The final week of January 2002 was already dominated by ZEPS 4 anticipation, yet ZAGE still had three games remaining on its release schedule before the new console officially arrived. Instead of delaying them or allowing ZEPS 4 to completely swallow their attention, ZAGE released all three as planned, each targeting a completely different type of player and, interestingly, three completely different platforms.
The first was Rise of Nations for PC.
For strategy players, the game immediately stood out because it did not feel like ZAGE was simply releasing another traditional real-time strategy game with a different historical skin. Rise of Nations borrowed the immediacy of an RTS while mixing it with ideas normally found in much larger civilization-building games. Players did not simply construct a base, gather wood and gold, train soldiers, and destroy an enemy. They were effectively guiding an entire nation through different stages of history.
The game began with relatively primitive settlements, but players could advance through multiple historical ages, gradually unlocking completely new technology, military units, buildings, and economic possibilities. Cities mattered. National borders mattered. Territory mattered. Resources were spread across the map in ways that encouraged expansion rather than simply sitting safely inside one enormous base forever.
That territorial system immediately became one of the most praised mechanics. Every city expanded the player's national borders, and those borders were not merely visual decorations. Fighting deep inside enemy territory carried consequences. Armies could suffer attrition when operating too far inside hostile land without proper support, meaning players could not simply march an enormous army across half the map without thinking about logistics. Forts, cities, supply lines, and territorial control suddenly mattered in a way many RTS games barely considered.
Rise of Nations also encouraged players to build an actual economy instead of endlessly producing only one or two resources. Food, timber, wealth, metal, knowledge and other resources supported different aspects of the nation, while economic limits prevented a player from simply stacking one resource infinitely. Universities generated knowledge. Merchants could exploit rare resources. Cities created economic centers. Different nations also possessed their own bonuses and unique units, encouraging different strategies instead of making every faction feel identical beneath different artwork.
The result was an RTS where players constantly balanced military pressure, economic development, technological advancement and territorial expansion.
Of course, the genre itself remained relatively niche. Real-time strategy fans absolutely loved it, but Rise of Nations was never going to attract the same broad audience as Pokémon, Mario or Grand Theft Auto. That did not bother ZAGE. Team FROST had built the game specifically for people who enjoyed sitting in front of a PC for hours planning economies, moving armies, advancing through history and slowly watching an entire civilization grow across the map.
Among those players, the reaction was excellent.
The second release was completely different.
Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure arrived on ZGBA.
Zaboru remembered the original handheld game from his previous life. It had been a surprisingly good attempt at translating Crash Bandicoot onto the Game Boy Advance, but the limitations of that hardware meant the game remained heavily dependent on side-scrolling presentation and simplified environments. ZGBA did not have those same limitations.
So ZAGE did not simply recreate the old game.
They expanded it.
The Huge Adventure retained the fast platforming, crates, Wumpa Fruit, masks, bonus rooms, chase sequences and familiar Crash humor, but the visual presentation had been pushed significantly further. Characters used much more detailed models and animations, environments contained actual depth, lighting and layered scenery, and several stages transitioned into proper three-dimensional movement rather than remaining locked entirely to a side-scrolling plane.
It was still designed as a handheld game first. Levels were relatively short and easy to play during smaller sessions, checkpoints were generous enough for portable play, and loading remained extremely fast. But when Crash ran toward the camera during chase sequences, explored larger ruins, jumped across three-dimensional pathways or escaped enormous hazards, the game looked far closer to a compact console Crash title than people expected from a handheld.
For ZGBA owners, it was simply another strong release.
But neither Rise of Nations nor Crash Bandicoot became the biggest surprise of the week.
That belonged to Tales of Demon and Gods.
The game came from ZAGE's China division, Team MYTH, a development group still considered relatively young compared with older ZAGE teams such as NOVA, IZAN, Tempest , Enigma or NIWA. Because of that, expectations were somewhat uncertain. People knew Team MYTH contained talented developers, but this was effectively one of the first major games that would establish what kind of identity the Chinese team wanted to develop inside ZAGE.
They delivered.
Tales of Demon and Gods was a large ZEPS 3 JRPG inspired by a story Zaboru remembered from his previous life. Instead of simply reproducing that story directly, he had restructured it from the beginning around a game format. The core reincarnation premise remained intact because that was what Zaboru considered the strongest hook.
The protagonist, Nie Lie, had once become an extraordinarily powerful cultivator, only to die during a catastrophic battle. Instead of his existence ending there, he suddenly awakened years in the past, once again inside the body of his thirteen-year-old self.
He remembered everything.
His failures.
His enemies.
The people he failed to protect.
The techniques he had learned.
The disasters that would eventually occur.
And most importantly, the mistakes he had made during his first life.
That was where the game began.
Players were not controlling a normal child gradually discovering the world. They were controlling someone whose body was weak but whose mind contained years of experience and knowledge. Nie Lie frequently understood situations long before the people around him did, recognized cultivation techniques others dismissed, remembered future threats nobody else knew existed, and occasionally used information from his previous life to manipulate events in completely different directions.
However, Zaboru had deliberately prevented that knowledge from becoming an automatic victory button.
Knowing how to become powerful did not mean Nie Lie instantly possessed that power.
His younger body still needed training. His Soul Realm still had limitations. Rare materials needed to be found. Demon Spirits needed to be acquired. Techniques required cultivation. His friends still needed protection, and changing one event could alter later circumstances in ways even Nie Lie could not completely predict.
The game therefore became heavily focused on progression.
Every increase in strength felt earned.
And the cultivation system became the heart of that progression.
The world broadly divided cultivators into two major paths: Fighter Cultivation and Demon Spiritualist Cultivation. Fighters strengthened their physical bodies, combat techniques, endurance and direct martial ability. They were generally straightforward but extremely reliable, able to withstand punishment and deal consistent physical damage without depending heavily on spiritual abilities.
Demon Spiritualists were considerably more complicated.
And Nie Lie followed that second path.
Throughout the game, players could obtain various Demon Spirits, sometimes casually called Spirit Animals by players because many took the forms of beasts, monsters or strange supernatural creatures. Once compatible Demon Spirits were integrated with Nie Lie's Soul Realm, they did not merely function as collectible pets fighting beside him. They fundamentally altered his combat abilities.
That system made Nie Lie one of the most flexible protagonists ZAGE had created.
A heavy defensive Demon Spirit could transform him into something resembling a frontline tank, increasing resistance, durability and control abilities. A fast beast-type spirit could emphasize speed, evasion and critical attacks. Another might focus on elemental damage, healing, crowd control, ranged techniques or debuffs. Some rare Demon Spirits possessed extremely unusual abilities that completely changed how Nie Lie interacted with certain battles.
And because Demon Spirits could grow alongside the player, choosing one was not simply about comparing raw statistics.
Players developed builds around them.
Nie Lie also possessed his own cultivation techniques, equipment, Soul Realm upgrades and skill trees, meaning two players could reach the same point in the story with dramatically different versions of the protagonist.
One player might build Nie Lie into a high-speed attacker who repeatedly exploited enemy weaknesses. Another could turn him into a durable spiritual defender who protected the rest of the group. Another might build around powerful area attacks, while someone else could focus almost entirely on support, control and weakening enemies so his companions could deal the real damage.
That versatility was intentional.
Because unlike Nie Lie, most of his companions were much more specialized.
Ye Ziyun became one of the party's strongest spiritual magic users. Her path emphasized powerful elemental Demon Spirit techniques, ranged damage and battlefield control. She could hit multiple enemies extremely hard, but she was comparatively fragile and required protection during difficult encounters.
Xiao Ning'er filled a much faster offensive role. Her lightning-oriented cultivation emphasized speed, burst damage and rapidly attacking priority targets. She was excellent at eliminating dangerous enemies before they could become a problem, but could struggle when forced into prolonged defensive battles.
Du Ze was built as one of the party's dependable frontline characters. His development emphasized physical durability, reliable damage and protecting weaker members. He lacked Nie Lie's extreme customization, but what he did, he did consistently well.
Lu Piao, meanwhile, leaned toward a more aggressive Fighter-oriented style. He could deal strong physical damage and possessed several risky abilities that became more effective when players committed heavily to offense. His personality also translated naturally into several humorous combat animations and dialogue scenes, making him one of the most entertaining party members.
Other characters joined or temporarily supported the group as the story progressed, each generally possessing a clearer role than Nie Lie himself.
That created an interesting party-building system because Nie Lie functioned almost like the missing piece.
If the player wanted to use two fragile damage-focused companions, Nie Lie could become the defensive character protecting them. If the party already contained enough frontline strength, he could specialize in spiritual damage. If a specific boss used dangerous status effects, Nie Lie could equip a Demon Spirit or technique designed around cleansing or resistance.
The protagonist was not simply stronger than everyone.
He was adaptable.
That distinction became extremely important to the game's balance.
Zaboru had specifically warned Team MYTH during early development that the original idea could easily collapse into a one-man carry if Nie Lie became too powerful too quickly. He did not want players reaching the middle of the game and realizing every companion existed merely to stand behind the protagonist while Nie Lie solved everything himself.
So Team MYTH designed encounters around party synergy.
Some enemies possessed physical defenses that encouraged Demon Spiritualists to attack them. Others resisted spiritual damage but struggled against Fighters. Bosses could change phases, forcing players to adjust their strategy midway through combat. Certain enemies needed to be interrupted before using dangerous techniques. Others summoned additional monsters, punished overly aggressive play or targeted weaker party members.
The turn-based combat system therefore rewarded understanding the entire group rather than simply grinding until Nie Lie could overpower everything.
And because the game remained a JRPG, players had time to think.
Turns displayed clear information about buffs, debuffs, Soul Force, enemy behavior and party positioning. Many stronger abilities consumed meaningful resources rather than being endlessly spammable. Demon Spirit transformations could create enormous advantages, but using them carelessly could leave Nie Lie vulnerable later in the same battle.
Players gradually learned that the question was rarely, "How strong is my Nie Lie?"
It was more often, "What version of Nie Lie does this party need right now?"
That became one of the most praised aspects of the game.
The progression systems also supported the reincarnation narrative surprisingly well. Because Nie Lie already possessed knowledge from his previous life, several side quests allowed players to exploit information ordinary characters did not understand. He might recognize a seemingly worthless herb as something extremely valuable when combined with another material. He could identify cultivation mistakes inside supposedly prestigious techniques. Occasionally he knew where hidden treasures would eventually be discovered and could reach them years earlier.
But choices were not always completely safe.
Changing the past changed the future.
Some events Nie Lie expected would happen differently because his earlier actions had already influenced the world. Characters survived who previously died. Relationships changed. Enemies became aware of him earlier. Certain future knowledge gradually became less reliable the further the player moved from the original timeline.
That prevented the reincarnation concept from becoming merely a convenient explanation for why Nie Lie knew everything.
It became part of the actual narrative tension.
The story itself surprised players with how seriously Team MYTH treated the supporting cast. Nie Lie's relationships with his classmates did not exist only to make him look impressive. Ye Ziyun, Ning'er, Du Ze, Lu Piao and the others had personal conflicts, ambitions, family problems and cultivation struggles that continued independently from the protagonist.
Some optional quests could even permanently improve a companion's future abilities or unlock entirely different skills depending on how players handled their problems.
The overall presentation was equally impressive.
For a ZEPS 3 game, Tales of Demon and Gods looked exceptional. Team MYTH used the experience ZAGE had accumulated producing high-end JRPGs to create highly detailed cities, cultivation academies, forests, ruins and enormous spiritual environments. Character models were expressive, Demon Spirits were often visually spectacular, and certain transformation sequences deliberately pushed ZEPS 3 harder than most people thought the hardware could manage.
The art direction mixed traditional Chinese visual influences with ZAGE's cinematic JRPG presentation. Architecture, clothing, weapons, spiritual symbols and environments immediately gave the game its own identity rather than making it feel like another Japanese fantasy RPG with Chinese names placed over it.
The soundtrack followed the same philosophy, blending orchestral music with traditional Chinese instruments during important locations and battles.
Even players who knew nothing about cultivation stories found themselves gradually understanding the terminology because Team MYTH introduced concepts carefully through gameplay rather than dumping enormous amounts of exposition onto them at once.
Cultivation ranks became progression milestones.
Soul Force became a resource players actively managed.
Demon Spirits became build-defining systems.
And reincarnation became a gameplay advantage that still carried uncertainty.
By the end of the opening hours, many players who had originally bought Tales of Demon and Gods simply because it was a new ZAGE JRPG were already hooked.
Team MYTH had proven itself.
For a relatively new ZAGE development team, the game felt remarkably confident. It had its own cultural identity, its own progression systems, an immediately recognizable protagonist, and enough build variety that players were already discussing different Nie Lie setups only days after release.
Some preferred aggressive Demon Spirits.
Others argued that defensive builds were secretly stronger.
Several players were already trying to discover unusual combinations Team MYTH probably never expected anyone to use.
And Zaboru loved seeing it.
That was exactly what he had wanted when he first handed Team MYTH the development folder more than a year earlier.
Not simply a cultivation story converted into a game.
A cultivation JRPG where players could actually feel themselves climbing.
The three January releases therefore accomplished something important despite arriving directly beneath the enormous shadow of ZEPS 4. Rise of Nations gave PC strategy fans another deep game to lose hundreds of hours inside. Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure gave ZGBA owners another polished handheld title. And Tales of Demon and Gods established Team MYTH as a development group capable of standing proudly beside ZAGE's older teams.
For several days, people played them.
But gradually, everyone began looking toward the calendar again.
Friday already comes but then some Guest come to ZAGE tower prior to major events tomorrow.
To be continued.
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