SAO Alternative - Gun Gale Online - Episode 2 Discussion / Poll

[Kairin]

Welcome to the discussion thread for SAO Alternative - Gun Gale Online, Episode 2.

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[kari-no-sugata II]

Basically, the intro episode.

Hello Karen (aka LLENN), tall, dark and shy. Came from Hokkaido to Tokyo for university hoping for a change in life but nothing much changed for her. Decided to try VR so she could experience something different but she kept getting tall avatars and other fails. After many many fails she randomly tries GGO and lucks into a chibi character, which is kinda ironic when that game mostly has tall, heavy set avatars.



One tutorial later and she's set for action... hunting monsters. Except one day some players come to her spot in the desert while the sun is low and red and her "desert pink" clothes (specifically mentioned last episode) blend right in and the "Pink Devil" is born



One day these two run into each other and form a friendly little team. But first, some shopping!



It was love at first sight!

The P90 suits her well since it's compact, lightweight, has low recoil, can hold 50 bullets and shoot 900 a minute!

[zeross87]

that ep was wonderful, i laughed pretty hard at the tuto
"wonderful, of all the dung beetles in the dung heap you're at the bottom"
"excellent dung beetle, never pick up a sniper rifle again"
it's amazing they have a better tuto in the anime than in FB, actually explaining optical/physical difference and stuff

so she was fast and op from the very beginning (well 3 month in), those army guys stood no chance after all

[Marina2]

I wasn't sure in the first ep. but....after the second ep. I think I like Karen now. (both real life and avatar).

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by zeross87

that ep was wonderful, i laughed pretty hard at the tuto
"wonderful, of all the dung beetles in the dung heap you're at the bottom"
"excellent dung beetle, never pick up a sniper rifle again"
it's amazing they have a better tuto in the anime than in FB, actually explaining optical/physical difference and stuff

I liked the way they integrated the tutorial. In the LN it's mostly just mentioned in a few offhand remarks but in the anime the tutorial makes a nice "show don't tell" way to explain the world in an efficient manner. As you say, it was fun too

so she was fast and op from the very beginning (well 3 month in), those army guys stood no chance after all

The anime skipped over some detail but it's obvious enough that I doubt this can be considered a spoiler: at the start she put most of her experience points into dexterity and agility (speed), and some into strength and luck. After she started opportunistically hunting players she put most of her exp into agility. She didn't know it but she basically created a build that was considered to be optimised for killing other players.

[Tenzen12]

Irc, by time SJ take place agility builds was stopping to be meta. LLENN depend heavily on element of surprise and close range bullet spree to make most of it, but in general majority player already abandoned speed only focus.

[Magewolf]

LLENN, you adorably cute ball of pure PKing evil.

I am getting Ultima Online flashbacks. "Why do you keep killing me? I am just trying to kill a rabbit. I do not have anything worth taking since all my starting gear was stolen as soon as I entered the first town."

[Random Wanderer]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

Irc, by time SJ take place agility builds was stopping to be meta. LLENN depend heavily on element of surprise and close range bullet spree to make most of it, but in general majority player already abandoned speed only focus.

It's basically the speed vs power situation. Newer, more powerful guns required higher strength to equip, and better armor required high strength/endurance to use. It's all the question of whether you like standing still, tanking hits, and firing shots that will kill your enemy in one hit... if you can hit; or if you like rushing around like a whirlwind and being practically unhittable, while peppering your enemy with dozens of hits. Both are viable approaches: despite what the guy who died in the beginning of Phantom Bullet said, neither one has actually rendered the other obsolete. The tank-type players are not invulnerable: the speedsters can still kill them. And the speedsters are not so fast that they can't be killed by the tanks.

[Lukes YGO & WS on YT]

Spoiler for Episode 2 Comments/Feedback:

This girl is a bit of a weirdo watching her react the way she did every time a new character was created, I actually like taller girls. One of those avatars kinda looked like a female Frieza.

That was pretty funny watching the tutorial part.

Yeah I think I would also go after low level monsters when starting out to gain experience.

Good to see she made a friend, now to wait and see if Llenn can beat her and fulfill their vow.

[Requiem-x]

Now, that's much better. I'm a bit iffy on the character's issue being a height complex, but that's probably just me being tall and never thinking much about it, besides, one of SAO's biggest issues (to me) is its love for needless drama, so this most likely will be a welcome change. Anyways, our main character seems like an adorable little thing... that loves PKing suckers for funsies Of course, seeing how SAO loves bringing up laughing coffin again and again, this is kind of hilarious on hindsight, and honestly makes me wonder if its a playful jab of sorts (most likely not, but the fact I can have such an idea pop up in my head is what matters). Definetly looking forward to the cute bunny gunning down more people in the upcoming weekends.

So, avatars are random in ALL games? I thought that was some dumb SAO-Alfheim only thing (No, I'm not following SAO very much, though Alicization had a promising start in the manga, outside of real world stuff).

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata II

I liked the way they integrated the tutorial. In the LN it's mostly just mentioned in a few offhand remarks but in the anime the tutorial makes a nice "show don't tell" way to explain the world in an efficient manner. As you say, it was fun too

Yeah, that was pretty good, and as she said, pretty intense.

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata II

The anime skipped over some detail but it's obvious enough that I doubt this can be considered a spoiler: at the start she put most of her experience points into dexterity and agility (speed), and some into strength and luck. After she started opportunistically hunting players she put most of her exp into agility. She didn't know it but she basically created a build that was considered to be optimised for killing other players.

Oh, that's why! She's still working well within the boundaries of the game, she's just focusing in powering up one stat. As someone who's into pokemon, I can understand, and appreciate the value of speed (Seriously, if you're not tanking or working on a specific build, go fast). Thanks for clearing that up, because the anime sure didn't; I appreciate "show, don't tell" as much as anyone, but unless you show a level up screen or something along those lines, it won't be so easy to follow on that detail.

[Random Wanderer]

Originally Posted by Requiem-x

Now, that's much better. I'm a bit iffy on the character's issue being a height complex, but that's probably just me being tall and never thinking much about it

The thing is, she's 183 cm (6ft) tall. That's over a foot taller than the average female in Japan, and still several inches taller than the average male. In a country filled with short people, and made for short people, she really sticks out. Thus, everyone notices her, and turns to look at her, and stares at her, and whispers under their breath about her as she walks by, and so on. This has had a really bad impact on her self-esteem, as she's become convinced more and more as time goes by and that keeps happening that those people are talking to each other about how freakish she is, and reacting to her in disgust, and so on. And so she's slowly grown to hate herself.

Oh, that's why! She's still working well within the boundaries of the game, she's just focusing in powering up one stat. As someone who's into pokemon, I can understand, and appreciate the value of speed (Seriously, if you're not tanking or working on a specific build, go fast). Thanks for clearing that up, because the anime sure didn't; I appreciate "show, don't tell" as much as anyone, but unless you show a level up screen or something along those lines, it won't be so easy to follow on that detail.

One of the big downsides of adapting a light novel: most of the narration, internal dialogue, and all other sorts of text gets cut out. There are always a lot of details revealed in people's thoughts, or in stuff that was explained in text but didn't have a specific event that could be shown on screen, and much of that stuff just gets lost when an anime is made, sometimes resulting in people missing vital information.

[LoweGear]

So episode 2, which deals with how Karen got into GGO, is pretty much a big dose of showing how adorable LLENN/Karen is. Not like I mind, more cute LLENN/Karen is good, especially with the dichotomy between her desire to look cute and girly, and the fact that she's getting into a rather bloodthirsty mindset in GGO (becoming infamous enough as a PKer to be known as the 'Pink Devil'). And the hilarious thing is, it's quite a believable mindset to get into for someone who hasn't had much gaming experience due to the tutorial teaching her that.

Speaking of the tutorial, the drill instructor NPC who does the tutorial mission is hilarious

[Friday]

"excellent dung beetle, never pick up a sniper rifle again"

lmao!!!!!

"ma'am, I suck at this game can you teach me again...." (after visiting her a 100th time....)

I liked the way they integrated the tutorial. In the LN it's mostly just mentioned in a few offhand remarks but in the anime the tutorial makes a nice "show don't tell" way to explain the world in an efficient manner. As you say, it was fun too

I quite agree

[blakstealth]

So is being a tall female in Japan unnattractive? I think tall women are pretty hot generally speaking. Poor Karen. At least she found Pito, though. She's probably a kid or something in real life.

[Random Wanderer]

Originally Posted by blakstealth

So is being a tall female in Japan unnattractive?

Not... necessarily? But it stands out which is not usually a good thing in Japanese culture. It makes the person look unusual, and not in a way that is definitively good. However, a lot of Karen's issues over it are self-inflicted due to low self-esteem. People turn to look at her as she walks by, and stare at her, and whisper to each other about her, and after years of this going on she's basically convinced herself that they're looking at her in disgust, and talking about how much of a freak she is. But, while there have been people who teased her, or insensitively called her a giant in the past, the truth is that she does not actually know what most people think of her. Her self-esteem is just low enough that she believes everyone is mocking her.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by blakstealth

So is being a tall female in Japan unnattractive? I think tall women are pretty hot generally speaking. Poor Karen. At least she found Pito, though. She's probably a kid or something in real life.

It's not a matter of attractiveness. The problem is she's pretty much the tallest woman in the city and actually taller than most men too. Don't forget Japan is basically a country of midgets. She stands out too much, everyone looks at her like she's something strange no matter where she goes.

[Darthtabby]

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata II

The anime skipped over some detail but it's obvious enough that I doubt this can be considered a spoiler: at the start she put most of her experience points into dexterity and agility (speed), and some into strength and luck. After she started opportunistically hunting players she put most of her exp into agility. She didn't know it but she basically created a build that was considered to be optimised for killing other players.

Awww, so she didn't develop her high AGI stat by running away from powerful monsters?

[human6861]

LOL , so the reason for agi build is because get chased by monster .

[Keila]

I never really thought about this much from the previous incarnations of GGO, but how terrible must it be for players who 'rage' easily. Having accuracy linked to heart rate would just lead to an infinite loop for the players who get angry when things don't go their way

Miss shots and get angry → Anger increases heart rate → Heart rate causes more shots to miss → Infinite spiral


If RL tech ever develops in such a way (and there's no reason to think it won't, with all the fitness tech we currently have) then taunting opponents will actually be a legitimate tactic (not that it stops people doing it now anyway) with strategic and tactical implications.

[Requiem-x]

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

The thing is, she's 183 cm (6ft) tall. That's over a foot taller than the average female in Japan, and still several inches taller than the average male. In a country filled with short people, and made for short people, she really sticks out. Thus, everyone notices her, and turns to look at her, and stares at her, and whispers under their breath about her as she walks by, and so on. This has had a really bad impact on her self-esteem, as she's become convinced more and more as time goes by and that keeps happening that those people are talking to each other about how freakish she is, and reacting to her in disgust, and so on. And so she's slowly grown to hate herself.

When you put it that way, I can definetly relate, not being the type of person most common in my country. Even if it doesn't affect me in a structural level (too much), it hurts being so different sometimes.

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

One of the big downsides of adapting a light novel: most of the narration, internal dialogue, and all other sorts of text gets cut out. There are always a lot of details revealed in people's thoughts, or in stuff that was explained in text but didn't have a specific event that could be shown on screen, and much of that stuff just gets lost when an anime is made, sometimes resulting in people missing vital information.

It's not like you needed a lenghty infodump for that, just an additional quote saying how she dumped all her EXP points into speed. She already talked about getting EXP from monsters, so it couldn't have been so hard to add that.

Originally Posted by Keila

I never really thought about this much from the previous incarnations of GGO, but how terrible must it be for players who 'rage' easily. Having accuracy linked to heart rate would just lead to an infinite loop for the players who get angry when things don't go their way

Miss shots and get angry → Anger increases heart rate → Heart rate causes more shots to miss → Infinite spiral


If RL tech ever develops in such a way (and there's no reason to think it won't, with all the fitness tech we currently have) then taunting opponents will actually be a legitimate tactic (not that it stops people doing it now anyway) with strategic and tactical implications.

With the right mindset, taunts can already screw you over by taking focus away, I think.

By the way, when I first read your post, I thought you were bringing up Karen almost getting a heart attack from the avatar system screwing her over (which would totally happen in real life), which I forgot to mention in my earlier posts, but it was really funny.