Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Dead Hills RE
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“Stupid idiots, the Neo Famicon is just for kids to play with. Real games are on the Hyper Drive!”
Hughes grabbed a cold beer from the fridge and took a long swig, venting the frustration bottled up inside him.
—Seton? Their hardware is weird, and above all, they don't even have a Super Daniel?
A game discussion that had started by chance at the office.
Hughes, a die-hard Seton maniac and Hyper Drive evangelist, had tried to explain just how amazing the console was. But contrary to his expectations, there was no real enthusiasm.
In a reality he could scarcely believe, where everyone was going on and on about Nendo's Neo Famicon and Super Daniel, Hughes had no choice but to sit quietly in the corner, lips sealed.
“Guess I need a new game to change my mood.”
Though he'd suffered the humiliation of being overwhelmed by the Nendo users' barrage, Hughes still refused to waver in his conviction that Seton was the greatest console maker.
And rightly so. Unlike Nendo, which was mostly filled with childish games fit only for kids, Seton steadily released titles across a wide range of genres, making it especially popular among hardcore gamers.
You could tell just by looking at the game package in Hughes's hand right now.
The striking cover art showed three women standing side by side like the three musketeers, armed with a shotgun, chainsaw, and flamethrower. It was a vibe uniquely Seton—you'd never see anything like it on Nendo.
The title on the package: Dead Hills RE.
It was a piping-hot new release, fresh off the shelves today.
‘Is it really fair to call it new, though?’
As a gamer who truly loved games, Hughes was already familiar with the name Dead Hills.
A few months back, it had been featured in newspaper articles, and everyone around him had been showering it with praise as the best game of the year.
Hughes just hadn't been able to play it back then since he didn't have a home PC. But when he heard it was coming to Seton's Hyper Drive, he'd snapped it up without hesitation.
PC games did sometimes get ported to consoles, but while most kept the same name, this Dead Hills RE had a slightly altered title and different cover art, which felt a bit off.
Pff!
Hughes tore open the package and pulled out the ROM cartridge inside. He blew on it with his mouth.
Console ROMs tended to collect dust easily, so blowing on them to clean off any particles before use had become a ingrained habit.
There was no way a brand-new cartridge bought today had dust on it, but Hughes blew on it like always before carefully slotting it into the console.
“Uh... is this what the game was like?”
Urgent music blared out, and the TV screen lit up with the game's start screen.
On that screen was a blonde woman with wavy hair—scantily clad, to put it mildly—smiling while holding a shotgun.
Hughes instinctively glanced around, worried someone might see, then remembered he lived alone and let out a sigh of relief.
He took a closer look at the start screen.
‘They even rendered the wrinkles under her armpits in dots?’
Examining it leisurely, he realized the graphics were top-tier.
And it wasn't just the graphics that impressed.
“What, this isn't some Running Hedgehog? The screen moves so smoothly!”
One of Seton's flagship titles, Running Hedgehog, was famous for its uniquely fast and fluid motion.
The console version of Dead Hills wasn't quite that speedy, but it delivered equally smooth movement.
Especially when the game started and randomly selected a female character in cowboy attire—Hughes couldn't stop marveling.
‘They even implemented jiggling every time she fires her gun!’
Of course, the game itself was plenty fun.
Zombies swarmed in waves split between morning and afternoon sessions; you had to prepare and fend them off. The setup was tense enough to feel like you were really battling zombies.
But Hughes kept finding his eyes drawn to the female character as she jiggled with every motion while taking down zombies.
“Team Leader, Dead Hills RE sales are better than expected.”
“No way it wouldn't sell.”
Scarlett's lips curved into a slight smile at her subordinate's report that the initial shipment of Dead Hills RE had sold out nationwide, with reprints already ordered and sure to fly off the shelves.
‘You think it'll really work? It's already sold all it could on PC. HQ might complain it's a waste of investment.’
It felt like sweet revenge against President Tommy Hwang, who had grumbled at her unhappily when they signed the Savior conversion deal. She couldn't help but smile.
“But what kind of magic did they pull? I played the PC version of Dead Hills, and it definitely wasn't this smooth or graphically impressive.”
“Just chalk it up to Savior having monsters on staff.”
The console port Dead Hills RE was earning rave reviews not just from new players but even from those who'd already enjoyed the PC version.
The biggest reason was undoubtedly the newly added female characters, but plenty also praised the far smoother gameplay footage and refined graphics compared to the PC original.
‘We didn't change much, really. Consoles are optimized purely for games, so the structure is simpler and performance actually improves. In simple terms, a slight code restructure...’
Savior's president, Huck, had explained it so casually when she'd asked how they'd upgraded the game.
Honestly, she hadn't understood a word, so she'd checked with technician Fisher.
“Just think of it as the monster doing more monster things.”
He'd added that if it were that easy, they'd have ported every hit PC game by now.
“Hahaha! I knew this one would hit big!”
Scarlett and her marketing team were sharing a moment of joy over Dead Hills RE's success when Tommy Hwang suddenly barged into the marketing department. His words instantly chilled the atmosphere.
“See? America's no different. Whatever sells in Japan is global. Pushing weird localizations was always the North American branch's fatal mistake.”
“Exactly. Like you said, sir, importing straight from HQ would've been way better.”
“Hear that, Scarlett? No matter how much Harvard smarts you got, real-world experience is irreplaceable.”
Tommy Hwang bowed and scraped with his ever-present secretary—derisively called a minion by the staff—before turning his barbed words on the silent Scarlett.
“Experience?”
“Yeah, experience! Didn't I say ages ago we should import Japan's hits? But you opposed, and we missed out.”
“You really think those are on the same level as Dead Hills RE?”
“What's the difference? It's all because of the female characters that people love it so much.”
Hearing his answer, Scarlett seriously considered shooting Tommy Hwang with a pistol.
The games he'd pushed for North American release were all titles that succeeded only in Japan.
—Heard about the hot new genre in Japan? 'Bishoujo dating sims.' They're blowing up—translate and sell 'em here, it'll be a goldmine!
They were so-called 'bishoujo dating sims'—'miyenshi' for short—featuring pretty female characters in romance simulations.
‘This genre has no shot in America, regardless of quality or fun. Maybe in another Asian market, but absolutely not here.’
Scarlett didn't think the games were bad, per se.
They were blatantly targeted enough to appeal strongly to a niche audience, sure.
But this was America—they couldn't forget that.
“Dead Hills is popular because pretty women are hunting zombies.”
“What?”
“Don't you even know why Dragon Mission bombed here?”
Dragon Mission.
A national treasure RPG in Japan with sky-high prestige, but the total opposite in North America: dismissed as low-quality and a miserable failure.
“That's... because dumb Americans can't recognize good games! How they call a masterpiece like Dragon Mission low-tier... Game mag journalists to users, all the same caliber!”
“That's pretty racist.”
“Am I wrong? Japan's the king of gaming! They revived the industry America wrecked with Atari, made countless masterpieces!”
Watching Tommy Hwang rant in excitement, Scarlett felt any lingering respect drain away.
In her view, Dragon Mission's North American flop had nothing to do with quality.
‘It was the massive cultural gap between America and Japan.’
The nonstop gags were incomprehensible without Japanese cultural knowledge, and the story progression was one Westerners—especially Americans—didn't favor.
“Then why did Last Fantasy succeed? It's a Japanese RPG too. Same for Nendo's rival, Legend of Elf.”
Tommy Hwang went dead silent at Scarlett's follow-up, just huffing in frustration.
Truth was, as she said, plenty of Japanese RPGs had thrived in the market.
“I can't take this anymore.”
“What? What did you just—”
“Can't work under a moron. Go cozy up to those HQ airheads you love so much.”
With that, Scarlett snatched an A4 sheet from her desk and started scribbling furiously with a pen.
Thud.
In seconds, she finished writing.
She hurled the paper straight at Tommy Hwang's face and stormed out of the office.
“That crazy bi—!”
Fuming, Tommy Hwang snatched up the flung A4 without time to compose himself and checked the contents.
Just two words were scrawled there.
– I quit.
“You did it properly, right?”
“I did it properly.”
Jason pulled an aggrieved face, like I was doubting him.
But it couldn't be helped.
“The character copyrights for Dead Hills RE this time aren't something to take lightly.”
“That's why I personally handed out the payments to the club kids and got their consent forms.”
I snatched the contracts Jason was proudly waving in front of me and meticulously checked each signature one by one.
‘This isn't easy either.’
With our company still so small, we had to handle even these contracts with utmost care.
They'd been drafted after consulting a lawyer just to avoid any issues, so there probably weren't problems, but the anxiety lingered.
As Savior grew, the need for a professional manager to handle this stuff would become even more acute.
‘Where's some genius manager gonna drop from the sky?’
The thought drew an involuntary chuckle from me.
No way someone talented enough for my standards would appear out of nowhere—and even if they did, the odds of joining a tiny outfit like ours were lottery-level.