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Chapter 532: ZUSUGA Gen 1 Disappointment
🕑 Added 2025-07-22 02:07:41 +0000 UTCSaturday, October 6, 1994
Zaboru was sitting at his desk, eyeing the new yellow and black console in front of him with a mix of curiosity and skepticism. This console was none other than the ZUSUGA Gen 1 — another system entering the video game market from a company called ZUSUGA, a name Zaboru hadn’t even heard of before because it didn't exist in Zaboru's previous life.
The ads for this console had already been airing since last week. The trailer was flashy and provocative, essentially mocking both ZAGE and Sonaya. On-screen, the CEO of the company, Zukechi Zagashira, appeared confidently, grinning as he declared, “Throw away your ZEPS and Titan Drive! Change to ZUSUGA Gen 1 — a new generation of 16-bit consoles that comes with 10 launch games! We only give you the best!”
When Zaboru first saw the ad, he was surprised — it was so direct and blunt that he actually had a good laugh. It had that classic ‘90s vibe. He wasn’t offended by it; instead, he was simply amused.
Also, Zaboru now knew who this Zagashira was — none other than someone from his father’s former family, and even Zanichi, sitting in his office, knew about him. Zaboru asked, “Do you know this Zukechi, Dad?” Zanichi chuckled and nodded. “Back when I was exiled, he was still a kid — the child my former father adored the most. I heard they really spoiled him back then. And now, it seems he’s wasting money again, creating consoles like this.”
Zaboru smiled warmly. “Don’t be like that. Let’s play the games first — they released 10 games; that’s impressive, hahaha.” He was genuinely excited — after all, it meant more games to explore, test, and experience, even if only out of curiosity.
As for the ZUSUGA Gen 1, the price was slightly more expensive than both Sonaya’s Titan Drive and ZAGE’s ZEPS 2. While Sonaya and ZAGE consoles retailed around 23,000–24,000 yen, the ZUSUGA Gen 1 was priced at about 28,000 yen. The cartridges, though, were priced similarly to ZAGE and Sonaya at around 8,000 yen. Now, Zaboru had already bought the console and all 10 launch games — they had just been released today — and was ready to dive in. The pricing struck him as bold, and he wondered if the games would justify it or if it was just flashy marketing.
He quickly set up the console and observed its design: full square shape, yellow and gray color palette — overall, not a great design, clunky and somewhat cheap-looking. “Well, a console’s design doesn’t matter if it’s good,” Zaboru murmured with a half-smile, trying to stay optimistic.
He chose a game called City Dragon Attack, put it into the ZUSUGA Gen 1, and started it. Overall, it had standard, uninspired graphics. The game was about a guy in a white shirt with a white sword, fighting small dragons. But the animation was stiff, the controls felt clunky, and the soundtrack was bland and repetitive. Zaboru frowned, shaking his head slightly. “What the hell…”
Suddenly, after playing for about 15 minutes, a big green dragon appeared. As Zaboru fought it, just as the dragon unleashed its ultimate move, the game froze and crashed. Frustrated, Zaboru tried resetting the game, only to realize that none of his progress had been saved.
Zaboru was clearly pissed. “What the hell is this garbage? So unfinished, laggy, and uninteresting as hell.” Zanichi watched his son, surprised — this was the first time he had seen Zaboru genuinely angry over a video game. Over the years, Zanichi had always been present when Zaboru tried third-party games; even when the games were bad, Zaboru would usually say, "Hmm, I see what they want to do, but they still don't grasp it — hopefully they can in the future!" and keep playing. But not this time, not with this game.
Zaboru sighed. “This game was created in a rush. It has no soul.” As an avid gamer, he knew what made a proper game — even if it had clunky mechanics or a weak story, if the developer poured heart into it, there would still be something to appreciate, something memorable. But City Dragon Attack was just a hollow, low-level game, slapped together without care, rushed into development just to meet a deadline.
Zaboru sighed again and decided to play the other nine games first. After around two hours, he had tried them all. They were all similar to City Dragon Attack, just dressed in different genres. There were a couple of decent ones — like Crushing Fist, a fighting game; Hero Sword, a generic RPG with surprisingly decent gameplay; and a racing motorcycle game called Full Speed. But only those three stood out, and even they felt like template games — no innovation, no memorable moments, and most were riddled with frustrating bugs that should have been caught during quality control. It left Zaboru shaking his head, disappointed not just as a developer, but as a gamer.
Leaning back on his couch, clearly disappointed, Zaboru sighed. “They focused on quantity, I guess…” Zanichi added reassuringly, “Don’t worry, Zaboru. The players will know what’s good for them. I bet the flaws of ZUSUGA Gen 1 will reveal themselves soon enough.”
Zaboru nodded. “I know that. It just pisses me off that there are companies trying stuff like this. Didn’t they learn from the fall of Atari?”
Zanichi grinned. “Sometimes, people only think about how much money they can stuff into their pockets, Zaboru. They don’t know anything — and they don’t even care about their customers. That’s just how it goes in the business world, no matter the industry.”
Zaboru nodded and sighed. So far, his true rival at ZAGE was Sonaya — even though they were still slightly behind in quality and quantity, Sonaya’s games always had heart. They polished their games, introduced inventive mechanics, or crafted memorable storylines. That’s why Zaboru was genuinely delighted by Sonaya’s work — he got to experience games that hadn’t existed in his previous world. But now, the ZUSUGA Gen 1 just frustrated him deeply.
Meanwhile, at Sonaya HQ in Japan, Junpei Hoshida, head of Sonaya’s gaming division, and Hikaru Kurata, Sonaya’s CEO and major shareholder, were also seated in the testing room, evaluating the ZUSUGA Gen 1 with focused, critical eyes.
Junpei sighed. “Yup. Full of garbage games. Nothing to worry about, boss.” Hikaru Kurata laughed, shaking his head. “Hahaha! I knew it. That’s definitely the youngest Zagashira — the one known as the spoiled brat who spends his father’s money.” Junpei nodded thoughtfully. “Still, we can learn a thing or two from this. It’s a reminder of what happens when you prioritize quantity over quality, boss.” Hikaru Kurata smiled, folding his arms. “Yes. Thank God we didn’t go down that path.”
Kurata grinned. “But still — that bastard’s got guts, slandering ZAGE and Sonaya directly like that. Let’s see if it backfires on him.” Hikaru Kurata was actually delighted — finally, there were other mediocre consoles that Titan Drive could easily beat! After so many times of being overshadowed by ZAGE, Hikaru Kurata was genuinely pleased to have finally found some smaller fish in the pond. He grinned, clearly in a good mood.
Meanwhile, at Zukechi’s home, he grinned to himself, thrilled that the sales of his console were doing well on the first day. “Hehehe… let the money come!” he chuckled, rubbing his hands together with glee. What he didn’t know was that everything was about to change come Monday.
To be continued.
