Even after moving in, Ichin still felt a little strange getting used to the new place.
His personal office was on the sixth floor, which also housed the company's administrative, business, and marketing departments—taking up nearly half the floor. The server room was also located there.
Instead of heading to his own office right away, Ichin first stopped by the second floor to take a look around.
There, in the lounge area, he spotted Yagami Kō leading her art team in a small departmental meeting.
Ichin didn't disturb them—just glanced from a distance before heading upstairs.
Now that the building was larger, each team could find its own quiet spot for meetings without bothering anyone else. It felt good to finally have that kind of space.
When he reached the third floor, Ichin found Hazuki, who was overseeing the GARO project.
They had divided responsibilities—Ichin handled Tales of Berseria, while Hazuki managed GARO.
Her project had already officially started. The script was something Ichin had finished earlier and handed over. Now the team was deep in pre-production: character design, supporting NPCs, monsters, and maps—all distributed among the art staff.
As for the combat system, since GARO was a tokusatsu-based game, Ichin didn't plan to make it overly complex. Instead, he wanted to model it after Tales of Arise—a combination-based combat system where skills are triggered through input chains.
It wasn't an overly complicated system; the challenge lay in designing the moves themselves. Fortunately, the team had the perfect person for that—Shinoda Hajime, a hardcore tokusatsu fan. Designing flashy, thematic combos was right up her alley.
Approaching Hazuki, Ichin asked, "How's the progress?"
"Very smooth," she replied cheerfully, gesturing toward Hajime, who was enthusiastically striking tokusatsu poses nearby. "Look at her—she's completely fired up. Once our motion-capture equipment arrives in a few days, we'll be able to further refine our models and animations."
Ichin nodded with satisfaction. "Yeah. With that, our games can finally stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the big studios. No—surpass them, and fast."
"Quite the ambition," Hazuki teased lightly, though she didn't disagree.
After all, not just Ichin—everyone in the company brimmed with confidence for the future.
Leaving GARO in Hazuki's capable hands, Ichin moved up to the fourth floor. That's where the Tales of Berseria team was stationed—the largest development group in the company.
The Fall Guys team had their space on the third floor, and the Dark Souls DLC team was also on the fourth, making it convenient for Ichin to monitor progress between the two major projects.
In Berseria, the art team was led by Yagami Kō. This time, she wasn't working with Toyama Rin—Rin was assigned to GARO.
Alongside Kō were Aoba and Hifumi, while Eriri and Mochizuki Momiji were over on the GARO project.
These top-tier artists not only carried the visual core of the projects but were also mentoring the newer members, steadily raising the entire team's overall skill level.
Since Kō was in a meeting, Ichin stopped by the animation department instead.
With Kō handling character design, Ichin himself was overseeing the battle system, story, and part of the world map for Berseria.
After discussing a few improvements to the combat system with the programming team, Kō and her group returned from their meeting. Ichin then called everyone into the conference room for a short team meeting.
After all, this time, Berseria's development had outside help—Capcom's staff would be joining them in a few days to collaborate on the combat system.
Developers from the Devil May Cry team. Now that was exciting.
---
By five in the afternoon, classes had ended, and Utaha and Yukino arrived at the company together.
The two held hands as they took the elevator up to the fourth floor, where Ichin had said he'd be.
"It's really lively here," Utaha murmured as she glanced around the busy floor. "I get the feeling Ichin will be spending a lot of nights at the office in the coming months."
Looking toward Ichin, who was in the middle of a discussion with the animation team, Yukino nodded slightly. "That's expected. It's just who he is."
Utaha smiled softly. "True. But at least now the company has its own cafeteria. Even if he stays late, he can still eat dinner on time."
Seeing that Utaha wasn't planning to go over to him, Yukino tilted her head. "You're not going to say hi?"
"No," Utaha said with a small shake of her head. "Let's not disturb him. Let's go check out the Fall Guys team downstairs. I wonder what kind of new skins they're making now."
At that, Yukino's eyes brightened with interest, and the two headed down together.
Meanwhile, Ichin, in the middle of work, caught a glimpse of their retreating figures from the corner of his eye.
He immediately understood why Utaha hadn't come over and smiled quietly to himself before turning back to his work.
---
Two days after the move, the initial novelty of the new environment began to fade, and everyone gradually settled into their routines—focusing fully on the new projects.
That night, after returning home, Ichin spent some time editing the footage he had recorded during the move. Once finished, he uploaded it to Bilibili.
Video title: We Moved!
At first, some followers thought it was Ichin himself—the boss—moving houses and just posting a casual vlog.
But when they clicked in, they were shocked to find it was actually the company that had moved—
and not just to any office, but to an entire new building!
"Damn, that's what they call 'rich beyond reason'!"
"I've bought every YC game—so, if we round up, doesn't that mean I kinda own a piece of that building?"
"Same here. I'm a spiritual shareholder now."
"A company cafeteria with proper chefs? That's insane—this food looks amazing."
"Hey, I work in Tokyo—can I sneak in for lunch?"
Within just one hour, the video broke 100,000 views, and the number kept climbing.
News of YC Studio's new Tokyo headquarters spread rapidly throughout the gaming industry.
Game media outlets picked up the story and shared the video further, sending the buzz soaring over the next few days.
And at the end of the vlog, Ichin had slipped in a few extra details:
The company's new project was already underway, and they'd be attending E3 in late June to reveal their next game.
One move after another—new building, new games, new ambitions.
The message was loud and clear: YC Studio was entering a new era.
And for players everywhere, the only thing left was anticipation.
---
RedX43's Note:
➤ Want More? Get up to +70 Extra Chapters on Patreon!
➤ [email protected]/RedX43
➤ +300 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter Drop!
➤ Thanks for the support! 🙌