Inspecting the Progress
After his short vacation, Nakayama Takuya returned to his office as the operations manager.
The first document his assistant brought was the briefing he was most concerned about.
The Golden Sun 3: Dark Dawn was officially released last week.
Takuya lightly touched the smooth paper with his fingertip, his gaze falling on the pleasing number.
In just ten days after its release, sales in Japan exceeded 1.7 million copies.
This achievement is remarkable in today's gaming market.
The solid foundation laid by the first two installments, coupled with the excellent quality of this game itself, has created another legendary success story on the Mega Drive platform, achieving both commercial and critical acclaim.
The media and players flooded in with feedback, unanimously praising it as "the perfect finale to the Golden Sun series."
Takuya's lips curled up slightly.
Rieko Kodama did not disappoint him.
He picked up the phone and dialed the contact number that Rieko Kodama had left before her vacation.
The phone rang a few times before being answered, with the sounds of waves and wind coming from the background.
"Executive Director?" Rieko Kodama's voice carried a hint of holiday relaxation.
"Kodama Tama, I'm sorry to disturb your vacation." Takuya's tone was relaxed. "Congratulations, another legend has been born on MD."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by her usual humble response. "This is the result of the team's hard work, and also thanks to your support, Executive Director."
"You deserve it," Takuya smiled. "Enjoy your vacation. However, I have a small suggestion that might make your vacation a little more interesting."
"Please speak, Mr./Ms. Executive."
"You've probably already seen the proposal for ' The Chrono Trigger '." Takuya leaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the table. "I've granted your team two weeks of extra time for research; the budget is ample. Don't rush back to the company. Take your core members and travel the world, see what different eras might hold."
He paused, then changed the subject, a sly smile playing on his lips.
"By the way, bring back some materials for Mr. Sakaguchi and the others from Square as well. Photos, videos, audio materials, the more the better. They should be doing post-production testing for Final Fantasy IV right now, so they probably don't have time for this kind of research. You can do it for them."
A soft chuckle came from the other end of the phone, Rieko Kodama immediately understood Takuya's intention.
This serves both as a way to give his team a heads-up and as an opportunity to exchange ideas with future partners in advance.
"I understand, Executive Director. I will communicate the specific needs directly with Mr. Sakaguchi."
"Very well, then have a pleasant journey."
After hanging up the phone, Takuya felt increasingly relieved.
Sure enough, a few days later, his office phone rang unusually frequently.
He glanced at the caller ID, then slowly answered, "Good afternoon, Sakaguchi-san."
"Nakayama Takuya!" came Sakaguchi Hironobu's booming voice from the other end of the phone, "What the hell do you want?! Do you think we don't have enough bugs in Final Fantasy IV?!"
"What do you mean? I didn't interfere with your game testing, did I?" Takuya replied nonchalantly.
"You're kidding me!" Sakaguchi Hironobu spoke at breakneck speed, "Kodama Tama called yesterday, asking what kind of ambient sounds we needed for a primitive era, and what style of architectural photos we needed for a medieval castle! My guy is currently scratching his head while looking at the code and discussing the settings of Chrono Trigger's script, and he's completely confused!"
Takuya could even picture Sakaguchi Hironobu going crazy on the other end of the phone.
"And Uematsu!" Sakaguchi Hironobu's accusations continued. "When he came to work this morning, he had dark circles under his eyes. He said he dreamed of an apocalyptic melody and asked me if the Sega-CD's sound source could express that desolate feeling of the apocalypse!"
Has he forgotten that his "Theme of Love" still has one last track that hasn't been mixed yet?!
These words sounded like a complaint, but the barely concealed excitement pierced through the receiver.
Takuya leaned back in his chair and smiled silently.
"Sakaguchi-san," he began slowly, "It sounds like you guys are quite excited about the new project."
There was a sudden silence on the other end of the phone.
After a long while, Sakaguchi Hironobu let out a long sigh, as if all his anger had been drained away.
"I'm really defeated by you."
These words no longer carried any anger, but only a sense of helplessness at being completely seen through, and an irrepressible anticipation for that grand plan for the future.
"Anyway, we'll get there as soon as possible! You just wait!" Sakaguchi Hironobu said sternly and slammed the phone down.
Hearing the busy tone from the receiver, Takuya's smile deepened.
Then Nakayama Takuya turned around and walked towards Yu Suzuki's development team.
Deep inside the development team's headquarters, a small group of people were gathered around a uniquely designed arcade prototype, the atmosphere tense and focused.
Takuya walked over quietly, his gaze instantly drawn to the image on the screen.
It was a human model made up of visible polygons, smoothly performing a set of punches on the screen.
The movements are expansive and powerful, each move brimming with strength.
Although the model was quite rough and had sharp edges, in an era dominated by 2D pixelated graphics, the visual impact of this image, which possessed a realistic sense of volume and could move freely in three-dimensional space, was revolutionary.
"You've arrived?"
Yu Suzuki had appeared beside him at some point, holding a cup of coffee that looked like it had been brewed for who knows how many times.
"Hmm." Takuya's gaze didn't leave the screen. "You've already debugged it to this extent?"
"It's alright," Yu Suzuki said noncommittally. "The original motion capture data was too massive; even Fujitsu's custom chip couldn't handle it. It took us three weeks to simplify over 80% of the polygons and optimize the keyframes before we could barely get it running at the target frame rate."
The character on screen delivered a clean and swift side kick, accompanied by a sharp, swift motion.
"That's very good," Takuya exclaimed sincerely.
"If we cut any more, the picture quality will be unwatchable." Yu Suzuki took a sip of coffee, his tone tinged with weariness, but even more so with undisguised pride. "Those guys in the Hardware Department are driving Fujitsu's engineers crazy. They're revising the drivers three times in two days, just to squeeze out a tiny bit more performance from the chip."
He pointed to the two models undergoing collision testing on the screen. "Now comes the most tedious and painstaking part. We import all the motion data one by one, simplify it, debug it, and then set the attack and injury detection boxes for each motion. The workload is enormous, like using a pile of building blocks to simulate a real person's bones and muscles. If you make even a slight mistake, the punch you throw might go right through the enemy's body."