The flower of RPG games,
It must be combat.
Especially the combat in Final Fantasy 7 is a turn-based battle game based on the ‘ATB (Active Time Battle System)’ system.
Players enjoyed battles that felt fast-paced despite being turn-based, thanks to the real-time charging ‘ATB gauge.’
I enhanced the strategies further by incorporating new classes and various skills based on those classes.
This would bring out the strategic fun of each character even more.
“Yuren, must you make combat so frustrating?”
But perhaps because he had first experienced an extreme dopamine game like ‘Legend Fighter’?
Jiren said this upon hearing about the turn-based combat system.
“Jiren, it’s because you haven’t tried it.”
“Still, it sounds like it would feel like a card game like Vicious, honestly, it doesn’t sound very fun.”
I understood why Jiren said such things to some extent.
When I first didn’t grasp the strategy, turn-based games seemed extraordinarily boring.
However, once you start to taste it even a little, I could guarantee you would become addicted in no time.
“Alright! Here’s the prototype of the turn-based combat system I made; give it a try.”
I handed Jiren a test version of a 100-floor tower challenge that utilized basic combat systems and existing character and monster resources.
There weren’t any graphic resources, so it was very crude, lacking any presentation and balance, but they would feel the basic fun.
I told Jiren, who received the prototype crystal ball,
“Try this out, and start creating the combat system based on it; I have other matters, so I’ll trust you.”
“Got it. Master.”
*
After Yuren disappeared, Jiren casually executed the crystal ball for analysis.
Then, characters from Super Thomas and Legend Fighter appeared, and the turn-based combat that Yuren mentioned began.
The first battle was against Super Thomas’s cavalry.
Naturally, with a single punch from Ryo, the monsters fell, and Jiren achieved victory.
“Well, that was easy.”
Lightly victorious, Jiren continued the battle with confidence.
Cavalry, turtles, and other monsters from Super Thomas became Jiren’s foes and attacked with various moves.
Among them, there were enemies using magic, and when that magic struck the weak points of Jiren’s Super Thomas, additional damage occurred.
“Aha, so there’s a matchup based on magic.”
Learning about the weak attributes related to magic, Jiren quickly advanced by burning monster flowers with fire magic.
Jiren was finding turn-based combat increasingly enjoyable, and not just Jiren; other priests started to find the game fun too.
“What’s this? Jiren bro?”
“This is the combat system prototype made by Yuren.”
“Can I watch too?”
“Of course, sit here.”
Passing by, Noirin found the screen enjoyable and unconsciously sat next to Jiren to watch the game.
Jiren continued conquering the tower with Noirin.
Once they reached about the 20th floor, the difficulty of the tower skyrocketed.
Jiren felt a bit of pressure from the noticeably stronger monsters targeting his weaknesses.
And then…
“Ugh! This crazy boss! How am I supposed to win? Did Yuren really call this a game?!”
The dreaded 40th floor boss!
Faced with the boss in the form of a white cat, Blanc, Jiren was utterly defeated.
It was such an overwhelming loss that perhaps due to that, Jiren and Noirin felt even more driven.
“There must be a weakness! Let’s challenge it again, Jiren bro!”
“Yeah, I’m definitely going to kill that thing!!”
Driven by enthusiasm, Jiren and Noirin attempted to challenge it three more times in a row, facing devastation.
But moments of despair make a man grow!
Just before the last death, they discovered a victory route through a keen insight.
“Wait! Jiren bro, did you just see that?”
“What did you see?”
“That Blanc monster is weak to poison! And it seems that it only does physical attacks. So…”
“If we use Poison magic to inflict poison and shield up, then we can win! Let’s do it!!”
Having identified the boss monster’s weakness, they attacked Blanc, the boss monster.
Blanc continued to swipe with claws, but due to the shield magic, Jiren’s character took no damage.
Conversely, Blanc became poisoned and visibly lost health.
After 30 minutes of holding out, the battle was finally decided.
You Win
“I won!!! Jiren bro!!”
“Of course! I’m a genius!! This game is godly!!!”
Victory tasted sweet due to the adversities faced.
Jiren and Noirin could hardly contain their excitement for defeating the boss that had brought them despair.
As they cheered, more priests started flocking to Jiren’s spot one by one.
“Jiren oppa, what you’re playing looks fun.”
“I want to watch too!”
“Me too!”
In no time, over ten priests began playing Yuren’s combat system prototype alongside Jiren.
Even as afternoon turned to dinner time and quitting time approached, no one could tear themselves away from the crystal ball.
Is it quitting time now!
They hadn’t even climbed up to the 70th floor yet!!
The Irene School continued their battles that evening to conquer the tower.
Until the next morning when Yuren, Karen, and Irene returned.
*
Having attended a meeting with the Claudia School in the morning, the three soon laid eyes on Jiren, Noirin, and the other priests, all sporting dark circles under their eyes.
A bizarre sight indeed—over ten magicians with dark circles shielding from the morning sun.
“What on earth happened? Did you all stay up all night? I told you to get proper sleep.”
Yuren strictly maintained the priests’ sleep schedules because he had learned from previous life experience that reckless late nights interrupted schedules.
But the situation was not what Yuren expected at all.
“Yuren Master, right now, that’s not important. We’re at the 99th floor, but we can’t possibly defeat the final 100th floor Karuga. Please help us.”
From Jiren’s words, Yuren quickly grasped the situation.
That crazy guy got engrossed in playing games with the priests all night long instead of analyzing them!
With a period of exasperation, Yuren took up a stance.
“You idiot! I told you to analyze the game, not to play it all night!”
He dashed over and once again unleashed Plema’s kick.
Yuren’s flaming kick, or perhaps love tap, struck Jiren’s side, who was worn out from the overnight gaming session.
Thud!
“Cough!!!”
Jiren collapsed and fell asleep.
Just another ordinary day in game development.
*
Meanwhile, in the Yura Republic’s Magus Society, Sora from Howard’s team heard the news.
And she couldn’t hide her despairing expression.
“Yes! You want to release ‘Unreal Fighter’ just like this?”
“Yes, it’s the chief’s order.”
Sora’s magnum opus, Unreal Fighter, was currently about 80% complete.
At a glance, its quality seemed sufficient for release, but Sora felt it was still lacking.
There were still many tasks left, from balancing to detailed graphic issues and bugs.
Sora was flustered by the order to release the game while skipping all that.
“But, Professor! If we release it like this, gamers will definitely be disappointed!”
“I know. But the chief insists there’s no alternative.”
Howard felt helpless as well.
But there was simply no way around it.
If the game was in a dreadful state, he could make excuses, but with Sora’s skill, Unreal Fighter was of such outstanding quality that even without Sora, it would likely succeed.
Sora’s exceptional abilities turned out to be a double-edged sword in this scenario.
“And we might have to share our magic engineering machines with other teams. Another team is planning to churn out sequels for ‘Speed Rabbit’ and ‘Crystal King.’”
“What!? Churn out? Our first game flopped when we tried that!”
The cloning strategy of a successful game was something Howard’s team had tried for the first time.
However, they had spectacularly failed due to lacking gameplay and bugs, and Sora’s dream had intervened to form the game in its current form.
There were certainly differences this time.
Now they had compiled experiences and rune stones from magic engineering in developing Speed Rabbit, Crystal King, and Unreal Fighter.
Even if they couldn’t produce completely new games, they could reliably generate stable new games with some new elements.
Even if it meant selling the future to buy the present, that was the case.
“I know that too. But if the chief insists, how can I, as the professor, stop it? I can only follow…”
“No way… Professor…”
“Just hang in there, Sora. If any issues arise, they’ll surely go back to the previous state.”
“Yeah… Professor…”
Howard could only console Sora.
Just another ordinary day in game development.
