Simply talking about it wouldn't be enough to fully solve the problem.
After Kobayashi Tetsu brought Team Ninja over, they had a brief discussion. Getting excited, he decided to sit down at the computer and start writing the code himself.
The method Ninja Gaiden used to achieve layered backgrounds wasn't actually that difficult—it was just a conceptual blind spot. Yet, from 1983 to 1988, a full five years, no one had figured out how to solve it.
Ninja Gaiden's solution was to mark the foreground and background separately, splitting the screen vertically into corresponding images, even though the FC could only divide the screen into two layers.
For example, in the opening scene of Ninja Gaiden where Ryu Hayabusa and his enemy face off, the image is roughly divided into four areas: the grass in the middle, the grass where the characters are standing on both sides, the foreground where Ryu Hayabusa and his enemy are located, and the black sky that doesn't need to move.
Among the four areas, the foreground and background grass are drawn directly with the characters and scroll in one direction. The middle-ground grass, acting as the background, scrolls in the opposite direction.
The final result is a grass-covered scene that feels alive, with distinct layers that effectively highlight the characters on either side.
Dividing the screen into layers and applying different processing to each is how Ninja Gaiden achieved its cutscene animations.
This, in turn, required coordination from the art team.
The person who ultimately solved the Ninja Gaiden cutscene animation was the game's artist, Masato Kato.
He creatively drew the background and characters together, while separately designing the tiles for each layer. By using repeatable tiles with similar content, he ensured that the only difference between the foreground and background tiles was their shading, not their texture.
The final result was a three-layer parallax effect where both the characters and the background appeared to be moving.
This screen-splitting technique was later bought by Nintendo and kept under wraps for a long time; it could only be used with Nintendo's authorization. As a result, few games on the FC truly achieved this visual effect. Even in the late stages of the FC's lifespan, many companies still couldn't use this technology.
"That's the general situation. But to implement this, the team still needs some time to work together. Megami Tensei has been delayed for so long, and Tokuma Shoten is already pressuring us. Let's just release the improved cutscenes."
"Yoshizawa."
Kobayashi Tetsu looked at Hideo Yoshizawa and said, "Let's use this technology to get the team up to speed. Once we've mastered the technique, we'll formally apply it to our games."
Hideo Yoshizawa rubbed his eyes, hesitating to speak.
His gaze was fixed on the screen, where Kobayashi Tetsu had just written a piece of code.
He could roughly understand the meaning of the code—it was designed to create different degrees of scrolling on the screen.
But it was precisely because he understood it that Hideo Yoshizawa felt a sudden sense of revelation: So that's how it's done!
At the same time, a sense of incredible admiration filled the heart of this ambitious young man.
He had assumed that Atlas's games were all written by Naka Yuji, and that Kobayashi Tetsu was merely a figurehead.
He never expected that Kobayashi Tetsu could actually write code himself!
Kadokawa Game Magazine eventually published this report:
"Atlas now has nearly one hundred employees. Their office is located on the 24th floor of the Mitsui Building in the Shinjuku District—the only company on that floor."
"Atlas's development teams are currently operating at full capacity, working on projects for various platforms, including consoles and arcades."
"When we visited Atlas, they were facing a major technical challenge. Surprisingly, the company's president solved the problem with a near-genius idea."
"While I cannot disclose the technical details, I was still stunned by the results."
"The visuals are beyond words. I can guarantee 100% that this title will set the gold standard for graphics on this year's consoles!"
"Atlas has already implemented this technology in Megami Tensei. The long-awaited game of the same name will finally be released next month—"
In the magazine, Black Flame Dragon spared no praise, enthusiastically introducing the game.
Although he couldn't share the specifics, his firsthand witness left him in awe and astonishment.
Once published, the article naturally spread to players and others through the current issue of Kadokawa Game Magazine.
The most excited, of course, were the readers of Megami Tensei.
From the original novel to the anime of the same name, and now to the game of the same name developed by Atlas, the long-awaited title is finally coming into view!
The anime has already finished airing!
If the Megami Tensei game doesn't come out soon, they won't play it anymore.
If the developer wasn't Atlas, they would have given up waiting long ago!
Konami.
Although Kobayashi Tetsu had recently poached a composer from them, Konami wasn't too concerned about it.
On the contrary, the news in the gaming magazine was what they were really paying attention to right now.
"The benchmark for graphics? Could Kadokawa Game Magazine be bluffing? That sounds too exaggerated!"
"No, we can't think that way yet. While Atlas is good at marketing, they aren't the kind of company that would make claims like this recklessly. If the final result isn't impressive enough, Atlas would face severe backlash."
After a heated discussion, Konami still couldn't reach a definitive conclusion.
However, Konami had its own confidence.
Currently, Konami's games, thanks to their self-developed VRC series of enhancement chips, were considered the benchmark for graphics in Japan.
Contra with its animated backgrounds—aside from the cartridges being a bit more expensive than usual—was absolutely worth the price for such effects!
In the end, Konami made their decision.
"We'll see how things play out. After all, we'll get to see Megami Tensei next month."
Konami's situation was no isolated incident.
Whether it was Namco or Taito, their initial reaction to this situation was one of astonishment, but that soon gave way to a wait-and-see approach.
After all, the situation would become clear soon enough!
Even Nintendo had only expressed a measured level of interest.
At Sega Corporation, Nakayama Hayao pondered the phrase.
"The benchmark for graphics... It seems they've employed some kind of special technology."
An ordinary person would simply be curious, guessing how it might have been done.
But Nakayama Hayao didn't have to guess! He had already planted a mole inside Atlus!
Atlus rarely recruited externally; their expansion was almost entirely through Kobayashi Tetsu acquiring companies he took a fancy to. This made planting an operative extremely difficult.
After much effort, he had finally managed to send Noriyoshi Ohba—codename "Project Fuji"—into Atlus during one of their rare expansion phases.
Now, Nakayama Hayao decided it was time to get answers.
He would activate Noriyoshi Ohba immediately!
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