Chapter 47. The Times Have Changed!
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Onmyoji 2, while carrying on the traditions of Onmyoji 1, had even more refined character designs, an impressive script, and a solid reputation to begin with. Naturally, it quickly set off another wave of Onmyoji fever.
Its sales shot up like a rocket.
It sold out on the very first day of release, and within a week, sales had already broken past 50,000 copies.
At the same time, the success of Onmyoji 2 also drove up sales of Onmyoji 1.
After all, much of the story in Onmyoji 2 is tied to the first game. While it's true that even without playing Onmyoji 1, players can still enjoy the thrill and excitement of Onmyoji 2, the Moriyama Taira storyline would feel incomplete.
Without that background, you might not fully grasp the hesitation of this great onmyoji when faced with his past love, or the cruelty of having to choose between all of humanity and the one dearest to him.
So Onmyoji 2 drew in many players who came with expectations for a [game] but who ultimately became overwhelmed by the story, crying out "Tsubaki Furuhara, die!" and, after experiencing it, went back to purchase Onmyoji 1 to complete the picture.
This situation had both advantages and disadvantages.
The advantage was the synergy: those who played Onmyoji 1 naturally wanted to see the continuation, so they bought Onmyoji 2. Those who bought Onmyoji 2 wanted to understand the earlier story, so they bought Onmyoji 1. Thanks to this linkage, both games' sales kept climbing.
But the downside was also clear—
It raised the entry barrier and made Onmyoji 2 harder to fully understand. Without experiencing Onmyoji 1, some of the plotlines really would feel confusing and incomplete.
Fortunately, both games were so excellent and so classic that players never felt any regret in buying them. On the contrary, they felt a deep sense of satisfaction, as though filling in an empty space in their hearts.
…
In short, Onmyoji's momentum was unstoppable, with one sales miracle after another.
Now, the only thing holding Pokeni back was production capacity.
The subcontracted factories needed time to burn the cartridges, and of course, they couldn't dedicate themselves solely to one company's games. So even with workers laboring tirelessly day and night, supply still couldn't keep up.
For the gaming industry, a galgame selling at this scale was nothing short of astonishing.
"Ah~! So even galgames can reach such heights?" exclaimed Koei's president, Erikawa Yoichi, with endless amazement.
After the great success of Uncharted Waters, Koei's development team also began to notice the galgame potential revealed by the Onmyoji series.
"I thought the player base for this genre would be tiny, but I never imagined it could show such massive buying power."
"We've learned something here—galgames can actually be done this way. For our next project, let's move toward developing a galgame-style story-driven title."
…
"Amazing. I thought Pokeni's Onmyoji was just a flash in the pan, but who would've guessed that even the sequel would achieve such massive success?" said Blue Wings' president, Kobayashi Shigeru, still in disbelief.
It seemed clear now that making galgames was indeed the right path.
His eyes turned to the company's chief planner, Takaya Mizutani, who was discussing matters with the art and programming teams at the next workstation.
If the direction was right, then why had their game Street Pickup flopped so miserably?
Could it be that he had chosen the wrong person?
But if he fired Mizutani now, what would the other employees think?
Perhaps it would be better to wait and see how the next project turned out.
If the next one still showed no promise, then Mizutani would have to take responsibility and resign on his own!
…
Up to this point, Kobayashi Shigeru, who had never seriously studied the market or player psychology, still couldn't quite grasp the true reason for Onmyoji's success.
But other game companies already had frontrunners who had accurately captured its essence.
For example, earlier this year, elf—the company that would later become the famous Elf Club—released Dragon Knight. They had already come to deeply understand that if a galgame was nothing more than simple dialogue exchanges, then it was something utterly devoid of beauty.
But the moment you give the heroines distinct personalities and write beautiful stories for each of them, such a game gains tremendous vitality.
After being "baptized" by Onmyoji, Dragon Knight was no longer the bland game it had been in the previous timeline. Elf refined the heroines with great care and, learning from Onmyoji, even gave the game a tear-jerking ending.
As a result, when Dragon Knight launched in November, it shockingly achieved sales of 70,000 copies.
"Players today are no longer satisfied with galgames that have simple plots and no immersive experience," said Elf's president, Masato Hiruta, in a media interview.
"When Onmyoji appeared, it elevated galgames to an unprecedented height."
"To put it more vividly, it's like this—
Before Onmyoji, we ate simple meals. But now, after tasting the joy and lingering emotion of a peerless delicacy, it's hard to imagine what it was we were eating before."
"There's no going back. The days when you could make money just by making a galgame are gone."
…
In fact, coincidentally, Tada, the producer of AliceSoft—revered alongside Elf as one of the twin pillars of the galgame world—also felt the same way.
"Terrifying!"
What shocked him wasn't just the sales of the Onmyoji series, but the changes it brought to the industry.
Whether it was the affection system, where players had to raise heroines' favorability through various story interactions to achieve romance…
Or the memory mode, which allowed players to revisit past story events without replaying the whole game…
These had already become industry standards.
"Terrifying."
To Tada, it was as if he were staring at a monster.
The producer of the Onmyoji series was a terrifying monster—these features were so perfectly designed, it was as if he had traveled back from the future.
He had copied the final answer straight onto the exam paper—there was no way not to give him full marks.
"The times have changed!"
"A new era of galgames has been defined."