Chapter 76. Pokemon
---
"Eh~ I didn't expect that without DUN's investment, you could still achieve victory."
In the evening, drinking at Eden X-space bar.
Hearing that Mermaid's Heart sales had broken through 100,000 copies, Tsuda Nao couldn't help but feel a bit jealous.
"Pokeni secretly makes galgames without bringing DUN along." Tsuda Nao pretended to be angry, puffing out her cheeks.
"Because we had enough funding." Kiyoshi Yuuma smiled. "And this game was quite sudden—it wasn't in our development plans to begin with."
Seeing his serious expression, Tsuda Nao couldn't help but laugh. "I'm just joking."
She raised her glass and clinked it with Kiyoshi Yuuma's. "Congratulations, Mermaid's Heart is a huge success."
"Thanks."
The two raised their glasses and each took a sip.
Kiyoshi Yuuma smiled without speaking, silently contemplating.
Right now, Mermaid's Heart is just the beginning.
I'm still far from my goal.
Pokeni's dream is to defeat Nintendo.
The next game, Diablo, is the key.
"It seems you don't have as much resistance to making galgames anymore?" Tsuda Nao said with a smile.
Ah, this...
Kiyoshi Yuuma choked for a moment.
"That's because the galgames Pokeni makes are different from other galgames." Kiyoshi Yuuma frowned. "Our galgames aren't what you imagine."
"Eh?" Tsuda Nao blinked. "I thought Pokeni's galgames tell stories of beautiful romance between men and women, pure and flawless, unmixed with worldly perspectives. Isn't that right?"
"Uh... that's actually true."
Ah, damn it, this wicked woman.
Seeing the smile contained in Tsuda Nao's eyes, Kiyoshi Yuuma immediately understood—this woman said it on purpose.
Tsuda Nao smiled slyly, staring at the glass in her hand, rotating it.
Light spread up from the bottom of the glass, turning into brilliant colors.
"However... Yuuma-san, you really do have talent for galgames. Being able to redefine galgames and make players accept and taste romance without any blue content mixed in—I think just this alone is remarkable."
Single-handedly changing the state of the entire galgames industry is truly remarkable.
And these things are very difficult to achieve in the film industry.
Games can provide more immersion—that's what Tsuda has realized from this.
Kiyoshi Yuuma rarely received praise from her, and his entire person felt slightly tipsy, as if he'd drunk alcohol.
"After all, galgames also have their beautiful side. I understand some of it now too." Kiyoshi Yuuma said earnestly. "Games are actually a medium—the key is what you want to convey to players."
"So what do you want to convey to players?" Tsuda Nao placed one hand on the bar counter, propping up her chin as she gazed at Kiyoshi Yuuma.
"Love." Kiyoshi Yuuma said, looking at Tsuda Nao with a smile.
Her vivid, luscious lips appeared even more enticing under the lights, like strawberries, making one unable to resist taking a bite.
Tsuda's eyes moved slightly. "As expected, love can bring people joy."
"It can also bring sadness." Kiyoshi Yuuma took a sip of his drink. "The reason Pokeni's games move people is because they have both the beauty of love and the sorrow of parting."
"Fortunately, I haven't played your games." Tsuda quipped.
"Huh? Then I'll have to properly teach you a lesson." Kiyoshi Yuuma stood up, hands on his hips.
"I don't know who will be teaching whom." Tsuda Nao smiled mischievously.
...
Early the next morning, Kiyoshi Yuuma dragged his exhausted body out of Tsuda Nao's house and headed to the company.
After returning to his office, Kiyoshi Yuuma rubbed his shoulders while turning on his computer.
Damn it.
I'm only 26 years old this year, how did I get this exhausted?
He can only blame this woman Tsuda for having such strong combat power.
However, thinking about Tsuda's fiery appearance last night, Kiyoshi Yuuma had an impulse to go back and continue.
Closing his eyes to calm down for a moment, Kiyoshi Yuuma created a new document on his desktop.
Focusing his attention on work—now wasn't the time to think about such tender pleasures.
Women will only slow down my progress toward becoming the world's richest person.
Right now, Pokeni was still a small company. Not only couldn't it compare with Nintendo, even DUN was a behemoth in front of Pokeni.
If he wanted to match Tsuda Nao's status, he had to work even harder.
Moreover, as the company's President, he needed to properly plan the company's future.
...
Now Mermaid's Heart was already on sale and had achieved good results.
If the current momentum continued, breaking through 200,000 copies in sales wouldn't be a problem.
The only product the company was developing was Diablo.
Regarding Diablo, Kiyoshi Yuuma wasn't particularly worried—after all, it was a successful product verified in his previous life, and once released, it would inevitably bring earth-shattering changes to the gaming industry.
Pokeni's cash flow was fairly abundant—they could completely develop another new product.
Kiyoshi Yuuma didn't really want to continue with galgames.
Even if they were to develop galgames in the future, it would be best to wait until after Diablo was released.
Right now, players had already formed a fixed impression of Pokeni, almost equating Pokeni with galgames.
This wasn't a good thing.
When a company's game types became increasingly fixed, transformation would become more and more difficult.
As for Kairosoft games, Kiyoshi Yuuma didn't plan to touch them again either—definitely not going in that direction in the short term.
Markets need to be cultivated. Training users for simulation management games would take considerable time, and Pokeni didn't need to waste money in that direction.
Besides these, what other games would be suitable to make?
Current mainstream games on the market were still mainly Japanese-style RPGs.
Like Dragon Quest and the Final Fantasy series—this year they shone brilliantly on the SFC, driving countless players crazy.
Supposedly in the second half of the year, there would also be Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light—so tactical RPGs had been claimed first.
Fire Emblem could definitely be considered a milestone game.
What a pity—last year when he wanted to develop it, he didn't have money. Now that he had money, he'd lost the opportunity.
The long production cycle for games is also quite a headache.
...
After thinking for a long time, a flash of lightning suddenly struck Kiyoshi Yuuma's brain.
Before carefully considering it, his fingers had already started moving on their own.
A line of text appeared in the document—
[Pokemon]
Speaking of which, this name was quite similar to Pokeni.
Since there was such fate, not making a Pokemon game would really be inexcusable.