"So you played the whole thing, yeah? What do you think?" I asked Daedalus after he was back from playing Fate/Téras Konístra to 100% completion. Meanwhile I was playing with Mrs. O'Leary. Nice doggie.
"Amaturish." Daedalus said with a nod after some thought. "There's definitely a lot of passion in it, but there are a lot of mistakes. Sometimes the audio files don't sync with the text and images. Some times the character sprites don't appear, or don't fully load when they should be talking onscreen. The text speed in combat is suppose to load faster, right? It skips to the end of the written portion of the scene to the end, and the player would have to paused and open the text-dialogue logs to see what was said."
I winced as Daedalus pointed out all the small issues with the game. All these things did come up, but I thought we fixed them. Guess a few escaped everyone's notice.
"The game is at least functional from start to finish, it doesn't crash, right?" I asked, hoping that, that one thing was going right for it.
"It sometimes crashes at this one sequence in the Téras Route when the main character makes a choice on helping Asterios Alter, or stocking up on magical items." He gave me a pointed look and a lopsided smile. "You know, the choice to go to the sex scenes or not."
"Haha, yeah well," I chuckled awkwardly. Yeah that topic was bound to come up. "Sex sells." I shrugged. "Needed a hook to grad the audience so they stay for the plot and worldbuilding."
"I get it," Daedalus nodded in understanding. "However with the way the game was made, how certain imperfections in the character art, or some of the grammar that's just off here and there, I'd almost say that a group of kids made this game."
"Well..." I looked aside.
"And with a little bit of internet investigating—"
"You can used the internet? I thought demigods can't use modern communication devices?" I asked.
"I'm already in the Labyrinth, there are monsters everywhere." he shrugged. "I have an automated defense system, and even if some sought me out, without help the Labyrinth would prove dangerous to them too."
"You had a defense system? How come I didn't see it?" I raised an eyebrow.
"That's the point of it being hidden." Daedalus said with that 'I'm smarter than you' smirk. It was a annoying, but I let him have this, since he'd got a point. I guess. He could just be bluffing about the defense system, I dunno. "Back to what I was saying," and now his smirk turned annoyingly knowing. "Mr. Asterios Bullman, last employment, Westover Hall. You really weren't bothering with hiding yourself there." I chuckled and shrugged. "And the one who made and supervised the videogame making project, that the school will try to replicate and inevitably fail." I gave a side nod as I could see that happening. "You literally used child labor for this game of yours."
"...In my defense I needed to be in a place where the 'workers' would work on this project without too many questions, and couldn't just bail out on it. Going to a private school with its own dorms, seemed to be the best solution." I quickly said. "And may I remind you, I am a monster."
"Oh no, that's not the problem, I just think you didn't use enough child labor to polish this up." Daedalus pointed out.
"...What?" I asked stunned.
"You could have used the entire school. Turned it all into a game shop, even the teachers." Daedalus calmly explained. "Would have been more efficient and you'd have caught mistakes like this earlier."
"...Daedalus you're suppose to be the moral one here telling me not to do that." I said back. "Besides the kids younger than 7th Grade wouldn't have been helpful."
"Of course they'd have been helpful if you knew the right jobs to delegate to them. And Asterios I'm over 2000 years old. In my time kids worked the fields or picked up a sword the moment they could walk and talk, why would I be against child labor?" He asked genuinely curious.
"...Bruh."
"More importantly, the main point of view character, Byanka Angelus. Really? You had a kid named Bianca di Angelo in your school." He pointed out. "And that's not the only name that sounded familiar to a demigod I've heard about."
"I asked the kids to make the characters for the game and they came up with that. Bianca was the one who made the main POV character. It was disturbing how many names sounded like those of current living demigods—I remember the last one who killed me before I awakened to my current form—so I figured that was the Fates putting their thumb on the scale, and I wisely decided to leave things as they are, and let them be."
"...Okay then."
Daedalus is a son of Athena. Their fatal flaw is hubris.
These are important points that I intellectually knew. However I did not practically knew.
"I think with this updated version of the game, I'd estimate it's success to rise a 1000% of its initial projections." Daedalus said with a proud smile, and I had to smile while thinking of how to gently let him down. "...You disagree. Why?"
Seems like my smile wasn't about to hide my discomfort.
"Okay..." I took a deep breath. "I'd like you ask that you hear me out, and for the love of your mother, just really consider my words."
"I feel you're being overdramatic, but very well." Daedalus crossed his arms over his chest.
"I think the redesign you did, with the characters, the music, and the fricking hack-and-slash fighting section for the combat bits are awesome! ...And it would work as a re-make to release it five years or so after the original game." I started to say. "Like I just asked you to polish up the game, you went above and beyond, and its amazing, but also too much. Especially the animated and reactive 3D models for all the characters."
"How is releasing an inferior product a better thing?" Daedalus frowned.
"...Did you know that the original boxset of Dragon Ball Z sells way more than the remade, what's it called, Kai version?" I asked.
"What? No way that, that's true." Daedalus picked up his magic iPad thing, and looked through it. A moment later he blinked as he saw the sales number comparisons for the original and remake DVDs.
"The original Dragon Ball Z had pacing issues due to the manga released. The colors had problem of their own, and with a sharp contrasting gradient at times. And I'm pretty sure the backgrounds were reused a few times." I said with a small smile in nostalgia. "However all those little imperfections stick out more than a positive thing in the minds of those who grew up with the anime as it aired. This doesn't mean they don't like the remakes or better versions using modern tech, rather the original holds a special place in their heart."
"...That's just the case with anime. Games are different. The better graphics the more people like it." He said, starting to sound a bit grumpy.
"Its more memorable when you go from the initial experience to a vastly improved one." I said, placating him. His frowned lessened. "However we are trying to build a following. All while staying under the radar until its too late for the gods to interfere. The game as it is will build an niche audience and that's the important core for us to grow the belief from. An interesting game that when people look into they go 'huh, turns out this piece of characterization of this character is based on a true historical myth', and so on. The version you made will be more of a hit later on because it will drag the core audience and more people who will be interested due to the hype, and the better graphics."
"...Could probably use that time to add the Hazel Route you guys scrapped. Maybe an actual Jason Route that acts as also a Fenrir Route." Daedalus said with a grumble.
"Also expectation management. Our company will literally just be starting. If our first game is too good, that's the standard we'll always be held to. We need something average that we can say we improved from." I added.
"Yeah," he sighed. "Yeah I suppose that works."
Holy shit, that actually worked.
"In that case we should release all the other games you planned out, we can remake them better two years from now." Daedalus confidently said.
"Noooooooooo!"
"We are not. Calling. Our gaming company, Labyrinth Works." I cried out. I pleaded.
"Why not?" I could not believe I was seeing a grown man millennia old, all but whine.
"We might as well have arrows directly pointing at us, telling our enemies where to find us." I explained.
"So what? You control the Labyrinth, just send monsters at them, or make them get lost forever." Daedalus shrugged.
"It's better if they never find out, or have a clue on where to even start looking to begin with." I replied.
"Fine! Maze Runner." Daedalus tried another name.
"There's a book series by that name." I said back.
"Type D."
"That's either a medical condition, or a porn studio."
"Fates Inc."
"The Fate games, while a major part of our franchise isn't everything. Also also you daring the Fates to fuck us up?!"
"Hero Gaming."
"Our first game is about monsters."
"Puzzle Games."
"Misleading title. Too simple and not what we make."
"Daedalus Games."
"Do you want people to find you?"
"Red Bull Entertainment."
"Copyright infringement, and do you want people to target me?"
We went like this for three hours.
"Arrrgh, just... Delta Maze Gaming."
"...Fuck it. Sure." It's vague enough to not be an issue.
Only hours later I remembered that Delta is the sign of the Labyrinth, but at that point I didn't give a shit anymore.
Delta Maze Gaming opened up without much fanfare.
The launch of Fate/Téras Konístra is what made it enter the gaming scene with a boom.
The advertising just before the game was even more intense, with some PVs outright being turned into music videos. Daedalus—the fucking madman—somehow, in some fucking way, got the rights to use "This War is Ours (The Guillotine II)" by Escape The Fate for the MV.
Watching the PV on Youtube, where the song is in the quiet parts, with the music building up, and "we will conquer them all!" repeating in the background, I still feel the hair on my arms stand from the hype running through me.
"Soul Harmonization." In the video the main character Byanka spoke dark blue magical energy swirling around her, blades held up with her arms crossed in front of her. Her closed eyes snapped open, glowing with her magical energy. The lyrics come back higher. "Intone: Asterios Alter!" A fiery orange shroud looking like the Hero Asterios covers hers. She swings her blades in a battle pose with the superimposed Servant shroud copying her.
Fade to black. Title card and release date.
I wasn't originally sold on the idea of having the iconic moment of Pandóra Route in the final trailer, but honestly given the sheer amount of views on the video, along with all the discussions in the forums... I guess it's paying off.
I suggested we use the Bad End, Shining Death Hunter, where Byanka hesitates in helping Hessian Lobo, thus not saving the Hessian part in time, and only the Lobo part is left, driven by hatred for humans, without a moderating influence. Add that with Arachne not managing to use her Noble Phantasm in time, and Byanka was left facing Vritra, Ms. Rose and Lobo alone.
Thus Byanka delves deep into her Demon Hunter instincts and Shadow Magecraft, that she uses the old family contract ritual spell that contacted Hades. The spell should have been null since the family already made the deal but Byanka manages to activate it again using tapestry Arachne left for her, but it's powered by all the miasma pouring out of Vritra's transformed Mt. Ooe, instead of Elpis Hope. Thus Byanks becomes an unstable Pseudo-Servant of Hades and wins that three-v-one Servant fight before her soul is dragged into the Underworld.
Daedalus rejected this idea, as he thought the Bad End was way cooler than the True End where she unlocks her full potential through an idealized future version overtaking her temporarily.
The result?
Five million views on Youtube in a week. Now I'm not an expert on how Youtube stuff works, but I feel that's a lot.
I even asked Daedalus to be sure that there wasn't any magical tampering. We need the growth to be organic so no god would notice magical bullshit.
"The reason is because of the song. It's basically an official AMV, well, GMV. Anyways, so of course people would watch and download it. It will help with the sales once the game is launched next Tuesday." Daedalus reassured me.
The day came, the game was sold a little over two hundred and fifty thousand copies in its first months. Close to a million or so downloads from our gaming company site.
I want to say this is okay, but I don't know if this is bad, average or great. I'm way too used to hearing back in my old life, about how "X game sold 10 million copies in its first week", so I don't have a frame of reference on how well we're doing.
"We are doing insanely well." Daedalus said with a laugh. "Although a few of the people complaining about the game, and putting out it's 'flaws' are annoying prominent online. At least it's fun to see people bashing them."
"Huh? Who?" I asked. Daedalus showed me his iPad. I saw the messages from the forums, and nodded. "Oh that's me."
"What?" Daedalus blinked in confusion.
"Yeah, out of the fifty, I have like three to five of the Minotaur copies acts as troll that bash the game, and be contrarians to everyone praising it." I said.
In a separate room, next to my living quarters, there were fifty computers designed for connection speed and durability for our PR team. Why would the computers be made durable? Because they are being used by my team of Minotaurs.
Yeah, I finally got a good use of my Minotaur summoning powers by basically having them work as media agents for the game and the company.
They would keep the discussions going. Reveal secrets they "discovered" about the game. Make a hilarious amount of fan theories that are plain wrong, and only a handful that are right. And of course fuel people defending the game, spreading it by twitter or word of mouth, because the trolls were bad mouthing it.
Also a good part of minotaur media group was dedicated to making memes.
Of course I proceeded to explain all of this to Daedalus.
"You are surprisingly good at reverse psychology." He noted.
"No, no. I just know nerds enough." I nodded.
"Welp, we've done our part. Now to work on the Stay Night game." He said with a sigh.
"Yep."
"Still... kinda bold that you really went with those sex scenes." Daedalus casually said.
"Hmm? Which one?" It felt like he was talking about something specific.
"You know," he gave me a knowing look that I didn't understand. "The one between Asterios Alter and 'Byanka'. Really surprised you had sex scene of an expy of you and the expy of the daughter of Hades."
"Wait, was the code for that still visible in the game code? I'm pretty sure I deleted that." I said with a confused look, as a pit of dread opened in my stomach.
Daedalus freezing while looking at the computer with a faraway look wasn't helping.
"...Oh."
"Daedalus, what the fuck do you mean 'oh'?"
"Oh, I thought it was it was weird that the first and second Normal Endings of the Téras Route had a problem with their code overlapping. Dev notes said the scene was removed then put back, so I didn't think too much about it, you know."
"No, I don't know. There's only one Normal Ending. One Normal and one True Ending for that route, that's it." I cried out in a panic.
"Well... There are now three endings to that route." Daedalus said with stiff casualness. He went to his fridge grabbed a bottle of some homemade alcoholic nectar, and started drinking it. "So... yeah."
"Are you telling me that currently there are a few hundred thousand copies of a game around the world where I'm plowing Hades' daughter!?" I shrieked in fear.
"One million, two hundred and forty five thousand, nine hundred and twelve." Daedalus corrected.
"That doesn't make it better!"
"Look," Daedalus face me, gesturing with his hand at me, in that way people do to give firm advice. "We're already deep in this. You just have to never die. Ever. Even when you reform in Tartarus and manage to escape the Titan Army, given that they'll hunt you down due to your desertion, you sure as fuck are never getting out of the Underworld with Hades on your tail."
"Wow. Amazing advice." I said with a shudder running through me, ruining my attempt to sound sarcastic.
"Look, what's done is done. All we came do is continue onward, and when you find the kid who put the scenes back into the game, you can scare the crap out of them." Daedalus tried to get me to look at the bright side.
"Who ever they are, I'm gonna spank their bottom so bad, they'll never sit again." I growled.
Bianca sneezed. She wondered how could she catch a cold in the Underworld?
She also felt a pleasant shiver run through her, as she thought of Asterios. She sighed as she tried to push the arousing mental images away. Gods, puberty sucked.
Things were going well with the gaming company.
We even had people wanting to join or work for us.
I quarantined a section of the Labyrinth to make an office building overlooking whatever place the Labyrinth shows of the outside world. Not that employees will be inclined to look outside the windows for long, since the Mist would cover all windows to make them either uninteresting, or that mortals looking at them wouldn't be focused on what they see. Just acknowledge that they see "outside" and sunlight.
On the surface, we bought a building with one entrance, revamped it so all the windows have those reflective glass that didn't show the inside. The entrance to the building was linked to a permanent entrance to the Labyrinth that opened straight to the office section I made for people that we'd hire.
Yes, I would work on storyboarding, while Daedalus would work on the games and polish them as perfect as possible. But we needed people that can have a new perspective or fresh ideas. That's where the mortal hires come in. In fact all of them were the graduates from Westover that I worked with, so the work environment was great, as we were already used to working together.
Our progress was unstoppable.
"We have a problem with the Stay Night game. No, with all the games." Daedalus one day told me.
It was a month since Delta Maze Gaming was made, along with our first Fate game's successful launch.
"What are you talking about? We have the plot outlined, we have the characters detailed. What problem is there?"
"We're too slow. If you want to have a change to release Fate/Grand Order in a timely manner, we need to release all the other works. The Fate game, the Tsukihime games, the Witch on the Holy Night, everything need to be done, so that the whole concepts of the Fate world and ground building is set for Grand Order."
"Yes, so what's the problem?"
"The problem is while we have all the ingredients for the games, we don't have the details. You can't remember everything." He said.
"I remember enough," I frowned.
"Yes, but it would take years to form each game one by one into a cohesive whole for the narrative world of Fate. The longer we take, the more likely we are to be discovered. At this rate we'll release Grand Order in five years. Do you really think we'll get that long?"
I leaned back into my chair, hands behind my head, as I let out a breath in though.
He's right. The reception of Fate/Téras Konístra was extraordinary. I really was worried that some god might notice and investigate, but no, we didn't use any magical means in launching the game, beyond Daedalus using his demigod magiteck to finish the game. The game in itself wasn't magical.
Yet the popularity it was gaining was huge. Too huge. I'm almost starting to wonder if that mental joke about the Fates having my back was true or not. I mean, I felt they maybe had a hand in everything, but this much?
Ultimately Daedalus is right. The Great Stirring is happening. The Second Titan War is coming. We don't have time to take it easy.
"What are you suggesting?" I finally asked.
"It is possible to use divination not to prophesize the future but to uncover knowledge. Be it of the past or of the present that you're searching for." Daedalus said with a heavy tone.
"...Okay?" I asked, lost.
"I'm saying we... might need a sorceress's help." He said with a sigh, exasperated that I didn't get what he was hinting at. "Asterios, we need your mother's help."
"My what?"
Pasiphaë.
Daughter of Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse.
Queen of Crete, wife to King Minos, sister of Aeëtes, Circe and Perses of Colchis, and...
Mother of the Minotaur.
Me.
I wasn't sure what to expect of how this meeting would go. Daedalus seems to think that just as I had convinced him to work with me, somehow I'd convince her too.
Pasiphaë was worshiped at time as an oracular goddess, which just seemed to add to her divining abilities. She'd be able to see the full games and help us bring the stories fully formed rather than make them from scratch.
At least that's the theory.
Daedalus told me that a few years ago Pasiphaë had made a section of the Labyrinth her home, much as how Daedalus made the Labyrinth's heart his home and workshop.
There were certain parts of the Labyrinth that were more luscious and filled with life. Places that trick people with a fruitful and peaceful environment, so they'd forget how dangerous the place they are in, truly were. That this place wants to trap and kill them.
Pasiphaë made her home there.
I reached her manor easily. My steps felt heavy the closer I got.
What would she say upon seeing me? What would she feel?
Was I afraid of her rejecting me? I feel like I shouldn't care. The Asterios part of me surprisingly had no opinion of her, as he didn't remember her. Asterios didn't care for Minos, but was grateful for his name.
The Minotaur part of me was different. He remember being breastfed by Pasiphaë. He remembered being given the name "Asterios" by Pasiphaë, before Minos changed it to "Minotauros" for the monster he was stuck with. He remember anger at not being saved by her... but also a familial longing for a connection.
In the end, there is no part of me that actually knows what Pasiphaë was like.
Thus as I pushed open the double door to the mansion and made my way to its center, I saw her sitting on a throne in the center of the giant ballroom.
She looked young. Late 20s at most. A self-styled crown, as if she still had something to rule over. Black dress, midnight hair, and an angular face that I'm sure had seduced many young men with just a gaze, before Minos married her.
"Who dares enter my castle?" She called out. Her voice regal and commanding.
It wasn't really a castle though.
"What are you? Some hero looking for treasure and glory? A monster that lost its way here?" She said dismissively, as her magic power started to surge forward. "No matter, if you come before me as an enemy, I shall dispose of all..." She froze, stunned as she finally saw me clearly.
"Hello, mother." I said, ready for anything.
Silence fell upon the manor, as the magic aura slowly dissipated.
"...It worked." She spoke with wonder.
What?
"You're really here?" She said with nervous joy of one who couldn't yet believe what they were seeing.
Pasiphaë stood up form her throne, and cross the distance between us. I felt no hostility from her. Frankly I was confused by they maternal affection I saw in her eyes.
"Asterios."
She recognized me?
Once in front of me, almost hugging, she reached out and cupped my cheek with her hand.
"It's just like the vision had shown me. The ritual worked. You really have returned as the son I never had the chance to have. Asterios." Her eyes were watery.
...Yo, what the fuck?