"I believe everyone has already heard it.
Joe Hisaishi Sensei's first piece was 'Crimson Moonlight' from The Witcher."
Aoki Haruhi said with a smile.
"So, The Witcher 2: Demon Egg."
At the same time, Aoki Haruhi quietly stepped aside, revealing the large screen behind him.
The lights in the venue dimmed again, just like in a movie theater.
On the large screen behind him, a large POKENI logo appeared.
It dimmed again.
Then, some blurry images slowly began to appear.
The images were still very dark, but it was vaguely discernible that this was likely a battlefield.
Dark clouds accumulated in the distance, the ground was already covered with corpses, crows wailed, and several vultures circled in the sky.
The camera zoomed in on the ground, where an arm lay detached from a body.
And from within this arm, some maggots crawled out, looking particularly disgusting.
These maggots were unlike those commonly seen; they had black bodies, long slender hairs all around, looking more like wriggling Dandelion flowers.
However, the tips of the Dandelion were red.
And the maggots' bodies were covered with various sizes of eyes.
This entire segment was presented through animation, which took the Pokeni team a lot of time, so the effect was quite explosive.
Upon seeing this, some of the audience members were already feeling unwell.
"Oh no, I'm going to vomit."
"So scary... What kind of game is this?"
"Isn't The Witcher about vampires? How did it turn into this ghostly appearance?"
"Who knows... Ah... I can't look, it's chilling..."
Everyone discussed animatedly.
But they also seemed to sense that this game was indeed somewhat different; even as a 2D animation, it had a grim and desolate feeling.
"Has the Producer changed? How did the taste suddenly change so much?"
"It seems so, I remember Shinji Mikami was in charge of The Witcher before, who is it now?"
"I don't know, seems like a new person."
...
The overall game style was still relatively Japanese, a Japanese Western fantasy style, so the characters' clothing had Western elements, but their overall facial features and appearance were Japanese anime-like.
However, it is precisely this kind of game that sells well in Japan and Europe and America.
A typical example is Square's final fantasy series.
On the big screen.
A foot stepped on the ground, making a dull sound.
It made a crackling sound as it stepped on the severed hand.
A pile of Dandelion immediately burst open.
Then, another foot also stepped down, forming a rhythm with the previous foot.
This was a person's stride, slow and steady.
His figure was faintly discernible in the darkness, like a ghost.
He continued forward, not knowing his destination.
And at the same time, the wound on his chest became clearly visible.
At the position of his chest, a large black hole had opened up.
What was more bizarre was that there was no trace of blood flowing from the person's wound; rather than a living person, he looked more like a walking corpse.
Vultures continuously circled in the sky, following him as he moved forward.
They seemed to be waiting, ready to pounce and tear him to shreds as soon as he fell.
Just then, this Warrior seemed to lose his strength and fell backward.
The vultures in the sky received the signal, their eyes brightened, and they immediately swooped down.
And just as everyone was holding their breath for him, he suddenly extended his right hand.
He abruptly grabbed a vulture that flew in front of him.
Click.
The screen suddenly went black.
A monologue then sounded:
"This is a world full of killing and war."
"A world where the strong prey on the weak."
"A world like hell, without end, only despair."
...
The scene switched, then presented in a more subtle comic book style:
In the darkness, a hand, veined, held a strange fleshy ball.
In the center of the fleshy ball was a strange pattern that looked like a human eye.
"Demons Egg, legend has it that it is a seed laid by a demon; once parasitized, one can inherit the demon's power."
In the scene, a silhouette of a male protagonist, kneeling sideways on the ground, covered his neck with his hand, while in front of him stood a terrifying creature, high above, yet resembling a demon.
He held a fleshy ball in his hand.
Some slender tentacles extended from the outside of the ball.
In the next scene, the person who swallowed the Demons Egg transformed into a terrifying Demon Warrior.
"The kingdom existed because of demons, and was destroyed because of demons."
The king was assassinated on his throne, but the crown was held high by the demon.
The entire scene was distorted, emphasizing a wild and unrestrained yet infinitely terrifying feeling.
"Who saves the world, The Witcher, or the demon itself?"
In the final scene, a terrifying-looking man, like a demon, stood on the city wall, holding a laurel wreath in both hands and placing it on his head.
The camera rotated, then passed through his body, coming to the front.
The terrifying face was hidden in the darkness, melting into flames.
The flames burned, forming words on the big screen:
"The Witcher 2: Demon Egg"
...
The entire game animation, along with its sounds, abruptly stopped here.
Everyone felt as if they had been struck hard in the heart with a hammer, trembling violently.
"Wow, so scary, is this the The Witcher I remember?"
"The previous The Witcher focused on vampires, this time The Witcher is truly fighting demons, right?"
"The animation quality has improved by a huge margin, I just don't know what the actual effect will be."
...
Next, it entered the actual game demonstration segment, and Aoki Haruhi invited Miyazaki Hidetaka, the Producer of this game, onto the stage.
"This is Miyazaki Hidetaka, the Producer of our The Witcher 2: Demon Egg, and he will now give everyone a live demonstration."
"Hello everyone, I am Miyazaki Hidetaka."
Below, everyone was surprised, not expecting the Producer of such an important game to be a young, chubby man.
And this guy always gave people a very special feeling.
Miyazaki Hidetaka smiled very shyly and timidly throughout, even his head was half-bowed when he spoke, not daring to look at the audience below, let alone directly at everyone.
According to Aoki Haruhi's words—
A person who can combine'shyness' and 'gloom' is truly not simple.
Reporters were looking forward to the witcher 2, but upon seeing Miyazaki Hidetaka, they still pressed the shutter, recording the young Producer's first appearance on stage.
To be honest, Miyazaki Hidetaka was particularly nervous today.
He was already very nervous normally, especially when facing so many people, it was even harder for him to compose himself.
If Aoki Haruhi hadn't forced him to come over to promote the witcher 2, Miyazaki Hidetaka would not have been standing here at all.
...
Entering the actual game demonstration part, Miyazaki Hidetaka held Sony PS controller and started the game.
The audience below couldn't help but light up.
the witcher 2, still part of The Witcher series, this must be correct.
Because from the overall character design to the entire screen composition, it was all in the same vein, looking exquisite yet dark.
The texture on Sony PS instantly improved by a large margin.
At the same time, the overall atmosphere of the game also seemed to become more oppressive.
"Ah, the graphics have improved so much at once.
But it's still the familiar witcher style, flowing cloaks, white hair, plus firearms and broadswords...
Just add Mia and it's a perfect match."
After all, it was the same production team, just with a different Producer; the art original drawings were still the same as before, so the overall style was definitely consistent.
The game story had completely opened a new chapter.
As a series, there must be some inheritance.
"Ah, I'm really touched.
It's been over 2 years, almost 3 years, since I first played The Witcher 1, right?"
"But it should be worth it, after moving from the MD platform to Sony PS, look at this screen, this picture quality, I feel like my eyes are no longer nearsighted all of a sudden."
"Nostalgic, the witcher 2 should have inherited The Witcher 1, I wonder what changes there are, I remember when I played 1, the combos, the cool moves, those really amazed me.
I still can't forget them."
Everyone discussed animatedly, mostly reminiscing about the refreshing and cool combat experience that The Witcher 1 brought them.
However, when Miyazaki Hidetaka actually played, it was a completely different story.
Miyazaki controlled the male protagonist, facing the first approaching mini-boss head-on.
Before he could get close, a cold arrow suddenly shot out from behind.
Fortunately, the entire game was top-down, so the visible range was relatively larger, and Miyazaki's reaction was also quite fast, quickly dodging with a roll.
But this triggered the attack range of the mini-boss in front.
Before he could react, the mini-boss, with a bee-like lower body and a human-like upper body, swung a scythe at him.
Whoosh!
His health immediately dropped by more than half.
This wasn't the worst; the previously ambushing monsters swarmed him.
Immediately after, the screen turned red, and Miyazaki Hidetaka's heart let out a cry of "Yamete!"
Before he could even drink a potion, he was beaten to death by the group.
The screen completely turned black and white, and a large prompt appeared on the screen:
"You are died"
...
This scene startled Aoki Haruhi, who was watching nearby, almost causing him to drop the microphone in his hand.
Holy crap!
What happened?!
Not only did Aoki Haruhi not react, but the audience below also didn't react.
Everyone was stunned by this sudden "death demonstration."
Good heavens, Old Thief Miyazaki, you have this day too?
But...
Aoki Haruhi was completely out of sorts.
He knew it was difficult, but he didn't expect it to be this difficult.
Aoki Haruhi was careless; he didn't personally test the game's difficulty.
He just glanced at the game's completion and brought it to the press conference.
It could be said that he regretted it immensely.
...
"Did everyone see just now?" Aoki Haruhi picked up the microphone, forcing a faint smile, "We've added some very novel death presentations in the new the witcher 2.
For example, if you're killed by a poisonous bee, your body will change color upon death.
If you're cut down, your body will split into two halves.
The same applies to monsters; we do this work to further enhance the sense of impact and exhilaration, making the witcher 2's combat system richer."
Aoki Haruhi guided the crowd.
Everyone looked, and it really seemed to be the case.
"Oh, after all that, it turns out they were specifically demonstrating the death animations."
"That's so interesting, completely unexpected.
I thought he was really killed by the monster just now."
"As expected of Pokeni, they always come up with new things.
At Pokeni, not only are their game very creative, but even the way they present their creativity is unexpected."
"Hmm, hmm, this way the death animations are actually very clear.
I didn't expect Pokeni to actually implement death animations on the character's body."
...
Although Aoki Haruhi was doing an emergency save, this feature was not made up; they truly added different death methods for the impact of the witcher 2.
Almost every monster has two to three corresponding different death animations, depending on how they are killed.
As for poisoning and color change, it's just changing the color channel of the texture based on the attribute, which is actually easy to implement and very cost-effective.
This is also to enhance feedback and allow players to experience more game fun.
Aoki Haruhi pretended to be nonchalant, waiting for the game to restart, while quietly asking, "What should we do, Miyazaki?"
You made the game yourself, and you got killed by a mini-boss during the demonstration, aren't you ashamed?
However, thinking that Miyazaki also had his day.
Aoki Haruhi was inexplicably happy.
Of course, if Miyazaki Hidetaka wasn't his subordinate, that would be great; in that case, he would probably be laughing very happily below.
But...
Damn it, we're doing a demonstration!
How can we mess up in such an important occasion?
"It's okay, I can enable the cheat console," Miyazaki Hidetaka said.
Huh?
Aoki Haruhi looked at the man in front of him, who looked like Da Liu, in surprise.
So you anticipated this would happen already?
...
It was called a console, but it was actually some hidden easter eggs that developers had buried beforehand for easy testing, just like adjusting 30 lives in Contra.
Miyazaki Hidetaka and his team had already buried similar operations in the game early on.
He held the controller and pressed a series of buttons; once he entered the game, the male protagonist's health was locked, and no matter how the monsters attacked him, his health wouldn't drop.
In this demonstration, Miyazaki Hidetaka perfectly completed the task, showcasing the core combat part of the witcher 2 to everyone.
Especially in the BOSS battles, Miyazaki designed them specifically based on their respective characteristics and environments, which was particularly brilliant.
After the demonstration of The Witcher 2: Demon Egg ended, the venue erupted in thunderous applause.
It was given to this young Producer.
And also an acknowledgment of this demonstration.
"Looking at it this way, the witcher 2 seems quite interesting."
"Although there aren't many flashy combos, in terms of impact, there has indeed been a lot of improvement; even I felt my blood boiling just now."
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