After Pokeni Co., Ltd.'s new game was released this Time, due to the severe polarization of public opinion, those who liked it liked it very much, and those who didn't like it disliked it very much.
Especially the settings about the white-haired race and the performance of the 86 in the game became the biggest points of contention.
In the Time that followed, discussions on the internet became increasingly intense.
The game's sales were naturally affected by public opinion, resulting in total sales of only 100,000 copies in the first week.
Following this trend, the game "86 - eighty-six" may not become a million-selling masterpiece.
It is very likely that the final sales performance will be fixed at around 500,000 copies.
A large part of this was also influenced by Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei's halo.
However, it can be said that Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei made it, and Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei broke it.
Having Furuhara-sensei's Director name attracted many players, but many of these players were galgame players, after all, Old Thief Furuhara's name is quite famous in the galgame field; in galgames, Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei is a god.
However, the overlap with strategy game players was not actually that much.
There are also quite a few pure strategy game players who, after playing "86 - eighty-six", are still somewhat dissatisfied with Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei.
Because a very important point in strategy games is [Nurturing].
Although there is also a special nurturing mode in 86, and even in terms of numerical settings, both the mecha and the pilot designs are quite impressive, making many strategy players feel exceptionally relieved.
However, when the game enters the latter half, the pilots they painstakingly cultivated, and the upgraded and modified mechas, are destroyed one by one...
Such an act can be said to have committed a major taboo and angered the strategy players' reverse scale.
Many players have expressed one after another—
"Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei clearly has the ability to make good strategy games, but he insists on sacrificing the fun of nurturing for the plot, which is simply too heinous.
Go die with the white-skinned pigs."
"Exactly! Isn't it my pleasure to like and want to nurture whoever I want? I finally managed to nurture a Kei, and then Kei died.
Kujou also died, what am I going to use as a front-liner to charge?"
"To be honest, later on, I didn't even know who to nurture, so I could only give all the resources to the male protagonist, because at least the male protagonist is guaranteed; other characters are completely playing Russian roulette, you never know who will be the next one to take a bullet."
"Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei is too hateful.
You want to say he doesn't understand strategy games at all?
But, whether it's in the game's expressive power, character stats, or mecha settings, it's all very interesting, and the sense of coherence is truly eye-opening.
It's stronger than the gameplay fun and richness that fire emblem plus super robot wars can provide.
And because of 86's setting, there are more gameplay options that can be matched in the game, and the team composition is also richer.
Sometimes, swapping pilots can even produce unexpected strategic effects.
To be honest, up until the characters started dying, when I first collected 24 characters, that sense of accomplishment and excitement was truly overflowing.
But who would have thought that from then on, it would take a sharp turn for the worse, sending the game characters to their deaths one by one.
Although I also understand that it's to show the cruelty of war, for strategy game players, it's really too unfriendly.
You say Old Thief Furuhara understands strategy games, but he still makes such mistakes, it's really too inappropriate.
I can't even figure out whether Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei can make strategy games or not, is he himself a strategy game player?"
"Strategy game characters can die, but please don't die so frequently, and not so many, okay?"
"I had never played a Pokeni Co., Ltd. game before, but I had already heard the legend of Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei; this guy is a ruthless, cold-blooded demon who kills without batting an eye.
I really experienced it this Time."
...
In fact, Aoki Haruhi's decision to make 86 into a strategy game was also the result of careful consideration.
First of all, 86 itself is a war-themed animation; for a war type, it can either be made into an action game, an RTS, or a strategy game.
Since it contains a large number of characters, there are as many as 9 important members in the male protagonist team alone.
Adding Lena, that makes a total of 10 people.
Making it turn-based, or making it an action game, actually cannot reflect the value of teammates, and cannot allow players to clearly recognize each individual.
Then when they sacrifice, you won't feel the character's arc.
Nor will it be possible to empathize with the characters.
For such an animation, unless it's made into a pure electronic novel galgame, a strategy game is the only option.
Strategy game is the most suitable game type for telling stories with multiple characters, especially more than 10 characters.
In fire emblem, it can even display more than 40 different characters, and can display them very completely; players' sources of character information are their portraits, standing illustrations, and also their interactive dialogues in the game, their respective plotlines, character relationships, and so on...
Only strategy games can do these things.
So, making 86 into a strategy game was a foregone conclusion.
There is indeed this contradiction: 86 is a very cruel animation, and the characters in it appear to rush towards their death, which will definitely be very unfriendly to nurturing-oriented players.
However, the final decision made by Aoki Haruhi was still to prioritize serving the plot, characters, and the overall worldview.
If there was any mistake—
It was probably not being able to make the second part and release them together.
...
And for players who inherently like galgames, especially fans of Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei, strategy games conducted another screening, causing some people who only liked galgames but not strategy games to wait and see for a period of Time, unable to get their hands on it.
In other words, after the game "86 - eighty-six" appeared, it offended both those who play strategy games and those who don't.
The majority remaining were players who liked both strategy games and galgames.
About half of them were also influenced by Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei's halo.
In short, due to the huge controversy, coupled with angering pure strategy players, the game's sales could only reach this level.
Most likely, it will be around 500,000 copies.
Perhaps for other game companies, this achievement is already quite good, but—
This is Pokeni Co., Ltd.!
This is Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei!
For Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei, this result is definitely not up to par; players had extremely high expectations for him, and it turned out this way, it would probably be hard to believe if told.
"It's over, it's over, Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei is going to fall from grace."
"Very likely. As expected, what Old Thief Furuhara is good at is still making galgames. After stepping out of his comfort zone, such things are very likely to happen."
"Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei, Ishino Mika, Maeda Jun, can be said to be the God's Triangle, yet they didn't expect to only achieve this result in the end. Will they reflect on it?"
"Let's see what happens in the future. Actually, I still prefer Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei to make galgame games; he is truly a god in the galgame field."
...
It's over, it's over.
In Torun Group's President's office, Hattori Hiroyuki sighed repeatedly.
Beside him, Secretary Fujiki, with her hands clasped in front of her chest, silently observed the President's expression, and seeing his worried and anxious look, she couldn't help but comfort him, "Could it be that the Time isn't right yet? It seems similar situations have occurred before.
Let's wait a bit longer, maybe as public opinion continues to ferment, the effect will be better?"
Hattori Hiroyuki sat on the chair, his whole person looking dazed, his eyes dull.
After a long while, he waved his hand, indicating, "You don't need to comfort me. The first week's sales after a game's release are the most important. Since it was only 100,000 copies in the first week, the future probably won't be much better.
Moreover, if public opinion could really pick up, that would be fine, but now I see a lot of people online are cursing Pokeni Co., Ltd."
Although Hattori Hiroyuki does not play Pokeni's games, he still pays attention to relevant news and information.
It's hard not to care, after all, the money ultimately falls into his hands.
When distributors take goods from Pokeni, they have already given the money to Pokeni; the subsequent sales performance is actually closely related to the distributors.
They will only take goods from Pokeni Co., Ltd. after clearing their inventory.
But the problem is—
As things stand, Hattori Hiroyuki is very worried that the inventory will not be cleared in the end.
It should be known that, out of trust in Aoki Haruhi, Hattori Hiroyuki took 200,000 copies of the game disc in one go.
To clear so many games seems like an impossible task no matter how you look at it.
Damn it, damn it.
"President, don't worry too much, let's wait and see for a while first," Secretary Fujiki comforted him.
In reality, for Hattori Hiroyuki, the unsold portion wasn't that heartbreaking; perhaps in the end, there would only be about 50,000 copies that couldn't be cleared.
And he has been in business for so many years, game stagnation is also very common; at worst, he will just sell at a loss then.
However, what truly surprised and even terrified him was—
Oh my goodness!
It turns out this world is truly dominated by trash cans!
He still remembered that night he met Aoki Haruhi; because he drank a bit too much, and it was windy, his hand wasn't steady, and he threw the disc outside the trash can.
He picked it up later and only managed to throw it in on the second try.
Now it seems as if everything was destined from the start.
As expected of the God of Trash Cans.
So, not throwing it in had such severe consequences?
This was what made Hattori Hiroyuki afraid.
"Fujiki, do you believe there's a God in this world who can control game sales?" Hattori Hiroyuki asked.
Seeing his Director's pious expression, Fujiki was stunned.
"I do, Director. Aren't there 800 gods?
Even for going to the toilet there's a Toilet God, let alone a game God?"
"Mm-hmm."
Hattori Hiroyuki nodded in deep agreement.
However, although he wanted to say more, he ultimately suppressed the urge within him.
The thought of holding the world's biggest secret, controlling the lifeline of games, filled Hattori Hiroyuki with deep apprehension.
It was all his fault for being too careless back then, for not getting out of the car and respectfully throwing the game disc in, which led to this sales Waterloo.
To some extent, Hattori Hiroyuki felt a little guilty towards Aoki Haruhi.
Most importantly, the thought of losing several hundred million because he couldn't throw the game disc into the trash can made his heart ache.
According to normal Pokeni sales, this game could have sold 4 to 5 million copies, which would not only be a matter of clearing inventory but also of replenishing stock.
He suddenly lost out on a lot of profit.
Why should one fight against money?
…
"Eh? Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei also has a Time to fall from grace?"
After seeing the online controversy surrounding Pokeni's new game, 86 - eighty-six, and sensing the unsatisfactory market sales, Hiruta Masato of Elf Society couldn't help but sigh.
You must know that before 86, Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei was practically a game God, winning every battle, making each game better than the last.
Even if sales didn't reach the million mark, Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei's games always had a very high reputation.
He was once revered by players as a game God.
How could he fall so hard and so miserably now?
Is this still the Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei I know?
To be honest, if he hadn't seen the online comments, Hiruta Masato himself quite liked 86; at least the game's art style, narration, and animation were all quite excellent.
However, just as players said, there were controversies in the plot, and the game wasn't friendly enough to pure wargame players.
Compared to last year's fire emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, it was bound to run into trouble.
What a great game fire emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War was; this game was almost the pinnacle of wargames.
Not only did the game have the most comprehensive wargame mechanics on the market, but it also made huge innovations in cultivation—
You could cultivate the affection between team members, and they would even have children later.
As an emblem work born in the Time era and bearing the immense pressure brought by new, higher-performance game, the creativity that emerged in Genealogy of the Holy War was astonishing.
In the previous work, there was only one type of knight profession, while the new work derived several different types of knight professions based on the European medieval knight system;
It added a wide variety of personal special skills and weapon counter-properties, command points, profession value caps, and many other new elements;
Especially the plot setting spanning two generations, which made the newly designed, player-controlled love cultivation system, couple combinations, inheritance of descendants' special skills, and special plots, elements that many players enjoyed tirelessly;
In the game, by cultivating different couples, the skills and attributes inherited by their children were also different. It was precisely for this reason that countless players enjoyed this game tirelessly, playing Genealogy of the Holy War over and over again, just to cultivate even better next-generation male protagonists.
And the game's plot was completely imbued with Kaga Shozo's dramatic inspiration and creativity.
In the first half, the male protagonist, Sigurd, was invincible on the battlefield but could not resist the grinding of fate's gears, becoming a tragic victim of the unified empire. Its artistic merit far surpassed any emotional expression in Royal Knights, which was highly praised by many professional players.
And Producer Kaga Shozo's preference for the Japanese historical figure Akechi Mitsuhide also allowed him to effortlessly create Arvis, a character who is both good and evil, with an outstanding personality.
If not for the slightly pale and clichéd "Prince's Revenge" in the second half and the anticlimactic "Mystery of the Twelve Demon Generals," it could be said that the script of Genealogy of the Holy War completely surpassed any literary work of the same period that earned audience tears by selling on pathos.
The anticlimactic plot of the second half was due to the excessively long development cycle of Genealogy, which led to Nintendo headquarters questioning and dissatisfaction with IS Society's development, ultimately leading to Gunpei Yokoi directly taking over game development as the person in charge and implementing drastic "reforms." (Yes, this Gunpei Yokoi is the one who resigned not long ago.)
This turned a work that could have reached its peak into a semi-finished product, which must be said to be a major regret for fire emblem works.
The contradiction between the game Producer's talent and the game company's pursuit of maximizing profits was the root of Genealogy's tragedy.
This game also became the fuse for the conflict between Producer Kaga Shozo and Nintendo.
"Indeed, Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei is still more suitable for making galgames, isn't he?" Hiruta Masato mused.
Alas! I got carried away.
Hiruta Masato quickly pulled his thoughts back. Even if Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei only achieved 500,000 sales, which was a Waterloo for him, for Elf Society, this was almost the ceiling.
What right do I have to judge him?
It's better to just focus on making good games.
…
Meanwhile, at Nintendo.
Hiroshi Yamauchi and Miyamoto Shigeru were quite happy after hearing the news of 86's Waterloo.
"As expected, Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei is still an amateur in wargames.
It's just a shame that Pokeni's technology was wasted," Miyamoto Shigeru sighed.
When Hiroshi Yamauchi heard the first half of the sentence, he was quite happy, but when he heard "Pokeni's technology was wasted," he still couldn't help but frown.
However, he was in a good mood today; seeing Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei fall from grace made him happy.
"Not everyone is a polymath. Who can guarantee that all future games will be successful?" Hiroshi Yamauchi smiled.
Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei certainly has talent, but it seems to be concentrated in the area of galgames for now.
…
Tokyo.
Ginza.
Pokeni Co., Ltd.
Director's Office.
"Director, I dare not."
Ishino Mika waved her hands repeatedly.
It hadn't been long since the 86 game was released, and the Director was already asking her to start a sequel.
"The problem is, the 86 game has so much controversy, and many players are still arguing online. Is developing a sequel really appropriate?"
Ishino Mika asked timidly, bracing herself.
She didn't even dare to mention the game's sales.
"Do it, you must do it!" Aoki Haruhi declared, "If we don't, how will we restore our honor? And our sales!"
He placed the proposal he had written in front of Ishino Mika.
The first part of 86 was just an introduction; the real highlight was yet to come.
But if there wasn't this second part, it would truly be impossible to clear their names, and Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei's career would carry a small flaw from now on.
…
After just a few pages, Ishino Mika's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Eh? So the five-person team didn't die?"
Then I have confidence.
Otherwise, too many razor blades were received this Time.
"Director, it seems Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei has figured it out."
Moreover, the pain points that players complained about before have all been resolved, and the male protagonists in the game are gradually growing stronger, with no one dying.
Very good.
The cultivation value is also there.
Excellent.
Every character is brilliant.
And the subsequent war is unfolding, various crises are imminent, and there are constant twists and turns—excellent!
"As expected of Furuhara Tsubaki-sensei's work."
Who knew that after reading the proposal, Ishino Mika's expression became even more terrified.
"Director, can I not take on this game? I'm afraid of being hacked to death by players."
This big plot twist is too terrifying, isn't it?
"What do you think?" Aoki Haruhi silently turned his head, looking at her with cold eyes, and let out two sneers.
Ishino Mika felt a chill in her heart.
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