Chapter 1473 1391 ZAGE “Forgotten” Characters

Zaboru wasn't exactly a stranger to YouTube or livestreaming. He had appeared on streams several times before, sometimes to show something from ZAGE, sometimes to play games, and occasionally simply because he felt like interacting with players directly. What he had never done was treat streaming like a proper regular activity. He wasn't someone who turned on the camera every evening and played for hours like many new gaming YouTubers were starting to do.

Ironically, that didn't stop Zaboru's personal YouTube account from becoming one of the most subscribed channels on the entire platform. In fact, his personal account somehow had more subscribers than the official ZAGE account itself. Zaboru found that hilarious whenever he thought about it. ZAGE's channel had professional trailers, announcements, developer interviews, music videos, technical demonstrations, and some of the biggest game reveals in the world, yet people still subscribed to Zaboru personally in even larger numbers because they never knew what nonsense he might upload next.

Now that ZEPS 4 made livestreaming significantly easier, the idea became even more tempting. He could simply turn everything on, connect directly through the console, and start playing without needing to prepare some complicated setup.

The actual question was what the hell he should play.

"Hmm..."

Zaboru stared at his collection.

He could play Halo: Combat Evolved and enter multiplayer just to obliterate random players until people accused him of secretly using developer cheats. That sounded entertaining. He could also play TMNT online, join people's rooms, and remind everyone that the person who designed half of the systems they were abusing also knew exactly how to abuse them better.

Thinking about TMNT made Zaboru grin because players had recently discovered something he had been waiting for.

The hidden characters.

TMNT already had an absurd roster for what was technically supposed to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. From the beginning, players could naturally select the four turtles: Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello. As they progressed, they could unlock additional fighters including Kim Possible, Casey Jones, Po, Kamen Rider Black, and Zabo-man. Then players who completed the game on its highest difficulty gained access to two much more expensive characters: Brock Lesnar from Rollerdance and Korosi from Koro-Cool.

Most players assumed that was everything.

It wasn't.

ZAGE had deliberately hidden two more characters behind much more ridiculous conditions.

The first could only be unlocked after clearing the campaign while either Brock Lesnar or Korosi was part of the active team. Once the ending finished, instead of immediately returning to the normal results screen, players received a strange additional scene where the turtles heard an enormous crash somewhere behind them. The camera turned toward a broken wall, dust filled the area, and then a huge green figure stepped through.

One of the Battletoads.

Older players recognized him almost instantly.

Newer players?

Not so much.

And that reaction alone made the secret worthwhile.

Battletoads had once been a fairly recognizable ZAGE series. The first Battletoads released on ZEPS 1 and became infamous for exactly what Zaboru expected: ridiculous difficulty, constantly changing gameplay styles, cooperative chaos, and stages that made people question whether the developers actually hated them. Zaboru had even expanded his version to support three players, allowing Rash, Zitz, and Pimple to fight together while surviving everything from normal beat-'em-up sections to obstacle courses, rope stages, vehicles, and the infamous high-speed sections that murdered players repeatedly.

Years later, ZAGE released Battletoads in Battlemaniacs for ZEPS 2. It improved the visuals, tightened the controls, expanded the action, and remained just as unapologetically difficult.

Then...

Nothing.

The industry moved forward. ZAGE moved forward. New franchises appeared constantly. ZEPS 3 arrived. Bigger games began consuming development teams. Battletoads occasionally appeared in discussions, old magazines, merchandise, and crossover material, but there hadn't been a proper new Battletoads game in years.

That was why seeing one suddenly crash through the wall inside TMNT made older players go insane.

The character was also deliberately overpowered.

Not completely broken—Zaboru still wanted the game to remain playable—but close enough that players immediately understood this wasn't some ordinary unlockable fighter. His attacks were absurd, his exaggerated punches could launch enemies across the screen, and some of his finishing animations deliberately referenced the ridiculous giant fists and boots used in the original games.

Forum threads immediately appeared.

"HOLY SHIT BATTLETOADS STILL EXISTS!?"

"ZAGE REMEMBERED THE TOADS!"

"WHERE IS BATTLETOADS 3!?"

"I HAVEN'T SEEN THIS BASTARD IN YEARS!"

Zaboru had laughed hard when he read those.

The final hidden character caused an even larger reaction, though the reason was slightly different.

Unlocking him was intentionally stupid.

Players had to clear the entire game on the highest difficulty without taking a single hit.

Not one.

A mistake near the beginning?

Restart.

A random projectile touched someone?

Restart.

A boss clipped the edge of a character's hitbox?

Restart.

Naturally, Zaboru knew most normal players would never unlock the character legitimately. That was the entire point. The requirement was designed for insane players who wanted something to brag about.

Those who somehow succeeded received a short black screen.

Then a heartbeat.

The screen slowly revealed a muscular man standing in the wasteland beneath a red sky.

Seven scars covered his chest.

Then the name appeared.

KENSHIRO.

Players lost their minds.

But unlike Battletoads, Kenshiro wasn't truly a forgotten ZAGE character.

That distinction mattered.

Fist of the North Star originally existed in this world as a ZAGE game. It had released all the way back during the ZEPS 1 era as a 2D action RPG/platformer where players controlled Kenshiro, leveled him up, unlocked Hokuto Shinken techniques, fought enemies across a post-apocalyptic world, and eventually faced iconic martial artists such as Souther and Raoh.

The game itself had been extremely memorable, especially because of how brutally powerful Kenshiro became once players unlocked his techniques.

Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken.

Hokuto Shogekiha.

And naturally...

"Omae wa mou shindeiru."

Kenshiro had remained recognizable long after the original game. He appeared in things like Marvel vs. ZAGE, other crossover material, merchandise, and later ZAGE projects. More importantly, Fist of the North Star eventually expanded beyond games entirely. Zaboru's story became manga, and later YaDo developed ZAGE's own Fist of the North Star anime.

So Kenshiro himself was absolutely not forgotten.

If anything, he remained one of ZAGE's classic recognizable characters.

What had been neglected was the Fist of the North Star game series.

There hadn't been another proper dedicated Kenshiro game in years.

That was why seeing him hidden inside TMNT created a different reaction from Battletoads. Battletoads made players ask:

"ZAGE remembers this franchise!?"

Kenshiro made them ask:

"WHEN ARE YOU GIVING HIM ANOTHER GAME!?"

And naturally the TMNT version of Kenshiro was completely ridiculous.

Even after being balanced enough to function inside the game, he was easily one of the strongest characters available. His normal attacks were fast, his pressure-point techniques could stun groups, and his special attacks could completely destroy ordinary enemies. His Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken turned entire crowds into victims while his finishing animation ended with the familiar calm declaration before enemies collapsed or exploded in exaggerated cartoon fashion appropriate for TMNT.

Zaboru chuckled while reading another forum post demanding a new Fist of the North Star game.

"Well... it's not like we forgot about him."

He leaned back.

"We just have too many games."

That was honestly the problem.

ZAGE had accumulated an absurd number of franchises over more than a decade. Some became gigantic and continuously received new titles. Mario, Pokémon, Metal Gear, Resident Evil, Shin Megami Tensei, Final Fantasy, and dozens of others had enough demand and development support to continue evolving.

But others simply disappeared into the library.

Zaboru started mentally listing them.

Captain Commando was one obvious example.

It had been one of ZAGE's older arcade games, a futuristic four-player beat-'em-up that became fairly popular in Japanese arcades. Captain Commando himself had even remained visible through crossover appearances, especially Marvel vs. ZAGE, but the original game never received the proper modern continuation it probably deserved.

Then there was Shatterhand, another old ZEPS game built around heavy punching combat and support robots. Players could collect different robotic companions, combine with them, gain new attacks, and even discover Zabo-man as a secret boss. The game had been received well, but after its release it simply became another title buried underneath ZAGE's rapidly expanding catalog.

Alex Kidd was another strange case.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World had once been one of ZEPS 1's recognizable platformers. Punching enemies, swimming, riding vehicles, playing rock-paper-scissors against bosses, exploring unusual stages—it had a lot of personality. Alex even appeared throughout old ZAGE promotions and later returned during the giant ZEPS 1 closure collection, but there had never been the kind of major modern revival Mario received.

Zaboru rubbed his chin.

Then there were games such as Kick Master and Kid Icarus, both of which still had cult followings. He remembered seeing people on the ZAGE forums years ago already begging for sequels to both. Kick Master in particular had become memorable enough that Kenshiro himself had originally been teased through a secret boss connection before Fist of the North Star released.

Even Rollerdance belonged in this category now.

Brock Lesnar had once been extremely popular during the ZEPS 1 era, with the strange combination of rollerblading, fighting, platforming, Air Tracks, and ridiculous bosses giving Rollerdance its own identity. Yet there hadn't been a proper sequel for years, which was exactly why Brock appearing in TMNT had made people so nostalgic.

Koro-Cool was similar, although Korosi wasn't originally Zaboru's own creation. Yugo Kanai had created him, and Koro-Cool had even received Koro-Cool 2 on ZEPS 2, but the franchise had gone quiet afterward. Korosi remained memorable because of how absurdly violent and distinctive he was, yet he hadn't received another full game in a long time either.

Zaboru sighed while looking across the forum.

"Yeah... okay. Maybe we do have too many abandoned children."

He laughed.

It wasn't malicious. ZAGE hadn't deliberately thrown those games away. There were simply too many ideas and not enough development teams to continue every single franchise simultaneously. Whenever a new console arrived, Zaboru's brain immediately filled with another hundred things he wanted to create, and naturally some older names were pushed further down the list.

"But maybe someday..."

Zaboru imagined a modern Captain Commando. A new Battletoads with insane co-op. A modern Fist of the North Star with Kenshiro destroying hundreds of punks in ridiculous martial arts combat. Shatterhand rebuilt with modern action mechanics. Alex Kidd returning with a completely polished platforming adventure.

He grinned.

"Later."

If he followed that thought too far, he would create another twenty projects before dinner.

For now, he still needed to decide what to livestream.

"Hmm..."

Halo sounded fun.

TMNT could be funny too, especially if he entered an online room and casually destroyed players with one of their own favorite characters.

Then Zaboru's eyes moved toward Monster Hunter.

He stopped.

Slowly, his expression changed.

Over the last several weeks he had watched quite a lot of Monster Hunter footage on YouTube. Players were improving quickly. Some had already become genuinely impressive with Sword and Shield, Lance, Hammer, and other weapons.

But one thing had been bothering him.

Great Sword.

"These guys still aren't playing Great Sword properly..."

Zaboru frowned.

There were already some good Great Sword players. He wasn't saying everyone was terrible. But even the better players still hadn't completely understood what the weapon could become once someone stopped treating it like an oversized normal sword.

Too many people attacked whenever they saw an opening.

Too many relied on basic swings.

Too many failed to understand positioning.

Too many players thought the weapon was slow simply because its animations were slow.

Zaboru stared at the screen.

Almost a month after release, and he still hadn't seen the kind of Great Sword gameplay he wanted.

That bothered him far more than it reasonably should.

"...Okay."

A grin slowly appeared.

"Now I'm annoyed."

Zaboru stood up and began preparing the stream.

"Well..."

He cracked his fingers.

"Time to show these plebs how to play Great Sword properly."

His grin widened as the livestream equipment came to life.

To be continued.