Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 2 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Occasionally, I wonder what the ideal game is to me. I’ve played a lot of RPGs. So is it a game of that type, perhaps?

The ones that left a strong impression on me are Dragon Quest III and V, Final Fantasy II, IV, and VII, as well as Romancing SaGa, and also the MMORPGs Ultima Online and EverQuest, I suppose. RPGs of the same type as the ones I just listed or of types that developed from them are still being produced today, but it feels like rather than following a path of evolving, they’re following one of growing depth, or perhaps of division into narrow subcategories.

Furthermore, when it comes to MMORPGs, World of Warcraft swept the globe, and with later games finding ways to compensate for its weaknesses and refine the formula, it feels to me like it’s been nearly perfected, and we’re seeing the limits of what can be done.

When I first touched Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and the early MMORPGS, I was struck with the feeling that a new world was expanding before my eyes. My own small, narrow world was instantly expanded, and I set foot into it. Everything I saw and heard was new, and I didn’t want to leave. As a matter of fact, there was a period where I shut myself away in there.

What kind of game would have to appear to make me feel as I did back then? Is that something that can be brought about by the advance of technology? Or can existing elements be combined to create a new type of game? Will a person who creates games that no one has ever imagined before suddenly appear?

No matter how much I think about it, I never come to an answer. Perhaps the boundaries of my world will never be widened by a game again.

But, fortunately, I have novels. There are limits to what someone like me can write, and due to my lack of ability and inexperience, nothing I write turns out as I’d like, and I fumble to take even a half-step, let alone a full one, forward.

When I try to write a certain novel, I always lose my nerve. Am I capable of writing it? Is it too much for me?

Even so, I continue to write, somehow, and in that time, I’m simply desperate. When I look back once I finish writing, there’s a path behind me. Then, I’m able to see I’ve walked all this way.

I’ve run out of pages.

To my editor, K, to Eiri Shirai-san, to the designers of KOMEWORKS, among others, to everyone involved in production and sales of this book, and finally, to all of you people now holding this book, I offer my heartfelt appreciation and all of my love. Now, I lay down my pen for today. I hope we will meet again.

Ao Jyumonji