Chapter 185: A Masterpiece of Side-Scrolling Action Games
Moreover, the warriors’ command skills were cool and exhilarating. In the female warrior’s case, she had a move where she charged while covering her front with her shield. The damage was only so-so, but it gave her invincibility against frontal attacks and had the effect of knocking down all the monsters.
Honestly, in solo play, it did not have much meaning aside from following up with an additional downward strike, but in team play, it had the effect of protecting party members behind her.
Ah...!
Because of a command input mistake, Kapcha accidentally used the basic attack, shield bash. The wolves and goblins crowded in front rushed him all at once, and his HP dropped to half in an instant, making him look ready to cry.
Command inputs were definitely somewhat difficult. But that was why the game maintained a suitable difficulty and became fun.
He pressed the keyboard’s arrow keys rapidly and escaped the enemies’ attacks. Then he wondered how he should deal with them. He could try using the command skill again, but his HP had dropped too much, so it was risky. While thinking about whether there was another way, he avoided the monsters’ approach by moving along the edge of the screen.
Huh?
As he moved around like that, his character got caught on a warrior-shaped statue at the lower left. But Kapcha saw the statue shift slightly. His eyes lit up, and he continued pushing the statue. Then a hidden door appeared there.
Oh!
When he entered, a large warrior statue stood inside. Every other part was stone, but the sword planted against the floor shone silver.
Kapcha could tell that this was the hidden weapon Zek had mentioned.
<Prove your worth.>
When he approached the statue, its eyes shone red, and a message appeared on the screen along with a growling sound effect. At first, it rebuked him for intruding into the tomb, but when two options appeared on the screen and he chose the one where he declared that he was a knight protecting humanity and asked for forgiveness, this message soon appeared.
The other option was to ignore it and flee, so for him, who wanted the weapon, the first option was the only one he could choose.
Soon, just as Kapcha had expected, the statue began moving and the battle started. At first, the way it swung its sword with a long reach was troublesome, but the delay was longer than expected. When he fought by blocking with his shield and counterattacking, it was not that difficult.
He did make one mistake and got struck by the sword, sending him tumbling, but when he saw how sharply his HP dropped, it seemed that even if the fight was easy, he could not let his guard down.
“Phew...”
Still, in the end, he managed to win without dying. Then the statue collapsed as it was, leaving only the sword among the pile of stones.
<You have obtained the Ancient Warrior’s Sword.>
Kapcha happily opened the item and skill window and switched to the equipment he had acquired.
Another advantage of warriors was that they could equip hidden items like this.
Mages also had items, but their effects were too simple. They only strengthened magic power and made basic attacks slightly stronger, but warrior items were different.
The Sword of Wind increased attack range, the Ice Sword had a freezing effect, and the Flame Sword burned enemies and dealt powerful damage. Above all, these effects could be seen frequently and were very eye-catching.
The strongest item, the Hero’s Sword, was also a warrior item. Its effect was simply increased damage against bosses, though.
Team play had no problems either. Since multiple people played at the same time and there were slight interactions such as the priest’s healing, it was an element that used a large amount of resources and had a high possibility of bugs, so they examined it carefully. However, no particular problems appeared.
“It seems there are no immediately noticeable issues.”
“Ah! Thank you!”
Zek had been extremely tense at first, but no particular problems had appeared, and he had also accumulated fatigue to his limit, so he was only half-sane. He answered Ras’s words, but he was so out of it that he did not even realize what he had said himself.
“We’ll have to test it for several days anyway, so for now, President, please go back and rest.”
Just by looking at his eyes, Ras could clearly see that he was half-dead, so he sent him back. Honestly, Ras was even afraid that Zek might die from overwork. But he did not bother telling him not to push himself too hard.
Ras had a rough idea of how other game developers operated. He did not want to put on pointless pretenses.
After that, the QA Team continued detailed testing over several days. Fortunately, Imiz Soft’s development team’s soul-grinding efforts paid off, and no special problems appeared.
Once it received a passing mark from Meta Soft, Imiz Soft immediately released the game. Distribution was handled through Barbal Soft, which Meta Soft had introduced to them.
“This feels similar to that game.”
Amans turned on the newly arrived game called Myth and Adventure and admired its characters and graphics. At the same time, he realized that the style was something he had seen somewhere before.
“Myth Wars?”
“Ah! Right, that one.”
Myth Wars was quite an impressive game, so Kadanio also recalled it quickly. Then Amans searched through the computer and checked the name of Myth Wars’ developer.
“It’s the same company.”
“Ohhh...”
Kadanio let out an exclamation filled with expectation. Myth Wars had rather poor balance, so fighting game maniacs did not rate it very highly, but it had enjoyed considerable popularity among people who played games casually.
Its flashy graphics and many cool female characters gave it very high visual appeal. Kadanio had also liked the female characters in Myth Wars, especially the Flame Witch.
“But it isn’t a versus game.”
Kadanio found that quite unexpected. As far as he knew, Imiz Soft was a company without any particular hit before this. In that case, it was normal and natural to make a sequel to the game that had given them their first taste of success.
The president must either be very confident or the adventurous type.
Kadanio admired him while thinking that even if he were the president of Imiz Soft, he would have made Myth Wars 2 first.
“They say it’s an action game.”
Amans was already selecting a character and beating up enemies. It was a priest character, a woman who was relatively tall, though her slender frame could be glimpsed here and there beneath her trailing priestly robes.
Of course, she was beautiful. She had a calm impression that suited her long blue hair, but in contrast, her weapon was a mace attached to a chain and covered in sharp iron spikes.
Because the weapon seemed unsuited to her build, her attack motions looked unsteady and precarious, but her attack power was not bad. If only single hits were considered, she was on par with warriors.
“This has two-player mode, right?”
Kadanio was about to play the game on his own computer, but he suddenly changed his mind and went beside Amans.
“Probably?”
Amans shifted aside slightly. If they had to play using the keyboard, he might have refused because he disliked being crowded, but he was holding a joystick. Another reason was that, deep down, he thought he had chosen the wrong character.
He had chosen her because her appearance was attractive, but after playing a little, this was clearly not a solo-play character. She was not without combat ability, but her healing and support magic seemed better used on powerful allies than on herself.
So he watched the character Kadanio picked with some expectation, but soon ended up disappointed.
Just as he had in Myth Wars, Kadanio chose a female mage character. But since Amans himself had picked a character purely based on appearance, he could not complain and only pouted.
“Wow, this magic is cool.”
After trying a few basic attacks, Kadanio immediately used magic. The awkward staff-swinging motion had made him give up on expecting much. But the magic was definitely cool.
Of course, magic appeared commonly in other games as well. But in role-playing games, only simple effects appeared, or in worse cases, magic was expressed only through text. In this game, the effect appeared across the whole screen and actually affected the monsters, so the feeling was different.
The way the screen stopped when magic was used also had a pretty good feel.
Of course, it was not as realistic as the MTC Player, but aside from that, this seemed to express the feeling of “magic” the best among games.
“Hey! Don’t you have any more magic?”
But since Kadanio had used it freely because it felt good, his number of magic uses ran out at the crucial moment. Orc warriors advanced with their shields raised as if they were forming a formation, and the basic attacks of a priest and mage were not enough to push them back.
In the end, the two were beaten to death there.
Kadanio felt regretful, but he thought this usage limit doubled the fun of the game. If magic could be used freely, the difficulty would fall, and magic would not feel like magic.
In any case, Kadanio continued the game and wiped out the Orcs with magic whose uses had been restored.
“It’s definitely fun.”
Amans was half-certain that this game would succeed.
And after its official release, it actually gained quite a lot of popularity. Some people remembered the name Imiz Soft from its previous work, Myth Wars, and the flashy illustrations and cool characters immediately drew attention.
Both Ras and Barbal Soft actively pushed the game quite a bit, because this game had many illustrations that could be used for promotional purposes.
“Oh. This picture is really pretty.”
Ella visited a Game Store with Ras and admired the illustration of a female knight raising her sword while blocking a swarm of monsters with her shield.
“Right?”
Ras did not particularly know how to draw, but since he had game production experience, he had a fairly good eye. And even to his eyes, this illustration was quite high-level.
He believed it was probably made directly by Imiz Soft, and honestly, their Graphics Team was tempting enough to make him want them.
In any case, games with great graphics were easy to sell. People said the most important thing in a game was gameplay, but that was something one only found out after buying and playing it. What consumers saw first was, after all, the packaging.
<It’s fun, isn’t it? It’s an action game, but it somehow feels like a role-playing game too.>
<Is it like Myth of Salvation?>
<No, this one is really just an action game.>
And since the content that came out after opening that packaging was not disappointing either, its evaluations in magazines and on Spirit Space were good.
Its basic gameplay was good, but it was also perfectly suited to the trend. Perhaps because of MTC, settings involving magic in a medieval background were popular these days.
Moreover, unlike existing action games, elements normally used in RPGs, such as equipment, magic, and choices, gave it a fresh feel without causing rejection, because they advanced just one step further while still remaining familiar.
That was how word of mouth for Myth and Adventure spread, and its sales gradually increased.
“All right!!!”
Zek ended the phone call politely, then raised both arms high and shouted.
“What? What did they say?”
Azem, who had been listening right next to him and had already realized it was a call from Barbal Soft about sales, frowned slightly in surprise at Zek’s shout. But soon, with a curious expression, he asked for the exact details.
“Hehehe. They said the entire first print run is already gone.”
“Huh? Really?”
It had not even been ten days since release. Moreover, this was not their first work, and Barbal Soft had also given it a good evaluation, so they had printed 50,000 copies for the first run. In truth, even 50,000 copies was a number that would make other game companies feel satisfied that it had sold decently.
Of course, since they had the success of the previous work and had truly done their best this time too, they had not thought it would fail to sell even 50,000 copies. But they had not expected it to be this fast.
“Ahh. We succeeded again.”
After celebrating for a while, Zek put on a deliberately arrogant expression and pushed out his lower belly.
“So what are you going to do for the next work?”
Azem, who had been snickering at Zek for a while, suddenly asked as if the thought had just occurred to him.
“Huh? What, do you already want to start development again?”
“...Do you want to die?”