Chapter 29: Finishing Land of Adventure 2

“Ah. Right. Things like that would definitely be expensive. No, the bigger problem is whether the record companies would even allow it in the first place.”

Nebrania clicked her tongue unconsciously as she recalled the arrogance of record companies, who acted as though their noses practically touched the ceiling.

Ras glanced sideways at her face, wondering what that reaction was about, before speaking again.

“I did consider using famous classical music instead, since that kind of thing doesn’t really require paying royalties. But it didn’t feel like it fit games very well.”

“Classical...? I think it could work fine.”

In truth, even though Nebrania’s own musical tastes were far removed from classical music, she still had enough education from music university to say something like that.

But after thinking about it again, Ras realized classical music did have the advantage of high quality, and some pieces were extremely familiar to most people.

It probably was not necessary to completely dismiss Nebrania’s opinion.

Ras nodded and adjusted his stance.

“Well, using a few really famous songs probably wouldn’t hurt. Still, fundamentally, I think songs that match modern tastes would work better. At the same time, they should also be easy to feel the rhythm of...”

“How many songs are you planning to include?”

“I’m not sure yet. It’ll depend on development speed and storage capacity, so I can’t say for certain right now.”

Ras did not immediately understand why Nebrania asked that question, but he answered honestly anyway.

Nebrania seemed to think for a moment before letting out a shallow sigh.

“I’ll include a few of my own songs. But composing still takes time, so I can’t do too many.”

Ras originally intended to ask her to do exactly that anyway, but hearing her volunteer first made him genuinely happy.

He smiled brightly and replied.

“Great. Do you think ten songs would be possible? We’re planning roughly a three-month development period for this game.”

“Yeah. Ten songs should be manageable.”

She answered in a slightly grumbling tone.

She already had quite a few original songs completed, and even accounting for converting them into computer format, ten songs over three months was not an unreasonable request.

Of course, if he demanded masterpieces, that would be beyond her abilities.

But if the requirement was simply songs that were moderately exciting, fit modern trends, and made rhythm easy to follow, then it was entirely possible.

Afterward, Ras tested one sample song Nebrania created by applying it directly into the game.

And once a professional touched it, even the crude sound chip and beep speaker of an 8-bit computer unexpectedly reproduced music at a fairly impressive level.

However, the higher the quality became, the more rapidly the required resources increased, to the point where even the simple rhythm game system itself might fail to run properly if they were not careful.

They needed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to compromise somewhat on quality.

“Isn’t this level good enough?”

“Hmm... It’s not unlistenable, at least.”

Nebrania, who genuinely cared deeply about music, clearly disliked the way the machine-like electronic sounds occasionally stuck out awkwardly.

Considering the way she dressed before, Ras expected her to enjoy metallic songs filled with synthetic electronic noise, but apparently this Dryad still fundamentally belonged to this world after all.

And so, the two exchanged opinions while searching for a reasonable balance.

No, rather than compromise, it was closer to Ras squeezing resources to their absolute limit while Nebrania reluctantly gave up after hearing that increasing quality further would make the game itself unable to run.

“Wow... This is really coming from a computer?”

Still, non-expert Pana reacted with pure admiration upon hearing the melody.

She had heard singing sounds from behind her for a while now, but she assumed the new music specialist was simply playing records.

The idea that a computer—which until now only emitted simple beeping noises—could produce sound like this completely shocked her.

“Does it sound okay?”

“Huh? Yeah. I honestly thought you were just playing a record.”

Ras himself was also technically a non-expert, just like Pana.

Still, because he understood roughly how sound programs worked and constantly listened to Nebrania’s creations during development, he knew the computer-generated sounds still fell short compared to actual records.

And since Nebrania herself constantly complained about the quality, he unconsciously began agreeing with her negativity.

But Pana’s reaction instantly swept away all those thoughts.

Honestly, this really is hard to believe came from an 8-bit computer.

In truth, the only reason sound of this level was possible at all was because even though computers were still 8-bit, this world had already advanced one generation beyond the absolute earliest era before Ras arrived here.

Back then, computers truly produced nothing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠except harsh beeping sounds, so the concept of computer “sound” barely existed at all.

In any case, gaining confidence, Ras instructed Nebrania to continue producing the remaining melodies at roughly this same quality level.

After that, development of the rhythm game proceeded smoothly.

Honestly, beyond the initial planning, Ras also wanted to include more elaborate gimmicks like later rhythm games did—effects and score multipliers increasing as combos built up, special illustrations appearing, and similar flashy systems.

But after reproducing the melodies at the absolute limit possible, they genuinely had no resources left whatsoever.

At that point, simply getting the notes to fall properly was already fortunate, so he abandoned the flashy ideas entirely and focused instead on maximizing the existing quality.

Then, while the rhythm game continued development, Land of Adventure 2 gradually approached its final stages of completion.

Ras had intentionally left it half-forgotten in the background for a while, but since he still needed to check the final results personally, he temporarily stopped working on note placement and turned his attention back toward Land of Adventure 2.

“Well done.”

After reviewing the game thoroughly once, Ras turned toward Garazt and raised a thumbs-up.

He already knew Garazt was motivated, but despite lacking much actual experience, the completed work barely contained anything worth criticizing.

Of course, many resources from the previous game were reused, and he had also been given generous time.

Still, based on Ras’s experience, simply assigning work to someone else and immediately receiving results with almost no serious issues was impressive by itself.

Still, the lack of background music remained disappointing.

Actually, in some areas like dungeons ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠or building interiors—places containing large amounts of black default background space—it technically would not have been impossible to include background music.

But having sound in some places and silence in others felt awkward, so they ultimately gave up on that idea.

Ras even considered using the old trick he previously researched where pixels were grouped two-by-two in order to save resources somehow.

However, because the game contained many small detailed graphics, lowering the resolution made proper images difficult to create.

And even if it had been possible, it still would have massively increased the workload by preventing reuse of the previous game’s resources.

Well, if the results had dramatically improved the game, maybe it still would have been worth attempting—but it simply was not that significant.

Still, there were now short sound effects during screen transitions when entering dungeons or towns, sounds when moving the cursor across dialogue choices, and battle sound effects as well.

Because of that, the atmosphere felt completely different from the silence that dominated Land of Adventure 1.

Ras also intended to review the dialogue and story, but merely skimming through them like this made it difficult to properly judge their quality.

At the very least, the overall structure seemed fine, so it looked like they needed to move into proper testing.

“Alright, everyone. Stop what you’re doing and start playing the game.”

Ras spoke loudly while looking around at the office team members.

Now that he thought about it, the office had grown fairly crowded.

Pana, Garazt, Aspa, Nebrania, and even Diska—all five employees looked away from their monitors and turned toward Ras.

“This is work too. While playing the game, if you find anything strange, awkward, or buggy, write it down in documents or files and report it. Enjoying it is fine, but don’t think of it as playing around. That wording sounds weird. Anyway, you get what I mean, right?”

“Yeees.”

Naturally, nobody seemed unhappy about the assignment.

However, Aspa and Nebrania looked slightly awkward.

Unlike the others, they simply were not very familiar with games yet.

Ras first began by creating characters for every playable race.

At the very least, they needed to ensure bugs did not appear immediately from character creation onward.

Fortunately, merely adding a few extra stats onto the previous game’s resources did not seem to create problems.

Oh. Nice. Her art skills really improved, huh?

Unlike the previous game, this time every race now included dedicated illustrations.

Naturally, customization systems like those from Earth’s games were impossible.

Still, Pana’s artwork itself was so beautiful that even Ras found himself admiring it, so it would certainly satisfy the people of this world.

After progressing past the early “Revelation” event and moving around slightly, Ras confirmed that the newly added hunger stat functioned properly.

The combat system itself was something Ras personally modified before, so there was not much else needing confirmation there.

Still, because bugs could appear while integrating modularized systems together, he remained vigilant about that possibility.

The dialogue definitely feels much more natural now.

Once he became immersed in the game properly, the difference immediately became obvious.

Ras turned toward Aspa.

Aspa himself was completely absorbed, constantly alternating his gaze between the monitor and keyboard.

If even the person who personally wrote the story and dialogue reacted like that, then Ras felt reassured regarding the game’s entertainment value.

Naturally, small bugs still existed.

Some areas appeared to be ordinary ground but could not be walked through, while ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠certain attacks dealt absolutely no damage, and so on.

This one’s just incorrect values being entered.

Some problems became obvious immediately after examining them.

But others refused to reveal their causes easily, forcing Ras and Garazt to spend hours clutching their heads while combing through the code.

When Ras wrote code alone, vague memories often made debugging comparatively easier.

But searching through another person’s code for problems was much more frustrating.

Still, somehow, they managed to find and fix everything eventually.

Aside from that, there was barely anything left to criticize.

The story and dialogue were honestly good enough that Ras himself felt unqualified to judge them properly.

And Pana’s graphics had improved even further while deliberately focusing on refining the previous game’s style rather than attempting experimental ideas.

As for the illustrations, even Ras could only admire them silently.

More than anything else, this project genuinely felt like the result of Meta Soft’s collective abilities rather than Ras’s personal talent alone.

For Ras, seeing the people he personally gathered perform this well made him feel both proud and reassured.

Next time, I should try giving them only the concept and planning documents and let them make the game themselves.

The employees merely awkwardly smiled back at Ras, completely unaware of what his amused grin actually meant.

Still, even though the game featured multiple endings, the story itself could still be rushed through fairly quickly.

The life-content systems, however, needed slower and more patient play to truly appreciate them.

Ras intentionally designed them knowing they were not strictly necessary systems.

Players needed to relax and enjoy them almost like a sandbox game to properly feel their charm.

Of course, that did not mean they lacked gameplay usefulness.

If that were the case, they would merely become unnecessary clutter.

So the systems were deliberately designed to encourage players into using them.

For example, situations where nearby towns were absent, or dungeons became extremely difficult and complicated, made life skills, potion crafting, and first aid tremendously useful.

There were also items only blacksmithing skills could create or repair, and many of those items were intentionally made fairly powerful.

As a result, there would definitely be players drawn toward those systems.

Even the Meta Soft employees themselves were already enthusiastically completing quests to unlock life skills.

Pana and Garazt especially found the life, gathering, and crafting systems extremely fascinating.

Garazt’s reaction was natural since he longed for virtual reality-like experiences.

As for Pana, she simply preferred exploring worlds and talking with NPCs over combat, making these systems perfectly suited to her tastes.