There were many things happening in July. Several ZAGE teams had already completed ga developnt that was scheduled for release this month, and those teams included IZAN, KODO, NOVA, and TEMPEST. It was a busy and productive period, with multiple projects finally reaching completion after months of effort, coordination, and refinent.
For Team NOVA, their work on Ape Escape was completed as expected, and the results were solid. However, instead of assigning them a new project imdiately, Zaboru made a deliberate decision. He wanted them to focus entirely on Smash Bros for the ti being. Rather than rushing into another developnt cycle, he prioritized polish,fine-tuning chanics, balancing characters, improving responsiveness, and ensuring the overall gaplay felt smooth and satisfying. This aligned with what team NOVA asked..
To Zaboru, this phase was just as critical as developnt itself. A well-polished ga could define how players experienced and rembered it. Since Smash Bros was positioned as a major title, he didn’t want to risk compromising its quality.
Next, for Team Tempest, their July task was to release the expansion of Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, titled Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne. Zaboru intentionally priced it very low,around 4 USD or 400 yen,making it extrely accessible. Despite the low price, the expansion offered significant value: a brand-new campaign, updated maps, and additional content that expanded the overall experience. Alongside this, ZAGE also updated the DOTA map, which was included within Frozen Throne, introducing many new heroes and improvents that further strengthened its growing player base.
By keeping the price low and the content rich, Zaboru ensured that more players could join, which in turn made the ecosystem stronger and more active.
After the release, Zaboru assigned Team Tempest new responsibilities. At that point, they were already handling four major ongoing projects,Max Payne, Age of Empires 2, Baldur’s Gate 2, and Driver. Each of these was a heavy task on its own, requiring significant effort, coordination, and technical execution. However, Zaboru understood that Team Tempest had grown into a highly capable and reliable team.
Because of that, he made a bold decision,he assigned them yet another major project: Doom 3. It was an ambitious move, but also a calculated one. Zaboru believed that pushing the team slightly beyond their comfort zone would accelerate their growth even further.
Doom 3 from Zaboru’s previous life took a different approach compared to the earlier Doom titles, shifting more toward a horror-focused experience rather than pure fast-paced action. The atmosphere was darker, the pacing was more controlled, and the sense of tension played a much bigger role. Instead of overwhelming players with constant enemies, it focused on fear, limited visibility, and psychological pressure. Even so, despite this change in direction, it was still a very good ga overall, offering a fresh experience while maintaining the core identity of Doom.
He set a clear target: August 2001. That gave them roughly 13 months to complete the project. It was a tight but achievable tiline, one that would test not just their technical ability, but also their efficiency, coordination, and endurance as a team.
For Team IZAN, they had just finished developing Dino Crisis, and even though they were still handling six ongoing projects, Shinji Mikami, as the team leader, approached Zaboru with confidence. He stated that the team was fully capable of taking on a new task. This surprised Zaboru at first, but he didn’t reject the request. Instead, he saw it as a sign of growth. Team IZAN had reached a level where they were not just following orders, but actively seeking more challenges.
Fortunately, Zaboru had already planned sothing for them. Their next project would be a Bruce Lee ga. Since Zaboru had already secured the rights to Bruce Lee, who was now also his Sifu, this project carried both business and personal aning. The ga would be a beat ’em up, staying true to Bruce Lee’s martial arts style, but Zaboru wanted to add sothing unique. He planned to give Bruce Lee a form of "Chi power," allowing for more dynamic combat and slightly supernatural elents while still respecting his identity.
Zaboru planned to make Bruce Lee capable of utilizing a "Thunder Dragon" power in this ga, where each of his strikes would be coated in golden lightning, giving his attacks a sharp, explosive feel while still reflecting his speed and precision. This ability would not just be visual, it would also affect gaplay, allowing players to chain faster combos, break guards, and unleash short bursts of power during critical monts. In addition, as a beat em up title, the ga would include a wide range of unlockable abilities and upgrades, such as new techniques, enhanced Chi control, and special finishers, giving players a sense of progression and mastery as they continued playing.
This ga would also be part of a shared universe, connected with the previously developed Jackie Chan and Michael Jackson gas.
He had already decided on the title, "Thunder Dragon Warrior." It was bold, morable, and fitting for the direction he had in mind.
For the tiline, Zaboru gave Team IZAN exactly one year. The target release would be July 2001. It was an ambitious schedule, especially considering their existing workload, but he trusted their capability. At this point, Team IZAN had proven that they could handle pressure, and this project would be another step in pushing them even further.
As for Team KODO, their work on Ultraman Fighting Evolution was completed once again, showing consistent performance in handling ZAGE IP-based gas, which had beco their specialty. Because of that, Zaboru decided to assign them another project within the sa category, this ti a Naruto ga.
The concept of the ga would be similar to Naruto: Ultimate Ninja on PS2, but Zaboru understood the limitations of ZEPS 3. Since it couldn’t fully replicate PS2-level graphics, he planned to slightly reduce visual performance while pushing the system in other areas. His goal was to make the ga feel advanced for ZEPS 3, even if it didn’t match raw graphical fidelity.
The gaplay would focus on 2D fighting, simple in structure but fun and responsive, with strong emphasis on character abilities and fast-paced combat. Each character would feel distinct, reflecting their personality and fighting style from the ani. However, since the Naruto tiline in this world was only approaching Shippuden, there would be no Shippuden-era characters included. Zaboru wanted the ga to stay accurate to its current tiline rather than jumping ahead.
and despite being a fighting ga, it would be much simpler in execution. The moves would use easy inputs like down-down circle or up-up circle instead of complex combinations, making the ga far more accessible for new players. This approach would lower the barrier to entry, allowing more people to enjoy the ga right away, even if it ant the mastery level would not be very deep at first. Still, Zaboru was already thinking ahead. He planned to improve this system in the next installnt, gradually adding more depth without losing accessibility.
In his previous life, ani fighting gas were often treated as gimmicks, focusing more on characters and flashy visuals rather than solid gaplay. Zaboru wanted to change that approach. His goal was to create gas that were not only visually appealing but also chanically satisfying and worth mastering. He wanted each major ani IP owned by ZAGE to have a truly good ga, sothing that could stand on its own rit, similar to how Dragon Ball gas in his previous life eventually found the right balance between accessibility and depth. This Naruto ga would be the first step toward that direction, laying the foundation for sothing much bigger in the future.
As for team KODO making this ga , Zaboru saw this project as a way to strengthen KODO’s identity. By continuing to handle IP-based fighting gas, they could refine their expertise and build a recognizable style.
For the tiline, Zaboru gave Team KODO 14 months, targeting a release in September 2001. It was a reasonable schedule, allowing room for polish and iteration. And as always, if the team needed more ti to ensure quality, Zaboru was willing to give it.
Aside from this, Zaboru also asked his lead developers from each team whether they wanted to create their own original gas. Most of them gave a similar answer: they wanted to, but not yet. Many were still in the early stages, mapping out ideas, drafting concepts, and figuring out what kind of ga they truly wanted to make. Zaboru understood this completely and chose not to rush them. For him, forcing creativity would only weaken the result, so he preferred to let ideas grow naturally over ti.
He believed that when the ti was right, those developers would co forward on their own, not because they were told to, but because they were ready. That kind of motivation, in his eyes, always led to better gas.
At the mont, only one person had stepped forward to work independently—Shigeru Miyamoto. He was already developing a sequel to Mario 64 for ZEPS 3 on his own initiative. This didn’t surprise Zaboru at all. If anything, it matched Miyamoto’s nature perfectly, soone who constantly created, explored, and refined ideas without needing to be pushed.
Also in his previous life, where ZAGE did not exist, Shigeru Miyamoto was the one who created Mario. Now, in this world, he wanted to create his own Mario ga once again, but this ti under completely different circumstances and with new possibilities in mind. The experience he carried, combined with the environnt ZAGE provided, could lead to sothing even more refined than before. Zaboru was genuinely excited to see how it would turn out.
Now aside from this, Disney was releasing one of its latest movies, Ice Age, and the movie itself turned out to be really, really good. Many families were enjoying it a lot, and people were genuinely surprised by how many strong 3D animated movies had co out this year. First, there was Finding Nemo from Disney, then Toy Story 2 from Pixar, and now Ice Age from Disney again. It created a sense that this year was a major turning point for animation, where quality and popularity both reached a new level.
Because of this, public excitent toward Disney grew even stronger. Their reputation rose significantly, and more people began to pay attention not just to the movies themselves, but to the companies behind them. Slowly, so started to realize that both Disney and Pixar were, in fact, majority-owned by ZAGE.
That realization surprised a lot of people. ZAGE was already known for its dominance in the gaming industry, but now it was becoming clear that its influence extended far beyond that. It wasn’t just a ga company anymore. It was also a major force in the movie industry, capable of producing high-quality entertainnt across multiple diums. For many outside gars, this changed how they saw ZAGE completely.
Walt Disney was later interviewed, and what he said quickly spread across the entire industry. "All of those movies, even the ones from Pixar, are Zaboy’s ideas! That Zaboy... his creativity is insane. We’re just the ones bringing those ideas to life. Honestly, I wish I were younger so I could keep working alongside him. It’s unfortunate... I don’t have much ti left." His words were raw and honest, and they carried a weight that people couldn’t ignore.
That single statent shook the animation industry. Until then, many people had only seen ZAGE as a powerful video ga company. But now, it beca clear that Zaboru himself was the mind behind many of these successful films. It wasn’t just business strategy, it was creative influence at the highest level.
Naturally, the dia quickly turned to Zaboru for a response. However, instead of accepting the praise, he handled it in his usual calm and grounded way. "Walt Disney is just being modest," he said. "I’m not really doing anything special. I only give ideas. The teams at Pixar and Disney are the ones who truly make those movies happen. Don’t discredit their work. I’m not the one who deserves the praise."
Rather than lowering his image, that response had the opposite effect. People saw it as genuine humility. In an industry where recognition and ego often went hand in hand, Zaboru’s attitude stood out even more. Instead of claiming credit, he pushed it back to his teams, and that only elevated his reputation further.
But still Zaboru doesn’t really care too much about his reputation as usual.
That was what July looked like for ZAGE. Now, in late July, Zaboru was back inside ZAGE Tower after returning from ZAGE MYTH in China. Everything seed normal at first, but then he received an unexpected surprise.
To be continue
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