Let's talk about the conclusion first: If you think that only MOBA and chicken games are competitive, then there is really no need to look down. But if you have paid attention to the "Puzzle Solving Speed Circle" or the "Mechanism Cracking Challenge", you will understand that the core competitiveness of this type of game is actually the information gap and operation accuracy - isn't this another form of laning?
My first impression of "The Ritual of Immortality" was that it was a comeback game with an early disadvantage but full management. The background of the murders during the Tianbao period, the gloomy yamen and government houses, is simply a large "wild area map". The process of solving the puzzle is not just mindless bits and pieces, but to deduce the logic of the murderer's actions through clues, similar to how you read the opposite jungler's jungle route on the field. Clues are hidden in the details of the scene, and the triggering conditions of some mechanisms are quite hidden. It's easy to get "stuck" in the first time you play - just like the headwind game, the more anxious you are, the less likely you are to find key props.
What I like is its "review value". Puzzle games are most afraid of being boring after one pass, but the reversal of the case in "The Ritual of Immortality" is progressive, especially involving multi-line narrative and prop combination logic. This is like a new combo being developed for an unpopular hero after a version update - you only understand the mechanism after clearing the level once, and only after the second play will you wonder: Is there a shorter path to crack it? Can a certain prop skip a certain process? This is exactly what speedrunning is based on. If the official can add local timers or level scores in the future, I think it can fully support the "puzzle racing" player community.
There is also balance that must be mentioned. Although this game currently does not have traditional PVP, the puzzle difficulty curve is very particular. The early yamen scene is a "novice tutorial" with moderate difficulty; in the middle stage, the density of organs in the house suddenly fills up, and the requirements for observation sharply increase; in the underground palace part, almost every puzzle tests the player's memory and spatial imagination - this is analogous to the version's shift from a big-core shooter to a rhythm-based jungler. You need to adjust your "playing style" instead of relying on inertia. What's rare is that it is not difficult for the sake of being difficult. All puzzle logic is based on the context of Chinese style. There will be no Western codes or modern physics, and the immersion is very high.
For players who are used to watching KPL games, I would like to say one more thing: the reasoning process of this game is very similar to watching an assistant use vision to direct team battles. Every clue you find is a vision that opens up the fog; those seemingly unrelated items - such as a broken letter, half a jade pendant, scratches on the door axis - can be strung together into a complete tactical chain in the end. Especially at the moment when the case is reversed in the end, you will feel that all the previous "useless operations" are paving the way for the end.
The platform label is 5.0, should it be an emulator or some mobile game platform? This does not affect the operating experience. Puzzle solving does not require high equipment, but it is very suitable for "playing a game" in fragmented time. As a free game, the text quality and mechanism design of "The Ritual of Immortality" can be considered conscientious. If the official can open custom puzzles or rankings in the future, then it can definitely enter the "intellectual competition" subdivision track.
All in all, don't understand competition too narrowly. The true competitive spirit is to constantly challenge one's cognitive upper limit. "The Ritual of Immortality" gives you sixteen strange situations, and then hides the answers in your own mind - isn't this the best game? Launched on April 29, it is recommended to all guys who like to use their brains, as well as players who want to take a break from high-intensity confrontations and practice "operations". 🔍⚙️