If Sega were to unleash a nuclear weapon like Virtua Fighter 3 at the first E3, they'd completely steal the show.
In business, you have to leave some scraps for your competitors to eat, or who will play with you in the future?
Leaving Yu Suzuki's Development Team, Takuya Nakayama moved to a cubicle in the First Development Department.
The atmosphere here was noticeably more relaxed, even carrying a faint aroma of oolong tea.
Koji Oba was gesturing at a wireframe model on the screen. Seeing the Managing Director enter, he didn't bother with formalities like standing up. Instead, he kicked a chair under Takuya's rear.
"Is this Joe Musashi's new design?" Takuya asked, pointing at the screen.
"Not exactly. We're trying to adapt the Super Shinobi aesthetic to this new perspective." Oba pressed a few keys, and the image on the screen rotated—not in a flashy, full 3D spin, but locked at a subtle angle: 45 degrees.
This was what they called "2.5D."
"This is interesting," Takuya Nakayama said, leaning closer to examine the screen. "But this thing has a fatal flaw. When the player jumps, they never know where they'll land. It's easy to get frustrated, thinking, 'I swear I jumped over that, but I still fell into the pit!'"
"That's why we added a highlighted circle beneath the protagonist's feet—their shadow," Koji Oba explained, pointing to the inconspicuous black dot. "We also set different brightness levels for ground surfaces at varying heights, making it easier for players to immediately find ground at the same level as their character."
He pulled a complex architecture diagram from a messy pile of documents on the desk. The diagram was densely covered in notes scribbled in different colored markers, resembling a complicated jigsaw puzzle.
"The collision logic directly uses the underlying library from Suzuki's Virtua Fighter 2. Although we don't need that level of detailed skeletal calculation, the combat feel had to be visceral and impactful. The map editor was adapted from Yuji Naka's Sonic 3D. If a hedgehog can run smoothly from this perspective, a ninja should be able to do it too. As for the item and ninjutsu interaction system—" Oba chuckled. "That came from Miss Kotama's Phantasy Star III..."
"We 'borrowed' it from other departments."
Takuya Nakayama chuckled.
These guys were the ultimate "master stitchers" within the company, taking the most mature wheels from various departments and assembling them into a new war machine.
"So, you're not planning to write a single line of code yourself?"
"Laziness is also a skill, Managing Director," Koji Oba retorted, unashamed. "Since the company already has so many mature solutions, why reinvent the wheel? We're pouring all our saved energy into level design and art style—that's the true path for Super Shinobi. Demon Samurai taught us the limits of Jupiter when it comes to handling semi-transparent textures and particle effects. This time, we're going to make Ninjutsu a visual spectacle."
This pragmatic, almost cunning development approach was exactly what Sega needed most right now.
Yu Suzuki was the nuclear weapon to break through technological barriers, while Oba's "borrow and adapt" approach formed the backbone of the company's game library.
After all, developing so many tools only to use them a few times was inefficient in the grand scheme of things.
"Your ideas are indeed excellent," Takuya Nakayama said, standing up and slapping the pieced-together structural diagram back onto the table. "But since you've cut so many corners on the tools, don't you dare drag out the schedule. It needs to be released this year."
"Get a trailer made. I'll take it to E3 to build hype with the players."
"And one more thing," Nakayama added as he reached the door, "don't call it something as cheesy as Super Shinobi 3D. Come up with a more sophisticated subtitle that reflects the game's story. It needs to make it clear this is a sequel to Super Shinobi without making players think we're cutting corners."
Koji Oba gave a thumbs-up.
After circling through several departments, Takuya Nakayama finally returned to his roots—the Third Development Department.
Here, the formality of the other departments was absent. The air was thick with the familiar aroma of instant noodles, cigarettes, and overheated circuit boards.
As the former leader who had guided them through the creation of countless classics, Nakayama didn't need to knock.
Team Leader Shimizu sat with his legs crossed, puffing on a cigarette while staring at a custom-built widescreen monitor. Seeing Nakayama enter, he merely lowered his legs and pointed at the screen, his face beaming with pride like a child showing off a prized possession.
On the screen, Ichigusa Soko, a short-haired woman in a high-cut bodysuit, stood on the rain-slicked streets of Shinohama City under the neon signs.
"Since Yu Suzuki's physics engine isn't ready yet, we've come up with a brute-force solution," Shimizu said, pressing buttons on the controller. In the game, Soko sprinted a few steps and approached an air conditioning unit mounted on the wall.
Without any complex physics calculations, a fleeting button prompt appeared on the screen.
Shimizu pressed the button, and a pre-rendered animation, so fluid it was almost absurd, instantly triggered. Soko braced herself against the unit with one hand, then used her waist to execute a graceful tactical roll, leaping onto the second-floor fire escape.
"All scripted?" Takuya Nakayama leaned in to get a closer look.
"Completely scripted," Shimizu admitted readily. "As long as the player presses the interact button near a lamppost, the GG Brand sign, or a ventilation duct, the corresponding action module is called. It sacrifices some freedom, but it's reliable and doesn't strain the CPU—just memory."
Takuya Nakayama nodded.
Given the current hardware limitations, this "sandbox" level design was the smartest approach.
Focusing all limited polygon processing power on the protagonist's cybernetic movements and scene details was far more practical than attempting an unachievable open world.
"What about the combat?"
Shimizu switched the scene.
Several terrorists charged out, brandishing submachine guns.
Instead of standing her ground and trading shots like in traditional shooters, Motoko charged straight into the enemy ranks.
She closed the distance, engaging in brutal hand-to-hand combat, each punch and kick landing with a heavy, impactful thud.
As an enemy's health dwindled, the screen suddenly froze, and a massive button prompt appeared in the center.
QTE.
Following Shimizu's correct inputs, Motoko unleashed a spectacular Finishing Move, snapping the enemy's neck before concluding with her signature cloaked spinning kick.
"Not quite done yet," Shimizu chuckled, guiding Motoko to draw her iconic SeburoM-5 handgun.
The moment he pressed the shoulder button, the entire world seemed to freeze in thick, viscous glue.
Raindrops hung suspended in mid-air, the muzzle flashes of the enemies' guns bloomed slowly, and only the crosshair in the center of the screen moved freely.
"We call this Cybernetic Overclock Mode."
[ Raindrops hung suspended in mid-air, the enemy's gun muzzle flamed slowly, and only the crosshair at the center of the screen moved with perfect fluidity. ]
[ "We call this the 'Cybernetic Overclock Mode'." ]
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