After GARO's release, it quickly spread through the tokusatsu fan community.
Moreover, thanks to the game's unexpectedly high quality, it was inevitably compared with various fan-oriented titles from the past.
The results of those comparisons spoke for themselves—there wasn't a single one that could stand up to it. Even the many anime adaptations, light-novel adaptations, and tokusatsu-based games released over the past couple of years couldn't come close in terms of quality or gameplay.
For a time, developers who specialized in fan-oriented games were relentlessly flamed by players across various gaming forums.
That afternoon, after hearing about the forum discussions from Shinoda in his office, Ichin smiled and said, "This was unavoidable. Those fan-oriented games in the past really were pretty mediocre, yet they were priced high. Back then, players had no alternatives. Now that our game is out, just watch how it affects the sales of those adaptation titles. If I remember correctly, there are still new fan-oriented adaptation games coming out in the next couple of months, right?"
Shinoda nodded. "There are. One Digimon game, and then two gal-style games adapted from light novels. Honestly, they're all pretty average—nothing that makes you want to buy them. Oh, right, Ichin-kun, you mentioned before that GARO might still have some follow-up update plans. What are they?"
"I knew you'd ask that," Ichin said with a laugh. "Right now, the game is purely single-player, so in the upcoming updates I'm planning to add a versus mode. Players won't just be able to control the various Makai Knights in the game, but also the bosses that appear in it. For versus play, there'll be both local two-player and online battles. What do you think? I've been reading forum discussions these past couple of days, and quite a few players are really looking forward to this."
"Oh! That's great!" Shinoda exclaimed. "I was wondering why you made the bosses' movesets so complete—some of them even felt like overkill. So you were already considering a versus mode back then!"
Ichin nodded. "Yeah. At the start, we weren't sure how far the sales would go. But now, that's no longer a concern. While we're celebrating the game exceeding expectations, I'll announce the upcoming versus-mode update. We'll need your team to put in some extra effort on this—some of the actions will need adjustment."
"No problem, leave it to me!"
With a cheerful salute toward Ichin, Shinoda left the office.
Ichin stayed in his office for another fifteen minutes. When it was time for the meeting, he gathered his things and headed to the conference room.
Aside from himself, the meeting included some members reassigned from the GARO team, as well as a number of newly hired staff.
Now that GARO had launched, the upcoming versus mode didn't require everyone's full involvement—especially on the art side. A large portion of the artists could be reassigned to the next new project.
That project was one of the staff ideas collected earlier: the company's next roguelike card game, Monster Train.
While Ichin was in the meeting, Utaha and Yukino had returned from the villa, checked on the renovation progress over the past few days, and on the way back stopped by a furniture market to look around.
Upon returning to the company, they immediately noticed that quite a few people were missing. Utaha turned to Rin, who was in the middle of assigning tasks.
"Rin, are the people who aren't here in a meeting?"
"Yes," Rin replied with a smile and a nod. "Ichin-kun took the selected members to a meeting. We're about to start a new project. Oh right, Utaha and Yukino, there are freshly delivered cakes in the pantry, and there's still plenty of coffee. If you're hungry, go help yourselves."
"Perfect. We're a bit hungry after walking around," Utaha said with a smile. "Let's go, Yukino."
An hour later, after the project kickoff meeting and a thorough discussion of the game's content, Ichin finally wrapped up the day's meeting.
Next, the game would enter its initial development phase. Ichin still needed to discuss a series of in-game art styles with the art team and further refine the project proposal.
As for the programming side, with Slay the Spire as a precedent, many systems could be directly reused instead of being rebuilt from scratch, making things considerably easier.
Some of the UI could also be reused after modification—just a change in art style would suffice.
After all, it was their own game of the same genre. A bit of similarity in UI was perfectly normal. And for card games like this, the core gameplay loop and the appeal of the cards themselves mattered most; UI style could be a lower priority for now.
Leaving the conference room, Ichin saw Utaha and Yukino chatting with Aoba and Eriri over at the Berseria team's area.
"You're back already?" Ichin asked.
Seeing him, Utaha smiled. "We've been back for an hour now. We already finished afternoon tea. Your meeting really went on for quite a while."
"It was the initial project meeting—it takes some time," Ichin replied.
With a bit of time to spare, he pulled over a chair and sat down beside Utaha. "How was it today?"
"The renovation's going really well. They're working on the gym and the home theater today. The soundproofing for the theater is already more than halfway done—another couple of days and it should be finished."
"Sounds good," Ichin nodded.
With the renovation progressing so smoothly, he was really looking forward to moving in before summer vacation. His parents were also planning to visit in the summer, and staying there would be much more comfortable.
After chatting with everyone for a bit, Ichin headed to the newly formed Monster Train development team to discuss the game's art direction with the artists.
He had already provided some initial concepts for the monsters and cards, but those would need constant refinement.
For a card game, the variety and quantity of cards had to be extremely rich. Ideally, it also shouldn't evoke too much déjà vu from Slay the Spire. This project had to be handled with care—they couldn't afford to tarnish their own brand.
Watching Ichin dive back into work, and with Utaha juggling her new book alongside a new game project as a scriptwriter, Yukino thought for a moment. Aside from spending more time reading and studying at home, she also decided to take on more of the cooking duties.
At nine in the evening.
Yukino sliced the freshly baked, cooled bread, added some cut fruit, poured a glass of milk, and carried everything into the bedroom.
At the moment, Ichin was in the room working on the Bloodborne project proposal, researching various Victorian-era architectural and clothing references.
The Monster Train project wasn't particularly difficult. Once the overall direction was set, Ichin could hand it over to the team to carry out.
Bloodborne, on the other hand, was something he needed to oversee personally from start to finish—just like Persona and Dark Souls before it. It was a top-priority project.
Gently opening the door, Yukino walked in with the food and looked at Ichin bent over his desk. "Take a short break and eat something."
Pulling his attention away from the computer screen, Ichin glanced at the freshly baked bread and said to Yukino, who had sat down beside him, "Thanks for the trouble. Then eat a bit with me."
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