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EP. REVIEW: Shangri-La Frontier

b-dragon wrote:

We've been told that this is a god-tier game- a counterpoint to the awful, janky messes Sunraku normally plays. And I've had my doubts- in particular the skill system seems an unwieldy mess. But the narrative design choices, assuming I understand them correctly, seem...amateurish at best. Rookie mistakes.

Maybe the average VR games are just a step or two above the trash games we've seen so by comparison this game is godly? Or perhaps it's just how "alive" the world is that makes it top tier? Outside of the scripted events, the AI seems to be quite good. Though we don't know how that compares to other games...

They stuck the landing; I am officially of the opinion that they did this fight justice. Good stuff!

The only downside is that, as a manga reader, I don’t see how the rest of the season will match up. I would’ve wrapped it up in the next two episodes if I was in charge.

Is there a reason he can't just sneak back once they disperse and snag the stinger? That worked for all the other pieces he picked up. It's not like they hang around and guard fallen crystal, or someone else is going to wander in to pick it up first. If that were the case, the crystals probably wouldn't be worth much anyway if you don't even need to mine it, like the black ones.

However, the problem with Shangri-La Frontier—which has permeated throughout most of its run—is that it doesn't know what it wants its focus to be.

it flip-flops between things being important and being silly, it seemingly goes out of its way to ignore forward narrative momentum

However, it also feels like someone needed to slap the writer on the hand and tell him no whenever they wanted to lean too far into those moments that aren't truly engaging unless you're the one playing the game. The show had way too much fat on it that needed to be cut. Normally, I like extra fat on my meat but there was so much here that my jaw ended up feeling hurt from all the extra chewing.