"Marketing Bubble"?

Takuya found Team Leader Shimizu and Yu Suzuki. "Help me connect the test unit to a video recorder."

As Shimizu connected the cables, he asked in confusion, "What else are you planning to do? Haven't the animated promo videos already been released? And the animation used in the game promo has already been sent to Tatsunoko Studio."

Takuya gave a sly smile. "Remember the joystick and button display I added separately? This time, I'm recording that."

Yu Suzuki immediately realized something and cried out, "You're going to record all the moves and release them as videos?"

Takuya snapped his fingers. "Bingo! I'm going to add a move list for one character at the end of every episode."

Shimizu was still somewhat puzzled. "We only have eight characters, and Geese is the ninth, hidden character. What about the later episodes?"

Takuya spread his hands. "Simple. In episode nine, we'll reveal Geese's unlock condition: use all eight characters to clear the game once on that arcade cabinet. Then, on the character select screen, press ABCD simultaneously to select Geese as a playable character." Takuya clearly had no intention of making things complicated for players at the character select screen.

"Then episodes ten and eleven will demonstrate Terry and Andy's move combos."

"The final two episodes..." Takuya paused and looked at Shimizu and Yu Suzuki. "They'll be the trailer for the first Sega Tournament!"

By then, Shimizu and Yu Suzuki were both staring in shock. This was far too ambitious.

"Don't tell me you thought the esports I mentioned before was just a castle in the air?" Takuya smiled faintly.

Shimizu and Yu Suzuki recovered, only to immediately break into excited shouts. "Amazing! This plan is perfect! Takuya, what kind of brain do you have?"

Takuya put on an inscrutable expression, and the two of them promptly urged him to begin recording the moves.

On the screen, the characters of Fatal Fury smoothly demonstrated all kinds of special moves.

A small, specialized window beneath the screen displayed the joystick directions and button inputs in real time.

Every precise input corresponded to a dazzling move performed on screen.

"Alright, Terry's 'Power Geyser' is recorded." Takuya nodded in satisfaction and signaled for Yu Suzuki to switch characters.

Team Leader Shimizu watched from the side, the shock still lingering in his eyes.

"Takuya, this joystick and button display is a genius idea! This way, players will understand how to perform moves after watching it once!"

Yu Suzuki, meanwhile, was completely immersed in operating and recording. Under Takuya's influence, he felt that his approach to designing fighting games was being broadened every day.

Especially this method of directly integrating tutorials into promotional material—it was simply unheard of.

They efficiently recorded every character's basic attacks, special techniques, and special moves.

They even finished recording Geese's moves, though the footage was sealed away for the time being.

Next came several demonstrations of Terry and Andy's core combos.

Takuya took the controls himself and demonstrated several combo strings that were both flashy and practical, leaving Shimizu and Yu Suzuki dumbfounded.

"Can these... really be used in actual matches?" Shimizu could not help asking.

"Of course." Takuya answered easily. "These are only basic combos. Players can discover the more complicated techniques themselves."

After two days, once Takuya had finished the recording work, he immediately arranged for the carefully edited video footage to be sent to Tatsunoko Studio.

He personally discussed the insertion details with the animation production team over the phone.

"Yes, insert a demonstration of one character's moves at the end of each episode."

"Keep it under two minutes, and make sure the visuals are clear and the input commands are easy to understand."

"That's right. We want viewers to finish the animation and immediately want to head to an arcade to see whether they can pull off the same moves!"

"Episode nine will reveal how to unlock Geese. Episodes ten and eleven will teach Terry and Andy's combos."

"The final two episodes... will be the trailer for the first Sega Tournament!"

Supervisor Oba on the other end of the line was clearly astonished by this tightly linked promotional plan as well.

After hanging up, Takuya let out a long breath.

The gears of the plan were meshing precisely and beginning to turn.

The animated promo video had lit the first spark, but that was far from enough.

What Takuya wanted was to precisely channel the broad entertainment buzz generated by the animation into arcades, turning it into real coin drops and player loyalty.

The "in-game move lists" and "combo demonstrations" hidden at the end of the episodes and soon to be revealed one by one were the most important fuse he had planted. As long as viewers followed the animation every week, they would naturally see this content, gradually being guided into becoming players.

Kyoto, Nintendo headquarters.

Information about Sega's "K Plan" animated trailer, along with the waves it had caused among Japan's teenagers, had been gathered through various channels and delivered to Yamauchi Hiroshi's desk.

Beside a report printed with color screenshots sat a videotape.

Yamauchi Hiroshi lightly tapped his fingers against the smooth mahogany desktop, his gaze sweeping over the screenshots of exaggerated combat scenes in the report. The visuals were indeed exquisite, and the movements were so smooth they hardly seemed possible with the technology of this era. He had even ordered someone to play the videotape and briefly watched a segment of Terry using "Burn Knuckle," the image freezing on that powerful pose.

Several of Nintendo's core executives sat upright in the office, and the atmosphere was grave.

"Sega's investment this time seems substantial. The animation production costs probably aren't low," a finance executive said first, his tone carrying an instinctive concern for cost control.

"Hmph, it's nothing but empty posturing." The head of marketing immediately took over, snorting disdainfully. "No matter how flashy the animation is, a game is still a game. Their arcade board can probably support no more than a dozen colors. How could it possibly reproduce animation like this? Once players see that the actual product doesn't match the advertisement, won't they be cursed from all sides?"

"Exactly," another executive with a technical background added. "Didn't Atari suffer from the E.T. movie license back then? The promotion was everywhere, but the game quality was terrible, and in the end they buried themselves. Sega is repeating the same mistake."

Someone even quietly remarked, "I heard they're planning to add some kind of game tutorial at the end of the animation... What a joke. Who would watch the ending of an animated show just to learn a few button inputs?"

Amid the discussion, Yamauchi Hiroshi raised a hand, signaling for silence.

He picked up the report filled with text and images, tapped Terry's screenshot with a finger, then casually pushed it aside.

"Animation is animation. Games are games." His voice was low, carrying the authority of a man long accustomed to power. "Publicity on this level cannot change the fundamental gap."

He looked out the window, his gaze seeming to pass beyond Kyoto's streets and reach somewhere farther away.

"The foundation of the North American market has already been laid. The NES's momentum is unstoppable, and our home console empire is expanding steadily."

"Atari's lesson was not meant to make us fear marketing. It was meant to make us understand that what ultimately determines victory is always product quality and user experience—especially in the home console market we dominate."

"These arcade games Sega is fussing over in Japan are nothing more than small-time antics. They just want to steal a sip of soup from our bowl."

He made his final decision, his tone firm and decisive.

"Maintain our current strategy. Continue cultivating North America and expand our advantage. In Japan, proceed step by step. The depth of the Famicom software lineup is what matters."

"We do not need to waste our energy on such peripheral matters."

This judgment, founded on past experience and absolute confidence, unified Nintendo's thinking once again. In their eyes, the animated trailer for Fatal Fury, along with all the little moves that followed, was merely a flashy but hollow marketing bubble—perhaps even a distraction from what truly mattered.