Chapter 65. Our Game is Not Like That
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May 20, 1991.
Pokeni. President's office.
Kiyoshi Yuuma's furious voice came from inside.
"Damn it!"
"Damn Nintendo!"
This startled HR Ayase Akane, who was only separated from him by a wall, causing her entire body to tremble.
Up until now, she had never seen the President lose his temper like this.
Kiyoshi Yuuma slumped dejectedly in his chair, his eyes vacant.
How could he not be angry?
He had just received a review notification from Nintendo, informing him:
[Because the game Mermaid's Heart does not meet Nintendo's release standards, we regret to inform your company that it cannot be released on the SFC platform.
Please revise accordingly and resubmit for review.
——Nintendo]
The only consolation was—
At least they didn't include the words "shoddy production."
That at least proved the game quality was acceptable.
When Kiyoshi Yuuma saw this notification, he was completely stunned.
He felt a chill shoot straight from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, his entire body feeling as if it had fallen into an ice cellar.
No way? This is happening now?
Isn't this deadly?
Pokeni, this small ship, simply couldn't withstand any major storms.
Every month, just the expenses for current employees approached 10 million yen. For every day Nintendo didn't approve it, Pokeni was bleeding money.
Even the money they had earned from the Onmyoji series before couldn't sustain such expenses.
Excessive blood loss could be fatal.
According to Kiyoshi Yuuma's original plan, Mermaid's Heart would fire the opening shot. With its game quality and graphics standards, it would absolutely be unrivaled on the SFC—no other game could match its visuals.
Then Mermaid's Heart would not only earn the development costs for the next game but also make Urobuchi Gen's name known.
The pressure on Diablo afterward would be appropriately reduced. Even without making it a galgame, Kiyoshi Yuuma was confident it could shine brilliantly on the SFC.
This year should have been the "Year of Pokeni."
But.
Now.
The plan had been completely disrupted.
...
Outside the window, it was clearly daytime, with the perfect May sunshine.
But Kiyoshi Yuuma only felt darkness before his eyes.
Based on his understanding of Nintendo, or rather of the dictator Yamauchi Hiroshi, since they had tightened approval on the SFC this time, they would definitely not loosen it again in the future.
No matter what, it would probably be very difficult for Mermaid's Heart to launch on the SFC.
After sitting in his chair for a while.
Kiyoshi Yuuma's eyes moved slightly.
When he looked up, he saw a bunch of heads at the door retreat.
After a second, a head poked in from outside the door—it was Ayase Akane's.
"President, are you okay?" the HR asked with concern.
"I'm... I'm fine." Kiyoshi Yuuma took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.
"Are you really okay?"
"Mm. Really fine." Kiyoshi Yuuma sighed. "There's a bit of a problem on Nintendo's side. I might need to resolve it."
"Oh."
Hearing his response, everyone finally returned to their workstations.
...
After being greeted by the small HR like this, Kiyoshi Yuuma finally completely calmed down.
Even for the sake of the employees, he had to find a way to save himself.
Currently, he had several options before him:
First, directly abandon the SFC and turn to Sega's Mega Drive, or go directly to NEC's PC Engine console platform.
There were tons of galgames on the PCE—releasing on PCE would definitely not have approval issues.
But—
The SFC was the future console king.
Nintendo's era of dominance would continue until Sony's PS appeared in '95.
Second, try harder and see if he could communicate with President Yamauchi, hoping he could truly feel the charm of Mermaid's Heart.
No, getting a stubborn old man like Yamauchi Hiroshi to feel the game's charm probably wouldn't work.
He'd better visit with the Mermaid's Heart proposal first and see what happens.
...
Nintendo scheduled an appointment for Kiyoshi Yuuma at 4 PM on Friday afternoon to meet with President Yamauchi Hiroshi.
If he was lucky, there would probably be about an hour.
Maybe even less.
Scheduling this time slot clearly indicated that Pokeni was a small company, and he, Kiyoshi Yuuma, was not any kind of celebrity.
So Yamauchi Hiroshi was only willing to use the brief time before dinner in the afternoon to meet with him.
Kiyoshi Yuuma could only go all in.
...
Arriving at the Nintendo building at the scheduled time, after explaining his purpose and appointment, the receptionist brought Kiyoshi Yuuma upstairs into a conference room.
After waiting about 10 minutes or so, an elderly man in a black suit with a well-maintained physique entered from outside.
With just one glance, Kiyoshi Yuuma recognized him.
Yamauchi Hiroshi was all too familiar.
It's just that in his previous life he was a player—he never expected to have such close contact one day.
"I'm Kiyoshi Yuuma. It's our first meeting—please treat me kindly!"
Kiyoshi Yuuma bent his body 90 degrees and presented the gift he had brought with both hands.
Yamauchi Hiroshi looked down and discovered the gift box contained two bottles of liquor.
This liquor wasn't cheap in Japan—it probably sold for around 100,000 yen.
"Hello, I'm Yamauchi Hiroshi."
President Yamauchi nodded slightly, accepted the gift, and casually placed it under a conference room chair.
Both parties exchanged business cards, and Kiyoshi Yuuma explained the purpose of his visit.
"I see..."
Yamauchi Hiroshi's expression didn't look very good.
However, since it was an already scheduled visit, he still sat down and accepted the proposal Kiyoshi Yuuma handed him.
Patiently flipping through the proposal Kiyoshi Yuuma brought, after seeing the accompanying illustrations, Yamauchi Hiroshi's eyelids lowered slightly as he gently closed the document.
"President Kiyoshi, I deeply regret to say that your company's game truly does not meet Nintendo's release standards. Please follow our review requirements."
"Of course, we welcome your company to continue submitting excellent, high-quality games at any time. But this particular one definitely won't work."
After speaking, Yamauchi Hiroshi looked at his watch. "It's getting late..."
"President, you haven't even finished reading it yet." Kiyoshi Yuuma interrupted. "Please read it seriously before making your evaluation.
This game has unbounded imagination and creativity. Although it's a galgame, it contains persistent and pure love that will surely move players. I believe that as long as there's love in one's heart, they'll be moved by it."
Hmm...
Yamauchi Hiroshi pondered for two seconds, his facial expression shifting.
It was clear he was on the edge of an angry outburst.
"President Kiyoshi, although I've only looked at two pages, I already know how twisted this game is, and how filled with boring content it is.
When you were making this game, didn't you have any psychological burden at all?"
"I..." Kiyoshi Yuuma opened his mouth, feeling a tightness in his chest.
"I trust and uphold the opinion of the company's review department—a game like this cannot possibly launch on the SFC.
No, as long as I remain President of Nintendo, such vulgar games will never be released on any Nintendo console."
At this point, Yamauchi Hiroshi's words were extremely decisive.
"Our game isn't like that." Kiyoshi Yuuma responded.
Yamauchi Hiroshi stood up and directly shouted angrily at Kiyoshi Yuuma, "If it's not like that, then what is it like?!"
With his angry roar, the entire conference room fell silent.
Kiyoshi Yuuma looked at the 60-something-year-old man before him with difficulty accepting this.
Thinking, it shouldn't be like this.
"I apologize for my rudeness."
Yamauchi Hiroshi stood up and straightened his clothes.
"I'm very sorry, President Kiyoshi. You failed to convince me. This game proposal itself has problems—it absolutely cannot be a game that brings people joy."
"Nintendo will not approve such a game to be released on our platform."
"President! Please give us a chance." Kiyoshi Yuuma stood up and pleaded.
But Yamauchi Hiroshi didn't respond to him. Instead, he opened the conference room door and walked straight out.
Just as he was leaving, Kiyoshi Yuuma saw his lips move slightly.
Although he didn't make a sound.
Kiyoshi Yuuma understood his lip movement—
"A fool who only knows how to beg."