Over the course of three days, aside from the sleep he absolutely needed, Fukuyama Mitsuaki devoted all his time to testing 'Throne of Heroes'. The test account he'd received came with a fairly complete selection of items from the very beginning, along with certain collectible items intended to give players a better experience. His task was to use this account to explore the game's entire structure.
Generally speaking, even with a AAA single-player blockbuster, three days of concentrated play would be more than enough for an ordinary player to clear it. Yet 'Throne of Heroes', despite being classified as a competitive card game, had completely overturned his understanding of card games. Over these three days, he'd concentrated on researching the PVE side of the game, while other editors on his team were responsible for testing the PVP content.
Its gameplay ranged from complex to simple, while the sheer variety and ingenious construction of its framework left him wondering what kind of game designer could have created such a comprehensive system. If 'Warship Girls Collection' represented the ultimate extension of collectible card-game mechanics, then 'Throne of Heroes' had absorbed the strengths of 'Warship Girls Collection' and expanded them across the entire genre, pushing the advantages of every element found in this kind of game to their limits. Even someone as critical of games as Fukuyama Mitsuaki couldn't find any obvious flaws.
The game's story setting was equally impeccable, combining elements from currently popular anime, novels, and manga to construct a complete world. Within the game, players took the role of a Western RPG-style protagonist and created their own character's history. The greatest difference between Japanese RPGs and Western RPGs could probably be summed up in a single sentence: "JRPGs: I'll tell you a story. Western RPGs: I'll create a world for you, and you create your own story."
Fukuyama Mitsuaki particularly liked the achievement system. Players could make their own choices when confronted with certain story events, resulting in different evaluations and achievements. These would also affect the player's faction and their interactions with Heroic Spirits. After immersing himself in 'Throne of Heroes' for three days, one of his strongest impressions was the sheer volume of written story content. Even the interactions between players and Heroic Spirits were as entertaining as those in a visual novel.
That enormous amount of text gave the game tremendous depth to explore in this area, and 'Throne of Heroes' hadn't squandered the possibilities it offered. Affection levels, storylines, NPC interactions, quests, and numerous other elements had all been incorporated. It could be said that this massive volume of text was itself one of the most important structural pillars supporting the game. It was precisely because of this that Fukuyama Mitsuaki had been unable to fully explore everything 'Throne of Heroes' had to offer.
When [Matrix Space] recompiled the base game according to Kamiyā Yuu's requirements, it had organized and categorized the several million Chinese characters of text Kamiyā Yuu had previously prepared and incorporated them into the game. The total was almost equivalent to the entire word count of 'Battle Through the Heavens'. Kamiyā Yuu had gradually completed this textual content while working on the game's development plan. Once [Matrix Space] had sorted it all into categories, he copied the text into the game. Organizing it became one of the most time-consuming parts of modifying the game's underlying data. During his second revision of the base game data, it took him more than five hours just to integrate the enormous quantity of already organized text.
Such a terrifying amount of text made full voice acting impossible. Several million Chinese characters might occupy less than a few hundred megabytes as text, but voicing several million characters was another matter entirely. Setting aside the resulting game size, even a hundred voice actors working for ten years might not be able to finish recording it all.
"An email from the others. Let's see what they think of the PVP side. Since it's defined as a competitive card game, its PVP definitely shouldn't be any worse than its PVE."
Receiving an email from his colleagues, Fukuyama Mitsuaki immediately perked up and hurriedly opened it. The PVE content of 'Throne of Heroes' had already surpassed the upper limit of what he could rate merely as excellent. He couldn't imagine how the PVP mode, which was the focus of the game's promotional campaign, would perform.
"At this rate, I'm definitely going to work myself to death. I suppose dying as a stepping stone for a game wouldn't be such a bad way to go." Fukuyama Mitsuaki muttered with a wry smile. The glow of the screen reflected off his glasses. He slapped his cheeks with both hands to wake himself up, then threw himself back into the game, combining his own findings with the reports sent by his colleagues as he began making a rough assessment of the game as a whole.
...
Leaving the gaming media aside, Kamiyā Yuu waited with interest for the download to finish.
"Game client download progress: 13%... 25%... 41%... 56%..."
While the game client downloaded on his office computer, Kamiyā Yuu opened the official 'Throne of Heroes' forum run by [Mirror Flower Water Moon] Game Studio. In addition to discussions about the game's content, there were plenty of players who hadn't obtained test accounts and were desperately seeking test access or someone willing to share an account.
[I didn't know what I was doing and killed Stheno of the three Gorgon sisters. Does anyone know how to repair my relationship with Medusa? — Umiyama Jun]
[Completely addicted to the game. Can't tear myself away. Behold the fruits of three days! — Lord Sakamoto Ryōma]
[Are there any players with test accounts willing to share? I guarantee I won't interfere with the account owner's normal playtime. — Ōsaka]
[Victory in Act Three of the [Holy Grail War]! Reward obtained: Saber-class Zhao Yun! A cause for celebration! — Yūgoku Mei]
[PVP rank promoted to Gold (currently the highest rank)! Showing the new changes to the PVP system. As your PVP rank increases, the entire PVP experience changes along with it. Σ(⊙▽⊙"a — Sakura]
[Another whole month before I can play 'Throne of Heroes' (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻. Every day feels as long as a year right now. — Ayuko]
...
[Mirror Flower Water Moon] Game Studio had limited the number of test accounts to around one thousand. The lucky players who obtained test access had basically produced no formal reviews, but anything they posted about the game was eagerly followed by players without access. Since relatively little actual gameplay content had been revealed, more players seemed fixated on how exquisite the original Heroic Spirit artwork was.
The character artwork drawn by Kamiyā Yuu himself, Uehara Etsuki, and Gogyo Ruri was especially popular. Besides Gogyo Ruri's distinctive personal style, the fact that the artist herself was a cute young woman was also an undeniable selling point behind the popularity of her character illustrations.
Looking through these comments, Kamiyā Yuu felt as though he were looking at his former self. Once upon a time, he'd also been one of those players eagerly following games. Now that he stood on the other side as a game creator, his feelings were complicated in all sorts of ways. He smiled and remarked, "There's still another month before the game officially launches. If a similar game had existed in my previous world, I'd probably have been acting exactly like them."
The reason he'd made the game was also to give players a better gaming experience. Making money came second.
In truth, making money and operating a game conscientiously weren't mutually exclusive. However, many game operators in his previous world had been so eager for immediate profits that they'd killed the goose that laid the golden eggs, ruining countless excellent games in the process.
That was probably one of the deepest grievances shared by many Chinese gamers.