wen lifted his hands from the keyboard and looked at the screensaver on the monitor.
It was a group photo of the entire MiHoYo staff.
The corner of his mouth curled upward. To be honest, he was already starting to look forward to the arrival of the censorship.
...
At the same time, elsewhere.
Greece, Thessaloniki.
Inside a private seaside resort.
An elderly man with a beard sat there, his hair and beard completely white.
Beside him sat a young man with sharp eyes and a straight posture. The two sat by the sea, enjoying fine food while chatting casually.
The old man was called Aris Mavromi.
The young man was Elios Marinakis.
He was the youngest shipping tycoon in Greece. In this country surrounded by sea on three sides, where maritime transport flourished, he alone controlled nearly half of the nation's shipping capacity.
"Elios, tell me, how do you think Mr. Xia Wen will respond to this crisis?" Aris gazed at the sea horizon as he spoke casually.
"That Xia Wen is the boss of MiHoYo. I think that if he managed to bring MiHoYo to the top, he must have his own methods."
Elios smiled, not particularly worried.
"Censorship may be troublesome, I don't believe this boss failed to prepare countermeasures back when Star Rail became wildly popular."
At this point, Elios paused and showed a slightly troubled expression.
"Besides… behind this boss stands that woman…" Hearing those words, the old man Aris raised his eyebrows.
Ningguang.
That woman, and her Jade Chamber, were like ghosts. They had been nightmares for countless capital groups.
The Mavromi family and Elios had certainly suffered losses at her hands before.
But business was business. They had their own ambitions and plans for revenge.
So under Ningguang' suggestion, they shook hands with their former rivals and formed an alliance with the company of her younger brother, MiHoYo.
For them, such things were perfectly normal.
Just then, a voice came from behind them. Elios' secretary walked over.
"Boss, a new document has just arrived." The secretary handed the file to Elios.
Elios took it and glanced through it, his expression gradually turning more and more incredulous.
Aris also grew curious, and Elios passed the document to him.
After a moment, the old man fell into thought.
"At the timing of the censorship… he wants us to cooperate with MiHoYo?"
"To let the Coronal Radiance resound across the land of Greece?"
"This Xia Wen… is planning to use the series to leverage public opinion?"