Another world Game Developers in Japan`s 1991

AN : There's chance that tomorrow i will take break because of overtime but we'll see

Zaboru eventually pushed the Yakuza development document aside for the moment. He had already spent more than enough time brainstorming Kamurocho, Kiryu, the Hamazou family, and how he wanted to improve the early Yakuza stories. His mind needed something different.

He leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and smiled slightly.

"Souls games…"

The thought immediately changed his mood.

People in this world had actually been introduced to something resembling Souls gameplay much earlier than in Zaboru's previous life. Nightmare Hunter, which had already been released on ZEPS 3, had served as ZAGE's first real experiment with that style.

The original Nightmare Hunter had existed in Zaboru's previous world as well. It had been an underrated game, but one thing Zaboru always remembered was how strangely close its atmosphere could sometimes feel to Bloodborne despite being released years earlier. Victorian streets, grotesque monsters, oppressive environments, violent combat, and a constant sense that something terrible was hiding just beyond the player's vision.

Because of that, when ZAGE recreated Nightmare Hunter, Zaboru had deliberately pushed those similarities much further.

The ZEPS 3 version introduced heavier combat, stamina management, more dangerous enemies, darker level design, shortcuts, environmental storytelling, difficult boss encounters, and a much stronger emphasis on learning enemy behaviour rather than simply attacking constantly.

Players loved it.

At the time, most people simply considered Nightmare Hunter a brutally difficult gothic action game.

Zaboru knew better.

It had been preparation.

Not necessarily because every player needed to understand Souls games before Demon's Souls arrived, but because Zaboru wanted to slowly teach the audience that dying in a game did not always mean the game was unfair. Sometimes failure was information. Sometimes losing against the same enemy several times made finally defeating it far more satisfying.

Nightmare Hunter had already planted that idea.

Now Zaboru wanted to take the next step.

He opened another blank development document and typed the title slowly.

DEMON'S SOULS

Zaboru stared at the words for a few seconds before chuckling. "Hehehe… this game really has a strange history."

In his previous life, Demon's Souls had become famous partly because of how badly people initially misunderstood it.

The game had been ambitious, strange, difficult, incomplete in several areas, and almost hostile toward players who expected conventional action games. Even executives connected to its original release had initially failed to recognise what made it special.

Zaboru remembered the story particularly well.

One Sony executive had played an unfinished version, struggled to understand the game, and reportedly considered it one of the worst things he had ever played. Sony then decided not to properly publish Demon's Souls internationally, forcing other publishers to handle releases outside Japan.

Then the game became successful.

Players loved it.

Word of mouth spread.

The game slowly developed a dedicated community, and eventually people realised that many of the things originally considered strange or frustrating were exactly what made it memorable.

Years later, the executive admitted that dismissing Demon's Souls had been one of his biggest mistakes.

And that executives is Shuuei Yoshida.

Zaboru smiled and shook his head.

"That's kind of hilarious."

He understood why it happened, though.

Early Demon's Souls was not immediately welcoming.

The controls could feel heavy. The game barely explained several important mechanics. World Tendency was confusing. Character Tendency could become even more confusing. Some upgrade paths were unnecessarily difficult to understand. Certain bosses were brilliant while others relied more heavily on gimmicks.

The game was also clearly missing something.

The sixth Archstone.

That alone had always fascinated Zaboru.

Inside the Nexus, players could access five functional Archstones leading toward major regions of Boletaria. But another Archstone remained broken.

Destroyed.

Unusable.

The implication was obvious.

Something had originally been intended there.

Development limitations had prevented it from being completed.

Zaboru leaned forward and smiled.

"That won't happen here."

If he was going to recreate Demon's Souls, he wanted the game to feel complete.

Not bloated.

Complete.

There was a difference.

He did not want to turn Demon's Souls into Elden Ring.

Elden Ring was enormous because its entire structure had been designed around exploration across a massive world. Demon's Souls worked differently. Its identity came from concentrated, dangerous environments connected through the Nexus.

Every Archstone should feel distinct.

Every stage should feel deliberate.

Every enemy placement should matter.

Zaboru wanted to preserve that.

But the destroyed sixth Archstone would finally become real.

He opened a new section in the development document and wrote:

Sixth Archstone – Frozen Region.

Zaboru rested his chin against one hand and stared at the words.

There had always been rumours and development evidence suggesting that the unfinished region might have involved a snowy or icy environment.

He liked that direction.

"Hehehe… what should I put there?"

Ideas immediately began forming.

An ancient kingdom buried beneath endless snow.

Ruined fortresses nearly swallowed by ice.

Frozen villages where the inhabitants had gradually become monstrous.

Deep caverns containing creatures that had survived beneath glaciers for centuries.

A mountain fortress where visibility became progressively worse because of violent snowstorms.

Or super snowy mountain that make player hard to see the stages..

Zaboru stopped himself.

"Careful."

This was exactly where he could accidentally go too far.

He did not want to create an entire separate mythology so large that it distracted from Boletaria.

The sixth region needed to feel like another forgotten part of the same world, not an expansion pack from a completely different game.

He typed several smaller notes instead.

Ancient frozen kingdom.

Isolated culture.

Collapsed due to Demons.

Possible connection to Soul Arts experimentation.

Environmental storytelling through frozen corpses, abandoned temples, ruined armour, and surviving inscriptions.

A few unique bosses.

No excessive exposition.

Zaboru nodded approvingly. "Better."

That was one thing he wanted to preserve from Souls games.

The player should not receive the entire story through long conversations explaining everything directly.

Lore should exist everywhere.

Item descriptions.

Architecture.

Enemy design.

Boss arenas.

Names.

Weapons.

Small pieces of dialogue.

A player who simply wanted to fight could ignore most of it.

A player who wanted to understand everything could spend hundreds of hours arguing online about what one broken statue actually meant.

Zaboru smiled wider.

That sounded perfect for ZAGE Forum.

He could already imagine thousands of threads.

WHO WAS THE FROZEN KING?

THE SIXTH ARCHSTONE IS CONNECTED TO THE OLD ONE THEORY

THIS SWORD DESCRIPTION CHANGES EVERYTHING

NO, YOU IDIOT, READ THE JAPANESE VERSION

Zaboru laughed quietly. "Yeah, Souls fans are definitely going to become insane."

Zaboru thought funny "Will VaatiVidya come earlier as well" he smile amused by certain "Lore" youtuber.

He returned his attention to gameplay.

The original Demon's Souls combat needed refinement, but Zaboru did not want to remove its weight.

That was extremely important.

He loved Elden Ring. He loved Bloodborne. He loved Sekiro.

Their weapons were creative, stylish, and often completely ridiculous in the best possible way.

But early Souls games had something different.

A longsword felt like a longsword.

A claymore felt heavy.

A spear felt practical.

A mace looked like something an actual medieval soldier might use.

Even magical weapons often remained recognisable as believable weapons first and fantasy objects second.

Zaboru preferred that feeling for Demon's Souls.

He smiled and said quietly, "Keep it grounded."

That did not mean boring.

There would still be magical swords, cursed weapons, Demon weapons, strange shields, enormous greatswords, special bows, catalysts, talismans, and equipment crafted from boss souls.

But most weapons should still feel like objects someone inside Boletaria could realistically carry.

Zaboru did not want players immediately swinging enormous glowing weapons three times their body size while launching golden explosions across the screen.

That kind of spectacle could come later.

Dark Souls could slowly expand things.

Bloodborne could become more experimental with transforming weapons.

Sekiro could explore specialised tools and sword combat.

Then Elden Ring could finally go completely insane because FromSoftware would have already spent multiple games learning how far the weapon design could be pushed.

Zaboru wanted the progression to feel natural.

Demon's Souls should be the foundation.

He began expanding the weapon categories.

Straight swords, greatswords, axes, great axes, spears, halberds, daggers, bows, crossbows, hammers, maces, curved swords, shields, catalysts, talismans, and several unique Demon weapons.

Each category would have enough variety to encourage experimentation without overwhelming players immediately.

The upgrade system also needed improvement.

The original system had depth, but it could become unnecessarily confusing. Zaboru did not want to remove complexity entirely, but he wanted players to understand why certain materials created certain upgrade paths.

Instead of forcing players to search obscure external guides just to understand basic weapon progression, blacksmith dialogue, item descriptions, and interface information could provide clearer hints.

World Tendency would receive similar treatment.

Zaboru wanted to keep it.

He actually loved the idea.

Player actions affecting the state of each Archstone could change enemy difficulty, unlock areas, alter NPC appearances, and reveal hidden encounters.

The problem was that the original game barely explained it.

Zaboru smiled and muttered, "Mystery is good. Confusion is not always good."

World Tendency would remain mysterious, but players would receive enough visual and environmental clues to understand that their actions were changing something.

Character Tendency would also remain.

Again, clearer.

Not simplified into a giant morality meter screaming GOOD PERSON or EVIL PERSON across the screen.

Just readable enough that observant players could understand the consequences.

Then came difficulty.

Zaboru's smile became slightly dangerous.

Demon's Souls would absolutely be difficult.

Nightmare Hunter had already trained ZEPS 3 players to expect punishment, but Demon's Souls needed to go further.

Enemies would hit hard.

Careless players would die quickly.

Healing resources would be limited enough to matter.

Traps would punish people who rushed blindly.

Bosses would require observation.

Levels would contain ambushes that seemed cruel the first time but obvious once players understood the environment.

However, Zaboru did not want difficulty to become meaningless cruelty.

If the player died, there should usually be something they could learn from it.

Enemy placement.

Attack timing.

A hidden route.

A resistance weakness.

A dangerous environmental clue.

A boss pattern.

Zaboru wrote one sentence prominently inside the document.

Punish mistakes, not curiosity.

He stared at it for a moment and nodded.

"That's important."

Exploration should still be dangerous, but players needed to feel rewarded for investigating strange paths.

Hidden weapons.

NPCs.

Shortcuts.

Unique armour.

Soul items.

Optional bosses.

Fragments of lore.

The game should constantly whisper, There might be something over there.

Then kill the player for being careless while checking.

Zaboru chuckled.

"Perfect."

Spells would also receive more variety.

Magic in Demon's Souls had always been powerful, sometimes ridiculously so. Zaboru wanted to preserve the idea that a properly built mage could become terrifying, but he wanted more interesting options than simply standing far away and firing the strongest projectile repeatedly.

Sorceries could include offensive magic, defensive abilities, utility effects, weapon enchantments, environmental interactions, and several spells specifically useful against certain enemy types.

Miracles would focus more heavily on healing, protection, resistance, anti-Demon effects, and several powerful abilities tied directly into the game's religion.

Again, enough variety to create builds.

Not enough to turn the first Souls game into a gigantic spell catalogue.

Zaboru paused and stretched his arms.

The document had already grown far larger than he expected.

He laughed quietly. "Well… I really spend my time brainstorming these days."

Yakuza had occupied his mind earlier.

Now Demon's Souls had taken over.

And there were still numerous ZEPS 4 games needing attention.

Fortunately, Demon's Souls would not be a launch title.

Zaboru had decided that almost immediately.

He wanted time.

Time to experiment with level design.

Time to build the sixth Archstone properly.

Time to test World Tendency.

Time to refine combat weight.

Time to make sure difficulty felt harsh but fair.

Most importantly, he wanted Demon's Souls to feel special.

Not merely another game released alongside ten others during ZEPS 4's launch.

The first true Souls game from his previous life deserved its own moment.

Zaboru continued writing for several more hours without noticing how late it had become.

When he finally looked toward the clock, it was already 11:30 PM.

His Black Berry Z01 suddenly vibrated beside the keyboard.

Ayumi.

Zaboru smiled immediately and answered.

Ayumi's voice came through softly. "Zabo… are you still working?"

Zaboru looked at the enormous Demon's Souls document covering his screen and chuckled. "Maybe."

Ayumi sighed quietly before saying, "Come home."

"Hm?"

"I miss you."

That immediately defeated him more effectively than any Demon's Souls boss ever could.

Zaboru smiled warmly and leaned back in his chair. "Okay then. I'm coming home."

"You said that yesterday too."

"I actually mean it this time."

Ayumi remained suspicious. "How long?"

Zaboru glanced toward the clock before replying, "As soon as I save everything."

"Not another hour."

"Not another hour."

"Zaboru."

"Twenty minutes."

"Zaboru."

"Okay, okay. Ten."

Ayumi finally laughed softly. "Come home, idiot."

Zaboru smiled. "Love you too."

After ending the call, he saved the Demon's Souls development document and shut down the workstation. Before leaving, he looked once more at the growing list of ZEPS 4 projects.

Yakuza.

Demon's Souls.

The launch games already approaching completion.

Several sequels.

New IPs.

Online projects.

Sports games.

RPGs.

Action games.

Experiments he had not even written down yet.

Zaboru grabbed his jacket and smiled to himself.

One thing was becoming increasingly obvious.

ZEPS 4 was not simply going to have powerful hardware.

Its library was going to be ridiculously rich.

To be continued.

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