Considerations

"Hello, everyone. I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Takuya wore an easygoing smile as his gaze swept over the faces before him—some excited, some curious, some nervous.

"Nakayama-san!"

"Hello, Nakayama-san!"

The office fell silent at once. Everyone stopped what they were doing and rose to greet him, their eyes brimming with admiration and curiosity.

Team Leader Shimizu came forward as well. "Nakayama-san, that presentation just now was truly subarashii."

Takuya smiled in response and naturally walked to the middle of the office. "This new project will still rely on the capable people of Team Three. I'm very happy, and I'm looking forward to fighting alongside all of you."

"Nakayama-san, rest assured!" Shimizu immediately thumped his chest, his voice ringing loud and clear. "Everyone in Team Three will give two hundred percent. We absolutely won't betray your trust or the president's expectations!"

"I believe in everyone's abilities." Takuya nodded, his gaze once again passing warmly over every member of the team, making each of them feel seen. "However, before we throw ourselves into a brand-new battle, I'd first like to know how our previous front is doing—how is the Tetris port progressing?"

At the mention of that project, Shimizu's expression relaxed considerably. He answered with obvious confidence, "Reporting to you, Nakayama-san, the console version has entered its final stages, and feedback from all tests has been good. The handheld version is also being pushed forward at full speed. Both the programmers and artists have been working overtime. We expect both versions to be completed smoothly and meet delivery standards within next month."

"Very good." A satisfied look appeared on Takuya's face as he nodded. "Tetris was the first project we worked on together. Though it was simple, it proved our communication efficiency and execution ability. It is the foundation of trust between us."

He paused, allowing the weight of those words to settle. "It is precisely because of that pleasant collaboration that I believe we have established a strong understanding. That has laid a solid foundation for us to face the greater challenge of Project 'K' together."

These words were both a clear affirmation of Development Team Three's past work and a foundation for the challenges ahead.

"As for the specific content and development direction of Project 'K'," Takuya continued, his voice not loud but carrying a power that could ignite hearts, "I will introduce and discuss them with everyone in detail at the official project kickoff meeting later."

"But I can reveal one core point in advance: this will not merely be a new game. It will define an entirely new game genre."

"I believe that with everyone's talent and passion, plus just a little courage to be the first to venture where none have gone before, we will surely carve through every obstacle and create a truly new era for fighting games!"

Takuya's voice was deeply infectious, as if he had already unfurled that magnificent vision of the future before their eyes. The members of Development Team Three felt their blood begin to race, filled with unprecedented anticipation and fighting spirit for the work ahead.

By the time Takuya left Development Team Three, evening had already arrived.

The golden glow of the setting sun spilled generously across Tokyo's streets, draping the cold skyscrapers in warm colors.

When Takuya returned home, the commanding, inspirational presence he had displayed at the company gradually receded, but his mind showed no sign of relaxing. He hastily ate a few bites of dinner before plunging straight into his study.

He did not begin by devising grand worldbuilding or cool characters. Instead, he took several technical documents from his briefcase—the detailed specifications and performance report for Sega's latest-generation arcade board, an early version of "pre-System 16."

Under the lamplight, Takuya's fingers traced the dense rows of data and interface definitions. His brow furrowed slightly as he sank into thought. In a fighting game, movement was the core, and fluid motion and convincing impact depended largely on frame-precise detection. In particular, the settings for attack hitboxes and hurtboxes were of utmost importance.

"Manually adjusting the pixel-based detection range for every animation frame is too slow, too inefficient, and too prone to mistakes..." he muttered. "There has to be a tool."

An idea gradually took shape in his mind: create a visual pixel hitbox editing tool. It could directly display imported character animation sequences, allowing developers to draw, edit, and preview hitboxes as intuitively as drawing a picture, perhaps even simulate collision effects in real time. This would not only greatly accelerate the iteration speed of action design, but also ensure precise detection and lay a solid foundation for later balance adjustments.

Before that, however, he still needed to settle the story for the fighting game.

Though he possessed memories from the future and knew the development history and classic works of fighting games, creating a truly era-defining fighting game in this era would still require extensive research and preparation.

He carefully compared the strengths and weaknesses of Street Fighter and Fatal Fury before finally deciding to use Fatal Fury as the initial story blueprint for Project "K."

Street Fighter certainly possessed greater name recognition and a broader audience, but its ensemble-style narrative and relatively loose storyline were not conducive to the long-term operation of an IP. At least for the first entry in a series with no existing foundation, it would be somewhat difficult to handle.

Fatal Fury, on the other hand, centered on the Bogard brothers' revenge. Its character relationships were tighter and its storyline clearer, making it more suitable for adaptations such as animation and manga.

More importantly, the first Fatal Fury had a moderate number of characters, fitting the storage capacity and development resources of early arcade hardware. It would be easier to complete development in a short time. Securing the title of progenitor of fighting games was more important than anything else. Once technical standards and storage capacity improved later, there would naturally be other works set in the King of Fighters universe, culminating in the grand gathering that was the King of Fighters series!

Having settled on the story blueprint, Takuya began considering how to incorporate Masami Kurumada's tough, handsome visual style into characters such as Geese, Terry, Andy, and Joe, as well as how Oba Kotaro could use animation storyboards to portray South Town's darkness and the fiery passion of combat.

He knew that creating a successful fighting game required more than superb technology and innovative gameplay. It also needed a compelling story and a cast of charismatic characters.

Only by perfectly blending all these elements could it truly move players' hearts and create a classic IP that would endure through the ages.

As for the choice of director for the animated adaptation, Oba Kotaro's name might not have been particularly famous in later generations, but Takuya clearly remembered the Ironfist Chinmi he had directed, which had been introduced domestically under the title Kung Fu Kid. The animation's action scenes were fluid, and its fight choreography was quite inventive. More rare still, it was not merely nonstop fighting and killing—it portrayed the protagonist Chinmi's growth and the bonds between companions with considerable delicacy. He could handle forceful action scenes, tell a moving story, and create memorable characters—this was the ideal director Takuya had been seeking for the Fatal Fury anime. South Town's darkness and brutality, the Bogard brothers' path of revenge, the fighters' passion and persistence—Takuya felt reassured leaving all of it to Oba Kotaro.

As for Masami Kurumada's character designs, anyone who had read the early Hainan Publishing House edition of Saint Seiya should remember that the last few pages of every volume contained design sheets for the Saints and their Cloths. Whether male or female, they could all be called beautiful, and their temperaments were exceptionally fitting as well. The lines were distinctive while retaining a classical beauty. Whether it was a hot-blooded youth like Seiya or a complex villain like Saga, they all possessed a unique charm. This style would be a perfect match for shaping Geese Howard's air of a ruthless overlord, Terry Bogard's sunny unruliness, Andy Bogard's calm restraint, and Joe Higashi's domineering Muay Thai presence. Of course, the body proportions only needed slight adjustments based on the anime version.

As for Masami Obari, the director and character designer of the original Fatal Fury game? Takuya's lips curled faintly. Obari's style was extremely distinctive, full of power and exaggerated perspective, and he truly stood apart in mecha and certain specific genres. But for the inaugural work of Project "K," it seemed a little too unrestrained. That intensely personal art style might be more suitable for Angel Blade, or for making deceptive opening sequences for other robot anime. What he needed right now was a style that possessed strength without losing elegance, one that could be accepted by a broader audience and was suited to shaping classic characters over the long term. (I won't post pictures of Angel Blade. Those who know, know...)