Chapter 1470 1388 “ZEPS 4 Ruined Me”. 1

Sunday 22 February 2002.

Leeroy Kingsley, better known on YouTube by his channel name ROCKSLEY, was an American YouTuber who absolutely loved video games. Ever since YouTube became available, Leeroy had quickly become one of those people who immediately understood what the platform could become. Instead of simply uploading random clips, he built his channel around discussions, analysis, impressions, reviews, and sometimes long videos where he simply talked about why certain games worked or failed.

And importantly, ROCKSLEY wasn't a ZAGE-only channel.

He reviewed everything.

ZAGE games, Sonaya games, X-Box games, PC games, strange smaller releases he happened to find on Steam, arcade titles, handheld games, and sometimes even games almost nobody had heard about. If something interested him, he played it. If he had something worth saying about it, he made a video.

That was one of the reasons people trusted him.

Leeroy wasn't the kind of reviewer who decided whether he loved or hated something before playing it. He could praise ZAGE in one video and criticize one of their games in the next. He could openly say something from X-Box was better than ZAGE's equivalent if he genuinely believed it. Likewise, he didn't hate games simply because they came from a company he disliked.

To him, games were games.

And ROCKSLEY's audience had slowly learned that.

It also helped that Leeroy didn't really care much about money.

His family was already wealthy, and Leeroy had never experienced serious financial problems in his life. YouTube money was nice, obviously, but he didn't need it to survive. This gave him something many new content creators couldn't afford to have yet.

Freedom.

Companies had already begun noticing how rapidly YouTubers could influence public opinion, especially gaming channels with large audiences. Some companies approached ROCKSLEY with sponsorships, early-access opportunities, promotional deals, and other offers. X-Box had contacted him. Apple had contacted him. Several publishers had contacted him.

Leeroy listened to their offers.

Sometimes he accepted harmless opportunities.

But the moment someone tried to influence what he was supposed to say?

"No."

Simple as that.

There was almost nothing they could threaten him with. If a company refused to sponsor him again, Leeroy didn't care. If someone told him that criticizing their product meant he wouldn't receive another early copy, his response was basically:

"Okay. I'll buy it myself."

That attitude had become increasingly famous among his viewers. Some people even joked that the greatest advantage ROCKSLEY had as a reviewer wasn't his intelligence or knowledge about games.

It was being rich enough to not give a fuck.

But money alone obviously wasn't the reason his channel succeeded.

Leeroy was genuinely smart, and more importantly, he genuinely understood games.

He wasn't one of those people who simply said:

"The graphics are good."

"The gameplay is fun."

"Nine out of ten."

Then ended the review.

If Leeroy praised something, he usually explained exactly why. He talked about game design, controls, progression, hardware limitations, level structure, enemy placement, animation, interface design, sound, pacing, and sometimes even development history when it was relevant. He wasn't a professional developer, but he had played games almost half of his life and spent ridiculous amounts of time researching the industry.

People didn't always agree with him.

Actually, his comment sections could become quite chaotic whenever he criticized something popular.

But even people who disagreed usually understood how he reached his conclusion.

That was why the period leading toward the ZEPS 4 launch had been extremely exciting for his audience.

Leeroy was ridiculously hyped.

And unlike people who simply screamed:

"ZEPS 4 IS GOING TO BE THE BEST CONSOLE EVER!"

ROCKSLEY made several videos explaining why he believed ZAGE was preparing something enormous.

He analyzed ZAGE's previous console launches. He discussed how ZEPS 3 had evolved over its lifespan. He examined the increasing quality of ZAGE's development tools, its investments in AMD and NVIDIA, the continued advancement of Unreal Engine, ZAGE's relationship with developers, the growth of Steam and online distribution, and the strange amount of secrecy surrounding several ZEPS 4 projects.

His conclusion was straightforward.

ZAGE wasn't preparing a normal generational upgrade.

They were preparing something much larger.

One of his most popular videos before launch was basically an hour of Leeroy explaining why people should stop thinking about ZEPS 4 simply as:

"ZEPS 3 but stronger."

He argued that ZAGE had spent too much money, gathered too many developers, and advanced too much technology for the company to settle for that.

And naturally, the closer the launch became, the more excited Leeroy became.

He openly admitted his expectations were extremely high.

Not just:

"Hopefully it's good."

His expectation was basically:

"ZAGE better blow my fucking mind."

Then ZEPS 4 released.

And ROCKSLEY disappeared.

At first, nobody thought much about it.

Leeroy normally uploaded once or twice every week, but sometimes he took longer when he was working on a larger review. Considering ZEPS 4 had just released alongside an absurd number of games, most viewers assumed he was simply busy testing everything.

A week passed.

Nothing.

Then another.

Still nothing.

No reviews.

No impressions.

No short videos.

No random gaming discussion.

Nothing.

People began asking questions beneath his older videos.

"Where the hell is ROCKSLEY?"

"Bro is definitely trapped playing ZEPS 4."

"Leeroy survived?"

"This man made twelve videos hyping ZEPS 4 and vanished when the console actually released."

"Zaboru assassinated him."

That last comment became a running joke.

By the third week, though, some people were genuinely confused.

Leeroy was normally active even when preparing larger content. He might upload something short, reply to comments, or at least make some kind of statement.

But almost twenty-one days passed without a proper upload.

Until finally...

On February 22, 2002, subscribers suddenly received a notification.

ROCKSLEY uploaded a new video.

And the title immediately caught everyone's attention.

ZEPS 4 Ruined Me

People stared at it. Some assumed it was clickbait while others genuinely wondered whether something had happened. This was especially strange because ROCKSLEY had been one of ZEPS 4's loudest supporters before release. He wasn't blindly loyal to ZAGE, but his analysis had consistently predicted the console would be excellent, so seeing him suddenly upload something titled "ZEPS 4 Ruined Me" naturally caused chaos.

The video exploded almost immediately. Within minutes, thousands of people clicked it, and instead of some short rant, the video was around twelve minutes long.

The screen opened with Leeroy Kingsley sitting in his usual recording room. Behind him were shelves filled with games, consoles, controllers, magazines, and random pieces of gaming merchandise he had collected over the years. Leeroy stared into the camera. He looked tired. Not angry, just... tired.

He remained silent for several seconds before finally speaking. "ZEPS 4 ruined me."

Then he sighed. "Okay, okay. Before someone clips that sentence and starts a fucking console war... no. It's not bad." Leeroy paused before slowly covering his face with both hands. "It's actually the complete opposite. It's too damn good."

Several seconds passed before Leeroy dragged his hands downward and stared blankly toward the camera. "That's the problem. It's so fucking good that it ruined me."

He couldn't maintain the serious expression anymore and started laughing. "Goddammit."

Leeroy leaned back against his chair. "I disappeared for almost three weeks, and I know some of you probably thought I died. I saw some of the comments. Apparently Zaboru Renkonan personally broke into my house and killed me because I gave one ZAGE game an eight last year."

He shook his head. "No. Unfortunately I'm alive."

Leeroy then pointed toward the camera. "And this is your fault too, by the way. Some of you bastards kept telling me, 'ROCKSLEY, review ZEPS 4! ROCKSLEY, review this game! Review that game!'"

He leaned closer toward the camera.

"I WAS TRYING."

Leeroy immediately started laughing again. "That's literally why I disappeared!"

After taking a breath, he became somewhat calmer. "Look, before ZEPS 4 released, I already had ridiculous expectations. You guys know that. I made what? Four? Five videos talking about this console?" He looked away for a moment as if trying to remember. "Probably more. I don't even know anymore."

Leeroy looked back toward the camera. "But the point is, I wasn't expecting something average. I know ZAGE. I've followed these guys for years. Every time they introduce new hardware, new technology, or some giant project, they usually do something insane."

He lowered his voice mockingly. "So my expectations weren't, 'Oh, I hope ZEPS 4 has some good games.' No."

His hands spread outward. "My expectation was insanely good games, great hardware, a great experience, great graphics, a strong launch, interesting new technology... basically everything you would expect when the largest gaming company on Earth launches their new flagship console."

Leeroy paused and stared directly into the camera.

"And somehow... that expectation was too fucking narrow."

He started laughing again. "That's what pisses me off!"

Leeroy shifted forward in his chair. "It feels like ZAGE looked at everybody's expectations and went, 'Okay... that's cute,' and then just fucking broke them."

He tapped his desk and shook his head. "And I'm not going to explain why yet because that's literally what this entire video is for. If I start talking about it now, I'll just spoil everything I'm about to talk about."

Leeroy chuckled before leaning back. "All I'm going to say right now is this: I expected ZEPS 4 to be really damn good. I did not expect to spend nearly three weeks trying to figure out how the hell I was even supposed to review this launch properly."

He gestured toward something outside the camera frame. "My original plan was simple. Play the console, spend a few days with several launch games, make one general video, then review the games individually later."

Leeroy stared silently into the camera.

"That plan died."

He laughed. "Very quickly."

Leeroy rubbed his forehead. "Every time I thought I was ready to sit down and record, I realized there was still something else I hadn't spent enough time with. Then something else. Then another thing. Eventually I stopped trying to rush it because I knew if I uploaded a video after three or four days, I would regret half of what I said."

He shrugged. "So I kept playing."

Leeroy paused.

"And playing."

He looked toward the ceiling for a second.

"And apparently almost three fucking weeks passed."

He laughed again. "My schedule is completely destroyed. That's why ZEPS 4 ruined me."

After calming down, Leeroy looked beside his chair. "And there is one very obvious reason why reviewing this launch took so long."

He bent down.

A brief sound of plastic cases bumping against each other could be heard from outside the camera frame. Several seconds later Leeroy returned carrying a large stack of games before placing them heavily onto the desk.

THUD.

Leeroy looked at the pile and then back toward the camera.

"Here."

He started arranging the game cases across the desk. "One, two, three..." Leeroy continued counting until twelve physical game cases were spread in front of him.

He stared at them for a moment.

"Twelve."

Leeroy slowly looked back at the camera.

"Twelve fucking games."

He lifted one finger. "And technically it's more if we're counting Astro Playroom because that comes with the console, but we're going to get to that too."

Leeroy gestured toward the games covering his desk. "These are what I've been doing for almost three weeks. This is why there was no video. This is why I disappeared. And this is why I couldn't just play ZEPS 4 for three days and pretend I had enough to say about it."

He picked up several of the cases and briefly showed them toward the camera before putting them down again. "Now, I'm not going to stand here and tell you what I think about each one before I've even started the review. That's stupid. We're going to take these properly."

Leeroy adjusted himself in his chair, then looked across the twelve games with a grin.

"I've got a lot to say."

He reached toward the pile and placed his hand on the first game.

"Some of it you guys are probably expecting."

His grin widened slightly.

"And some of it... you're really fucking not."

Leeroy lifted the first game case toward the camera.

"So let's finally talk about why I disappeared for almost three weeks."

He looked directly into the lens.

"And why I said ZEPS 4 ruined me."

With that, ROCKSLEY was finally ready to begin his actual review of the twelve ZEPS 4 launch games.

To be continued.