English Dub Review: Bofuri: I Don’t Want To Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense “Defense and Third Event”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The third event has started and it’s all about cows. That’s right, you heard me correctly; each guild must go out and slaughter as many in-game, red, weird-looking cows as possible and collect the bells they leave behind. The team with the most bells wins. Simple. Right?

Well, it’s not so easy for people with low agility, like Maple. No matter how much our plucky guild leader wants to slay cattle for her team, she is faced with mountainous obstacles that result in her falling down a literal mountain. The unexpected tumble causes her to lose all her Devours for the day, leaving her vulnerable—or so it seems.

After picking up a mysterious item—that looks a bit like a gear—she wanders into the abandoned church she briefly visited during that sick girl side-quest. The building isn’t as abandoned as she initially imagined. In fact, she’s almost immediately sucked into a battle with an iron-clad, demon knight. Without her greatest power, the battle is more of a struggle than normal. But then the knight makes the mistake of swallowing her whole. Inside his massive body, she eats his internal organs until he dies—a classic, albeit disgusting trick, but it works.

Despite losing the third event to bigger and more organized teams like the Flame Emperors, Maple Tree earns enough points for a stellar guild reward. They also gain the confidence to venture into Level Three.

Their trip there proves to be much easier than expected once Maple reveals the new ability she gained from defeating the iron knight. She can now turn herself into a Xenomorph-style demon, strong enough to cut through enemies with her merciless claws and battery acid blood. Her guild is grateful, yet somewhat put off.

Level Three is a steampunky machine world. Overcome by its beauty, the guild separates in order to explore the massive space. On her journey, Maple happens across an old, homeless NPC who claims to have lived in Level Three during an era that time has forgotten. Surprisingly, the change in machinery he speaks of didn’t happen years ago, that generational shift was much more recent. The old man wonders why nobody else remembers and he wonders why the God of Machines now sits dormant beneath a mountain in the middle of the city.

Using her new demonic power to get there, Maple and Syrup confront the Machine God. At first, he’s too powerful to fight, but when that gear she found in the previous Level melds inside her chest, she transforms into a mecha killing machine that makes quick work of the false god.

Now, if only she can turn back into Maple!

 

Our Take

Now with full guild and insanely powerful ops, Maple is cutting through this little VR game like a hot knife through a fat-based dairy spread. Level Three was run by a character called the God of Machines—a literal GOD—and Maple neutralized him on her first day. It’s comical how nothing is a challenge to our protagonist anymore.

I don’t want to tell NWO their business, but an error like this comes down to sloppy game design. When stripped to the core, the four basic moves in RPGs are: Attack, Defend, Magic, and Run. In gaming history, players have obviously tried maxing out one of these four. However, in 99% of games, such a bold move will wind up hindering the player considerably. Victory comes with balance. If, for whatever reason, that’s not the case, then the game is fundamentally flawed.

But here I am overanalyzing when this is supposed to be an amusing “What If?” Maple is too fun and clueless to hold any animosity. That’s why those admin bunnies are depicted as such clowns. If instead of those doofuses, they cut to some quality control people in a lab, the general feel would go from “fun” to “sinister” in a heartbeat. But this way, the admins appear just as dimwitted as Maple, which makes sense considering NWO’s poor design elements we just discussed.

I’m not sure how much further we can go with the dumbfounded reactions from the guild. It seems like every time Maple lucks into a new op, the others are frightened of the girl’s near-limitless powers. Because of her friendly, yet oblivious behavior, she shouldn’t have goddess-level abilities. The guild realizes this, but they’re so supportive of their leader they’re never going to actually say anything. This is a non-starter which is why it’s so annoying that they mention it at least once an episode.

Because there was so much “filler” in this particular episode—hell, there were three head-to-head battles—I’d normally give an outing like this an unfavorable score (5 points or lower). However, this episode will go down as one of the series’ finest due to the design of Maple’s demon suit. That sprite is spectacular, which is saying something within a game that can’t even make a simple cow look realistic. If Maple came at me in that armor, requesting a PvP, I’d lay down my sword immediately. That in itself is worth a higher score.