30 Chapter 28: Xenogears launch

[3rd Person POV]

Not much is happening at Gotham at the moment. Batman's progress is slow and steady. He's trying to get used to his life now. But he's also still learning the tricks of the trade. Learning the difference between acting with the league of shadows vs acting alone as the batman. 

Harvey Dent is still relatively unknown but he's slowly getting popular. A small group of people are starting to dress up like batman but they haven't done any actual crime fighting for now. Mostly neighborhood watch stuff. 

Ven still has plenty of time before the Dark Knight events even start. So he focused his attention on the launch for the first game. They made the game available for download online physical copies as well. 

The release date was set for Squaresoft's first game since being bought by Wayne Enterprises and the lines for physical copies in game stores are all packed already with early line campers. 

And in barely a day, all physical copies already sold out. Others who weren't able to buy the physical one had to do it via online download instead. Luckily the controllers are sold separately as well. Though they wouldn't be the bundle ones. The Game also came with a demo disc for Final Fantasy VII as well. 

For the first day, adults, teenagers and kids alike, for the first time in a long while, went back to the world of gaming.

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Gotham City

Just like every other game enthusiast, after getting a copy, Barbara Gordon went home quickly and hurriedly booted up her PC and installed the mini software for the controller support. Then she installed the game she got from the nearest game store. It's been a while since she had played any games and she was quite curious if this new one she got could relaunch the interest for gaming once more.

Her brother James also got a copy as well and was also in his room installing his own copy. Barbara just got back from high school. She was going to College next year and she pretty much had a lot of free time at the moment. 

After everything was set, she started the game and was treated to the anime clip intro for Xenogears. A space ship in the middle of an emergency situation about to crash to an unknown planet. After the crew tried to evacuate and the captain was left behind, the captain triggered the self destruct for some reason. The crash was portrayed to have resulted in a female survivor with long blue hair looking over the horizon of the beach she landed on. Then the game began and the player was now able to control the main character Fei.

"Well this is cute, so the gameplay is mostly on chibi mode and the cinematics or cutscenes are anime form. Wow there's a lot of details in this small village!"

Barbara then proceeded to talk to all the NPC's and explored the small town. When she progressed the story a bit further, the main character was told to get something from the doctor that lives on the mountain so the main character finally traveled a but outside and had his first battle.

"Wow the battles are simply cute! It's turn-based from the looks of it. So I can hit light, medium or heavy attack. Hmm, the main character is a martial artist I guess."

She then experimented with the different options in combat. 

"Okay the sound design is pretty fun. The combat is so far simple but enjoyable."

Or so she thought. Then she saw a combo menu but nothing there at the moment so she figured it could appear later on. It was rather simple at first but then the story finally introduced the giant mech suits called Gears.

The combat for Gears were same as the human forms but something about the idea of piloting those gears made her heart beat a little quicker with excitement. 

A few minutes later, the player is treated to a tragic tale and the main character leaves what remains of the destroyed village.

"Okay woah, so the points to consume for fighting can be saved and can be used in a single turn condensed. That's interesting!"

She then played around with the combos and figured out the status menu was already about to learn the actual combos. She realized the intricacy of the combo system and was starting to get drawn into the story. The main character also met the heroine in the forest and they begin their mini adventure. 

Yet a few minutes later, they are given a little bit of freedom to walk around the world map to explore a bit or follow the main plot and go the nearest desert city, Aveh. 

Little did barbara know, she and most of the gamers are already drawn to the narrative of the game and barely realized that a few hours had already passed.

"Wow this is fun! I was already pulled into the story and forgot the time! Looks like this is going to be an enjoyable adventure!"

---

All over the country, people are drawn back into the world of gaming that they left behind. And the following day reviews came out and these entertainment starved people sung nothing but praises.

"Yo! the new Squaresoft game is pretty cool!"

"Hell yeah bruh! I love the Gear designs!"

"A mech is a man's romance!!!!!!"

"Hey it can be a girl's too you know!"

"Have you guys unlocked the combos yet! There's so much combos we can learn by repeated execution of the corresponding combinations."

"Seriously? Damn I didn't realize how to learn it! So that's why my combo meters aren't rising up!"

"Hey anyone else enjoying the exploration? I heard from those who already got pretty far that there are hidden locations in the world map with powerful stuff!"

"Dude Ramsus is annoying!"

"+1!!"

"+2!!"

"Havin so much fun on the tournament arc yo!"

"Hey no spoilers!!! I haven't reached that far yet!"

"What about the demo, you guys try it yet?"

"I did! It was also damn interesting! Looks like the story is unique as well! Although it looks like it's a totally different world. Looks kinda steam punk design thing!"

"Too bad the demo's pretty short, but then again it IS just a demo."

"Someone send help! I think I''m getting addicted!!!"

"Feels like the game is centered on its narrative and story, though the gameplay is undeniably fun as well!"

"I have a feeling this is gonna relaunch the interest in gaming. I hope they can keep producing quality work though."

"Hey, turns out later in the game you can get an airship in Xenogears and fly where ever!"

"SPOILERS!!!"

"HEY SPOLIERS!!!!"

"Ban hammer please!!!"

"Meh. I'm more of a fighting game kinda guy. I hope they release some of that genre as well."

"I don't know why but Citan Uzuki seems kinda hot...."

"What did you guys think of the music?"

"I actually found myself listening to some of the background music without doing anything every now and then!"

"Yo! They went all out on the voice acting as well huh? Glad it's not all read till you die LMAO!"

"Anyone know who the singer for the main theme was? I haven't reached the ending yet so I cant check the end credits!"

"LOL Yeah! that voice was immaculate!" Catchy too!"

"I think I'm gonna keep an eye on that singer and check for more of her works myself."

"Hey Squaresoft just made a new post on their website! They just announced a bunch of new titles with different game genre!"

"Noooo! My allowance isn't enough for all of this!!!!"

"Shut up and take my money!!!!"

"Looks like we eatin good boys!!"

For the next few weeks, schools and some work places of gamers all around talk nothing else but the new game. Either strategies or progress, even story discussions, even the generally grim Gotham is looking a lot more cheerful than usual.

The players were also quite surprised at how long the game runtime was. Most games in their world were quick games or casual ones you can play on the go. This is one of the first if not the very first game to be a full RPG with hours and hours of total playtime. This was a narrative, an adventure. A game they needed to play for a long time for the experience and they are loving every moment of it.

Meanwhile other game companies saw the sales and the hype. They realized that the game industry might get back on its feet. But they also realized that they need to up their quality. They can't stay making casual or short games anymore. 

From then on, a new trend was made of game devs making RPG's and story driven games. The race was on for joining this new wave of gaming.

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