After Zaboru gave Nobuo a life-changing chance, it was finally time for him to return his attention to ZAGE's internal development schedule. February had been a busy month, and several teams had already completed major tasks under intense pressure. Among them, two teams stood out the most: Team IZAN and Team OMNI. Both had delivered important projects, both had proven their reliability, and now Zaboru intended to assign them their next wave of work. For ZAGE, this was not just about keeping production moving; it was about carefully preparing the company for the coming transition, especially as the focus would gradually shift toward future ZEPS 4 development.
Team OMNI, the London-based team, was the group responsible for creating Guitar Hero 2. Their work had impressed Zaboru greatly, especially because they managed to understand the spirit of the project—not just as a rhythm game, but as a full entertainment experience built around music, performance, and spectacle. Because of that, Zaboru had already decided on their next assignment long before he returned to Japan a couple of weeks ago. He needed a project that could test their ability to create fast action, atmosphere, and unique mechanics, something completely different from Guitar Hero 2 but still strong enough to stand out. That task was none other than Silent Bomber.
This was completely unrelated to Guitar Hero 2 or anything Team OMNI had made so far, but that was exactly why Zaboru wanted them to handle it. Team OMNI had already proven they could understand rhythm, presentation, spectacle, and player excitement. Now Zaboru wanted to push them into a completely different direction and see how far their versatility could go. To him, a truly strong team could not be allowed to grow comfortable inside one genre. If OMNI could move from a music-performance game like Guitar Hero 2 into a sharp sci-fi action title like Silent Bomber, then their value to ZAGE would rise tremendously, especially for the coming ZEPS 4 era where more experimental titles would be needed.
The concept was based on a game with the same name from Zaboru's previous life, and in his opinion, Silent Bomber was deeply underrated. It was set in a dark sci-fi future where the player controlled Jutah Fate, a genetically engineered soldier sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate and destroy a massive enemy warship called the Dante. What made the game stand out in Zaboru's memory was not only its premise, but its identity. It did not feel like a normal shooting game, hack-and-slash game, or simple arcade action title. The protagonist's main weapon was not a gun, sword, or laser, but bombs—and that one decision gave the entire game a unique rhythm that very few action games had.
The gameplay would be viewed from an overhead 3D perspective, with Jutah moving through corridors, machinery rooms, industrial zones, and enemy-filled sections inside the enormous warship. The main mechanic was simple to understand but incredibly satisfying in practice: the player placed bombs, attached bombs to enemies or objects, then detonated them whenever they wanted. That timing-based control made every encounter feel active and tactical. The player would not simply attack blindly. They would constantly move, dodge, position themselves, plant bombs, lure enemies together, wait for the right opening, and then blow everything apart at the perfect moment. Zaboru especially liked that feeling—the sense that the player was both a fighter and a trap-setter, always thinking one step ahead while still moving at high speed.
Silent Bomber also gave Jutah special bomb types called Material Liquids, which acted as enhanced explosives with different effects. Some could burn enemies, some could disable machines, while others could manipulate enemy movement or pull targets together before detonation. Because of that, the game was never meant to be simple bomb-spamming. Different enemy types, machines, rooms, and bosses would push the player to choose the right setup, upgrade Jutah properly, and adapt to the situation. Zaboru wanted Team OMNI to emphasize that feeling even more for ZAGE's version: fast, stylish, explosive, but still strategic enough that skilled players could show off their creativity.
That was why Zaboru believed Team OMNI could handle it. They had already shown strong instincts for timing and spectacle through Guitar Hero 2 and others games, and Silent Bomber needed both—just expressed through action instead of music. He gave them a full year to develop it.
Next was Team IZAN. Compared to Team OMNI, Team IZAN had been carrying a very different kind of workload throughout February. They had completed two major games—Metal Slug X and Mega Man X2—while still continuing development on Mega Man X3 in the background. Their ability to handle action-heavy projects, tight stage design, responsive controls, and demanding pixel-perfect gameplay had already proven their technical strength. Because of that, Zaboru believed it was time to push them into another direction as well. This time, he prepared two new assignments for them: Koudelka and Silent Hill 2. In other words, Zaboru was deliberately asking Team IZAN to create two horror games, forcing them to shift from explosive action into atmosphere, tension, tragedy, and psychological fear.
This was not a random decision. Zaboru understood that Team IZAN was already highly experienced with horror, not just action. They had worked on titles like Resident Evil, Twilight Syndrome, and Silent Hill before, so they were not beginners when it came to fear, tension, fixed camera pressure, unsettling sound design, or psychological atmosphere. What made Team IZAN valuable was that they could handle both sides: the precision of action games like Metal Slug X and Mega Man X2, and the slower, heavier dread required for horror. They already understood that a good horror game needed timing just as much as a good action game did. It needed careful enemy placement, uncomfortable silence, meaningful resource pressure, disturbing locations, and the ability to make the player feel unsafe without constantly overwhelming them. Because of that experience, Zaboru was not asking them to learn horror from nothing. He was asking them to refine what they already knew and push it further, turning Koudelka and Silent Hill 2 into projects that could prove Team IZAN was one of ZAGE's strongest horror and dark atmosphere development teams.
Koudelka was based on the game of the same name from Zaboru's previous life, and it was one of those titles that had always stayed in his memory despite never becoming as famous as it deserved. The setting alone was powerful: 1898, inside Nemeton Monastery in Wales, a place filled with religious decay, old secrets, and a lingering sense of tragedy. The story followed Koudelka Iasant, Edward Plunkett, and Bishop James O'Flaherty as they investigated a supernatural mystery filled with ghosts, monsters, religious trauma, human sin, and sorrow. To Zaboru, Koudelka was not just another horror RPG. It had a strange, heavy atmosphere—part gothic horror, part tragedy, part spiritual nightmare—and that made it perfect for Team IZAN's next evolution. More importantly, it was the kind of horror that suited ZAGE's current direction. Resident Evil had proven that survival horror could terrify players through pressure and limited resources, Twilight Syndrome had shown the power of quiet urban dread, and Silent Hill had demonstrated how atmosphere and psychology could become weapons. Koudelka, however, could become something different within that same lineage: a gothic horror RPG that carried tragedy through both exploration and combat.
What made Koudelka so interesting was that it did not feel like a normal JRPG or Horror. It mixed survival horror atmosphere with turn-based RPG combat in a way that felt unusual, risky, and deeply memorable. The exploration felt closer to Resident Evil or Alone in the Dark, with dark rooms, fixed camera angles, creepy backgrounds, puzzles, limited resources, and a heavy gothic mood pressing down on the player. Every corridor inside Nemeton Monastery needed to feel old, cold, and wrong, as if the building itself remembered every sin committed within its walls. Zaboru wanted Team IZAN to use what they had learned from their previous horror projects to make players feel uncomfortable even before a battle started. The silence, the camera placement, the sound of footsteps, the slow opening of doors, and the unsettling religious imagery all had to build tension naturally.
But when battles happened, the game would shift into a grid-based tactical RPG, where characters moved across squares and used weapons, magic, positioning, and careful timing to fight monsters. That combination was strange, but it was also the reason Zaboru remembered it so clearly. The player would not simply swing a weapon or shoot until the enemy died. They would need to think about distance, character placement, enemy movement, spell range, and survival. Zaboru wanted Team IZAN to refine that structure so the transition from horror exploration to tactical combat felt smoother and more deliberate. The horror should not disappear once the battle started; it should remain through grotesque enemy designs, oppressive sound effects, limited recovery options, and the sense that every fight was draining the characters physically and emotionally.
In Zaboru's previous life, Koudelka had not received the recognition it deserved partly because it was too ahead of its time. It combined ideas that players and critics did not fully know how to categorize: survival horror, tactical RPG, gothic storytelling, religious tragedy, and character drama all in one package. Some people expected a standard JRPG, while others expected a pure horror game, and because it sat between genres, it struggled to find the audience it deserved. But Zaboru saw that as an opportunity.
In this world, ZAGE already had the trust of players, and Team IZAN already had horror credibility. If they presented Koudelka properly, polished the pacing, strengthened the combat, and marketed it as a gothic horror RPG rather than a conventional JRPG, Zaboru believed it could finally receive the recognition it deserved. For him, this was not just about remaking a forgotten gem. It was about proving that unusual games could succeed when given the right team, the right timing, and the right respect.
And so, Zaboru set Koudelka for an October 2002 release, giving Team IZAN plenty of time to refine its atmosphere, combat balance, pacing, and gothic presentation. This longer schedule also fit Zaboru's broader plan to slightly reduce ZAGE's production speed for the current generation. With ZEPS 4 development gradually becoming more important, he wanted fewer rushed releases and more carefully polished projects that could leave a stronger impression.
As for Silent Hill 2, it would serve as the sequel to ZAGE's infamous horror title, Silent Hill. Zaboru had no intention of treating it as a simple follow-up. He wanted to enhance it carefully, because in his previous life, Silent Hill 2 became one of the most beloved and respected entries in the franchise. To him, this was not merely another horror sequel—it was a chance to create something deeper, more personal, and far more haunting than what players expected after the first game.
Silent Hill 2 was different from Silent Hill 1 because it was much more personal, psychological, and emotional. Silent Hill 1 was mostly about an external nightmare: a father, Harry Mason, searching for his missing daughter Cheryl while uncovering a cult, a ritual, and the supernatural history of the town. The horror in the first game felt like a cursed place swallowing innocent people into its nightmare. It had occult symbols, demonic imagery, sirens, hospitals, schools, monsters, and a strong mystery surrounding what was really happening to Cheryl. That structure worked perfectly for the first title because it introduced Silent Hill as a terrifying place with its own history, rules, and supernatural threat.
Silent Hill 2, meanwhile, would not be about the cult in the same way. Zaboru wanted Team IZAN to understand that this sequel had to feel like a completely different kind of nightmare. It would be about guilt, grief, denial, punishment, and the ugly things hidden inside the human mind. James Sunderland would come to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his dead wife, Mary, and that premise alone already changed everything. The story was not about saving the world, stopping a ritual, or defeating an obvious evil. It was about one man being drawn into a town that reflected the truth he refused to accept. Because of that, Silent Hill 2 had to feel more mature, tragic, and intimate than the first game.
Zaboru carefully explained that the atmosphere also needed to change. Silent Hill 1 felt aggressive, occult, and chaotic, often throwing the player into rusty, bloody, hellish Otherworld environments filled with danger. Silent Hill 2, however, needed to be slower, foggier, sadder, and more dreamlike. The town should feel empty in a lonely way, not merely dangerous. The horror should come less from the question of "what monster is behind the door?" and more from the feeling of "why does this place feel like it knows something about me?" That kind of fear was harder to create, but also far more haunting. Even when nothing was happening, the player needed to feel watched, judged, and quietly guided toward something terrible.
For Team IZAN, this meant Silent Hill 2 could not simply copy the first game with better graphics and new monsters. Zaboru wanted them to treat it almost like a psychological drama disguised as survival horror. The enemies had to be symbolic, the environments had to reflect emotion, and the sound design had to carry loneliness rather than only shock. The fog, the empty streets, the apartments, the hospital, the prison-like spaces, and the decaying rooms all had to feel connected to James's mind. Every detail needed purpose. Every monster needed meaning. Every silence had to feel intentional.
He also wanted the team to use their past horror experience carefully. From Resident Evil, they already understood resource pressure, tension, and controlled camera direction. From Twilight Syndrome, they understood slow dread and the feeling of ordinary places becoming unsettling. From Silent Hill 1, they understood how sound, fog, and disturbing imagery could define an entire town. Silent Hill 2 would combine those lessons, but it would aim for something more painful and personal. Zaboru did not want players to finish the game simply thinking they had survived monsters. He wanted them to feel like they had witnessed a broken human soul being forced to face itself.
Overall, Silent Hill 2 would have a very different vibe compared to Silent Hill 1, but it would still be terrifying in its own way. It would not rely only on blood, cult rituals, or sudden attacks. Its horror would come from sadness, guilt, memory, and the uncomfortable realization that the town was not merely haunted by monsters, but by the people who entered it. Because of that, Zaboru scheduled Silent Hill 2 for an October 2002 release, aiming directly for Halloween. The timing was deliberate. Koudelka would bring gothic horror and tactical RPG experimentation, while Silent Hill 2 would bring psychological horror and emotional devastation. Together, they would show that Team IZAN could dominate horror from two completely different directions.
And that was the task Zaboru gave to ZAGE's teams in February. Team OMNI would challenge itself with Silent Bomber, pushing its timing and spectacle into sci-fi action. Team IZAN would carry Koudelka and Silent Hill 2, using its horror experience to create two darker, more ambitious projects. At the same time, ZAGE would gradually decrease its ZEPS 3 production pace, not because the platform was weak, but because the company needed to prepare carefully for the future. ZEPS 4 development was slowly becoming the center of ZAGE's long-term strategy, and Zaboru wanted every team to enter that era sharper, more versatile, and more confident than before.
To be continue
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