After the official website went live, the backend showed that traffic was steadily increasing—though not explosively so.
After all, their site was fairly simple: it introduced their games and provided downloads for their engine. Nothing more.
—Wait, they could also add links to their merchandise store!
Thinking of that, Ichin had the programming team put in a bit of extra work, adding Amazon and Taobao links directly onto the official site.
Whether it made much of a difference or not didn't matter—at least it was there.
"Speaking of merchandise…"
After browsing the site, Hazuki glanced at Ichin.
"It looks like our Persona figures are skyrocketing in price on the secondhand market."
"Can't be helped. High-quality figures are always expensive, and with low production runs, prices naturally go up."
Ichin really didn't have much of a solution.
Figures were different from model kits. With kits, you had molds—once the mold was made, mass production through injection molding was easy.
Figures, especially highly detailed ones like the Persona series, were different. The facial features, the intricate costume paintwork—all of that required painstaking handcrafting.
Ichin would've loved to lower the price so more people could buy them, but that just wasn't possible. Maintaining quality meant avoiding cheap outsourcing, and the labor cost and production limits were fixed.
Weighing the options, Ichin had chosen to prioritize quality first, quantity second.
Now that Persona figures were being scalped high in the secondhand market, there wasn't much he could do to fight it. His only hope was that with later preorder batches, the increased supply would bring down the resell prices.
At least those who preordered from their official shop were guaranteed figures at the original price. As for players who went to scalpers for overpriced "ready stock," it was just like with Gunpla enthusiasts paying premium for instant availability—there was no way to stop them.
"Let's just wait. Once more batches go out, things should settle down. The market isn't something we can control."
Shaking his head, Ichin dropped the matter and turned his attention to the programming department.
There were some minor issues with Dark Souls' system that needed his input.
By the time October rolled around, the gaming industry hadn't seen any huge waves.
Well, except one—The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2.
Nintendo's flagship IP sequel had launched earlier that year, and even now in October it was still sitting firmly in the top three of Japan's weekly sales charts every single week, with no sign of dropping.
Meanwhile, Persona—released back in May—still occasionally popped up on the weekly sales charts, and even more often on Steam's bestseller rankings.
Since it hadn't even been half a year yet, there was no way they were going to discount it. At earliest, they'd consider a winter sale around the end of the year.
As for Dark Souls, development was progressing smoothly, aside from a few small hiccups.
The base was built following Dark Souls 3, but unlike DS3, where a single patch would give birth to entire new "churches" of weapon metas, Ichin hoped this time would be a true "hundred flowers bloom" situation.
That's why he didn't hand weapon balancing to anyone else—he insisted on handling it personally.
From the early "Straight Sword Church," to later cults like the "Drumstick Church" and "Great Curved Sword," every style had its strengths. By late-game, countless special playstyles had been developed as well.
Ichin actually disliked it when a certain playstyle became overwhelmingly powerful. That always made one approach stand out too much while rendering other weapon types unpopular.
A well-known example was Monster Hunter's longsword—especially in Rise. With just a "Sheath 3" longsword, you could pretty much play through the entire game, while other weapons suffered from terrible balance and shallow gameplay, like the Insect Glaive or Lance.
Dark Souls, however, had a huge variety of weapons. Ichin wanted each type to feel rewarding after upgrades, something players could use to clear the game. He wanted people to experiment with different weapons—not just rely on one straight sword and a shield to brute-force the entire journey.
"Balance, huh…"
Staring at the 3D models of a pair of newly made weapons, Ichin's head buzzed. This was going to be a massive undertaking.
Luckily, The Binding of Isaac was already finished, and he didn't have to worry about updates for now. That gave him the space to fully focus on weapon values, animation modules, and battle arts—like the massive smoke greatsword he was tweaking.
Just as he was deep in thought, there was a knock at the office door.
"Come in," Ichin called without looking up.
The door opened, and Hazuki walked in.
"Ichin, I've got some news for you."
"Oh? What is it?"
"This year's TGA game awards—the organizers have invited us. Our Persona has been nominated for Best RPG of the Year and Game of the Year."
"TGA?"
Hearing that, Ichin finally lifted his head.
Of course he knew about The Game Awards, and naturally he'd attend. It was just that last year they hadn't released anything, being fully buried in Persona's development—so their moment had to wait until this year.
"Hazuki, when you say invited, do you mean they want us to attend in person?"
"That's right. They want us at the live ceremony," Hazuki confirmed. "They told me that unless something unexpected happens, we're basically guaranteed Best RPG this year, and Best Game Music is also a possibility. As for Game of the Year…"
"No need to say it—I know we're probably just a runner-up there. After all, Breath of the Wild 2 launched this year."
Though BOTW2 hadn't leapt as far ahead of its predecessor as people hoped, its depth of gameplay was undeniable. As an RPG, Persona couldn't really compete head-to-head in that aspect, and Ichin never expected to claim the overall crown.
Besides, whether or not they won Game of the Year, Persona's sales were already on track to hit well over ten million copies.
Stretching his arms, Ichin said,
"In that case, Hazuki, go ahead and let them know. We'll be there."
"No problem."
Hazuki smiled and nodded.
"So, how many of us should go?"
"Hmm…" Ichin thought for a moment. "Well, you definitely need to come with me. Aside from us, let's add Utaha, and maybe two or three more people. We'll confirm later."
"Alright, I'll reply for now. We can finalize the attendees later."
After Hazuki left, Ichin turned his attention back to his work.
"The TGA… they usually have trailer segments, don't they? That means we should put together announcement videos for Dark Souls and Titanfall. Such a good opportunity can't be wasted."
Thinking that, Ichin immediately messaged Hazuki through the company's internal chat.
After getting her quick "OK," he sent word straight to the Shanghai studio.
*
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