Let's see what these gods of games can throw at one another!!
Other Bakura explains the fairly self-explanatory concept of playing a role in a fantasy world they're all drawn into, essentially an interactive story. Other Bakura says this is what makes the game so interesting as Yuugi again notes how different Bakura is acting than he was the previous day. He doesn't bring this up, however, and Other Bakura proceeds to tell all his visitors that they'll need to create their own character to go into the world. Other Bakura brings out a stack of character charts from... somewhere, and says that once they've decided on what type their character is going to be, they can write down all the stats on their character sheet.
Yuugi wonders which race he should pick from the list they were instructed to consult, and Jonouchi notes all the races have the good and bad aspects. Jonouchi then turns to Honda and suggests that he should pick the fairy, and Honda asks why he would want to do that, other than that Mr. Takahashi thinks it would be super funny. He even draws a crude depiction of what that would look like, wings, pointed toes, with Honda's scowling face pasted on the neck and everything.
Newsflash, Takahashi, between the two of them, Jonouchi is by far the better fairy. Just saying.
Yuugi pulls on his ears to give the illusion of them being pointed as he considers choosing a half-elf race. Yeah, KEEBLER ELF. After they're all done, Other Bakura tells them to pick from the class list. PLEASE someone pick Satanist. PLEASE. Jonouchi is quick to pick the warrior, while Honda is drawn to the hunter class. Everyone runs through all the items and characteristics they want, some of them having to be reminded to keep within a set budget, of course. Meanwhile, Other Bakura is bidding them to choose well, because those characters will be their bodies for eternity after he's defeated them.
Yuugi and friends hold up their character charts once they're completed, and Other Bakura looks them over to make sure they've chosen everything they need to. When he's satisfied with what he sees there, he says that it's time to make their profiles. Aren't the charts their profiles?
Jonouchi is impressed with how much the little figurines look like them, and Other Bakura just claims to be a perfectionist when it comes to games. Yeah, but how long does it take you to make these? Seems like a lot of detail went into them, and they're not really something you can just whip up on the fly. If he has molds, maybe it can be done, but given all the different things Yuugi and company could have chosen as far as equipment and weapons, there would have to be a lot of different molds there. And the painting of these figures must have been pretty time-consuming...
Even if Other Bakura had started work on these the previous night - which I'm totally convinced he's creepy enough to do - he would still have to know what characters they would choose to pull it off.
Anyway, Other Bakura enters all of their information into a laptop to better help him simulate battles, though most of the calls on them still come down to his judgment. Once that's all done, Other Bakura tells them to go ahead and put their pieces on the starting zone of the board.
Other Bakura declares the start of the game, but all that happens is that Yuugi gives the board a thoughtful hum. Jonouchi is frustrated, because he doesn't see any monsters occupying the field that they can fight. Other Bakura fills him in that the monsters in this game are hidden, and the moves they make determine what monsters there are and where/when they'll appear. Jonouchi leans over to Honda, who asks him if he missed something, or if he too doesn't know anything about this world. Honda replies that they don't even know who the boss is. Anzu points at a collection of buildings on the board next to her, saying that when you're in an RPG and you need information, a village is the best place to poke around. Yuugi agrees, saying they should head to the village.
Other Bakura announces that after five turns (uneventful, I'm sure) the party reaches the village. Then he reaches forward and snaps the village buildings away from the board to reveal a sunken area that is made up to resemble a pub, complete with a tiny bar, dining area, and various other pieces. Yuugi marvels at how the model of the town can reveal some other people beneath it, and the detail of it all to boot. Jonouchi just wants to head to the bar to get their information. And a Guinness to wash it all down.
Jonouchi starts talking to the old bartender in a demeaning way, calling him a bozo and his party superior adventurers who are looking for something profitable. Honda mutters that it's always about money to him. A shot of the bartender comes with at "stare" tag, and Other Bakura reiterates this, as well as a narrative about how he sighs and begins to speak: he says that if his problems could be solved with money, he'd give him all the cash he has, but he doubts Jonouchi would be able to enjoy the spoils. Then Bakura says he moves further into the bar. Jonouchi shouts that the piece to wait, because there's something going on and he and his party want to know. Honda is exasperated with how absorbed Jonouchi has already become in the game.
Other Bakura says that the bartender begins to tell a sad tale, one that starts with peace and quiet until the dictator Zork showed up. Zork killed the king and turned the palace into a place of darkness, and his monsters have been going around killing villagers ever since. Jonouchi calls this unforgivable and promises that he and his fellow adventurers will kill Zork, before he demands that the bartender give him all his money. Anzu and Honda are both disgusted by Jonouchi's behavior, though Honda seems to think it's typical of Jonouchi to be the absolute worst.
Anzu changes track, telling Yuugi that it seemed like the figure was actually speaking to her. Yuugi says that's not possible, because all the NPCs in the game are controlled by the Game Master. Anzu asks if this means Bakura is doing the bartender's voice, and Yuugi says that's probably the case. The next panel shows Other Bakura, with his mouth hidden by a tower in what I'm guessing is the castle.
Other Bakura's bartender tells them that before they hunt for Zork, they should talk to a patron standing in another corner of the pub, because he's the one who should be able to tell them the safest way to go about it. How the fuck would he know? The figure has his back turned when Jonouchi approaches him with his figure, but...
Other Bakura thinks at Karita that he's no longer himself, just a side character in his game. He mentally demands that Karita play his role, Villager D, as Karita stutters out his request for help again. Bakura silently says that the only alternative to accepting his new identity as a nameless villager is death, which seems to do the trick. Karita still stutters as he recites his proper lines, advising the adventurers to head north, but to avoid the forest that contains monsters.
Jonouchi says thanks and takes his piece out of the conversation, declaring that they should head out of the village now. Yuugi isn't so sure that the figure wasn't speaking to them now, though, because it seemed pretty alive to him. What clued you in, Yuugi? The stuttering and begging for help? Other Bakura silently chuckles, thinking that Yuugi will soon be just the same as Karita.
Jonouchi is still enthusiastic as ever, happy to finally know what to do and encouraging his party to come with him to find the castle and Zork. They move forward a few spaces before Other Bakura informs them that they've just entered a zone that contains monsters, and they'll have to decide if they come up against one from now on. He holds up a pair of differently colored ten-sided dice that they'll use to determine if a monster appears. Jonouchi and Honda appear confused, Honda admitting that it's the first time he's seen dice quite like that.
Other Bakura says that they have a 30% chance of meeting up with an enemy monster in the zone they've just entered. The dice are red and white - red representing the tens digit place and the white representing the ones digit place - and if they roll anywhere from 31 to 99 they avoid coming across a monster. Other Bakura throws the dice and the red die lands on a two, while the white lands on a one.
Jonouchi is raring to go as Other Bakura holds out the pair of dice he was using before, telling them that dice also determine the outcomes of battles by percentage. Jonouchi is the first to take a crack at rolling, and the dice turn up a 13%. On his computer, Other Bakura determines that his race, class, and weapon stats all give him a 40% hit rate, and this means that Jonouchi is able to attack with the 13 he rolled. Jonouchi's figure moves to attack the goblin, slashing with its sword while everyone watches this happen and doesn't think it's weird. These figures can't be holograms, since they were being held earlier, so it's not as though they're programed to perform motion. Why the hell aren't these kids questioning what's going on here?
Other Bakura informs the players that the closer they roll to 00, the more damage they'll inflict on the opponent. On the other hand, if they roll a 99, they're subject to a penalty, which is probably what Other Bakura means when he says that they'll all become pawns in the game.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm passingly familiar with Dungeons & Dragons through its anime sibling "BESM". This is only because there were entire weekends during college that I was recruited to play, with ex-friends that didn't treat me very nice after a while. That's why my memories of playing games like this aren't very happy, but I'll try to be as impartial as possible when judging it.
I think I would be less irritated with this if either the pieces didn't move at all, or if it was made clear that the kids' imaginations were the ones imposing movement on the still pieces. Takahashi seems to want to have it both ways; he wants his characters to be skeptical enough not to believe that Other Bakura isn't making the pieces talk, but also not bat an eye when they're moving around freely. If they were supposed to move around on their own, I would have preferred an explanation like the holograms that the Kaiba brothers used to supplement their games, or something. If that were the case, I might have questioned how Bakura managed to get his hands on that kind of technology, but at least I wouldn't be wondering how the characters' minds are managing to accept the movement of the pieces without also accepting and being suspicious of the talking.
How the pieces were made is also a really big flaw in the presentation of this chapter, because they're just too intricate to allow me to accept that Other Bakura just whipped them up on the spot. I understand that there's only so much space in the chapter, but even when your publisher only gives you so much space for a certain chapter, there could have been a better, more economical way of dispensing information to leave room for explaining how these figures were made. If Other Bakura had started on them the night before, or worked on them all day, maybe the explanation could have been that Other Bakura was planting suggestions in all of his players' minds regarding which characteristics they should choose, or maybe that he had read them so well that he knew which characteristics they would be drawn to just by psychology alone. That would only have taken a panel and would have been better than no explanation at all.
Otherwise, the gaming trend in this one is interesting, and I'm really quite surprised it's not going to get more attention over Duel Monsters in the coming chapters. D&D is HUGELY popular, and it was back when this comic was coming out too. Looks like Takahashi was wanting THIS to be the game that was the centerpiece of his manga, but there was already too much hype over Kaiba and the Magic clone he'd created. Too bad, because I think I would have preferred the former over the latter too.
No comments:
Post a Comment