Chapter 126: Production Announcement
"Dragon Emblem Croel's Sword..."
Bam!
As he finished his sentence, two swords clashed on the screen, and the title of the game appeared.
- Dragon Emblem II -
"Whoa!"
"Why, it's Dragon Emblem?"
This isn't even a Valentine's Day promotion video, but why is everyone screaming?
However, the people gathered here all had expressions of disbelief.
No one could have expected that they would see the legendary title, Dragon Emblem, at this event, which was not a "Valentine's Day" promotional video.
In 1986, like a ghost, it had stormed into the gaming industry, and the people here couldn't have imagined they'd witness it once again.
Amidst the hushed crowd, another sword clash shattered the title "Dragon Emblem II," and the next text appeared.
"She wanted to protect the peace of this world, regained through her sacrifice. But..."
- New Year's Eve 28 years, King Croel. Defeated. -
The text announced the defeat of the protagonist from the previous game, and it dissipated like dust, accompanied by a mournful ending song. A short animation prepared in advance played on the screen.
With a sword clenched in his chest, Croel, a middle-aged man, breathed heavily, facing the resurrected dark god. He fought valiantly, wielding his broken holy sword, but ultimately allowed the final blow and knelt on the ground.
- Dragon Emblem II, the Broken Holy Sword and the Resurrection of the Dark God. -
- With PENTAGON soft -
- Expected release in winter 1991. -
- Platform: TBD -
"Release next winter... Fantastic!"
"Huh? Is it already over? No gameplay footage?"
"It's too short! I want to see more!"
"Can you believe it? Pentagon Soft even got the Dragon Emblem IP!"
Just when everyone thought it was over, a new promotional video appeared on the screen.
The character design in this video was modest compared to what had been shown so far. Still, those who had just watched Dragon Emblem 2 quickly realized the significance of this new video.
"Ah, it's Katrina."
"Wow, it's been a while."
"It was heartbreaking when they sacrificed Katrina in the final chapter. I can't believe that graphic is from four years ago."
With Katrina holding a priest's staff and in a battle stance, her fellow warriors from the previous game began to appear one by one around her.
"Wow! Fire Mage Mirea! So sexy!"
"Oh, it's Croel! I wonder if the Divine Archer Notis will show up too. I thought that character was the coolest."
As the newly designed characters joined the scene one by one, people enthusiastically called out the names of their favorite characters. My heart ached, even though I had thought I'd forgotten everything after four years. It seemed Dragon Emblem was still beloved by so many people, and they were eagerly waiting for it.
- Dragon Emblem I, the Legend of the Holy Sword, Remake -
- Expected release in autumn 1991. -
- Platform: TBD -
The news about Dragon Emblem was a secret video even to the Pentagon Soft staff members who had gathered around the CEO. They, too, had shocked expressions on their faces.
In this room, only four people were maintaining their calm: Mr. Kawaguchi, Mr. Morita, Mr. Hayashi, and me.
At that moment, a peculiar character fell from above onto the heads of the Dragon Emblem heroes on the screen.
The character was shaped like a white egg and had a golden shimmering shell due to the impact of the fall.
As the egg rolled left and right, in pain, Priestess Katrina cast a healing spell on it, and the injuries miraculously disappeared.
"Could it be... Tamagosama?"
A moment later, the character who had been joyfully running around Katrina suddenly stopped, seemingly lost in thought. Then, he clapped his hands and started cheering.
People were puzzled by his strange behavior, and a question mark appeared above the characters' heads.
At that moment, the egg-shaped character emitted a strange light towards the Dragon Emblem characters.
A loud bang, and the Dragon Emblem characters transformed into cute, black-and-white, 2D characters.
Everyone was bewildered, and as the heroes were absorbed by the light of Tamagosama, the egg-shaped character shook vigorously. It then started to turn from white to black.
Soon, with the "Seal of the Dragon" engraved on his cape, Tamagosama, a collaboration with Dragon Emblem, flew away somewhere, signaling the end of the promotional video.
- Tamagosama's second collaboration work, Dragon Emblem Tamagosama. Currently on sale. -
At that moment, a person inside the meeting room spoke with a slightly trembling voice.
"Ah, I have that..."
Instantly, all the people in the meeting room turned their gaze in the direction where the voice came from. I, too, was taken aback and turned my head, noticing Uchimura and Miyazaki sitting in the corner with awkward expressions, grinning.
Then, Junpei couldn't contain his curiosity and asked Uchimura, "Hey, do you have it?"
"Yes, right here," Uchimura replied, taking out the black Tamagosama from his pocket. Gasps of amazement escaped from the mouths of the people gathered in the meeting room.
"Really? I thought there were only two versions until now. A new one has been released. I want one too."
"Does that Tamagosama contain Dragon Emblem characters? Wow."
The entire meeting room buzzed with excitement, and the discovery of this Tamagosama by Uchimura seemed like a stroke of luck. They only distributed 100 of these as part of the initial production, after all.
Finally, as all the promotional videos for Dragon Emblem and other games came to an end, a single sentence appeared on the screen.
[email protected]
"Ah, isn't that the message that appeared during Dragon Emblem?"
"Yes, that's right. I was always curious about what it meant. Could it be that it will be revealed today?"
At that moment, the letter after the "@" symbol vanished, and only the characters "hjk0615" remained on the screen.
Soon, even the number "0615" disappeared in all directions, leaving only the letters "hjk."
The letters were rearranged horizontally, forming the complete name "Kang Jun Hyeok."
"Kang... Jun... Hyeok...?"
"Is Kang Junhyuk, the Korean developer of Dragon Emblem, the head of Pentagon Soft?"
The room fell silent, as if everyone were holding their breath, unable to process the revelation.
Eventually, the brightly lit stage signaled the end of our prepared presentation, and I began to walk towards the podium. My footsteps echoed loudly in the stillness of the room.
Thud... Thud... Thud...
After a moment, I reached the podium, took a deep breath, and exhaled, not sure where to begin. The people seated at the table probably felt the same.
Maybe it was a stroke of luck that none of the Mintendo representatives had shown up today. I thought it might be better that way.
"Phew... I'm sure you have a lot of questions. So, I will now take questions regarding the promotional videos that were revealed today."
However, contrary to my expectations, no one immediately raised their hand to ask a question. It seemed like some were still in shock, with dazed expressions on their faces.
Then, someone from the Famitongshin team raised their hand, and I nodded in their direction.
"The first question comes from Junpei, right?"
I chuckled and said, "Go ahead, Junpei."
"I... I'll just ask a few questions straight out."
"Sure, go ahead."
"Is the 'K' known as a scenario writer for games set in other worlds a reference to your last name, 'Kang'?"
...Wow, this guy started by hitting me with a punch. Well, he's certainly not holding back in this place today.
"Yes, that's correct."
My response led to another wave of excitement in the meeting room.
I thought I heard someone mention "demon" and another person call me a "traitor." But there were also compliments, such as being hailed as the "best director of this generation, creating masterpieces like Psych Battle."
"Okay, now the second question. When you were developing Dragon Emblem, a Mintendo employee at the time, why did you not release the game under the Mintendo name and instead target the second-hand market?"
"With the technology available at that time, it was unavoidable to use the second-hand market to implement the system I wanted. As everyone here knows, Dragon Emblem has a unique system involving actual death in the game. To add this system, we needed 'custom chips' that could read and write data. However, these chips were quite expensive due to their manufacturing costs. Even if we had submitted a proposal, it wouldn't have been approved due to the production cost."
My response prompted some nods from the people in the room.
"That's not entirely incorrect. When I first checked the market, I inquired through acquaintances, and I remember someone saying, 'Who in their right mind would sell it at that price?'"
...Well, that "someone" seems to be me.
By the way, I recall that Junpei also made a similar comment when he first opened the cartridge.
I chuckled softly and awaited the next question. This time, Yuuji from Phoenix Soft raised his hand.
"I have a question."
"Go ahead."
"Why are the release platforms for Final Frontier and Dragon Emblem all marked as 'TBA' (To Be Announced)? Are there plans to release them on a platform other than the Super Family?"
I hesitated for a moment before answering, "I will answer that on behalf of our company's CEO, Mr. Kawaguchi, but since we have the opportunity on this stage, I'll answer in his place. First, I want to clarify that the ports of Final Frontier 4 and Dragon Emblem shown today were not created for the Super Family."
"Then, what were they created for?"
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