"To get straight back to the point," Guinaifen said with a bright laugh, "Ruins Exploration feels like Julian and the design team simply let their wildest creative ideas loose."
"They packed in so many gameplay styles, both familiar favorites and things nobody has ever seen before, that putting the game down is basically impossible."
"People who regularly catch my streams probably know the truth by now: I was having so much fun with this build that I completely lost track of time and missed the registration cutoff for the Ocean Treasure Hunt."
Guinaifen didn't look the least bit upset about it. In her eyes, uncovering the secrets of this new version was far more rewarding than any prize pool.
"And because there are so many paths to take," she continued, "I haven't even seen everything this build has to offer. Going by the clues and slate rubbings I've managed to piece together so far, we might actually meet the legendary being who created the world itself!"
Her words set the live chat completely ablaze:
"A creature that shaped the universe?! That sounds unimaginably epic!"
"I can't take the wait anymore! Hearing all this makes me want to dive in right now! Can't you push the release button early?!"
"Name your price: one million credits right now for early access!"
"Get out of the way! I'll wire ten million credits this second, just let me play!"
"With that many styles thrown into one pot, won't it pull attention away from the core journey?"
"You're worrying over nothing. Guinaifen plays games for a living. If it didn't feel natural, she wouldn't have skipped a whole tournament just to keep playing."
"Even if a creator deity exists in the story, you definitely can't capture it at full strength. It'll probably be a balanced version, otherwise competitive matches would fall apart."
"Little Gui is right," Julian said, his projection nodding with a warm smile. "This release not only completes the core history of the Pokémon world, but it also serves as our playground for trying out fresh ideas."
"Just like the co-op run in Celebi's time adventure, the high-stakes looting in the Ocean Treasure Hunt, and the last-man-standing circle, we used the ruins to test a wide variety of formats."
"If there's a particular mode you fall in love with, leave a note on the community board. We will take the most popular concepts and expand them into full standalone games based on your feedback."
"For instance, to fulfill our earlier promise regarding the two-player adventure from Celebi's story, our technical director Stephen has been leading development on Pokémon: Twin Stars. That project is nearly finished and should be ready to share very soon."
"That is wonderful news!" Owlbert chimed in with an exaggerated sigh of nostalgia. "I can still picture those co-op puzzle rooms clear as day."
"Same here," Guinaifen agreed enthusiastically. "Once Generation IV is out, we really need to beat it so we can dive into that. Back during Celebi's story, Sushang and I kept messing up on purpose near the finish line just so the game wouldn't end and we could play it a few more times!"
Her confession prompted a flood of matching comments from the chat.
Countless players had done the exact same thing. Back then, many hadn't realized that the story couldn't be replayed once finished, which had led to a whole wave of players begging online to join other people's worlds just to experience the adventure again.
"There is no need to rush your journey," Julian gently reminded them. "We pace our releases around the community's natural progress. New titles only enter the release queue once most players have had time to finish the main adventure."
"While competitive battling is an exciting part of the experience, Pokémon is fundamentally a journey to be enjoyed at your own pace. We hope everyone takes their time rather than hurrying through just to reach the end."
"Taking in the world and bonding with your partners is the highest compliment you can pay our team."
Julian kept the tone light, keeping everyone grounded.
"Haha, well said! Thank you, Julian, for sharing that with us," Owlbert said, moving the segment along. "Now, let us turn our eyes to a few other quality-of-life adjustments..."
Having caught a glimpse of the rich variety waiting within the ruins, the viewers were too restless to pay much mind to the finer details. Minor updates to battle regulations, bag crafting, and companion outfits barely registered in the chat.
Everyone had just one thought on their minds: open the servers already!
Having already locked in the launch schedule, the team held firm.
The following morning at ten o'clock sharp, the game officially went live.
Backed by the sterling reputation of the first three generations and fueled by the preview hype, day-one sales blew past four billion copies the moment the gates opened.
Had the engineering crew not braced for the wave and set up regional routing queues ahead of time, the overwhelming flood of players would have melted the network nodes on the spot.
The Sinnoh region was packed with an immense amount of content. Julian had even woven half of ancient Hisui into the hidden chambers tied to the twin rulers of Time and Space.
Ancient regional forms made quiet appearances in the deep ruins, though players couldn't capture them just yet.
Even for seasoned speedrunners or beta testers who knew the map, clearing the main journey would take at least a full week. For average players exploring every nook and cranny, the adventure was easily a two-week to month-long ride.
Between the upcoming Gym Leader tryouts and the upcoming release of Twin Stars, community attention would stay locked in for the next month or two.
Robin had also sent word that Penacony was funding the expedited construction of the Pokémon Dreamscape out of their own pocket, requiring zero financial investment from Julian.
The Dreamscape sector was slated to open its doors right around that same window, giving players yet another massive playground to explore.
By that point, Julian would have plenty of breathing room to polish the fifth generation: the Unova region.
Except calling it Unova didn't quite fit anymore.
In his previous life, Unova was modeled after the towering modern skyline of New York City.
Within the cosmos of Star Rail, styling it after an IPC metropolis would feel off, while designing it around the Xianzhou offered a much richer cultural hook.
Julian decided to reimagine the region under a local identity: the Jiuzhou Region, named after the original nine flagships of the Xianzhou Alliance.
In ancient history, three of those great ships had been lost to cosmic conflicts, leaving six flagships sailing the stars today.
Julian mirrored this lore directly in the region's geography: an ancient land that once spanned nine vibrant provinces, now reduced to six thriving territories after a great historical war.
The parallel to the Xianzhou's own past was seamless.
Julian planned to retain the bustling, forward-looking metropolitan feel of the original setting, but clothe it entirely in the elegant, contemporary aesthetic of the Xianzhou rather than cold, western-style steel skyscrapers.
The reason he had expanded Sinnoh with so many extra features was precisely to buy himself the runway needed to build Jiuzhou from the ground up.
Crafting an entirely original region meant countless architectural and narrative details required hands-on care.
Furthermore, a Jiuzhou region demanded a lineup of original local species to match its cultural identity, especially since the original fifth generation had been an entirely clean break from past rosters. Without fresh, unique companions, players would surely complain that the team was resting on its laurels.
It was a tall creative mountain to climb, but with so many talented artists, writers, and cultural scholars across the Xianzhou ready to pitch in, Julian felt confident in the vision.
With day-to-day operations running smoothly on their own, Julian threw himself into design drafts while keeping a close eye on the incubation pods in the research wing.
Before long, the target date Ruan Mei had projected for the first batch arrived.
Julian set his datapad down and walked straight to the cleanroom.
Resting inside two temperature-regulated bays were five smooth, gently glowing eggs: four standard-sized shells nestled in the first cradle, and a noticeably larger, patterned egg resting quietly in the second.
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