What exactly was being discussed upstairs, Ichin had no idea. As soon as he came downstairs, he threw himself straight back into work. After finishing adjustments to one boss's values, Shinoda came running over.
"Ichin! We've finished the game's promotional PV! Want to take a look?"
Ichin, who was drinking coffee, looked genuinely surprised when he heard that.
"According to the schedule, weren't there still three days left? It's already done?"
Shinoda put her hands on her hips proudly.
"Hmph! Don't underestimate a tokusatsu fan's passion! The development progress for this game has been getting ahead of schedule the whole time—what's a mere PV anyway!"
That was true enough. The members of the GARO development team were basically all hardcore tokusatsu fans. Working on this project was like being pumped full of adrenaline for them.
If the company didn't strictly prohibit overtime, every single one of them would probably be more than happy to work late into the night.
But even without overtime, GARO's development progress was still extremely encouraging. With promotion starting in March, it was likely that before even three full months of marketing were up, the game would be fully polished in every aspect and ready for release.
Nodding, Ichin called over everyone from the programming team and headed to the meeting room together.
The game's music had been completed a long time ago. In addition to the original tracks from the show, plenty of new BGM had been added, along with several boss-exclusive battle themes. The voice acting was also fully finished, and all of it used the original cast—there were no changes at all.
As for the PV itself, Ichin had only given a few basic requirements at the very beginning. He hadn't expected the final result to turn out far better than he'd imagined.
When the two-minute PV finished and the lights in the meeting room came back on, Ichin looked at the people who had worked on it and applauded with a smile.
"Very nice. This version doesn't need any changes. I'll arrange for it to be released later. Thanks for your hard work, everyone."
"Yay!!!"
Hearing Ichin say that, everyone in the development team jumped up excitedly.
After letting them celebrate for a bit, Ichin continued,
"Once this PV goes public, it means the game is entering its final stage. Everyone, give it your all in this last stretch. According to the plan, we need to have everything fully polished and ready for pressing by mid-to-late April, so make sure to keep a tight grip on the schedule."
After encouraging everyone, Ichin sent them back to work. He himself returned to the programming team and continued with what he hadn't finished earlier.
He had just adjusted monster AI logic for a short while when a pair of hands suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking his view.
He didn't even need to hear a voice—just the familiar sensation of that brain-padding from behind was enough for Ichin to know who it was.
"Utaha, let go for a moment. I'm still busy."
Utaha, who had sneaked in and was originally planning a surprise attack, immediately felt deflated when she heard that and let go of her hands.
"How did you guess right away?"
Spinning his chair around, Ichin looked at Utaha standing behind him and said with a smile,
"Isn't that obvious? I might not recognize others, but you, Utaha—I'd recognize you instantly."
Pulling Utaha to sit on the chair beside him, Ichin continued working while asking,
"Everything upstairs wrapped up?"
Utaha nodded and said quietly,
"Kō's already gone back to work. As for Yukino, she's reading in your office. Ichin, remember to go up later and bring Yukino her milk tea."
"Got it. Let me know when it arrives."
"Then I won't disturb you anymore. I'll go check on Eriri."
Knowing how focused Ichin became when he worked, Utaha didn't linger. She lightly tugged on his arm, asked for a quick kiss, and then left.
"Ah… more dog food shoved in our faces."
Not far away, Shioda Hajime and Iijima Yun huddled together. Both of them rubbed their arms in unison, feeling goosebumps rise.
Iijima Yun whispered,
"Those two really are sickeningly sweet."
"They're just close—perfectly normal," Shioda Hajime said with a laugh.
"The company doesn't forbid office romances anyway. There are already quite a few couples here. And he's the boss—who's going to stop him? Yun, there's nothing urgent right now, right? Come on, let's go take a break. The milk tea will be here soon!"
"Let's go, let's go!"
Three days later, promotions for the GARO game suddenly appeared all over the internet and on large offline billboards across Japan.
Online, the promotional PV showed up directly on major gaming websites and forums, sparking heated discussions.
Offline, the promotion was even more extensive—especially in places with a strong ACG atmosphere like Akihabara. Posters, commercial building screens, and large outdoor displays all took turns running the ads.
But even that wasn't enough. Ichin urgently designed a brand-new Fall Guys–style GARO skin and launched a small in-game event to warm things up for the upcoming GARO game.
Tohokushinsha Film Corporation, on their end, also mobilized a considerable amount of their resources to promote the game in various places.
They had been keeping an eye on the game's quality the whole time and naturally knew what level it had reached. To be honest, for a tokusatsu adaptation to achieve this standard, even Tohokushinsha Film Corporation was genuinely surprised—the quality was frankly higher than expected.
Whether it was the visuals, the music, or the smoothness and effects of combat animations, the game clearly surpassed the usual fan-oriented adaptation titles.
Bandai had released several Kamen Rider games over the past couple of years. Whether it was the fighting game Kamen Rider: Climax Scramble or Hero Memories featuring protagonists like 01, OOO, and W, to be frank, their overall quality couldn't really be considered high.
Hero Memories was passable. Ichin himself hadn't bought it, but Shinoda had, and Ichin had borrowed it to try it out.
Some aspects of the hit feedback felt okay, but the system design was still quite weak, and the in-game models weren't particularly impressive either. It was obvious the development budget was limited—they probably never expected to make much money from it.
And in Ichin's view, no matter how much the development team tried to apply for more funding, it would never be much. In the end, the Rider series simply didn't make much money through games; the real profits came from merchandise and toys.
As for Ultraman, there was even less to say—it had been years since there was a proper console game. That side did okay with mobile titles, but Ichin had no real interest.
Super Sentai, on the other hand—
Well, as long as they steadily released a new series every year, that was enough. There was rarely any drama, much calmer than Ultraman or Kamen Rider, and fans never really expected a game adaptation anyway.
And now that the official GARO promotional PV was out, the release date was finally set.
May 10th.
Two months to go.
---
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