For this meeting, Ichin didn't bother preparing any PowerPoint slides. He simply jotted down a few notes in his notebook and began speaking directly to everyone.
"Over the past year, our company released two games: Fall Guys and Titanfall. Titanfall was developed by the Shanghai Studio, while our team mainly focused on Dark Souls throughout the year. So aside from that major project, the only title we launched was Fall Guys, our flagship multiplayer party obstacle-course game.
Even so, Fall Guys performed extremely well, with sales surpassing one million copies early on. Once we finalized the update roadmap, we also secured a good number of collaboration skins.
As for Titanfall, even though it was released late in the year, it still achieved over a million units sold. That's an amazing result.
To think that in just four years since the company's founding, every title released had achieved both high quality and strong sales — from the stylish RPG Persona to Titanfall — their output and performance were exceptional.
And not just now — we'll keep producing many different genres in the future."
A garden of many blossoms — that was Ichin's vision for the company's future.
In a studio where every game sold over a million copies, it was only natural that everyone felt optimistic about what lay ahead.
Seeing the eager, excited faces around the table, Ichin smiled and continued,
"That's how things stood last year. But we can't get complacent. Today, we keep pushing forward. I'll briefly go over our first-half targets.
First, Dark Souls is entering its final pre-release stage. By mid-February, the game's development must be completed, and the console version should move to the disc-printing phase.
Next, Fall Guys' collaboration skins — all platform-specific crossovers for console and PC — have been finalized. We'll roll those out simultaneously in February.
And then, there's the Castle Crashers team."
At that point, everyone in the small group led by Sakura Nene straightened in their seats.
Before Ichin could speak again, Nene said firmly, "Don't worry. Give us one more month — we'll have the game finished and ready for release!"
Castle Crashers wasn't intended to have a physical edition. Its scale was too small — unlike BattleBlock Theater with tons of stages, or The Binding of Isaac with its roguelike depth.
As a test project for the new team, a digital-only release was perfectly fine. After all, Slay the Spire had launched that way too. As long as the game was fun, there'd be no problem.
After Nene spoke, her teammates all voiced their determination as well.
Ichin nodded. "Good. I'll be waiting to see your finished product. Once Dark Souls and Castle Crashers are done, we'll move on to new projects — the GARO adaptation, and Tales of Berseria, which we'll co-develop with Capcom on the action combat system.
Meanwhile, the Shanghai Studio has already started on the Titanfall spinoff battle royale project — Apex. And we'll also be assigning some staff to develop Dark Souls' expansion content."
"Three and a half projects altogether," Ichin said, "so once we move into our newly renovated office building in March, we'll need to recruit again. Same as before — if any of you have talented friends in the industry, internal referrals are welcome. Successful referrals that lead to a hire will earn a bonus."
For the first half of the year, including Shanghai's work, three projects would be in progress. Ichin's schedule was to have Apex released by year's end, with Dark Souls' DLCs — The Painted World and Ringed City — following afterward.
Next year's focus would then shift to GARO and Tales of Berseria.
Of course, this was just the initial plan for the year. Adjustments would likely occur as development progressed, but overall, the direction wouldn't change much.
After wrapping up his overview, Ichin clapped his hands lightly. "Alright, that's all for the plan. No need for empty talk — once you're back at your desks, each team should distribute tasks and kick off the first workday of the new year.
Also, as I mentioned before, if you come up with new game design ideas during downtime, write them down. At the end of each month, we'll hold a creative meeting to share concepts — gameplay systems, worldbuilding, anything. Okay, that's it. Dismissed."
After everyone filed out of the meeting room, Ichin took a sip of water, turned to Hazuki and asked, "Hazuki, the meeting with Capcom is set for tomorrow, right?"
Hazuki flashed an OK gesture. "Don't worry, everything's confirmed. Just bring the battle demo you made — they're very interested."
Thanks to Nintendo's introduction, cooperation with Capcom was practically secured. However, before formal collaboration, they wanted to see a combat demo.
After all, the company's most popular title so far, Persona, was a turn-based RPG. The only real action game in their portfolio was Hollow Knight.
If their core action system wasn't up to par, even "the masters of action" Capcom might find working together troublesome — since they'd only serve as consultants, not the main developers.
Discussing the Osaka trip for tomorrow, Ichin and Hazuki left the meeting room.
Back in the workspace, even though it was the first day after the New Year break, everyone's energy was sky-high.
They were all true game lovers, developing fun, creative titles — not cheap, soulless products. Naturally, their passion was infectious.
Not to mention, the company's work culture and benefits were great too.
After a brief look around, Ichin headed toward Yagami Kō's art department.
Having just finished distributing tasks to her artists, Kō turned and said with a teasing smile, "What's this, big boss? No work for you today?"
"Not for now. All prep for tomorrow's Capcom visit is done. My job today is just to supervise you all."
Kō rolled her eyes at him and plugged in her drawing tablet. "If you really have nothing to do, go handle the office snack restock. It's the first day back, and we're totally out of snacks and drinks."
"Oh! Right!"
Remembering that, Ichin laughed, stood up, and went straight to the logistics department to arrange it.
---
After the New Year, the company's projects progressed smoothly. Dark Souls entered its final integration phase, with optimization and debugging moving along steadily.
At the end of January, Ichin flew home with Utaha and Yukino to spend the Lunar New Year with their families.
Originally, Haruno had wanted to come too, but her family's company had several new projects after the holidays — plus, she needed to oversee the new office building's finishing work — so she had to reluctantly stay behind in Tokyo.
After celebrating the New Year with family, Ichin returned to his usual Tokyo routine.
Talks with Capcom had gone perfectly — both the GARO adaptation and Tales of Berseria's scripts and gameplay plans were finalized. Once the Dark Souls project wrapped in March, development could begin in earnest.
And on February 10th, one month before Dark Souls' release, Castle Crashers — the small-scale 2D side-scrolling co-op action game — officially launched.
Up to four players could team up, clearing stages together while also engaging in all sorts of "friendly" chaos. Whether online or local, it was the kind of game you could enjoy anytime with friends.
Thanks to its party-game appeal, it gained solid popularity and decent sales upon release — though due to its simple art style and short overall playtime, it was never meant to be a major hit.
Still, Ichin was quite satisfied with how complete the game turned out.
After its release, the new team—composed of senior-year university students who had joined the company last year—successfully passed their probation period and officially became full-time employees.
Once they transitioned to full-time status, and with graduation ceremonies still ahead, they joined the idle members from the Dark Souls project to begin early preparations for the GARO game.
By this stage, the art department had finished all remaining tasks for Dark Souls and was ready to move on to new projects.
With that team restructuring done, time quietly moved on to February 14th—Valentine's Day.
Although it was a normal workday, Ichin had already made plans for the evening: he'd reserved a restaurant for a candlelit dinner with Utaha, and even booked a hotel, ready to spend a romantic night together.
That morning, when he arrived at the university, the Valentine's atmosphere was stronger than ever—college was much freer compared to high school, after all.
Walking along the path to the lecture halls, he could see couples everywhere, and groups of girls huddled together, holding chocolates and chatting about how to give them to the boys they liked.
Meanwhile, the male students were all secretly wondering if they'd receive any chocolates today.
Holding onto Ichin's arm, Utaha smiled playfully.
"Hey, Ichin—want some chocolate?"
"Hm? Did you prepare some?"
Ichin turned to her with a small grin. "We don't really need to, do we? We've been exchanging chocolates for years. It's not that important anymore."
Utaha nodded with a chuckle. "You're right, I didn't prepare any. But a few days ago, Nene went to see Yukino—apparently, she wanted to learn how to make really good homemade chocolate."
"Ohhh, she actually went that far?"
Ichin was a little surprised. But then he remembered that Nene had taken the day off to go to Shanghai, so clearly she'd been preparing for Valentine's quite seriously.
Still… two girls giving chocolates to each other? That was a bit unexpected. And he doubted Umiko even knew Nene was heading her way.
After walking for a while, Ichin and Utaha split up to attend their respective classes.
Before parting, Utaha took his hand and said with a teasing smile, "If any girl gives you chocolate today, you have to tell me, okay?"
Ichin laughed and shook his head. "Don't worry. Everyone at school already knows about us—no one's going to try that. At most, I might get some obligatory chocolates from classmates, the kind all the guys get together."
"Hmm, we'll see about that."
Utaha leaned in, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and then walked off toward the Literature Department.
When Ichin reached his own classroom, sure enough, he and the other guys received some group-made chocolates from a few girls in the class.
He accepted them politely, of course.
As he sat down with the chocolates in hand, he overheard the guys in front chatting excitedly.
"Man, getting chocolates from classmates is nice and all, but I really want to get one from a girl who actually likes me."
"Yeah, and if it's from a cute underclassman, even better."
"Ha! Dream on. How many freshmen girls do you even know? Who's gonna give you real chocolates?"
They laughed, then turned around to look at Ichin.
"So, Ichin, did you get any?"
Ichin replied straightforwardly, "Nope. Not really interested, either. Utaha and I don't even bother with that anymore. And honestly, no one around here's bold enough to try something like that, right?"
"Yeah, that's true."
"But still… I've got a feeling someone stubborn might try anyway."
The bell rang, signaling the start of first period, and the conversation ended as everyone turned their attention to class.
The first lecture went by uneventfully. But right after the second period ended, a girl suddenly appeared at the classroom door—asking specifically for Ichin by name.
Amidst the teasing whistles and cheers from his male classmates, Ichin could only sigh helplessly. He stepped outside and, in the gentlest way he could, declined both the chocolate and the confession that came with it.
He genuinely couldn't understand it—why were there still people trying to "steal the man" from Utaha? Did they really think she was someone easy to mess with?
Sure enough, when Utaha heard about it at lunchtime, she didn't show anger on her face, but she quietly canceled her plan to visit the library that afternoon. Instead, she followed Ichin straight to his classroom, intending to sit in for his afternoon lectures.
"Um…"
Ichin glanced to his right, where Utaha was now sitting beside him, then to his left—where Yukino was also seated.
"Utaha's one thing, but… Yukino, why are you here too?"
Turning a page in her novel, Yukino replied softly, "Utaha told me. I didn't have any afternoon classes anyway, so I figured I'd come and take a look. What's wrong—am I not welcome?"
"It's not that," Ichin said with a wry smile. "It's just… this is a computer science lecture. You're not going to enjoy it."
"I never planned to listen," she said calmly, flipping another page. "That's why I brought a book."
…Fair enough. As long as she's happy.
Ichin finally understood — even Yukino was curious to see whether any more girls would dare come by to give him gifts.
Meanwhile, he could feel the envious stares from several male classmates all around the room, watching him sit between Utaha and Yukino like something out of a dream.
---
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