Game Development Giant

It is true that both games Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are good games.

However, Hironobu Sakaguchi has been in the United States with Jester for a long time, and he has been working with Mars Entertainment's very American development team. Therefore, there are many American designs in game production, which is different from Jester. The design situation of the Final Fantasy I know is similar.

Because in the original design team of Final Fantasy, the most important people were two people. One was the producer Hironobu Sakaguchi, and the other was an American named Gibeli. They were the Final Fantasy project team at that time. main program.

And now, Gebelli, a personal designer who is very famous for developing games on the Apple II, has also joined Mars Entertainment, and has also worked with Jester on the Fire Emblem team. It may be Pluto. There is God's will in the dark, and he and Sakaguchi Hironobu also formed a posthumous friendship.

Finally, when Hironobu Sakaguchi returned to Japan to establish a development team, he also extended an invitation to Gebelli.

And Gebeli agreed without hesitation.

So, on Final Fantasy, from the beginning, it wasn't that Japanese a game.

The sales results also fully illustrate this point. When the first-day sales in North America and Europe came out, the media that had been collectively pessimistic the day before lost their voices, because no one could say such a thoughtless thing as Mars Entertainment would turn from prosperity to decline in the face of such sales. Otherwise, if Mars Entertainment, which sells hundreds of thousands of copies in a single day like Final Fantasy, is going to go bankrupt, what will happen to Nintendo?

It's just that the best-selling sales in Europe and the United States cannot bring the effect that Jester wants to the Japanese market. In the Japanese market, the sales volume of Final Fantasy really cannot be said to be low, and after Jester read the survey data, after After the release of Final Fantasy, there are still many players who love this game but do not have a Dreambox. I also bought one.

There are a lot of people like this. It is just a preliminary estimate that there are tens of thousands of people.

But still, Dreambox's market share in Japan not only did not increase, but dropped by two percentage points, from the original 25% to 23%, because Dragon Quest is really It is so popular, whether it is children who are still in elementary school or young people who have already entered middle school. Or for college students who enter university campuses, as long as they are interested in video games, there are almost none who don't like this game. Not only that, there are even many who never pay attention to video games, just because they like to read comics, and to support Toriyama Ming, I also went to buy fc. Later, I became a game fan.

This kind of cross-border influence. Jester didn't have it. Finally, a month later, the sales of Final Fantasy in Japan stopped at 600,000 copies, and the game was also widely praised. Except for Famitsu, which had a falling out with Mars Entertainment and banned reporting on Mars Entertainment's games, it turned a blind eye to this, as if there had never been such a game in the world, other game media. They all also praised this game. They all said in the article that this sales volume can explain everything.

This is not sarcasm. Although it is far inferior to the 2.7 million copies of Dragon Quest in Japan after one month, judging from the market share, in Japan, one out of every three Dreamboxes purchased The Ultimate Fantasy, but for FC, it is Wutai.

As for disappointment, for Hironobu Sakaguchi, it is almost certain.

His feelings for Jester are very deep. For Jester, he feels that he is his mentor, allowing him to see the direction of progress again in his already confused gaming career. For Jester, Sakaguchi Boxin is just grateful. He knows how much Jester attaches to Final Fantasy.

I just want to use this game to open up the Japanese market.

Unfortunately, the results were dismal.

Jester, who is far away in the United States, also heard that Tamahide Yoshiro said that Hironobu Sakaguchi had been depressed recently. After giving the development team a month's holiday, he, as a producer, should have started the next game. It was prepared in the early stages of the game, but Hironobu Sakaguchi hesitated after being asked several times by Tamahideyoshiro.

When he heard the news, Jester also felt it was a little funny. In fact, he expected that this time the Japanese market did not open up as he thought. Originally, the Dragon Quest game The game has been called Japan's national RPG in history. The status of this game in the hearts of the Japanese is supreme, not to mention that in this world, Yuji Tsui made it after referring to Fire Emblem. This work is more complete than the original first work.

Moreover, even if Dragon Quest finally sold 2.7 million copies in the Japanese market, there is still a huge gap compared with the world sales of Final Fantasy of 4 million copies. In Jester's view, Come on, there is no need for Sakaguchi Hironobu to be depressed.

After Jester personally made a phone call and it didn't have the effect he wanted, it was simply to inspect the Metal Gear that Hideo Kojima was testing.

If Jester wants to compete for the Japanese market, he cannot rely on just one Final Fantasy. He is also preparing for the next Metal Gear and then Yuji Naka's Phantasy Star, but what he values ​​most is actually They are two Japanese RPG games: Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star.

On the contrary, for Metal Gear, Jester feels that it may be more popular among European and American players.

At the headquarters of the Mars Entertainment branch in Osaka, Jester met Hironobu Sakaguchi, who had been working for almost half a year. Hironobu Sakaguchi also had a pair of beards on his lips. He had no beard before, which made Jester Sturt had some sense of familiarity. After all, in his memory, Sakaguchi Hironobu's nickname was Mustache.

And the pair of mustaches on his lips basically became his nickname.

Haven't you figured out your next plan? Jester asked Hironobu Sakaguchi to sit down, and then asked with a smile. He did not ask why the other party was in a sluggish state during this period, but directly talked to him about his next plan.

Hearing Jester's question, Mr. Sakaguchi Hironobu hesitated. He frowned and thought for a while. During this period, he even took a few sips of coffee. Jester had been waiting quietly without saying anything. Disturbing the other party.

Boss, I don't have any ideas for the next game. All I can think about now is that this time I failed to live up to your expectations of me. Sakaguchi Hironobu said with shame. He lowered his head and whispered. , and when Jester heard it, he laughed strangely.

Jester asked inexplicably: How could you live up to my expectations of you? The current sales of millions of copies of Final Fantasy are only smaller than those of Fire Emblem and Balotelli's Strange. World Adventure is just inferior. If you can make a game like this, it means you have failed to live up to my expectations of you. Then I will commit suicide by making Jumpin myself.

After saying this in a teasing tone, Jester was the first to laugh.

But... Sakaguchi Hironobu obviously wanted to say something else. Although Jester had not said it in front of him before, he knew that Jester was interested in the Japanese market.

But before he could finish his words, Jester interrupted him directly.

Jester waved his hands and said: Actually, what you said is not bad. I really value the Japanese market and let you Japanese people who have followed me for such a long time and performed very well in the United States return to Japan to establish a business. The purpose of my design team is to allow you, who know Japan and what kind of games Japanese players like to play, to create games that Japanese people like, so that I can open up this market.”…

Hearing what Jester said, Sakaguchi Hironobu couldn't help but nod. He had thought so before.

But... Jester's words suddenly changed, and his eyes looked at Hironobu Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi Hironobu, who had always regarded Jester as his idol, saw Jester suddenly looking at him with such a formal look. , Art couldn't help but sit up straight, only to hear Jester continue, You are a designer first. The games you make are for players to play. As long as the players like your game, then It represents your success.”

With that said, Jester stood up. He picked up a large stack of documents from the table, then walked to Sakaguchi Hironobu, placed the stack of things in front of him, and said, Look at these publications. Reports all praise your Final Fantasy. Many people even say that your game is higher than Dragon Quest in terms of its production level, even if they don't say so. , and they are also saying that it is not inferior to Dragon Quest. No one says that your game is not as good as the other person, why are you still upset about it?

After finishing speaking, Jester patted Hironobu Sakaguchi on the shoulder and continued with a smile: In the Japanese market, I did not achieve my previous target. This has nothing to do with you. First of all, I made a wrong prediction. The explosive power of the game Dragon Quest is also due to the fact that our market share in Dreambbox in Japan is too low.

Hearing what Jester said, Sakaguchi Hironobu quickly stood up and bowed fiercely to Jester. He said with some fear: Boss, I didn't say that our machine's share in Japan is low. It’s just that I feel that I could have used this game to reduce the gap between us and Nintendo in terms of market share... It’s a pity that I have disappointed you.” (.)