Monday, 2 February 2002 — Tokyo, Japan.
Inside an ordinary household somewhere in Tokyo, Tatsuya Kiritsu finally placed a large black-and-silver box down in front of his television and simply stared at it for several seconds with a grin that refused to disappear. "Finally… I got this." He laughed quietly to himself. After waiting in line for almost four hours, he had finally secured a ZEPS 4. Thankfully, the staff at the Z-Store inside ZAGE Tower complex had handled the crowd with absurd efficiency. Even with the enormous launch-day queue, customers were moved through in organized batches, payment lines were separated properly, stock was tracked in real time, and staff somehow managed to prevent the whole place from turning into complete chaos. Tatsuya had expected to spend half the day there. Instead, the process had been far smoother than he imagined. "Damn… those guys really know what they're doing," he muttered while looking at the box again.
The packaging itself already felt like part of the experience. ZAGE had always cared far too much about presentation, and apparently nothing had changed. The main ZEPS 4 box used a clean black-and-silver design, with the console photographed against a dark background while thin blue lines followed the shape of the machine. The ZAGE logo was embossed rather than simply printed, and the side of the box listed the system features with small icons rather than covering everything with marketing text. Beside it sat another large box containing the complete twelve-game launch bundle, packaged separately with artwork combining the entire first-wave lineup. Tatsuya ran one hand over the surface and chuckled. "I'm not throwing these boxes away. No chance. ZAGE has always loved making boxes look way too good. Never changed since ZEPS 1, heheheh."
Before opening anything, he turned on his Samsunng LCD television. The screen immediately showed a morning news broadcast, and unsurprisingly the biggest entertainment story of the day was still ZEPS 4. Footage showed long lines outside stores, people carrying consoles through the streets, reporters interviewing customers, and several companies complaining about unexpectedly high employee absences. The headline at the bottom of the screen read:
EMPLOYEE ABSENCES INCREASE DURING ZEPS 4 LAUNCH
Tatsuya laughed the moment he saw it. "Heh. Amateurs." He folded his arms proudly. "Unlike them, I'm a professional when it comes to this."
That was not entirely a joke.
Tatsuya was an obsessive ZAGE fan and the kind of person who enjoyed predicting the company's habits almost as much as playing its games. He followed hardware rumors, software schedules, financial reports, patents, ZAGE Forum discussions, interviews, and even tiny comments Zaboru made during seemingly unrelated events. Months earlier, while everyone was still arguing about when ZEPS 4 would actually launch, Tatsuya had become convinced Zaboru would choose a date simply because it looked memorable. So back in December, he had already submitted a leave request for the entire week surrounding 02.02.2002. His boss approved it without much resistance because Tatsuya rarely used vacation days in the first place.
Now, watching people get exposed on television for pretending to be sick, he could only grin smugly. "Should've planned ahead."
He finally turned his attention back toward the box.
Slowly, almost ceremonially, he opened it.
The first thing he saw was the ZEPS 4 itself, wrapped carefully inside protective material. Tatsuya lifted it out with both hands and placed it on the table. The console looked even better in person than it had during the showcases. It had the broad, low-profile shape ZAGE had revealed publicly, with a mostly black body, silver metallic trim, clean front panel, Blue-Ray drive, memory and peripheral ports, and subtle blue accents that were still unlit.
"Damn…" Tatsuya whispered. "This thing is beautiful."
He continued unpacking everything one by one. First came the standard wireless controller, black with silver detailing and the central Z button. Then the Z-Remote, slimmer and more unusual, with the wrist strap already attached. Beneath that were the power and television cables, documentation, a Memory Card EX, and the small ZGBA adapter that allowed handheld connectivity. By the time everything was laid out across the floor, the amount of included hardware looked almost excessive.
Tatsuya stared at all of it. "Okay… that's actually a lot."
Then he found something tucked underneath the internal packaging.
A rolled poster.
His eyes widened.
He immediately pulled it out and carefully unfolded it across the floor.
Across the top was written:
ZEPS 4 — FIRST BATCH
The artwork was a long portrait-style launch poster featuring characters and icons from across the ZEPS 4 release lineup posed together like one giant crossover celebration. Dante stood confidently near the center in his red coat. Master Chief appeared behind him, armor reflecting blue light. Mario raised one fist cheerfully while the four **Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello—**filled one side of the composition with their weapons ready. CJ stood with folded arms, while a Monster Hunter wearing red armor rested a massive weapon across one shoulder. Several ZAGE Sports avatars appeared near the bottom beside sporting equipment, while the orange customized car from the Need for Speed: Underground promotional artwork occupied part of the background.
Then there were the racing characters. Sonic, SpongeBob, and Bomberman were shown in stylized karts, representing ZAGE Kart. Snake stood farther back with a serious expression, while the Demi-Fiend from Nocturne appeared surrounded by demonic energy. On another side of the poster stood Wes, with Kyogre and Groudon looming dramatically behind him as representatives of Pokémon Colosseum. The entire composition was packed without feeling messy, each franchise visually separated through lighting and placement while still looking like part of the same launch celebration.
Tatsuya stared at it in silence for several seconds.
Then he grinned.
"Damn. I'm putting this one up."
He carefully moved the poster somewhere safe. He could deal with decorating later. Right now, he wanted to play.
Tatsuya quickly began setting up the ZEPS 4 underneath his television. The power cable went in first, then the display connection, and he positioned the console horizontally exactly as recommended. He placed the wireless controller beside him, made sure the Z-Remote and Memory Card EX were within reach, then sat down on the floor in front of the television like an excited child.
"Okay…"
He picked up the controller.
"Let's do this."
He pressed the power button.
For a fraction of a second, nothing happened.
Then the console awakened with "Beep"
A thin blue LED line beneath the system suddenly illuminated, sweeping gently across the lower edge while smaller blue accents appeared around the drive and side panel. Against the black body and silver metallic trim, the lighting made the machine look almost futuristic enough to be unreal.
Tatsuya's eyes widened.
"Ohhhh my God…"
Then the television went completely black.
Silence.
A single piano note sounded.
Then another.
A strange sequence of broken, echoing tones slowly emerged from the darkness while abstract metallic shapes began appearing on the screen. They floated through an impossible black space, slowly at first, then began moving inward as though the viewer were descending through some enormous digital structure. The music remained minimal and eerie, almost unsettling, yet somehow grand at the same time.
Tatsuya stopped moving entirely.
The shapes accelerated.
A deeper sound resonated.
Then everything suddenly converged.
ZAGE.
The silver ZAGE logo appeared cleanly against the darkness.
The sound faded.
For one brief second, there was complete silence again.
Then the ZEPS 4 interface appeared.
Tatsuya leaned backward slightly and stared.
"Oh my God… I don't know why, but that felt so damn majestic."
He laughed, still staring at the screen. The startup was not loud, flashy, or packed with explosions. It was simple, mysterious, almost ceremonial. Somehow that made it feel more important.
"Heheheh… they really know how to make turning on a console feel dramatic."
The initial setup process began immediately. Language. Region. Display calibration. Controller pairing. Network configuration. None of it felt particularly difficult. Tatsuya had already memorized most of the interface from obsessively rewatching the ZEPS 4 showcases, so he moved through the steps quickly. When the system asked whether he wanted to connect an existing ZAGE ID, he immediately selected yes and entered the same account he already used on ZAGE Forum and other ZAGE services.
Within moments, his profile appeared.
His username.
His avatar.
His existing ZAGE Forum identity.
Even several account-linked preferences transferred automatically.
Tatsuya grinned. "Nice."
The main interface opened fully afterward. Horizontal categories moved smoothly across the top, while contextual options appeared underneath depending on what he highlighted. Games, Network, Z-Store, Media, Friends, Messages, Profile, Settings. The system felt surprisingly responsive considering how much functionality existed behind it.
He moved around for barely a minute before stopping himself.
"Nope. I'll mess with all that later."
He had twelve games waiting.
And one of them had been on his mind ever since the trailers began releasing.
Tatsuya opened the launch-bundle box and immediately pulled out Devil May Cry.
"Heheheh… I choose you."
He had become fascinated by the game from the moment ZAGE revealed its combat. The red-coated protagonist, the impossible sword combinations, gun juggling, aerial attacks, taunts, fast movement, and emphasis on looking stylish while fighting had instantly captured him. It looked less like a normal action game and more like someone had built an entire combat system around refusing to fight normally.
Tatsuya opened the case and examined the Blue-Ray disc for a second before inserting it into the ZEPS 4.
The console recognized it almost immediately.
On the Games section of the interface, a new tile smoothly appeared:
Devil May Cry
Tatsuya's grin widened.
"Ohhh…"
He moved the cursor over the game.
The background immediately changed.
Instead of simply displaying static cover art, the interface began playing a muted gameplay montage behind the menu. Dante launched an enemy into the air, jumped after it, fired Ebony and Ivory repeatedly, landed, switched weapons, then dashed toward another group while the game logo remained visible in the foreground.
Tatsuya laughed.
"Nice feature, heheheh."
He lingered over it for a few seconds simply because he enjoyed watching the interface change, then finally pressed Play.
The screen transitioned smoothly. The Devil May Cry tile zoomed inward while the surrounding interface folded away into a stylized Z-shaped transition. For a brief moment, a full-screen Devil May Cry wallpaper appeared—Dante standing in the rain with his sword over one shoulder—while the system loaded.
Then the screen went black.
The ZAGE logo appeared first.
After that:
UNREAL ENGINE 4
Tatsuya's eyebrows rose slightly.
Then came another logo.
TEAM IZAN
The screen faded to darkness once more.
Rain began to fall.
A young woman's voice started narrating over the sound of the storm.
"You've heard of it, haven't you? The legend of Sparda? When I was young, my father would tell me stories about it. Long ago, in ancient times, a demon rebelled against his own kind for the sake of the human race. With his sword, he shut the portal to the demonic realm and sealed the evil entity off from our human world. But since he was a demon himself, his power was also trapped on the other side."
Tatsuya leaned forward.
On screen, rain poured across a ruined environment as two young men gradually came into view.
One wore blue.
The other red.
The narration continued. "I never believed it. I thought it was just a child's fairy tale. I discovered that the so-called legend wasn't a myth at all. Sparda existed. How do I know? Well… I met the sons of Sparda. Both of them."
Steel collided.
The man in red—Dante—blocked a strike from the man in blue.
The man in blue—Vergil—immediately countered.
Their swords moved so quickly that each impact seemed to split the rainfall around them.
"Though the same blood of their father flows through their veins, the two battled each other fiercely like arch-enemies. It seems as if they derive some twisted pleasure from this brotherly fighting."
Dante grinned mid-battle.
Vergil's expression remained calm.
Another clash.
Another exchange.
The scene cut rapidly between strikes, gunfire, blades, and rain exploding around them.
Tatsuya's grin slowly disappeared—not because he disliked it, but because he had become completely focused.
The narrator's voice lowered.
"But in the end…"
The screen darkened slightly.
"…only one was left standing."
A final clash filled the screen with light.
Then—
DEVIL MAY CRY
The title appeared.
Tatsuya exhaled.
"Holy shit…"
A few seconds later, the main menu loaded.
Dante stood in the background, already posed with effortless confidence while the options appeared beside him:
STARTLOAD GAMEOPTIONSEXTRAS
Only START was currently available.
Tatsuya stared at the screen for another few seconds.
Dante shifted subtly in his idle animation.
The music pulsed underneath everything.
Tatsuya slowly leaned forward and tightened his grip on the controller.
"Okay…"
His grin returned.
"Then let's have a blast, heheheh."
He moved the cursor to START.
And pressed the button.
To be continued.
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