Chapter 151: What it Means to be a Character Game

For a game like Galaxia Heroes, the competitive PvP element is, to put it bluntly, fundamentally unnecessary—it's just extra fat. So if you ask what the purpose of the game is, the conclusion boils down entirely to its essence: the "Hero Experience" and the "Villain Experience."

The Galaxia Heroes series wasn't created with a fighting game foundation; it is nothing more than the Galaxia Comic transformed into a video game. Wanting to dash through the night's skyscrapers like that hero, wanting to go on a rampage fueled entirely by your own desires like that villain—reliving those experiences is the core foundation of this game.

And up until now, the technology to actually achieve that simply didn't exist, which is exactly why they were fighting games—they could only create games that imitated the specs of the heroes within limited, enclosed arenas.

"But then ShanFro was born into this world."

A complete paradigm shift in the history of the gaming medium: Shangri-La Frontier... I have no idea how much money they threw at the developers, but because of that, Galaxia Heroes: Chaos has finally realized its original concept that was impossible to achieve until now.

Namely, the player themselves becoming the character—not just fighting, but acting like a hero or acting like a villain within the stage of Chaos City. That right there is the absolute core and essence of this game, meaning you simply cannot win this game just by robotically grinding out actions.

"The Heroic Gauge is used for supers on top of securing the Cube, so... what you need to build that gauge most efficiently is..."

Roleplaying. The player completely immersing themselves into the character—that is the "bare minimum quota" required in this game.

"So basically, this is probably an absolute God Game for Galaxia Comic fans."

"It's not like I have some personal grudge against you or anything, but... I'm going to have to test those skills of yours."

An old samurai dual-wielding swords and a plant-human chimera rooting itself into the earth face off on the main street. If I recall correctly, that character's name was... right, Yggdrya, wasn't it?

A character who got kidnapped by some mad doctor, underwent surgical modifications to gain the power to manipulate plants, and then through various circumstances ended up becoming a villain. And her concept as a video game character is...

"A slow-moving bruiser specializing in traps and counters, huh."

"Let's see this supposed skill that lets you maintain a forty percent win rate against Kei...!!"

The very next moment, the 『Trap Seeds』 planted on the building triggered, and vines growing at a terrifying speed launched themselves right at me.

"Too naive, way too naive...!!"

I've got a general grasp of her character frame data and abilities—this trap skill can be manually triggered by the player, but the trade-off is that it can only attack in a straight line. Though if you take the hit, your movement gets completely locked down and you become a literal punching bag for a few seconds.

The vines extending from both the left and right are placed in a nasty formation aiming for the ankles and the neck respectively, but because the targeted hitboxes are shifted so extremely, dodging them is actually a breeze.

I crouch down, launching myself into a bunny-hop jump to evade the two-pronged grapple attack, then immediately hit the ground and maintain my forward momentum while twisting my body to dodge the thorny whip fired out by Natsume-shi—or rather, the main body of Yggdrya.

It's true that I have a baseline understanding of her character specs just from messing around with the roster. But that's strictly limited to knowing her general archetype—I absolutely don't have a grasp on what exactly she's capable of when optimized by a pro.

However, there is such a thing as gaming tropes in this world, and as long as I have the info that she's a "Plant User" who "Excels at Mid-Range," it's completely trivial to predict the general attack patterns she's going to throw out...!!

"No way, he dodged all of... !?"

"Uhh, what was the line again—oh right, right... 'I shall show you the ultimate secret of the Storm Blade.'"

On the way here, I saved the lives of seven civilians, plus I rescued the husband of the woman who triggered the event flag, so with all those bonuses factored in, my gauge is fully maxed out.

Activating Ranzo's special move, 『Turbulent Storm Path』. Utilizing a mobility skill that closes a five-meter gap in an instant teleportation-like step, I completely paint over Yggdrya's optimal distance and replace it with Ranzo's optimal distance.

"Hook, line, and sinker...!"

(If Pencilgon were the one piloting that thing, she probably would have set up a much more malicious trap, but the moment I closed the distance like this, she would have been left entirely helpless and defeated. Even if Pencilgon had the exact same loadout as Natsume-shi, I could easily seize the initiative and steamroll her. But the one I'm facing right now is a Pro Gamer—someone who makes a living off her raw mechanical skill.)

(Yggdrya's gauge skill—I don't remember the name, but it's a lethal close-range attack that shoots out spears of thorns in an expanding circular AoE centered on herself. But this is completely within expectations; if it were Pencilgon I'd just force my way through, but since it isn't, I just have to actually deal with it.)

"What I need to test isn't the damage output, it's the hitboxes...!"

(The "height" of this circular AoE attack is roughly three meters, meaning there's exactly one simple and efficient counter-play. If the front, back, left, and right are all blocked off, the only escape route is straight up.)

"Old Bones Great Leap!"

"He matched the I-frames...!?"

(If you expect it from the start, there's zero hesitation in your counter! Ranzo's gauge skill, 『Heavenly Wind Great Storm Slash』, is an ultimate move that initiates a ten-meter leap followed by a rain of cross-slashing blades. More than anything, the absolute defiance of the laws of physics that can be completely hand-waved with the single phrase "Because he's an American comic hero" is just spectacular.)

(I'm not stupid enough to charge recklessly into a blind matchup with zero strategies... right, because I always keep the brilliant master plan of "Just punch them in the face for now" held tightly in my heart.)

Perhaps she didn't expect a completely flawless counter, as the plant woman flashes an expression of pure shock, yet her Pro Gamer instincts instantly install themselves, frantically shifting the roots buried in the earth to utilize her technically existent step-dash to mitigate the damage from the slashing effects.

(The fact that she chose to tank a certain amount of damage here instead of attempting a full evasion is nothing short of impressive—gauge recovery, stamina management for her step, prepping for a counterattack... the sheer skill required to manage her damage control while factoring in all of those elements is enough to make me sigh in admiration, but... unfortunately, that response only scores a 65, barely a passing grade.)

(A counter-focused character prepping to intercept—there is fundamentally zero issue with that in a vacuum, but choosing not to initiate an attack in that moment is a massive misplay. At the end of the day, combat is just a game where whoever pushes the number labeled "HP" down to zero first wins.)

(This battle is solely for Natsume-shi to test whether I am truly an opponent capable of taking a forty percent win rate against Kei Uomi, meaning the concept of "winning through anything other than pure mechanical skill in a direct clash" simply does not exist in her mind. It's the same on my end, but being actively aware of that fact massively expands the branching paths leading to victory.)

(If she's shifting to an interception stance, then I'll intentionally withhold my attacks. Interception is a passive form of aggression, so I will actively choose to surrender my offense.)

A momentary stagnation born from a lack of both offense and defense, exactly like throwing the same hand in Rock-Paper-Scissors, freezes the battlefield. Natsume-shi is being slightly over-cautious, trying to read my moves and counter them... she hasn't even tried to hide that intention, right down to her character select.

(And now I'm starting to get a somewhat clear picture of Natsume-shi's battle style—in other words, she's the type who constructs her own rhythm.)

(Players like me, and probably Rei-shi, are the type who already possess a rhythm. No matter what opponent shows up, we just do whatever the hell we want—if we seize the initiative, we can unconditionally beat the ever-living crap out of them, but conversely, if we lose that initiative, we end up eating that exact same beatdown.)

(On the flip side, Katzo, Pencilgon, and Natsume-shi are the type who construct a rhythm; they observe the opponent's movements and actively warp the flow of the match into a state that benefits them. They're the type who look like they're being pushed back at a glance, but somehow end up winning in the end—the kind who snatch back the initiative retroactively.)

(Honestly, both styles have their pros and cons, but... at the very least, my blueprint for cracking Natsume-shi has finally taken shape.)

(This specific type of player... is catastrophically bad at dealing with having their tempo derailed.)

"Hey Meg, judging by that look, it seems you fought him... so, how was it?"

"...I lost. Or rather, what the hell was that?! Halfway through his movements turned into a chaotic mess and he started BM-ing [*1] me like crazy, seriously, what the hell is he?!"

Katzo—Kei asks his teammate for her thoughts on the match while picturing the figure of his gas-mask-wearing friend who was currently locked in combat with Towa.

The words she spat back indicated that, naturally, she had fallen for the exact same "loss pattern" that he had, a fact that caused Kei to let out a wry smile in the guise of the lava-armed hero he had been using just moments prior.

"Told you, didn't I? I said he's the same type of player as Sylvia Goldberg. He's the kind of guy whose entire battle style shifts every ten seconds, so we have to constantly adapt our counters to match him."

If you asked Kei Uomi, the player known as Sunraku was a Swiss Army Knife where every single tool held lethal potential. He would utilize every conceivable method, sometimes stringing them together to forcefully shove a massive barrage of 50/50 mix-ups right into your face. If you faltered even for a second, the only thing waiting for you was a completely one-sided beatdown... but on the flip side, as long as you memorized every single card in Sunraku's deck and managed to wedge your own guaranteed win-condition into the gaps, you could beat him so easily it was almost anticlimactic.

"I mean, he's strong on a fundamental level, sure, but his brain is hard-wired for absolute eccentricity, which is why he can never stabilize past a seventy percent win rate..."

Just what kind of thought process leads to the conclusion of "In order to beat a Pro Gamer, I'll just weave feints into eighty percent of my attacks"? They had been friends for quite a while now, but even to this day, there were times when Kei simply could not comprehend the mind of that utter lunatic. That being said, the multi-stage feint tech the guy invented had actually saved Kei's skin before, so it wasn't something he could just write off.

Choosing flashy, aesthetic plays over sheer efficiency was exactly why Sunraku suffered unexpected losses, and inversely, it made downloading his movement patterns relatively easy, but even so, Kei couldn't close out that final ten percent. Which was exactly why he was purely curious.

"Well, it's also just that I'm genuinely curious to see what would happen if I tossed him headfirst at Star Rain."

"...Then, is Towa Amane just as strong?"

"No, that one's a much more evil breed of monster."

After all, if Sunraku was the kind of tuna-like player who would violently swim at terminal velocity the moment you gave him any "freedom," then the player known as Pencil Warrior was the spider who would immediately start spinning the most malicious, inescapable web imaginable.

Author's Afterword

Summary:

"Hey, hey, heeeey! Ain't your range a little lacking there?! Look over here, the old geezer is right here—whoops, too bad, I dodged it! Alright then, I'm gonna run away... is what I want you to think, but I'm actually ambushing you around the corner!!"

"Grrr!"

Translator's Notes 

*[1] BM-ing: The raw text uses "Aoru" (to stir up/agitate), which in gaming contexts translates perfectly to BM (Bad Manners), taunting, or aggressively griefing the opponent to tilt them.