A game with special effectiveness against Japan

"Mr. Lin, I'm worried it will affect our sales in the Japan market."

Satoshi's concerns are not unfounded.

Japan has always had a relatively ambiguous attitude towards GAMENOVA.

If their games weren't so incredibly high-quality, they would have had absolutely no chance of beating Nintendo.

More importantly, it remains to be seen whether businesses in the Japan market will unite against GAMENOVA, a true outsider.

Only among those in the same profession is there naked hatred.

Buying one more NovaBo means buying one less MasterSystem and one less Famicom.

No one wants a dangerous new adversary to suddenly appear in an already stable environment, and everyone will try their best to nip it in the bud.

Satoshi has already sensed some signs.

Recently, both Roppongi and NovaComic's Japan offices seem to be squeezed by an invisible force.

The reduction in business resources had reached a point where he could clearly perceive it.

The most significant issue is that the production of an animation based on the Pokémon IP, which Lin Lixin had previously entrusted to do, is proving difficult to advance.

Both Shueisha and other companies have taken a negative attitude towards this matter.

"Mr. Lin, our recent ' Double Dribble ' magazine isn't selling very well in Japan."

While the results were acceptable, they were significantly lower than the sales of baseball games on the FC.

"Hmm—that is indeed a problem."

Lin Lixin murmured softly.

Players' tastes in the North America market differ significantly from those in the East Asia market.

Not all works can sell well at both ends.

Games like Fire Emblem and the Legend of Zelda are clearly more suited to the Asia market environment.

"There's not enough time—"

Lin Lixin considered that if he wanted to develop a large-scale work specifically for Japan, he wouldn't have enough time.

Although they have several RPG partners, they are all typical Western CRPGs, which are completely different from JRPGs.

The success of Dragon Quest stems from its rules, which were derived from D&D but completely simplified, and its easy-to-learn gameplay combined with Akira Toriyama Toriyama's artistic contributions.

"The huge success of 'Dragon Quest' was inevitable. Now, with Nintendo's proactive promotion, its success will only come sooner and faster."

"Um?"

Lin Lixin suddenly had a thought.

Even if he could produce another top-tier JRPG, he wouldn't be able to suppress Dragon Quest's sales; at best, he could only share some of the market with it.

However, it seems unnecessary for them to get hung up on RPGs.

All you need is a game that the mainstream Japan gaming community is generally willing to accept.

It's worth noting that even such an amazing game as the original Dragon Quest only sold a little over 1.5 million copies, probably not even cracking the top 50.

This is also a typical game, like SimCity, that received critical acclaim but failed commercially.

It's definitely not comparable to the tens of millions of sets sold by Super Mario.

"I understand, I've just thought of a great idea—"

"A new work?!"

Satoshi was startled, then overjoyed.

"That's right, I've come up with a theme that's perfect for Japan."

"What?"

"Railways—and Japan folklore."

"Huh?" Satoshi Tajiri was taken aback. Although these two elements were indeed characteristic of Japan, they were really unrelated.

Lin Lixin recalled that work, which could be described as a special attack on Japan gamers, and slowly began, "I called it: Momotaro Dentetsu."

When it comes to Momotaro Dentetsu, players outside of Japan may not have a deep impression of it.

However, the successor born from the second-generation Momotetsu rules has quite a background.

A Taiwan Island company called Softstar Entertainment released a game called "Richman" in late 1989, based on Momotetsu and Monopoly.

This thing is awesome.

At least in Lin Lixin's memory, Richman 4 is definitely a classic game that spanned one generation of players and even several generations.

"In short—it's similar to Monopoly, right?"

After listening to Lin Lixin's rough description, Satoshi Tajiri understood a little.

"I guess so, but some improvements were made specifically for the medium of video games. By the way, could you help me gather some information?"

What information?

"A map of Japan's railway network."

Lin Lixin and Sam sat facing each other at the table, looking at the Monopoly board game.

Richman – it is indeed a simple and straightforward game.

Sam counted the tokens he had and decisively chose to buy a plot of land.

For Sam, Richman was nothing new.

The Parker Brothers Company released this board game as early as the 1930s.

Today, Richman is a well-known and best-selling board game in the North America market.

However, before this, only a few people on the DOS platform had attempted to port it into a video game, and the results were not ideal.

Looking at the Parker Brothers logo on the packaging box, Lin Lixin actually recalled some memories of the company.

NERF, the famous toy gun brand under Hasbro, was founded by the Parker Brothers.

Hasbro Interactive, which was founded around 1995, is Hasbro's own video game company. It was formed by the Parker Brothers and several other businesses that Hasbro acquired.

Lin Lixin originally planned to directly approach Monopoly's copyright holder to acquire the trademark rights, but the matter turned out to be unexpectedly complicated.

Lin Lixin naturally wouldn't let "Momotaro Dentetsu" be released only in Japan.

In North America, however, it is natural to adapt the subject matter to the local cultural environment.

So he naturally thought of this classic board game.

Without the name Monopoly, they are inherently at a disadvantage in terms of public profile.

This is also why Lin Lixin has been so persistent in seizing the right to define the definition.

Just like Fire Emblem.

Although K0EI's Zhanqi was released much earlier than theirs, it failed to gain recognition, which gave Lin Lixin an opportunity.

When the concept of strategy games is mentioned now, players will naturally think of Fire Emblem, a masterpiece produced by Gamenova.

This is an advantage that will benefit future generations.

If they can't solve this problem, even if the American version of Richman sells very well, it will still be a waste of resources for Hasbro.

"We need a new name that's catchy enough—"

The term "monopoly" originally meant "monopoly," and it was actually coined by designer Lizie to satirize capitalism.

However, the Richman game ultimately adopted monopoly as the core rule of its gameplay and also monopolized the copyright of this type of gameplay.

This is, in itself, a form of dark humor.

Lin Lixin's mind raced through the different translations of various names for Richman.

Richman, Monopoly, Real Estate Tycoon — Tycoon?

His eyes lit up; he had found a perfect alternative.

Let's call it "Tycoon"!