Shangri-La Frontier Episode 14-15's Biggest Issue...Not Being a Game I Can Actually Play ‼️

[@AHBrandonReviews]

This anime is so good I'm kind of salty I can't play a VR Game this realistic and well balanced LMFAO!!! See my full uncut live reaction to the episodes over on Patreon www.patreon.com/BrandonReviews

[@MiseRaen]

You could actually see how similar the people reacted on finding a new bug on Berserk Passion Online with the discovery of the true kill screen on tetris. People are interested and ignited by the discovery.

[@nilly0052]

Well balanced? Have you actually paid attention? Balance wise this game is utter gargbage. Agility Glass cannon is de facto the only viable build. Everything else is factually inferior. If you can invest everything into damage but still survive everything by parrying and dodging then anyone that spends ressources on defence is at a disadvantage. A glass cannon can deal more damage and survive just as much, if not more. Curse casters are just as uselsss. If you just grind enough and stack up on straw voodo dolls you can completely screw over any curse caster. Weapon durability: If you deal more damage per hit then you deal more damage per point of durability. As a result anyone that doesn't dump everything into attack will have to spend more time grinding ressources to constantly repair their gear. Unique monsters: The fact that just fighting them gives XP leads to the exact issue as shown in the series. People keeping them secret and trying to **prevent** people from killing them. Players are incentivised to prevent progress of the world story. Even more so with Lycagon. We've seen how the curse has become a key part of Sunraku's build. Many people will want to make a build like that. If Lycagon dies not only can no one ever again get the curse, worse, everyone that already has it will lose it! Again: Players are incentivised to prevent the progress of the world story by keeping Lycagon alive. The collar: Oh my god. That collar. That fucking collar. I genuinely thought about quitting the show when that thing showed up. x0.5 xp but x2.5 stat points on level up. Doesn't sound too op no? just 75% faster stat gain compared to normal right? WRONG! LEVEL CAP! Anyone with this collar will be able to get 2.5 times the statpoints of a character without it. This means in order to compete with players in end game you MUST aquire this collar. Which once again, means you want Lycagon to stay alive because you need the curse to get the collar. So you're now looking at a game where you either have to just run around aimlessly with a low lvl char hoping to somehow get the mark or level yourself up, get the mark, then drop your level down (which is a mechanic for some godforsaken reason) and then level back up with the collar at half the speed of regular leveling or you will end up getting curbstomped and outclassed by the players who did go through that mindnumbing grind. And don't even get me started on unique items. Items which are truly one of a kind? Are you serious? So a player just get's to be plain stronger than everyone else just because they happened to be the first to get their hands on it? That's bullshit. If you have a unique item you'd find yourself constantly get dm spammed and killed by players who want the item. There's a reason why devs don't do shit like that. And the list goes on and on and on. The anime is good yes. But the game is an unbalanced mess. Nigh unplayable if you ever think about actually going towards end game.

[@acertainmysteriousvirtuoso6150]

It was so hilarious on the end of ep15 like Pencilgon just straight up murder all of her copycats😂

[@zam023]

It is a big problem in today's society because it is easy for other people to deep-fake famous people. So, Towa/Pencil's warning is legit.

[@dripsoup6639]

I love that one of the guilds that raided Ashura Kai was named something like Tempura Knights. Top tier pun.

[@BardicGM]

The Knights Tempura, with crossed shrimp as a guild logo.

[@paritybit7830]

This show has actually done a great job of creating stakes. Having perma-death for NPC companions and unique bosses means there are risks (of losing a companion or being beaten to a prize that can only be claimed once), although those haven't been played up much yet. The way the world isn't instanced also creates the whole need to work around other players in a way that doesn't happen in real games, but drove the whole Ashura Kai plot to let them get their chance at Weathermon. (Of course a first-rate super-popular MMO without multiple instances would never actually work, but y'know, we won't think about the population dynamics too hard. Nor think about the financial reality of an independent neighborhood game store in the age of download services. Clearly full dive VR games need to be bought on physical disks for... reasons. Yeah. We just don't understand the technology, that's it.)

[@lavq7000]

I want to believe that the mangaka is in favor of real physical ownership of games in the future. Sadly we are going through a reality where all the money you can spend on games does not mean that you own anything in it due to needing a server functioning for playing it. Also the plot works because there is a store where the main character gets recommended the title game lol

[@actionvids35]

Didn't expect so many guilds to gang up on Ashura Kai. This is quite epic. Wethermon fight let's gooooo! Best episode so far imo And a good SLF theater too XD

[@robertsilvermyst7325]

Sunraku married bunny wife Emul! Well, their RL voice actors did!

[@nisukenakasaki8968]

Those past two episodes were pure Shangri-La Frontier greatness 😎🔥 There was so many funny moments too. Psyger-0 taking 2 weeks to send a msg to Sunraku, Ocelot finally realize that his sister betrayed him or Arthur killing all her sosies 🤣 Those little moments are definitely a part of why I love this show so much 😤😌

[@famimame]

That 5 min is just the intro for the fight.. Weathermon fight is gonna be real crazy! Can't wait to see if the anime can pull it off.

[@actionvids35]

Congrats to Sunraku's va Yuma Uchida and Emul's va Rina Hidaka for getting married. No wonder Emul is always clinging to him, unfortunate for Saiga though 😭

[@ForTehNguyen]

that "Im not your old lady" line during the episode was perfect

[@TheErisianMonk]

Awww. That's fantastic. That will byff the connection for me when watching the show!

[@itsblitz4437]

Congrats 👏 to those Japanese VAs, I bet they do make a good couple.

[@Kaslana_Yumma_423]

I really hope Shangri-La frontier gets anime adapted fully till the end . I am really invested in the world and the 7 unique monster.

[@steponestudio7771]

in the manga the battle against wheateramon felt like a proper hidden boss, powerful, unorthodox, and also very intimidating, the battle itself was really tense and gripping, the fact that pencilgon only knew several phase of the boss, and even surviving those phase is hellish as hell makes it really frightening when it came to a phase where "well, I don't know what beyond this phase"

[@mrlacksoriginality4877]

Forget VR we dont even have an MMO this good in our world. And if a game adaptation comes it will be crappy single player BS. It makes me cry.

[@franciscozamudio1528]

I truly LOVE Pencilgon in all her glory, as I would argue that she is the most beautiful and colorful player in the game--even more so than the mc or the other sidekicks! Her way of reasoning through things, her perspective is way cool...For example, I'm impressed how she reasoned, in earlier episodes, that a PKer ("Player Killer") is just as beautiful/glamorous as a runway model as they both leave their fans/victims overwhelmed with tears once they've met them--as an aside, she is BOTH a PKer AND a model...Classic stuff! :)

[@enlongjones2394]

As soon as Orcelotte said that Pencilgon is his sister, I laughed out loud.

[@deandredukes95]

Now that is some Top Notch character design on Wethermon! Like the others said: Just badass!

[@Raidanzoup]

It may be a near-future ideal VR fighting game, but historically fighting games have been games where the players break the games and then play with the pieces. At the highest competitive level, the final iteration of Street Fighter II is not played without those invisible hitbox glitch exploits, those are just more tools for each character to use if they have them. Not only that, but Berserk Passion Online takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland setting in the style of Mad Max, meaning it's obviously a bit of a shoutout to the Fist of the North Star if not also the fighting game developed by ArcSys which is infamous for its "basketball combos" which just bounce you up and down in the corner until you lose.

[@Jtr_ceral_killer]

I'm tired of these episodes only lasting 5 minutes and having to wait a week to only get another 5 minute episode. Yeah, i know they are 25 minutes, but man, i wasn't expecting things to evolve as quickly as it did. loved the finger movements that the one character was doing to remember all the moves weathermon was doing and getting the timing down. psyger-0 air dropping into the hidden base was a great way to show up.

[@V.U.4six]

Yay SLF video! gotta watch this later

[@TheYdyp]

Damn missing one of my smaller favourite scenes with the arrival of his first birdmail and how it connects back to the training arena and the toxic bird :D

[@TearofOblivion]

This show is so underrated.

[@Mr.WestcottX]

This episode was something else 😮😮😮

[@Toxic_Drip_1995]

Log Horizon reminds me of this show. But they are stuck in the game and the npcs are self aware

[@gravityhero2227]

and now we start a peak fight. I still have no idea though how whoever translated this series heard Attack Holder and thought that Attack Master was a correct translation.

[@enlongjones2394]

Might not be correct translation, but I’m figuring they decided it was a better localization, if it gets the idea across better. Just for clarification, what does “attack holder” mean as a title in the context of the story? Does it mean that Saiga has learned a ton of different attack skills? Or does it mean something else? I’m asking because in that scenario, “master” is a term you’d probably use more often in English than “holder”.

[@Bananaman335]

@@enlongjones2394 slight spoilers It’s attack holder since they hold the record for highest single hit dmg

[@SSB_Master_Hand]

Seriously, this is a game I'd love to play! It looks like it really does live up to the reputation as a god-tier game. Forget the VR we all know about, I'd love to be able to fully dive into Shangri-La Frontier like these characters get to.

[@AnA10Pilot]

I hope i didn't miss it, but in regards to the pk players... What is there to stop them from just logging out? I get that if they die they lose all their stuff... But im wondering in game what sort of mechanic punishes them for just quitting out rather than fighting or running.

[@AHBrandonReviews]

Usually when you are in combat, you can't log out. it's how most mmos do it

[@guala4964]

Great to have this baby back. Also her lvl dropped from 92 not 99 to 50 just a detail that likely means you lose lvls as pker if killed, generally as max lvl or close to max lvl you lose lvls if you die or you lose lvls if you die in pvp. Dont want answer just wondering about mechanics is exiting when you KNOW it good author and it dissapoints me even more now that i cant play it to test it out.

[@nekochibi2256]

New OP is a bop. I love the inclusion of female vocals. Always liked when songs do that (e.g. Kingslayer, Kizuna no Kiseki etc.). First OP has a stronger intro and end, but chorus is a bit weaker. New OP is strong throughout. Also that sword slash in the OP hits me to my core.

[@AHBrandonReviews]

Its 10 outta 10 that song is 🔥

[@TK-nn8jd]

Worst thing about this episode is that we only got a few minutes of boss fight. The goods news though is that next episode is probably ALL going to be about the boss fight.

[@randomtrainerx.3424]

If this was a different studio, the boss's armor would probably be cgi. They really got multiple guilds forming an alliance to take down the PKers. Our girl wasn't too keen on fans using her looks in-game.

[@Sup_D]

Just mentioning, this Fight in the Manga was 13 Chapters long.

[@Goldenboy66123]

Makes me want to hop in to Elden Ring every time.

[@alfredxsiv]

people saying that there's nothing at stake... yep, there's really nothing at stake when people beat something in-game for the first time. Definitely people were not freaking out over tetris being beaten for the first time after 34 years (i'm being sarcastic btw). People who don't get what it means to get that kind of achievement doesn't really get what's at stake (might as well side with that anchorwoman who belittled the boy who beat tetris for the first time 😂)

[@zam023]

We also get to see Rei/Psyga-0's sister, Psyga-100.

[@chadgrimwell8380]

1 frame 1 hit kill attack is OP 😅

[@Azlan832]

Brandon arent you watching dead mount dead play s2 ?

[@AHBrandonReviews]

I watched all of it over on patreon

[@Azlan832]

@@AHBrandonReviews why didnt you make a review

[@AHBrandonReviews]

because it wasnt popular enough

[@mtscsealer]

What can I say It definitely lived up to the first phase of the fight anyway cant wait for next episode

[@acenull0]

Lol I wish I could play a game like this too tbh 😂

[@AAAAThatsThreeAs]

No spoiler, but as a manga reader to all those wanting dope ass anime fights, Weatherman will provide in spades. It's going to be gorgeous

[@V.U.4six]

The irony here is that I saw something about a SLF game on my YT home feed but it looks like your typical generic “look we made a game of this popular anime” and not something cool like a passion project to to bring SLF’s game world to life….. 😅 Maybe someday of we’re lucky lol

[@V.U.4six]

*if

[@icedragonkid1480]

Peak game I wish I could play

[@enlongjones2394]

Danger Danger!

[@SacrificAbominat]

I don't know about this being a game you can actually play. I like .hack a lot but I'm not going to say the gameplay of the games is the draw for that series. Although I've come to really appreciate IMOQ's nuances after decades of playing it, it's basically a very early prototype of Xenoblade or Final Fantasy XII's gameplay. It'd just drag down the experience if they handle it very poorly and no matter how cool this anime makes this game sound having actual experience with a game based off this anime will probably make it seem less fun overall when you spend hours grinding in what's most likely going to be a mediocre game. This is probably why most anime in this genre don't opt for having an actual game based off of them. The only reason why I would say this works for .hack is because the games are their own entries in the franchise, they're direct sequels to the animes, and not a rehash of what the anime did which is what I think the SAO games do to some extent, I haven't played any SAO games so I'm probably wrong on that. So the inconsistencies between what the characters can do in the anime vs what they can do in the games are usually easier to ignore as you aren't reexperiencing events from the anime and complaining that it isn't as cool as the anime made it out to be.

[@bojackbojackbojack]

Pffft. I could take Wethermon. Could take his GIRLFRIEND. Who is dead. Which makes this awkward. I'm not Ted Bundy. Google what he did sometime.

[@conanedogawa4798]

I'm actually not completely sure if Pencil is his actual sister, mostly because of the Japanese word he used to say "Sister." He didn't say "Nee-san" or any variation on it that would imply actual blood relations. He said "Aneki," which means "sister" in the Yakuza crime-family sense. It's also often used by members of a gang to refer to their senior members, regardless of actual blood relation. So, I wouldn't completely rule out the idea she could be his actual sister, but that word choice means it's actually still up in the air.

[@donemu9096]

It's his actual sister. The manga and novel are very clear he's her younger brother. It's not meant to be some ambiguous thing.

[@faridalhafizz5288]

They just didn't get along well or keep pulling pranks on each other. I think "Aneki" mostly used for an older sister who's you annoyed by but can't help it since she's your sister.

[@conanedogawa4798]

@@faridalhafizz5288 You can think what you like, but you generally hear the male version, "Aniki," come up a lot in gangster settings toward whoever's the gang leader, and gangs use it because they are doing so in reference to Yakuza culture. That said, it does actually mean big brother / big sister, (depending on whether the 3rd letter is an "i" or an "e,") so it can be used for your legit older sibling. It's just weird to use that term over "Aneue," which would have the exact same appropriateness in the situation here without the confusing cultural context attached.

[@jzom4498]

I didn't like last episode. This one was much better but but still a little weak

[@beenokok529]

Don’t knows where you get the impression of pencil and dumb guild master being siblings, but they are not.

[@paulr.9029]

He got that impression from the guild master calling her his sister. Did you not watch the episode?

[@tanatos4908]

He refers to her her as "big sister" when standing infront of the barrier, and she is indeed. Kuon Amane(Orcelott) is Towa Amane's(Pencilgon) little brother.

[@AHBrandonReviews]

They say in the episode they are and checking the wiki its confirms it sooooo

[@Doodlesthegreat]

It's something that was explicitly said in the original web novel, and which was added as a side story in the US release of the manga entitled "The Defeated Never Fear Tomorrow."

[@FujisakiChihiro55]

It been confirmed for ages now that they're in fact siblings.