"Hah! I should meet Joon-Hyuk's parents later. When are you going to Korea? Too busy right now? "
"Huh…? I don't know…"
"I thought you'd stop by Joon-Hyuk's house when you were in Korea before, but you wouldn't look so awkward at that time..."
Yuki said, I forgot what to say for a moment and looked at her.
"What's the matter? Joon-Hyuk?"
"I'll talk slowly about my parents later. So why don't you tell your parents about it? "
"Oh, Joon-Hyuk. No way...?"
Yuki tries to say something with a small pout, but soon she shakes her head and shuts up.
"Joon-Hyuk will tell me when it's time. I'll be waiting."
"Thank you..."
Thanks to her understanding of me, I got into the car that was parked in the parking lot once stroked her head.
"Drive safely. "
"Yes, thank you. "
&
February 19, 1992. Wednesday.
The day before the launch of the Dragon Emblem.
It was the launch of Dragon Emblem 2 and the opening of a new store.
Despite the distance from the Pentagon's iconic Tamago Shop, the interior was very comfortable because the entire first and second floors of the new building in Akiba were to be decorated exclusively for Dragon Emblem.
In just one month, the dedicated Dragon Emblem store was built on the efforts and passions of all Pentagon employees, including the Kawaguchi delegation.
"If Dragon Emblem 2 is released this time, it will be time for a sigh. "
"Now that all the games that were released last year have been released, I guess, right? "
In Kawaguchi's question, I nodded and looked around the store.
In the center of the store was the white stone statue of King Croel, the Holy Lady Katrina and the flamethrower Mirea displayed in a glass tube.
At that time, Sayuri, Kawaguchi's assistant, who was visiting the store together, said.
"What kind of museum does it feel like? "
"The first half is decorated as a store selling dragon emblems game titles and related goods. "
Looking at dragon emblem-related merchandise everywhere, she asked with a satisfactory smile.
"You said the second floor is still under construction. "
"The schedule was so tight that we only kept the first floor open for now. The second floor, which will be opened at a later date, will be a theme cafe where Dragon Emblem users will meet. "
"I'm looking forward to that. "
When the Kawaguchi representative heard my initiative, he nodded with a satisfied expression. Then, Sayuri asked me with a finger in his mouth.
"But how do you plan to use the other half of the floor? "
"Oh, that's going to be operated later, depending on how quickly users clear the dragon emblem. "
"Hmm! Looks like you're up to something again, like the second development team said. Still, I can't believe you tied him up in front of Jules. Is it too much?"
The Kawaguchi representative was embarrassed by Sayuri's words and hurriedly cut her off.
"Hmph!! Ahem! I'm a little thirsty here.Could you get me a glass of Sayuri water? "
"Yes, I understand. Jules."
In the words of the Kawaguchi representative, she jumped into a firepit, so she quickly nodded and headed toward the counter where the staff gathered.
As she drifts away, the Kawaguchi representative sighs a long time.
"Joon-Hyuk, now that the Pentagon Soft is stable, can you please stop being the true representative of the Pentagon? I also sometimes get upset when employees talk to Joon-Hyuk carelessly..."
"I don't want to. What do you have to worry about? If you think about it, Jules, you're the one who led the Pentagon from the start. So be a little bit more confident. "
"Ha, but I'm still young..."
"Jules is doing well enough. Please bear with me if you feel uncomfortable.
Actually, I don't have much time left in the Pentagon. "
"Yes!? No, what do you mean? Joon-Hyuk, are you leaving Pentagon Soft? "
In Kawaguchi's question, I just smiled a little.
"I'll talk slowly later. "
&
The next day.
The dragon emblem 2 started as an accomplice based on the reputation and trial of the masterpiece.
On the first day of the event, Miyazaki's surprise idea was to host a professional military costume event featuring all employees in Dragon Emblem 2.
Even me and Kawaguchi, who visited the venue early in the morning, were surprised at the event she prepared, and we were able to smile a lot before opening a new store.
"Miyazaki, Mage and Braille, So please take good care of the Dragon Emblem Store, the Pentagon's second road shop. "
"Yes, I'll work hard. "
As the front gate shutter slowly climbed at the designated opening time, Miyazaki's cheeks rose red to see if he was palpitating.
"Good day to you all!! "
The manager bowed his head to the employees who would work with him first, and panicked as they greeted her.
"I'll work hard!! "
"Fight!"
Heave-ho. As the front gate shutters all went up and opened the locked door, guests started pouring in like waterfalls.
"Wow!! Awesome. There's a statue of Croel. "
"Looks like there's a new figure in the market. "
"Cough, look at the people's clothes. A cosplay employee standing there is very cute. "
Fortunately, Miyazaki's ideas worked, and the guests' reactions were not bad.
To set an official record of the amount sold on the first day of Dragon Emblem 2, employees quickly started responding to the crowds.
Not all the contents of Dragon Emblem 2 were ready yet, so the store was using them as calculations for the sale of titles, except for Goods and ornaments, and they began to decline rapidly.
Every time a title was sold next to each of the stalls, the counting staff's thumbs moved relentlessly, and I cheered them on as I watched the queues of constantly gathering guests.
That's how much the 6,800 yen game cartridge sold through gaming shops across the country for about 100,000 in the first week alone.
And this was the shortest game title ever released by any machine in the world.
And the device traction effect of the Dragon Emblem was truly enormous because of the Raid System that we enjoyed with our friends in the trial.
In the first week alone, more than 60,000 units of soft sales were sold.
This was almost the same rate of sale as Mintendo's family during its heyday.
Due to the compulsory four-man party raid system that may be a little uncomfortable, Raon was being sold among consumers in a web of spiders.
And so we entered April of 1992. The console industry in Japan has split rankings.
Laon, who started as the next generation of cars, broke the NEGA drive and took second place in the penetration rate.
Of course, the gap between Mintendo and the industry leader was still enormous, but it was amazing to be ranked second in the industry within a year of issuing.
Thanks to this, Sonic-armed NEGA has begun to be completely pushed out of Japan's domestic market. Even the second-in-command seat was taken by a newly born portable console, which remained a very humiliating thing for them.
I mean, I'm just gonna take the drive, you know, the NEGA drive, and I don't know why he strangled himself with a NEGA CD.
Last Christmas, the new NEGA CD hit the worst volume of consoles ever released in Japan.
The NEGA CD sold for approximately 4 months has only recently been distributed to over 1,000 units.
But in some ways, it was a natural order.
Who's going to open their wallet at a regular price of 49,800 yen in this tough economic recession?
Of course, if the game were great, it would stimulate consumers to purchase, but the graphics of Sonic released at the same time with the device did not feel much different than traditional NEGA drives.
Moreover, every time I played a game, I had to suffer from extreme loading, so all of the users who had played once put down the pad with a dark reaction.
The player who played the experience in Akiba told me that he thought the machine had stopped, and he repeatedly turned it off and on...
But there was good news for that country.
The NEGA drive, which bundled Sonic, is highly responsive in North America and Europe, and has recently started ahead of Mintendo's super family sales.
Even though I blew up all the money I made there at the crash of the NEGA CD...
In 1992, there was a shift in perception in the console industry.
The rapid pursuit of Raon has led to a massive increase in device supply rates, and several third-parties loyal to Mintendo have overtaken us.
Among them, there was a soft company that we welcomed with two hands, Fox Soft, famous for 'Real Full Power Pro Baseball' and 'Demonic Series'.
There was a funny anecdote in the real-world full-power professional baseball that they created, and among the Japanese pro baseball players was a player called Yi and Sankei.
Since high school, he has dreamed of putting his name on real-life full-power professional baseball, and as a result of his hard work, he was able to join Hansen Tigers.
Hansen's struggling pitcher lineup always pushed Eywa out the week before, but he was impressed with his name on the full power pro baseball launch the following year.
But the joy of that...
Despite the fact that his name is clearly on the board, his brother did not even write about him in the game.
The question is, why don't you use yourself?
"You have too low a stat. "
" · · · · · ·. "
In this sentence, he repeatedly learned a special lesson and won the 'Sawamura' award for the best pitcher, and laughed at the Japanese archipelago in response to his awareness that he worked hard to raise his game stats in the journalists. (Of course, this is the story of the future in 1999…)
Like this, Fox Soft played a lot of sports based games among Japanese gaming companies. Especially since they started the '88 Olympic Games for Arcade, there was no company to follow about sports genres.
-The combination of the format of our sporting games and mobile device Raon will bring out the best synergy. -
I swallowed a picnic smile in an article about Fox Post, handing over the best signals from Fame.
"Football and baseball games are a peculiar genre that can never be broken, even by fanatics, if the basics are true."
Like Fox Soft said, it's a good match for Raon...
As I nodded and looked at the newspaper, I turned over the next chapter, and my face slightly crumpled.
- Berserker Guild!! Ultimate Member. Second Castle Tower Challenge!! -
They were the best players to break through the dragon emblem's hard core mode in the shortest time possible, at least three to four months.
"You've already challenged the second tower? "
It might be because of the Berserker's Guild that the 2nd part will go faster than I thought.
After the release of the Dragon Emblem. Ranked on the top of the Hall of Fame and has become incredibly popular with users recently.
I don't want to blame them for their uplifting, but this party leader. Can't you do something about the character's name...?
But the second floor of the shop dedicated to Dragon Emblem has passed since the full moon.
Black Dragon, the master of the second tower of Mars, kneels before the Sword of the Warrior Oshiri.
"Damn the legendary warrior's name, Oshiri... That's it." '
"Wow!!! "
"I can't believe I'm actually clearing this!! "
Users gathered at the event cheered for the elite party of the Berserker Guild, but my feelings were very complicated.
"Butt, the name of a great hero is butt."
At that time, Hayashi, who was next to me, asked me with the same emotion or a screaming voice.
"D-sir. This is the name of the hero class character in Part Two."
"Yes. Butt. "
"Hiya!! Are you sure you want to do this? "
"Well, promises are promises. "
But there is still little hope. It's just a small difference between being a warrior and not being one.
"Grrrrrrr!! "
On the last blow of the warrior, you lay on the ground screaming at the last stroke of Black Dragon.
"Now... is there a gin ending? "
After clearing Normal Mode, the event of escaping from the collapsing tower plays and ends somewhat freshly with a message asking you to challenge the Hardcore Mode, but the end of Hardcore Mode took place slightly differently.
In front of the warriors who defeated the Black Dragon, Marcin, who defeated the Holy King Croel, appears.
"Huh!? Drink!!"
"Oh!! Endings are different!! As expected, the Gin Endings were hidden in Hardcore Mode!! "
"Are you sure this is the final battle? "
- Well done, warriors who defeated my dragons. -
The members of the Berserker Guild look nervous as they suddenly appear. Because if you go into battle like this, the result is almost like a fire.
I never thought that drink would show up on the top floor of the Maestro's Tower when I thought it was the last battle.
In retrospect, there was a similar case in the book. Some players were struck down by a sudden drink after killing the Demon King.
But their expectations were well missed.
In front of the party members who defeated the dragons, Marcin offered players new alternatives.
Alternately, a new message window appeared on the screen of the leader of the Raid Party, Osiris.
- Will you take over as' Demon King 'in response to Marcin's offer? -
The message that popped up on the screen came out of the mouths of the users gathered in the event hall.
"What, you can be a hero or a Demon King, depending on what you choose?" "
"Amazing. What happens when you choose the Demon King here? "
What the hell? I'm gonna be the Butt Demon King!!
Anyway, whatever that damn name is makes me less serious. But is the Demon King a better name than the name of a warrior? Err... I don't know anymore.
Taking a long sigh and looking at the side, Yuki, who was sitting with me, was smiling just before he passed out.
"The Demon King's name is Butt. Kick, Kick, Kick."
Yeah, smile, smile.
When I turned my head to the stage with my heart set on, the players of the Berserker Guild were discussing with a very serious face.
Are you the first hero of Dragon Emblem 2? Or is it written as the Great Demon King? Neither would be an attractive choice for them.
The moment Osiris, a warrior class, was offered a position as the Demon King.
The same offer was offered to the palace and the sage classes that were partying together.
And the Berserker party made a fairly wise judgment here.
At a party of four, one warrior and one wise man is the Demon King and one corrupt wise man.
And the rest of us will finish the class change with the referee and the great sage.
'Not a bad choice. '
Users also had an interesting reaction to their choices.
"My colleague split in two. What happens now? "
Drinking, while everyone was watching, disappeared into the dark with two of his henchmen, heralding a new war.
The story ends with a video of an urgent event that leaves the Judge and the Grand Sage in a collapsing tower and tells them that the Maestro Tower has all collapsed. Another message window popped up on the screen.
- Thank you for enjoying the time of darkness and the broken Sword of the Dragon Emblem Prologue. -
"Prologue!? "
"The story you've played so far was the prologue of Dragon Emblem 2, how big is the worldview? "
Of course, the users who only knew it was the end began to roar at the message on the screen, so I slowly got up and went onstage, just watching the event until now.
"Hello, I'm Kang Jun-hyuk, the developer of Dragon Emblem. "
The gaze of all the people who were gathered in the event hall became calm toward me.
"Thank you to the Berserker Guild for completing the Dragon Emblem Hardcore Mode first. To be honest, after the launch of Dragon Emblem 2, I thought it would take at least 3 months to clear Hardcore Mode, but developers always miss their expectations. "
"I can't believe you were expecting that..."
I smiled and replied to the soliloquy of the user from somewhere.
"That's what a director looks like. If the playtime feels too short for the user, they can slightly increase the content, and if they want too much, they can cut out unnecessary events like pruning branches. It's a long, boring story that's going to tire you out. So the first story of Dragon Emblem 2 is very simple and vivid. Defeat the dragon guarding the tower with your allies. Isn't that right, Berserkers Guild? "
Then, at the last class chain, the referee archer nodded and replied.
"Well, it's nice to have your character grow or your town flourish by completing small quests, but I don't think there was a flow of epic stories from the masterpiece. "
"You got it right. Yes, because what you've been enjoying so far is the beginning of the Drama of Dragon Emblem 2, the prologue. The last words that came to mind in the promotional footage of the Dragon Emblem I showed you earlier... Does anyone remember? "
Some of the users in the event hall gave me a small resilience to my question.
"No way..? "
Yes, the newly transferred users will appear as heroes in the main story of Dragon Emblem's next episode, "The Grave of the Braves."
The Dragon Emblem's Hero Classes are 8 for each job. In total, there are 16 kinds of the Demon Prince's faction...
Clear information from the Berserker Guild was immediately disseminated through the various magazines and the PC communication community. Then the users rushed to the Tower of Mars to occupy the remaining 12 hero classes.
Your character can be the lead in the next episode.
Of course, even after the registration of 16 heroes, users who had completed Dragon Emblem 2 were able to inherit their characters from the next episode, thus minimizing the range of cartridges flowing into the second-hand market.
A new type of game that is being created with users has produced a very good response to consumers, and in about 3 months after its release, it vomited the salt of selling one million copies within Japan alone.
&
"A toast to achieving the Dragon Emblem Millionaire!!! "
With the Kawaguchi delegation's toast, the sound of the cups banging rang out.
He praised the performance of the Elongated Dragon emblem and induced applause for the Pentagon staff.
"Then, shall we call Director Kang Jun-hyuk, who is the pride of our Pentagon software and is getting married next month? "
I suddenly swallowed the champagne in the representative's comment, and I shook my hand and replied.
"I'm fine. "
Then Morita and Hayashi, who were sitting next to me, forced me to stand up and open their mouths.
"Aigoo, don't do that, get married next month and go up and say something. Hey, what's everybody doing? I won't take you anywhere soon! "
Eventually, I stepped up to the top like I was being handed over to my second development team members, and I looked at them in a clumsy manner. Then he applauded the first team as well as the marketing and accounting teams.
A small company that was within and outside of 10 is now a large company with 150 employees working at the head office.
I looked at the party floor, holding the microphone, until the crowds clapped more often.
"First of all, I'd like to thank the people of the second development team for working with me. Launched a new portable console and now it's about 10 months old. Raon has outperformed the NEGA within Japan and is ranked second in its penetration rate. Of course, there's a huge gap between the industry leaders, but I don't think it would be a dream to go beyond mintendo one day if everyone just worked hard like now. "
"The gaming industry, which had lost its trust in users due to Atari shock, has now had its second peak since the Mintendo family. The console market is going to undergo a huge change in the future. There's a whole new kind of genre coming out of it. The Dragon Emblem 2 prologue is the first step in preparing for that change. "
Maybe no one here understands what I'm saying.
I gripped the microphone and smiled.
&
A few days from that.
In Mantra Soft, Korea, several types of demo cartridges were moved to Pentagon headquarters.
It was a demonstration game from a Korean gaming company that mainly develops PC games to Raon, a console breeder, who hopes to launch the games.
South Korean PC gaming industry in the '90s was extremely unstable due to illegal replication, making it extremely rare for users to buy authentic products.
Later, Laon, which was launched in 91, became quite popular in South Korea, and as its penetration rate increased, soft companies were increasingly changing routes to console gaming businesses.
Since the Pentagon and Mantra were cooperating with each other in both directions, most of the games from the Pentagon were released in Hangul, and along with the Dragon Emblem series, Final Frontier was becoming very popular in the country.
Some of the games were converted to Japanese and released, and Mantra used to send some to the Pentagon, which showed sufficient promise in the Japanese market.
"Sir, I've sent you a new demo cartridge from Korea. "
Hayashi, who had picked up a brown paper box from the post office, told me as she unpacked the parcel.
While I was working on a portrait of a new episode of Dragon Emblem, I sighed for a moment and received a cartridge from Hayashi.
"I've been developing a lot of Raon games in Korea lately. "
"PC prevalence increases exponentially, and the game doesn't sell at all. Turn your eyes to Raon, the console device. "
"Illegal replication. That's not only in Korea, it's happening all over the world. In the first place, PCs were easier to replicate data than consoles. "
"You know..."
I stopped looking at a cartridge with a happy title while looking at some game cartridges.
"Hmm? You know the game? "
"I just got off the phone with the head of Mantra, and he said," Great game. You want to try it? "
Hayashi muttered while reading the title of the cartridge received from me.
"The story of Actonicia...? That's a great title."
"Isn't that right?"
In Hayashi's compliment, a swirling smile was drawn on his mouth.