Chapter 70: Morita and Hayashi
A few days later, I brought Morita and Hayashi with me to visit Pentagon Soft in Tokyo.
"Boss? Where are we?" Hayashi asked.
"This is Pentagon Soft, the company that developed Final Frontier," I replied.
"Okay, but why are we here?" Morita inquired.
"Well, currently, Mr. Kawaguchi, who is in charge of Pentagon Soft, is responsible for Final Frontier's production, and when I told him your stories, he expressed a desire to meet you," I explained.
"Oh, I see."
We entered Pentagon Soft, and a neatly designed game development room greeted us. Hayashi seemed to appreciate the clean interior.
"It's so... clean," Hayashi remarked.
Hayashi had a personality that couldn't stand a messy environment. Even if a single book was placed upside down on a shelf, it bothered him to the point where he couldn't sleep. His personality seemed to mesh well with Mr. Kawaguchi, at least from what I could see.
As I was about to meet with Amano Yoshitaka, the illustrator, Mr. Kawaguchi approached me.
"Hello, Junhyuk. You've arrived?"
Morita, who was by my side, excitedly exclaimed, "Oh, Amano-sensei!"
"Ah, Morita, it's been a while!" Amano responded.
Wait, did they know each other? Morita rushed to Amano and held his hand tightly.
"Morita has become a character designer, just as you suggested," I added.
"Oh, I've seen his work. The moment I saw the game Psych Battle, I was sure it was his creation. His talent is still alive and well!" Amano said.
Surprisingly, they were like siblings! This was unexpected.
Morita had worked as Amano's apprentice during high school, and Amano had recognized Morita's talent for character design and encouraged him to pursue a career in that field. There was one more surprising fact.
"By the way, do you know how Satoshi is doing these days?" Amano asked.
"Do you know Satoshi, Boss?" I inquired.
"Well, not directly, but I've seen his illustrations," Mr. Kawaguchi replied.
"He's been busy lately. He recently received a call from a company called Desaia, which makes console games for PC-FX. Have you heard of it?" I explained.
Desaia, the same company famous for the Langrisser series? Did that mean Satoshi was...?
Unable to contain my curiosity, I joined their conversation. "Is this Satoshi the same Satoshi as mentioned by Morita?"
"Ah, you know Satoshi-kun too?" Amano asked.
"I don't know him personally, but I've seen his illustrations," I said.
"That guy is a genius at drawing female characters. It's no wonder you recognized his work; he has a unique style. The Boss here recognized his art, and he's not one to take notice of just anyone's work," Morita added.
Haha, it was a small world in this industry. Satoshi Yoshihara was a talented illustrator, particularly known for his smooth and detailed portrayal of female characters. He would later gain considerable fame as a mature content artist.
It made sense now that I occasionally saw Satoshi's influence in Morita's artwork. They were more closely connected than I had imagined. After a while, I introduced Hayashi and Morita to Mr. Kawaguchi.
Recently, with the final stages of Final Frontier 2's development, Mr. Kawaguchi's team was in dire need of more staff. He was impressed with Hayashi's coding skills.
"Your coding is exceptionally clean. I also like to put plug markers in my code. At Pentagon Soft, we establish certain rules for coding among our programmers," Mr. Kawaguchi said.
As expected, Hayashi and Mr. Kawaguchi got along well. Hayashi had enjoyed playing Final Frontier, which was created by Mr. Kawaguchi, and they complimented each other's work. Morita was catching up with his mentor and enjoying the conversation.
As they chatted, I sipped on the coffee a staff member had brought me and explored the interior of Pentagon Soft. With the success of Final Frontier, I had purchased the entire second floor of the building to create development rooms and break rooms for the staff.
The development team was divided into two groups, but due to the final push for Final Frontier 2, only one group was currently active. As I looked around the deserted second development team area, my thoughts wandered.
1988 was a year that would bring forth countless masterpieces that would shape the future of the gaming industry.
At the beginning of this year, starting with Dragon Warrior 3, Capcom's Ys series also planned to release its sequel soon, riding the wave of popularity. Meanwhile, Pentagon Soft was actively developing Final Frontier 2, and Shige's Super Marigi 3, aiming for a year-end release.
And not long ago, the game adaptation of Toriyama-san's Dragon Ball, a popular writer, was announced. When I read the article, I couldn't help but cheer.
I had enjoyed the card game called 'Gyakushin Freja' when I was young, and suddenly, those memories resurfaced.
As more and more hit games poured in every month, I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed about transitioning to the next-generation consoles.
Even Mr. Kamauichi couldn't easily let go of his attachment to backward compatibility.
"Nevertheless, we can't just keep giving our new games to Mintendo..."
To be honest, I no longer had the intention to develop and release games under Mintendo.
Sakic Battle might be the first and last gift I ever gave to Mintendo.
Creating a game takes a lot of time and effort. But once you release the game, the company easily takes all the copyrights and puts their logo on it.
This could potentially become a stigma because even if the game director changes companies, they can't create a sequel under the same name.
Unlike Shige, who would stay with Mintendo forever, for me, the more games I made, the more I lost.
"If Morita and Hayashi decide, should we make a new game here?"
When I considered Morita's character drawings, various genres came to mind.
Expanding bit by bit with character illustrations, similar to a game called 'Tan Ttaegi'...
Or, famous for its executable file 'NANPA.EXE'...
Or perhaps a cute girl-raising game leading to marriage in the end, the merciless 'Princess Maker' game...
(Although she's not really my daughter, I realized I had become an adult when I noticed how intense that game was...)
"No, even if there are many great games in my head, I can't make the same thing."
While I was ahead in terms of genre selection, I still wanted to uphold my principles.
I took out a whiteboard marker and began writing something on the empty development room's whiteboard.
First, the genre. The first dating simulation game I knew was 'Gekishin Freja,' which was released for the PC in 1990.
Fox Soft later took the system and developed the game 'Doki Doki Memorial,' in which the high school protagonist, after choosing a girl character he liked, went through specific events for three years and finally confessed after graduation.
Other dating simulation games included 'Sentimental Graffiti,' where you traveled all over Japan planting seeds, and the 'Pia Carrot' series, which once caused a part-time job frenzy at family restaurants in Japan.
Well, I might think of more games, but for now...
I tapped the whiteboard while lost in thought.
The flow of a dating simulation game goes something like this.
The protagonist, who is very indecisive, showers kindness on all women like a sucker. Then, on a set date and time, when they go to a specific place, a particular event occurs. As these events accumulate, it's a guaranteed confession.
I didn't have the desire to easily make the protagonist happy, especially when I was a complete dating newbie before returning to 1983.
"Maybe we should try going in the opposite direction?"
There were plenty of stories where the protagonist confessed and became happy, but there weren't any dating simulations preparing for a breakup, right?
Huh? Come to think of it, that's not a bad idea...
A girl preparing for a breakup... separation... simulation...
In that moment, a scenario was forming in my mind.
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