The concept of an “NPC marathon” isn’t exclusive to Azerna Chronicles.

Regardless of culture, most RPGs emphasize the “role-playing” aspect—essentially, the joy of immersing yourself in a character and becoming one of the cast members within the world created by the developers. In some ways, interacting with the various characters can be more crucial than the strength of your own character.@@novelbin@@

In well-crafted Western RPGs, it’s often possible to finish a storyline without combat, relying entirely on persuasion stats. When it comes to the importance of “conversation” as content, Western RPGs arguably surpass linear stories like Azerna Chronicles. Yet, strangely, I’ve never been compelled to run marathons in those games.

Maybe it’s because I’m more drawn to JRPGs with their abundance of beautiful girls and boys. Or maybe it’s that open-world Western RPGs, with their vast fields, feel overwhelming to explore thoroughly.

But there’s no point dwelling on it now. In this world, “video games” as I know them won’t exist for at least another fifty years. A century, if we’re being realistic, considering the current state of “computers” here. Perhaps they’ll never exist.

And as much as I’d love to design a board game or TRPG system and pitch it to my friends, well… that feels like an uphill battle.

Lately, I’ve been entertaining such thoughts, probably because I’ve encountered a few game-like devices in this world. Additionally, in the original work, it was customary to have conversations with all the major characters before the final battle. This tradition carried over to every sequel in the series.

What I was doing now was essentially the same thing.

Walking down a long hallway, I stopped before a large door and knocked twice.

“Mia, are you there?”

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