Of course! It is serious business now, now that my role as Vice President is to play the game for some woman I just met yesterday!
I can't help but feel that this is more of a slogan than anything else. What do they teach you, plebs of Seiga Academy?!
Then Kota becomes shocked when Itsuki states that he is now Vice President, and he's all smug about it. Probably just a joke.
Me too. Seems like SEGA is self aware that it's setting is shit- or wait no not really. That's just a "plot" device.
shishi odoshi tick
Next scene is full of student politics I'm not interested in this why are you making this
intriguing (or so you think).
He asks the important question why it should be him.
...and you are not in any clubs.
"so, in other words, I've got nothing better to do."
Know your place, knave.
"will you help us", Izumi asks, with her unwaveringly plain face.
Our hero accepts, just like anyone saddled with the protagonist role would. Then the pissy-sissy student council members clarify the situation to make it more suspense, while Izumi tries to defend herself weakly.
2nd question follows: Why PSO2?
Oh wow, an academy whose social circles rotates around the online game called PSO2. They don't have much of a real life, do they?
But waitaminute, what about the guys walking around school, drinking in cafeterias, chatting in meatspace? Aren't they part of the society too? Are you saying you want to manage the NEET crowds instead, knowing that PSO2 is a pretty damned popular game in Japan played around the country? You want to consider the west part of your management peoples? You want to consider those who live in Hokkaido as part of Seiga Academy...?
I don't understand. I can't understand.
---
And so, our protagonist justifies himself as a non-gamer guy who doesn't uhh... play games (duh.) But he's good at doing everything just well, so he... he's an obvious pick.
It doesn't take that much effort to excel at games.
Then we are taken to a monologue of what PSO2 is, using stock footage from the game proper.
And then, thank god for Gyazo.
Wait. How the hell did that end up looking like him...? There's practically 0 chance for something like tht to happen with a random button. I call TAS hax.
Scene shift, president wants to finish something off. Never tells us why though. Back to Itsuki.
That's the almighty... gunslash. Lackluster weapon unless you know what class build to use it with, and even then, quite a bit of a novelty since it runs on SPECIFIC weapon setups. So again, backup ranged/melee weapon. It's called a gunslash by the way, because it
rips off Squall's gunblade turns into a gun or into a sword, for whatever slashyshooty thing you need to do.
But fuck, nobody recommends the Gunslash. It's an All-class weapon, meaning every single class can use it anyway.
So, Kota, you're either a magnificent troll or an absolute fucker.
Either way, Itsuki plays the game...
It looks less vibrant than when I played it myself. Third image is a lie; you can't hold out your hand like that. Also, you don't hear the sounds of speech - you hear speech bubbles. Man, I feel violated just by seeing this.
Itsuki comments whether all of these guys are game characters... given his situation in which his soul transferred into his computer instead of playing it via the keyboard/controller, I figure that's kind of a genuine remark. But fuck, since when did PSO2 become VR?
SORO approaches the poor lad, and greets him. Actually quite nice, if you think about it, since about
95% of the population won't stop to greet you and help you out when you play the fucking game and you spend a lot of time going on maps that are desolate until you hit level 60 or so.Stop being me, SORO. You're a frakking outlier and a noob for trying to help a noob instead of trying to grind for some Anga Fundarge stones elsewhere.
Fucking Narcissist. Nobody asked for your help.
"It's only natural for a veteran to help a new player."
Well no, it's not. Everyone wants to get a coveted +40 60 3 13* weapon instead of wasting time mentoring newbies. If you've played for an extended time and hung around some powerful players, you'd know that to be true. So, no. You're a fucking outlier, SORO.
Well fuck, more game mechanics our poor hero does not understand. Please, let him be, SORO.
Oh great, it's an Emergency Quest - one of those things that pop up once in a while. And our poor hero is Level 1! Woe be to thee!
Are you a frakking idiot? You don't even know how to play the game! You skipped the tutorial!
[/s]
He's right! Stop right there, you foolish fop!
And then we get treated to more stock footage from the game. Siiigh.
Suddenly, we get treated to a CG Itsuki.
Dammitsuki, you should NOT have jumped over there without a frakking party at level 1! You don't even have an idea how quests work!
*flit flit*
"whoa, what's this? Is this a bug?"
Bingo. It's just a normal mob though, and it spawns mobs, so yeah, learn how to kill things.
Man, you're hopeless. Fortunately...
Ol' Pro SORO is there to save your day! His weapon is...
Well, so much for being a vet. Normally, you'd have a weapon like a Lambda Schwann at that level for use with everything else, not a Vita Beam.
Well, in any case, he helps the poor guy up, who can't even kill a Dagan with a gunslash. I don't remember being too much of a noob not to kill anything, but then again he doesn't game. Then again, why are you sending a guy who doesn't game into a world where he won't fit in as well as others would... to form a report of a game that seemingly is popular to the point of dictating the social aspects of an Academy?
Someone with basic gaming knowledge would have been better.
Then they try to kill the Briada/Breeahda. The vet can't even oneshot the Breeahda. I sense problems in gameplay mechanics.
But of course, the reveal is done all in one episode anyway...
SORO is Mary Sue!
Holy hell, how the hell did he write a 30+ pager report with only a single EQ? Wherein he had trouble of all things killing a Breeahda?
Reminds me of that Winners Don't Do Drugs Slogan. Gee, are they mandated by the station to put a warning because they're practically advertising a real product that can be addictive?
Ending is yet another rendition of RARE DROP KOI KOI, a song I loathe from the game but some people like. Of course, they feature the bird-like rappies here, being mascots of the game.
Either way, to summarize everything:
Itsuki is very naive at taking in new concepts;
Guard is a paedo over Izumi.
Everyone
loves unattractively plain Izumi, who is also secretly the bombastic CAST SORO.
The Anime ties in with EP4's upcoming update, which is much loathed by a lot of people in the west;
some people are playing a game they star in;
somehow, the game is a VR experience now, with Itsuki rapidly being confused over what is real and isn't.
And it's a pain to watch it, due to hitting all of the highschool tropes in rapid-fire, while covering a ground oft repeated and possibly already absorbed of its nutrients.
pleaaaaaaaaaase just let the online game schtick die
the irony being that i am somewhat looking forward to grimgar even though i know it will suck