Chapter 24. Onmyoji is About to Blow Up!
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In the latest issue of Famitsu's biweekly magazine, there was a feature on a new game by the relatively unknown company Pokeni—Onmyoji.
In it, four editors each gave the game a high score.
A total of 39 points.
Just one point short of a perfect score.
Onmyoji entered the Platinum Hall of Fame with this astonishing score.
According to Famitsu's scoring system, games that score over 30 points are considered Hall of Fame titles.
30–34 points is Gold Hall of Fame, 35–39 points is Platinum Hall of Fame, and as for 40 points—the Perfect Score—fewer than 40 titles have ever received this as of 2023.
So one can imagine just how incredible Pokeni's Onmyoji must be to earn 39 points from these notoriously strict editors.
The only point deducted was made from the comment by Editor Ishida.
[This is definitely a game worthy of being recorded in the annals of video game history.]
[And I'm not exaggerating in the slightest.]
[Though Onmyoji is a galgame, its romance, story, even the combat details are all impeccable.]
[The only reason I had to deduct one point is… the ending left me emotionally devastated.]
[Not because it was bad—on the contrary, it was brilliant. Brilliant to the point that it felt like something out of Kawabata Yasunari's Snow Country.]
[For the players' sake, I won't spoil it here. But I believe once you try it, you'll feel the same as I did—that—]
[This is a game everyone should experience once in their life. But only once, because after you've played it, you'll lose the courage to touch it again.]
[Based on the comprehensive judgment from the gameplay, visuals, quality, story, combat, and systems, I gave it a high score of 9.]
…
The other editors were equally full of praise for Onmyoji.
[As both a galgame and an RPG, this title stands at the very peak of its genre.]
[It's the first time I've seen visuals this beautiful on the Famicom. It has elevated galgames to unprecedented heights.]
[After Onmyoji, it's hard to imagine any other galgame capturing players like this one can.]
[In terms of visuals, Onmyoji is hands down No. 1. No other game in the world can compare with it.]
[Story-wise, Onmyoji is a masterpiece. It's absolutely worth the purchase.]
[At first, I was shocked to hear it was priced at 8,000 yen. Even for a galgame, that felt steep—almost like a rip-off. But after playing it, I must say—it's totally worth it.]
…
In short, Famitsu's review and coverage instantly brought this once-niche game into the public eye.
Many people began to grow curious about this galgame-style RPG.
Partly because Famitsu carries serious weight, and partly because Onmyoji truly lived up to the hype—even the screenshots in the magazine—
The scene of cherry blossoms falling, the male and female protagonists meeting on the ethereal Fairy Island—it was breathtakingly beautiful.
And the combat shots and character feature images captured a kind of soul-stirring beauty.
Just a single glance was enough to make anyone fall in love with this game—or at least want to experience it.
Thanks to Famitsu's incredible influence, people flocked to game stores to buy Onmyoji.
And since stores originally didn't stock much of it, it quickly sold out.
Pokeni's phones were ringing off the hook.
After reading the article, Kiyoshi Yuuma wore a puzzled yet amused expression.
"What's this? Deducting one point on purpose, huh?"
"Be grateful, President!" Ayase Akane slammed a cup of hot water in front of him.
She gave him a half-irritated look.
This guy was the classic case of "once healed, forgets the pain."
Just last night he'd looked utterly hopeless and even wanted to dissolve the company. Now he was grinning like an idiot.
"President, if Famitsu hadn't given us such a high score, Pokeni would've already shut down, okay?"
"Ugh…" Kiyoshi Yuuma frowned deeply.
"And please hire another assistant. I'm HR—why am I always doing secretary work?" Ayase Akane shook out her wrist and returned to her desk.
Emmmm…
Kiyoshi Yuuma closed his eyes and began to reflect.
Isn't this HR girl getting a bit too jumpy?
Is it because I've been too nice to her lately?
…
The sales of Onmyoji began to soar. In less than three days, sales climbed out of the previous slump of just 1,000 copies and rapidly surged to 10,000.
Then 20,000.
30,000...
At this rate, breaking 100,000 was only a matter of time.
Of course, Famitsu's coverage played a crucial role in boosting future sales, but it wasn't all thanks to them.
The players who had already purchased Onmyoji acted as a powerful channel of promotion. It was their word-of-mouth recommendations and sharing that brought a steady stream of new players into game stores.
That's the power of word of mouth.
It's just that this process takes some time to gain momentum, which is why Pokeni had temporarily fallen into a slump. With or without Famitsu's boost, the game was bound to explode in popularity—it was just a matter of when.
…
"This is bad! Pokeni's new game is going to be popular!"
In the offices of Blue Wings, a colleague from the operations department shouted out.
"Is it true?" The other staff members all turned their heads toward him.
"Yeah, for real. One of my elementary school classmates is now working at Pokeni. He told me about it. Apparently, Onmyoji is completely sold out, and the order calls are nonstop every day. And I even went to a nearby game store to check it out myself. It turns out almost all of Pokeni's new games are sold out."
"Nani?!"
Chief planner Mizutani Takashi was in complete shock.
This is impossible!
A game that couldn't even sell 1,000 copies not long ago—how could it make such a comeback?
This kind of turnaround had never happened before in gaming history.
And if there was anyone in the world who least wanted to see Pokeni succeed, Mizutani Takashi would undoubtedly be in the top three.
As a former Pokeni employee and the chief planner of the original Pokeni project, who had now defected to Blue Wings, if Onmyoji succeeded, where would that leave his reputation?
Wouldn't that just prove his judgment had been completely wrong?!
But the most infuriating part was what his colleagues said next—
"I heard Onmyoji was selected for Famitsu's Platinum Hall of Fame. Famitsu gave it a ridiculously high score of 39 points!"
"Nani?!"
Mizutani's eyes widened. "No way?"
That game… that piece of trash...
He clutched his chest, suddenly feeling a sharp pain.