Shangri-La Frontier: A Crappy Game Hunter Challenges a Godly Game is an anime scheduled to air from October 2023. It is set in the heyday of VR and tells the story of a crappy game hunter who loves crappy games and uses his mental strength and techniques, honed by the unreasonableness of crappy games, to enjoy godly games to the fullest. The main game in the story, Shangri-La Frontier, is undoubtedly a godly game, but there are many other godly and crappy games that appear in the series as well. We've put together a list of these games!
Game Featured #1: "Fairia Chronicles Online"
This is the game that the protagonist, Sanraku, also known as Yomuro Rakuro, plays at the very beginning of the story. It's a crappy game with crappy ally AI, ridiculously unreasonable enemy attacks, and a ton of minor bugs. Another factor that exacerbates player stress is the sheer awfulness of the heroine. The heroine, Fairia, causes countless troubles during her journey, resulting in the deaths of villagers and companions, and then blames it all on the final boss. If you get annoyed and push her, she'll get mad and the story won't progress for about three hours. This shitty heroine, worthy of a shitty game, is the biggest shitty element of this game. Nicknamed "Fairia Shit."
A side note about "Fairia Chronicles Online"
Average players can't even beat the first boss, and the heroine is a shitty game. However, the three minutes after defeating the final boss are treated as an event, so no matter how much you hit Fairia, there's no risk. Our protagonist, Sanraku, works hard to kill the heroine during those three minutes. Fairia's appearance is somewhat reminiscent of Princess Zelda from Breath of the Wild's Tearkin, but her personality resembles the receptionist from MHW. I'm not sure if that's the original inspiration, but if there was a reward for hitting the receptionist at the very end, I'd do it.
Game #2: "Shangri-La Frontier"
This work is based on a full-dive VR game. With approximately 30 million registered users at launch, the number of players is steadily increasing, and it has been recognized as the game with the most simultaneous players in a certain world record. It's a godlike game, the polar opposite of a crappy game. The setting is thousands of years after a space-traveling immigrant fleet perished, leaving behind a new human race. While the civilization is medieval, it also features sci-fi elements.
A side note on "Shangri-La Frontier"
It doesn't have any particularly fatal bugs, making it enjoyable even for those who aren't good at games, while the difficulty level satisfies even hardcore gamers and requires a certain level of skill. It also has high concurrent viewership and an almost godlike management response. While some of the crappy games featured in this game may have been inspired by other games, this one feels like the ultimate evolution of a typical MMO.
Game #3: "Berserk Online Passion"
This is a fighting game that Sanraku still plays a lot. It's nicknamed "Constipation." With fewer than 100 daily logins, this game is sparsely populated, largely due to its horrific bugs. However, a few sleazy gamers exploit these bugs to create all sorts of exploitative techniques, enjoying anything-goes battles through exchanges of these exploits. Apparently, new bugs are still occasionally discovered.
A Side Note About "Berserk Online Passion"
Based on the package illustration, this game is likely inspired by Arc System Works' AC Fist of the North Star, which launched in 2005. While the overwhelming strength of one of the characters, Toki, has often been noted, this game has established game balance amidst the broken balance where almost everyone has instant-kill combos, following the development of infinite combos such as "Basketball," in which characters continue to bounce after a certain number of hits, allowing for infinite combos. It's a really fun game to watch.
Game #4: "Unite Rounds"
This is the game that led Sanraku to meet Arthur Pencilgon. Commonly referred to as the "Apocalyptic Plunder Game," it was originally a cooperative MMOVR in which players become knights and fight monsters to save a kingdom on the brink of ruin... but by staying too faithful to the worldview, the item drop rate was extremely low, and the optimal solution became to raid NPC vendors or attack players who had raided vendors and steal from them. This resulted in a crappy apocalyptic game in which everyone is the enemy, despite being cooperative.
A side note on "Unite Rounds"
In Shangri-La Frontier, a player named "Pencil Warrior," who goes by the name Arthur Pencilgon, used all sorts of cunning tactics to seize control of this end-of-the-century plunder game. Sanraku teamed up with pro gamer Katsotatataki to defeat the Pencil Warrior. However, the battle ended in a draw. Also, AC Fist of the North Star, which is likely the inspiration for the aforementioned "Berserk Online Passion," is known as an end-of-the-century sports action game.
Game #5: "Love Clock"
This crappy game left a deep trauma on Sanraku. Nicknamed "Pizza Study Abroad," it's a gal game in which you conquer 12 heroines. However, if you make the wrong choices or get the timing wrong, all of the characters you conquer end up studying abroad in Italy for pizza, resulting in a bad ending. The biggest problem is that even a split-second delay can cause an event to fail, which in turn causes the heroines' favorability ratings to drop like dominoes, so players must carefully time their actions.
A Side Note on "Love Clock"
In real-life gal games, it's difficult to create games with unreasonable difficulty due to their design, but there is probably a game that inspired it. It's probably "Tokimeki Memorial," the classic dating simulation game released by Konami in 1994. In the original Tokimeki Memorial, as you become friends with various girls, bombs will be attached to girls other than those you've played with. These bombs represent the girl's jealousy and distrust, and can be defused by going on dates with her.
You can't escape now!
However, if you go on a date with a girl to defuse the bomb, another bomb will be attached to another girl, forcing the protagonist to scramble to defuse it. Furthermore, just walking home with a girl can result in three or even four bombs being attached to the girl in addition to the one you walked home with. If these bombs explode over time, not only will the girl's popularity plummet, but bad rumors will spread among the girls, lowering the ratings of all girls, including your favorite. If multiple bombs explode, the girls will be completely shunned and the mission will fail.
Game #6: "Nephilim Hollow"
This is one of the few games Sanraku has played that isn't crap. It's a robot action game in which you customize and fight with "mecha-suited robots" that suddenly fall from the sky. While it's rated as a good game, the reason for the low player count is that the controls are extremely difficult and it's a game for experts. The game's edgy nature, requiring players to control limbs, missiles, and boosters based on their own thinking, has captured the heart of Sanraku, who loves crap games.
A Side Note on "Nephilim Hollow"
This is a popular robot fighting game in real life, featuring Rust and Mordo, who would later fight alongside each other in Shangri-La Frontier. While Sanraku defeats Rust in the game by making full use of his "Impossible Kill" technique, there are examples of players conquering the world using "Impossible Kill" techniques in real-life fighting games.
Compilation of Games That Appeared in [Shangri-La Frontier: A Crappy Game Hunter Challenges a Godly Game]
This time, we've compiled a list of the games that appeared in Shangri-La Frontier: A Crappy Game Hunter Challenges a Godly Game! Some of the crappy games likely inspired games, and we've also included some that we think are likely the most likely. While the main focus is on Shangri-La Frontier, we're excited to see how the crappy games are portrayed in the anime!
