Chapter 12. A Message
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"This is our new colleague, Mizutani Takashi. Starting today, Mizutani will be the producer for our new project. Everyone, please welcome him."
After leaving Pokeni, Mizutani, who had been the chief planner there, didn't immediately start his new job at Blue Wings. Instead, he took a long, comfortable vacation and only officially reported to the company about a month later.
"Hello everyone, I'm Mizutani Takashi. I've worked on Path of Light and Dragon's Verse in the past. It's an honor to be here at Blue Wings, and I look forward to working with all of you. Please take care of me."
In fact, even before joining Pokeni, Mizutani had already been involved in several successful projects and was somewhat well-known in the industry. That's why Kiyoshi Yuuma had invited him to serve as the chief planner for their project. The original idea was to promote him to producer if the game succeeded. But who could've guessed that Heart of the Sword would end up a total flop?
Naturally, Mizutani didn't bring up his past work. After all, his time at Pokeni wasn't exactly a fond memory.
And the game Heart of the Sword had become a stain on Mizutani's career.
With less than 2,000 copies sold, Mizutani had never made such a poorly performing game before. If not for Kiyoshi Yuuma's cluelessness about games, how could things have gone so wrong?
"Mizutani, come here a moment."
After the introductions, President Kobayashi Shigeru called Mizutani into his office.
…
"Blue Wings has been waiting for you to join for a long time," President Kobayashi said with a cheerful face, every wrinkle on it practically glowing with excitement. "Now that you're finally here, you need to make a big splash as soon as possible."
"Of course," Mizutani nodded and smiled. "That's exactly why you hired me, President. I won't let you down."
The president stood up, patted Mizutani on the shoulder with satisfaction, and walked over to the water dispenser.
"Coffee or tea?"
"Coffee, thank you." Mizutani didn't hesitate in the slightest.
"So, do you have any plans yet for the kind of game you want to make?" Kobayashi returned with two cups of coffee and placed one in front of Mizutani.
Plans?
Mizutani had been thinking about that a lot during his time off and had come to a fairly clear conclusion.
"Of course I want to make an RPG game."
This decision was based on a comprehensive assessment of Blue Wings' current situation.
Previously, Blue Wings had primarily developed pachinko machines, which are basically slot games. It was more of a pachinko company than a traditional game development company.
While President Kobayashi had a keen understanding of human nature, his grasp of actual game development was quite limited.
RPGs, however, involved far more complex workflows.
If Mizutani told President Kobayashi he wanted to make a tactical RPG or a strategy-heavy title, the nuances might go over his head. But if he said he wanted to make an RPG, Kobayashi would instantly get it.
And sure enough, upon hearing Mizutani's explanation, Kobayashi's eyes lit up.
An RPG was, after all, a way to let players experience an entire life story.
"Well, I knew choosing you was the right decision." President Kobayashi gave Mizutani a big thumbs-up. "I'd been wondering how to create real appeal on home consoles, and the moment you said that, it all became clear to me."
Mizutani did want to make an RPG, but his idea of one was very different from Kiyoshi Yuuma's.
"Being able to experience someone else's life... that's wonderful. Do you have any ideas for the theme?"
"Yes, I do."
Mizutani was thinking of borrowing a historical or supernatural setting similar to Pokeni's Onmyoji.
But the ending absolutely could not be a tearjerker.
Trying to manipulate players' emotions like that was extremely risky.
If it's not done well, it could completely backfire.
What a joke!
Just thinking about Kiyoshi Yuuma's handsome face made Mizutani grit his teeth in anger.
Arrogant, self-important, and completely dismissive of others—if Kiyoshi Yuuma continued making games the way he did, his new project would definitely be a disaster.
"Well said!" Kobayashi raised his coffee cup, tilting his head and beaming at the young man before him. The more he looked at Mizutani, the more he liked him.
"In that case, what are we waiting for? Let's get started right away!"
"Yes, President!" Mizutani responded with a smile.
…
May 28, 1990, Pokeni Co., Ltd.
The development of the Onmyoji project had entered its final stage.
One of the key reasons it progressed so quickly, aside from the team's full motivation and their do-or-die attitude, was that Onmyoji's entire battle system and core framework were built on the foundation of Heart of the Sword.
Although Heart of the Sword was previously a failed project by Pokeni, its programming wasn't a failure.
This alone saved a huge amount of development time.
With the core features already complete, most of the current work focused on newly added features: things like CG interactions, optimizing performance issues caused by excessive memory use, and updating the UI.
Even though it was still being developed for the Famicom, Kiyoshi Yuuma could confidently say that their current game quality was world-class.
Knock knock knock.
"President."
A knock came from outside. When Kiyoshi Yuuma looked up, it was HR Ayase Akane.
"What is it?"
"This was sent by Shirakawa."
HR Ayase Akane walked in carrying a cardboard box in her arms.
"What is this?" Kiyoshi Yuuma asked, puzzled.
He stood up and took a closer look. Inside the box were rows of neatly organized cassette tapes. He counted them and found that there were 21 in total.
Each tape had a carefully labeled name and purpose:
[Battle Theme 1]
[Battle Theme 2]
[Victory Theme]
[Boss Battle]
[Sakura Snow — Fairy Island scene BGM]
[Snow Poem — Late-stage scene BGM]
…
[Spirit Feather — Ending theme]
…
Wow!
Kiyoshi Yuuma was almost moved to tears.
Who would've thought that though Shirakawa Atsushi never joined Pokeni, he still did something amazing for Pokeni.
Kiyoshi Yuuma had already given up hope.
"Where is Shirakawa now?" he asked, lifting his head.
"He already left. He still has work today."
I see.
Kiyoshi Yuuma gritted his teeth, feeling a wave of mixed emotions.
What was this?
A case of "his body is at one company, but his heart is still with Pokeni"?
It didn't seem like it either.
"But Shirakawa asked me to pass you a message."
"Oh?" Kiyoshi Yuuma's eyes lit up.
Though the phrasing Ayase used felt oddly dramatic…
"He said that he was grateful to the President for thinking so highly of him. So he didn't want to disappoint the President. If the President can use his compositions in the game and it ends up performing well, then he would have no regrets."
Tsk, tsk.
Kiyoshi Yuuma smacked his lips, momentarily unsure what to say.
…
Though there were a few twists and turns along the way, by mid-June, Onmyoji was finally complete.