Chapter 1. What Kind of Game I Should Make?
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Galgame, also known as "bishoujo games."
It is a type of video game where players can interact with anime-style beautiful girls. The main audience used to be Japanese men, but as the genre developed, all-ages Galgames now target both men and women alike.
Most Galgames are VNs (visual novels), but there are also interactive Galgames.
Simply put, it's an interactive game about falling in love with beautiful girls.
…
March, 1990.
Tokyo, Pokeni Co., Ltd.
The atmosphere inside the company was very tense, and faint sighs could be heard from time to time.
"It feels like the future is really bleak."
"No way, is the company going under just after starting up?"
"This time it's probably completely hopeless. The sales of the last game were poor, and with this damned economic situation, the company might really go bankrupt."
"Yeah, who could've thought? The economy was booming last year, but this year it feels like it jumped off a rooftop."
"Seriously? I really don't want the company to go bankrupt. I still have a family to support. If I lose my job at a time like this…"
…
At the same time, in the President's office.
Kiyoshi Yuuma was also sighing, but the reason for his sighs was different from those of the employees outside.
"What the hell happened? It's one thing to be reborn, but I actually reincarnated in Japan of all places? And my parents are dead, no car, no house, and I'm up to my neck in debt?!"
Yes, Kiyoshi Yuuma had been reincarnated.
The current date was April 1, 1990, not the 2023 he knew in modern-day Shanghai, China. And now, his identity was the President of Pokeni Co., Ltd.
In this parallel-world version of Japan, the economic bubble had burst last year, plunging the nation into collective despair. From the peak straight into the valley. Even now, the streets were full of homeless people driven there by corporate bankruptcies.
Pokeni, a small game company, had been teetering on the edge of collapse ever since the failure of their last game. It was still uncertain whether they'd even be able to pay salaries next month.
"Ugh… starting out in hell mode. Maybe I should just let the company go bankrupt and find a job or something."
Kiyoshi Yuuma frowned in frustration, hugging himself bitterly.
But even as he said this, he knew he had no choice but to make games. If possible, keeping the company afloat would be best.
Working a job? No way, not in this life.
After the 1990 economic collapse in Japan, countless people became pessimistic and hopeless. Consumer willingness plummeted. Countless companies folded, and countless industries fell into an abyss. But a few managed to go against the trend.
Games were one of them.
Although the Japanese economy entered a long period of stagnation and low consumer interest, this ironically became the golden age for the game industry.
For the next few decades, games would become the number one most consumed product by both Japan's hardcore otakus and normies alike.
…
What's more, in his past life, Kiyoshi Yuuma had been a professional game developer.
Before being reincarnated, he was the lead programmer on a 2D anime-style project at miHoYo. His technical skills were unquestionable. He was also one of the main developers of miHoYo's animation engine. He had a deep passion for games. The company specialized in anime-style games, making their work closely aligned with Japanese titles, so game development in this life would come naturally to him.
Even more surprising was that the original owner of this body had formidable drawing skills before becoming a producer.
Perfect.
My programming skills, paired with extensive game development experience, excellent art foundations, and an advanced aesthetic from the future…
Kiyoshi Yuuma's lips curled into a slight smile.
In this life, failure in game development is simply not an option.
…
"Pokeni is hanging by a thread. I need to think of a way to save it."
The most urgent task was to secure some investment. But for now, at the very least, he had to get a proper project plan written up.
"I need to think about which game to copy—ahem, make—first."
Kiyoshi Yuuma had a lot of AAA titles in his head, but AAA games had some fatal flaws: they required lots of people, lots of money, and lots of time.
Yes, that's basically the definition of AAA.
Put simply, a typical AAA title is a high-cost, large-scale, high-quality game.
Something like Red Dead Redemption 2, which cost 540 million dollars and took nearly 8 years to develop, was out of the question for Kiyoshi Yuuma.
The most he could aim for was high quality.
He opened his computer, created a new .txt document, and wrote one line at the top:
"The Legend of Sword and Fairy."
…
Kiyoshi Yuuma first thought of the game The Legend of Sword and Fairy.
The Legend of Sword and Fairy is a Chinese single-player RPG released in 1995 by Softstar Entertainment Inc. Due to its grand story background, its uniquely Chinese martial arts fantasy elements, and its deeply touching and healing plot, it became a classic of a generation.
The performance of The Legend of Sword and Fairy 1 was actually quite good. It sold over 200,000 copies in Taiwan alone. Later, there were plans to port it to the Sega Saturn and break into the Japanese market. Unfortunately, Sega lost the console war against Nintendo, and as a result, The Legend of Sword and Fairy didn't achieve good results on the Saturn.
Aside from cultural differences, it could only be blamed on bad timing, not on the quality of The Legend of Sword and Fairy itself.
In Kiyoshi Yuuma's view, human emotions are universal. Clannad, a distinctly anime work with Japanese characteristics, could still move audiences all over the world to tears—so why couldn't The Legend of Sword and Fairy do the same?
If the production quality of the DOS version of The Legend of Sword and Fairy back then still lagged far behind international standards, now Kiyoshi Yuuma was standing on top of global mainstream quality. With Pokeni's current development capabilities, a game developed on the Famicom (FC) might actually turn out even better, as long as the character art looked good.
Moreover, there was another important reason for choosing The Legend of Sword and Fairy: Pokeni's recently released game, Heart of the Sword, though a commercial flop, was a turn-based RPG through and through.
Turn-based, RPG, swordplay… all of these matched perfectly with The Legend of Sword and Fairy. From a development perspective, it could save at least half the time. At the very least, most of the programming work was already done. All that was left was to redo the art, swap in a different story and flow, and add some detailed features, and it would be perfect.
And the The Legend of Sword and Fairy series—especially the story of The Legend of Sword and Fairy 1—was sure to move investors.
…
After pulling an all-nighter, Kiyoshi Yuuma roughly outlined the story of The Legend of Sword and Fairy, and included character designs and descriptions. Then he called the company's scriptwriter, Mika Ishino, into the meeting room.
"President, is there something you need?"
Ishino was a petite young woman in her twenties. She wore round-frame glasses, and her white sweater wrapped a curvaceous figure that didn't match her delicate face.
Her voice wasn't loud, but Kiyoshi Yuuma heard her clearly.
He looked up at her and handed her the printed document.
"Take a look and see if you can write this story well. I'm planning to turn it into a proposal to pitch to investors."
"Huh?"
Ishino's eyes lit up. Did this mean the company wasn't going bankrupt, and she wasn't going to lose her job?