Lately, I’ve been distracted from watching anime. Yes, partly because of real-life obligations, like college stuff. But, there is also another culprit that I am more than willing to blame them. Video games.

In the past, I’ve struggled with video game addiction, especially with Starcraft 2. Well, I’ve got better, but there are always pitfalls here and there when I find other interesting games. This time, it’s Albion Online that got my attention.

Albion Online is a sandbox MMORPG game made by Sandbox Interactive. It has a massive popularity, especially in Asia. What piqued my interest in this game was how similar it is to an anime that I watched years ago, BOFURI. A slice of life anime about a girl gaming with her friends, and that’s pretty much it.

The whole premise of BOFURI is so simple, we follow Kaede in a game. She unwittingly chooses to level up her character in a very out-of-the-meta way, pilling up her points straight to her defense trait. Her happy-go-lucky personality eventually drives the developer mad because she always unintentionally finds a way to break the game.

Gaming is one niche in anime that relates to many anime fans. After all, people who watch anime often play games intensively too. But, isn’t BOFURI just an anime, and sandbox MMORPG is just a genre in the vast gaming ocean, what’s so special about them? I have a couple of points here.

What I Found Unique In MMORPG

Firstly, what even is MMORPG? For those who are unfamiliar with video games, MMORPG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. Essentially, it’s any game that involves a huge number of players, and they’re free to interact with each other, however they see fit. Be it collaborating in PvE (player versus environment) content, or competing against each other in PvP (player versus player) content.

More often than not, we’re free to make our own guild with friends or even a bunch of strangers we meet on the game. It’s what Kaede does, too. She learned about the game she plays through a close friend, she got to know a random good samaritan player who helped her. And then, they formed a guild together, with Kaede as the chief.

Some games offer different degrees of freedom on how you can affect the character. For example, Albion Online specifies each piece of equipment and weapon has its own levels. It means if you’re good at using a one-handed battleaxe, it doesn’t mean you can just pick up any other axe and be as good. It’s quite different from games that allow you to be a weapon master as long as you have one generic proficiency level maxed.

This aspect plays a vital role in making the character build. Character builds are the typical or the meta way people would arrange their in-game abilities, spells, etc. Another great example of MMORPG is Word of Warcraft. This Blizzard’s game is almost as old as I am, but people still love it. Frankly, I think if there is a game genre that will outlive a generation, that would be MMORPG.

That brings us to the type of game our protagonist is playing in BOFURI. Kaede, or as she calls herself in the game, Maple, dives into the world of New World Online, a fictional virtual reality MMORPG game. While she might come off as just another player, she quickly makes her name known as one of the top players.

Maple’s Game Breaking Hijinks

Typically, people would build their characters in a more balanced way. You know, in video games there are often attributes that can be improved over time such as agility, offensive, and defensive power. All sorts of fun stuff like that. But, Maple, is built different.

Maple puts most, if not all, her character points into defense. Just pure defense, nothing else. In turn, she then gradually becomes a slow moving, undefeated juggernaut. This is what we call a game exploit. It’s when a player found a way to make the most for themselves without following the established goals and quests made by the developer.

How does she come up with this idea? Honestly, she’s just going for what she feels. She doesn’t spend twelve hours warming up for a dungeon boss, nor does she calculate the most cost-effective way to upgrade her gears. Her main motivation is her joy in playing the game and extreme curiosity.

How Mapple plays is the one thing that most gamers seem to dream forever. She interacts with the in-game environment based on her intuition, she solos dungeon bosses with her early equipment, and when she opens that fancy dungeon loot, she gets one of the most overpowered gear.

This is a gaming anime done right in my opinion. There is no mortal danger to face, and there is no isekaid protagonist trapped in the game. Everyone is just enjoying their time, and it just so happens that she finds a unique way to frustrate the developers. Seriously, after she won third place in her first PvP event, the developers patched the game to nerf her power.

Game design is challenging, and not everyone has the knack for it. Even a triple AAA game developer doesn’t always guarantee a great game. So, how this fictional game and Maple’s hijinks play out in this anime, is pretty accurate, I’d say.

So far, we know that this anime did a good job of showing how engaging MMORPG can be. There is so much freedom that Maple and her friends have in this game. But, there is one thing that’s completely unreal here. It’s how the game’s VR system works. This game essentially makes you feel you’re actually in the game. Like being isekaid without dying. Especially, with the release of Apple Vision Pro, I can see more of this tech will eventually become more geared toward gaming.

A Prediction On Futuristic Gaming?

Okay, this is gotta be the most exciting part of the anime for fans who are also tech enthusiast. The earliest game that I remember playing is, unsurprisingly, Starcraft: Broodwar. While the game still holds its charm, it’s an old game from 1998, isn’t it like when the velociraptor was still around? Joking aside, the graphic is admittedly awful compared to modern games.

As I grew up, there were more and more technological breakthroughs that I couldn’t wrap my head around. We got better open world games, better game engines, and naturally, better graphics. I still remember the first time I played Modern Warfare 2. That was mind-boggling.

And, we didn’t stop there. Nowadays, we have VR devices. The thing is, they don’t exclusively make games for VR, but game developers also update their old games, and bring more realism into the experience, like what they did to Skyrim.

If in the future we have half of what the game in BOFURI has, then gamers will go wild over this for sure. I wonder what could be the next technological advancement for the near future. Yes, the VR we have now might not be perfect and still need optimization for the gaming niche. But, hey, we’re getting closer and closer to literally getting transferred into our games.

So, What’s The Final Verdict?

BOFURI shows us heaven in terms of gaming, not just technologically, but also how it translates the soul of MMORPG into an anime. After all, gaming isn’t all about the visual. The content quality will triumph over all those futuristic bits. And, it’s true in New World Online, the game in BOFURI.

What I found most appealing from these two is the freedom they show and offer. MMORPG games have a lot of content to do while setting very little limitations for the players. Moreover, they create a whole new environment where players around the world can, not just communicate with each other, but also play the game together from all places around the world.

Of course, there is no such thing like a perfect anime. Admittedly, there are a lot of characters, not everyone gets to shine, and BOFURI may have many other shortcomings. Some character development, or in this case leveling up, seems to be forced just so Maple’s guild can get on top. But hey, counterpoint, Maple is not just a gamer, she’s a gamer who find exploits in the game. I think that’s

While today’s games already have some of the technology in the anime, well, the general consumers always find something wrong. Designing game that satisfy everyone is beyond difficult, it takes a great creativity and dedication to make one that’s actually good. Even then, good games are not free from haters, see Palworld for example. Maybe that’s what BOFURI is missing, just a guy malding over the game and absolutely losing it. Haha, that will make the anime closer to reality.