Kobayashi Tetsu certainly needed the production team to have a certain level of understanding of American culture.
In a sense, Eastern and Western styles are different.
For example, when expressing a person's emotions in a game—like anger—Japanese manga has the very classic "cross-popping vein" on the forehead. To express helplessness, there are vertical lines on the forehead.
Drawing lines on the forehead represents helplessness, a question mark represents confusion, and a "swirl" pattern on the abdomen represents a specific type of frustration.
This was a way of thinking exported during the peak era of Japanese manga.
In contrast, American comics or the habits of Westerners are different. When expressing emotions, they are directly reflected in facial expressions, voice, or exaggerated gestures.
Disney's works exemplify this point, as does the classic Tom and Jerry.
Tom's anger is directly shown through shouting, facial twitches, and large, sweeping movements. For instance, raising a hand to grab Jerry and squeezing him with both hands signifies that Tom is very angry.
Neither of these two styles was inherently better or worse; they were simply different. Later works often combined both approaches.
But now, since the game was confirmed to be a flagship title for the Mega Drive, targeting the North American market, Kobayashi Tetsu naturally prioritized an American style.
Characters with wide-open mouths, bodies leaning forward in exaggerated poses—these were all distinct characteristics.
Kobayashi Tetsu had instructed the production team to emulate this American sensibility, but they were still short on artists. He needed to find more.
"Artists... Where on earth can I find more good artists?"
Kobayashi Tetsu pondered for a moment, then suddenly looked up.
Actually...
When thinking of artists from Japan's 8-bit and 16-bit eras, the first thing that came to Kobayashi Tetsu's mind was Uncharted Waters.
The art style of Uncharted Waters represented the characteristics of Japan's golden age.
The Japanese artists of the 80s and 90s were as formidable as the programmers of the 50s and 60s.
They were all monsters!
"If we're talking about Uncharted Waters, then that means... Koei!"
Koei. Domestic players were definitely no strangers to this name.
Many of the strategy games popular in China were actually produced by Koei.
Looking back, there were early works like Genghis Khan. More recently, there were new releases of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga's Ambition. Later, there were classics like Taiko Risshiden and Uncharted Waters, as well as Dynasty Warriors, an eternal memory of the game arcades in China during the PlayStation era.
Overall, because Koei had been making historical simulation games for many years, they were very good at "balancing the scales," and the historical figures in their works were almost all positive images. Also, precisely because historical simulation games required a large number of drawings, Koei's art strength was very strong.
At this moment in Yokohama.
Koei's president, Yoichi Koei, hung up the phone, frowned his head, and pondered thoughtfully.
He didn't expect to receive a call from Kobayashi Tetsu.
As president, Yoichi Koei's first reaction was to run and find his wife, Keiko Koei.
Although Yoichi Koei was the president, in fact, many of Koei's affairs were handled by Keiko Koei.
When Koei was founded, it was a small workshop with only two employees, the president of Koei, Yoichi Koei, and his wife, Keiko Koei.
Yoichi Koei developed the games, while Keiko Koei went out to sell them. When Yoichi discovered that making games was more profitable than selling dyes, Koei transformed from a dye shop into a game company.
Overall, Keiko was a true pioneer for women's rights. Koei's success was inseparable from her hard work.
Now, faced with a problem, Yoichi immediately sought his wife's counsel and briefly explained the situation.
"In short, Tetsu Kobayashi, the president of Atlas, has suddenly requested to visit Koei. I have a bad feeling about this!"
Yoichi was visibly uneasy. "Atlas visited Technos Japan, and then they were acquired by Atlas. Atlas visited Capcom, and then Capcom was taken over. Now Atlas wants to see us."
Yoichi was terrified. It felt as if some indescribable Great Demon King's shadow was looming over them.
Keiko tried to soothe him. "I heard Capcom was acquired by Atlas because their poor management led to financial troubles. Otherwise, with Capcom's stature, Atlas wouldn't have been able to acquire them so easily."
"Right now, Koei is doing well, and our cash flow is healthy. Atlas doesn't have the means to easily acquire us. If they were to try, it would inevitably leave them severely weakened."
Despite her words, Keiko Koei was still a bit uneasy.
Koei had already built some reputation, but its biggest weakness was that all its games were for PC. The audience for PC games was very small. Compared to console games, there were few PC gamers at the time. Koei's first hit, Battle of Kawanakajima, had sold a total of only 5,000 copies, yet it was enough to make Yoichi Koei so excited that he wanted to close the dye works and focus exclusively on making games.
Compared to Atlas's success, Koei was obviously no match.
But Keiko Koei quickly looked up, a hint of pride in her eyes.
"After all, Koei already has a title like Three Pillars. If Atlas wants to buy us, it will definitely cost them dearly—they'd have to pay at least five or six hundred million yen!"
Yoichi Koei nodded.
Since his wife said so, he felt relieved.
Atlas is doing so well, they probably wouldn't spend five hundred million to acquire Koei!
Yoichi Koei thought for a moment and suddenly felt something was wrong.
Koei only had software, no hardware. While software intellectual property was valuable, it wasn't as valuable as hardware in an acquisition!
Capcom had the CPS1; what did Koei have?
Besides the Three Pillars, all they had left were the tons of adult games they'd made in the early days just to make money!
Adult games were a negative asset!
The phone rang again. Yoichi Koei answered it, his expression turning extremely strange.
Keiko Koei leaned in. "What's wrong?"
"He's here."
Yoichi Koei looked outside the door.
Kobayashi Tetsu had arrived!
Yoichi Koei frowned deeply. It felt like war was about to break out. The beating of his heart was the drumbeat of Kawanakajima. Here, Kenshin Uesugi would face Shingen Takeda in their own fated confrontation. And the result of the Fifth Battle would be—
"Let's go," Yoichi Koei said, standing up.
"No matter what, we have to face it. And if you look at it from another perspective, if Atlas really does acquire Koei, it might not be a bad thing. At least Koei would have more support to create works."
Although this would mean Koei would lose its independence, it was an inevitable outcome.
There's always a trade-off!
The two left the company together. Finally, outside the office building, they saw that slowly approaching AE86.
And of course, the young man in the car, Kobayashi Tetsu.
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