The Reincarnated 'Shan Hai Jing Hua': Why Players Call It a 'Turn-Based Constellation Mashup'

The game 'Shan Hai Jing Hua,' which famously shut down and then relaunched, has sparked fresh outrage in the community. Players mock the game for abandoning its 'Summoners War'-style roots in a desperate attempt to replicate the lucrative 'constellation' (duplicate character upgrade) system seen in hits like 'Honkai: Star Rail'.

The skill upgrade system is notoriously stingy. To upgrade skills, players need fragments, which are primarily obtained through pulling duplicates (50 shards per unit), a limited daily visitation system, or rare universal shards. Making matters worse, universal shards are excluded from limited-time banners, forcing players to gamble at low odds for character upgrades.

Beyond constellations, the 'Chongling' progression system is criticized as a transparent pay-to-win mechanism. It requires 'black eggs' (a rare upgrade material) to unlock raw stat boosts. These materials are so scarce that, without paying, players claim it would take four months of intense PVP grinding just to max out a single character.

Combat AI is also a target for ridicule, with core DPS characters described as inefficient 'cannons firing at mosquitoes' without constellation-locked skill upgrades. Players feel the developer's design philosophy is stuck in the past, performing far worse than their notorious business dealings.

The community response has been scathing: 'Not spending a cent, leaving when they shut it down again.' Others criticize the blurry, low-quality graphics and obsolete operational tactics, openly speculating that the game is just preparing for another 'rebirth'—a euphemism for another server shutdown.