You said you were going to make games, how did you become the richest man without doing anything?

The overwhelming praise did not come suddenly.

Four days after StarGate surpassed 95 million copies in global sales, the OpenCritic review curve finally stopped its wild fluctuations, stabilizing at a high of . And the review page, nicknamed "Fate's Gate" by countless players, erupted quietly in the comments section like a long-dormant stellar storm.

"I've played a lot of games, but this is the first time I've felt silence instead of excitement after completing a game."

"This is not a game of crushing numbers, it is a spiritual reshaping."

"I cried when I was in the world splitting. Not because of the plot, but because I suddenly understood, 'Why am I still insisting on living'."

From IGN to Polygon, from GameSpot to Eurogamer, review articles from major foreign media have been posted online one after another, like a carefully arranged concerto of fate.

IGN Rating: 9.7

The title is:
Stargate Review: We finally ushered in the "Legend" of this era

Reviewer Jason Hall wrote in his conclusion:
"While playing this game, I rediscovered the feeling I had when I first played Final Fantasy 7 as a child. It wasn't the graphics or the system, but the feeling of being completely engulfed by a world and completely changed by a story."

"Astral Gate isn't perfect, but it's unique."

"After the 2020s, this is an Eastern narrative RPG that we can finally raise our hands and praise. It no longer imitates anyone, it is itself."

GameSpot Rating: 10/10
The title has only one sentence:

“You don’t come here to win—you come here to remember.”

The article begins with a quote from the old NPC in the Traveler's Camp in the game:

“Remember this world, not to own it, but to avoid losing yourself in the darkness.”

Mia Calvin, the author of the article, wrote:

"I stayed at the Traveler's Camp for a full two hours, not because of the mission, but because I couldn't bear to leave there."

"I'm afraid that once the plot progresses, everything will never come back. Just like some people and places in reality, you can never come back."

"Astral Gate is a gentle farewell."

"It teaches us how to use a sword to cut off the suffering of fate."

Polygon Comments:

“This isn’t a game you can finish quickly. Stargate requires you to invest your emotions, your time, and even some hidden wounds. It requires you to be a part of the story, not just a spectator.”

"It's not a game, it's an emotional migration."

"We need more games like this—works that aren't afraid of being heavy, philosophical, or immersive."

In the Chinese context, this wave of positive reviews is more like a release of collective emotions.

Article title on Jihe.com: Stargate: Not a game, but a psychological refuge for contemporary young people
The author "Troubad Poet Awang" wrote:
"I finished Stargate at three in the morning, the day I'd been laid off. It was pitch black, with only the light of the Slash still gleaming on the screen."

"I sat in front of the computer and cried, not knowing whether it was because of the plot or for myself."

"It made me feel that I'm not the only one who's lost. There are other people in this world who are struggling in the storm of fate just like me."

"We are all in the Rift, but we also all hold swords."

Game Time (VGtime) Rating: 9.8 points

The review is titled:
"In this era consumed by anxiety and emptiness, what does Astral Gate bring us?"

The article states:

“The game’s non-linear approach to narrative structure allows every player to have their own destiny. It doesn’t force you to be a hero, but allows you to be a loser, a loner, or even a bystander.”

"But no matter what you choose, in the end you will be remembered by the world."

“It’s an extremely rare kind of emotional design—it’s not rewarding you for completing a task, it’s rewarding you for believing in it.”

The final comment of the article is:
"We give it a 9.8, not because it's perfect, but because it's sincere."

“It’s a world that listens to you.”

On Bilibili, the UP host "Wei Wen Xing Chen" produced a two-and-a-half-hour plot analysis video titled:
"The Rip-Off and Modern Destiny Narrative: Why Do We Love It So Much?"

In the video, he spent 30 minutes analyzing the narrative structure behind the skill "Bridging the World" - it is not a simple battle-ending skill, but a "spiritual explosion and rupture."

他 说:

"All RPGs make you stronger, but only Astral Gate makes you vulnerable before you become stronger."

"You must face yourself first before you can break through your destiny."

"'Sundering' isn't about killing the enemy; it's about self-redemption."

The video has been played over 10 million times, and the comments are filled with "I really cried", "I found resonance here", "This is not a game, it's my life".

In the barrage, one person wrote:

"I once thought about ending it all, but in the game, I saw an NPC say: 'The stars will remember the path you have walked.'"

"From that day on, I decided to give myself another chance."

The Douban score is stable at 9.6 points, and the long comment area under the entry has become a "spiritual mutual assistance space."

A user named "小河有岸" wrote:

"In real life, I'm a loser. I'm 30 years old, with no car, no house, and no partner. But in Stargate, I'm the one standing on the Rift."

“Not because I saved the world, but because I chose not to give up.”

“I just want to be remembered.”

“And this game really remembers me.”

Another user wrote:
“Everyone who is knocked down by life has found their own ‘resurrection point’ in this game.”

“It’s not entertainment, it’s companionship.”

On Zhihu, the topic #Why does Stargate make people cry# topped the hot list.

One of the highly-rated answers reads:
"My generation has heard since childhood that hard work will be rewarded, but reality has taught us that fate is not fair."

"And Stargate doesn't tell you that hard work will definitely lead to success. It tells you: even if you lose, it's worth being remembered."

"Even if you are in the Rift, you can still draw your sword."

With the overwhelming positive reviews, even many scholars and cultural critics began to intervene and analyze the work.

The article in The Paper's commentary column states:

"The huge popularity of 'Stargate' shows that contemporary young people are looking for an 'emotional outlet.' They are tired of fake, clichéd, and fast-paced emotional consumption; they need a story that truly 'empathizes' with them."

“This game does that.”

“It’s not about commodifying emotions, it’s about respecting them.”

In a media interview, the producers were asked: "Did you expect to receive so many positive reviews?"

He was silent for a moment, then said:
“We actually didn’t expect it to be so popular.”

"We just wanted to make a game that could help people through difficult times." "Unexpectedly, it actually did that."

The reporter asked: "So what do you think of these comments from players now?"

The producer looked at the camera and said:
“We don’t treat them as players.”

"They are the inhabitants of the astral plane."

"We just built a bridge, and they made it a road."

On a mild sunny afternoon in the eighth week after the release of Stargate, game editor Gu Bei placed his phone next to his coffee cup, with the page stuck on the Weibo hot search list.

7th place——#Stargate media ratings break records#
Under the hot search terms is a long picture made up of screenshots: IGN, GameSpot, GamesRadar, EDGE, Famitsu, The New York Times, The Guardian, People's Literature, Bilibili, Zhihu, Douban... The ratings of dozens of media and platforms are neatly arranged, and almost no one is lower than 9.5 points.

Gu Bei clicked on one of the articles he cared about most - the gaming culture column of **The Guardian**.

The title of the article is:
"In the Rift, we found the reflection of civilization."

The author of the article is a cultural journalist named Helen Baker who has long been responsible for documenting war archives. She wrote in the article:

"I've interviewed soldiers in war zones, refugees, artists, and mothers who've lost their children. The intertwined feelings of despair and hope made me feel that games could never truly carry that emotional depth."

"Until I played Stargate."

“It’s not telling a story, it’s creating an echo.”

"When I saw NPC Alsarian refusing to leave the crumbling Star Tower, just to awaken a sealed child, I suddenly remembered the father I met at the Syrian border. He also... refused to leave."

"I cried."

"It's not because of the plot, but because I realized that I saw the most real emotions in reality in a fictional world."

She even wrote at the end of the article:
“If humans in the future incorporate gaming culture into the core literature of human civilization, I hope Stargate will appear on the first page of that book.”

Gu Bei looked at this sentence and was stunned for a long time.

He's a game editor, not a player or developer. He's been in the industry for eight years, having seen countless games become short-lived hits and written countless "Top Ten" reports. He's always felt the pace of the gaming industry is too fast, leaving little room for growth.

But StarGate is different.

It does not burn, but illuminates slowly and deeply.

He opened the review he had written and read it again. The title was:
"Stargate: A game that makes you silent for three minutes in reality"

He wrote in the article:

"I was completely speechless during the scene in Chapter 3, 'The Lost Mirror.' Not because of the battle, but because of what the NPC Esna said before she died: 'If I must disappear, please let me disappear from your memory.'"

"I turned off the game, sat on the balcony and smoked a cigarette. For three minutes, my mind was empty."

"It's a rare experience. Not an addiction, not an obsession, but... a resonance."

He never thought that after this article was published, the number of views would exceed five million, and hundreds of messages such as "I was also silent for three minutes" would appear in the comment section.

And this is just one of them.

EDGE magazine published a rare cover headline in its cover column:

"It's not just the sword that cuts through the world."

They gave it a rare perfect score of 10/10 and wrote in the article:

“In the history of game design, the balance between narrative and systems, emotions and mechanics has always been an irreconcilable contradiction. And Astral Gate has achieved a dream-like fusion.”

“It doesn’t force you to fight, but it makes every battle profound.”

“It doesn’t have a penalty mechanism for failure, but it makes you never give up easily.”

“It’s not a game that teaches you how to win, but a game that teaches you how to withstand failure.”

Famitsu's full-score review also sparked heated discussion.

This is the seventh game to receive a perfect score from the magazine in the past ten years, and it is the only one developed by a non-Japanese manufacturer that was unanimously rated 10 points by four editors.

Chief Editor Ichiro Yamada wrote in his review:
"We used to think that only the Japanese could write about 'fate' in such a delicate and moving way. But Astral Gate tells us that this emotion is universal to all mankind."

"It's not an Eastern game, nor is it a Western game. It's a game 'belonging to humanity.'"

At an expert symposium at the Tokyo Game Show, an old screenwriter who participated in the writing of the "Final Fantasy 10" script even said:

"After I finished playing Stargate, I had an urge to retire. It's not that I'm giving up, but I feel that the younger generation has already created the works of our dreams."

In mainland China, the media response was even more enthusiastic.

The Paper's cultural channel published an 8,000-word in-depth commentary titled:
"Stargate: A Chinese creator's gentle counterattack against global gaming culture"

The article states:

“This game doesn’t rely on any pop culture icons, nor does it copy Western narrative structures. It tells a universal story of destiny in a very Eastern way.”

“It has no savior, but it has fellow travelers; it has no heroism, but it has a glimmer of resonance.”

"This was the first time that Chinese gaming culture went global, not with the attitude of 'maybe it could work,' but with the attitude of 'we have something to say,' and it shocked the world."

The People's Daily Digital Commentary Department published a rare special report titled:
When Games Become a New Medium of Spiritual Resonance: The Cultural Enlightenment of Stargate

The text reads:
"In this age of fragmented information, rapid consumption, and emotionally fractured relationships, Astral Gate awakens players' desire for meaning in an almost classical way."

“It’s not an escape from reality, but a gentle response to reality.”

“We need more works like this, so that culture is no longer just a consumer product, but a beacon.”

Outside of social media, academia has also begun to take action.

The School of Journalism and Communication at Peking University has opened a seminar course on "Interactive Narrative and Digital Emotion", and one of the designated teaching materials is the script analysis of "Astral Gate".

The Central Academy of Fine Arts uses the art settings in the game as a teaching case for "Contemporary Digital Fantasy Art".

Even at a student speech contest at Fudan University, a junior student from the philosophy department used the character fate map of "Stargate" to deduce a "narrative ethics system" and proposed:

“Every choice node is a reflection of values.”

"This game truly allows players to 'not complete a quest, but participate in destiny.'"

After reading it, the judges were silent for a long time and finally gave it full marks.

One morning, the development team received an email from the German Psychological Association, which contained a formal invitation:

"We hope to invite the creators of Stargate to participate in our upcoming annual conference on 'Games and Psychological Healing.'"

"We had a teenage patient with depression who, after three months of silence, took the initiative to tell the doctor about his 'rift' for the first time because of playing this game."

The email ends with:

“A world cannot save everyone, but a world can gently catch one person.”

In the end, the media scores of "Stargate" on OpenCritic and Metacritic were respectively:

Average score from professional media: 96 points Average score from players: 9.8/10 "Emotional Resonance Index": Citations exceeded 13 times (End of this chapter)