ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

Chapter 167: Dancing and Dancing In the Foreign Theatre Part 2

「Villains accumulate their gauge by causing chaos and destruction around town, but the longer the game goes the harder it is for them to do just that. At the same time, Heroes must deal with the damage caused by the Villains first, and they can accumulate gauges to use when the time of showdown finally comes around. So each side has their advantages and disadvantages.」

You could even make an analogy that the city is a blank page, Villain is the Pencil and Hero is an eraser. In the early stage of the game Villain can write on the page and modify it as they see fit, and Hero later on needs to try and erase as much of their doodles as possible. Personally I think that this is a rather nice dynamic to have.

But the more you scribble on the page, the less space for you to write anything more onto it. And the more effective the eraser will be. TLDR; Villains have advantage in the early game, Heroes have advantage in the late game.

At first glance Villains are on a privileged position in here, but in reality this setting comes with its own set of unique problems for the Villains.

For a Hero, Villain is “an ultimate form of evil”. Something that must be defeated at all cost. Fighting Villains is Heroes’ reason for existence.

However, for a Villain a Hero is just “a nuisance, or an obstacle in their path to achieve their goals and desires”. Although there are Villains out there that have some sort of connection to Heroes or ongoing conflicts with them, most of the times they treat Heroes like a detour. For a Villain, number one priority is the fulfillment of their plans.

And this game even did a splendid job at emulating American laws of comic books as faithfully as possible. So no matter what, the direct showdown in between a Hero and a Villain would almost every single time end poorly for Villain.

Heroes can raise their gauges by fighting Villains and helping NPCs in need, but if the Villain engages the Hero in combat, he gains nothing out of confrontation like that.

So the only way in which Villains can offset that disadvantage is through earning as much gauge as possible before the Hero arrives on the stage. If they fail to do that, the gap between them and the Heroes will only grow bigger and bigger.

「…… In other words, the best kind of Villain here is the kind of Villain who can conceal their presence as much as possible and not be found out by the Hero. Kinda like the rabbit and the tortoise in that story. At least I think so.」

「I see…… in other words, Villain is a tortoise, and Hero is a rabbit. He needs to gain as much of a distance as possible, and if the rabbit does not keep up the mad dash, the tortoise may eventually overtake him.」

「That kind of thing…… desu.」

Sasahara then leaves me alone, and when the camera goes away, I can finally let a huge sigh of relief. Katsu and Pencilgton are much better suited for speeches like that…… even when going in with no preparation, they would be able to emerge victorious. Me? I’m too afraid of making a stupid mistake, so there would be nothing constructive out of it.

She may not look like it, but Pencilgton has a true silver tongue to her. She’ll wrap you around her finger if you leave an opening and let her do as she pleases.

It seems that at this rate everything will play out just the way that Pencilgton assumed it would play out. Which was hardly any surprise for anyone who knew how this woman tends to operate.

「Now, the second round is about to start! AHH! Player Lucas! Is this……!?」

So, everything is going exactly as planned, huh?

On the screen there was a figure of Dr. Sandalphon. Right now he was completely ignoring the cries and calls for help, dashing through the crowds of NPCs in search of Clock Fire.