After the meeting ended, '4Gamer' President Nozawayama left Fukuyama Mitsuaki and the review team with one final sentence: "I have high expectations for you."
Those words placed enormous pressure on them. In Japan, they carried far more weight than their literal meaning suggested. Because of the country's almost pathological notion of "even if you have to kill yourself, don't cause trouble for others," the implication was that if they failed, they would be causing trouble for the entire company. The only retreat left to them then would be resignation.
Inside the company lounge, the psychological pressure accumulated from the meeting left everyone too tense to speak. Finally, one member of the review team raised his head and looked uneasily at their team leader, Fukuyama Mitsuaki.
"Fukuyama, what do we do now?"
"What can we do? At this point, all we can do is go all in. Besides, I'm extremely confident in my judgment." Fukuyama Mitsuaki drank a glass of water and answered indifferently.
Another member of the review team sighed. "True. Giving it a score of 97 was a decision we all agreed on. We can't push all the responsibility onto Fukuyama just because of some outside pressure. Besides, nothing has been concluded yet."
"Agreed. I think this is the time to show what we're capable of."
Seeing the resolute attitudes of everyone on the review team, Fukuyama Mitsuaki smiled with satisfaction. "The president wants us to submit the game review report as soon as possible. The next few days might be hell."
One of the reviewers laughed without concern. "I'm still in good enough shape to go another day without sleep. I'm not as young as I used to be, when I could stay awake for several days just to research one game. Ah~ We'll figure out the rest somehow."
"Exactly. Like that famous Chinese figure Mr. Lu Xun once said: Even if I die and get nailed inside my coffin, I'll still use my rotten voice from the grave to shout out what I truly believe!"
"Huh? That sounds incredibly forceful. Did he really say that?"
"Probably. I saw it online."
...
Completing the review of 'Throne of Heroes' was no simple task.
Fukuyama Mitsuaki's review team consisted of five members. He and another media editor were responsible for evaluating the PVE content, while the PVP side had originally been the game's main promotional focus, so three editors were assigned to test it. Even compiling the results of three days of testing was a major undertaking in itself.
Still, every reviewer, Fukuyama Mitsuaki included, felt that the effort was worthwhile. As editors for a famous gaming publication, they were themselves semi-professional players who genuinely loved games. They enjoyed seeing an excellent game come into existence, and they enjoyed exploring every aspect of its design. Compared with ordinary players, they approached the game's structural framework from a more professional perspective and considered the purpose behind every feature and design decision.
Three cobblers could surpass Zhuge Liang, let alone five people with professional expertise in their respective fields. In less than three days, they had already begun to unravel the immensely complex structural network hidden beneath the surface of 'Throne of Heroes'.
Inside the review team's office, everyone had their heads buried in front of their computer screens. Some typed, while others directly voiced their opinions.
"One hundred and sixty Heroic Spirit character cards. Every single one has a relatively independent storyline, an affection system as part of the character-development mechanics, and hidden special dialogue triggers~ Incredible."
"The achievement system is linked to the story system, and there may even be some hidden judgment mechanism based on player data~ Incredible."
"There are currently more than ten different PVP battle modes. They vary in how entertaining they are, but without question, every one of them is already a mature gameplay system~ Incredible."
"The monetization system is balanced, and even paying players face special limits. Even a paying player with exceptionally good luck would need at least a year to complete the collection-related content. Judging the game's lifespan from that foundation alone~ Incredible."
"Incredible~!"
The five members of the review team kept mechanically uttering the same astonished exclamation. One editor was responsible for combining all their observations into a lengthy game review.
In the otherwise quiet office, only the clatter of keyboards could be clearly heard. Every member had dark circles beneath their eyes, and two consecutive nights without proper sleep had left traces of fatigue on their faces. Yet their eyes shone brighter than ever, and serious, excited smiles unconsciously tugged at the corners of their mouths.
"Odagiri, have you finished recording that? There's no way I can keep researching this Heroic Spirit affection system any further. There's simply no chance of figuring it out in such a short amount of time. I'm starting to suspect every Heroic Spirit has enough character content to match a Galgame protagonist." One of the reviewers stretched and sighed.
Fukuyama Mitsuaki, sitting beside him and staring at his screen, strongly agreed. "Exactly. I really like this mode. By the way, you all know 'Fate/zero', right?"
"Ah, that original anime from Yosuganosora Animation Studio?"
"I'm following it. That's all."
"Well~ I watched it specifically for work before we got this game for review. It's pretty good."
Fukuyama Mitsuaki turned around to face the other members of the team and said seriously, "I'm talking about the novel. Well~ It's basically the same thing. Each of the seven Heroic Spirits appearing in it has their own prequel novel. Unfortunately, only Saber's side-story novel was adapted into anime. Personally, I prefer Zhao Yun's side story. On the day we started reviewing the game, I spent more than three hours clearing that character's historical main route."
After a pause, he continued in disbelief, "I don't know whether the other Heroic Spirits are the same, but Zhao Yun's historical main route is almost equal in content to an entire side-story light novel. Mm~ More accurately, it's a streamlined version after some editing, but all the core plot is still there."
The Heroic Spirit Reminiscence Mode was a game mode that could be triggered through various story events, affection levels, and related gameplay systems. It was one of the major PVE features of 'Throne of Heroes'. Players fought through PVE scenarios based on a Heroic Spirit's recollections of their own history. In essence, it was like reading an autobiographical novel about that Heroic Spirit.
If players later fulfilled the relevant conditions, they could also unlock a hidden route that allowed them to interfere with the Heroic Spirit's past. However, at present, test players had virtually no chance of fulfilling the requirements to unlock such hidden routes.
According to the game's design, a player had to pour all their resources and enthusiasm into a single character just to unlock one such route. Even lucky players or heavy spenders could unlock the hidden routes of at most three Heroic Spirits per month.
These hidden routes had been developed around the player's desire to change the course of a Heroic Spirit's history.
For example, Jeanne d'Arc's fate of being burned at the stake, Gilles de Rais's ending as a follower of an evil god, or Artoria Pendragon's death on the Hill of Camlann.
"I cleared the character storyline for the Heroic Spirit called [Daji] too. It only took about two hours, but it still had a complete character narrative. It felt almost like an ADV game. And by the way, that storyline is absolutely worth studying. Those original character illustrations drawn by Kamiyā-sensei... tsk, tsk, tsk."
Another reviewer was rendered speechless. "The game is only 2 GB. How in the world did they cram this much content into it?"
Naturally, such technology didn't exist in this world. Even in Kamiyā Yuu's previous world, in an era when computer performance had long since become excessive, technology of this kind had only reached a half-baked level.
The ultra-compression technology developed by [Matrix Space] could theoretically compress files exceeding a hundred gigabytes into only a few gigabytes with ease. The data could then be accessed through specialized software code. Taking into account the average CPU performance of this world, Blake had chosen the optimal ultra-compression scheme, and the compression ratio was still nowhere near the technology's true limit.
If 'Throne of Heroes' hadn't used this kind of technology, the base game itself might have exceeded 10 GB.
Fukuyama Mitsuaki helplessly raised a hand to interrupt everyone's conversation. "Yes, yes. That's enough chatting. Get back to work. Don't forget President Nozawayama is still waiting for our explanation. Odagiri, please organize what we just discussed and write it down. We can put it in the reviewers' comments section."