Number pokeni is too considerate, isn't he?!
After showering, Yukitake Junna hesitated for a long Time while drying her hair and looking at the sensual clothes she had brought in her backpack, eventually putting them back.
It seems they won't be needed for game night after all.
Besides, I guess Furukawa Hirozawa wouldn't like this kind of thing.
Am I being too proactive?
However, Yukitake Junna was somewhat surprised to hear Furukawa Hirozawa talk about getting married in the future today; she still couldn't forget Furukawa Hirozawa's words at the Time.
And the look of certainty on his face.
"Thank you for thinking of me, Haoze-kun."
Yukitake Junna smiled.
She picked out a set of her usual clothes from nearby, tidied them up, and then came out of the room.
"Let's start."
Yukitake Junna happily sat next to Furukawa Hirozawa.
"Hmm, I've already prepared everything."
...
"86 - eighty-six! Launch!"
Meanwhile, in Yamada Masaharu's rented small house, he was excitedly staring at the TV screen.
Ah, great, it's game night again, a weekend carnival.
The screen went black, and the familiar Pokeni logo appeared on the screen.
Below it was the iconic slogan:
"game Is Life."
"Here, embark on an unprecedented journey of life."
The font that appeared this Time was very sci-fi.
The entire interface background was blue, with many numbers flickering and light effects combining to form the text on the screen.
Da da da da da...
The sound of a keyboard tapping rang out from the TV.
The screen darkened again.
...
As the screen slowly lit up, the game's main interface also appeared.
In the entire main interface, the surrounding border parts felt very much like facing a computer screen in a combat command room, with many numbers and statistical graphs in the upper left corner, and a miniature holographic combat map visible in the lower right corner.
The large screen in the center was divided into two parts.
The very center part was a mech, the body of which resembled a silkworm cocoon, or a similar pupa-like main body, with several metal claws underneath for walking, and a large cannon protruding from its head.
In front of the mech was an orange, sturdy-looking mech or some kind of machine.
(Actually, this is the'Scavenger' mech created in the game, with no combat capability, only used for The Legion support and battlefield cleanup.
The protagonists named it fido.)
And on either side of the mech stood a man and a woman.
On the left was a peaceful, white daylight, with the white-haired female protagonist leaning against the mech, while on the other side was a bloody sunset, the male protagonist's eyes firm, half of his face obscured in shadow.
The lighting effects used on the left and right sides were completely different.
They looked like they were leaning together, yet not together.
Both separated and overlapping, truly wonderful.
...
Below were 4 horizontal options: [Start game] [Load Archive] [Settings] [CG]
Yamada Masaharu held the controller and chose to start the game.
The background sound immediately started, and the first thing loaded was a cutscene:
The screen went black, and a line of text appeared on the screen:
"No country in this world would be condemned for not granting human rights to the pigs raised within its borders.
Therefore, if groups of different languages, skin colors, and ancestors are defined as mere humanoid swine, then suppressing, persecuting, or slaughtering such groups would not be a human rights violation.
—
Fladileina Millize, 'Memoirs'"
The text disappeared, and the screen lit up again.
"Prologue: The Red Poppy Blooming on the Battlefield"
The iron-colored text, after appearing for a few seconds, quickly burned away as if ravaged by war.
"Mission 1"
Yamada Masaharu was a little caught off guard, it started already?
Shouldn't there be a minute or two of CG?
Pokeni isn't playing by the rules this Time; I was already ready to put down the controller and watch a few minutes of animation.
It just started the game without warning.
This is a very clear wargame.
So, a very clear terrain layout can be seen on the screen.
The entire battlefield part is on a desolate grassland, desolate because there are many ruins scattered around.
The light is also dim yellow, giving a sense of bloody sunset.
This is a cruel battlefield, filled with smoke and incessant gunfire, the ground illuminated by the setting sun as if stained with blood, and discarded, destroyed mechs are visible everywhere on the game map.
But what models they are, and what origins they come from, is unknown.
Overall, the battlefield atmosphere is very strong.
...
Yamada Masaharu's eyes lit up when he saw this.
Goodness, Pokeni really made it a 3D game.
The entire battlefield, apart from the scenery, actually has a strong 3D feel; the discarded mechs on the battlefield, the flags on the ground, and the shapes of the mountains and grasslands are all 3D.
So the visual experience is completely different.
When handling these, Pokeni also adopted some production methods from princess mononoke, which means adding animation rendering, so it's not a realistic 3D effect, but more inclined towards the Japanese anime style.
In terms of color processing, it also tends towards lower saturation; although rich, it won't cause too much visual burden on the eyes when mixed together.
Overall, it's very comfortable.
...
Although not very obvious, it is still vaguely discernible that the entire 3D scene is actually divided into individual blocks, with small squares forming the basis of the wargame.
The squares form the entire game board; without a board, wargames cannot be played.
In the game, the first combat mech appeared.
It walked in from off-screen; the mech itself resembled a silkworm cocoon, with several claws underneath, overall like an iron spider with a cannon barrel.
Honestly, among the mech games Yamada Masaharu has played and the mech anime he has watched, he has never seen one so ugly.
Oh no, there are ugly ones, but those are mechs used by enemies or fodder; as 'our side' members, even in the fourth super robot wars, the most marginalized supporting character's mech looked better than this.
But the advantage is that it's 3D.
So the entire game model looks very three-dimensional, and the metallic luster emanating from the mech's surface, along with the paint applied to it, gives a more realistic feeling.
It's industrial art, Yamada Masaharu comforted himself.
After looking at it more, it has a unique kind of beauty.
Just like most vehicles running on the street are black and white, without flashy colors, in this situation, the only thing that can maintain its appearance is its shape.
But this thing's shape happens to be like a giant steel spider.
This is a bit much.
In the game, a white-haired man wearing a commander's device appeared in the lower left corner; he was in a crisp military uniform and looked more like a commander.
"System activated."
"RMIM1A4 'Destroyer' OS."
A harsh static mixed with outdated radio communication.
"Control One calling Undertaker. Radar has detected enemy intercepting forces.
Confirmed as a large-scale anti-tank artillery unit, and an equally sized close-range hunter unit."
The avatar switched again, becoming a young man with short black hair.
Yamada Masaharu breathed a slight sigh of relief when he saw him.
Pokeni's artistic skill is still there; although the 3D model of the mech is not well designed, the young man's avatar is drawn quite beautifully.
The young man has short black hair, dark red eyes, wears combat camouflage, and has a light white scarf around his neck.
He has a somewhat ethereal, youthful feel.
At the same Time, the young man's name also appeared in the on-screen dialogue box—
Shinei Nouzen.
Shin for short.
It looks like this is the male protagonist.
"Undertaker received."
Shin replied, "Enemy presence has also been detected here."
...
No sooner had the young man's voice faded than the game's camera followed, moving.
It extended from the bottom of the screen upwards, and as the camera moved—
Yamada Masaharu finally saw that the actual battlefield board was larger than he had imagined, and various mechs were densely scattered in the distance.
Just as the two people had said in their special communication earlier, the number of enemy mechs was indeed quite large.
However, this is also a major feature of wargames; the number of enemies is often several Times that of the protagonist team, which provides a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in fighting against overwhelming odds.
But, is it a bit much to give so many enemy mechs in the first level?
"From this moment on, command will be transferred to the field commander.
Please uphold the spirit of sacrificing yourselves for the country and annihilate the Republic's great enemy at all costs."
"Received."
Then, from the other end of the special communication, came the voice of the white-haired commander:
"Everyone, I'm sorry.
I am truly very sorry."
"Call ended."
Huh?
Yamada Masaharu blinked, initially not understanding, but after a careful thought, he finally grasped what had just happened:
During the communication, it was the white-haired commander who contacted Shin, then told them that enemies were coming. However, this guy ultimately transferred command to Shin, which meant he shirked his duties as a commander.
Is that it?
Thinking of this, Yamada Masaharu couldn't help but chuckle wryly.
It's ridiculous. Pokeni created such an odd character at the beginning. Isn't a white-haired person like that a bit too cowardly to be a commander?
A cold, mechanical voice echoed from the television.
"Cockpit closed."
"Power system activated. Driver activated.
Joint mechanism unlocked."
"Stabilizer normal. Fire control system no abnormalities. Electronic system offline.
Target acquisition mode set to passive."
The male protagonist's voice rang out again, "Undertaker calling all squad members. Control One has transferred command.
From now on, Undertaker will be in command."
As the voice sounded, several new mechs appeared on the battlefield with a series of swishes.
However, compared to the enemy's mechs, these new mechs had very special designs in all aspects.
They were clearly allied units.
To differentiate them, Pokeni had even painted faint green patterns on their mech bodies.
The patterns should be their country's emblem, Yamada Masaharu thought.
The square cursor in the middle of the game quickly moved to a large-looking allied mech.
A somewhat rugged-looking man with a beard around his chin spat contemptuously.
Then he burst out laughing.
"Alphaleader received. Same old, 'Death God.'
What did that spineless master say in the end?"
"He said, 'I'm sorry.'" Shinei Nouzen said in a flat tone.
The other end of the sensory synchronization couldn't help but laugh.
These guys had array units implanted in their necks (a device used for perception synchronization to better coordinate system operations, and a data tag for communication).
So these guys on the battlefield could transmit any information they could gather at any Time.
The cursor on the map continued to jump, moving to another mech that looked like it had a longer barrel and its overall shape resembled a sniper rifle lying on the ground.
The pilot was a green-haired girl, sweet-looking with short hair, but with a round face, making her look especially cute.
"Ha! These white pigs are still incurable. They drive us to the front lines, then hide in the back, covering their ears and pretending nothing's wrong, yet they still have the nerve to say'sorry' to the squad members, just as you all heard.
Oh well, we're all going to die anyway. It's not too bad to die under the guidance of the Death God."
In short, on the battlefield, besides the male protagonist Shinei Nouzen's mech, there were four other allied mechs of different shapes.
And their pilots all had their own personalities: there was a red-haired uncle with a contemptuous look, who seemed like a hooligan.
There was also a cute, round-faced girl with short blue hair.
Another was a big-chested older sister with long golden hair and a gentle, charming personality.
The last one was a younger-looking boy.
These few individuals, in Mission 1, were about to face an attack from The Legion's mechs.
"Sixty seconds until enemy contact. Artillery fire is coming. Break through the enemy's artillery range at maximum combat speed."
"Alright, you bastards, let's go!"
"Combat counter-measures activated."
"Enemy aircraft detected: set as B1" "Set as B2" "B3" "B4" "B5"... "B24"
...
Good, there were enough enemies. Yamada Masaharu rubbed his hands, feeling his blood boil.
It had been a long Time since he played a strategy game. Pokeni's new game brought him back to when he played fire emblem.
According to the usual practice of strategy games, in the first level, the main characters would appear, and then more members would join later.
And Yamada Masaharu clearly understood why Pokeni designed everyone's mechs so unpretentiously—
By making them basic and ordinary at the start, it would be easier to prepare for upgrades in the future.
Yamada Masaharu was already looking forward to the male protagonist changing professions or getting new mechs and soaring into the sky.
Very good, very exciting.
Let's go!!
Level 1, officially started.
The game entered the tutorial section.
Yamada Masaharu followed the instructions, moving the square cursor in the game to frame the male protagonist's mech.
There were no other options, as the male protagonist was the only player-controllable unit on the entire map.
The UI above this mech's head was blue.
As for the other four mechs, although they were all allied, they were not controlled by the player but acted according to their own AI.
In essence, this was just a beginner's level, designed to help players get started smoothly.
The cursor on the screen flickered. When it framed the male protagonist's mech, a circle of light patterns emanated from the mech, then spread out from the center of its square.
At the same Time, a UI shape consisting of a circle of double-diamond grids appeared on the screen.
The inner circle indicated the range of movement, and the outer circle was probably the maximum attack range of the protagonist's mech.
For example, if the mech's movement was 4, then it could move up to 4 squares in different directions by counting squares.
And if the attack range was 3, it would extend 3 squares beyond the 4 squares.
Wow, this UI effect is amazing!
None of the strategy games on the market could do as well as Pokeni.
Just a small UI immediately won Yamada Masaharu's heart.
...
...
This Time, Pokeni's artistic improvement in strategy games was very significant.
The most obvious one was that all characters and models in the game were made in 3D, and then the UI was meticulously designed and enhanced.
When Yamada Masaharu followed the instructions and moved the cursor to the destination, he found that a mirror image of the male protagonist's mech was simulated at the cursor's resting position.
Between the mirror image and the main body, there was a blue light line to indicate its path.
It looked especially good.
And it had a strong sense of futuristic technology.
At this point, Yamada was becoming increasingly confident in Pokeni's game.
At the same Time, many red arrows appeared above the head of this mirrored mech, coming from nearby enemy mechs.
After studying for a while, Yamada Masaharu finally understood that those red arrows actually indicated which enemies could hit him.
In other words, Pokeni not only made a pre-processing UI but also thoughtfully displayed the enemy's attack and movement information for you.
If you move the cursor to an enemy mech, you can also clearly see its double-diamond grid range, which indicates its movement distance and attack distance respectively.
The marking of movement and attack range squares might not be much, because fire emblem had already developed similar functions, but the UI presentation was not as good-looking as Pokeni's.
The main thing is that red line, connecting from the heads of enemies that can attack you and landing on the location of the mirror image—this design is great.
Wow!
Is it too thoughtful?
Pokeni?!
Yamada Masaharu stated that in all his years of playing games, he had never played such a comfortable strategy game.
Everything was marked out for you; the auxiliary UI's functions were truly too powerful.
Too thoughtful.
Pokeni also demonstrated extremely strong design capabilities.
It's amazing, as expected of Pokeni, easily achieving things that other game manufacturers haven't.
If he hadn't known about Pokeni, Yamada Masaharu wouldn't have believed that this was Pokeni's first Time making a strategy game.
He would even believe it if you told him it was an old game manufacturer that had been making strategy games for over a decade.
Because it understood players too well, it knew players too well.
But in reality, these things were just Aoki Haruhi bringing over settings from the future fire emblem: Engage game, which would be released more than 20 years later.
Aoki Haruhi himself was also a strategy game player, so he naturally knew what was good.
Moreover, making this wasn't complicated; the values of each character and enemy could be calculated, and it was simply too easy to generate corresponding UIs using these values.
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