Another world Game Developers in Japan`s 1991-Chapter 423 - 377 Sonaya Reactions to Lunar Knight

As the night of ZAGE's November release rolled on, the atmosphere at Sonaya's Tokyo headquarters was anything but celebratory. Hikaru Kurata, CEO and major shareholder of Sonaya, was fuming. Despite it being the weekend, he had summoned Junpei Hoshida, Sonaya's game development lead, to his office. Hikaru wasn't just irritated about another successful ZAGE launch he was infuriated over who was behind one of its titles: Benkei. A name that he definitely knows who truly is.

Now pacing inside a dim developer room with only the flicker of a CRT monitor lighting his sharp features, Hikaru stared at the screen playing Lunar Knight. His grip on the controller was tense, knuckles whitening as he watched Tsukian Lunario unleash waves of lunar-powered attacks. He didn't need a memo to tell him who "Benkei" was, the art and sprite tell it all.

"Zanichi..." he muttered. "So this is what you've been doing."

Despite resigning from Sonaya over a months ago, Hikaru never imagined that Zanichi Renkonan would join his son's company. Let alone become the creative force behind a rival to Sonaya's Sun Knight, one of their proudest franchises.

"You left Sonaya to retire. You were supposed to be done with this world," Hikaru hissed. He downed a sip of cold coffee, frustration mounting. "Instead, you run to your son's company and build a spiritual successor that mirrors everything we've done? Where's your pride, Zanichi? Have you really fallen so low?"

But what troubled Hikaru even more was how seamlessly Lunar Knight executed its ideas. The sprite work was unmistakably Zanichi's. The weapon transformations, the mythic tone, the perfectly timed combat mechanics—all of it screamed experience, vision, and craftsmanship.

"If Zanichi helps lead ZAGE's dev teams... if he's mentoring them, refining their pipelines... then ZAGE won't just dominate consoles and arcades. They'll dominate development itself."

The weight of that realization made Hikaru grit his teeth.

Junpei finally arrived, slightly out of breath and holding a notepad. "Apologies, Boss. Got caught up playing Lunar Knight on my way in. Game's kinda addictive." ƒгeewebnovёl.com

"Spare me the praise," Hikaru snapped. "Sit. We're dissecting it."

They both sat in front of the TV, the ZEPS humming softly as the Lunar Knight main menu played its haunting moonlit theme. Tsukian's silhouette stood against a starry backdrop.

"This," Hikaru said, pointing at the screen, "is clearly Zanichi's work. The style, the pacing, the animation fidelity. And the themes? A direct counter to Sun Knight. He even uses moon phases as mechanics. It's a deliberate provocation—and worse, the enemy faction Promesun is a blatant mirror of the Sun Knight archetype.

Junpei flipped his notebook open. "I noticed that too. But honestly, boss, there's nothing actionable. Zanichi signed off all his IP when he left. Sun Knight belongs entirely to us. Lunar Knight is a new property, and legally it's clean. If we tried to sue, we'd get laughed out of court."

Hikaru scowled. "Even so, we could cause a stir. Leak a few comparisons to the press, suggest it's derivative. Might be enough to dent ZAGE's momentum."

Junpei raised a hand. "With respect, bad move. The gaming community loves ZAGE right now. They love Zaboru. They especially love this game. Attacking it would make us look petty—and fans don't forget that kind of thing. And the thing is, Zaboru never retaliated. Even though we took heavy inspiration from ZAGE titles in our recent title, he didn't condemn us he actually praised the ambition and welcomed competition. He doesn't mind that many use his games as reference—he actually enjoys it when other developers, even his rivals, draw inspiration from his work. To him, it's a sign that ZAGE is pushing the industry forward and do you Remember when you tried to slam their Base Wars game by calling it a disgrace to baseball? That PR stunt didn't land. It backfired, and most of the fans sided with ZAGE."

Hikaru leaned back, eyes narrowing. He hated when Junpei was right. "Did you just slander me?" he said, his voice edged with frustration. But it wasn't what Junpei said that bothered him—it was that it rang true. Junpei chuckled, unfazed. "Hahaha, you know I only spit facts, right boss?" Hikaru let out a long sigh and rubbed his temples. "Alright then, what's your plan?"

Junpei continued, "Instead, why not focus on Sun Knight 3? When our new console project Kagutsuchi is done, we launch Sun Knight 3 as a flagship title. Not just to answer Lunar Knight, but to outdo it. Imagine the marketing: 'The Sun Rises Again' and if Sun Knight 3 succeeds, we might even overshadow Zanichi's Lunar Knight entirelymake it feel like a stepping stone compared to what we're planning.

Hikaru considered it. "And we lean into everything Lunar Knight doesn't. Bright visuals, faster combat, more expressive animations. We contrast their moon with our sun just like Kagutsuchi"

"Exactly. Let them be shadows. We shine." Junpei said with confidence.

Finally, Hikaru smirked. It was a rare expression, and Junpei knew it meant he was convinced. "Fine. Let Zanichi have his moment in the dark. When Project Kagutsuchi launches, we'll eclipse him."

With that, Hikaru stood and left to retrieve a bottle of wine from his private office, leaving Junpei alone with the console. The developer took the opportunity to load a saved game and dive back into a boss fight with Promehound.

"Still," Junpei murmured to himself, watching the fluid attack patterns and the perfectly timed phase transitions, "this game's got something special. If we want to beat it... we better bring our best of the best game."

To be continued...

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