Chapter 100: Time Skips and Game Adjustments
After the poaching incident speech, ZAGE returned to its usual operations. Employees continued their work, but now, a lingering fear of their boss loomed over them. It remained unclear how many had truly decided to stay after Zaboru's speech and his noticeable shift in demeanor. Regardless, they still worked diligently.
Now, it was Friday, November 22, 1991—almost a month since the speech incident. ZEPS continued to sell exceptionally well, and ZAGE was expanding healthy as usual. Three new games were finally ready for release: Metal Gear Solid, Sonic the Hedgehog, and The Legend of Akechi.
Although the games were similar to their counterparts from his previous world, Zaboru made several key adjustments.
For Metal Gear Solid, he decided against any major changes, believing that the original version was already an excellent game. Instead, he focused on minor performance tweaks and, for fun, added Zabo-man as an easter egg.
For Sonic the Hedgehog, he worked on improving performance and stability, ensuring that the bugs present in the Master System version from his past life would not appear in the ZEPS version. To make the gameplay experience even smoother, he adjusted the physics engine slightly to make Sonic's movement feel more fluid while still retaining the exhilarating sense of speed. He also tweaked enemy placements and stage layouts for better pacing, ensuring that the challenge scaled more evenly for both casual and experienced players.
However, The Legend of Akechi underwent the most significant improvements. The original game from his past world was intriguing but unpolished and too short. First, Zaboru added text-based story elements, ensuring that when the evil shinobi kidnapped the princess, it was accompanied by an actual sequence rather than the abrupt transition of the original. Now, the villain deployed a trap, forcing Akechi to stop and struggle before the kidnapping took place, adding an extra layer of tension to the narrative.
Zaboru also enhanced the game's visual effects, especially the death spell or death ninjutsu. Instead of enemies simply vanishing left and right, the color palette shifted to black and red like a silhouette. When enemies neared Akechi while he cast the ninjutsu, they would glow red before exploding in a visually striking effect, making the technique feel far more impactful. Sound design was also improved, with a deeper, more ominous sound cue accompanying the deadly spell.
The melee animations received a significant overhaul, adding more fluidity and weight to Akechi's attacks. Previously stiff and simplistic slashes were now replaced with smooth, multi-directional strikes that changed based on player movement. Additionally, power-ups were improved as well, allowing Akechi to evolve through four distinct forms, each higher form retain the abilities of the previous forms:
Orange Form – Standard abilities with normal shuriken, katana, jump, and run speed
.Green Form – Shuriken size increased, giving Akechi a better long-range advantage.
Yellow Form – Melee attacks became faster with extended reach, allowing more aggressive combat.
Purple Form – Enhanced jumping and running abilities, making navigation much more dynamic.
Akechi could obtain power-ups randomly from enemies or by reaching certain score milestones. However, taking two consecutive hits would revert him to a previous form, provided he still had health remaining. Unlike the original game, where upgrades felt more like temporary boosts, Zaboru's version made these transformations feel like genuine progressions, encouraging players to stay skilled and strategic.
Stage design also saw a major overhaul. While the original game had five stages with three looping rounds, Zaboru reworked it into five unique stages, each featuring different scenery. Instead of reusing background elements, each stage now had its own distinct biome, from bamboo forests to stormy castle rooftops. Enemies also scaled in difficulty with each progressing round, ensuring that later levels felt genuinely challenging rather than just repeating previous ones with minor variations.
Boss fights received particular attention. Instead of being defeated in a single hit, bosses now required ten strikes to be taken down, making battles feel more intense and rewarding. He also introduced a third boss alongside the two originals:
Evil Ninja Yukinose Kiri – A swift and unpredictable foe, capable of vanishing and striking from the shadows. he can teleport from each side of the arena then strike swiftly , he also throw Shurikens
Evil Samurai Yoshiro Yugikusa – A disciplined warrior who countered range attacks with brutal precision. He can deflect Akechi Shuriken attack , and when he in iai stance and attacked he will counter attack instead
Final Boss Battle Round – A fight against both Yukinose Kiri and Yoshiro Yugikusa simultaneously.
Additionally, Zaboru added a hidden boss that could only be unlocked by defeating the final boss while in Purple Form without taking any damage. And no—it wasn't Zabo-man. This time, Zabo-man had only a minor role in the game, ensuring that players wouldn't expect him to be an overpowered secret character or Boss.
Grinning, Zaboru stared at the final versions of The Legend of Akechi, Metal Gear Solid, and Sonic the Hedgehog, all prepped for release the next day. The culmination of himself and his company employee efforts had resulted in three polished and well-balanced games that he felt confident would leave a lasting impact on the industry.
"I wonder if Akechi-san will be impressed that I made a game using his name. I've improved it a lot from the OG," he chuckled to himself, amused at the idea of seeing his friend's reaction. "Either way, I've fulfilled my promise to him. Now, I can rest easy."
With that, Zaboru leaned back, enjoying a rare moment of relaxation before the much-anticipated release day of his three new ZEPS games., knowing that tomorrow, players would finally experience the new games he made.
To be continue
*Author note : WOW! 100 chapter, i can`t believe i`m able to write fics until 100 solid chapter! anyway power stones!*