I am not lost, for God saves me, loves me, and shepherds me.
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The time spent in front of the vending machine deciding on what coffee to buy is so relaxing. There’s bliss in being lost, isn’t there?
Anyway! Moving on! Hello newcomers and welcome back, veterans! I’m PotatoStarch! For today’s stream, I thought we’d do a little Dragon Demon RPG DX. I’m sure all of you know this one. It’s a completely untraditional Japanese game. An open world RPG where the narrative depends on your actions, the level of freedom, number of playthrough options, and required hard drive space are off the charts. Plus the difficulty is so high you have to question the devs’ common sense.
In the trailer they state, “Go on a grand adventure in a world of swords and magic.” But the game is so brutal it flies in the face of that tagline. First, the title itself is a trap. There are dragons and demons in the game, but if you ever meet them as enemies, they’ll kill you. Just absolutely murder you. They’re basically forced-death events. And even if you get them as allies, they’ll still kill y—Oh, it’s starting!
Ah, the opening cutscene is so great. That’s the deluxe version for you. It’s just so beautiful and fills you with happiness. Handsome guys are shouting in victory while pretty women are smiling coyly.
But it’s all a lie. An illusion. There are no hopes or dreams in this game’s world. It’s a world of heartbreak. Well, that’s why I like it, though.
Now, who should I play as? I might die right away, but you gotta pick a pretty girl, right? Let’s do that, leave the face up to the character generator, and... Huh? Th-This girl... A-Anyway, she looks pretty good, right? Let’s go with her. As for a name, how about “Kuroi”? She has black hair, after all.
I choose you, Kuroi! By the way, have any of you noticed that you can only select your race, gender, and appearance in this game? Everything else is left up to luck. It’s such a gamble. Really makes their catchphrase, “Infinite fates await you,” ring hollow for me.
As you can see, I picked a human. They’re the most unpopular race by a huge margin. But I think this way I can show off the game’s best features to you all. You could say it’s like drowning in a sea of despair, but enjoying it. Just gotta click confirm and that’s that.
It’s rolling for my start location! The results of this will determine my stat levels and skills, so it’s super important. Seriously, basically everything is decided based on where you were born? Where’s the romance, huh? It’s just pointlessly realistic. Keep your B.S. to yourself, devs.
What’s it gonna be? A noble or a top brass military background would make my beginning stats super great and lower the strategic difficulty a bit... Oh God. Oh God. A slave. Of all things, a slave? A human slave is, without a doubt, the worst start you can get. That’s double bad. I mean, humans are basically slaves anyway. They’re the weakest race in the game, making them the perfect choice for masochists.
The world setting for DDR is incredibly unfair to humans. Vampires control 40% of the continent and are aggressively expanding their territory, while elves control another 40% and staunchly defend their borders. The remaining 20% is controlled by humans—or rather, it’s more like a buffer zone that they’re permitted to occupy. They’re treated like a lower race that’s a target for discrimination. Just talking about how cruel the situation is makes me sad.
In fact, as living things, their strength in battle is on a different scale. In terms of physical strength it goes: vampires, humans, elves. In terms of magical ability it goes: elves, humans, vampires. When I explain it like this, humans don’t seem that bad. But each of the other races’ specialties breaks the balance and leaves humans overwhelmingly in the dust.
Now, I know you’re thinking I’m being all doom and gloom—Geez! Loading is taking forever. How much longer? By the way, my start as a slave is locked in, but there’s still a random roll for what kind of slave I’ll be. There are a lot of spots in this game where the player might think there’s freedom, but there isn’t. A gladiator slave would mean my fighting skills increase easily. That’d be nice. Even a miner slave would mean my physical strength would be... No, I won’t be that lucky. Since I’m a female character, I’ll probably end up a chained slave. The best I can hope for would be another race’s treasured pet. That way I could bide my time and aim for the perfect chance to free myself. With some bad luck I might just end up instantly game-overing, but... Oh, it’s loaded.
A serf, huh? Yick. They have some physical strength. But their skills, though! This’ll make acquiring magic difficult. Oh, but my starting location is pretty interesting. It’s on the outskirts of human territory, so I might be able to show you all the true charm of DDR faster than expected. There’s monster attacks to deal with, abuse from elves—a vampire might even murder us. Yup, so many things to look forward to.
Anyway! In order to avoid all that, I’ll have to steadily increase my stats. In other words, endless mini-games! Heh heh heh! Behold my crafting skills. Click-click-click! By the way, are you guys the type to look up strategy information ahead of time? Or do you only use it when you’re in trouble? Personally, I... Oh! The sun’s setting. It’s vampire time, which means we gotta get inside the hut. The mini-game I recommend here is...
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This girl was a strange one. Black hair. Black eyes. Wiry. Silent. Curt. And a hard worker. The cultivation of the Frontier was seen as no less than punishment. And in truth, only serfs and convicts were sent to work there. Any worries or complaints she might have had were overwritten by clear-headed resignation, and despite the fact that she was the only one there who swung her hoe with any sense of conviction, she never gave up. Diligently she plowed, working quietly. No one could match her results. Day in and day out, she never tired.
She did have some curious habits, though. It was something I witnessed during the tiny breaks from our heavy labor. Sometimes she repeatedly jumped over firewood. Other times, she threw pebbles at boulders. I even saw her stare unblinkingly into a bucket of water drawn from the well and endlessly count grains of wheat. If you count even the tiniest things, then she had dozens of these activities that she for some reason whole-heartedly repeated in a certain order. She even sacrificed sleep to keep this up.
One moonlit night, I confronted her. I just had to know. I had no interest in others, much less commoners who could not even swing a sword, but I was compelled. Or perhaps I was drawn to her by fate.
“Where are you from?”
“There.” She pointed at the ground. I wondered if her parents might have sold or abandoned her. Either one was common enough.
“How is your family?”
“I don’t have one.”
“Were you raised in an orphanage?”
“No.” Whatever she had gone through, I could not get it out of her. Her face, pointed up at the stars, sought no consolation, gave off no sadness. I could not even glean a hint of loneliness from her. An unwavering determination, I suppose you might call it, smoldered in the depths of her eyes.
“What are those things you do? I see you have many strange habits.”
“Preparation.”
“For what?”
“For survival.”
“They just look tiring and like a waste of energy.”
“Not really.”
“R-Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm. Really, now?” The girl rebuffed all attempts at conversation. She seemed to curtly reject all around her, and yet in truth she was an eager servant. She worked harder than anyone, with an unwavering disposition. Her beautiful face was only rivaled by her pure behavior, and she brought a refreshing feeling in everyone around her.
She was herself, always. Despite the public attention, she never asked for anything, she never changed. Perhaps the world from her eyes was just different from the one the rest of us saw. Ultimately, she lived strongly and carefully in this cruel world of ours. It was as it should be—or should I say, Deus Ex.
One day, a group of monsters appeared from the forest. The air was filled with screams and roars as the ground was covered with human blood, flesh, and innards. But she alone fought back. She thrived in the adverse circumstances. She was greater than all of us.
This girl, beloved by God, was named Kuroi. She would go on to earn such heroic titles as Dragon Slayer and Demon Slayer, but this was her first battle. And I, Agias Willow, bore witness to her incredible might. If not for her, a weak knight like me would have perished in that battle.