The follow-up developnt for this idea would be fairly simple. They could just develop it according to Ichin's mories of Salt and Sacrifice, and at the sa ti further refine the ga's action system, so that in addition to having that Souls-like flavor, the combat would also feel even more refreshing and satisfying.
The third idea selected was a cooperative horror ga thed around exorcising ghosts.
Ichin also had an impression of this ga. In his mory, it was called Phasmophobia. By using a microphone, players could call out to the ghosts lurking in a house, and through their responses determine whether the entity inside was an ordinary spirit, a demon, or so other kind of malicious ghost. Each type of ghost had different ways to identify it, and the objectives weren't limited to just identification—there were also tasks like exorcism and the like. It was quite interesting.
The gaplay proposed in the idea was roughly along those lines, though the details regarding ghost identification and the cooperative chanics weren't very clearly thought out yet.
But that wasn't really a problem. As long as the initial idea existed, with so many people in the company brainstorming together, they would definitely be able to flesh it out into a genuinely fun ga.
Besides, horror gas were a field the company had never touched before. This ti, it might be worth giving it a try.
All three new projects were relatively small in scale, but each of them was very interesting. The first two were similar to gas they had already worked on before—like Slay the Spire, Hollow Knight, and Dark Souls—so the developnt difficulty wouldn't be too high.
If there was one that would truly be challenging, it would be the multiplayer cooperative horror ga like Phasmophobia. Even then, the real difficulty would likely lie in voice interaction and how the ghosts responded to it, which would require so serious research.
If they actually managed to develop it, at the very least it would need to support Chinese, English, and Japanese for normal voice usage. Later on, they would probably have to add other widely used languages like French and German as well.
After all, a multiplayer cooperative ga like this wouldn't just be aid at Asia alone.
Once the eting ended, there was no rush to start on these three selected ideas. Even if they were going to begin developnt, it would have to wait until GARO was finished. Right now, they were still short on manpower.
After leaving the conference room and returning to the office, besides Utaha and Yukino, Hazuki, Umiko, and Yagami Kō also ca upstairs together.
After everyone sat down, Utaha said with a smile, "These three selected ideas are really quite good, especially the last one—the ghost-exorcising horror ga."
Leaning back on the sofa, Yagami Kō said with an eager look on her face, "That idea really is nice. It reminds of a lot of ghost-exorcism movies I've seen before—holding a Bible, candles, that sort of thing, searching through a house for hidden evil spirits. Ichin, out of the three ideas, which one are we developing first?"
Ichin thought for a mont before replying, "Personally, I think that while developing the first card-based roguelike ga, we can also work on one more at the sa ti. With our current manpower, two is the absolute limit. After all, the follow-up developnt tasks for APEX over in China are still quite heavy, and they're also tinkering with new project proposals on their own, planning to show them to later, so we can't really spare any people. But if we manage to recruit so good new hires later on, we could try developing three at once. For now, let's tentatively go with two—the card ga and the side-scrolling Souls-like action ga. As for the last one, we don't have experience making horror gas, so we'll need to prepare more on all fronts. Kō, if you're interested, you can research it more in your spare ti and join in when the ti cos."
Yagami Kō happily raised her hand. "No problem! I can give it a try! When you hold the project planning eting for that ga, Ichin, make sure to include !"
After thinking for a bit, Umiko said, "Yeah, I can give it a try too. The voice interaction and ghost chanics you ntioned just now do sound a bit tricky. I've never really researched that before either."
Hazuki smiled and shook her head. "I can join the first two projects, but for the last one, you guys will be enough. I'm fine watching horror movies, but if you ask to actually play a horror ga, I really can't handle it."
There were quite a few people like that—watching horror movies was fine, but when it ca to personally controlling a character in a ga, they'd jump at every little scare.
After chatting for a while, the three of them headed back to continue their work. Ichin also stayed in the office, taking care of tasks that didn't require him to go downstairs and approving so submitted docunts.
As for Utaha and Yukino, the two of them huddled together, whispering to each other. Ichin had his headphones on, so he didn't hear what they were saying.
Seeing Utaha pull out her laptop and type away nonstop, he guessed they were probably discussing her new book.
They stayed busy like that until 11:30 in the morning, when the office door suddenly flew open.
"Hahaha, I'm back!"
Haruno ran in, her face full of excitent.
Ichin looked up, took off his headphones, and said, "Welco back, Haruno-nee. And also… you forgot to knock again."
"Hehe, sorry, sorry. I got a bit too excited." Sticking out her tongue, Haruno turned to look at Yukino sitting on the sofa and opened her arms wide.
"Yukino~~ Big sis is back! Let give you a hug!"
But the mont she pounced forward, Yukino easily dodged, leaving Haruno sprawled face-first onto the sofa.
Looking at her sister, Yukino's eyes were filled with deep helplessness. "Sis, you're not a child anymore. Please be a bit more composed."
"Ehh~~~ I just missed you, that's all. You won't even let your big sister hug you—how stingy."
Puffing out her cheeks, Haruno looked toward Utaha sitting next to Yukino, only for Utaha to imdiately wrap an arm around Yukino from behind and say with a smile, "Sorry, Haruno-san, I can't handle your enthusiasm. Why don't you go hug Ichin instead?"
"Hehe! That works!"
Haruno really did spring back up at once, ran over to Ichin, and hugged him tightly.
Facing Haruno's sudden attack, Ichin said with a blank expression, "Haruno-nee, hugging is fine, but don't rub your face all over . And keep your hands where they belong."
He grabbed the hand she had placed on his chest and pushed away the head pressed against his face.
"Haruno-nee, did sothing irritate you or what?"
"It's not really that I was irritated. I was just cooped up at ho for way too long, and now that I've finally escaped, I guess I'm letting myself go a bit. Probably."
Ruffling Ichin's hair, Haruno said with a smile, "Even though the atmosphere at ho is a lot better than before, you know what my mother's personality is like, Ichin. There's no way to really relax at ho. All I could do was bury myself in work, then follow my parents around visiting elders and business partners, and on top of that get grilled about my love life. It was exhausting! Sigh… If I'd known, I would've dragged Yukino along and not let her co back yesterday. At least she could've helped share so of the firepower."
The mont Haruno said that, Yukino's expression instantly turned cold.
As expected, not letting her hug earlier had been the right decision. This sister of hers never had good intentions in her head.
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