The success of the GSX has allowed Gamestar Electronic Entertainment to maintain its advantage, but just maintaining an advantage is not enough.
Takayuki has even more development plans ahead.
In the past, many of his ideas couldn't be fully realized because the performance of the game consoles wasn't up to par, which always left Takayuki unsatisfied. But now, those constraints are gone.
He finally feels he can freely develop the games he's always wanted to create.
The next games he wants to make are already clearly planned, and the first one is the Metal Gear series, which he's longed to work on for years.
This series can be considered the pioneer of stealth games and one of the first to use cinematic storytelling.
Although cinematic storytelling has already begun to show promise in this world, Takayuki still believes this series is indispensable.
It's not just about the game itself, but about the game creator's reflections on the wars and societal environments of that time.
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War, nuclear weapons, social media discourse, and much more.
So, Takayuki decided to bring this series to the public.
In fact, Metal Gear 1 was created a long time ago, and Takayuki could have made it earlier.
But the pieces that truly left a deep impression on him were the modern Metal Gear installments after the PS3 era.
His love for the series led him to try out all the games in it and understand the general plot.
Now, he has an idea to use modern technology to remaster the Metal Gear games he once played.
In his past life, the series had no chance of being re-developed, let alone receiving a high-definition remaster, which left him a little regretful.
So, to avoid regret, he decided to remaster the original Metal Gear series and present it on modern game consoles with high-definition visuals.
Having planned this out, Takayuki didn't waste any time and quickly gathered several development teams.
In fact, the game had already been scheduled one or two months before the official release of the GSX.
This time, it wouldn't require too many developers. Takayuki estimated that one development group along with support from an engine and effects team would be sufficient.
This time, the story would be the first to touch on real-world events, which was a big departure from the traditional fantasy stories Gamestar Electronic Entertainment had made in the past.
Previously, Gamestar's games were mostly traditional stories about heroes and princesses.
Final Fantasy made some breakthroughs, but it still started with a fantasy setting, with no clear intersection with reality.
Later, games like Counter-Strike and others set in reality didn't delve deeply into societal issues either.
Metal Gear would be an attempt to change that.
When Takayuki personally shared his ideas with the team about how he wanted to express these concepts in the game, they became excited and eager.
This was a whole new approach—connecting with reality for the first time and seriously thinking about some real-world issues.
It was moving closer to the film industry, and the scale suddenly felt different.
The first Metal Gear game has a pretty simple story, though.
A mysterious organization sends a special forces soldier to investigate a conflict in South Africa, but soon loses contact. They then send another soldier, named Snake, to destroy a nuclear-equipped tank and prevent a global disaster.
The game ends with the successful saving of the world, and the protagonist hiding in Alaska after completing the mission.
The summary is simple, but diving deeper into the story is another matter entirely.
To this day, Gamestar Electronic Entertainment puts a lot of focus on story development. Every team has a professional writing team.
These writing teams are mostly cultivated from scratch and have become a valuable asset for Gamestar.
For this Metal Gear project, Takayuki had a new plan—he would give the team the main tone of the story and gameplay, and let them unleash their creativity.
The first game didn't need to be a huge hit; even if it experienced some losses in sales, the sequels could make up for it.
This development model would give the team maximum exposure to the entire game development process, allowing them to grow faster.
The development team was given full freedom to create, and they were extremely excited.
A story related to real-world society—if they got it right, they might leave a lasting legacy. If they went out and said they developed the Metal Gear series, it would be a huge honor.
Meanwhile, Takayuki didn't sit idle.
He occasionally checked in on the Metal Gear development to ensure the core of the game was on track, and then worked on his side project—developing an indie game under a pseudonym.
Of course, since the side project had no ideological constraints, Takayuki developed whatever he wanted.
This time, he chose to develop an indie game called The Witch's House.
Despite using a 2D cartoon art style, it was a full-on horror game with a touch of neuroticism, and its ending was far from a happy, family-friendly conclusion.
After all, it's a horror game, and with a bit of insanity thrown in, it wouldn't have a joyful ending.
He wanted to show aspiring indie developers that as long as you have creativity, you should go all out and create what you want, without worrying about whether the game will be popular. As long as it satisfies your own desires, that's enough.
Sometimes indie games don't have as many commercial motives.
As expected, after Takayuki released The Witch's House, the sales were clearly underwhelming.
Even with the added recognition from his pseudonym, only a few players left positive reviews for The Witch's House, while most felt deceived.
After all, Takayuki's previous game Stardew Valley was so warm and harmonious.
But for some reason, he ended up developing a game with such a dark, bizarre quality—it really threw off players who didn't know much about the game.
However, the players who liked it really loved it. They gave it five-star ratings without hesitation, while those who didn't like it gave it one-star reviews.
If the rating system allowed zero stars, they probably would have given it that.
But Takayuki didn't really care about the so-called reputation. His side projects were more about testing out new games, and he believed that the world of games shouldn't be rigid. Showing different types of games through indie projects was necessary.