Game Market 1983

A month after Laon's first anniversary was over. On the third floor of Yongsan Station and directly following the terminal, there is a new in-house gaming shop run by Mantra.

Soyeon took a picture of the new store and sent it to me by international mail.

Among them, I saw some employees from Mantra, but I was glad to see them again in this picture.

Similar to the Pentagon in Japan, the Mantra Shop was crowded on its first day. Does the photograph give you a vivid sense of what the scene was like?

Due to the fact that the market was too small to open a dedicated shop for Raon in Korea, the title of Mantra also became a gaming-specific multishop. (Of course, I was interested in official domestic ticketing titles…)

After handing over Soyeon's photos one by one, a smile was drawn on her mouth naturally.

Then Hayashi spoke to me.

“Are these pictures from Korea? You look happy. ”

“I've met a lot of good people. ”

“I heard there are many beautiful people in Korea, and Yuki's mother is also Korean. If I had known this, I would have followed you when you went to Korea, but I'm sorry. ”

Morita, sitting at the opposite desk, tilts her head and asks Hayashi.

“Isn't it going well with Kaori on the design team? ”

“Kaori feels like a sister... Young...”

“I never had a brother like you either!”

Kaori from the design team, who came in through the door of the development room without knocking, smiled at me without even looking at Hayashi. Immediately, Hayashi's voice came from behind her.

“What are you, a six-million-dollar man, and our office noise barrier so fragile? ”

“I have good hearing. Director Kang Jun-hyuk, it's time for your meeting. ”

“Oh, is it time already? Then why are you here, Kaori? ”

“Well, Mr. Kawaguchi has included me and a few other teams of Tamago-based monsters in the new monster design. ”

“Really?"

“Maybe the new Final Frontier series that you're planning this time is a little special. ”

With Kaori's anticipated voice, the team in the second development room tilted their heads.

&

The new Final Frontier series she mentioned did not mean the next five.

In fact, this story goes back to Final Frontier 4, which was simultaneously released with Raon last year, when there was a disagreement within the first development team during the planning phase of Final Frontier 4 as a new generation.

When progressive opinions were compatible with conservative opinions of maintaining the RPG format of the existing Final Frontier and trying to make everything new in time for the launch of the new generation.

The main director, Kawaguchi, raised his hand in the process of a typical JRPG by a traditional Final Frontier, whose work covered the story of courage.

However, seeing these meetings separately, it was also very unfortunate that the plans for the new Final Frontier.

“Today's meeting is about the derivative work of the Final Frontier series, as I mentioned earlier. ”

The meeting room was comprised of employees who had originally issued an agenda from the first development team, including me.

The Kawaguchi representative made a brief eye contact with me and then pressed the projector's switch to project the design on the white screen.

“First of all, let them know that this agenda was created based on last year's plans for the new Final Frontier. At the time, Nomura, who was part of the first development team, announced an action RPG plan to fight the characters themselves in the field, and at the time it was one of the conflicting works because it hurt the atmosphere of the Final Frontier. But given the title Final Frontier, this game designed by Nomura has a pretty unique way of gaming. I thought it would be a bit of a waste to let this go. ”

I opened a new game planner on the table.

And looking at the title of the game in the first chapter, I smiled unconsciously.

‘I was just wondering, was it like this? ’

In addition to the Final Frontier series, it was one of the most fun games I've ever known...

“For now, I've decided to put a title separately because I can't continue to use the name Final Frontier. The title of the new project is New Sword Legend 2 - Secret of Mana-. ”

Then Kaori, who was next to me, lifted his hand and opened his mouth.

“Huh? Two? So what's a one? Jules?”

“Kaori, I don't know, actually, I once created an action RPG game at the Pentagon. ”

“Really? Did you come to Raon? ”

Next to Kaori's question, I opened my mouth.

“You mean the legend of the new sword made for Mintendo's portable gambler. ”

“Yes, it is. It was one of the most successful IPs in portable gamblers, which lacked RPGs at the time. Ironically, it was also originally derived from the Final Frontier. So we decided to call the new game Legend 2: New Sword. ”

The people in the meeting room nodded and agreed to the detailed description by Kawaguchi.

Recently, Japan's RPG game market has made some subtle changes.

Unlike traditional RPGs like the old Dragon Warrior or the Final Frontier, new RPG games were ranked as expected.

Among them, the top class was a game called 'Tails of Illusion’ produced by Tripos.

A remarkable response to the NEGA production announcement was recently announced that it had abandoned development into a platform for NEGA drives.

For reasons of development, the NEGA drive was interposed as lacking in performance to achieve additional graphics improvements, but in fact it was just an excuse for anyone to see.

Since Christmas last year, the penetration rate of the NEGA drive has definitely increased, but it has not naturally been connected to purchases of the NEGA CD.

The NEGA, which had barely made it to the console market, was having a very difficult day because of the NEGA CD that was too far ahead of its time.

However, this led Mintendo to become even more stubborn because he declared that the cartridge system was the best medium for home console devices and became a 'Lom cartridge believer’ after carefully observing the failure of the NEGA CD.

Well, Mintendo has no reason to give up cartridge production. The loyalty he receives is enormous.

Anyway, Tripos left the NEGA and returned to a ‘presumed’ state of issuance, and rumors were circulating in the industry that he was talking to the mintendo side, considering equipment penetration and sales volume.

In fact, there was a reason that the new game became so popular.

The Tales of Illusion has shown an ideal that any player who has ever played RPG has ever dreamed of…

‘RPG games where fighting is fun. ’

This was the trend in RPG gaming today.

In NEGA, which lacks RPG games relatively compared to super families and Raons, we announced a new action RPG game after losing the Tales of Illusion, which is the ‘Story of Thor’, the most famous of all the games for NEGA drives.

A NEGA that is already producing new Action RPGs for minten and vengeance with a diverse RPG fleet.

Our Pentagon could not sit idly by while flooding the RPG. But here's the question.

‘Why am I here? ’

The new IP, the Legend of the New Testament, was not something I had to get involved with as the Head of Development.

However, my curiosity was completely solved by Kawaguchi's words.

“I wanted to give this new action RPG a try. And in order to do that, I felt I really needed Joon-Hyuk's help. ”

Mr.Kawaguchi, are you...?

The moment I opened my mouth to Kawaguchi because I felt ominous. He smiles calmly in his mouth and loses his luck first.

“I want Joon-Hyuk, the main director of the Neo-sword legend, to take over. ”

At that moment, the faces of the members of the first development team gathered in the conference room froze cold at the same time.

Haha... These people must have heard about me to the rest of my team. In response to people's reactions, I smiled and asked the Kawaguchi Representative.

“Why did you choose me? Here we have Nomura, our original planner. Wouldn't it be better to choose him? ”

“Actually, this was Nomura's personal request. He wants to work on the project together under Joon-Hyuk. ”

“Yes?”

Workra, who was sitting across the table from me, looked me in the eye and politely bowed her head.

“Sir, please do the same for me. ”

Hmm... A new sword legend.

I also loved the New Sword Legendary Series as a child, which made me feel the most fun I could not find in Action RPG at the time.

Especially in the case of the subsequent release of 3, I could confidently say that it is the best masterpiece for the whole super family to put on five fingers.

"And this is an opportunity for me to create those games myself..."

Looking at the faces of the development team members gathered in the sliding conference room, I opened my mouth with a smile.

“I'm sorry, Jules. I don't think I can afford to be the chief director of the New Testament. Mr. Nomura is already a thick planner in the Pentagon, and I think he'd better be in charge this time. ”

&

Eventually, I spoke with the Kawaguchi Representative in the representative room after the meeting with Nomura as the main development team for a new project.

“I was hoping Joon-Hyuk would take over as the main director of Labour, but is there a project you are working on separately? ”

When Kawaguchi asked, I moved the cup of coffee to my mouth.

“Minten and Sensoni's movements have been unusual lately. And rumor has it that the NEGA is also launching a new project based on the NEGA CD that was released as a peripheral. ”

“What new movement of console companies...? ”

“Jules would have noticed something. because a new console doesn't just happen overnight. Maybe it's already begun. ”

I put the coffee mug on the table and put it next to the horse.

“The specs of the next-generation console and the invisible neurological warfare of the media to be used...”