Oguchi Hisao understood. The Managing Director was treating Final Fantasy VII like a sledgehammer.
There was no need for any flashy marketing gimmicks. They would simply use the most pure and brutal visual impact, combined with an epic, massive scale, to directly shatter the players' psychological defenses.
The cost of pressing four CDs was extremely high, meaning Square was bearing the financial risk of betting the company's fate.
But Sega had provided the smoothest distribution channels and the most top-tier technical support, which meant they held the handle of this sledgehammer firmly in their own hands.
Nintendo had won over players with four controllers; Sega would use four discs to lock them to their televisions!
"Are the logistics for the release day all set?" Takuya Nakayama tapped his knuckles on the desk.
"Everything is ready. To prevent delays from blizzards in remote areas, shipments were sent out three days in advance," Oguchi Hisao replied, then frowned. "However, there's a small problem. The multi-disc plastic case Square used this time is too thick—it's practically a brick. The shelf density at retail stores will have to be cut in half, and some managers have complained to us that it takes up too much space."
"Taking up too much space?" Takuya Nakayama let out a soft chuckle, his voice calm yet radiating absolute confidence. "Tell those managers not to bother stocking the shelves. Just have them tear open the cardboard boxes and sell the games right next to the registers."
"I bet they won't even have time to carefully arrange the Final Fantasy VII boxes on the shelves on launch day. The moment those boxes are opened, they'll be snatched up in an instant."
The scene shifted back to the video game store in Akihabara.
The four boys had just finished their demo.
The screen displayed the final rankings.
The boy who came in last scratched his hair in frustration, drawing ruthless mockery from his three friends.
"I'm done! I'm so pissed!" he exclaimed, shoving the controller back to the manager. "That Red Shell's tracking is so broken! I was right at the finish line when it smashed me away!"
The manager, stifling a laugh, took the controller and deftly handed it to the next person in line. "Next group!"
The four boys walked out of the store, still buzzing with excitement, and stepped back into the howling winter wind.
"It's actually really fun. If we could get four roommates together in the dorm, we'd definitely pull an all-nighter." The tall guy rubbed his frozen hands, a look of pure relish on his face.
"Then why don't you buy a console?" the short guy shot him a sideways glance.
"Can't afford it. I even had to scrape together the money for the Final Fantasy VII launch from my meal budget." The tall guy sighed, patting his shriveled stomach. "For the past half month, I've been rushing to the convenience store every night to grab discounted, near-expiry bento boxes. If I keep eating like this, I feel like I'm going to starve into a low-poly model."
"Square better make it worth our months of anticipation," another guy chimed in, his tone laced with a hint of ruthlessness. "After delaying it for so long, if the graphics aren't as polished as the E3 demo—if it's all just a bunch of pixels—I swear I'll take a train to their headquarters and smash their windows!"
They had no idea what kind of terrifyingly advanced thing Square had been working on behind the industry's back all these months.
Back then, players' understanding of "optimization" was limited to reducing frame drops and fixing clipping issues.
The 3D games in their minds were still just crude patches of color and stiff animations.
At least, that was the case for RPGs.
Aside from fighting games—which featured only a few characters in the center of the screen and required no large-scale environment rendering—players hadn't even dared to imagine what the graphics of a sprawling RPG could truly achieve.
They had no idea that when the clock struck midnight on December 14th, and those four discs were inserted into the console, a new era of 3D cinematic storytelling would erupt with such violent force that it would utterly shatter their perceptions.
6:00 AM.
The streets of Akihabara were still shrouded in the biting winter chill, the streetlights casting a dim, yellowish glow.
The metal shutters of an old-school game store in Chiyoda Ward rattled open halfway from the inside.
The manager, bundled in a thick cotton coat and breathing out white plumes of frost, was directing two part-time employees as they hauled boxes of stock from the warehouse.
"Careful! Set them down gently! Don't dent the corners!" the manager barked, pointing at the heavy cardboard boxes emblazoned with the joint Square and Sega logos. His tone was as tense as if he were overseeing an armored cash transport. "These are our store's gods of fortune today—and the ancestors of all Akihabara!"
The clerk stacked the heavy boxes beside the checkout counter, straightened his back, and rubbed his aching spine with a long sigh of relief.
"Manager, aren't we putting these on the shelves?" he asked, gesturing toward another display filled with the red and green hues of Mario Kart 64. "We spent all night getting that one perfectly arranged."
"Shelves? Are you out of your mind?" The manager whipped out a sharp utility knife and sliced through the packing tape. "You'll bust your back stocking them, only for a pack of starving wolves to strip the shelves bare in ten minutes the moment we open. Then we'd have to restock all over again—it's a waste of effort! We'll sell them right here. Now, go put up a sign: Final Fantasy VII in stock, limit three copies per person!"
The clerk leaned in, peering into the opened box.
Inside, the heavy four-disc CD cases were stacked like black bricks, radiating an indescribable industrial beauty.
"This is just insane," the clerk muttered, his breath hitching in awe. "Four discs? How long are you supposed to play this? Square must have bet the whole company on this one."
"You don't get it," the manager said, patting the box. His eyes held the shrewdness of an old-school gamer. "You haven't been listening to those kids who've been in here for the N64 demos, have you? Mario 64 is a party game—something you play when visiting relatives or hanging out with friends. The kids who've been here for the free trials, strangers who didn't even know each other, have already become fast friends, making plans to bring their controllers to each other's houses for multiplayer sessions over the New Year. But Final Fantasy VII is different."
The manager checked his watch, his gaze drifting to the dense crowd gathered outside the roll-down shutters.
"Final Fantasy VII is the kind of game you buy, lock yourself in your room, draw the curtains, turn off your pager, and tell everyone to leave you alone. You stare at the TV, refusing to even take a bathroom break. This isn't just a game. It's their religion."
Outside, the line had already snaked around the corner and stretched into the next block. Kenta, a tall boy, kept his hands tucked in his sleeves, stamping his feet in place to shake off the chill seeping through the soles of his shoes.
Please Support me by becoming my Patreon member and get 30+ chapters.
[email protected]/Ajal69
change @ with a
Thank You to Those who joined my Patreon