See, that’s the trick of how the project most likely got approved right there: The golf games T&E were putting by the mid-90s all revolved around more or less the same central program principles, for rendering their 3D courses and presenting golfers and objects around the environments as digitized sprites. By this point, T&E had a pretty streamlined production pipeline working out for them; where they were able to consistently release similarly-playing games across the PC-98, the Super Famicom and Mega Drive, as well as the 3DO and Sega Saturn. If Tokihiro could pitch a way for their well-familiarized golf game foundation to drive an action RPG, it was likely the company would back his play… Or perhaps the word had come down from Sega themselves; who wanted to secure an ARPG to release within the first few months of their latest console’s launch, saw what 3D graphics T&E were capable of as they were developing Pebble Beach Golf Links, and asked if the company could reprise the Hydlide franchise one last time — to release a new installment as a Saturn exclusive, banking on its historic name recognition. The exact circumstances remain unclear here, as do most other circumstances of the game’s development.