Chapter 38: Classic Masterpieces?
Chapter 38: Classic Masterpieces?
Eunha felt amazed, happy, and slightly afraid all at once.
She remembered receiving her share of the Japanese profits from Insu not long ago. Of course, she was happy to receive a lot of money. But the amount was far greater than she had ever imagined.
It was over sixty million won.
By 2025 standards, that was close to 240 million won, but simple inflation alone could not fully convey the true value of the money. Back then, that amount was enough to buy an apartment in Seoul.
...I need to work even harder, right?
After briefly feeling confused, she steadied herself with that thought.
Without even realizing it herself, her dream of becoming a manga artist had already been pushed completely to the side.
Part of it was because she had been so immersed in development work that she had little time to think about it, but more importantly, the rewards exceeded her expectations so greatly that they overshadowed every other thought.
This did not simply mean she was happy because the pay was high.
Her talent and effort returned as an overwhelming reward, giving her the feeling that she had been recognized, along with an almost revelatory sense that this was her true path.
Perhaps it was something only possible at such a sensitive and impressionable young age.
The other team members also felt inspired by the article to varying degrees.
In Park Yoonsu’s case, he already believed Insu was a genius who would open a new path for the gaming industry. This incident simply felt like proof of that belief.
As expected!
The other team members were following Insu because of the vision and leadership he displayed, but since they were part of a tiny development team led by someone unbelievably young, it was impossible for them not to feel some anxiety.
Yet after hearing about the successful start in Japan, they were now receiving news like this from America. A few of them even felt goosebumps spread across their bodies.
That was how shocking it was.
Yoo Juyeon looked away from the English-filled magazine article and glanced toward the Korean and Japanese gaming magazines still stacked in one corner of the development office.
At this point, rather than doubt, he felt lucky to have been able to join this place at all.
Just as Insu hoped, the team members’ morale soared, and filled with expectations that the game they were making could achieve the same kind of success, they threw themselves into development even more intensely.
While Insu’s The Land Of Fantasy was establishing itself as a new RPG legend, other developers were not simply sitting idle either.
Though this world differed from his previous life, it was still the dawn of the computer industry and PC gaming, so titles destined to become the roots of the brilliant gaming market of the future were beginning to appear one by one.
“Insu, have you seen this?”
It was during break time.
Eunha approached Insu, who was crunching on chocolate snacks for a sugar boost, and showed him a magazine.
“What is it, Noona?”
“Look.”
At first, he assumed it was another article about his own game and casually accepted it. But what filled the page was not The Land Of Fantasy.
[Chronicle of Sephira 2]
“They say it’s an insanely popular JRPG in Japan and America lately. There’s even an article comparing it to our game.”
“Ah...”
Though slightly deflated, Insu became interested the moment he heard the words “competing title” and began carefully reading the article.
The first game performed decently, but many people considered it little more than a prettier version of Legend of the Hero.
[But this sequel was different. Its innovative systems and unique gimmicks delivered depth and immersion to the game.]
The class-changing system was particularly unique.
Unlike The Land Of Fantasy, which abandoned fixed jobs entirely in order to maximize freedom, this game seemed to deepen the job system itself and find its enjoyment there.
Through diverse jobs and flexible class changes, it heightened strategic depth, preserved a certain degree of freedom, and maximized the enjoyment of character growth.
It also incorporated elements commonly seen in adventure or puzzle games.
For example, certain maps required using a shrinking spell to escape, or telekinesis skills to press buttons located in otherwise unreachable places.
Rather than avoiding the criticism that JRPGs became stale due to their fixed stories and settings, this game directly confronted that issue and deepened the gameplay within those boundaries.
After reading through the descriptions and images, Insu suddenly recalled a classic game from his previous life.
This is basically Final Fantasy, isn’t it? Around this era, maybe the equivalent of Final Fantasy III?
Apparently, no matter the world, people eventually arrived at similar ideas.
The article also showered praise on the story and characters.
But perhaps because they were trying to avoid spoilers, the explanations were extremely brief and failed to leave much impression.
Besides, Insu naturally focused more on gameplay systems than story elements, so he was not especially interested in that aspect to begin with.
“The colors aren’t as strong as ours, but their character designs are really pretty.”
“But their jobs are fixed, so character design is easier for them. We only separate by races.”
“That’s true, but still.”
It seemed Eunha developed a sense of crisis.
Well, JRPGs already existed for quite some time, and the 486 computer was now being released and distributed. As graphics technology rapidly advanced, the visual advantage held by The Land Of Fantasy would not last forever.
Come to think of it, they said NeoCom 2 is coming out soon too.
NeoCom occupied a similar market position and performance level as the Famicom from his previous life.
And since NeoCom 2 would release as a 16-bit console, its color capabilities would obviously improve dramatically.
Back then, even if consoles and computers shared similar CPUs, consoles possessed dedicated graphics chips, allowing them to outperform computers visually.
At this point in time, computers did not even have the concept of GPUs yet.
(Translator’s Notes: GPU — Graphics Processing Unit. A processor specialized for graphics and later widely used for parallel computation, including AI and cryptocurrency mining.)
In any case, from Insu’s perspective, it was good if Noona Eunha became more motivated.
Though for this game, there probably would not be many opportunities to focus heavily on character designs.
No, wait. Since each race has a lot of different unit types, there’ll actually be even more characters overall.
Not every unit type differed by race. Most units, such as spearmen or archers, were shared regardless of race.
But racial special units were not shared.
For elves, for instance, Elf Archers existed as completely separate units from normal archers. Meanwhile, races on an entirely different level, like dragons, possessed only a handful of unit types, but every one of them counted as a special unit.
Insu also had one slight concern.
He worried that Eunha might suddenly start putting too much effort into the artwork, causing it to differ from the style established so far.
...But honestly, I can’t tell the difference.
So he checked the work, but to his eyes, nothing changed much.
Thinking about it calmly, simply feeling a sense of crisis would not suddenly make someone’s skill skyrocket.
If that happened, it’d just mean they’d been slacking off before.
Insu felt mildly satisfied at the thought that he was already squeezing out everyone’s full potential from the beginning.
School classes ended, and it became time to head home.
“Insu! Let’s go eat tteokbokki!”
Kim Sangshik, one of his classmates, called out to him.
Because of the mental age gap between himself and the children, Insu naturally felt some distance from them. But that did not mean he was isolated within the class.
“Sure. Let’s go.”
He never desperately tried to make friends on purpose, but he also did not reject children who approached him.
The kids were young and childish. But precisely because they were so immature, getting bullied by them would probably feel even worse.
And Insu possessed several qualities that naturally made him popular.
He was not extraordinarily handsome, but he looked neat enough, and because of the memories from his previous life, he paid decent attention to self-care.
Most children his age only got nagged by their mothers to brush their teeth before bed. Things like personal grooming never even crossed their minds. Yet those differences created a surprisingly large gap.
Moreover, perhaps because the environment was harsher back then, or perhaps because unlike in 2025 children were not constantly sheltered and instead grew up in a far wilder era, there were genuinely many kids constantly running around with runny noses.
So someone like Insu, who looked clean and carried an unusually mature atmosphere, naturally attracted favorable attention and curiosity.
On top of that, he was the top student in class and reasonably athletic as well. Since these children had not yet fully entered the rails of intense competition, they tended to feel admiration rather than jealousy.
“Have you played Chronicle of Sephira 2?”
Sangshik suddenly threw out the question without any context.
It was typical child behavior, where vocabulary and patterns of thought had not fully solidified yet. By now, Insu had already grown used to it.
“Huh? You know that game?”
And while talking with children, Insu naturally ended up revealing his deep understanding and interest in games, which made gaming enthusiasts among the kids grow fond of him.
After all, shared interests were one of the most important foundations of friendship.
“Yeah. My older brother bought it. It’s fun. You know it too?”
“Yeah. The artwork looked pretty... By any chance, do you know a game called The Land Of Fantasy?”
“...No. I don’t.”
Hearing the answer, Insu nearly clicked his tongue without realizing it.
What would little brats like these know about true gaming?
Afterward, the two chatted while stuffing themselves with tteokbokki and fried snacks at the snack shop in front of the school.
At first, Insu wondered what on earth he could possibly talk about with little kids like these, but by now he had gotten used to it.
Besides, no matter who you talked to, conversations were never always perfectly matched to your own level.
And somehow, the random nonsense these young kids talked about was surprisingly entertaining.
“Ah, I ate well! See you tomorrow!”
“Yeah.”
It did not really feel like a waste of time either.
At first, he worried about that, but grabbing snacks and chatting on the way home barely consumed any time at all, and it was something done during the commute anyway.
What made him feel slightly guilty was that he always rejected their invitations to hang out afterward.
Because of that, they barely even asked anymore these days, but he still appreciated that they always invited him to eat together.
Perhaps it was partly because Insu tended to pay rather generously.
But from the perspective of someone with adult memories, maintaining human relationships with nothing more than spending a little money on tteokbokki and fried snacks at a local snack shop felt unbelievably cost-effective.
For reference, at this time, tteokbokki cost 500 won per serving, and fried snacks cost 200 won each.
Of course, he did not always pay. Sometimes his friends bought him cheap snacks too, like 100 won hot dogs.
He had no desire to exploit children for their pocket money, but one-sided relationships were unhealthy, so there was no helping it.
This was one of the truths he learned from experience in his previous life.
“I’m here.”
After arriving at the office, Insu switched on the computer and casually picked up one of the American gaming magazines.
But even after the computer finished booting, he could not put the magazine down.
So games like this exist too.
[Legacy of Avalon 4]
It was an adventure game, but the graphical quality was astonishing.
Even the earlier titles made him wonder how such visuals were possible on hardware that weak, but graphics built for the 386 era looked even more incredible.
Unlike The Land Of Fantasy or the clean visual style of modern JRPGs, this game did not have that polished look.
Instead, it used detailed shading and gradients to create visuals that resembled paintings.
And those paintings moved with astonishing smoothness.
Animation? No... it feels closer to a moving storybook.
Of course, he had not yet played the fourth game, but he had played the second and third titles, and the magazine claimed this installment was even smoother than the previous ones, so he could roughly imagine it.
It was the kind of game that naturally made the phrase “games are art” come to mind.
Compared to his previous life, it felt similar to the legendary adventure series King’s Quest.
Still, he did not feel intimidated.
The genres were different to begin with, and while the graphics were certainly impressive, they differed from the direction he personally pursued.
It was not that he had no desire to create something like this someday.
Honestly, beyond this game alone, he wanted to recreate every famous game from his previous life.
But realistically, that was impossible.