The Fake Player

Chapter 3 - Nines Own Goal vs Berserker. Pt. I

The cornerstone of any good MMO-RPG is not the land for which players can inhabit, but the lore and creatures that breathe life into said world. A game about exploration and discovery wouldn't be exciting if you were provided a road guide. No, to bleed at your enemies' attacks, to cry in frustration at your deaths, and to scream in joy as you fell a giant with your sword. That, is what strengthens the fantasy of your victories.

Nothing exemplifies this more than the bosses that populate the virtual world. Powerful foes that seek the challenge players.

YGGDRASIL, across its nine different playable realms, boasts a combined total of over 5,000 total bosses. Field, wandering, area, arena, raid, hidden, end, and even world bosses. Just a few of the tremendously different enemies that exist in YGGDRASIL. The latter of those even received their own titles due to their indomitable strength and sheer difficulty spike.

Furthermore, unlike many of its competitors in the gaming field, YGGDRASIL bosses are never uncreative or boring by design. Each is carefully and lovingly crafted to be a herald of the players' doom. The most striking factor of their creation, however, is the way they challenge players.

Enemies up to level 150, can be considered anything from a field boss to a dungeon boss, one main distinguishing feature between them being location. While hard, a well-coordinated team would have little trouble against such opponents.

Then there are the Dungeon and Raid bosses that fall into their own separate category. They follow much of the same trend as those before them but what makes Dungeon and Raid bosses so challenging would be the condition in which they are faced and how many. Many are restricted to the treacherous and dangerous multi-layered dungeons and arenas that are hidden within the worlds. Made only more dangerous by how many players would face should they try their hand at completing a full dungeon. These often-required fully coordinate parties and or Legions in order to complete.

End bosses. The previously perceived final category of bosses that players thought were the strongest YGGDRASIL had to offer, until the level-breaking bosses were later discovered. These bosses leveled at 250, nearly three times the highest player level combined with their already absurd stats and abilities made it near impossible to win. A fully equipped Legion with at least ONE World-Class item was needed in order to even have a chance to win.

In YGGDRASIL there is on record a total of 32 level-breaking bosses. The "World Enemy" as dubbed by the player base. Thirty-two beyond broken leveled bosses with a max level of 500 and numerous abilities and stats that it's near impossible to win. Only seven of the thirty-two have been found to date. The Eight Dragons, The Lords of the Seven Deadly Sins, The Ten Archangels of the Sephira, The Celestial Lord of the Sixth Heavens, The Five Rainbow Buddhas, The Five Celestial Death Throes, and The World Eater. It was speculated that no less than a hundred players were needed to even attempt one of these broken bosses and the usage of at least two World Class items to stand a chance. So far none have been beaten and many wonders if any could be.

The game's absurd difficultly has been a point of contention for many players, leading to issues and points of discussion regarding how YGGDRASIL chooses to handle the game's rampant difficulty.

"Of course, they're hard. They're called Bosses for a reason. Would be boring if all it takes is one or two retries just to kill it." – Excerpt from an interview with Zelretch regarding the game's absurd difficulty.

November 8th, 2129. World: Vanaheim. The Mysterious Cavern - End Boss Arena

Even after all these years, Shirou could perfectly describe every one of the Servants from his time in the Fifth Holy Grail War. None stood out more than the monstrous form of Berserker. Standing at more than two and a half meters tall, it towered over them all. Its skin was equally unnatural, taking on the texture of granite. At first glance, one could be forgiven for mistaking it for a massive sculpture of a muscular man bordering on inhuman, like something one would see in a museum. It wore nothing save for an armored kilt to shield his dignity and armored bracers on its wrists and ankles.