Although Ethan had the upper hand in terms of strategy and unit development, his own save file had only reached Chapter 8. Against Steve's overwhelming statistical advantage, he was able to maintain a slight edge at first, but once he started losing units, the battle quickly collapsed.
Steve was, after all, a veteran who made a living playing games. The moment he secured the advantage; he calmly stabilized his position and methodically carried it through to victory.
"Haha, thank you for going easy on me, Ethan."
"You're not pulling any punches now, are you?" Ethan laughed. "I should've brought Sam's save file instead."
"Well, never mind. In any case, this is just a little surprise we've prepared for everyone. What do you think?"
"It's... it's fantastic!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Steve gave it the highest praise he could think of.
Even before learning about all the hidden mechanics revealed during today's interview, the editorial department had unanimously awarded Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade a perfect score.
For strategy games, perhaps the most enjoyable aspect was competition itself.
The enemy AI in this game was already exceptionally clever and challenging. Combined with the constantly changing map layouts, every chapter was enough to keep players engrossed for hours, or even dozens of hours.
But competing against the game was one thing, competing against other people was even better, as there was endless joy in battling another human.
The design of the Link Arena perfectly completed the final missing piece of this game.
Taking the army you had painstakingly trained into the arena to test your skills against other equally accomplished players, that was a source of enjoyment without end.
A game's finite selection of maps would eventually all be thoroughly explored. No matter how deep its strategy, one day players would inevitably discover the optimal solutions.
But only by facing other players, who themselves continued to improve without limit, could the game remain endlessly enjoyable.
Perhaps that was also the secret behind why Street Fighter, despite being one of GAMENOVA's earlier titles, still firmly dominated arcades everywhere, even under the relentless bombardment of the company's countless newer masterpieces.
"Oh, right! Ethan, didn't you say earlier that this versus mode had different variations?"
"That's right. But the second battle mode can only be experienced at GAMENOVA affiliated arcades."
….
"Hey, Miyazaki, I heard you won an entire NovaBox console. You really lucked out, didn't you?"
The bookstore owner looked at Miyazaki, who was sitting in his usual corner reading a book, and teased him with a grin. He had never imagined that the raffle ticket he casually stuffed into the boy's hand would actually win the grand prize.
"I've almost started regretting it. That's a high-end game console imported from America. They say it's even better than the Famicom."
Walking over, he glanced at the book in Miyazaki's hands, only to freeze.
Introduction to 6502 Assembly Programming??
Only then did the shop owner realize that, unlike usual, Miyazaki wasn't reading one of those fantasy novels that even he couldn't get through. Instead, the boy was completely absorbed in a programming book.
Recalling Miyazaki's NovaBox prize, the owner immediately guessed what was going on.
"Miyazaki... do you want to make games when you grow up?"
Hearing the question, Miyazaki reluctantly dragged his attention away from the sea of incomprehensible terms like registers and accumulators before replying softly, somewhat embarrassed.
"Yeah... I really like Fire Emblem..."
"Fire Emblem? Ah, that newly released strategy game? It's a shame I couldn't get one yesterday. There are articles praising it everywhere lately."
The owner nodded thoughtfully before suddenly remembering something.
"Speaking of that, I think the game shop on the shopping street just got a new machine. I heard it lets people play the two-player battle mode. Why don't you go give it a try? The grand prize is an MSX home computer."
"Battle mode?"
Hidetaka Miyazaki blinked his eyes several times before slowly closing the book in his hands.
"Thank you, sir. I'll go take a look in a little while."
If he could own a PC of his own, it would certainly make understanding all these dry, text-only books much easier. Just as he stepped out of the bookstore, the owner suddenly called out to him.
"Hey, Miyazaki. This is for you."
Rustle.
Miyazaki heard the sound of pages flipping through the air. Without even getting a good look, he hurriedly reached out and caught it. At first glance, the cover featured classic characters from various GAMENOVA game franchises, making it look just like a comic book.
But the title completely caught him off guard.
Nova Programming Language: From Beginner to Master
[ComicNova Publishing]
[Written by Ethan Hayes and John Carmack]
"What is this?"
"A programming tutorial published by GAMENOVA. Since you like their games so much, I thought this might suit you better."
The owner waved his hand, urging Miyazaki to get going.
Compared to the assembly programming textbook from before, this series was much thinner. So, naturally, it also wasn't as in-depth as assembly language. Instead, it was practically a language created specifically for the NovaBox and NovaPocket, making it ideal for game development.
Miyazaki casually flipped through a few pages, surprise appearing in his eyes.
Its contents were filled with bizarre and hilarious illustrations, accompanied by screenshots from games. Every chapter was packaged as an entertaining little story.
Rather than a programming textbook, it was essentially an educational comic.
Ash: "Oh no! Why isn't the screen moving? At this rate, Gary's going to complete the Pokédex before me!"
Clefairy: "You idiot! Hurry up and write a scrolling screen routine!"
Ash: "A scrolling screen? What's that?"
Clefairy: "Dummy, all you have to do is type this into the compiler."
The entire book was basically a giant crossover of GAMENOVA's various franchises.
One moment Ash and Gary were fighting each other. Next, Guile needed the reader's help designing a powerful missile attack. But it had to be said that, for a child of Miyazaki's age, this was infinitely more interesting than the incomprehensible programming tome he had been reading earlier.
By the time Miyazaki arrived at the game shop, a crowd of players had already gathered around the legendary "battle machine."
"Don't just leave him standing there! The shop owner is going to send his Pegasus Knight around the mountain and ambush you!"
"What?! You should've told me sooner!"
"It's over... It's over..."
After struggling his way through the crowd, Miyazaki finally reached the front.
Two televisions stood facing each other. The shop owner and a challenger sat opposite one another, each with their own game disk inserted into the system.
So that was the so-called battle machine. He looked toward the shop owner's screen and immediately noticed something unusual. The entire battlefield was shrouded in a strange gray fog, only the area surrounding the shop owner's own units remained clearly visible.
Even in places where both sides' vision overlapped, players could only see generic gray silhouettes of enemy units instead of clearly identifying their compositions as they normally could.
"This Fog of War is such a pain. Fighting without proper information is way too difficult."
"Exactly. The shop owner has already won several matches just by ambushing people with the Pegasus Knights."
"I'm up next. I totally get it now."
Listening to their discussion, Miyazaki caught an unfamiliar term,
Fog of War.
Although this mechanic did appear in certain castle and fortress chapters during the main campaign, it had never before been used on such a large scale.