There are five volumes for the first arc, with the sixth (and thus first book of the second arc) coming out in Japan on 30 Mar this year. Each chapter starts with a page showing a character's stats (though really just the name, level, race, class, HP and MP, and with a measuring bar showing the character's height) and three items from his/her equipment, complete with descriptions (based on suggestions from the fanbase)
An example (taken from the second novel translated and released by Kadokawa Taiwan):
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86...ps75b81f5e.jpg
Translating the synopsis from the first novel (once again, Kadokawa Taiwan version):
Quote:
Battling with monsters, food that has lost taste, encounters where you won't die regardless what*. What was until yesterday a game's "world of sword and magic" is from now on the "real world". In the midst of this chaotic situation, self-styled loner Shiroe, together with his old pal Naotsugu and the bishoujo Assassin Akatsuki, will reform this world from the ruined city of Akibahara!
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... Well, the reforming part came a bit later, starting from the second volume :p
*Note: "won't die" here means the players, once killed, will be resurrected after some time, whether they want it or not, at their last save point. Of course, they will still lose exp, money and items upon dying.
At the first look this seems to have a least one similarity with SAO: lots of people trapped in a world identical to that in the MMO they're playing. However, aside from that:
- There is no attempt from either the writer not the chief protagonist Shiroe to identify this new world as a virtual game world. While game settings still apply and most ingame functions still working, the players themselves still need to attend to their biological needs (including the need to defecate) as any living human would need to.
In fact, while the players of Elder Tales were sucked into their current circumstances with absolutely no warning as well, there was no Kayaba Akihiko to tell them that, hey suckers, welcome to this virtual world, here's the rules of the game, including what you have to do to leave this place. Instead, the players of Elder Tales had to reach their own conclusions about what had happened to them and what they have to do from hence on. Most people accepted that they are in a virtual world based on the game (probably watched too much SAO) and treated their surroundings accordingly. However, to Shiroe and his companions, the world they were now in was as real as the one they had came from and they took it with the seriousness it demanded.
- While SAO was a game utilizing virtual reality technology, Elder Tales was something that you and I would be more familiar with, a MMO along the lines of RO, WoW, ECO, etc. A game where you, the player, interacts with your ingame avatar with a mouse and keyboard while watching your ingame self's progress on a monitor. None of those futuristic stuff in .hack and SAO (the story is set in 2018, just five years away from now), which in fact makes the "whisked-to-a-new-world" setting even more intriguing (the story up to volume 2 has shed no light as to how this had happened, or why).
The MMO is developed in America and is, in the story, well-established, with 20 years of service, 20 million players worldwide (of which a hundred thousand are Japanese), and the reputation for depth in both setting and gameplay (like a RPG version of EVE, I guess =3). The game world itself is based on a post apocalyptic Earth with a fantasy setting. Under its "Virtual Gaia" project, the game world is half the size of the actual Earth, with similar locations (in ruins of course). Players generally play in maps based on their own regions, but as the servers are interlinked, it is theoretically possible for players to travel to another region.
Like many contemporary MMOs, the player can decide on his avatar's appearance (including height), gender, race (eight choices), main job (twelve choices) and sub job (dozens. What's available varies depending on the service provider).
Races are pretty much fantasy staples:
- Human
- Elf
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Half Elf Half Aruvu (ハーフアルヴ), half-human descendants of the extinct Aruvu. Appearance-wise similar to humans with a strange emblem on their tongues.
- Dwarf
- Werecat (cat-like beastman)
- Wolf-hair (pretty much hairier humans with golden eyes and wolf ears)
- Fox-tail (beastmen with fox ears)
- Ritualist(?) (also known as the tattooed race due to the amount of tattoos on their bodies).
The same goes for the main jobs, which are divided into four categories:
Warriors (戦士系): Guardian, Samurai, Monk
Weapon-based attackers (武器攻撃系): Assassin, Swashbuckler, Bard
Healers (回復系): Cleric, Druid, Kannagi (think: Shinto priesthood and mikos)
Magicians, also known as Magic-based attackers (魔術系): Sorcerer, Summoner, Enchanter
While main jobs, once chosen, cannot be changed, sub jobs do not have this restriction and are relatively easier to level. Sub jobs are usually chosen for their abilities (e.g. people who like making weapons and armor will go for the Blacksmith) or for roleplay purposes (lots of these, like Vampire, Maid, Head Maid (....), Hitokiri, Noble, Landlord, Prostitute...).
A point to take note is that the players retained most of their characters' settings in this world, including levels, stats and
gender. They do retain most of their original facial features though.
- Death plays a different role in Log Horizon. As mentioned, thanks to game mechanics working as usual, the slain player would be revived at his/her save point, usually the Grand Cathedral in the major player cities (five in the Japanese servers: Akibahara, Shibuya, Minami, Susukino and Nakasu; all named after real Japanese cities). Sounds great, doesn't it, especially compared to the tragedies death causes in SAO? However, the inability to die means the players are effectively trapped in a cage with no way out, creating a suffocating atmosphere where the world is colored in a shade of hopeless grey. More ever, outlaws would be more daring in their antics, since all death could do to them now was merely a penalty of some exp, gold and items, and nothing permanent.
- Finally on the characters themselves. Volume One focuses on Shiroe and his initial party, Naotsugu and Akatsuki, while Volume Two extents its attention to their friends in the Crescent Alliance. I'll briefly touch on Shiroe's party in the first volume:
Shiroe (シロエ, level 90 Half-Aruvu Enchanter):
Nicknamed the Sly Four-eyes, Shiroe is a university student who majors in Engineering and is about to graduate when he was sucked into the alternate world. By nature a cautious and thoughtful introvert, he has been an Elder Tales player since middle school, a veteran with a near-encyclopaedic knowledge of a game known for its depth. Though not really an anti-social person, Shiroe has his reservations with guilds, due to unpleasant experiences with people who sought him out only to exploit his expertise in the game. He was however a member of the informal group of players collectively known as the Debauchery Tea Party (放蕩者の茶会) and was its unofficial strategist.
Shiroe's main job, the Enchanter, is an unpopular job in Elder Tales. Lacking the firepower most would associate with a magic-user class, the Enchanter is a pure-support class (without heals, since it's not one of the three Healer jobs) that shines only when supporting the party with its buffs, de-buffs and binds (Nanoha fans, think Yuuno Scrya without the tough defense and you're near there). Shiroe however loves this class for its potential, the complexity of playing this job well and also because the idea behind this job, "a job that can't do anything on its own", offers an experience totally different from his character.
Though a loner due to the aforementioned reason, Shiroe is not above helping people who really needs the extra hand, though he would still hesitate at times, wondering if he's over-stepping his boundaries. However, once his mind is made up on something, he would use all means possible to achieve his goals, regardless the methods, thus the "Sly Four-eyes" nickname.
Naotsugu (直継, level 90 Human Guardian):
The Warrior of Panties, Naotsugu is the cheerful big brother character of the team, albeit one subjected to frequent physical abuse from Akatsuki. Two years older than Shiroe, Naotsugu is also a member of the Tea Party, and first met the latter four years before the main story. The two has been close friends since then and has even met offline a number of times. Due to work, he was absent from Elder Tales two years ago, and had the luck to be caught up in the mess on the very day he returned to the game.
A good person and a reliable tank, Naotsugu's greatest fault is his incessant need to crack off-color jokes, especially those on panties. OTOH, he's surprisingly shy when he's on the receiving end of such humor.
Akatsuki (アカツキ, level 90 Human Assassin):
A petite blackhaired beauty, Akatsuki possess a level of combat prowess that belies her small build. A serious person, she doesn't take kindly Naotsugu's brand of humor and dishes regular punishment, usually a flying knee to his face at blinding speed. For some reason, Akatsuki sees herself as a ninja, or more specifically Shiroe's ninja (whom she addresses as her "Lord"), which is reflected not only in her main job but also in her sub job choice: the Chaser, which specialises in tracking and stalking targets.
She is hinted to have actual training in the martial arts, which neither Shiroe nor Naotsugu possesses. Also, despite her loli appearance, she is actually around Shiroe's age.
