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EP. REVIEW: BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense.


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Nojay



Joined: 20 Jan 2016
Posts: 112
PostPosted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 9:44 pm Reply with quote
Covnam wrote:
though it makes you wonder how long this game has been out


The Battle Royale in episode 2 was the first ever event which suggests the game had only been out for a couple of weeks or so. In episode 3 the devs added the first map expansion and there's a mention somewhere that Maple and Sally had been playing together as a party for a month or so by then.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2858
PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 10:41 am Reply with quote
An interesting thing I stumbled upon regarding the broken game mechanics is that some of the things mapple does, while pretty normal for mmorpgs are thigns that require a huge amount of mental fortitude in a VRmmorpg.

Like, standing still while taking hits for 3 hours, of course ina mmorpg you can just fire up a media player or netflix and watch away while your character stands still. In a VRmmorpg you ahve to stand still while doing nothing fora full three hours, the other novel/manga that has situations similar to that is marginal operation, which is about a dude who is training to become a spoiler[mercenary operator ], most of the people who joined the program along him quit because of how muindnumbingly boring it is; and those are people who are getting paid good money to do the thing, while mapple is supossed to be having fun.

TL;Dr people comapring this to a mmorpg are not being fair, this being a VRmmorpg changes the rules.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:47 pm Reply with quote
maximilianjenus wrote:

TL;Dr people comapring this to a mmorpg are not being fair, this being a VRmmorpg changes the rules.


Not really, ultimately VRmmorpg are still run on computer, nothing stop the computer from having secondary window. If we ever get this type of mmo I'd be shocked if they don't allow people to just open a web browser/TV in game while they stay in the world (they already have windows in game for UI, nothing stop those from just opening a web page).

Plus they almost certainly would allow people from leaving the headset while still having the game running, otherwise everytime someone wants to go to the bathroom or pick up the phone, they'd need to log out and log back in, which would be quite the PITA and would lead to disengagement from the game.
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NeedMoreCats
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Joined: 06 Oct 2018
Posts: 299
Location: Westchester, NY
PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 9:00 pm Reply with quote
I wasn’t sure why episode 3 was a letdown for me but Chris put it just right:
Quote:
But it also feels a bit stalled in terms of progression, with any whiffs of plot relegated to setup of events and characters for next week's battle event. The rest feels a bit light and vapid as the most average of these kinds of anime can test my patience with. Thus far Maple and Sally can carry the show with their duo dynamic, but only just.

However, episode 4 was fun and got me back on board. I enjoyed the fight with the icicle bird; and, come on, who doesn’t want a fluffy little fox monster pet?

Also, just checked out the dub version and I’m digging it. I think the VAs for Maple and Sally are doing a fine job. Watching those episode over again, I’d forgotten how much I laughed the first time over Maple’s just-killing-time drawing of the Nasca lines hummingbird. Very cute.
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3627
PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 10:41 pm Reply with quote
Enjoyed this weeks episode a lot. Hopefully this is what we'll get going forward. I could nitpick some things about the fight (like why was hydra effective later on and not frozen off like at the start of the fight? and can she not turn devour off?), but it was still a fun battle that more than compensated for any of those sticking points.
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bhl88



Joined: 02 Oct 2011
Posts: 255
PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 2020 12:47 am Reply with quote
All of them are aiming their nerfs at her. She'll probably be the most nerfed one.
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Kuroi Ren



Joined: 09 Dec 2018
Posts: 143
PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 2:24 pm Reply with quote
I just cannot enjoy this anime.

Maple is basically a Mary Sue except this is a video game so that makes it even worse because there's no excuse for a character being so stupidly OP.

Hydra is a stupid attack that should be outright removed and her defense should really be nerfed.

Also, the excuse that it's supposed to be "moe" anime does not fly since they're just doing standard RPG stuff
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2858
PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 3:09 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
a walking murder-machine


flying.
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Sakagami Tomoyo



Joined: 06 Dec 2008
Posts: 940
Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia
PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 8:50 pm Reply with quote
maximilianjenus wrote:
TL;Dr people comapring this to a mmorpg are not being fair, this being a VRmmorpg changes the rules.

Even if they just compared it to how MMORPGs actually are rather than an idealised image they have of MMORPGs, it'd help. Some people seem to have this strange idea that it's feasible for a dev team or even beta test group to test every possible interaction of everything with everything else in an MMORPG before release. Some hilariously game-breaking stuff is always going to be in there, and some of it can take months if not years for someone to stumble across. (Though in this case the game is pretty new, so the most fertile ground for hilariously broken stuff.) And that's not getting into how an adjustment to the mechanics of one thing to fix one game-breaker can cause another. And that's when stats and skills are generally sensibly assigned by the game rather than set and acquired by players as they please as is the case here.

The Article wrote:
All that aside, what we get from Maple this week is here to show that her offbeat approach to the game can still work. Sally and Kasumi are all ready to go to town on each other in that opening fight, when Maple inadvertently crashes into them, sinks them all underground, and gets them stuck in a magical get-along shirt that necessitates the three of them learning some good old-fashioned teamwork. At the end, everyone goes home happy with more medals and new friends on their list. In another instance, we see Sally scouring the ocean for medals, while Maple builds a sand castle with her new friend Kanade and gets a tip about where to go next. Each time is BOFURI demonstrating how non-violent interaction with players can produce results just as well as ambushing them and taking their stuff.

The moe CGDCT aspects aside, this is something I really like, and represents a perfectly valid if less common approach to playing games and game design: there are usually solutions to the problems at hand other than the application of violence.
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arkhangelsk



Joined: 18 May 2019
Posts: 20
PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 2020 9:52 pm Reply with quote
Kuroi Ren wrote:
Maple is basically a Mary Sue except this is a video game so that makes it even worse because there's no excuse for a character being so stupidly OP.


I actually have the opposite view. That it is a game means it is easier for her to become OP because all she has to do is hit the positivist ruleset correctly rather than be entwined by the far more complex rules of the real world. Standing still for one hour is more likely and easier than the effort it'll really take to become that tough through training.
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Kuroi Ren



Joined: 09 Dec 2018
Posts: 143
PostPosted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 11:43 am Reply with quote
arkhangelsk wrote:
Kuroi Ren wrote:
Maple is basically a Mary Sue except this is a video game so that makes it even worse because there's no excuse for a character being so stupidly OP.


I actually have the opposite view. That it is a game means it is easier for her to become OP because all she has to do is hit the positivist ruleset correctly rather than be entwined by the far more complex rules of the real world. Standing still for one hour is more likely and easier than the effort it'll really take to become that tough through training.


That makes no sense. In a real game, she would normally be nerfed straight away unless it's a trash game. If she was smart, it would be one thing, but she's clearly a somewhat dumb girl so the game should not allow her to become that powerful. If it was an Isekai or fantasy, it could at least be justified through how the world itself would work. Any good anime with an OP MC has a reason for the MC's powers.

I mean, seriously, what kind of game allows you to even function using ONE stat. SMH
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steelmirror



Joined: 22 Oct 2015
Posts: 342
PostPosted: Sun Feb 09, 2020 12:46 am Reply with quote
Kuroi Ren wrote:
If she was smart, it would be one thing, but she's clearly a somewhat dumb girl so the game should not allow her to become that powerful. If it was an Isekai or fantasy, it could at least be justified through how the world itself would work. Any good anime with an OP MC has a reason for the MC's powers.

I mean, seriously, what kind of game allows you to even function using ONE stat. SMH
For me, personally, I can suspend my disbelief enough to buy that the game was broken on release (as games often are), and Maple was the only player stupid enough to accidentally break the system by literally falling asleep for hours after buffin only her defense stat through the roof and then grinding her defense skill far beyond intended before she ever made a single attack (or any other action, as far as I can tell, which might have gained experience). I think that interpretation is clearly intended by the show, and I'm further inclined to be charitable in buying into the explanation since the exploit WAS quickly patched once it became an obvious issue.

All that said, it is obviously a tenuous explanation, but it's also a joke in a comedy series. Nowhere does this show project any sort of pretension that it is trying to accurately portray the tiny details of how a game actually work. It is very clearly a comedy based on exaggerated experiences of playing a game like this. I can suspend more disbelief for a show that is self-evidently trying for an unserious, comedy tone than one which tries to be super serious about having supposed dramatic stakes.

If you prefer really accurate depictions of video games in your anime, it's completely fine to find Bofure lacking in that regard. But it's not trying for realism when comedic exaggeration is funnier and more relaxing, so I find it hits a great balance so far.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2858
PostPosted: Thu Feb 13, 2020 3:37 pm Reply with quote
mapple tanking a vball to the face irl was the best part of the episode for me.
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Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18136
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Thu Feb 13, 2020 4:18 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I'm starting to have concerns that BOFURI may be running out of gas.

As much as I've liked this series so far, I have to agree with this sentiment. Its apparent focus on "let's play for fun" is setting it apart from other series of its type - this is basically becoming a "cute girls do cute things in fantasy VRMMO" kind of thing - but the sharper silliness which permeated the first couple of episodes has faded some.

Still, it's keeping my interest enough that I'm committed for the whole season.
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steelmirror



Joined: 22 Oct 2015
Posts: 342
PostPosted: Thu Feb 13, 2020 6:24 pm Reply with quote
Key wrote:
Quote:
I'm starting to have concerns that BOFURI may be running out of gas.

As much as I've liked this series so far, I have to agree with this sentiment. Its apparent focus on "let's play for fun" is setting it apart from other series of its type - this is basically becoming a "cute girls do cute things in fantasy VRMMO" kind of thing - but the sharper silliness which permeated the first couple of episodes has faded some.

Still, it's keeping my interest enough that I'm committed for the whole season.
Is double agreeing worth a post? Oh well.

At a certain point, I think it would be fun to see what happens when Maple does lose. After all, much as I think the "just for fun" perspective for playing video games is 100% legitimate and worth basing an anime on, I also think it's a shallow perspective to portray if your characters JUST SO HAPPEN to always be winners. Anyone can have fun with something if they are always winning! The challenge and the worthy life lesson is dealing with loss in a game in a healthy way, such that it doesn't ruin your fun. Different people will deal with that differently, I imagine Lisa would react very differently to a crushing PvP or even PvE loss than Maple would. But it would be interesting to see both perspectives, and how they might play off each other.

You don't have to go super high stakes to portray this, it's still just a video game. But a little more emotional range and challenge would be welcome.
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