After the ZAGE yearly report eting, several things happened during the rest of January. One of the first things Zaboru did was visit the Sonaya offices to personally congratulate their team for winning GOTY 1999 with their ga Sun Knight 5. Even though Sonaya was technically a competitor of ZAGE, Zaboru had always respected studios that pushed the industry forward. He openly praised their work and encouraged them to continue making great gas, because he was already looking forward to playing whatever they cook next.
The main reason for the visit, however, was for Zaboru to review Sonaya's new ga engine. He had promised Hikaru Kurata, the CEO of Sonaya, that he would personally evaluate the engine. In exchange, Sonaya agreed to allow several of their songs to be included on the Z‑POD platform. During the visit, Junpei Hoshida and Hikaru Kurata proudly introduced the engine to him and explained that they simply called it the Sonaya Ga Engine. When Zaboru heard the na, he imdiately laughed and said, "This na has no personality!" The room briefly went silent before Junpei Hoshida started chuckling, while Hikaru Kurata looked slightly annoyed but not truly angry. He understood that Zaboru was only teasing them and that the comnt was not ant as serious criticism.
When the technical presentation began, it quickly beca clear to Zaboru that the engine took many references from the ZAGE Unreal Engine, which Sonaya had used for years in their developnt pipelines. In the past, Sonaya had provided ZAGE with large amounts of internal data about how their teams used the engine in real projects in exchange for free use of Unreal Engine. Only recently did Sonaya realize how valuable that data truly was, which is why they decided to stop relying on Unreal Engine and begin developing their own technology instead. Through years of working with Unreal Engine, Sonaya had gained a deep understanding of how important engine tools, workflows, and performance data were for long‑term developnt.
Despite still being new, the engine itself perford surprisingly well. It was mainly designed for Sonaya's 32‑bit console, the Ga Station, but the architecture also supported PC developnt. That alone suggested that Sonaya was preparing to expand more seriously into the PC market in the future. Zaboru spent so ti testing the engine's performance and examining the tools available to developers. After finishing his review, he gave them a positive assessnt. The overall performance reminded him of the early stages of ZAGE's Unreal Engine. It still had room to grow, but the foundation was solid and the direction was promising.
Next, at the end of January 2000, Zaboru t with Team FUMA. Their previous assignnt during the past year had been to create the farewell titles for both the ZEPS 2 and the ZGB consoles, projects that were successfully released in December 1999. After completing those gas, Zaboru intentionally gave the team so ti to study the ZGBA hardware more deeply. Since the ZGBA would beco one of ZAGE's most important platforms moving forward, he wanted Team FUMA to fully understand the system before starting their next major projects as team FUMA will focused on ZGBA in future.
By this point, however, Zaboru believed the team was ready to move forward again. Because of that, he decided to assign them three new tasks, and all of them would be ZGBA titles. The goal was to make Team FUMA one of the core developnt groups for the handheld platform. While ZGBA gas will also being developed by other ZAGE teams across the company, Team FUMA would focus on the system more heavily than the others, making the handheld their main area of specialization.
These first three projects would serve as the foundation for their ZGBA developnt pipeline. If the team perford well with these titles, they would likely continue producing more handheld gas in the future, gradually building experience and efficiency with the platform and Zaboru always trust his team for this.
The first ga is Klonoa. Zaboru wanted the title to feel very close to the original PlayStation version he rembered from his previous life. The core gaplay would remain a colorful side‑scrolling platforr with puzzle elents, and the visual style would stay bright and expressive so it could work well on a handheld screen. Because the ZGBA's performance was comparable to the PlayStation in Zaboru's previous life, he believed the ga could be adapted to the handheld without losing its charm. With careful optimization, the team could recreate the feel of the original while adjusting the level design slightly to better suit portable play sessions.
The next ga would be Mario Golf: The Advance Tour. This project would focus on golf gaplay featuring the familiar Mario and ZAGE characters. Zaboru wanted the ga to be simple to learn but still deep enough to keep players engaged for a long ti. In addition to standard golf matches, the team would also experint with a small RPG‑like progression system so players could improve their characters and unlock new courses over ti. The goal was to make it a relaxing but addictive title that players could enjoy in short sessions on the handheld.
The third ga would be Ninja Gaiden Advance. Unlike the other two projects, this title would take inspiration from the famous ZAGE IP Ninja Gaiden but would be built as a new interpretation designed specifically for the ZGBA.
For these three projects, Zaboru expected them to be released around November 2000. That gave Team FUMA roughly ten months of developnt ti. Considering the team's experience and the relatively focused scope of handheld titles, the schedule was considered achievable. The leaders of Team FUMA reviewed the plan and agreed that the tiline was demanding but realistic.
Then after that Zaboru gave Team Dynasty Korea their next tasks. Since Ragnarok Online and Gunbound had already been completed and were preparing for release, the team was ready to move on to new projects. Team Dynasty Korea would continue focusing mainly on online gas, since they already had strong experience in multiplayer systems and network infrastructure.
Because of that, Zaboru assigned them two new projects. The first one would be Audition Online, a dance ga centered around music, rhythm gaplay, and social interaction between players. Zaboru believed that online gas should not only focus on combat or RPG chanics but also create spaces where players could interact casually and enjoy lighter experiences together. Audition Online would focus heavily on songs, dance moves, customization, and social features so players could compete or simply have fun with friends.
The second project would be another MMORPG called RAN Online. Unlike Ragnarok, which focused on fantasy adventure, RAN Online would take place in a more modern setting and introduce different chanics and systems to differentiate it from other online RPGs. Zaboru wanted Team Dynasty to experint and expand their design experience so that ZAGE could build multiple successful online franchises instead of relying on only one title.
For the schedule, Audition Online was planned to release in January 2001, while RAN Online was targeted for March 2002. The longer tiline for RAN Online was intentional because MMORPGs required much larger developnt ti, especially for world design, networking stability, and long‑term content planning.
Overall, those would be the main tasks for Team Dynasty Korea for the coming years. Unlike other ZAGE teams, Team Dynasty would not receive 3 projects every year b ecause their gas were live service titles. Once an online ga launched, the team had to maintain servers, update content, balance gaplay, and manage the community. Because of that continuous workload, Zaboru preferred giving them longer project cycles compared to the other ZAGE developnt teams.
Then Ragnarok Online and Gunbound were released on ZAGE Steam, and they quickly made a strong impact on the market. It was the first ti ZAGE introduced a subscription service for online gas. Players only needed to pay 500 yen, or about 5 dollars, per month to access both Ragnarok Online and Gunbound. The price was considered very affordable, especially compared to the amount of content the gas offered.
There were also optional in‑ga purchases, but most of them were costic items rather than gaplay advantages. Many of these items were priced between 1 and 5 USD, making them easy for players to buy without feeling expensive. Players enjoyed customizing their characters, and the costic system quickly beca popular within the community.
Overall, the reception was very positive. The player base for both gas continued to grow, and the online communities surrounding them beca more active every day. Many ga developers across the industry were surprised by the subscription model ZAGE introduced. So studios began studying the approach with interest, wondering if similar systems could work for their own projects. In many ways, it marked the real beginning of large‑scale online gaming in this world—and as expected, ZAGE was the company that started it.
It had only been one week since Ragnarok Online and Gunbound went live, yet the number of players was already impressive. Ragnarok especially showcased many elents that traditional console gas could not easily replicate. The party system allowed friends to explore the world together, forming groups to fight monsters, share experience, and support each other during battles. For players in this world this was their first ti experiencing an MMORPG, and the excitent was obvious.
Players were leveling together, challenging powerful raid bosses as teams, and slowly forming their own guilds. Communities began appearing almost imdiately as players gathered in towns, traded items, and organized groups for adventures. Everything still felt like it was in its early stage, but the foundation was clearly there.
The world felt alive in a way that single‑player gas could never fully reproduce. Even within the first week, it was already clear that Ragnarok Online had the potential to beco sothing massive.
While Gunbound has its own charm, especially when playing with friends and trying to outplay each other in matches, many players quickly found it extrely fun and competitive. The simple controls and strategic aiming made every round exciting, and groups of friends often spent hours challenging each other. Because of this, Gunbound built a lively and energetic community very quickly. Overall, these online subscription gas were still a completely new concept in this world, and many players were experiencing this kind of connected multiplayer environnt for the first ti not just online battle gas.
These developnts also made PC bang in Korea and China beco even more popular. Because ZAGE Steam gift cards were being sold almost everywhere, it beca very easy for players to access the gas. Many people simply went to a nearby PC bang, bought Steam credit, and started playing imdiately. Soon it beca common for groups of friends to spend entire nights together grinding levels in new MMORPG, in Ragnarok Online.
The social environnt inside PC bangs made the experience even more exciting. Players would gather around rows of computers, forming parties with people sitting right beside them while shouting strategies and celebrating rare item drops. So players even began trading items directly with friends inside the sa PC bang, creating a small but active player‑driven economy.
However, this was not actually the first ti equipnt trading appeared in gas. ZAGE had already introduced that concept earlier through Diablo 2, where players could exchange valuable items with each other or even pay it with real world money. The difference with Ragnarok Online was that the system felt much easier and more natural to use.
Then, at the end of January, ZAGE was ready to release its website updates, and Zaboru prepared to personally showcase the new features and improvents as this will showcase the "Digital World" to this world
to be continued .
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