Yu Suzuki's Troubles

After arranging the development work for Pokémon Red and Green, Nakayama Takuya called out to the team leader of Team Three, who was about to leave.

"Shimizu -san, how's the feedback from the arcades for the game ' Art of Fighting ' that you just finished?"

Team Leader Shimizu stopped and turned around, his expression much more relaxed. "The response has been enthusiastic. Especially the introduction of the super special move; many players have reported that even if their skill level is suppressed, they now have a chance to turn the tide, making the process more exciting. Our people have checked it out, and there are long queues in front of many machines."

He paused, then added, "Many people are still asking when our third Sega Esports Tournament will be held; they're all waiting."

Takuya tapped his fingers rhythmically on the table, pondered for a moment, and said, "No rush, we have to wait for Suzuki's ' Taiko no Tatsujin.' By the way, how's their progress? It seems like there's been no news lately."

Team Leader Shimizu shook his head. "I don't know the specifics either, I've only heard that it seems to be stuck on some kind of problem."

"Oh?" Takuya somewhat surprised. "There's actually a problem that can stump Suzuki. I need to go check it out."

With that, Takuya headed to Yu Suzuki's development team, while Team Leader Shimizu went back to Team Three to assign tasks.

Takuya arrived at Yu Suzuki's development team, only to find everyone busy, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Takuya casually stopped a passing employee to ask, and the employee pointed towards the company's break room and whispered, "Suzuki -san went over there with his guitar, saying he wanted to—relieve some stress and maybe find some inspiration."

Takuya walked to the rest area and immediately spotted that somewhat tired-looking figure.

Yu Suzuki was holding a wooden guitar, his brows furrowed, his fingers idly strumming the strings, a few monotonous notes drifting out intermittently, conveying an indescribable restlessness.

Takuya took a cup of coffee from the bar, but didn't say anything immediately. Instead, he sat down on the sofa next to Yu Suzuki, sipping his coffee and glancing at him without saying a word.

The soft clatter of the metal cup being placed on the glass table finally startled Yu Suzuki. He looked up, saw Takuya, and the anxiety in his eyes subsided slightly.

"Why did you come here? Is something the matter?"

Yu Suzuki stopped plucking the strings.

"I heard your group encountered some difficulties?"

When work was mentioned, Yu Suzuki stopped being polite, leaned his guitar aside, sank into the sofa, and sighed.

"Yeah, the sound quality arcade machines can't quite capture. Many instruments in many songs can't be simulated with synthesizers yet; it always lacks a certain something. The taiko drum sounds okay, but traditional instruments like the shamisen and shakuhachi sound completely different." He rubbed his temples. "Even if we invest heavily in upgrading the hardware and can simulate more sounds, storage space becomes a new problem. A high-quality song, especially one with vocals, takes up a lot of storage space."

"A work of this caliber won't do; the arcade owners definitely won't buy it."

Yu Suzuki became increasingly discouraged as he spoke, his brows furrowing even more deeply.

After listening, Takuya suddenly slapped his forehead. "Oh, I completely forgot. It's my fault, I should have told you guys sooner. You should have contacted me earlier."

Yu Suzuki was puzzled by his abrupt remark. "How is it your fault?"

"I was originally going to assign the development of an external CD-ROM drive for MD, but I got so busy that I forgot about it. Your situation just reminded me."

"CD-ROM?"

Yu Suzuki pondered for a moment, then slapped his thigh. "How could I not have thought of that!"

"Right?" Takuya smiled. "You should directly take Director Yoshikawa to Sony to discuss the DDR project."

They owe us a favor; they're always hesitant to ask for too high a price for the CD-ROM technology license. Could you please tell Director Yoshikawa that if Sony willing to negotiate, we should try to secure a perpetual license?

Now it was Yu Suzuki's turn to be surprised. "You're so optimistic about CD-ROMs? You're even going for a perpetual license."

"Yeah, I'm very optimistic about it. Otherwise, why would I work so hard to make DDR for Sony?" Takuya nodded and continued.

"Of course," Takuya said with absolute certainty, "Otherwise, why would I have gone to so much trouble to help Sony develop DDR? Now that you're making arcade and Mega Drive games, don't you think cartridge capacity is nearing its limit? Games are getting bigger and bigger..."

In order to fit it in, we had to cut some content and high-quality materials.

"If the cost of high-capacity cartridges doesn't come down in a few years, and once the cost of CD-ROMs drops to a critical point, then CD-ROMs will definitely be unable to compete with CD-ROMs in the home console market, even if they require some time to read discs."

Yu Suzuki nodded thoughtfully, his gloom vanishing and replaced by excitement. "That's right, high-quality digital audio and more detailed images mean we no longer need to be so stingy with file size calculations. Reusing too much material gets monotonous after a while. We can use the original recording for <Taiko no Tatsujin> directly, and vocals are no problem at all!"

"But wouldn't installing a CD-ROM be too expensive?" Yu Suzuki thought about the cost issue again.

"That's why I let your Arcade Division use it first. Arcades aren't that sensitive to costs at this level; consider it paving the way for MD."

Takuya finished the last of his coffee and patted Yu Suzuki on the shoulder.

"I'll leave this to you and Director Yoshikawa."

Takuya got up to leave, but then seemed to remember something and turned back to face Yu Suzuki.

"By the way, have you chosen the songs for ' Taiko no Tatsujin ' yet?"

Yu Suzuki shook his head. "Not yet. It's just stuck on the audio source and file size limitations."

"You could create more pieces that blend traditional and modern musical elements, then approach the Agency for Cultural Affairs for policy support and official promotional resources, arguing that it's for 'promoting traditional Japanese culture through modern entertainment.'"

Yu Suzuki was stunned.

"You can do it like that? I don't know how either."

"You don't need to worry about that," Takuya waved his hand.

"Didn't many foreign tourists come to Tokyo specifically to watch the DDR Global Finals before?"

"Hmm." Yu Suzuki nodded, puzzled.

"The influx of tourists that time was so great that it caught the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which sent a special delegation to the event to observe the finals. They wanted to see how video games could boost tourism and international exchange. At the time, Shigeo Maruyama and Director Yoshikawa of Sony Music accompanied them throughout the event, and their contact information was exchanged long ago."

"Just tell Director Yoshikawa that Taiko no Tatsujin will be joining the next Sega eSports tournament. Use that as a starting point to ask that official to help connect you with the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Then you'll need to ask for support from both the Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

"Okay--" Yu Suzuki took a moment to process this information before agreeing to Takuya's request.