Tuesday 14 April 2000
After the meeting with Team IZAN yesterday, Zaboru returned once again to ZAGE Tower. Today his schedule was focused on checking the development progress of Team NOVA, especially their most ambitious project so far. He also wanted to finish this meeting quickly because tomorrow he planned to take a day off to celebrate his daughter's birthday with his family.
Right now, Zaboru was already waiting inside one of the meeting rooms in ZAGE Tower. Not long after he arrived, the senior members of Team NOVA quickly gathered as well. Present were Yugo Kanai, Hideo Kojima, Yumeki Kojiyuki, Koji Igarashi, and Daichi Sumeda. Among them, Yugo Kanai served as the overall leader coordinating the team's direction and production.
Zaboru greeted them as he entered the room and took a seat at the head of the table. "Hi everyone. How are you all doing? And more importantly… how is Smash Bros progressing?"
Yugo Kanai immediately broke into a wide grin. "Hehehe, Boss‑sama! So far everything is going really well. But honestly… this might be the most ambitious project we've ever worked on."
Hideo Kojima adjusted his glasses and nodded thoughtfully. "If possible, I would like to request that all of Team NOVA's manpower remain focused on this project. We want to realize your vision for this game completely… and if possible, even exceed it."
Koji Igarashi then continued the conversation, though he looked slightly concerned. He let out a small sigh before speaking. "Still… I have a question. How many playable characters do we actually have right now? One hundred?"
He scratched his head slightly.
"Isn't that… too many? I mean, are players even going to use all of them? Won't it be overwhelming?"
Zaboru simply smiled when he heard the concern.
"At first I planned for 64 characters," he explained calmly. "That number felt symbolic and manageable. But once I started listing all the iconic characters ZAGE owns, I quickly realized something."
He leaned slightly forward.
"Sixty‑four is nowhere near enough."
Zaboru tapped the table lightly.
"ZAGE has too many recognizable characters from our games only. If this game is supposed to represent the ultimate crossover of our games, then limiting it to sixty‑four characters would feel incomplete."
He then chuckled.
"So in the end I expanded the roster. The goal now is one hundred characters."
Hideo Kojima fixed his glasses before speaking more seriously. "Koji, please understand something. This is not just a normal fighting game. The design philosophy is very different. On the surface it will look simple and easy to play, but underneath it is actually an extremely advanced fighting system. The entry skill level is very low, meaning anyone can pick up the controller and have fun within minutes. But the maximum skill ceiling is incredibly high, which means competitive players can spend years mastering it. That kind of design is exactly why having more characters actually makes the game better. Every character introduces new strategies, new matchups, and new playstyles."
He continued explaining while gesturing with his hand. "Casual players will enjoy the chaos and fun of the battles, but skilled players will explore deeper mechanics like spacing, timing, recovery movement, and combo creativity. The more characters we include, the more the metagame expands. That is what will keep the game alive for a very long time."
Zaboru nodded with a satisfied smile. "Exactly. What Hideo said is correct. Once players truly understand what this game offers, it will completely blow their minds."
He leaned back slightly and continued speaking confidently. "And I already prepared a proper marketing strategy for this game. We are not going to reveal everything at once. Instead, we will slowly tease the roster. Starting one month before release, we will reveal around three characters every day through short promotional trailers."
Zaboru chuckled lightly. "Imagine the reaction from players when they wake up every day and see new characters being revealed. The excitement will build up nonstop. By the time the game releases, the community will already be completely insane with hype."
He then added one more detail. "And of course, all those trailers will be uploaded to our YouTube channel as well. That way the entire world can watch, share, and speculate about the roster together."
Yumeki nodded and said, "For the characters themselves we are already almost finished. Most of the models, animations, and move sets are implemented. What remains now is testing each character's abilities. Since there are so many of them, we need a lot of time to balance everything properly. Every character has unique attacks, recovery options, and special moves, so we have to make sure none of them completely break the game."
He continued explaining, "Right now our biggest task is internal playtesting. We have to check how every character performs against dozens of others. That means hundreds of match combinations. If we rush it, the game might feel unfair or chaotic in a bad way, so the team wants to be very careful with the balancing stage."
Zaboru nodded thoughtfully. "That makes sense. But are you confident you can still complete everything around September? Or should we extend the schedule a little just to be safe?"
Daichi Sumeda leaned forward before answering. "No, boss. We are confident we can pull it off. The team already prepared a detailed testing pipeline. As long as we focus completely on Smash Bros, we should be able to finish everything in time."
He then added seriously, "However, we would like to request one thing. Please don't assign any additional tasks to Team NOVA for now. Aside from our existing Ape Escape project—which is already almost complete—we want the entire team to concentrate on Smash Bros."
Daichi crossed his arms and smiled slightly. "Once this game releases, though, we'll be ready for more work again. Even more than three projects if necessary. Right, Yugo?"
Yugo grinned widely. "Absolutely, Daichi! And Boss‑sama! Don't worry, I'm even willing to work on weekends if it means making this game as good as possible."
Zaboru immediately sighed and shook his head. "The hell, Yugo. Don't do that. If you want to work on weekends that's your choice, but make sure you're getting paid properly for it. And besides… When are you going to get a girlfriend, man? You're almost thirty, right?"
The entire room went quiet for a second before a few of the developers tried to hide their laughter.
Yugo's eyes widened dramatically. He suddenly stood up, walked over to Zaboru, and knelt down in a full kowtow.
"Boss‑sama! Please teach me how to get a girl who understands me!" he begged with complete seriousness. "Every time I meet a girl they only care about my money! And when I start talking about video game development… they look completely bored! It's like they don't understand anything I'm passionate about. I don't want that kind of relationship!"
Daichi quietly turned his head away to avoid laughing, while Kojima adjusted his glasses with a faint smile.
Then Kojima dropped a bomb. "That's because you're just damn weird, Yugo. Face it, man."
Yugo's eyes widened as if he had just been stabbed in the heart.
"Shut up Feet Lover four eyes!" Kojima groaned "What!? who is that , definetly not me!"
The room immediately erupted with laughter as several of the developers tried to hide their grins. Even Igarashi couldn't stop himself from chuckling quietly.
Zaboru chuckled at the dramatic display. "Regardless of how weird you are, you'll find your soulmate one day. But Yugo… you have to evolve your game if you want to find the kind of girl you like."
He leaned back in his chair and added teasingly, "Right now your build is basically Level 99 Game Developer but Level 1 Social Skill. You need to balance your stats a little. Maybe invest a few skill points into charisma."
More laughter spread around the room, and even Yugo scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
Zaboru continued with a playful tone. "Think of it like game development. If you only focus on one stat, the character becomes unbalanced. A good build needs proper distribution. Work, life, relationships—everything needs some attention."
Several members of the room nodded jokingly as if Zaboru had just delivered a profound game design lecture.
Then Yugo asked curiously, "But Boss‑sama, Lady Boss Ayumi was the one who proposed to you, right? You're always thinking about video games too, so how did you manage to win someone like Lady Boss Ayumi? I'm honestly jealous!"
Zaboru looked a little surprised by the sudden question, but he quickly waved it off with a small smile. "Anyway, enough about your love life—or mine. Let's get back to work. Where's the list of characters?"
Daichi smiled and handed the list to Zaboru. "These are the total 100 characters that are already complete, boss. All that remains is testing." Zaboru nodded and began looking through the list.
Mario
Donkey Kong
Pac-man
Sonic
Samus Aran
Link
Kirby
Crash Bandicoot
Sponge Bob
Doom Guy
Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)
Gordon Freeman (Half Life)
Kenshin Himura (Rurouni Kenshin)
Ryu Hayabusa (Ninja Gaiden)
Bill Rizer / Lance Bean (Contra)
Luigi (Super Mario)
Princess Peach (Super mario)
Knuckle (Sonic)
Chun-Li (Street Fighter)
Ryu (Street Fighter)
Kazuya Mishima (Tekken)
I-no (Guilty Gear)
Sol Badguy (Guilty Gear)
Ivy Valentine (Soul Calibur)
Mai Shiranui (Fatal Fury)
Kasumi (Dead or Alive)
Yugo The Wolf (Bloody Roar)
Robo-Cop
Cloud Strife (FF7)
Tifa Lockhart (FF7)
Chrono and party (Chrono trigger)
Solid Snake (Metal Gear)
Sub-Zero (Mortal Kombat)
Scorpion (Mortal Kombat)
Kenji (Battle Realms)
Thrall (Warcraft 3)
Arthas (Undead)
Megaman
Ness (earthbound)
Pikachu
Red (Pokemon Red/Green)
Mewtwo
Hello Kitty
Agumon (Digimon)
Gabumon (digimon)
Wario
Yugi Mutou (Yu-Gi-Oh)
Seto Kaiba (Yu-Gi Oh)
Kenshiro (Fist of Northstar)
Aladdin
The Beast (Beauty and the Beast)
Buzz Lightyear (Toystory)
Brock Lesnar (Rollerdance)
Fox Mchound (starfox)
TMNT (Leonardo , Donnatello , Raphael and Micahel Angelo)
Little Mac (Punch Out)
Moriggan Aensland (Dark Stalker)
Richard Belmont (Castlevania)
Alucard (Castlevania)
Spawn
Diablo 2 Sorcerer
Diablo 2 Druid
John Counter Strike (Terrorist/CT)
Bomberman
Jack Frost (Shin Megami tensei)
Naoya todou (Persona 1)
Tatsuya Suou (Persona 2)
Duke Nukem
Jill Valentine (Resident Evil)
Leon S Kenedy (Resident Evil)
BattleToad
Pepsi man
Rikimaru (Tenchu)
Estelle Bright (trails in the Sky)
Zan Hayato (ZAN - The Cowboy Samurai)
Cress Albane (Tales of Phantasia)
Shantae
Power Puff girls
Banjo and Kazzoie
Alice Landale (tales of Phantasia)
Z-Man (Choujin Sentai Z-man)
Hero (Dragon Quest)
Vault Dweller (Fallout)
Agent 47 (Hitman)
Hector (Fire Emblem Blazing Blade)
Lyn (Fire Emblem Blazing Blade)
Riou (Suikoden)
Nevarine (The Elder Scroll 4 Morrowind)
Jim (Earthworm Jim)
Sweet tooth (Twisted Metal)
Hermione Granger (Magical Chase)
Issac (Golden Sun)
Raven (Armored Core)
Terra branford (Final Fantasy 3)
Kain (Blood Omen Legacy of Kain)
Guy (Final fight)
Buntei (Karate Bunny- Ayumi game)
Korosi (Koro-cool - Yugo game)
Jasper Crank (Kojima game)
Tsukian (Lunar Knight - Zanichi game)
There are a total of 100 characters for now, and Zaboru grinned widely. "Hehehe… this lineup is absolutely loaded." He slowly scanned the list again, clearly pleased with how diverse the roster had become.
This would be the first Smash Bros in this world, and Zaboru could already imagine how players would react when they saw such an enormous crossover roster. Discussions, arguments, and fan debates would explode everywhere. Players would spend months discovering matchups, testing characters, and arguing over which fighters were the strongest.
And this was only the beginning.
For future installments, Zaboru was already considering adding even more characters. As ZAGE continued to expand its library of games and collaborations, the roster could grow into something even more ridiculous in scale.
Not only that, Zaboru was also preparing a proper storyline for Smash Bros—one that would tie into the legend of Zabo‑man, giving the chaotic crossover battles a deeper narrative foundation. Instead of being just random fights between characters, the story would explain why heroes and villains from different worlds were suddenly colliding.
He finally closed the folder and looked up at the team.
"Good. This will be great," Zaboru said with a satisfied nod. "Make sure to come to me immediately if anything unexpected happens during development, okay?"
The meeting continued for a while longer as the team discussed a few remaining technical details about testing schedules, character balance, and internal milestones. Once everything was settled, the meeting finally came to an end. Team NOVA returned to their respective workstations, already eager to continue refining Smash Bros and preparing the massive roster for testing. Meanwhile, Zaboru remained in the room for a moment, reviewing his notes before moving on to the next part of his schedule. He still needed to prepare the next set of assignments for Team NIWA, which would be meeting with him soon to discuss their upcoming JRPG projects. At the same time, Zaboru could not forget something far more important than work—he also had to start preparing for the upcoming birthdays of both his daughter and his wife, events he had already promised himself he would not miss.
To be continue
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