It wasn't until his mother called out, "Dinner's ready!" that Hidetaka Miyazaki was finally pulled back from the world of the game. He suddenly came to his senses, and before he realized it, night had already fallen.
To make everything perfect, Miyazaki had deleted his previous save and started over from the very beginning.
He had long since lost count of how many times he had restarted, and not just because of tactical mistakes that forced him to replay the current chapter. Sometimes, an innocent mistake wouldn't reveal its consequences until several chapters later, and by the time he discovered it, the damage had already become impossible to undo.
Fire Emblem was, without question, an incredibly difficult game. Miyazaki had watched other people play Super Mario and Donkey Kong before, this was nothing like those games.
Its malice ran unbelievably deep. All over the game, there were traps designed to destroy everything he had struggled so hard to protect.
One careless move and everything would be lost. The margin for error was unbelievably small.
"What's wrong? Is the game console not fun?" Seeing his absent-minded expression, his father asked curiously.
"I... I don't know..."
Never before had Miyazaki experienced such conflicting emotions.
"Fire Emblem is so difficult, Dad... but it's not the bad kind of difficult."
The game tormented him relentlessly. It punished him, crushed him, and never gave him even the slightest chance to catch his breath.
Every single turn, every single action, all of them were critically important. To clear each chapter, he had truly exhausted every ounce of strategy and understanding he possessed.
Especially as the difficulty continued to increase, the overwhelming advantage Marcus had given him in the early game was gradually disappearing. But because he had poured so many resources into Marcus, every battle had now become incredibly difficult. Only Dieck and Roy were capable of carrying the team. So, had he made a mistake by investing all those resources into Marcus?
Miyazaki sank into deep self-doubt.
But correcting that mistake would mean all of his previous efforts had been wasted. Everything would have to begin again from scratch. It was incredibly difficult and utterly exhausting. But yet it was unbelievably fun!
Whenever he overcame countless hardships, broke through every obstacle, and finally conquered the current chapter, the overwhelming rush of joy and relief that surged straight into his mind left him utterly addicted.
He couldn't pull himself away. This was a level of tension and concentration that side-scrolling action games simply couldn't provide.
"Is it difficult?"
His father looked at the beautiful console sitting against the wall with a puzzled expression. He had assumed the game console his son had won would be from Sega or Nintendo. Instead, it was a machine he'd never even heard of.
"Yeah. It's difficult, but it's really fun."
"So, what kind of story does it tell?"
His father casually asked while looking at the Fire Emblem game box beside the console. He knew fantasy stories had always been his son's favorite.
"Ah! That's exactly what I wanted to tell you!"
The moment the conversation turned to the game's story, Miyazaki immediately became animated. But just as he was about to enthusiastically explain everything to his father, the words caught in his throat.
"That's right... what kind of story is it telling?"
He still remembered that he was Roy, the heir of House Pherae, leading his companions in a battle against the enemy. But when he actually tried to explain the plot, he suddenly had no idea where to begin.
It was an enormous ensemble story, and none of the characters received an overwhelming amount of screen time. Yet every one of them had their background, identity, and personality portrayed with remarkable clarity.
"There's a knight named Marcus. When I was almost defeated by the soldiers of the evil Kingdom of Bern, he charged in from the side, blocked the enemy's attack for me, and ended up getting wounded himself."
"And then there's my knight Alan. At first he was just an ordinary cavalier, but throughout our journey he fought incredibly bravely, charging into enemy lines time and time again to eliminate the enemy archers hiding in the back."
"And of course there's Ellen. I remember one time when Alan was on the verge of dying, Ellen ignored the danger and..."
Miyazaki enthusiastically recounted the stories of each member of his army, one after another. But after talking about every character's finest moments, he suddenly fell silent.
He could barely remember any of their official backstories anymore. Yet every experience they had shared during the journey remained deeply engraved in his memory. Those shared experiences… Those were the real stories of these characters.
"The story... is one I wrote myself..."
He knew which character secretly loved whom. He knew who had feelings for someone else. As their relationships developed, they not only unlocked additional story scenes and stat bonuses but also deepened each character's personality.
It was almost as if they were real people. Every player's story in this game was unique.
"That incredible?"
After hearing Miyazaki's explanation, even his father was left speechless. It sounded almost unbelievable, a game that tortured its players so mercilessly, yet could still make them become so completely immersed?
What kind of bizarre game was this?
A brilliant light shimmered in Miyazaki's eyes. Although this was his first encounter with such a game, he had already fallen completely in love with this style.
The harsher the game was, the greater the satisfaction after succeeding.
"If only I could become a game developer someday..."
Miyazaki realized he could no longer live without games like this. If he ever made games himself, he absolutely wanted to master this unique style, and not only just the overwhelming exhilaration created by crushing difficulty, but also those fragmented stories scattered throughout the game world.
To truly understand that world, he had to take every NPC seriously and investigate every seemingly insignificant house on every map. He wanted to bring all the dark western fantasy stories that filled his imagination into games using this very approach.
"Fire Emblem's success was entirely predictable, Steve."
The latest issue of Electronic Games was, unsurprisingly, once again almost entirely devoted to the latest sensation created by GAMENOVA.
The official overseas launch of the NovaBox Japanese Edition, the strategic partnership with SGI, and the astonishing new title Fire Emblem were all worthy of extensive coverage.
"Haha! I don't think any player would disagree with that. Just look at these dark circles under my eyes."
Steve's eye bags were dark and swollen, it was obvious he had stayed up all night.
"I accidentally played until dawn last night trying to clear the game without losing a single character."
"Without losing anyone? Are you sure you've actually recruited everyone?" Ethan raised an eyebrow and casually said something that completely stunned Steve.
"W-What... what do you mean?"
"Steve, what chapter are you on?"
"I just reached Chapter 12."
Ethan nodded slightly.
"Then do you have Lugh, Sue, and Geese in your army yet?"
"Lugh..."
Steve repeated the unfamiliar names.
"Geese... Ah, I've seen him appear in several chapters. Isn't he just one of the background NPCs? I wouldn't waste valuable storage space making a soldier sprite that serves no purpose."