Fixing "Gamer Fantasy" Anime

[00:00] On the last episode of Mother's

[00:03] Basement, Jeff Thu declared the golden

[00:05] age of anime to be right the now.

[00:09] However, while he was working on that

[00:12] video, one thing did keep bothering him.

[00:15] Well, two things actually. I hate

[00:18] talking about myself in the third

[00:20] person. And the second thing is, of

[00:22] course, thoseing things. You know,

[00:25] there's a guy in the hero's party. He

[00:27] gets banished for how his inconveniently

[00:29] huge car keeps tripping him up in

[00:31] fights. Right after leaving, he

[00:33] discovers he can blast ropes that take

[00:35] the head off a dragon at 50 paces. Three

[00:37] to seven gorgeous women start riding

[00:39] around everywhere on his dick. And

[00:41] either by design or by accident, he ends

[00:43] up trapping his former companions in the

[00:45] salty hot glue of revenge before the

[00:49] story's through. That sort of thing.

[00:51] though the sort of thing that I just

[00:52] described, you know, the one with the

[00:54] thing would probably be more fun than

[00:57] most of the actual [ __ ] things that

[00:59] get made these days. There's a lot of

[01:02] problems to talk about regarding this

[01:04] oddly specific subgenre. Not the least

[01:06] of which being how coliny the whole vibe

[01:09] can get. But the biggest problem for my

[01:12] money is how video gamey the vibe tends

[01:15] to be as well. Which, just so we're

[01:17] clear, Mr. Fox News has nothing to do

[01:20] with the Colombininess of it all. Those

[01:22] are two separate issues, far more so

[01:25] than even your average isekai, where it

[01:27] is still very much a problem. These

[01:29] things are absolutely lousy with RPG

[01:32] elements in their world building that is

[01:34] for the most part pretty lousy, too.

[01:37] It's not impossible to build a

[01:39] believable livedin world on video game

[01:41] logic, but it sure is a whole lot easier

[01:44] to just not do that. And the problem

[01:47] isn't limited to stat screens. It's all

[01:50] the blatantly artificial video gamey

[01:52] tropes that come part and parcel with

[01:54] them. Any one of which can rip you right

[01:56] out of an anime's world if you think

[01:58] about it for even a moment longer than

[02:01] the writer obviously did. Now, is the

[02:03] ubiquity of these things and isekai in

[02:06] the same vein enough to make me rethink

[02:09] calling this a golden age? Absolutely

[02:11] not. There is so much good fantasy on

[02:14] right now with none of this gamer

[02:16] nonsense in it. But as a gamer who does

[02:20] love him some nonsense, it pains me to

[02:22] see just how bad most of this stuff

[02:24] gets. Which is why today I want to do my

[02:27] part to fix the problem by exploring

[02:30] exactly what these anime are doing wrong

[02:33] and how some better stories do it right.

[02:36] And one of the positive examples I'll be

[02:38] using throughout the video also happens

[02:41] to be one of the most exciting sponsors

[02:43] I have ever worked with. Chrysalis by

[02:46] Rhino Z. If you haven't heard me gush

[02:48] about it before, Chrysalis is one of my

[02:51] personal all-time favorite lit RPG web

[02:53] novels, which follows this kid named

[02:55] Anthony who gets reincarnated as a

[02:58] monster ant in this dungeon the size of

[03:00] a planet and slowly builds his humble

[03:03] colony up into a utopian global empire

[03:07] where every citizen gets 8 hours of

[03:09] sleep a night or else. The books are

[03:12] just a delight to read and especially

[03:14] listen to, carried by rocksolid action

[03:16] writing, sardonic Aussie wit, and more

[03:19] beautifully tortured ant puns than you

[03:21] can shake an antenna at. All of which

[03:24] are further enhanced by the unrivaled

[03:27] audiobook performances of Sound Booth

[03:30] Theater, who also offer IMO the best way

[03:33] to get into the series through their

[03:35] phenomenally generous box set, which

[03:38] gives you the first three audio books.

[03:41] That's 55 hours of listening for just

[03:44] one Audible credit. As somebody who is

[03:46] addicted to audiobooks, it's like the

[03:49] best value I have ever found in the app.

[03:51] With the hotly anticipated latest book,

[03:55] Antindustrial Revolution, due out on

[03:57] Kindle July 15th, there has never been a

[04:00] better time to get into Chrysalis. And I

[04:02] was recommending this [ __ ] months before

[04:04] they paid me to do it. So, you know, I

[04:06] mean that. And having said that, my

[04:09] sponsorship obligation is now

[04:11] technically out of the way. So, you also

[04:13] know that every time I reference it from

[04:15] now on is purely for the love of the

[04:17] game and OF COURSE FOR THE COLONY. TO

[04:22] understand why so many modern fantasy

[04:25] anime are like this, you first need to

[04:27] understand why JRPGs are like that.

[04:30] Which all comes back to 1981 and the

[04:33] releases of Ultima and Wizardry, the

[04:36] most influential PC RPGs of all time,

[04:40] especially in Japan. That might come as

[04:42] a surprise since neither series saw an

[04:45] official release there until 1985 after

[04:48] homegrown games like Lizard, Mugan, No

[04:51] Shinszo, Tower of Duaga, Hidelide, and

[04:54] Dragon Slayer had already taken root and

[04:56] right before Dragon Quest would turn

[04:58] console RPGs into a full-blown

[05:00] phenomenon. But none of those games

[05:03] would exist in the first place if

[05:05] Japanese computer nerds like Yugji Horry

[05:08] hadn't fallen in love with import copies

[05:11] of Ultima and Wizardry earlier in the

[05:14] decade. Everything about Japan's

[05:16] divergent branch of the genre stems from

[05:20] that point. In the west, the fundamental

[05:22] ethos of CRPGs has always been emulate

[05:25] the tabletop experience with deeper

[05:27] character customization and eventually

[05:30] more role-playing options. But the

[05:32] Japanese never had that experience to

[05:35] begin with. Not until TSR tried and

[05:38] mostly failed to bring Dn D to their

[05:40] shores in the mid80s when the JRPG boom

[05:43] was already underway. So in Japan, the

[05:47] ethos for designing RPGs has always been

[05:50] build a better wizardry and or Ultima,

[05:53] which led them to more console friendly

[05:56] video game ccentric innovations like

[05:58] action RPGs and linear cinematic

[06:01] narratives told through complex in-g

[06:03] engine cutscenes much sooner than

[06:05] Western devs who were busy going allin

[06:08] on more textheavy playerdriven stories.

[06:11] But Wizardry and Ultima didn't just give

[06:14] Japan its first taste of role-

[06:16] playinging. They were also foundational

[06:18] to its entire fantasy fandom. Of course,

[06:21] Japan had produced plenty of fantastical

[06:24] films and shows in the preceding

[06:26] decades, inspired by various mythologies

[06:29] and fairy tales from around the world,

[06:31] but as far as that medieval European

[06:34] capital F style of fantasy went, Lord of

[06:37] the Rings was translated in the 70s

[06:40] around the same time as Earth Sea and

[06:42] some other influential Western epics,

[06:44] which did go on to inspire some

[06:47] important Japanese literature, most

[06:49] notably 197 79's Green Saga, a legendary

[06:53] light novel series that is still running

[06:55] today at 150 volumes and counting. But

[06:59] all these books were a niche within a

[07:01] niche at a time when genre fiction was

[07:04] almost entirely synonymous with science

[07:06] fiction to the Japanese. Aside from a

[07:09] few exceptions that emerged around the

[07:12] same time and out of the same nerdy

[07:14] zeitgeist as the first wave of JRPGs,

[07:17] Swords and Sorcery stuff only gained the

[07:20] cultural clout needed to justify, for

[07:22] example, making a whole mess of anime

[07:24] out of it after the gaming boom began,

[07:27] with some of the earliest hits being

[07:29] adaptations of Dragon Quest, Dragon

[07:32] Slayer, and Wizardry. While the west

[07:35] sees stat screens and other gaming

[07:37] conventions as an offshoot of an

[07:40] offshoot of the foundational works of

[07:42] fantasy, in Japan, games are the

[07:45] foundation. So when, for example, the

[07:48] adventurers inn and Gilgamesh's tavern

[07:50] from Wizardry 1 were amalgamated into

[07:53] Patty's party planning place in Dragon

[07:55] Quest 3, and the idea was then

[07:58] standardized as the adventurers guild by

[08:00] other games in need of party recruiting

[08:03] and questing hubs. It was only natural

[08:05] for fantasy books and anime to adopt the

[08:08] concept as well, often with very little

[08:11] thought put toward how such a thing

[08:13] might actually, you know, work outside

[08:16] of a video game. Now, guilds in general

[08:20] obviously had a place in the medieval

[08:22] societies that fantasy strives to

[08:24] emulate, but the logic that justified

[08:26] their existence doesn't necessarily

[08:29] apply to adventuring. And we know that

[08:31] because there were no guilds for the

[08:34] realworld equivalents of adventurers in

[08:36] wartime. Mercenary companies had very

[08:39] little reason to form regulatory bodies

[08:42] with other mercenaries they were

[08:43] probably going to be trying to kill next

[08:45] week. Plus, they already had a pretty

[08:47] standardized apprenticeship program of

[08:49] here's a spear, try not to die. And in

[08:52] peace time, most of them were too busy

[08:53] being bandits to build bureaucracies. Of

[08:56] course, having loads of monsters to hunt

[08:58] instead of killing people could

[09:00] potentially change that calculus, but

[09:02] historically speaking, hunting was the

[09:05] near exclusive privilege of the

[09:07] nobility. In part because wild game is

[09:09] full of valuable resources, and in part

[09:12] because the hunts themselves made great

[09:14] murder practice for knights. Two factors

[09:17] that are going to be even more

[09:18] applicable if we're talking about

[09:20] magical monsters rather than deer or

[09:22] foxes. None of that's to say that

[09:24] fantasy worlds have to be 100%

[09:27] historically accurate. That wouldn't be

[09:29] very fantastic. But historical precedent

[09:32] is vital to crafting even the most

[09:35] imaginative of worlds because history is

[09:38] the best model that we have for how

[09:41] civilizations tend to behave. And the

[09:43] mark of a great worldbuilder is how well

[09:46] they can justify deviations from that

[09:49] model with good answers to tough

[09:51] questions. So, what purpose does an

[09:54] adventurer's guild serve? Not to gamers,

[09:57] but society. What could possibly make a

[10:00] state want to let essentially an

[10:02] independent freelance militia operate

[10:04] within its borders? Why would the army

[10:07] not be dealing with monster related

[10:09] problems and reaping the associated

[10:11] rewards? What effect does seeding those

[10:13] resources and that authority to private

[10:15] individuals have on politics or the

[10:18] economy? On that note, who's even paying

[10:20] for all these quests in the first place?

[10:22] And what do they or the adventurers get

[10:25] out of running their monster part

[10:27] trades, surveying contracts, bounties,

[10:30] and such through these middleman

[10:32] organizations instead of just working

[10:34] with each other directly. Far too many

[10:37] gamer fantasies just completely ignore

[10:40] all that. The Adventurer's Guild exists

[10:42] because the protagonist really needs an

[10:44] instant support network after getting

[10:46] isekai or some governing body to manage

[10:49] the employment contract with the party

[10:51] that just banished him. And that's it.

[10:53] It's there cuz the story needs it there.

[10:56] And once it's there, it is likely to

[10:58] warp that entire story and the entire

[11:02] story's world around itself because

[11:05] these guilds are just such darn useful

[11:07] writing tools. Can't figure out how to

[11:10] get your hero where they need to be for

[11:11] the next arc? Put it on the quest board.

[11:13] Need to create a sense of power

[11:15] progression? Give them a rank up. Need a

[11:17] place for them to meet a new ally or

[11:20] rival? Hey, the guild tavern's right

[11:22] there. In that way, this place that has

[11:25] no place within the world becomes our

[11:28] hero's primary point of contact with the

[11:30] entire civilized side of it. filtering

[11:33] every bit of the setting that the writer

[11:35] did bother fleshing out through this

[11:37] physical embodiment of a video game menu

[11:40] and giving it the same artificial

[11:43] aftertaste. And this isn't just

[11:45] detrimental to immersion. It also

[11:48] hamstrings storytelling as every major

[11:51] player in the fantasy world is now

[11:53] forced to play around this blatantly

[11:56] video gamey, often politically inert

[11:58] plot device. It becomes a spanner in the

[12:01] gears of organic character-driven social

[12:04] conflict that good worldbuilding is

[12:06] supposed to create and all but forces

[12:08] the writer to fall back on clichéed

[12:10] formula. Of course, it's not impossible

[12:13] to tell a good story around the guild.

[12:15] Mushoku Tensei is absolutely peak, but

[12:18] the guild is mostly a means to other

[12:20] ends there, providing funds for the

[12:23] actual adventures. The only part of the

[12:25] story that's really driven by just

[12:27] taking random quests off the job board

[12:29] is the arc where Rudy is profoundly

[12:32] depressed, which I think maybe says

[12:34] something about the emotional texture of

[12:36] that particular plot structure. Now, I

[12:39] did quite enjoy how sentence to be a

[12:40] hero handled its adventurer's guild,

[12:43] which was by uh basically just not

[12:45] having one. The organization that bears

[12:47] the name is really just a loosely

[12:49] affiliated band of thugs and killers

[12:51] working under a former pirate lord who

[12:53] went semi-legit. It's an explicitly

[12:56] amoral entity that causes problems from

[12:59] basically the moment it's introduced and

[13:01] ultimately betrays humanity in a

[13:03] desperate grasp for wealth and power as

[13:06] one would expect a bunch of mercenaries

[13:08] to do. If you think about it, it's kind

[13:11] of weird how often adventurers guilds

[13:13] are instrumental in saving the world.

[13:16] Now, I say that, but one of my favorite

[13:18] explorations of the trope, period, is in

[13:20] the Legend of Heroes Trails games, which

[13:23] are in no small part about the political

[13:26] complications of running such an

[13:28] organization and the ramifications of it

[13:30] existing at all. Smaller countries tend

[13:33] to love how the guild supplements their

[13:35] military and police, but those

[13:37] organizations have their own

[13:38] antagonistic relationship to the

[13:41] civilian contractors that are taking

[13:43] their job separate from public opinion

[13:45] or how the overall government feels.

[13:47] There are also bigger countries where

[13:49] the guild has no presence at all because

[13:51] the leaders see them as a threat even

[13:53] though they have a strict policy of not

[13:55] interfering in politics. The series does

[13:58] so much to make this inherently fake

[14:01] concept feel like an organic part of a

[14:04] living, breathing world. I also think

[14:06] I'm a bit more inclined to like the

[14:08] Bracer Guild just because they don't

[14:10] call it an adventurers's guild. This is

[14:12] definitely a personal nitpick, but I

[14:15] find the idea of adventuring as a day

[14:18] job to be deeply philosophically

[14:21] underwhelming. It's not that I don't

[14:23] like stories about ordinary jobs in

[14:25] fantastical worlds. Drifting Dragons,

[14:27] Planetess, and Interspecies reviewers

[14:30] are all among my favorites. But

[14:32] adventure definitionally has to be a

[14:35] break from routine. If someone is

[14:37] fighting monsters and exploring dungeons

[14:40] every single day for a living, they're

[14:42] not an adventurer. They're a gold farmer

[14:45] or a delver, dunge engineer, mercenary,

[14:48] monster hunter, explorer, seeker, cave

[14:50] raider, bracer. Call them whatever you

[14:52] want. Just call them literally anything

[14:55] else, please. Or better yet, do

[14:58] something else. If you've got a big

[15:00] dungeon in your story and absolutely

[15:03] need a guild to manage access to it,

[15:06] fine. But instead of making them a

[15:08] catchall guild for every kind of dungeon

[15:11] explorer, maybe have them work with

[15:13] other guilds for mages, rogues, and

[15:16] warriors. Buy equipment from the armorer

[15:19] and fletchers guilds and sell materials

[15:21] to merchants and alchemists. Or better

[15:24] yet, let those guilds post their own

[15:26] quests in their own guild halls and hand

[15:29] out their own rewards for killing

[15:31] monsters outside the dungeon. You're not

[15:33] actually making a video game. You don't

[15:36] need one monolithic entity to act as

[15:39] your quest hub, temp agency, vocational

[15:42] school, and power scaling leaderboard.

[15:44] So all those things can be in one nested

[15:47] menu. Instead, try spreading those

[15:49] duties out to a bunch of different

[15:52] organizations with their own different

[15:54] needs, strengths, weaknesses, and this

[15:57] is the crucial part, reasons to [ __ ]

[15:59] with each other. Maybe the merchants

[16:01] don't like the thieves for self-evident

[16:04] reasons, or the mages and alchemists are

[16:06] competing for influence with the

[16:08] nobility. Perhaps the church distrusts

[16:11] the Delvers Union for their proximity to

[16:14] that obviously demonic dungeon. Or maybe

[16:17] some bishop is just using that rhetoric

[16:20] as a justification to have the Paladin

[16:22] affiliated warrior guild take their

[16:25] place as dungeon gatekeepers. The more

[16:27] you decentralize the power structures

[16:30] your world is built on, the easier it is

[16:33] to pit them against each other and make

[16:35] some interesting [ __ ] happen that

[16:37] doesn't have to start on the job board.

[16:40] In Chrysalis, there is both a

[16:42] semi-secret society of OP dungeon

[16:44] crawlers called the Abyssal Legion and a

[16:47] separate guild of adventurers who are

[16:49] really just monster resource farmers and

[16:52] rarely make it past the top layers of

[16:54] the dungeon, but still think they're hot

[16:56] [ __ ] The Legion has power and influence

[16:58] with the surface kingdoms, which it uses

[17:01] to heavily regulate the flow of

[17:03] resources in and out of the dungeon and

[17:05] try to stabilize its monster ecosystem.

[17:07] While the guild would very much like to

[17:10] usurp that power and milk the dungeon

[17:12] for all it's worth. All of which ends up

[17:14] coming to a head in some of the most fun

[17:16] and unpredictable moments of the early

[17:19] books. Don Machi does just have the one

[17:22] adventurers guild, but it's really just

[17:24] a mediating force between all of the

[17:26] different familias and the gods that

[17:28] lead them, who of course have their own

[17:30] rivalries and relationships with each

[17:33] other, and the adventurers under them

[17:35] have similar relationships, and it just

[17:37] creates a very messy situation where

[17:40] organic conflicts can naturally arise.

[17:43] Speaking of dungeons though, how to do

[17:46] them right is really a subject that

[17:48] deserves its own full video essay. But

[17:50] if you'll permit me just one brief

[17:52] comment on the matter, please stop

[17:55] putting floor bosses in them unless your

[17:57] anime or book is actually set in a video

[18:00] game. You can have all the big cool

[18:03] monsters you want gating the hero's

[18:05] progression to the next floor. Just

[18:07] don't call them bosses. And especially

[18:10] don't have them infinitely respawn so

[18:13] that every party trying to clear the

[18:15] dungeon has to fight all the exact same

[18:17] big cool monsters as all the other

[18:20] parties in the exact same order. That

[18:22] [ __ ] feels so boring, low stakes, and

[18:25] video gamey. Sword Art Online didn't

[18:27] even do it. Look, I'm not saying your

[18:29] dungeons have to be ultra realistic and

[18:31] devoid of game logic. The idea of a

[18:34] self- sustaining underground magical

[18:36] ecosystem is one of my favorite things

[18:38] about Dungeon Meshy, Maiden Abyss, and

[18:40] Chrysalis for that matter. But if you

[18:42] just want to have a big evil magic hole

[18:44] in the ground full of monsters, puzzles,

[18:46] and maybe some lore, that's cool. I like

[18:49] those. All I'm saying is if you're going

[18:51] to make me spend a whole episode

[18:52] watching a guy kill a big cool monster,

[18:55] it should stay [ __ ] dead. Jack of all

[18:58] trades, stakes of none. Boom. Got him. I

[19:02] sat through like eight more episodes of

[19:04] that show as research for this video and

[19:06] I feel like I watched literally nothing.

[19:09] It's solo leveling minus the hype and

[19:11] aura. It honestly put in perspective how

[19:14] little of a problem stat screens and

[19:16] skill points really are in the grand

[19:19] scheme of immersion shattering video

[19:21] game nonsense. Even without any of those

[19:23] things, it feels more like watching a

[19:26] bad let's play than almost any other

[19:28] anime. and like half the dialogue in the

[19:31] game they're playing is tutorials. That

[19:34] said, putting a video game HUD in your

[19:36] anime is just about the most glaringly

[19:39] fake thing you can do to a nonVRMMO

[19:42] world, and it's a big pet peeve for a

[19:45] lot of fantasy enthusiasts. It even

[19:47] bothered me back in the day when these

[19:48] sorts of things first started coming

[19:50] into vogue, except in Overlord and Slime

[19:53] because those anime are, you know,

[19:55] actually good. I kind of just got used

[19:57] to it there very quickly. In fact, as is

[20:00] the case with any good anime that does

[20:03] such things. And while I do really like

[20:05] how, say, Don Machi makes its stat

[20:08] readouts a diagetic part of its world, I

[20:11] don't even think that's strictly

[20:12] necessary if you want to build an

[20:14] immersive fantasy setting around RPG

[20:18] systems like that. Ultimately, I've

[20:20] reached the conclusion that game UI is

[20:22] just another kind of signifier that

[20:24] tells the viewer, "Okay, this show is

[20:27] going to be like this other show you're

[20:29] familiar with." In the same way as

[20:31] seeing a glowing aura around a muscled

[20:33] up martial artist, or a mage spewing

[20:36] particle effects out of her staff, or a

[20:38] dude cutting a boulder in half with a

[20:40] sword. It's just one of many types of

[20:43] magical aesthetic that some people [ __ ]

[20:46] with. And if you use it, you just have

[20:48] to accept you're going to lose all the

[20:50] people who don't. Most of those people

[20:52] do still complain about Don Machi after

[20:54] all, even though it puts so much extra

[20:56] work into justifying the numbers on a

[20:59] lore level. Now, the numbers can suck

[21:02] all the tension and strategy out of

[21:04] fights by objectively confirming that

[21:06] Protagon is in fact stronger than the

[21:09] guy he's fighting and doesn't have to

[21:10] worry about anything. But that's just as

[21:12] true of power levels and shownen. By the

[21:15] same token, choosing skills and spells

[21:17] from a drop- down menu does kind of

[21:19] demystify your fantasy world, but not

[21:22] significantly more than any other kind

[21:25] of hard magic system does once the rules

[21:27] are fully explained. It just has that

[21:30] effect quicker because anyone who's

[21:32] played a video game before has a head

[21:34] start on understanding those rules,

[21:36] which also means they have a head start

[21:38] on getting to the fun theory crafting

[21:41] power scaling stage of enjoying those

[21:43] rules. So, it is definitely a tradeoff

[21:46] on your fantasy world's overall level of

[21:49] immersion, but it has some serious

[21:51] upsides. Part of the reason that gamer

[21:53] isekai, those [ __ ] things, and lit

[21:55] RPGs are so addictive and share so many

[21:58] fans between each other is because so

[22:01] much knowledge is transferable from

[22:03] series to series. As soon as you finish

[22:06] one, you can jump right into another and

[22:08] get more of what you were enjoying on at

[22:11] least a basic level. Problems only

[22:13] really arise when a story fails to move

[22:16] past that basic level and just gives you

[22:18] yet another guy who's really strong and

[22:20] fast and good at everything cuz his

[22:22] numbers are so big. That's all fine and

[22:24] dandy for Baby's first lit RPG, but as

[22:27] soon as you get a taste for the harder

[22:28] stuff, it loses its appeal. The best

[22:31] gamer fiction uses that shared knowledge

[22:34] pool as a jumping off point for dreaming

[22:36] up hypersp specific builds and weird

[22:39] broken synergistic skill sets that could

[22:42] never exist in a real game because it

[22:44] needs to be balanced and it would be too

[22:46] hard for new players to understand. In

[22:49] shownen power system terms, it lets you

[22:51] jump right into coming up with part five

[22:54] and six level stand concepts without

[22:56] having to lay the groundwork of parts

[22:58] three and four first. And those systems

[23:01] succeed or fail by a lot of the same

[23:04] metrics as a shownen power system. So

[23:06] long as the skill sets or spell lists or

[23:09] what have you are tailored to reflect

[23:11] the main characters personalities and

[23:14] their foes challenge them to use their

[23:16] powers in interesting and creative ways

[23:19] that the viewer or reader is able to

[23:21] follow and anticipate by paying

[23:23] attention. They're probably going to

[23:25] have a fun time and that's all you

[23:27] really need. You can of course go

[23:30] further with it in the same way that

[23:32] shownen like Hunter Hunter or Jujutsu

[23:34] Kaizen can integrate their power systems

[23:37] much more deeply into their settings and

[23:39] themes. So I'm a Spider, so what has a

[23:42] whole religion that worships the skill

[23:44] system, which is a fun logical

[23:47] extrapolation of what might happen if

[23:49] everyone in the world had a magic voice

[23:51] in their head that gave them magic

[23:53] powers. Chrysalis takes the idea several

[23:55] steps further with multiple dungeon

[23:57] worshipping sects and cults split by

[24:00] vehement dogmatic disagreements on

[24:03] optimal build strategies and the ethics

[24:06] of exp farming. But all of that is just

[24:09] meat. So long as the gravy is tasty,

[24:11] folks will eat your gamer slop right up.

[24:14] For the tastiest possible gravy, though,

[24:16] it is best to add a little bit of visual

[24:18] spice. Aside from making it play boring,

[24:21] I think the worst thing you can possibly

[24:23] do to your fake game is make it look

[24:25] boring. And holy [ __ ] do a whole lot of

[24:29] Gamer Fantasy anime ever look like Excel

[24:31] spreadsheets and default RPG Maker

[24:34] templates. Just a teensy bit of UI

[24:37] design in your menus can go a long way,

[24:39] and you can go a whole lot further with

[24:42] that design because, of course, nobody

[24:44] actually has to interact with them. I

[24:46] think my all-time least defensible

[24:49] nitpick of Sword Art Online has got to

[24:51] be saying that the menus should have

[24:53] been thought controlled. Nah, those

[24:56] drop-down touch interfaces are

[24:58] absolutely fire. It is never not fun

[25:01] watching Kyito flick through a menu,

[25:03] which is more than I can say for

[25:05] watching Kyito fight. In many cases,

[25:07] game UI also comes part and parcel with

[25:10] flavor text and system voices, which can

[25:13] do just as much, if not more so, to kill

[25:15] the fun if they read slash sound boring.

[25:19] Far too many anime, web, and light novel

[25:22] writers treat those aspects as an excuse

[25:24] to fill some time with dry, repetitive,

[25:27] loweffort technical descriptions when

[25:29] they should be using them as an

[25:31] opportunity to inject some extra flavor

[25:34] and personality into their worlds. I

[25:37] don't think it's controversial to call

[25:39] the AI from Dungeon Crawler Carl the

[25:41] definitive example of how to make the

[25:44] systems voice a compelling character in

[25:46] its own right. Its sadistic game show

[25:49] host personality and not at all

[25:51] disguised fetishes imbue every item and

[25:54] skill description with delightfully dark

[25:57] humor from the word go. And the gradual

[26:00] unraveling of its psyche is one of the

[26:02] series most compelling subplots. It

[26:05] makes every new item and skill we

[26:07] discover feel as rewarding for the

[26:09] reader as it does to the characters. And

[26:12] that being my intro into the genre did

[26:15] kind of set me up for disappointment

[26:17] with almost every other lit RPG audio

[26:20] book I've tried. But thankfully

[26:22] Chrysalis wasn't one of them. And that

[26:25] was one of the first things that really

[26:26] sucked me into it. It makes it clear

[26:28] very early on that the system voice

[26:31] Gandalf is a dude with his own agenda

[26:33] that may or may not line up with

[26:36] Anony's. And while it doesn't quite have

[26:38] that same laugh out loud factor as the

[26:40] system AI, it is still very rewarding

[26:43] every time Anthony unlocks one of the

[26:46] full monster profiles with design notes

[26:49] from Gandalf that reveal more about his

[26:51] plans and personalities. And the full-on

[26:54] conversations he gets to have with

[26:56] Gandalf whenever he evolves are a

[26:58] brilliant way of tying milestones in

[27:00] Anony's power progression to some of the

[27:03] story's most interesting lore reveals.

[27:05] Low-key, one of my favorite things about

[27:07] this season's The Strongest Job is

[27:09] apparently not a hero or a sage, but an

[27:12] appraiser provisional is how it handles

[27:14] Protag's support voice, Sappochan, who

[27:17] gradually evolves from a neutral

[27:19] exposition dispenser into a proper

[27:22] character over the early episodes. I

[27:24] also really like how it mixes things up

[27:26] by having the gods speak directly into

[27:28] his brain, a conceit the show frequently

[27:31] mines for comedy gold. You don't have to

[27:33] go the funny route with this, though.

[27:35] You can also make it a little scary,

[27:37] like roll over and die, or put some Dark

[27:40] Soulsy lore tidbits and mystery

[27:43] breadcrumbs in your descriptions. I just

[27:45] need some reason to care. If you can't

[27:49] make your system voice at least as

[27:51] entertaining as a Pokédex, your story is

[27:54] probably better off without it in much

[27:56] the same way that it's almost certainly

[27:58] better off without an adventurer's

[28:00] guild. At the end of the day though,

[28:02] even that is a matter of how you use it.

[28:04] Game elements are narrative tools just

[28:06] like any other trope that serve to

[28:09] streamline some aspects of storytelling

[28:12] while restricting others. The key is

[28:14] understanding their utility and

[28:16] limitations and making them work for the

[28:19] story you want to tell instead of

[28:21] against it. If you are a storyteller,

[28:24] then I hope this video helps you do

[28:26] exactly that. And if you're just a gamer

[28:28] slop enthusiast, I hope it makes you

[28:30] better able to identify the really good

[28:32] [ __ ] when you see it. I'm Jeff Thu, the

[28:35] system voice of anime watching, signing

[28:38] out from the sitting on my ass guild.