Chapter 1481 1399 ZAGE Need New Team

AN : Okay, tomorrow I'm not going to post a chapter because my arm has gotten worse. I got injured at the gym (lol) and now my arm feels really weird. Tomorrow I need to go to the doctor, and unfortunately, I still have to work. So yeah, sorry, I won't be posting tomorrow!

Later that same day, after finishing his meeting with Team NEXUS, Zaboru returned to his personal workshop on the 51st floor of ZAGE Tower. He initially planned to spend the rest of the afternoon checking several hardware experiments and development reports, but the conversation about NEXUS had left another problem stuck inside his head.

Manpower.

ZAGE had become enormous. The company had development teams spread across Japan, the ZAGE Campus in the United States, and growing facilities in China, Korea, England and several other locations. Even now, there were still unused office floors and development spaces waiting to be occupied. Physical space wasn't the problem.

People were.

More specifically, organized people.

Zaboru sat down in front of his computer and stared at a list of ZAGE's development teams. "Hmm... we definitely need more manpower."

He scratched his chin.

"Should I expand the existing teams... or create another one?"

That was becoming a surprisingly difficult question.

ZAGE's existing development teams were already experienced and extremely capable, but many of them had their own identities now. Team NEXUS specialized heavily in fighting games, arcade technology and advanced graphical systems. Other teams had their own strengths in RPGs, action games, adventure games, online systems, experimental projects, and whatever absurd thing Zaboru suddenly decided needed to exist.

Simply throwing another fifty developers into an existing team wasn't always the best solution.

Too many people could make management worse instead of better.

But creating an entirely new team meant new leaders, new management, new budgets, new equipment, and most importantly, Zaboru would need to decide exactly what that team was supposed to do.

And unfortunately for everyone around him, he already had ideas.

Lots of them.

One particular concept had been sitting inside his head for years.

Demakes.

Zaboru leaned back in his chair and smiled.

"Man... demakes are just too majestic to ignore."

In his previous life, players often created unofficial versions of modern games designed as if they had been released on older hardware. A huge modern 3D game might become a PlayStation-style title. A modern action game could be rebuilt like something from the Super Nintendo era. Developers deliberately accepted old limitations and then asked themselves a strangely fascinating question:

What would this game have looked like if it existed ten years earlier?

Zaboru loved that idea.

But unlike hobby developers from his previous life, he controlled the original games, the old hardware specifications, and the development infrastructure necessary to actually produce complete commercial versions.

He opened another document and started typing.

ZEPS Demake Initiative.

"Hehehe..."

Take Monster Hunter for example.

The current Monster Hunter was built specifically around ZEPS 4 hardware, with large environments, detailed monsters, improved animations, sophisticated AI, online multiplayer, companion systems, advanced lighting and significantly more complicated mechanics than something older hardware could comfortably handle.

So what would happen if ZAGE deliberately rebuilt it for ZEPS 3?

Not ported.

Not merely downgraded.

Actually rebuilt.

The environments would need to become smaller or segmented differently. Monster models would lose enormous amounts of geometry. Effects would need to be simplified. AI systems might need restructuring. Animations would become less complex, loading would behave differently, and certain mechanics might need to disappear entirely.

Yet the identity could remain.

Hunt monsters.

Gather materials.

Craft equipment.

Learn monster behavior.

Cooperate with other hunters.

Become stronger.

That challenge fascinated Zaboru.

Then he went even further.

"What about ZEPS 2...?"

He grinned.

A ZEPS 2 Monster Hunter would barely resemble the ZEPS 4 game visually. It might require fixed camera approaches in certain areas, dramatically smaller maps, simplified models, different combat animations and maybe even an entirely different method of handling multiplayer.

At that point it stopped being a technical downgrade and became almost a different game sharing the same concept.

That was exactly why he liked it.

A good demake wasn't supposed to be a worse version.

It was supposed to answer:

How would developers from that generation solve the same idea?

Zaboru typed faster.

And Monster Hunter was only one possibility.

Halo could become something completely different on older hardware. GTA: San Andreas could be reimagined around smaller interconnected areas. Devil May Cry could become a more traditional side-scrolling action game if pushed far enough backward. Even something like Pokémon Colosseum could be rebuilt around a completely different presentation.

Not every demake needed to target ZEPS 3 either.

Some could deliberately target ZEPS 2.

Maybe eventually even ZEPS 1.

Zaboru stopped typing and stared at the screen.

"...This is dangerous."

Because the more he thought about it, the more games appeared inside his head.

And unlike normal remasters, demakes didn't necessarily need enormous development budgets. They could use smaller teams, shorter development cycles and intentionally limited production values because the limitations themselves were part of the appeal and its also make the developers mind become sharper.

They could also sell cheaper.

A player didn't need to spend the same amount they would on a giant new ZEPS 4 release.

Zaboru could imagine entire smaller development teams producing strange experimental projects between major releases.

And that naturally led into his second problem.

ZAGE's old franchises.

There were too many.

Far too many.

Zaboru opened another document containing lists of older games and slowly scrolled through it.

Battletoads. Captain Commando. Shatterhand. Alex Kidd. Kick Master. Kid Icarus. Rollerdance. Battetoads.

And those were only some of them.

Certain franchises still had recognizable characters because they appeared in crossover games or merchandise, but their actual dedicated games had disappeared years ago. Others had been successful during ZEPS 1 or ZEPS 2 and then simply became casualties of ZAGE's absurd growth.

It wasn't because the games had necessarily failed.

ZAGE simply kept creating new things faster than it could revisit the old ones.

That problem was about to become even worse with ZEPS 4.

Zaboru knew himself.

He was absolutely going to introduce more new IP.

He had too many ideas from his previous life, too many original concepts developed in this world, and too many genres he still wanted ZAGE to experiment with.

If he wasn't careful, every generation would create another pile of forgotten franchises behind it.

Zaboru sighed.

"Maybe we really do need a team specifically for this..."

Not a major flagship team expected to produce gigantic hundred-million-yen projects.

Something smaller.

Flexible.

A team that could look through ZAGE's enormous back catalog and ask:

Does this game deserve to return?

Sometimes the answer could be a simple port.

Sometimes a remaster.

Sometimes a full remake.

Sometimes an entirely new sequel.

And sometimes the correct answer could simply be:

No.

Leave it alone.

Zaboru smiled slightly.

That last part was important.

Nostalgia was powerful, but nostalgia could also become extremely annoying if abused.

He remembered his previous life in 2024 where remakes, remasters and franchise revivals had become almost everywhere. Some were excellent. Some gave old masterpieces entirely new lives. Others felt like companies simply digging through their old catalogs because creating something new seemed too risky.

Zaboru didn't want ZAGE to fall into that trap.

"Hehehe... remake games are already ready to show their power in this world, huh?"

He looked toward another list.

Captain Commando could probably work extremely well as a modern cooperative beat-'em-up. Battletoads already had an identity built around constantly changing gameplay styles, which could become completely insane with modern hardware. Shatterhand could become a stylish action game centered around brutal hand-to-hand combat and robotic support companions. Alex Kidd could receive a smaller colorful platformer without needing some gigantic budget.

They didn't need to become ZAGE's next flagship franchises.

They just needed to be fun.

That thought mattered to Zaboru.

Not every game needed to become the next GTA.

Not every game needed cutting-edge graphics.

Sometimes a game could simply cost less, sell for less, take ten hours to finish and still be worth making.

In fact, that might actually become increasingly important as ZEPS 4 development costs rose.

Zaboru created several categories inside the document:

DEMAGES

REMAKES

REMASTERS

FORGOTTEN FRANCHISE SEQUELS

He stared at the first word.

"...Demakes."

He corrected the spelling.

DEMAKES.

"Perfect."

Then his smile slowly disappeared.

There was one problem.

Money.

Zaboru looked toward the ceiling.

"...Sayuri-san."

Just imagining that meeting already made him nervous.

Sayuri Yamaguchi, the leader responsible for ZAGE's financial management, was one of the few people inside the company who could make Zaboru reconsider an idea simply by staring at him.

Not because she hated spending money.

Quite the opposite.

Sayuri loved ZAGE.

That was precisely why she was strict.

If Zaboru walked into her office and said, "I want to create six new development teams because I think demakes are cool," Sayuri would probably throw a financial report at his head.

And honestly?

She would be correct.

Zaboru chuckled nervously.

"But our finances are healthy..."

He paused.

"Very healthy..."

Another pause.

"...That's not going to work on her."

He could already imagine the conversation.

"Sayuri-san, I have an idea."

"How much?"

"You haven't even heard the idea."

"How much, Zaboru?"

Zaboru covered his face while laughing.

"Scary woman..."

Still, he trusted her completely.

Sayuri had prevented ZAGE from becoming financially irresponsible despite Zaboru's tendency to suddenly discover ten things he wanted to create at the same time. She wasn't someone who simply said no to everything. If Zaboru could demonstrate that a project made sense, that the budget was controlled, and that the company had enough resources to support it without damaging existing development, she would approve it.

But she would absolutely force him to prove it first.

And that was good.

Without someone like Sayuri, Zaboru knew he could become dangerously reckless.

His knowledge from his previous life gave him confidence in certain projects, but that didn't mean every idea deserved unlimited money.

Zaboru started typing again.

Instead of immediately proposing an entire new division, he began preparing something more reasonable.

First, assess existing teams.

Find out which groups currently had spare capacity.

Second, identify smaller internal developers interested in old-school game design.

Third, select only a few old franchises as test projects.

Fourth, create one demake prototype before building an entire team around the concept.

Zaboru nodded.

"Yeah... that's probably something Sayuri-san won't murder me for."

He added another note.

Potential structure: New small team OR independent sub-team under existing development division. Decide after prototype results.

That felt much smarter.

Maybe ZAGE didn't need another enormous named development team immediately.

If he created a massive expensive organization specifically to make intentionally smaller games, he would be defeating the entire purpose.

Zaboru chuckled.

"Look at me being financially responsible."

He suddenly imagined Sayuri standing behind him.

"...Mostly."

He continued working for another hour, creating notes about possible development structures, expected budgets, candidate franchises and which older ZEPS hardware development tools would need to be preserved. That last issue was surprisingly important too. If ZAGE wanted to create authentic ZEPS 2 or ZEPS 3-style games years later, it couldn't simply throw away old development documentation, compilers and hardware knowledge.

Still, none of this needed to be decided tonight.

Zaboru saved the documents and leaned back.

"Well... this definitely needs more discussion. Demakes, forgotten-franchise sequels, remakes... all of it needs to be assessed properly first."

He smiled.

"But it's definitely happening somehow. Hehehe."

Zaboru looked toward the clock.

Then his expression softened.

Work suddenly felt much less important.

Ayumi.

The twins were expected around March 3, only days away now. Ayumi would soon be going to the hospital so the doctors could monitor her closely and prepare for the delivery.

That thought immediately pushed demakes, development teams and financial planning far into the background.

Zaboru shut down several windows on his computer.

"Yeah... enough work."

He stood from his chair and stretched.

For the next several days, he already knew exactly where he wanted to be.

Beside Ayumi.

Zaboru grinned while gathering his belongings.

"I don't care what happens here. Once she goes into the hospital, I'm not leaving her side until those two come out."

He paused before chuckling.

"...Although hopefully they don't take too long."

The idea of becoming the father of two more children still felt strangely exciting despite everything else happening around him.

ZEPS 4 could wait.

Demakes could wait.

Forgotten franchises could wait.

Even Sayuri's terrifying financial questions could wait.

Zaboru left his workshop and headed toward the elevator.

For tonight, he was going home.

And within only a few more days, the Renkonan family was about to become even larger.

To be continued.