Before Titanfall officially launched, Ichin sent the final build of the game to several gaming media outlets both in Japan and overseas for review.
After a week of hands-on experience, those media outlets all gave it extremely high scores.
"Excellent storyline, tightly paced progression, the evolving bond between the protagonist and the Titan is deeply engaging, and the game's optimization is remarkably well done. The only shortcoming is that the campaign feels a bit short—it leaves you wanting more."
— IGN, 9/10
Besides IGN, other major rating sites and domestic game media outlets also gave the game very strong ratings—mostly above 8/10 or 85 points.
As a result, Titanfall's hype skyrocketed to new heights almost instantly.
Of course, in this day and age, game review scores don't exactly carry much weight with players.
But given the track record of Ichin's previous releases, players still placed a good deal of trust and anticipation in this one.
In particular, every single reviewer praised the game's optimization—something that gave players confidence that it would actually run well on their systems, rather than being one of those games that stuttered or crashed after purchase.
Still, along with the excitement came some skepticism.
Especially because Titanfall was a first-person game.
On that point, Ichin couldn't really do much—he could only optimize the game as much as possible to make sure performance was smooth and stable.
Even then, there were bound to be players who avoided it purely because of the first-person gameplay.
Ichin had anticipated that, so he wasn't too disappointed.
Fortunately, even before release day, pre-orders had already exceeded 500,000 copies. The promotional PVs showcasing massive Titans had built up a strong wave of anticipation.
On launch day, streamers across various live platforms began broadcasting Titanfall.
Many of them initially assumed the game was just a straightforward "shoot-and-stomp" kind of title—run around shooting enemies and pilot a Titan.
But they were surprised by how good the story actually was.
Right from the start, the tutorial mission helped players get used to the controls while letting them compete for record times.
Some challenge-loving streamers immediately got hooked on speedrunning the tutorial course.
Meanwhile, others who preferred story content advanced to the next chapter—
—and soon discovered that the protagonist, Jack Cooper, was actually just a regular grunt.
Just like the PV had hinted, he wasn't some elite Titan pilot from the start.
During the next drop operation, his squad's landing pod was ambushed. Most of his teammates were wiped out, and Cooper himself was gravely injured and knocked unconscious.
The Titan pilot who saved him ended up surrounded by enemy Titans and sacrificed himself. His Titan—battered and nearly out of power—was left behind.
Even though this was just the opening act, both players and viewers watching the streams were already hooked.
"Wait, so the protagonist gets a Titan for free?"
"This looks so smooth! And the environments are awesome."
"Hey, what's the framerate like?"
Noticing the chat's curiosity about performance, some streamers opened their FPS display tools and began testing.
"Okay, I'm running at 2K resolution. Let's see—turn off motion blur, turn off depth of field, leave everything else default. DLSS off, ray tracing off. Frame cap is 60 by default… let's push it to 144."
After tweaking the settings, the streamer's FPS shot up from 60 to a steady 144, maxing out his monitor's refresh rate.
"Damn! This optimization is solid!"
"If I turn on ray tracing and drop the framerate a little—say, to 90 FPS—I'd still call that perfectly acceptable!"
And that was just the PC version of Titanfall.
Players who had preordered the console editions also discovered upon launch that the game's optimization was excellent.
Within half an hour of the game's release, discussion threads about Titanfall flooded gaming forums everywhere.
"I'm using [hardware model]…"
"If you switch to performance mode and dial down the graphics a bit, the framerate shoots up even higher!"
Even without mentioning gameplay or story, one thing was clear to everyone—the optimization was outstanding.
And not just for high-end PCs or consoles.
Even players with mid-range or weaker rigs could run the game smoothly at 1080p medium settings, holding a stable 60 FPS after a bit of tweaking.
Inside the office, Ichin scrolled through the forum posts and livestream chats, finally letting out a quiet sigh of relief.
He picked up his phone and called Umiko, who was over in Shanghai.
"Umiko," Ichin said with a smile, "you've worked really hard these past few weeks before launch. The optimization turned out amazing. Now we just wait for the players' feedback."
Though it was already night, Umiko was still at her office with her team, monitoring the online response to Titanfall.
Holding her phone, she smiled. "Yeah… feels like I can finally breathe a little. All that effort wasn't for nothing."
Optimization had always been one of the toughest challenges in game development—especially for first-person shooters.
But thankfully, the dev team had pulled it off, pushing Titanfall's performance to its limits without sacrificing much visual fidelity.
Hearing her words, Ichin replied, "All right. For the game's first week after release, keep your team on standby and make sure no hidden bugs slipped through. Once we get past this week, I'll give everyone some time off."
"Got it," Umiko said.
After hanging up, Ichin stretched his arms, then called out to Utaha, Kō Yagami, and Rin Toyama, who were still in the office.
"Let's go meet up with Haruno—she's still working late. We'll grab some late-night snacks together."
But the moment he stepped outside the office building, a sudden chill made him shiver.
"Ah-choo!"
Seeing Ichin sniffle repeatedly, Utaha frowned in concern.
"Did you catch a cold? The temperature really dropped these last few days."
Shaking his head, Ichin replied, "Not sure. I'm wearing plenty of layers though."
Utaha thought for a moment. "Could it be you got chilled during your morning run?"
"No way, right?" Ichin muttered, frowning as he sniffled again.
Rin glanced at him, thinking for a moment before suggesting, "Maybe we should skip the late-night meal. Your health's more important, Ichin."
"It's fine—I can still eat." Ichin waved his hand dismissively, then sighed. "But Rin's right. I'll pass tonight. Utaha, go with them. I'll head home, take a hot shower, and rest."
"How about I go back with you?" Utaha offered.
"No need. It's probably just a minor cold. You've had a long day—classes, your work at the publishing house, and then coming here to keep me company. Go enjoy some good food with Kō and the others."
Saying that, Ichin turned toward Kō Yagami.
"Kō, I'll leave Utaha in your care. I'm heading back first."
---