Video Game / Honor of Kings

An overly patriotic Chinese MOBA.^note By the way, he's a Briton.

The year was 2015 in China. Tencent Games, after acquiring Riot Games, asked Riot if they could port their magnum opus League of Legends into a mobile game since the mobile format was gaining momentum in China and competition was still pretty scarce (with only Vainglory being the main competition). Riot rejected it, stating that it was impossible. So Tencent decided to just make one by themselves by asking two of their other subdivisions that didn't think like Riot and saw the potential of a mobile MOBA: Lightspeed & Quantum Studios and TiMi Studios.

L&Q Studios created We MOBA, which utterly crushed TiMi's League of Kings. After TiMi took down their game, they completely overhauled it, taking tips from Riot's very own League of Legends while also using various figures from Chinese mythology and history, which gained popularity through word of mouth and beating out L&Q. Then Riot finally noticed the kind of plagiarizing TiMi did and complained. Tencent complies with this, and TiMi got around changing their heroes' design to not look like copycats to League, and then renamed the game... into Wangzhe Rongyao (王者荣耀）, unofficially translated as Honor of Kings or King of Glory. And the rest is (Chinese) history.

In the land called Continent of Kings, gods descended and created humanity. They granted humanity the Arc Core, containing the power to create and destroy in equal measure. With the Arc Core, civilization rapidly advanced, eventually reaching a state resembling Imperial China except with advanced technology. Many began to grow greedy, desiring more of the power of the Arc Core. Others believed that such power should not be used willy-nilly. The conflict eventually escalated between the two groups: The ones who sought to claim the core for themselves and the ones who sought to safeguard it. As time passed, various characters based on Chinese historical (and mythological) figures rose with their own story in this universe.

Honor of Kings is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Tencent Games for the Chinese mobile platform. Released in 2015, it has become the most popular mobile game in China, with over 100 million daily active players. At first glance, the game resembles League of Legends (even aesthetically, as the map looked similar and there are bushes), but it differs from both this and the other mobile MOBA, Vainglory by using a virtual analog pad to move the characters, thereby allowing gameplay that is viewed like League but controlled like Smite (just without the 1st person perspective).

The game is quite simplified compared to other MOBA. Firstly, there are no wards or fog of war^note Technically it's there, but it's rendered pointless with the camera always fixated on the player, and the map situation can be still viewed from your allied units' POV. Secondly, each hero only has two normal skills as opposed to three. They do, however, still have a passive and ultimate skill. All of these allow for a fast-paced experience of the MOBA genre. Additionally, there are no consumable items in the game. The 'Regenerate' skill available to every hero allows you to regenerate a portion of health and mana over time as long as you don't take damage, and the first tower provides a regeneration pick-up item periodically until it is destroyed. Also, you can buy items anywhere in the map, rather than having to go back to your base or depend on a courier.

The objective of the game, like all MOBA games, stays the same: Work with your team to eliminate the enemy core while preventing them from doing the same to your core.

Check out the official website here.

For its earlier global release version, see Arena of Valor. The real global release of the game is in beta testing.

Due to its massive popularity in China, at least two spin-offs are in development, both 'inspired' by other genres:

• Honor of Kings: World: An MMORPG-ish game akin to Genshin Impact
• Codename: Dawn Break: A Platform Fighter game with the cast of Honor Of Kings, akin of Super Smash Bros. and Multi Versus

Tencent also approved a certain group of web animators to create a comedic web animation series based on the gameplay hijinx of the game, with the series being occasionally featured on the news page of the game's site. It's titled 王者？别闹！(King? (Then) Don't Make Troubles!) but unofficially translated as League Of Newbies.

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Honor of Kings provides examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptational Badass:
  • Women in Imperial China history didn't have much emancipation and usually didn't take the battlefield, so most of them got turned into full-fledged fighters (of course there were few exceptions like Hua Mulan or perhaps Sun Shangxiang).
  • Liu Shan was a definitive Sucksessor, but he's still in the roster, riding a robot and doing his best to support his team.
  • Poets/Philosophers in Imperial China were just that, they made poetries or develop philosophies, but they never fight in an actual war or battle. Tell that to this game's Li Bai (a Master Swordsman extraordinaire), Mozi (A walking Powered Armor blaster hero) or Zhuang Zhou (riding a giant whale that disrupts the battlefield), amongst others
• Age Lift: The global server ages up both Angela and Xiao Qiao, thus making them look less of being Token Mini-Moe and making Arthur and Zhou Yu's relationships with them less controversial. Averted with Cai Wenji, however, she still stays the same as the "young girl in a baby girl's body".
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Upon completing the first part of the beginner tutorial, players will receive Daji's "Fiery Fox" skin.
• An Ice Person: Wang Zhaojun utilizes ice magic in a similar manner with Crystal Maiden, though with the added bonus that she can target her ult somewhere else within her range and doesn't need to channel.
• Anti-Grinding: There's a limit on how many golds you can accumulate by playing for a week, so eventually, playing would bar you from even getting money. However, that doesn't include daily/weekly mission rewards.
• Automaton Horse: Guan Yu's Red Hare has absolutely no need for food, give it a few seconds of walking and it can run infinitely like nobody's business. Also, Guan Yu can't get off it, if the horse dies, he dies too, and vice versa.
• The Beastmaster: Aguduo can summon jungle creatures to assist her in battle
• Child Prodigy: Zhuge Liang, who decoded a cryptic prophecy as a young boy. Unfortunately, it led to the death of an entire family.
• Combat Hand Fan: Both Xiao Qiao and Mai Shiranui use fans to deal damage to their opponents. Xiao Qiao's is much bigger, though.
• Costume Porn: One of the game's main selling points is how incredibly detailed the skins (Default or extra) are. And most of them averting the more obvious traps like Stripperiffic Ms. Fanservice unless it fits with the lore (like Diao Chan, being a seductress), but even then, the Stripperiffic parts tend to be more downplayed.
• Crossover:
  • Has one with Journey to the West (1986). Jin Chan, Sun Wukong, and Zhu Bajie all received skins resembling their alternate selves. Additionally, Zhenji and Gongsun Li also starred as the King of the Kingdom of Women and the Moon Rabbit Spirit respectively.
  • Ironically, Athena has a Wonder Woman skin lifted straight from her Arena of Valor rendition, but they are not ports to each other and it's treated as a mere skin rather than a separate character with a unique voice (therefore, Wonder Woman speaks Chinese). The other DC heroes did not cross over. When the DC contract with Tencent ended, the skin was sadly made unavailable for future buyers (those who bought it prior will still have it)
  • The game provides collab skins featuring Saint Seiya, although mostly limited to the Gold Saints. The presence of the hero Athena (though not related to the manga version) may be a factor in this. This works well for Latin American fans, as the global server starts out in that area (Brazil), where the manga is popular. Thus far, there are skins of:
    • Aries Mu for Zhang Liang.
    • Leo Aiolia for Dharma.
    • Sagitarius Aiolos for Hou Yi.
    • Scorpio Milo for Mozi.
    • Hades for Kai.
  • Crossover skins with Arena of Valor has been a thing (even before Allain crosses over to become a hero in this game), where the Honor of Kings heroes will receive the same skin with their respective Arena of Valor counterparts, with only a few exceptions:
    • Hou Yi and Yorn^note They're both sun-based archers. Their counterparts (Laville and Luban no. 7, respectively), meanwhile, used firearms of any forms.
    • Marco Polo and Laville^note Both are known to wield double guns. Their counterparts are a ninja (Hayate) and archer (Hou Yi) respectively
    • Luna and Butterfly^note Both don't have counterparts (although Butterfly is based on a pre-rework Ah Ke, but her current self has been known as the counterpart of the male Quillen). However, they're noted as swordswomen who wields a single sword in battle and act like swift assassins (Luna is noted as a warrior, but she specializes in hero-killing).
• Dance Battler: Diao Chan, in consideration that originally, she used her dances to seduce both Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu, eventually sparking Lu Bu to kill off Dong Zhuo. This time, her dances are accompanied by deadly pink flowers.
• Days of Future Past: The game takes place in the far future with advanced technology, yet society largely resembles Imperial China.
• Death Is Cheap: So far, all playable characters that "died" in lore have been reborn shortly afterward.
• Elective Mute: Yuan Ge. He later took Zhuge Lian's advice and created a puppet to talk for him.
• Expy: Generally, Honor of Kings is the subject of Expy-ing by Arena of Valor, but sometimes, the role is reversed: Honor of Kings takes an original character from Arena of Valor and releases it as a new hero with a different kit, thus the only thing that's the same is the character design in spirit. Case in point:
  • Aguduo takes inspiration from Ishar, the two are little girls accompanied by big fluffy creatures that sometimes become separate units. But, while Ishar is a mage who is mostly separated from her creature, Aguduo is a jungler-tank with the ability to convert jungle minions, and she starts by riding her pet (so they count as one unit temporarily)
  • Pei Qinhu's animal metamorphosis stance system (into a tiger) is quite likely based on Liliana (into a nine-tailed fox). While Liliana is a mage, Pei Qinhu is a straight-up fighter.
  • Charlotte is the late-coming SNK Guest Fighter because she's the best of the available guest potentials to fill in the 'elegant fencer hero' theme that has been filled by Florentino. Due to her Guest Fighter status, Charlotte had to use a new kit based on her source material rather than copying Florentino.
• Gender Flip: The female assassin Ah Ke is actually a gender-flipped Jing Ke, who once almost succeeded in assassinating Qin Shi Huang/Ying Zheng. She was also literally named Jing Ke too, but then Chinese people complained that this was encouraging 'false history teaching', so Tencent deals with it by renaming her.
• Gratuitous English: Marco Polo is the only character who speaks English occasionally while also being voiced by a Chinese actor and speaking Chinese at times. As such, his English is not meant to be really fluent, only there for showmanship, and he has some lines that sound REALLY off, but still delivers it in style: "NICE TO MEET YOU DIE!"
• Guest Fighter: Tencent made a deal with SNK to include Nakoruru, Ukyo Tachibana and Mai Shiranui (and a Haohmaru skin for Musashi). Later on, they added Charlotte Christine Colde as the next guest in exchange for Gongsun Li appearing as DLC for Samurai Shodown (2019).
• Historical Beauty Update: The male characters especially are generally more attractive than their historical counterparts, with some going from mustached old men to beautiful Bishōnen.
• Historical Domain Character: Has its own page.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Considering that the Chinese originally don't have the most flattering view of Cao Cao unlike the other areas of the world that acknowledged his fairer rule, in this game, he's a definitive villain like how several Peking Opera made him out as. His relationship with those outside his main men was more 'conquering' (such as Lu Bu and Cai Wenji), in one of the cinematics, he would have killed Cai Wenji (if it wasn't for Lan covering her) while in history he kept her safe and treated her well. Zhenji's story also implied that she's tricked into a marriage with his son (Cao Pi) because originally Cao Cao takes interest in her water magic power and wants to use it for his purposes.
• Imperial China: The setting for the game. Though somehow, even without counting Guest Fighter, there's a Japanese guy, British king, Italian explorer, Mongol conqueror^note Said explorer and conqueror did 'visit' China at some point and Greek Goddess...
• Instrument of Murder: Two mages have music motifs and mostly used them as a conduit of their magics, instead of bashing them with said instrument.
  • Yang Yuhuan's weapon is a Chinese lute.
  • Gao Jianli is basically a rockstar that blasts enemies with magic from his electric guitar.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Arthur, though this is King Arthur, so he's more like a King in Shining Armor.
• Lady of War: Mulan is beautiful, graceful and a deadly warrior, for this once, she doesn't bother with the usual 'disguised as a man' tropes surrounding her.
• Magikarp Power: Several heroes are considered 'trash at the beginning, absolute monsters when fed' that shutting them down and finishing the game early is one of the ways to avoid fighting them at their fullest, where they would absolutely wreck the enemies. For example: Diao Chan, Jia Luo.
• Making a Splash: Zhen Ji uses water magic, considering that she became identified with the Goddess of Luo River. Her passive also allows her to temporarily freeze enemy heroes.
  • Da Qiao can use water magic to both improve her teammates' movement speed and damage opponents. Her husband Sun Ce can also imbue his own anchor with water, summon water geyser on his anchor smash, or summon a path of seawater for his ship to travel and crash to the enemy.
• Official Couple: For the most part, if the duo was already a couple in the source material, they are retained. Original characters get their own coupling and some liberties are taken to facilitate that.
  • 'Straight from source material' examples:
    • Gan Jiang and Mo Ye
    • Hou Yi and Chang'e
    • Lü Bu and Diao Chan
    • Sun Ce and Da Qiao
    • Sun Shangxian and Liu Bei
    • Xiang Yu and Yu Ji
    • Zhou Yu and Xiao Qiao
  • Original coupling or with some liberties taken:
    • Arthur and Angela^note Guinivere is absent in the HOK-verse or has no counterpart. Meanwhile, Angela used to be a normal sorcerous girl with a Precocious Crush on Arthur, and then she gets body-jacked by the HOK-verse Merlin, forcibly pushing her towards Arthur.
    • Gao Jianli and A Ke^note This touches on how originally, Gao Jianli was a good friend of Jing Ke. But nothing says that they were gay lovers. Since Jing Ke got a Gender Flip into A Ke, things work out just fine.
    • Yun Zhongjun and Yao^note Both are original characters, so anything goes.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: The token minotaur of this game is Niu Mo, who's probably better known as the Bull Demon King appearing in Journey to the West, one of Sun Wukong's most famous adversaries.
• Pink Means Feminine: Zig-zagged actually. There are a lot of ladies with pink Color Motifs, and for some like Diao Chan, it's a lighter shade of pink, showing her creds as a girly girl and one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China. On the other hand... Hua Mulan openly showcases her pink hair despite being a ball-busting Action Girl and doesn't see the need to disguise herself as a man, but her color is a darker shade of pink.
• Pirate: Owing to the Wu kingdom's navy power in history or the novel, Sun Ce has several pirate motifs in him despite not using an eyepatch or pirate hat or peg legs (this is after all Chinese 'pirates', not the typical Western ones). His main weapon is anchors, he has control over water and his ultimate is to ride a sea ship to crash into the enemy.
• Puppet Fighter: Yuan Ge has a puppet that he can take control of, effectively allowing him to be in two places at once.
• Robot Kid: Lu Ban No.7 is the seventh robot built by Master Lu Ban and the most humanoid of them all.
• Ship Tease: Dongfang Yao and Xi Shi were originally an Official Couple before their relationship was changed to friendship (presumably to avoid misinforming youth about history). Nevertheless, they still have plenty of moments that lead many fans to believe the two were an official pairing.
• Shout-Out: Diao Chan's skins, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Midsummer Day's Dream, are based on the fairy queen from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
  • Daji's skin, "Daji in Wonderland" is an obvious reference to Alice in Wonderland.
• Skill Gate Characters: Early time of playing the game will have you face a lot of these three: Arthur, Angela, and Daji. They're designed to be the types of 'easy to master' kind of heroes and are usually given for free, so they see a lot of plays at the lower levels.
• Stance System: Multiple heroes have multiple movesets depending on the stance they're in:
  • Guan Yu has a more passive, buffing skills when he's on a standstill state, and he has a more offensive skill set when he's on momentum (has walked nonstop for a few seconds at minimum). His ult quickens his momentum gain, allowing quicker stance changes.
  • Hua Mulan starts out at a speedier Dual Wielding style which allows her to hit more times and zip around the battlefield easier, and her ult allows her to switch to a Mighty Glacier style with a BFS to go.
• Technical Pacifist: Some of the heroes, like Jin Chan/Tang Sanzang, are basically pacifists in which it would be out of character for them to go around killing other heroes and the announcer announcing as such. Therefore, when using these heroes, the announcer modifies their announcement so they don't sound like killing the other. Example: Instead of "You have slain an enemy!", they get "You have vanquished an enemy!"
• Time Master: Sun Bin can both speed up and slow down time.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: The game has the complete set of the Four Beauties of Ancient China: Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diaochan, and Yang Yuhuan. All of them are Mages. The gender inversion (the 4 most handsome men of Ancient China) only had one representative: Lanling Wang. And he's an Assassin.
• You Will Not Evade Me: Zhong Kui handles the essential MOBA 'hook and drag' skill for this game.

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