Chapter 1463 1381 — ZEMITSU Talk: Junpei Hoshida

Saturday, 14 February 2002.

While Zaboru remained at the hospital with Ayumi, another conversation was happening elsewhere in Japan. Inside the ZEMITSU offices, the latest livestream of HONEST REVIEW had just begun on ZAGE YouTube. The program had become one of the most popular gaming talk shows around precisely because it rarely felt like a formal interview. The regular trio—Nigo Guroki, Kiara Kawamura, and ZEMITSU leader Mitsu Tadano—usually sat around a table and simply talked about games, developers, and the industry as naturally as possible. Nigo was the quietest of the three, usually stoic and analytical whenever a subject became serious. Kiara brought most of the cheerful energy and was never shy about showing excitement whenever a topic interested her. Mitsu sat somewhere between them, generally relaxed and easygoing but capable of becoming extremely direct when he wanted an honest answer.

Today's guest made the episode particularly interesting.

Sitting across from them was Junpei Hoshida, the well-known head of Sonaya's video-game division. He was already famous within the industry for his games and his position at Sonaya, but there was another reason gamers constantly brought his name up: Zaboru Renkonan had repeatedly tried to recruit him into ZAGE, and Junpei had repeatedly refused. Alongside Triangle Soft leader Hironobu Sakaguchi, Junpei had effectively become one of the most famous developers Zaboru openly admitted he wanted but had never managed to obtain.

Nigo began the show with a small smile, though his voice remained calm as usual. "Hello, everyone. Today we have a special guest, Junpei Hoshida-san. Honestly, I think most people watching already know who he is, so introductions might be unnecessary."

Junpei gave a polite bow toward the camera. "Hello, everyone. Thank you for inviting me."

Kiara was already smiling brightly beside Nigo. She waited only a few moments before leaning closer toward her microphone. "Hoshida-san, I really want to start with the rumor everyone knows. Is it actually true that Zaboru-san keeps asking you to work at ZAGE and you keep refusing him? Because you and Sakaguchi-san are basically famous as the two people, Zaboru openly says he wants to recruit but somehow still can't get. And what makes it even stranger is that I heard you're actually a huge fan of Zaboru-san."

Junpei chuckled before nodding. "That part is completely true. Zaboru-san asks whenever he gets the opportunity. Sometimes seriously, sometimes casually, but he has made it very clear that he wants me at ZAGE. And yes, I am a fan of him."

Kiara tilted her head with an amused smile. "Then why refuse him? If someone you admire keeps asking you to join his company, I feel like most people would eventually say yes."

Junpei leaned back slightly and took a moment before answering. "Ironically, being a fan of him is part of why I keep refusing. Working with Zaboru-san would obviously be exciting, but challenging him is exciting too. I enjoy competing against people I respect. When the opponent is strong, winning actually means something."

Nigo quietly followed the answer. "So you enjoy having ZAGE on the opposite side."

"Exactly," Junpei replied. "And when Sun Knight 5 managed to win FAMICOM GOTY 1999 against ZAGE, I was incredibly proud. Not because I wanted ZAGE to fail, but because it proved Sonaya could produce something that stood above them for that moment. When the company you're competing against is ZAGE, even one victory feels significant."

Mitsu gave a small approving nod. "Sun Knight 5 really was a great game. And honestly, Sherif Juan 5 was strong too in 2001. It just had the unfortunate timing of going against Vagrant Story."

Junpei laughed quietly. "Yeah. We lost that one. But honestly? Vagrant Story was something else. When I finished it, I couldn't even be angry about losing. Sometimes you play another company's game and just have to admit they created something exceptional."

Mitsu smiled. "That's probably the healthier kind of rivalry."

"It's much healthier than pretending every competitor's game is terrible just because you want to beat them."

Nigo let that point settle for a moment before moving toward a more current topic. His expression remained composed as he glanced briefly at his notes. "There's another rumor surrounding Sonaya recently. People are saying Sonaya may focus more heavily on PC games for a while before launching its next console. Obviously, if that is confidential, you don't have to confirm anything. But is PC at least a direction Sonaya is seriously considering?"

Junpei became a little more careful with his wording. "It is somewhat confidential, so I can't confirm actual plans or releases. But yes, I think I can say that PC may become a much more important direction for us in the future. Right now, realistically speaking, we aren't exactly in a position to fight ZEPS 4 directly."

He gave a small laugh before adding, "That thing is honestly out of this world."

Kiara immediately smiled. "That sounded extremely honest."

"It would be pointless to pretend otherwise."

Nigo continued, "If Sonaya does become more active on PC, then what about distribution? Would Sonaya actually use Steam even though it belongs to ZAGE?"

Junpei thought about it briefly before answering. "I don't see why we wouldn't. ZAGE owns Steam, yes, but they haven't really used it as some kind of weapon against competitors. ZAGE is actually well known for not monopolizing systems like that."

Mitsu rested one arm on the table and listened while Junpei continued. "Especially for small developers, Steam's structure is extremely generous. A small developer can pay the one-time one-hundred-dollar publishing fee and then simply put the game on the platform. ZAGE barely interferes beyond maintaining the service itself. From our perspective, if Sonaya moves more strongly toward PC, Steam would obviously be one of the platforms we could work with."

Kiara nodded cheerfully. "And Sonaya and ZAGE aren't actually enemies anymore anyway, right?"

"Exactly," Junpei said. "We compete, but that's different from hostility. There's no reason to refuse a useful platform just because the company operating it also happens to compete with us somewhere else."

Mitsu smiled faintly at that answer before bringing up Sonaya's older history. He rested one arm on the table and said, "It's interesting hearing you say that, because Sonaya used to feel very different. Back in the ZEPS 1 era, Sonaya had the Mugen Game Box, your 8-bit machine, and it really felt like the company was constantly trying to answer whatever ZAGE did. Then when ZAGE moved into ZEPS 2, Sonaya followed with the Titan Drive, your 16-bit console, and the same rivalry became even more obvious. From the outside, it looked like Sonaya was always trying to match ZAGE's pace instead of moving at its own speed. Now you guys feel very different.""

Junpei laughed. "Honestly, you should probably ask Hikaru Kurata-san that question instead of me. He's my boss and he was much closer to those decisions." When Mitsu casually replied that Hikaru was not the one sitting in the studio, Junpei smiled and gave in. "Fair enough. Then I'll answer. The biggest change is that Sonaya finally accepted that ZAGE is an anomaly. During the MGB and Titan Drive eras, we kept trying to measure ourselves directly against ZEPS 1 and ZEPS 2. Later, by the ZEPS 3 and Game Station 32 era, it became impossible to ignore that matching ZAGE's pace directly simply wasn't realistic."

Nigo's expression sharpened slightly. "What specifically made Sonaya realize that?"

Junpei looked toward him. "Their production pace. We used to study ZAGE very carefully. We would estimate how many teams they had available, how long their projects should take, how many games they could realistically release, and then try to prepare our own schedule around that."

He paused briefly and gave a resigned smile. "Then suddenly ZAGE would release six or seven games in one month."

Kiara laughed lightly. "That does sound impossible when you say it out loud."

"It practically is for most companies," Junpei replied. "Sonaya can barely produce one significant game every month without risking quality. And even that is difficult. If we tried to force ourselves into releasing five or six games every month simply because ZAGE did it, our quality would collapse, our developers would burn out, and eventually we would destroy ourselves."

Mitsu nodded slowly. "So Sonaya finally stopped trying to match quantity."

"Exactly. Especially by the ZEPS 3 and Game Station 32 era, the difference became impossible to ignore. At some point we had to accept that trying to match ZAGE release-for-release was simply unrealistic. If they release six games and we release one, then our responsibility is to make sure that one game is worth playing. That is much more useful than destroying ourselves because ZAGE happens to be insane."

Nigo remained quiet for a moment before summing it up in his usual straightforward way. "So instead of predicting how fast ZAGE runs, Sonaya decided to stop running their race."

Junpei nodded. "That's a good way to describe it."

Mitsu leaned back comfortably. "Honestly, probably healthier for everyone involved."

"Very much so."

Kiara had been listening with obvious interest, but the word anomaly had clearly caught her attention. Her eyes brightened again as she leaned toward Junpei with an excited smile. "So you really think ZAGE is an anomaly?"

Junpei chuckled. "Absolutely."

Kiara immediately continued, "Then that sounds exactly like ZEPS 4!"

Mitsu glanced toward her and smiled, already realizing where she was going.

Kiara became even more animated. "Speaking of ZEPS 4, I've been waiting to ask this. You're literally the head of Sonaya's game division, so I really want to know what you think about it from the competitor's side. Not some safe company statement either. What do you actually think about ZEPS 4, Hoshida-san?"

Junpei looked toward her, then toward Nigo and Mitsu. For a few seconds he remained silent, as if deciding how much he could say without turning the podcast into an unofficial Sonaya statement.

Then he sighed softly.

"Well…"

A small smile appeared on his face.

"ZEPS 4 is…"

To be continued.