CES Sega Press Conference

Tom Kalinske snapped his fingers, and the large screen behind him instantly lit up, revealing a futuristic black machine silently floating in the center of the screen.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to -- Sega-CD!

The stage lights flashed everywhere.

"The massive 650MB capacity means developers will no longer be constrained by cartridge size!"

"The brand-new PCM audio chip means that what you'll hear in the game will be studio-quality symphonic music!"

"A dedicated graphics processor means that cinematic-quality animated cutscenes will become a reality!"

Tom's every word was like a bullet, precisely piercing the hearts of every game industry professional and enthusiast in the audience.

These lines were exactly what Nakayama Takuya had repeated line by line when he was trying to seduce Sakaguchi Hironobu.

He paused for a moment, looked at the faces below the stage—a mixture of shock, doubt, and excitement—and gave a confident smile.

"Of course, a new stage needs a true star to open it. Today, we are honored to announce that Sega will be collaborating with a legendary company to present this grand opening!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than he abruptly waved his hand to the side.

Look!

The large screen went dark instantly.

In the darkness, a blue "SEGA" logo slowly emerged, and then, unexpectedly, another logo lit up next to it.

SQUARE.

"Boom!"

The audience erupted in chaos! Reporters frantically snapped photos, while analysts stared at each other in disbelief.

Sega and Square?!

The company Sonic the Hedgehog and the creator of Final Fantasy?! How is that possible?!

Before everyone could recover from their shock, a clear and melodious pendulum chime echoed through the hall, as if knocking on the door of time and space.

Yasunori Mitsuda's theme song for "ChronoTrigger," which blends Celtic elements, flows into everyone's ears like a clear spring.

On the screen, the characters created by Akira Toriyama came to life with unprecedentedly exquisite animation.

A boy and a girl meet by chance at Millennial Fair; in a medieval castle, a cursed frog swordsman draws his holy sword; in a primeval jungle, a blonde savage fights alongside dinosaurs; in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a lonely robot guards the last vestiges of greenery.

Scenes spanning time and space rapidly shift, and finally, all the main characters gather together to launch a magnificent combined attack in order to fight against the world-destroying apocalypse!

This animation, which Nakayama Takuya produced using all his connections and a large sum of money, even bringing in a China outsourcing team from overseas, was squeezed out of the market within two months. Its quality completely overturned everyone's understanding of the word "game".

This isn't CG; this is animation that could be shown in theaters!

The trailer ends, and the image freezes.

Two words were branded in the center of the screen: "ChronoTrigger"

After a brief silence, the entire venue erupted in thunderous applause and cheers!

Just then, a man with a small mustache, whose expression showed a mix of nervousness and excitement, walked onto the stage.

It's Sakaguchi Hironobu!

"Wow." Sakaguchi Hironobu stepped to the front of the stage, looked at the excited crowd, and spoke in his slightly Japanese-accented English, "It seems everyone really enjoys this story."

A round of enthusiastic applause immediately erupted from the audience.

"When Mr. Nakayama first approached me and described the new stage of Sega-CD to me, my feeling was the same as everyone else's just now—unbelievable." Sakaguchi Hironobu stood under the spotlight, adjusted the Mike, and had a slightly awkward expression on his face as if he had just come out from behind the scenes.

He wasn't as eloquent as Tom Kalinske; he was more like a scholar forced onto the podium, but his eyes were sincere.

"He was like a devil, whispering in my ear." Sakaguchi Hironobu shrugged, a wry smile on his face, a description that drew a chuckle from the players in the audience.

He said, "Mr. Sakaguchi, Sega-CD can give you all the images in your head, the storylines that had to be cut because of insufficient cartridge capacity, and the gorgeous magic that couldn't be realized due to hardware limitations."

The laughter in the audience grew even louder. This candid, almost complaining opening instantly bridged the gap between him and all the gamers in the audience.

"And then, he actually did it." Sakaguchi Hironobu's tone became even more helpless. "To help us find inspiration for 'time travel,' he even had Sega's own development team travel around the world to find locations before our Final Fantasy IV was even finished!"

"Wow!" A chorus of exclamations and whistles erupted from the audience.

"Yes, tourism!" Sakaguchi Hironobu emphasized, as if accusing someone, "And then, while we were working overtime at the company, we started receiving postcards from all over the world!"

The large screen also displayed photos taken by the Sega team during their location scouting trips around the world.

He cleared his throat and mimicked the tone of a jerk on vacation with uncanny accuracy.

"Mr. Sakaguchi, hello! We're currently at a castle in France, and the wine here is fantastic! I wonder if it will inspire your medieval chapter?"

,"Boom!"

The entire audience erupted in laughter! Reporters were snapping photos frantically while doubled over with mirth.

This kind of Versailles-esque internal "showing off" is simply the best material for today's press conference!

"One more!" Sakaguchi Hironobu held up a second finger. "Mr. Sakaguchi, we're having coffee under the Astronomical Clock in Prague. The girls here are so pretty! By the way, we took a picture of the clock's structure; it should be useful to you, right?"

The laughter and applause almost lifted the roof off.

People love these kinds of stories; they add a touch of humanity and humor to otherwise cold, business collaborations.

"So the result is," Sakaguchi Hironobu concluded, a wry smile on his face, "That I'm currently being tormented by two projects every day, and also subjected to mental attacks from my partner's vacation photos. Sometimes I really want to use the technology of <Chrono Trigger> to travel back to the day he contacted me, and then firmly reject him!"

This self-deprecating remark once again ignited laughter and applause from the audience, bringing the atmosphere to its peak.

When the laughter subsided, Sakaguchi Hironobu took a deep breath, his playful expression vanished instantly, and he stood up straight with an extremely serious expression.

The room immediately fell silent.

Everyone realized that the joke was over and the real talk was about to begin.

"But."

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly throughout the entire venue.

"We are willing to endure this torment!" Because we believe, as Mr. Nakayama- sen said, that players deserve better games! We game developers also deserve a stage where we can realize all our wildest dreams!

"We believe that Chrono Trigger will bring an unprecedented, epic adventure across time and space to players worldwide on Sega-CD!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Sakaguchi Hironobu did not open his arms and cheer like Tom did. Instead, he took a step back and bowed deeply to all the audience members at a perfect 90-degree angle.

There are no superfluous words, only this most solemn and sincere promise from the creator.

After a full three seconds of silence, thunderous applause erupted!

Enduring!