ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

Description

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For every God out there, there are about thousand shitty games in this world.

Bugs, Errors, Texture Collapses, Inconsistent Scenarios…… Those are the things that fill the players around the world with grief and remorse.

A certain boy who loves such shitty games decides to challenge a Godly game recognized by the general public for a change.

As a result, both the gaming world and the real world in which the boy is revolving begin to change. Still, the specs of the Godly game still fills the boy’s heart with dread.

「Are Encounter Rates like that really a common sense in Godly Games……?」

Associated Names
One entry per line
Shangri-La Frontier
Shangri-La Frontier ~ Crappy Game Hunter Challenges God-Tier Game
Shangri-La Frontier ~Kusoge Hunter, Kamige ni Idoman to su~
Shangurira Furontia ~ Kusogē hantā, Kamigē ni Idoman to su ~
シャングリラ・フロンティア〜クソゲーハンター、神ゲーに挑まんとす〜
シャングリラ・フロンティア クソゲーハンター、かみゲーにいどまんとす
香格里拉·開拓異境~糞作獵手挑戰神作~
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Kono Sekai ga Game da to, Ore dake ga Shitte Iru (LN) (2)
Hereafter Apollyon Online ~I’m Just Trying to Build Giant Robots and Play as a Production Class in This Ultra High Quality VRMMO, But Somehow I Keep Getting Misunderstood~ (2)
Emperor of Solo Play (1)
Moto Sekai Ichi’i no Sub-chara Ikusei Nikki (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. pls remeber ''
  2. Shousetsuka ni Narou TOP 100 (mostly isekai)
  3. running from iskiai?
  4. argo's stash (fantasy heavy list)
  5. My Favs

Latest Release

Date Group Release
12/20/23 Light Novels Translations c345 part2
12/20/23 Light Novels Translations c345 part1
12/16/23 Light Novels Translations c345 part1
12/16/23 Light Novels Translations c344 part2
12/16/23 Light Novels Translations c344 part1
12/16/23 Light Novels Translations c343 part2
12/16/23 Light Novels Translations c343 part1
12/16/23 Light Novels Translations c342 part2
12/16/23 Light Novels Translations c342 part1
12/16/23 Light Novels Translations c341 part2
12/16/23 Light Novels Translations c341 part1
12/16/23 Light Novels Translations c340 part2
12/16/23 Light Novels Translations c340 part1
12/16/23 Light Novels Translations c339 part2
10/12/23 Light Novels Translations c339 part1
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Review
8 Reviews


Redmi
Redmi
Apr 17, 2020
Status: c104
This is one of the more realistic VRMMORPG novels out there. The MC is definitely the highlight of this novel; he is extremely skillful and experienced, yet is very pragmatic. There is barely any plot armor; the MC dies a lot in this game, sometimes intentionally too. There are some nice side-characters too, players or NPCs alike.

Meanwhile, the story is really boring, definitely the weakest point of this novel. This is probably why this novel is still a web-novel. The saving grace 0f this novel is the epic boss-fights, which... more>> are really fun reading. The author also managed to nail down the technical aspects of the VRMMORPG in this novel fine. This is a novel where good moments only come in periods. <<less
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mq003at
mq003at
May 09, 2022
Status: c300
I really recommend you read the manga since it is better than the novel. However, if you still want to read the book, then I will say this novel is a very good fake MMO novel.

You follow a hardcore player picking up an Elden Ring VRMMO game called Shangrila. In this game, you can even frame dodge the enemies' attack, and because of it, our hardcore can easily clear its content. To prevent the rush, the author gives out nerfs by stripping him and now he has to play the... more>> game like Let Me Solo Her. While playing the game, the main character gets out of his solitude and interacts more with things around him, shedding off his hikikomori shells.

To the main point. In this novel, we have:

    • Worldbuilding: more true to MMO than another MMO novel out there, to be honest. The world knows and functions like it's a game, meaning it has its own rule and is not flexible or falls into the Uncanny Valley like the others. Based on the world-building, I can assure you that the author indeed plays enough MMO and Action RPG to understand the basics.
      Spoiler

      From the start of the story, there are some comments and gags about the naked situation of the MC coming from the side characters which are pretty true to the Japanese community. Also, for the first time, the characters search for information on the Internet to analyze the best build and stuff. Also, we can look into the gaming scene of Japan and learn not only about the main game but other games with the same genre as well.

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    • Characters: is pretty likable, although MC is a bit bland. However, since the author quickly pair him up with other characters, he is greatly influenced by them and reveals more interesting traits. Other characters are well-designed as well, and more importantly, they are not one-dimensional.
      Spoiler

      For his first interaction with NPC behaves almost like a real person, he acts really weird and formal. Then, the strictness starts to become less as time goes on and he quickly adapts to the flow. When the MC parties with his old pro gaming friends, he becomes more foul-mouth, outgoing, and bloodthirsty than before, and when he goes with the girl who has a crush on him, he becomes more chill. The supporting characters are good as well. For example, Animali, the furry. She pretty cringes and cannot stop showing her affection to the furry stuff. But, when the situation is needed, she can become serious to achieve her goal (which, again, relates to furry).

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    • Rationale: if you combine the 2 points I showed before, then you can understand that this novel is more rational and realistic to the gaming scene (it is quite realistic if you look from a casual player who spent 500 hours in an MMO, tbh). As an IT, I still have some nitpicks but I will leave them at the end of the review.
    • Finally, the theme: is more unique than you think. At first, it may sound like an SAO clone or just a power fantasy. However, if you pay attention to the detail, the story is about a pro gamer who wants a change in his life to experience new things. Before playing the game, he is just a hardcore who is too OP for the game but by playing Shangrila, he is more open to others, experiences his journey, and the most important thing,

      enjoy the game.

      Spoiler

      Before he starts playing, he complains most of the time about the old games or the mechanics that he does not like. He sorts the mechanics, skips the game contents, reads the online guide, and just rushes it. As the plot progresses and he reaches the rabbit kingdom, he gets involved in many situations, starts changing, and by the time he parties up to fight the end-game boss, he treats it as getting boosted to raid end-game content with my homies. And from the last chapter I read when writing this review, his connection with the girl crushing on him makes him realize that he should play the game, instead of calculating profits and stuff.

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In conclusion, this novel is about a gamer abandoning his lone-wolf attitude to become better and make connections with everyone around him while enjoying the game. If you want to read a realistic MMO novel packed with action scenes, this novel will not let you down.

Praising part:

Spoiler
  • The 1 HP plot armor: in some games, if the damage is just enough to kill you, the game will reduce that damage so that you will have 1 HP left. This is called a 'clutch' and it is used to trick the player to feel good about their luck.
  • Guide reading, bug analysis after an arena fight, casual Instagram players, the panic of newbies, etc., and other gaming cultures exist in this novel. Finally, an author who really plays games has appeared.
  • Real MMO mechanic: raid, world boss, dungeon, etc. Is in the story. With a keen eye, you will recognize them.
  • The force debuff: this is the most interesting part. So, at first, you may think that is a bad mechanic, right? However, it is revealed later that there are NPCs or events that can remove it and you have to contact other players to receive this information. This really reminds me of WoW, where there was a debuff that affected many players and they have to reach out to the pros to cure them (it became a pandemic later in WOW, lol).
  • The story explains how the MC has the time to play the game all day: during summer vacation. This little detail may not be much, but it adds more realism to the world-building, making the story feels more like a game, not a power fantasy dream like SAO.
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Nitpicking part:

Spoiler
  • Translator mistakes the s*x of the characters a lot. There are also lots of mistakes here and there, but it is still readable.
  • PK: again, unrestricted PK, loot game, spawn killing or other penalties are extremely taboo for an MMO. Unless you want to make a sandbox game like Albion with those PK function as its core, these functions will just make your MMO become a dead game in 1 to 2 year.
  • Missing convenient features: teleporting, adding friends, communications, etc. Seriously, is this the 80s? MMO is supposed to center around people playing with each other, so why do you ban people from adding friends unless they stay really near each other?
  • The unique scenario mechanic: one of the things that you do not want players to do in an MMO is not sharing the knowledge. MMO is built based on community and cooperation. Forcing the players to keep the info for themselves will just waste the potential of the contents.
    Actually, there are some hints around that the dev claims the players still do not understand the game at all, so maybe the devs themselves want people to co-operate and reach out to the end game content using shared unique scenarios.
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P/s: if anyone feels weird about why he feels shame inside a game, in many MMO forums, Western players have complained about weird players letting their avatar naked running around. They are upset because it breaks the immersion of the scene (like how can he/she wears only underwear in the -50 Celsius degree snow). Japan is even sensitive about this so it's kinda understandable. People in MMO like to role play as well so you cannot treat it like VR Chat. If it is a Korean MMO, then nakedness may be the norm. <<less
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Overseer_Sena
Overseer_Sen
Aug 15, 2021
Status: c171 part2
This will be my first review so forgive me for the badly structured review.

So for this novel I actually started from the manga version of this, then to the novel cus I really liked the concept of this story.

The first flaw I will point out, is that this is a web novel so the quality and the order of the events can be boring just like what most other jp novel tend to suffer. This is further shown when you read the manga first, where in it events flow so... more>> much better and of course visually pleasing.

Second flaw/con, the hook that will make you like this novel is more shown in the manga than in the wn. If I had found this novel b4 the manga I would have dropped it because in the wn because it lacks the world building and explanation of how great Shangri La Frontier is. Like if you only read the wn all you would think is that "Oh, all the protag has to do defeat in game is defeat the Raid Bosses" but really the hook that wasn't explained well in the wn is that in Shangri la Frontier, what the players thought was fully explored because they have explored almost everything, it has given everything it has to offer, isn't. In the manga within like the first 5 chapters it is shown in the panel, so not really a spoiler, the plot progression percentage is still at "0%" like we are shown quickly, the Raid Bosses are the plot, the mystery to be uncovered and not just something for the MC to defeat.

Third con is just a minor one, translation is normal, like there are a few translation mistakes made on the sentence structure that can be noticeable and can be irky at times. Also some mistakes are confusing the he and she, , especially when it comes to Pencilgton where I know she is a she but in some lines she is mentioned as a he.

Now that the Flaw/Cons are done, onto the Pros next.

First Pro, the game mechanics are solid enough, the status and mindset of the MC can be easily understandable. It deals more on the actual understanding of how the developer made the AI's and the patches and its utilization. The Raid bosses are just something you fight without a plan where you encounter it and somehow you beat it first try. There are actual planning and strategy to fight them, clear and cut phases. As a side bonus we are also given to us as readers what are the reasons why those phases pops out and how to clear the bosses the actual way and we can compare it to how the MC and the group cleared it.

Second pro, the story isn't only contained in Shangri La Frontier, it also goes into the other tr*shy games that MC has played b4 and we meet some Online friends that MC has. Real world is included but there is only just some bits that is slightly bit interesting, tho latest arc is more interesting as it deals with MC fighting actual professional gamers so I'm hyped to see how well he does.

All in all I rate this an avg of 4/5. It lacks on pacing as a translation, it can be a bit boring on some parts but it has great fights and an interesting MC who knows how to play lol. Read this first then read the Manga to savor how the quality is improved, also in manga we get the full First Raid Boss finished and translated so yeah... <<less
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Mychael Dark
Mychael Dark
Jul 13, 2022
Status: c47
Not the worst I've ever read, but still pretty bad.

Starting with the world. Shangri-La is supposed to be a God tier VRMMO, however while reading all I could think about was that it was such a sh*t game. So many of the instances of the MC involving him breaking the game mechanics in ways that shouldn't be possible. It'seasy to see when he fights the first "boss", but gets shoved down your throat when he encounters the "Unique Boss". It just get's worse and worse from there. Even the MC... more>> dying is just plot armour to make the MC stronger.

The game is a level based systems with set stats, however the author is constantly breaking his own world rules by having the MC perfom feats WELL beyond what the character level and stats would allow. To put it simply the MC is Kirito with the stuff he can do in the game, except he's doing it all the time.

It's also pretty obvious that the author seems to have done no research or seems not to have actually played any type of MMO. Many of the characteristics the author gives the players are along the lines of what people who have never played those games before have towards players of MMO's.

The MC is an alright character and keeps a personality of consistance. However he is rather generic. <<less
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H3athen
H3athen
Nov 07, 2023
Status: c339
So I am currently caught up with the translated story.

bit of a slow burn type of story the type of story I can stop reading instead of devouring like everything else I read because it isnt as captivating.

i like the fact that the story places so much emphasis on player skill.

... more>> i dont really have many bad things to say its not grindy the MC is a bit dense but the main love interest is like a hinata level groundhog so I dont blame him.

then again romance isnt really the focus in this story so check it out if you have time to kill throughout the day.

i would recommend skipping the underwater arc after getting 50 or so chapters into it because it kindof drags on.

a high point of the story was the pro gaming tourney which was super exciting to read. <<less
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Gsichtselfmeter
Gsichtselfme
Feb 02, 2022
Status: c39
The premise is good, and the shitty games part is funny, but then it develops into "Japanese humor": Oh, I guess I everyone takes me as a pe*vert now, but <for arbitrary reason> I will continue this way. Hehe.

Maybe if I am really bored I give this a second chance. The games part looks decent, the MC is not a total shithead and the author managed 39 chapters without any lolis appearing.
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TowaReido
TowaReido
Sep 01, 2021
Status: c172
Pretty good VRMMO story overall. The main character is not overly broken where he simply breezes through the game and is OP, but there are reasonable explanations on why he is good at what he does. World building is okay, in my opinion the manga does it more justice due to having visual and a better story flow compared to the webnovel.

The translation isn't bad and if you just want to read it in English and be able to understand the story or read further ahead of the manga then... more>> you are set. However be warned that you may find some translation discrepancies, mainly being characters occasionally (and in one case constantly) being referred by the wrong pronouns/gender (eg. Pencilgon occasionally being referenced with a he, Emul completely being referred to as a male even though she has been revealed to be female). Also from comparing the translation to the raws, some names of characters/areas/items/skills will seem to be oddly translated or completely wrong, which leads me to assume that the translator/editor doesn't seem to have a strong grasp of how to translate katakana into English. Once again doesn't detract from understanding the story overall, just a "huh?" moment, especially if you are coming from reading the manga.

Overall I would rank the novel a solid 4/5, but the translation itself would only be a 3.5/5 as its definitely not a quality translation just a passable and readable one. <<less
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ORPTUREEQT
ORPTUREEQT
Sep 26, 2020
Status: c100
This is good. Side-characters are pretty good too. MC is good too, Overall This is pretty awesome.
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