Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

If even Kazuo Murakami recommends a video game, then it's definitely worth playing.

Four stars means that if you're not particularly picky, this game is worth playing and trying.

Under these circumstances, Final Fantasy XIII Versus sales saw another surge on the fourth day, with daily sales returning to the million-level.

On the fifth day, sales were still hovering around one million.

It's practically a certainty that sales will exceed 10 million in the first week.

This surprised Zhu Youxing a little. Did he not know that game reviews could have such a powerful effect?

He had already arranged for marketing and development teams to help promote the game in various places.

For example, they could pay high-quality live streamers who don't usually play games to play Final Fantasy XIII Versus, thereby attracting some non-gamers.

Another strategy is to increase advertising in countries where sales are not good.

If all else fails, Zhu Youxing can even personally step in and actively promote his own games.

The game's sales were poor, but Zhu Youxing didn't like to sit idly by. He wanted to do something, and if all his efforts failed, it would prove that the game he made was indeed unsuitable, and he would accept his fate.

Even if I admit defeat now, I'm not afraid of anything. I can still make money elsewhere, so it won't affect my fundamental position at all.

If successful, then the game's brilliance will finally shine.

However, Zhu Youxing still instructed his team to prepare in case the wind didn't last long, so that they could keep up and prevent the flow of energy from being cut off.

He understood the saying, "One effort is enough, but a second will be weaker and a third will be exhausted."

Other game companies can only feel envious and frustrated when they see such game sales figures.

What they envy is that if they had such a game at home, they could truly rest easy and live off their savings for many years.

Toothache means that Yuxing Electronic Entertainment continues to maintain its dominant record and position, making it very difficult for other companies to challenge it.

Look at Suri Electronics next door. They've been eyeing the top spot in the video game industry for over twenty years, but they're still stuck in second place.

After Kazuo Murakami's review was released, a number of other organizations also published their own reviews.

In order to differentiate themselves from Kazuo Murakami's review, they chose a different approach to examine the game, which can be simply described as praising it.

Since this game has already proven to be a very successful work, we can praise it as much as we want. There's no pressure in praising a game that's obviously excellent, and we don't need to worry about being criticized by players.

Chapter 1168 I Apologize

Among other review websites, one site highly praised the fishing gameplay in Final Fantasy XIII Versus.

The reviewer also said that he was so addicted to the game's fishing feature that he completely forgot he was supposed to be rescuing the princess and saving the world.

All he can think about now is how to catch more fish.

Later, some professionals actually came out and gave a great review of the game's fishing mechanics. Apart from some fishing props that sounded outrageous and the types of fish that could be caught, everything else was excellent in terms of professionalism and research.

These professionals commented that Youxing Electronics Entertainment should just launch a professional fishing game; they, as professionals, would definitely fund it.

Kazuo Murakami was also immersed in the prince's fishing life.

Moreover, he doesn't feel any pressure to complete the game while fishing, because he has already completed it once, which is enough. Now he enjoys the game simply because he finds it fun.

Not long after, Yuxing Electronic Entertainment announced that it would consider making a more professional fishing game. It didn't care how much money it would make; if it could make people who didn't like video games interested in them, that would be enough.

After becoming gamers, these people will also be a valuable asset to the gaming industry.

About two weeks after the release of Final Fantasy XIII Versus, Kazuo Murakami was taking a break from his busy schedule to fish in his office.

Fishing in the game is something you can do anytime, anywhere, even more convenient than in real life. He really enjoys it, as he can do it even during work hours.

But at that moment, an editorial team member entered the office, and Kazuo Murakami immediately sat up straight and closed the Final Fantasy XIII Versus game interface.

"What can I do for you?" Murakami Kazuo asked, feigning composure, as he saw the person enter.

"President, there were some comments criticizing your review article just now."

"Criticizing my review? Why? What's wrong with my review? Which part of my review are you criticizing?"

"It's a review article for Final Fantasy XIII Versus. Why don't you take a look?"

Murakami Kazuo frowned.

He thought he was being criticized for his reviews of some bad games.

This has been quite common before.

Not all games that seem terrible will be rejected by everyone.

There will always be some players who have a very unique, even fanatical, love for certain games.

This passion might sometimes stem from a particular aspect of the game that resonates with the player, evoking complex emotions. Other times, it might be due to a player's idealized view of a game they're experiencing for the first time, even if the game itself isn't of high quality, they still feel a deep connection to it.

And if such people see that the games they review are not fun, they will stand up and criticize Kazuo Murakami.

In most cases, Kazuo Murakami would just glance at it and ignore it, because his expertise is for the benefit of most players. Moreover, he always adds a prerequisite before each review: his review only represents his personal opinion. If others have different opinions, then please take your own opinions as the primary consideration and do not refer to his own opinions.

Even with all those buffs, he still occasionally gets criticized.

However, when he reviews high-quality games, there are generally no objections.

"Is there anyone who thinks this game is terrible and therefore feels that my star rating is not up to par?" Kazuo Murakami asked.

This is indeed possible. Some people may occasionally enjoy bad games, while others may fundamentally dislike some fun games. In short, there are all kinds of birds in a big forest.

"No...it's just that some players think your ratings...are too low, especially the ratings for the storyline, which they feel are too low."

Murakami Kazuo's forehead was full of question marks.

Was the plot rated too low?

He recalled giving Final Fantasy XIII Versus a three-and-a-half-star rating for its story.

To highlight his professionalism in game reviews, Kazuo Murakami later gave his reviews in several different star ratings in his reviews.

The scores are calculated based on various aspects such as gameplay, storyline, sound effects, and overall experience, and then a finalized score is used to summarize the results.

Final Fantasy XIII Versus scores almost perfect in terms of gameplay, graphics, and sound effects, each receiving four and a half stars. There's nothing to criticize here. The half-star deduction is because game development is rarely truly perfect.

He was willing to give Cyberpunk 2077 a perfect score because the content was so abundant that not giving it a perfect score would be a disservice to the game.

Final Fantasy XIII Versus was just a little short of perfect; it didn't deserve a perfect score.

The plot, in particular, is a fairly ordinary story with a few twists and turns, but not many.

In the game, Adan, as the main villain, has his own helplessness. He is a puppet manipulated by the gods like a pawn. The prince, on the other hand, is willing to stand alone on the throne to save his country and his beloved. In the end, he fights against the gods and meets his death.

After seeing so many tragic stories like this, they all feel the same, not particularly amazing. The Final Fantasy series has too many tragedies; every single one is a tragedy, and none of them have a happy ending.

So after he finished that ending, he didn't play any other endings.

Because he was already familiar with the formula of the Final Fantasy series.

"Those people say there's more to the story in this game, but it's because you played it too fast and didn't fully grasp it. They suggest you play Final Fantasy XIII Versus a few more times, otherwise the reliability of this review will be greatly reduced."

Murakami Kazuo couldn't resist any longer; he logged into his review website to check the comments under his articles.

In the beginning, many players commented that they had been successfully persuaded and were ready to buy Final Fantasy XIII Versus to play.

Then there were some players who finished the game quickly and came back to thank Kazuo Murakami, saying that the game was indeed very fun.

However, the tide turned rapidly in the subsequent comments.

This is what happened yesterday.

Some players claim they have played the game for over a hundred hours, and only after playing for over a hundred hours did they suddenly realize that the game is quite detailed and not as simple as it seems on the surface.

Or to put it simply, this game also has multiple playthroughs, and the experience of each playthrough will be different, allowing you to discover more details of the game's world view during the playthrough.

"This game has a multi-playthrough storyline? Isn't that similar to a roguelike dungeon crawler?"

Kazuo Murakami felt that this was probably not very reliable. Large-scale games usually don't need to do this kind of thing; it's enough to tell a story well through one playthrough.

"President, should we confront these comments?"

"No need, I'll go back and play Final Fantasy first."

Kazuo Murakami closed the website comments and then reopened Final Fantasy XIII Versus on his computer.

He's now in the middle of the story in this playthrough. He played the game too fast before and didn't really explore many things.

However, this is also because he has a good understanding of Final Fantasy, basically knows the series inside and out, and understands the basic tone of the series, which is why he was able to make some comments after quickly completing the game.

But now, after reading the comments, he decided to try it out himself.

He was genuinely skeptical that Yuxing Electronic Entertainment would put too much effort into the storyline.

Could Final Fantasy XIII Versus be different?

That shouldn't be the case.

Kazuo Murakami turned off the fishing option in the game and started playing Final Fantasy XIII Versus seriously again.

This is the second playthrough.

In the second playthrough, you can carry over some things from previous playthroughs, including some items that can only be obtained later in the game.

After acquiring these items very early on, he suddenly discovered that some characters in the story would trigger dialogue that wasn't present in the first playthrough.

These dialogues themselves don't seem to have much impact on the main storyline of the game.

But upon closer reflection, it becomes somewhat terrifying.

For example, on the way to the wedding, an item obtained later in the first playthrough successfully triggers a dialogue with the car repair shop owner.

This dialogue thus leads to a plot branch, or a point of reference.

The repair shop owner in the story tells the protagonist that, according to legend, this item, when used in a certain area, will summon an unexpected creature that will help the protagonist solve some big troubles.

If you use this item in this area during your first playthrough, it should have the same effect.

In other words, many of the dialogues in the second playthrough are more like guidance, a way to guide the protagonist in the game to possibly save everything.

Murakami Kazuo's eyes widened slightly.

He suddenly discovered that the game's tutorial mechanism in the second playthrough was more complex than that in the first playthrough.

It wasn't just because obtaining certain items triggered certain dialogue prompts; there was also a boss in the first playthrough whose attack was constantly on a countdown timer.

If the protagonist fails to defeat the boss by the end of the countdown, a scripted death will occur, causing the boss to self-destruct and destroy an entire area, making it inaccessible and a dead zone.