When Ni Shui Han Mobile (逆水寒) announced a crossover with the popular Chinese TV drama 'Lotus Tower' (莲花楼), nobody batted an eye — collab skins are standard gacha game fare, after all. But the devs at NetEase clearly weren't content with just cosmetic drops. They rolled out a full package: collab skins, a promotional theme song, and even a permanent in-game faction inspired by the drama. Then players discovered the real kicker — in-game NPCs had been programmed to trash the game's own beloved characters while hyping up the crossover ones. That's when the community collectively lost it.
According to the original post, this wasn't just a simple skin swap. The game added a full 'Lotus Tower' faction (门派) alongside the promotional track. What really crossed the line was the narrative treatment — random NPCs in the game world now declare the drama's male lead as 'the greatest swordsman under heaven' with unmatched medical skills. That essentially means every major faction leader in Ni Shui Han's own lore just got power-crept by a TV character. On top of that, another NPC praises the collab's female character as more beautiful than Li Shishi, one of the game's most iconic figures. The game's own characters were essentially thrown under the bus to prop up the crossover IP.
The player outrage crystallized around one accusation: '公款追星' — literally 'using company funds for celebrity stanning.' One of the top-voted comments on NGA read: 'Keep that stinky ancient romance fan circle BS away from us — whoever at NetEase greenlit this must have sold their soul. They even built a whole faction for this drama — is this Ni Shui Han or Lotus Tower Mobile now?' Another player echoed the sentiment: 'They're having NPCs trash the game's own faction leaders just to make the collab characters look cool. Every master in the game is apparently garbage compared to this drama's protagonist.' The NPC character assassination was clearly the tipping point.
On the topic of how this collab came to be, some players noted it was supposedly decided by a community vote. But skeptics immediately pushed back: 'You actually believe the vote wasn't rigged, and that NetEase negotiates from the top down? By that logic we should be getting Genshin Impact x Ni Shui Han next — I recall Genshin won the game collab poll.' The implication is that the real top picks either refused or couldn't be negotiated, and Lotus Tower was essentially the fallback option. Others pointed out that NetEase couldn't even lock in a Xianjian (仙剑) TV collab, yet they somehow had no trouble doing a crossover with Zhen Huan Zhuan for another game — so why is Ni Shui Han getting the short end of the stick?
To be fair, the comment section wasn't a complete one-sided roast. Some defenders pointed out that Lotus Tower was genuinely popular last year — it's a light wuxia detective drama with three male and three female leads, not some trashy romance. One player said they watched a plot summary on Bilibili and found the story decent, with minimal romantic subplot. But even the more sympathetic voices couldn't stomach the decision to script NPCs into dissing the game's own characters. You can collab all you want, but don't sacrifice your own cast's dignity to do it.
There's also a funny side note: Lotus Tower previously did a milk tea (奶茶) brand collab, and sales were reportedly underwhelming. Players are now wondering how this gaming crossover will perform revenue-wise. As for what the 'faction' actually entails — veteran players clarified it's not a true new class, but more like a minor faction you can join for a few shared skills, a costume set, and some light roleplay mechanics. Violate the faction's code of conduct and you'll even get an in-game warning email. Neat gimmick, sure, but players are far more concerned about whether any of this was worth trading the game's character integrity for a TV drama promotion.
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