crzlove

i could be Entirely wrong (and tbf this is how i personally would love to see things go bc i love things like this so my sense of interpretation is a little biased) but some parts almost make it feel like like ebisaka is aware of ino’s feelings & reciprocates, but isn’t saying anything because he’s waiting for ino to say something first & is trying to nudge him around regarding it. or something like that. Much to think about

fun fact! despite the story apparently releasing in 2022, it can’t take place in 2022 specifically due to the october calendar on Egg Sandwich’s desk. this story takes place probably in 2023 using my deductive ability to figure out what year something takes place in based on how october lines up (2023 is the latest year with october 28th falling on a Saturday lol)

for an actual review of the story…. i understand why people are referencing guildmate because the ML does look a bit like Jigu, but the overall plots & character personalities are ultimately so different i think it’s an unfair criticism to make bc all they really have in common is being about gaming. i DO think this story is really rushed (like many others are saying), though, so i agree with that — personally i think gaming stories are ones that you can’t really DO super short versions of. because you’re introducing an entire extra setting to establish, you need to do more than go “here’s this game! everyone loves it!” to make it truly part of the setting, and you need more time than this story was either willing or able to give to establish that.

like for example… the lack of combat that gets mentioned in the one chapter where Barley Butler (i don’t remember their actual names but i do remember the handles) gets invited to join a raid. the way one person explains it as “no, there’s no actual monsters or combat, it’s just pretend!”…. honestly, it doesn’t sound very engaging! it sounds very boring PRETENDING to act out combat instead of the game actually implementing it! this game sounds like there’s nothing to it but dressing up and RPing with the occasional minigame, and like… that’s fine, but it feels like as a full game this would really lose its appeal way too soon for it to even have enough of a widespread audience to have maintained global servers. “the players help shape the world!” it claims, but there are no real examples of them actually doing enough in this game for that to be the case. are there no quests? nothing to keep you engaged if you keep to yourself? what’s the game like. what’s the setting about. how do players shape things. are there skills at all? i want to know more. this is the one case where i think a guild mate comparison is warranted because illusion goes into quite a bit of depth about its mechanics & this is what i Personally think gaming stories kind of require to establish an engaging story. Relatedly this topic is making me mourn Maplestory 2

tldr it’s rushed but i think it hits extra hard in its rushing bc this is technically a gaming BL and i don’t think you can really DO gaming stories without having enough chapters or exposition to flesh the world out enough to make it interesting. which to me this story does not do! yeah, the relationship is cute or whatever, but it and the setting are unfortunately very bland and very quickly-paced so it’s cute in a very generic sort of way that doesn’t come with any lasting appeal because it moved too quickly to create really any proper attachment to the setting or the characters.