Have you ever heard of a company called “Character Soft”? A name rarely mentioned today, it was actually a game company that once existed as a subsidiary of Sanrio—the same Sanrio famous for Hello Kitty and Keroppi. Character Soft developed only games starring Sanrio characters, truly living up to its name as a “character-exclusive” company. Out of dedication, the company’s name never even appeared in the game credits—an unusual style. All copyrights were managed by Sanrio itself, with the subsidiary working entirely behind the scenes. Such a modest yet unique position is quite rare in today’s era.

The games developed by Character Soft were designed with strong consideration for children who would actually be playing them. For example, pressing the reset button at the start skipped the company logo and jumped straight to the title screen—a unique feature. After repeated playthroughs, children would grow tired of watching the logo, and this small act of kindness addressed that feeling. In the Game Boy versions, they adopted a reset method by pressing A, B, Start, and Select simultaneously—an adaptation that reflected the times. These small gestures of consideration for players were part of what made Character Soft distinctive.

Their promotional activities were also unique. They mainly advertised in Sanrio-published magazines such as “Ichigo Shimbun” and “Asobi no Kuni”, which is already unusual. At the same time, they made sure to provide information to game magazines like *Famitsu* and *Dengeki Super Famicom*, showing respect toward game fans. An interesting detail is that television commercials followed a dual structure: in Sanrio’s own programs, they aired as Sanrio commercials, while in gaming programs, they were broadcast under the name of ASCII, the distributor. The content was identical—the only difference was the logo shown at the end. This clever division between front stage and backstage gave them the aura of true behind-the-scenes professionals.

Character Soft’s greatest appeal lay in its “affordability.” With young children as their main target audience, their games were designed with smaller memory sizes compared to other companies, which kept prices lower. This was a big draw for both kids and parents. At a time when games were expensive and hard to afford, their stance of offering fun games at a lower price embodied a true user-first spirit. On the other hand, their entry into the Super Famicom market came relatively late in 1993, but this too can be seen as a decision based on valuing “the balance of quality and price.”