Although doing this wasn't exactly great for the hotel's chefs, for the sake of his own stomach, Ichin still chose to go ahead with it.
At noon the next day, when Ichin went to the hotel kitchen and explained his request, the chefs were quite conflicted, but in the end, they agreed.
There was no helping it. Ichin had brought the hotel manager along. As an important guest, they could only accommodate his request. Besides, the head chef would be supervising, so nothing would go wrong.
However, after seeing Ichin and Rin actually start cooking, the hotel chefs were genuinely surprised. The two of them had excellent culinary skills. After seeing the Chinese dishes they made, the head chef finally understood why they wanted to use the kitchen themselves.
Although he didn't know how to cook Chinese cuisine, he had at least learned a bit about it and knew that its flavors were quite different from Western food.
After happily enjoying a self-made lunch, the four of them left the hotel and headed to the TGA venue, where they met with the organizers and did a rehearsal in the afternoon.
After the rehearsal, they chatted pleasantly with several industry peers present before heading back to the hotel.
Two days later, the official opening day of TGA finally arrived.
Dressed in a formal suit, Ichin brought Hazuki and the others to the venue. As his companion, Hazuki held onto his arm as they walked in together.
After taking their seats near the front, Ichin glanced at the lively audience and the many developers present, then said quietly, "I didn't come last year, but in terms of atmosphere, this is really impressive."
Beside him, Hazuki took out a compact mirror from her bag to check her makeup and smiled. "It is an annual major event, after all. With so many years of accumulated popularity, people will show up no matter what. Ichin, how many awards do you think we'll win this time?"
"That's hard to say, but Tales of Berseria should be able to win two or three awards."
Ichin recalled the other nominated games in the same categories. Compared to them, Tales of Berseria had a clear edge in some areas.
For categories like Best Action Game and Best RPG, he was quite confident. The only uncertainty was whether awards like Best Narrative might be influenced by certain "external factors" and end up slipping away.
But it didn't matter too much. The game had already surpassed ten million copies in sales. As long as it won at least one award this time, the subsequent promotion and discounts would likely push sales up by another one or two million copies.
At that moment, Yagami Kou, seated on Ichin's other side, leaned over and said, "I think Apex is the one we should be more worried about. Final Fantasy XIV is a very strong competitor."
"They are indeed strong, but we're not far behind. It'll depend on the final judging," Ichin said after thinking it over. "Last year's Best Ongoing Game went to FF14, but considering the variety in yearly selections, Apex still has a chance this time. After all, for an online battle royale like Apex…"
"That makes sense."
Kou nodded in realization. "It's a pity Umiko didn't come this time. If we win, she could've gone on stage to accept the award."
Originally, Ichin had planned to bring Umiko along, but after some thought, she declined, choosing to stay in Tokyo and continue her work. Ichin didn't push the matter.
As for the partners at the Shanghai studio, they were all busy enthusiastically developing a new game and had little interest in attending TGA.
For live-service games, winning awards wasn't the most important thing. What mattered was whether the new content released during operation could continue to attract players.
Otherwise, even if an award brought in new players, there was no guarantee they would stay.
So it was understandable that the Shanghai studio members weren't too concerned about it.
Ichin felt the same way. Winning would be great, but not winning wasn't a big issue either. After all, their competitor was FF14. Even though he didn't personally play it, many people in both the Tokyo and Shanghai offices did, which spoke volumes about its popularity.
Losing to FF14 wouldn't be unjustified.
While Ichin waited for TGA to begin, back at the house in Tokyo, although it was only six in the morning, Utaha and Yukino were already awake. The night before, Aoba, Hifumi, and a whole group of others had come over and stayed at the villa.
That morning, everyone got up on time, waiting for the livestream to begin.
Yawning, Aoba curled up in a beanbag chair, hugging her knees as she looked at the large projection screen. "How much longer until it starts?"
"About half an hour," Hajime Shinoda said, glancing at the time on her phone. "Almost there. Just wait a bit more. Ah, I'm hungry. I'm going downstairs to see if Utaha and the others have finished making breakfast."
With that, she got up and ran out of the screening room.
Five minutes later, the door opened again, and Hajime came back in carrying a tray with several stacked bamboo steamers.
"Breakfast is here!"
Behind her, Utaha, Yukino, Hifumi, and Narumi Tsubame followed in, carrying not only the prepared breakfast but also freshly brewed coffee.
After setting everything down, Utaha smiled. "Since it hasn't officially started yet, everyone have something to eat first. We made buns yesterday, along with custard buns and pan-fried dumplings. There's plenty, so eat as much as you like."
"Yay!!!"
Nene happily rushed over, picked up a steaming custard bun, blew on it, and took a bite.
"Mmm! So good!"
As everyone ate breakfast together, Umiko looked at Utaha and asked, "Did you message Ichin?"
"I did," Utaha said with a smile, waving her phone. "Ichin just messaged me. He said most people have already arrived at the venue and they're just waiting for it to start. He also sent some photos."
She held up her phone, and everyone looked at the pictures Ichin had sent. There were shots of the audience and one selfie.
Looking at the selfie, Aoba's eyes widened. "Oh! Hazuki looks so beautiful today!"
In the photo, Hazuki, leaning beside Ichin, was wearing a fitted evening dress. Paired with her shawl, neatly styled hair, and refined makeup, she looked elegant and dignified.
Iijima Yun swallowed the bite of vegetable bun in her mouth and said, "Yeah… as long as Hazuki doesn't talk or randomly take photos of girls, she really does look amazing when she's being serious."
That comment was surprisingly accurate.
As everyone leisurely ate breakfast, time reached 6:30, and the TGA livestream finally began.
...
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