Game Development Giant

Although Shadow Blade was not designed by Jester.

However, when it comes to the design of hardcore core games, Jester also believes that in addition to being well-informed, he is not a little greener than he is now, but his talents have been fully demonstrated, and he has great experience in this type of games. Itagaki Tomonobu's level of talent far exceeds that of others. It is not even self-effacing to say that even if Jester is asked to make a core game by himself.

I'm afraid it would be difficult for him to achieve the level of Shadow Blade.

As for passing Sega's review, this is inevitable. This game is indeed not a super masterpiece, but as a high-quality game, there is no doubt.

Sega's evaluation after watching the demo was similar to Jester's own opinion. Shadow Blade did not surprise them much. After all, this is Jester's game. They had already received the news before. This time The first game Jester produced for them was a very Sega-style act-passing game. Originally, Sega was expecting Jester to give them a game similar to the American-style RPGs he had made before. Works comparable to Torment from a Foreign Land.

As it turns out, what they saw was Shadow Blade.

It's impossible not to be disappointed.

On that day, this is not to say that Shadow Blade was not good. Whether it was the graphic style, the refreshing degree of fighting, or the control of difficulty, the people at Sega were very satisfied. But the problem is here, they feel that this game The game is too 'Sega', and if outsiders didn't tell me, many people wouldn't think this was the game Jester wanted to make.

Because there is nothing like Jester’s previous style.

It's not that Jester's style is very special. On the contrary, Jester is recognized for his versatile style and can control almost all game types.

Even the American RPG, which was previously recognized as the most difficult to develop, Jester can do it with ease. Not only did it develop a game with explosive sales and reputation, but it also won the first Game of the Year title.

This is surprising to people who were not optimistic about Jester before the game was developed.

However, Jester's style is new, that is, no matter what game he makes, it will always be different from other games of this type, which can make people clearly feel that this kind of game can still be like this. Just do it. Similar to this kind of exclamation, but in the demo of Shadow Blade they just watched, they obviously did not feel this way.

They just felt that this was an excellent, very Sega-style game.

That's all.

The quality of the game cannot be said. Although it is somewhat different from what Sega people wanted before, they still agreed to the next research and development plan and invested in Shadow Blade in accordance with the investment standards agreed in the previous agreement. Funding was invested in subsequent development.

Jester also received notification from Sega as soon as possible.

and. Sega also complained a few words to Jester and expressed some of their gratitude, but Jester also smiled and had no explanation.

Shadow Blade will be a joint production between him and newcomer Tomonobu Itagaki, and Sega knows this. But Itagaki Tomonobu is a genuine newcomer. He has never served as the producer of any game before, so. From Sega's point of view, Jester just wants to focus on training this time. He is very optimistic about this young man. That's why she was given this position.

And I would never have imagined that this young man was actually the main designer of Shadow Blade.

Not only would Sega not have thought that, except for a few people from the development team of Shadow Blade, not many people even within Mars Entertainment would know the inside story.

Of course, Jester would not tell the truth in front of people from Sega. He just said modestly that because he wanted to challenge such a hard-core game this time, he was a little unfamiliar with the design and referenced a lot of Sega's best practices. The game, therefore, does not have the same style as before, but he also admitted that this type of game is indeed very difficult to design.

He also admires Sega's ability to continue to devote a large number of personnel and experience to the development of such games.

Because it is not easy to make such a game fun and outstanding, and the final sales volume is not too surprising.

Sega didn't say much.

In fact, their main profit point is in arcade machines, and even the development of their new console is closely related to arcade machines. They don't want to leak anything.

However, even if they didn't say it, Jester knew that because in the original history, Sega's SS was promoted by being able to perfectly transplant their previous arcade games as a gimmick. And at the beginning of the SS generation, it was true that It has had a very good effect.

After all, there are countless fans of Sega's arcade games in the United States.

Being able to play arcade games that could only be played in smoky arcades at home is a dream for many people. Therefore, as soon as ss landed in the United States, it was overwhelming.

But Jester also knows that this is not a long-term solution after all. Game consoles still rely on good games to support them. Without good games, no matter how good the game console is, it is useless. Just like Sony's psv, whether it is functional or not The 3ds only hit the market for several generations, but its sales volume was outnumbered by who knows how many times the 3ds. It is no match for several orders of magnitude. As for whether the 3ds is as powerful as the PSP, there is still a question mark.

The failure of SS in the North American market was precisely because they had too few games that could be played except for arcade transplants.

It is precisely because of the need to accommodate the transplantation of arcade games that Sega was so stretched when it came to the design of the SS. It used too much force on the 2D graphics and insufficient force on the 3D graphics, which caused it to be photoshopped later. The result of being pushed to the ground and beaten with old fists.

Therefore, Jester feels that he can refer to Sega's strategy, but he will never learn from it.

Because the next generation will be dominated by 3D games, this is an established strategic plan and will never be changed. However, this way of quickly opening up the situation through the transplantation of arcade games in the early stages of a new console is indeed very It is advisable, and, in the next generation, if nothing else, Mars Entertainment’s most important opponent is Sony.

Compared to Sony, arcade machines are something they have but they don’t.

In the next next-generation battle, we can establish a certain lead from the beginning. As for Sega, Jester is still not sure whether they are still focusing on 2D effects as the main development direction as he knows. , however, from his analysis of Sega, the possibility of Sega doing this is very high.

And if Sega really does this.

Then, there is really no chance that Sega can survive to the end in the decisive battle of the next generation.

Because 3D is the future.

This will not change, and if you miss it, you miss it.

After the meeting with the Sega people, Jester went to meet with Suzuki Yu.

Yu Suzuki worked very hard in the past few months after returning to Japan. He persuaded Hayao Nakayama to transfer all the key players who had worked with him in am2 to develop VR Warrior.

Of course, it was not a departure from Sega, but a temporary secondment. Surprisingly, Jester also saw among the people Suzuki Yu transferred from am2, a person who was still very young now, but would become a mature person in the future. For the sake of Sega's veterans, Sega's warriors shouldered Sega's difficult stumbling steps in the post-Suzuki Yu era.

The name is Yue Nanyang.

This is really a legendary figure, a close disciple of Yu Suzuki and the producer of the Yakuza series. He is loyal to Sega. He may not have experienced Sega's peak, decline and almost death with his teacher. He may also It's impossible to develop such an outstanding work as Yakuza.

Of course, he is still an extremely optimistic young man now.

He also admired Jester extremely. After seeing Jester, the first thing he did was to cheer happily, and then he hurriedly took a piece of paper and brought it to Jester, hoping that Jester I was able to give him an autograph.

Under Suzuki Yu's scolding, Nagoshi Nohiro touched his head in embarrassment and laughed.

And Jester smiled and signed his name.

Jess, after carefully reading your development plan, I found that you are much further and deeper than I thought. Yu Suzuki sighed after letting Jester arrive in his office. One sentence.

oh?

Jester didn't understand what Suzuki Yu meant, so he asked in confusion.

Actually, it's nothing. After I developed VR Warrior, I actually had an idea, which was to make a separate RPG work for Akira Yuuki to introduce his growth. Think about it, a person who has never learned boxing Isn’t it interesting the story of a young boy who grew up to be a master of Bajiquan? I’ve already thought of a name, it’s called “Jing no Zhang”, but I haven’t thought about the specific design yet. The traditional RPG game concept is not to my liking.

Saying that, Suzuki Yu looked at Jester.

Then I saw your game plan, and I realized that this was the game I wanted to make the most.

Jester was a little silent after listening.

In fact, many of his ideas about the 'Era' project, or in other words, most of the ideas, were first proposed and completed by Suzuki Yurai in the original history. (To be continued...)