December 1st, "Diablo" is officially released.
Today is a Sunday.
After finishing tidying up the trash and sorting it into the recycling collection point, Furukawa Hirozawa strolled towards the nearby game store.
Since it's a Sunday, Furukawa Hirozawa, who doesn't have any friends, is very good at being on his own, so even for things like buying game cartridges, no one would accompany him.
However, Furukawa Hirozawa is already very calm about this and even enjoys it.
Games, things like these, apart from those played by little kids, are basically very private.
Pokeni's games are even more so.
Rather than sharing with others, it's better to enjoy it alone.
Of course, after experiencing it without any interference from anyone, it's still necessary to find other like-minded friends to share game insights with.
This is the source of happiness for gamers.
The screen suddenly went black.
Ah!
Furukawa was startled by the sudden imagery.
Damn it!
Isn't this opening a bit too scary?
While reminiscing about past Pokeni games and imagining what the upcoming "Diablo" would be like, before he knew it, Furukawa Hirozawa had arrived at the game store on the corner of the street.
While reminiscing about past Pokeni games and imagining what a future Diablo might look like, Hirozawa Furukawa unknowingly arrived at the game store on the street corner.
As he turned the corner and poked his head out, Hirozawa was stunned by the sight before him—
He saw a long queue forming in front of the Golden Finger Game Store, which was under the Dongrun Group, and everyone had an excited expression on their face.
What?
What was going on?
Before this, Hirozawa had never seen such a scene.
Unless it was something like the release of Nintendo's Super Mario World or a new Final Fantasy from Square, it was rare to see such a queue on a typical game release day.
Could it be—
Pokeni is about to take off?!
Damn it...
Hirozawa Furukawa wasn't very happy about this.
Because before this, Pokeni's games were like buried treasure; only a game hunter with superior exploration skills like him could unearth their charm.
Everyone has their own secret hobbies, and it's even better if those hobbies aren't easily discovered by others.
At the very least, it proves that one has a good eye for games.
However—
It felt as if his prized possession, kept at the bottom of his chest, had been opened up for all to see. This feeling was truly incredibly uncomfortable.
And that wasn't even the worst part; what made him even sadder was—
In the past, when buying Pokeni's games, where was there ever a need to queue like this?
Weren't they always just there for the taking as soon as he walked into the store and asked the manager for a recommendation?
Especially the feeling of digging a Pokeni gem out from a corner—that feeling was simply incomparable.
But this time, everything had shattered Furukawa Hirozawa's expectations.
However...
Were these people really all here to buy "Diablo"?
Furukawa Hirozawa was deeply skeptical of this.
Could it be that some major gaming company had a new release today?
Was it "Final Fantasy"?
Or "The Legend of Zelda"?
Or perhaps "Dragon Quest"?
It couldn't really be "Diablo," could it?
But his eyes couldn't deceive him.
When Furukawa saw quite a few gamers walking out of the game store, smiling and carrying cartridges featuring the dark, Western fantasy style of "Diablo," he was absolutely certain that these folks had finally discovered an incredible secret—
Pokeni, this treasure of a company, was truly about to blow up!
Once he entered the store, Furukawa Hirozawa didn't even need the store manager's guidance to spot the displayed Diablo cartridges.
The cartridges on the shelf were already nearly sold out.
The staff had already started moving stock from the warehouse, but even then, it couldn't keep up with the rate of sales.
"Manager, do you have Diablo?"
"Yes, we do. We have some now, but I can't guarantee that for much longer," the middle-aged manager smiled politely.
Furukawa Hirozawa didn't ask any further and followed the crowd toward the shelf displaying Diablo.
Luckily, he had decent luck today and managed to grab a copy from among the few remaining cartridges.
Diablo
The box was packaged quite beautifully; Pokeni's artwork was as good as ever. Just looking at the imagery made it easy to imagine the setting of the game.
He noticed the 16+ rating label.
Furukawa Hirozawa couldn't help but wonder—
Could this thing be another galgame?
With the game cartridge purchased, Furukawa Hirozawa hurried back home.
He inserted the cartridge with practiced ease, turned on the television, and sat on the floor.
The screen flickered twice, then suddenly went black.
Immediately after, a line of text appeared on the screen—
[Diablo]
[Pokeni Co., Ltd.]
[Enjoy games, enjoy life]
This slogan at the end was something Aoki Haruhi had insisted on adding, primarily to give players something memorable, similar to the future [Creating games with heart].
This kind of thing acts like a motto; the more meaning you can attach to it, the better.
Once players form a sufficiently deep impression of this slogan, it will make future game promotion and brand building much easier.
The game officially began.
Furukawa Hirozawa selected [Start Game] and pressed the confirm button.
A low, deep voice began to play:
[A long, long time ago, humans, angels, and demons coexisted on this land.]
[They clashed with each other, erupting into war after war.]
A sword appeared on screen, thrust into the horizon.
In the distance was a blood-red twilight; nearby, piles of bones and corpses.
The overall color palette is dark, as if deliberately crafted to evoke a sense of decay.
Due to cartridge capacity limitations and a limited budget, the opening sequence was not animated, but instead composed of a series of static images.
Although they were static images, they were done quite effectively.
Against a background of yellowed, ancient parchment, characters and story backgrounds were sketched with ink-laden brushes, making one feel as if they were personally immersed in an ancient European magical world, flipping through a ceremonial ancient book.
Several exaggerated and fearsome demon figures appeared in the images.
On the other side of the scene were archangels draped in cloaks, with glowing wings behind them.
[In the year 1025, with the end of the Hunt for the Three.
The Horadrim Mages captured Diablo in the Khanduras region and successfully sealed it in the catacombs near the Talsande River.]
The page turned, revealing a grand cathedral.
[They built the Horadric Monastery above the catacombs, and using the monastery as a base, they successfully developed a settlement in the area.
Gradually evolving to the present day, people have come to call it Tristram.]
[However, the demon's power did not disappear with this; it was waiting, biding its time]
[And then—
Returning to this world]
Meanwhile.
In the dark labyrinth, a pair of eyes suddenly opened.
A hideous demon's head suddenly opened its bloody maw.
The screen suddenly went black.
Ah!
Hirozawa Furukawa was startled by the sudden imagery.
Damn it!
This intro is way too scary, isn't it?
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