Shangri-La Frontier: Episode 20 Review

And so the Night Caller awaits her favored prey.

The twentieth episode of Shangri-La Frontier is out. We’ve seen how other players have reacted in the immediate aftermath of Sunraku’s victory, but what about the developers of the game? And what loot did they get for beating one of the Seven Colossi?

Let’s go over it all in my Recap and Review.

Recap

The episode opens after Pencilgon gets nuked, losing all her loot to Psyger-0, who hurriedly collects it in order for the ownership transfer to take hold. Once that’s done, there’s an air of awkward silence as Sunraku and Katzo realize that Pencilgon was the only one of them with social skills until Psyger-0 asks what their relationship with her was. He clarifies that they were just gaming friends as the Friend Warp timer expires, with Sunraku promising to pay back the debt sometime.

That leaves the two of them alone with the only remaining loot being the creepy sword that Pencilgon was using. Sunraku takes it before he heads back to Thirdrema, where Emul tearfully welcomes him back. He then returns the pendant she loaned him with a smooth line about how it helped him win, getting a flying hug as a result.

We then cut back to Utopia headquarters where we see the Chief receiving notice that Wethermon had been beaten. The entire company is in a panic since Wethermon wasn’t supposed to be beaten yet and he is unfortunately out of stomach medicine as he has to deal with the fallout between the Executive Producer and World Creative Administrator in the basement. They hadn’t expected someone to beat that boss for another ten years but, since it wasn’t done via glitch or bug, the victory is valid.

These two get into an argument over Wethermon being nerfed for game balance versus story importance, which results in them fighting like preschoolers. The poor guy walks into the mess and tries to stop them, only to get gut-shot and nearly fall to his knees while they squabble like children. Then he tells them to at least take a shower (its been at least two days for one of them), and they promptly double team him instead. Meanwhile, Rei is straight-up delusional as she lays in bed thinking about Sunraku.

Next morning comes and Sunraku goes to see Vash, who asks how his experience fighting Wethermon was. He admits it was the hardest thing he ever did, but Wethermon departed the world while praising him. Hearing that, Vash offers to teach him the truth of the world… but he needs to do a fetch quest to retrieve three items from a place called the Lightless Barrens that his current map doesn’t have marked.

Sunraku suspects its far from his current location, which promises to be a long journey, but the fight with Wethermon boosted his Level from 50 to 78. He also got a bunch of new skills and loot from the fight, including a tome with lore, a skillbook with Wethermon’s Skills (though it needs divinity equipment), and finally a bracelet called Inventoria Key. That last one is the most important as it leads to a storage space that you can store items that can’t be taken even if you get killed and has a bunch of goodies already inside of it.

Then we return to Pencilgon, who visits Setsuna’s grave with some flowers. They bloom for five minutes before dying unless you place them in your inventory, in which case they bloom forever. She sees them as a perfect representation of the two of them, and decides to find out the truth of the world for Setsuna’s sake rather than quitting like she had planned after beating Wethermon.

The SLF Mini this time actually tells us what Pencilgon went through due to being killed. As a PK’er, she lost all her equipment and all her money was taken as a fine for her criminal activities. She had to beat the first boss in starter gear, take out some bandits to get a secret route to Thirdrema, get her current gear on loan, and clear a quest to get the flower, all before dawn just so that she could get to the grave before the sun rose just in case Setsuna would show up in a bittersweet yet heartwarming moment.

And finally, there’s Lycagon, who is smirking off in the background as the new chapter promises a reunion.

Review

Now the Wethermon arc has truly come to a close as we see the immediate aftermath with the developers themselves. The ones who crafted the most immersive, god-tier VR game are… two immature geniuses who have to be corralled by the CEO under so much pressure he has stomach ulcers from dealing with them. That being said, I understand where the argument is coming from.

Game design and story should complement one another so they don’t feel disjointed, but sometimes that means sacrificing on one aspect to make sure the other can keep up. Wethermon was meant to be the strongest hero of the divinity, and thus defeated in the middle of the Seven Colossi. Sure, other players can run into the other Colossi, but based on difficulty the developers had an expected order for them to be defeated.

Wethermon wasn’t supposed to be beaten yet, which makes sense given the huge gap in the levels and the ability to nerf other players. But if there’s one thing players are good at, it’s speed-running content. And, because the boss wasn’t physically locked out and the players could challenge Wethermon every month, eventually a group who could pull it off using an unexpected approach succeeded.

In this case, it was the Reward Scales that Pencilgon borrowed, allowing her to make up for their lost Levels by boosting their attributes. Since this was a legit tactic, the devs can’t reverse the defeat and have got their work cut out of them as the world story has begun to progress ahead of time, forcing them to start pulling overtime in addition to the new expansion they launched. As someone who dabbled in Game Design and Programming a long time ago, I pity them…

But if they didn’t want the boss beaten they shouldn’t have made it accessible in the first place.

Moving on, we get back to Sunraku and the loot. Emul was absolutely adorable the entire time fawning over him and his victory, clearly wishing she could be there to witness it. Vash himself seemed to hold a key part of the world history due to being part of a Unique Scenario, and he offers to reveal endgame content as a reward for beating Wethermon. But because the devs aren’t completely insane, they gated it behind three items found on places that aren’t on his current map and likely only found in the new expansion area.

That being said, not only did Sunraku jump up 28 Levels from winning that fight, he got a ton of the good loot. Inventoria basically serves as a pocket dimension that holds a bunch of relics and armors from the age of divinity…. which he can’t use due to his curse. Maybe that was why Lycagon was smirking, though given the end card it seems they’re going to have that rematch soon enough.

And finally, we get to Pencilgon’s resolution. It turns out that she was planning on quitting after beating Wethermon. It makes sense given she didn’t find enjoyment in PK’ing anymore and beating that boss was motivated by a personal attachment to the NPC, who is not longer there after doing so. But she got way too invested, so she wants to honor Setsuna’s final wish to seek out the truth of the world.

That last bit about the Setsunatowa Flower was honestly touching and shows she really did care, which is the hallmark of a great game. So while those developers are immature, they know how to write a good narrative and characters. Something gaming lacks today.

Looking forward to the next arc.