Minoru Arakawa wanted to make an RPG too

"Dulululu"

"Hello? Yes, this is Electronic Games. Oh... sir, calm down."

Listening to the America accent coming from the other end of the receiver, the editor-in-chief's lips twitched, and he could only force a smile and try to please her.

Not long ago, these people were all on their side, loudly supporting them.

How come they all jumped backwards the moment I turned my head??

What's going on? GAMENOVA is giving out money? I've never heard of that.

"Calm down?! What do you expect me to do to calm down?!"

The person on the other end of the phone was clearly angry.

"It's because I believed your lies that I got the chance to play Story of Seasons today!"

Do you know how hard it is to get a Story of Story of Seasons cartridge these days?

"This is what you call 'rubbish'? Do you even understand games?"

"Gaming media must understand games!"

The editor-in-chief silently endured a severe scolding and hung up, feeling wronged.

But that game is really boring...

He slammed his hand on the Table, signaling everyone to focus.

"Alright everyone, put down your manuscripts for now, go back and play Story of Seasons, and figure out what's going on!"

In order to write a review of Story of Seasons, each member of their group played it for at least ten minutes.

In older games, this amount of time would have been enough to play several rounds.

From the editor's perspective, this is already a sufficiently objective report.

As public opinion fermented, the evaluation of "Story of Seasons" within the community rebounded from rock bottom to an exaggerated level.

This improved reputation led to a barrage of criticism directed at game review organizations.

However, the people most affected are others.

NOA, Nintendo North America.

Minoru Arakawa held the quarterly sales report in his hand, his brow furrowed.

The success of NES can be described as a milestone; it swept across most of the North America market almost unopposed.

However, once sales reached 10 million units, the growth rate of sales began to slow down significantly.

"Lack of follow-up strength..."

Although this result was already quite remarkable, almost half the sales of the Atari 2600, the dominant home console in North America, Minoru Arakawa was not happy at all.

This sales volume was far below his expectations.

According to Minoru Arakawa's estimates, if NES sales go smoothly and it successfully takes over the North America market, sales could easily exceed 30 million units within five years.

"GAMENOVA... this is really troublesome."

He rubbed his temples. The reason for the slowdown in growth was obvious to anyone with eyes to see: their rival had a product that was no worse than theirs.

Despite all the precautions and close scrutiny Sega Minoru Arakawa had been keeping a close eye on, Sega was quietly developing its own MasterSystem.

On the contrary, GAMENOVA, which he never expected, suddenly appeared and entered the home console market, stirring up the waters and leaving their countermeasures team completely bewildered.

Honestly, even when Wolfenstein 3D was first released, Minoru Arakawa never truly felt such a strong sense of crisis.

At that time, Gamenova was a game company focused on the 14+ and even 16+ market, which did not conflict with their all-ages strategy.

Even sales figures won't affect each other.

People who would buy a NovaBox wouldn't buy a NES anyway, and people who would buy a NES might not be willing to play a NovaBox.

But now we have to take it seriously.

GAMENOVA's release of two consecutive children's titles makes their intentions practically obvious.

They're targeting NES's existing market.

"President, should we increase the funding for the marketing department?"

Faced with declining data, using bricks to fly is clearly a clumsy but effective method.

Minoru Arakawa did not answer, but pondered for a moment, looking up at a NovaBox placed on the table.

He completed all the games that GAMENOVA released on NovaBox, including Story of Seasons, which had only been released for a short time.

"Game consoles, game consoles, games are the essence."

Although NovaBox's game lineup is small, every single one of them is a masterpiece; any one of them could be a flagship title for any console.

If Nintendo can develop a true portable game console based on the Game & Watch concept in the future, it will desperately need a flagship title like Tetris.

But that's all in the future. If they can't find a way for the NES to defeat the NovaBox, NOA can forget about continuing.

To play like this when you have an advantage.

Minoru Arakawa's hand swept casually across several game floppy disks, finally stopping on the Legend of Zelda, which he gently picked up.

This is undoubtedly a masterpiece, a world-class work that has blazed a completely new trail, an unconventional RPG.

His eyes flashed, and he instantly grasped the key to their success.

"GAMENOVA seems to be... lacking a true D&D-style traditional RPG."

While the Legend of Zelda is certainly fun, that doesn't mean traditional RPGs have no market.

This matter must be handled by headquarters!

Ideally, Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto should personally oversee the project. Given NOA's development capabilities, they might not be able to handle GAMENOVA.

With this in mind, Minoru Arakawa did not hesitate and immediately dialed an international long-distance number to call his father-in-law, President Hiroshi Yamauchi, who was far away on the other side of the ocean.

Even though it's already Japan midnight in Japan according to the time difference, we can't delay.

Hiroshi Yamauchi was not annoyed by Minoru Arakawa's sudden disturbance in the middle of the night; on the contrary, he was somewhat pleased.

A tyrant who welcomes all comers and doesn't chase after those who leave, showed far more patience than others when faced with a son-in-law like Minoru Arakawa, who was both exceptionally capable and genuinely willing to commit to the business.

"I understand." After listening to Minoru Arakawa's report, Hiroshi Yamauchi nodded. "However, Shigeru Miyamoto is busy with another project."

"We need a work that can rival Tetris's, and only he can do that."

Hiroshi Yamauchi recalled the design proposal for "Dr. Mario" that Shigeru Miyamoto had presented to him, and his thoughts wandered.

"But President, even if we have a counterpart like Tetris, it won't be enough to turn the tide for the NES. We need an RPG, a large-scale game."

Hiroshi Yamauchi always felt that although Minoru Arakawa was very capable, he was always too aggressive in his strategies.

But this time, he surprisingly agreed with Minoru Arakawa's idea.

"I understand, I know a good candidate."

"Who?"

"Our newly signed third-party studio, Enix."

Hiroshi Yamauchi, unhurriedly, revealed the name of a small, newly established company.

"I heard that Mr. Yuji Horii is currently planning to develop an RPG, something like ' Dragon Quest '."

"Thank you so much!"

Minoru Arakawa thanked him repeatedly.

If NES had a compelling RPG game, its sales could continue to climb, potentially stealing market share from NovaBox.

Gamenova already has insufficient production capacity; there's absolutely no way they could conjure up several more RPG masterpieces out of thin air... right?

California.

In front of NewWorldComputing company.

Lin Lixin, carrying a third-party contract, knocked on the door of the creator of "Might and Magic," one of the three Legend RPGs in Europe and America.