The opening cinematic finished playing, and he entered the character creation screen.
Since it was developed for the MD, there was no online functionality for the time being.
"Eh? You actually have to create a character?"
Aside from arcade games, he rarely saw such large-scale single-player games that required selecting a character. Generally, RPGs fixed the initial character to pursue narrative fluidity and completeness.
Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy were examples of this.
Pokeni's Onmyoji series was the same.
Otherwise, if the character was chosen by the player, it could likely lead to a diminished narrative experience.
"As expected of Pokeni, they never take the beaten path," Hirozawa Furukawa sighed in admiration.
He carefully read through the options; there were three types of characters to choose from.
First is the [Warrior]: [They possess immense strength. They can use any weapon and armor. They do not fear facing hordes of monsters. In the early stages of the game, warriors can complete various quests very smoothly.]
[Rogue]: [Although not as fierce or powerful in melee combat as the Warrior, the Rogue is unrivaled in archery.
A master archer who can unleash a torrent of arrows at enemies, with each arrow being incredibly accurate.]
[Sorcerer]: [The Sorcerer possesses superior ability to use magic, but there is a warning—
They are quite fragile; don't let enemies get close to you.]
After careful consideration, the Warrior didn't really fit Furukawa's playstyle, as he didn't like the kind of savage, mindless melee characters that get close to enemies.
As for the Rogue, although called a "Rogue," it was easy to see at a glance that this was a traditional archer.
When Hirozawa Furukawa was in school, he was often bullied by the seniors of the Kyudo Club, mainly because he was a novice at sports.
After thinking for two seconds, Furukawa chose the Sorcerer without hesitation.
A class like the Sorcerer, which should be intelligence-based, was just too perfect for him.
Although Furukawa lacked athletic ability, he had excellent grades in academics and trivia quizzes, and for him, games were also more of a mental exercise.
After entering the game, the system provided a set of starter equipment and skills.
The initial Sorcerer skill was a relatively weak Charged Bolt.
However, this skill had some quite excellent qualities—not only was it a ranged attack, but it could also automatically track enemies.
Hirozawa Furukawa was born in a dilapidated town called Tristram.
The entire game's visuals are rather dark, with the land carrying a slight reddish hue, making the overall atmosphere of the game appear very heavy and eerie.
It has to be said that this game is completely different from the other Pokeni games he has encountered before.
Diablo is clearly more inclined towards a Western realistic style.
This couldn't help but give him the illusion that this game had changed producers or development teams.
[Help me!]
Just at this moment, a woman ran towards him at the town gate, closely followed by two skeleton soldiers.
Before the woman could run two steps, she was shot dead by a skeleton archer from behind.
A quest prompt appeared on the screen, instructing the protagonist to use a skill to defeat the skeleton soldiers.
The initial tutorial section is mainly to let players familiarize themselves with skills, picking up loot, and changing equipment.
This part did not exist at all in the original work, but Aoki Haruhi himself is a person from the 21st century, and he profoundly understands the importance of tutorials.
Especially in retro games like Diablo, without a gradual learning process, players are easily one-shot by monsters, leading to a poor experience.
After taking down two skeletons, Hirozawa Furukawa successfully picked up a few pieces of equipment, including a blue helmet with a big question mark on it.
When he moved his cursor over it, a prompt appeared: [Unidentified Item]
[You can find Cain in town, and he can help you identify this item.]
So, he headed to town and found Cain.
After paying a certain amount of gold, the helmet's stats were revealed.
[Traveler's Cap] [Armor 34] [+10 Intelligence] [Item Level 12] [Durability: 35] [Required Level 10]
Although he didn't quite understand the significance of each stat yet, a quick comparison showed it was far better than his starting gear.
The only issue was the level requirement, which meant he couldn't equip it just yet.
In the town, there were several NPCs with yellow exclamation marks above their heads; talking to them would allow one to acquire quests.
After some exploration, Furukawa Hirozawa learned some fragmented information—
Demons had resurrected from underground and slaughtered many people, leaving only a few survivors in this small town.
The villagers wanted the protagonist to go to the cathedral and kill the monster lurking there.
Upon arriving at the entrance of the cathedral, there was a dying sorcerer who told the protagonist—
Archbishop Lazarus had betrayed humanity; he had lured the villagers to the cathedral to repent, but in reality, he was sacrificing them to the demon, The Butcher.
Many people had died in the cathedral.
And Lazarus had disappeared into the deepest part of the cathedral with the princess.
So, what Furukawa Hirozawa needed to do now was to kill this demon called The Butcher.
Entering the cathedral, Hirozawa Furukawa immediately felt an eerie and terrifying atmosphere.
The entire dungeon scene was very dim, yet it still allowed you to see clearly; within your limited field of vision, you could occasionally see rotting corpses and crawling zombies.
Having walked only a few steps, Hirozawa Furukawa triggered a trap.
A cold arrow shot towards him.
He was so startled that he quickly stepped back.
He was hit by just one arrow, and his health plummeted by more than half.
Before he could recover from the shock, a zombie lunged at him.
The screen border flashed red.
"Ah!"
The protagonist let out a scream and fell to the ground.
Nani?!
Hirozawa Furukawa looked in disbelief at the black-and-white screen and the [Resurrect] button that appeared below.
Are you kidding me?
Is the Sorcerer this fragile?!
After playing for a while, Hirozawa Furukawa had stopped questioning whether this game was a galgame or not.
Because he had completely immersed himself in the joy of acquiring equipment and mixing and matching gear and skills.
The sound of gold coins and golden equipment dropping was simply too delightful.
Especially when a piece of golden equipment dropped on the ground, the beam of golden light that appeared on top of it was almost blinding, and it made Hirozawa Furukawa's little heart skip a beat.
Pokeni's game experience design was just too amazing, wasn't it?
The details were spot on, whether it was the way items dropped or the sound effects...
Before this, he had never experienced such a sense of pleasure, nor had he ever looked forward to monsters dropping good loot so much.
But now—
Joy.
Pure joy!
Hirozawa Furukawa fought monsters while picking up equipment, the corners of his mouth curling upward involuntarily.
This was the charm of Diablo.
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