Jul 11, 2025
Author's Commentary #480:
Time to talk about Chapter 480: Team Japan vs team Croatia.
And if you thought the Croatia match was going to get cancelled, you were wrong. Vlatka's not the type to show mercy to someone she feels is in a weakened state. Though in a video game adaptation, things would become interesting.
The way round 9 would work in a hypothetical video game adaptation is that to unlock certain opponents, certain requirements would need to be fulfilled. First off, 6B would be completely optional, with team Japan not facing Finland and instead facing a opponent determined by how well you the player character, Azenira and Zago, have performed in the tournament to this point. Do 6B, and both teams will always face Finland at the start of round 9. If this option is chosen, all other teams aside from Croatia will choose not to play you out of respect for the fact you just played Finland. But if you've fulfilled the conditions to play one or both Croatian teams, meaning you've won nearly all your games up to this point, you have to play them. This means that you could get a scenario where one team has to play a second batch of opponents for the round while the other doesn't, unless of course you're doing well as both Azenira and Zago in which case you'll play both Croatian teams.
Now for the games, they're really short. With burnout and the desire to finish, not to mention the full games being quite long, I decided it was best to have the Croats resign when they reached a completely losing position. However, it's just for these first games. The others all go to checkmate, so no need to worry, peak chess still reigns supreme in this series.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
