Jing Yu didn't fully believe that 'Fate/Stay Night', the game, was guaranteed to blow up.
How much support drama fans would actually give to a game—and what the conversion rate would look like—was something that could only be known after release.
But from Jing Yu's perspective, if 'Adventurer' was truly such a powerhouse that it didn't even dare go head-to-head with the game he was currently playing, 'Jade Dragon'—
Then he didn't see any reason to be worried.
Right now, game companies and news outlets are slamming 'Fate/Stay Night', saying that since Jing Yu's game division had only been around for less than a year, and the development cycle was too short, the game quality must be poor.
But come on—who said 'Fate/Stay Night' was trying to hook players with combat mechanics? Jing Yu already stated clearly at the press conference: story first, battles second.
"So, boss, you've decided not to change the launch date?" a subordinate asked.
"Nope. What's there to be afraid of? When I was making dramas, I never cared who else was airing in the same season. The same goes for games," Jing Yu said.
"Just release it as planned—November 1."
"Also—" Jing Yu stopped the staffer who was about to leave.
"Have the operations team reach out to the online PR groups. Since the other side likes hyping up the competition between 'Fate/Stay Night' and 'Adventurer', let's help them stir it up even more."
Everything's a double-edged sword. The fact that Rainbow Star was doing this kind of marketing only proved they didn't see 'Fate/Stay Night' as a real threat. They must've thought they had the win in the bag.
But what if things flipped?
If, once the games were released, 'Fate/Stay Night' ended up dominating 'Adventurer', then Rainbow Star Games—one of Great Zhou's gaming giants—would take a big hit to its reputation. Meanwhile, Jing Yu's relatively unknown game studio would skyrocket into the spotlight.
The risk and reward were the same for both sides. It all came down to who came out on top.
Competition—after all, that's how every industry works.
As late October rolled around, Jing Yu ramped up the promotion for 'Fate/Stay Night'. Still, to most gamers, both 'Fate/Stay Night' and 'Adventurer' were just two of the many games being released this quarter.
From late October onward, a few more games dropped, but none made a splash.
The drama industry this quarter remained stable. Viewership rankings were unchanged. Meanwhile, post-production on 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' had entered its final phase.
Of course, not all the special effects were done yet. But since the show followed a weekly broadcast model, the VFX studio was focusing on the early episodes. The rest would be polished as the series aired.
Blue Star Media & Film Company was also preparing to release new trailers for 'Neon Genesis Evangelion'.
But before that—
At the end of October, the long-awaited launch day for 'Fate/Stay Night' finally arrived.
The game went live across PC, console, and handheld platforms. In addition to the default promotional placements guaranteed by the distribution platforms, Jing Yu personally paid for premium ad slots.
For offline promotion, his longtime partners Yunteng TV and Qingyun Video had his back. Even though neither of them was in the gaming business, their growth had been largely tied to Jing Yu's dramas.
Rainbow Star Games had also approached Qingyun Video to promote 'Adventurer'. But—
Despite pouring money into their marketing, they simply couldn't compete with 'Fate/Stay Night' for the main banner placement.
The final round of trailers for 'Fate/Stay Night' dropped.
Compared to earlier promos, this one revealed a few new details.
For instance, fans had long been wondering: why hadn't Kiritsugu Emiya appeared in the game?
The trailer answered that—
He was dead.
Dead?
How?
That part wasn't revealed.
The original 'Fate/Stay Night' had three routes and forty-six endings, each tied to one of the three heroines.
The Saber route—Artoria's route—had 14 bad endings. In those, the protagonist was killed off due to various poor choices. There was only one true ending: where the player made all the right decisions, Artoria came to realize the ideals she had clung to were misguided. She let go of her dream to save Britain. Since her wish no longer existed, her contract with the Holy Grail dissolved. She returned to her own time and eventually succumbed to her battle wounds.
Importantly, her soul didn't become a Heroic Spirit. Instead, with her wish fulfilled, she entered Avalon.
The second route—only unlocked in a second playthrough—was the UBW route, Rin Tohsaka's story. It featured 10 bad endings and 2 true endings.
Then came the Sakura Matou route, which only unlocked on a third playthrough. It had 16 bad endings and two... well, debatable endings.
This route was by far the darkest and most disturbing, full of grotesque and twisted storylines.
In the PS2 enhanced edition of the original, there was one final ending—unlocked only after clearing all 45 other endings.
In it, Shirou Emiya's soul, after death, also entered Avalon, where he reunited with Artoria.
As a die-hard fan of 'Fate/Stay Night', Jing Yu left out nothing from the original. The main story structure and progression were completely faithful to the source material.
All the route splits and hidden options were intact—Route 1, Route 2, Route 3—all restored.
The difference was that instead of being a text-based visual novel, the Great Zhou version had been reimagined as a full-blown RPG.
Players controlled characters in real-time battles, fighting monsters, defeating enemies, and pushing the story forward. Compared to a pure text game, the sense of immersion was much stronger.
It was the same logic as Jing Yu's past life in 'The Witcher 3'.
People played 'The Witcher 3' not for combat, but for Gwent and the story. If you just wanted action or graphics, no one would touch that game.
But even with clunky combat, 'The Witcher 3' still sold tens of millions of copies.
After all, who wouldn't want to pause their world-saving mission, with loved ones in mortal danger, just to sit down and play a round of Gwent?
Same with 'Fate/Stay Night'. Adapting a galgame into an RPG wasn't even that difficult.
After the final trailer dropped at the end of October—
November 1 finally arrived.
Launch day.
In the early hours of the morning, Chen Hang couldn't sleep. He was up by 4 a.m., turned on his PC, and logged into Great Zhou's biggest game distribution platform—Steam Gear.
Sure enough, right on the homepage were the platform's featured games of the month.
There were five highlighted titles: three from small and mid-sized studios (a card game, a sim game, and a shooter). The biggest promo spot obviously went to Rainbow Star Game's new release—'Adventurer'.
An open-world adventure game, with a production budget of 190 million and two years of development. It had long been one of the most anticipated titles among Great Zhou gamers.
In the past, Chen Hang might have been excited about 'Adventurer'.
But not today.
His eyes were locked on one title:
A lesser-promoted entry tucked lower on the page—
'Fate/Stay Night'.
To the average gamer in Great Zhou, the anime-style visuals and unfamiliar characters on the game cover were a bit jarring.
Illyasviel. Berserker. Archer. Lancer.
And of course—Gilgamesh. Kirei Kotomine. And finally...
Artoria.
Just seeing Artoria's character art made Chen Hang's breathing pick up.
A game priced at over 100 yuan was expensive for a new title from an unknown studio. Without Jing Yu's name backing it, very few would've taken the plunge.
But to fans who had seen 'Fate/Zero' the drama, this price wasn't even a factor.
138 yuan. A quick online payment, and the game was ready to download via Steam Gear.
The file size? Nearly 20GB.
Given Great Zhou's average internet speed of just 1MB/s, it would take about six hours to download.
Damn. Brutal.
Chen Hang slumped in his chair. No choice—he'd have to let the PC run and go eat breakfast and wash up.
In the meantime, he checked the 'Fate/Stay Night' fan group he was in.
Console and handheld players who bought physical copies didn't need to download, but they had to wait for stores to open.
So that morning, the fan group was filled with cries of anguish.
"Why is it so huge?! I won't finish downloading until 10 a.m.—this is torture."
"I saw this coming. I was ready to download at midnight, but Steam Gear didn't unlock it until 4 a.m. So annoying!"
"They probably wanted to sync the launch across all platforms—so that PC users don't get spoilers ahead of console and handheld players."
"Fair enough. Just don't spoil anything, no matter which platform you're on, okay? Anyone who spoils deserves to step on a banana peel."
"Relax, if the game's good, we'll be too busy playing to spoil anything."
"Exactly. Judging by the file size, it'll take at least half a month to fully finish the game."
So that's how Chen Hang spent his morning—scrolling the fan group while eating breakfast.
Finally, his computer speakers let out a crisp ding.
"Download complete!" Chen Hang's eyes lit up as he rushed to his PC.
Steam Gear auto-installed the game. All he had to do was click once—
The title 'Fate/Stay Night' appeared in Great Zhou characters.
Developer: BlueStar Game Studio
Scenario: Jing Yu
Music: Jing Yu
Character Design: Jing Yu
A list of credits that left regular people unsure of where to even start mocking.
Then, the theme song for 'Fate/Stay Night' began to play.