Blue sky, white clouds, green grass.
Aoki Haruhi and Tsuda Nao were lying on the lawn, looking like two matchsticks with their heads together, but their feet pointing in opposite directions.
Aoki Haruhi had only experienced moments like this back in elementary school.
In his past life, he had often laid on lawns with girls, watching the clouds and gesturing, saying: "Look, doesn't that cloud look like a chicken?"
"Nonsense!"
"It's clearly a rabbit."
"Ah~ how pleasant this is."
Aoki Haruhi let out a sigh, looking up at the distant sky with a smile.
Youth is truly simple; you don't worry about the future at all—carefree, thoughtless, happy just seeing clouds. It's nothing like being a member of society in the future.
In the era of 996, you hardly ever have the chance to look up at the clouds.
Being able to catch a glimpse of the sunset once in a while is enough to make you happy to death.
Tsuda Nao lay beside him, her hands resting on her stomach, staring motionless at the sky as if lost in deep thought.
Or perhaps it was like she was asleep.
Just sleeping with her eyes open.
Aoki Haruhi turned his head. From his angle, Tsuda Nao's long eyelashes were fluttering. Her small, pert nose and perfect profile made one involuntarily want to lean in for a kiss.
"Do you know Marvel's Spider-Man?" Aoki asked with a smile.
"Hmm?" Tsuda turned her head back.
The two were now face-to-face, though their bodies were in opposite directions.
"In Spider-Man, there's a very classic, iconic scene," Aoki said with a smile.
"Hmm?"
"Spider-Man, Peter, is hanging upside down, and his girlfriend Gwen is holding his head just like this."
Aoki, just like in that scene from the movie, reached out, gently cupped Tsuda Nao's face, and shifted his body slightly.
After a while, the two pulled apart, laid flat, and panted for breath.
Tsuda Nao couldn't help but laugh softly.
This guy would come up with any excuse just to get a kiss.
But...
She blinked, imagining the Spider-Man kiss. Honestly, it was actually a little bit romantic.
But if it were raining, wouldn't Spider-Man choke in that position?
Thinking of this, Tsuda laughed again.
***
Marvel is truly failing to live up to its potential right now, even teetering on the edge of bankruptcy at one point. In about three years, it will likely sell its animation studio to Fox, and then sell off characters like Black Panther, Captain America, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and others.
Of course, in his past life, Square had done something similar, breaking up Final Fantasy to sell off its parts; Perfect World in China had even acquired the rights to Final Fantasy to develop a mobile game.
You can only say that fortune shifts every thirty years; no enterprise stays prosperous forever.
Aoki Haruhi silently calculated in his heart: when the time comes, should he get a few Marvel heroes to make some games?
The two of them lay quietly on the grass, letting the wind blow across their faces, cool and inexplicably comfortable.
At this moment, it felt as if time itself had come to a standstill.
All worries were cast to the nine heavens, leaving only the sound of breathing, the wind, and the rustling of leaves...
All the beauty in the human world seemed to linger in this very moment.
Tsuda Nao blinked and raised a hand.
"Whenever I lie on the grass and stretch my hand out like this..."
"I get this feeling like I'm going to fly away—no, rather, like I'm going to fall, falling endlessly past the clouds," said Tsuda Nao.
"Hmm... that's very interesting," Aoki Haruhi replied earnestly.
"Right?" Tsuda Nao smiled, then quickly closed her eyes. "But as soon as I think that, it feels like I'm actually going to fall, and I get scared to death."
Just then, she turned on her side and placed her hand over Aoki Haruhi's cheek.
"Mm, now I feel grounded."
As she spoke, her gaze grew hazy, and she slowly leaned in toward Aoki Haruhi.
"Ah! I've got it!" Just then, Aoki Haruhi's eyes widened, and he scrambled up from the ground.
"Hmm? Thought of what?" Tsuda Nao rolled over, propped herself up, and looked with a touch of resentment at Aoki Haruhi, who was now sprinting across the grass.
This guy, he must have done that on purpose, right?
***
"Patema Inverted?"
In the president's office, Shinji Mikami and Gen Urobuchi asked simultaneously, looking puzzled.
"Patema is the heroine's name, though Wada can change it later if he wants," Aoki Haruhi said.
"Patema Inverted" was an animated film produced by Studio Rikka and released in 2013.
It primarily tells the story of Patema, a girl who lives in an underground world, who accidentally "falls" to the surface world. There, she meets a surface-dwelling boy named Age, and together they work to uncover the secrets of their inverted world.
The most interesting part of the design is this:
Patema, an underground dweller, and Age, a surface dweller, are subject to opposite gravity.
In the underground world where Patema lives, people walk with their heads pointing downwards. But when she arrives at the surface, due to the effect of "gravity," she would constantly fall towards the sky.
This was exactly what Aoki Haruhi had thought of when Tsuda Nao mentioned "falling into the sky."
"To maintain balance and keep her from falling into the sky, the male protagonist, Age, has to hold onto Patema's waist, gripping her tightly. The two of them achieve a new kind of balance in this way," Aoki Haruhi explained.
"It's just like catching a balloon. Otherwise, it would just fly away." Gen Urobuchi nodded, indicating he understood.
Aoki Haruhi pursed his lips. 'Yeah, thanks for such a vivid description, huh?'
'Baka, who wouldn't understand? I explained it so simply.'
"In any case, the male and female leads are affected by opposite gravity. That's the fundamental premise of our game."
"And, this game must be made as a side-scrolling platformer," Aoki Haruhi stated firmly.
Shinji Mikami and Gen Urobuchi exchanged glances and began to think, heads bowed.
"Hmm... Indeed, making it a side-scrolling platformer fits this setting perfectly. Plus, we could totally utilize the opposite gravity of the male and female leads to design levels and create a lot of interesting gameplay mechanics," Mikami Shinji immediately grasped the president's intention.
"Exactly, that's it." Aoki Haruhi snapped his fingers.
A game concept like this hadn't even appeared by 2023.
The worldview would have a fantastic impact on the game. If Patema Inverted could be made into a side-scrolling platformer, it would surely be very interesting.
The concept of anti-gravity isn't rare, but it's not exactly common either. Future well-known films include Upside Down and Patema Inverted...
Upside Down is a sci-fi romance film co-produced by Luxembourg, Denmark, Canada, the UK, the US, and France. It tells the story of two worlds shaped like hourglasses, with pyramids overlapping at their tips, and follows two people who fall in love and overcome difficulties to be together in such a setting.
However, in the end, Aoki Haruhi still chose Patema Inverted.
For one thing, this animated film was made by the Japanese, which aligns better with Japanese culture, and its anime style is also better suited for adaptation into a game. On the other hand—
In terms of storytelling, Patema Inverted is significantly better than Upside Down, especially the moment the mystery is revealed; it can truly be described as a masterpiece.
"Think about it. In a side-scroller, sometimes we need them to walk not just on the ground, but also on the ceiling. This way, the game becomes 'inverted' for the players."
"Mm-hmm. Interesting," Gen Urobuchi said, excited. "Just like in Super Mario, where Mario doesn't just jump and move forward on the bottom, but can also flip directly and fly up to the ceiling to jump and move forward."
The only difference is that when they fly to the top, the heroine becomes the focal point, and it is she who runs forward.
Oh my!
Just then, as he said the name [Super Mario], Mikami Shinji and Gen Urobuchi both felt a shudder in their hearts.
Because they both realized the same issue—
Is the President going to go head-to-head with Nintendo?!
You have to realize how much time it took Sega back in the day to create [Sonic the Hedgehog] in order to launch a frontal assault...
Wouldn't this be a bit too risky for us?
However, they quickly dismissed this doubt.
After all, Patema Inverted is actually quite different from Super Mario in terms of gameplay, art style, and content. In such a situation, even if the target audience has some overlap, it will definitely result in differences in the end.
The creativity of the game itself is the core difference, which naturally gives birth to a different appearance.
It's just like the DNA of a species.
Our game's DNA lies mainly in [gravity reversal].
"Exactly," Aoki Haruhi said, "Players can acquire items in the game, and by adding or removing items from their backpacks, or transferring the backpack to the male or female protagonist, they can achieve a [gravity balance]. If the male protagonist's side is heavier, then from the male protagonist's perspective, he is running on the ground."
"If we transfer the weight to the heroine, she could pull the male protagonist along, running upside down on the ceiling."
"And even..." Shinji Mikami mused, "is there a possibility that as the story progresses, the male and female protagonists get separated? Then it could become a side-scrolling game where one is running on the ground and the other is running upside down on the ceiling, combining elements while also having them separated..."
"This would add more dimensions to the game's design."
Aoki Haruhi gave Mikami a thumbs-up.
Being able to come up with ideas and then expand and improve upon them based on his foundation—this was the kind of producer he truly wanted.
Aoki Haruhi continued: "As the game progresses, we will reveal the truth of this world step by step, in tandem with the gameplay. In other words, this isn't just a simple Super Mario game where you can run up and down; more importantly, it's a Mario game with a story."
"It's a side-scrolling RPG."
"Eh?!"
Both Shinji Mikami and Gen Urobuchi were stunned for a moment.
Then, all four of their eyes lit up.
"Wow, a side-scrolling RPG. I really hadn't thought of that..."
And the game's setting isn't just as simple as being a side-scroller; the real challenge is designing interesting gameplay mechanics that incorporate gravity.
At the same time, weaving a compelling story that seamlessly integrates with this foundation is another test.
Aoki Haruhi spent over an hour explaining the plot of Patema Inverted to them.
After hearing it, Urobuchi fell silent.
"Wow... a plot like this, such a twist, I really didn't see it coming," Wada exclaimed. "As expected of our President, to be able to achieve this level."
Whether in terms of the game's creativity or its narrative, it's hard not to be deeply impressed.
And Urobuchi could almost visualize the entire game content in his mind.
Aoki would oversee the art style, striving to stay true to the original work—an exquisite anime-style aesthetic—combined with this gravity-based gameplay and an excellent story. Aoki was very confident that the game would be a big seller.
And this time, they would be competing in the same arena as Nintendo.
No, it would be more accurate to say that while the main arena overlaps with Nintendo, they have also blazed a new trail.
It's unlikely that Patema Inverted will become a game geared toward a very young audience.
***
"For this game, I will take the producer credit," Aoki Haruhi said.
This time, it was Aoki Haruhi making a game he truly wanted to make.
"The Witcher is currently undergoing localization for the Western market. Mikami, just spend a portion of your energy overseeing that; I really need you for this new game."
Localization work can be complex, and it can also be simple; in reality, it's just translating the Japanese in the game into English.
However, due to the differences between Japanese and English in terms of grammatical structure, character count, sentence length, and font size, a direct translation won't work, as it could lead to UI compatibility issues.
Therefore, while translating, it is also necessary to customize the corresponding English fonts and sizes, and even adjust the UI structure.
It still involves a certain amount of work, but since the rest of the game content can remain unchanged, it will take at most one or two months.
"Understood, President." Mikami Shinji and Gen Urobuchi had no objections.
Even after working for this period, Mikami finally realized how fortunate it was to be able to work under Kogahara Tsubakiaki/Aoki Haruhi.
Being a producer is truly exhausting, and you can't fully focus on the game itself; just handling and coordinating work between different departments is enough to give you a headache.
Shinji Mikami really had to make up for it by resting at home; for over a year now, he has slept less than 6 hours almost every night.
"It's very interesting. If this game can actually be made."
"Leave the script to me," Gen Urobuchi said seriously.
If it were a typical side-scrolling platformer, there would be almost no room for a scriptwriter to flex their creative muscles. For example, in Super Mario, the plot can be told in a single sentence: defeat the dragon and rescue the princess.
But it is clear that this "Patema Inverted," in addition to the gameplay, requires a lot of performance so that players can learn the plot during the game, which provides a lot of room for creative expression.
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