Roku Tadano is Illustrious in DEATH BATTLE

         

Roku Tadano, the Black Knight

The Game Devil was created by Kakunoshin Futsuzawa, it can be read on Manga Plus

Welcome back to the blog! This one's gonna be a bit different than others. Typically I like to cover series that have sufficient content to cover so the blog has a bountiful amount of feats, abilities, and story to go over. I wanted to experiment a bit for this one. I chose a series that's only 15 chapters in (as of 4/6/23), so I can flesh it out as the series progresses. As some may know, I try to stay up to date with every blog I make whenever a series releases new content (if you wanna stay updated with whatever changes I make, please join the WCAB Discord server!!!). I chose this one in particular because this is the first webmanga I've ever covered on my blog. Due to the pace that mangas are created, this one is more likely to release content consistently. And since this series is quite short right now, I can nip it in the bud before it becomes reeeeally long. While I do think the webmanga leaves a lot to be desired story-wise, I'd recommend it for the pixel art fusion that it has going on.

Background

"I wanted to draw a protagonist who wouldn't yield to even the strongest of enemies!"

Sometimes raw talent isn't enough for people to achieve their dreams. Manga artist assistant Roku Tadano is fully aware of that. For fourteen years, he's been passionately developing an epic adventure story about a heroic Black Knight. He has amazing potential as an artist, but every publisher he sought out isn't sold by his generic story. What's worse is that Roku is too stubborn to branch out to other narratives or genres, or draw another mangaka's story. He won't settle for anything else because the Black Knight is the only character that gave him his dream. Roku was concerned that he'd never be able to tell the story he wanted, but was also conflicted that he stayed in the past while everyone else in his life is finding work. However, Roku could have never anticipated that he'd have to worry about something far worse than being a failed mangaka.

In Japan, there is this insanely popular MMORPG game called The Game Devil, which is infamous for its unbeatable titular boss. Millions of players have tried to beat him, yet none have been successful. Roku was late to the craze, so his knowledge on the game is really sparse. What catches his attention is that his protagonist was labeled a ripoff of the black knight hero of the game. Roku only believed it was a coincidence, until he learned who made the game. Its head developer was Roku's childhood friend Osamu Sugosugi, whom Roku looked out for when he was bullied. Sugosugi was moved by the tales Roku's been sharing and viewed him as a role model. And yet… he stole Roku's ideas!

Before Roku could give up his dreams The Game Devil received an update that took the world by storm… literally. Many enemies from the hit game spawned in the real world, including the big boss himself. Anyone killed by the 16-bit terrors were merged with the game and became static pixelated versions of their former selves, or NPCs with automated responses. Essentially, they're now deceased. Before long, the Game Devil turned all of Tokyo into a pixelated version of its former glory, killing most citizens. The only ones unaffected by the Game Devil's wave were the players, who were bestowed the powers and weapons of their characters. Roku is a special case, as the Black Knight character comes out of his phone to aid him in battle, but only if he can fuse with him to gain his armor and sword. While incredibly inexperienced, Roku decides to be the hero and go on a journey to stop the Game Devil from completely rewriting reality into the game. Roku has his suspicions that the Game Devil might be Sugosugi himself, which are confirmed after the boss called out to him in particular as the "hero." He announced that he was tired of waiting for the Black Knight story that he yearned for for years, and took it upon himself to make it by himself in tribute to Roku. In the world he's created, Roku can be a hero again with the Black Knight by his side, and urges him to vanquish him.

Roku isn't the only one gunning to kill the Game Devil, as the boss challenges all players to improve their levels, arsenals, and skills to beat him. The one who beats him will be granted a wish. All players are forcibly transported to random areas in the country to have a fresh start. Roku comes across some unique players—most notably the cold and heavily experienced thief Ven and a paladin woman he hasn't seen since high school who recently interned for The Game Devil devs Mamane—who he eventually teams up with and joins their party. The party's goal is to become strong enough to destroy the menacing final boss, and to recruit as many powerful people as possible to have a great shot at beating the game. While Roku lacks the technique or experience as a seasoned player, members of the party start to catch on that there's more to him than meets the eye. He has a low player level, yet he's able to easily kill most monsters in a single hit. On his own he'd be overwhelmed, but as part of a team, he'd be a valued member. However, none of them are aware that he has the actual Black Knight by his side.

He ventures with the party for a while, taking on smaller raid bosses and participating in tournaments to help boost player levels. He's motivated by his urge to complete his unfinished story to push himself to his limits and grow stronger with each fight. Roku even encounters his mangaka boss and role model Ashida, who's an experienced player who owns items from The Game Devil devs' previous game Game Topia. With Roku becoming aware of this information, the mystery surrounding Sugosugi becomes an increasingly deep rabbit hole.

After his fights, he realizes his party can't see the Black Knight. They presume that the Black Knight is a rare playable class, yet they were baffled that Roku—a total newbie—had immediate access to the Black Knight even before the world was screwed over. Roku believes he may be hallucinating, but as it turns out, it's a bug within Sugosugi's game. He did intentionally give Roku the Black Knight in the game, but now that the game is invading reality, he did not anticipate that the knight would come to life. If he doesn't delete this bug soon, the whole world is at stake, and thus the Game Devil himself is sent to Roku's location.

The Game Devil tracks down Roku and his gang to delete the Knight. It's here that the Black. Knight reveals that he encrypted himself so that Roku would be the one to prevent his erasure. As the Game Devil tries to extinguish the knight, Roku jumps in front of him to take the fall instead, instantly turning into a pixelated version of his former self. It's a shock to his allies, but it's followed by something bizarre. The Black Knight laments that he's traveled with "this Roku" many times, and every time he told Roku his secret, he'd try to protect him at the cost of his life. And each time this happens, the Game Devil restarts the game.

… And that's exactly what happens.

After the reset, the series goes several restarts back in time to focus on a particularly different run. Instead of the Black Knight, Roku's partner was a young hacker named Error. The two hit it off really well as Error has a lot of tricks up his sleeve to aid the inexperienced knight. This time, the run lasted for many years and Roku had maxed out his stats, only to perish at the end as another reset happens. During each run, everyone loses their memories. However, after gaining a sense of deja vu, Error has been sending himself messages from previous runs to try and warn him in the present. Even so, they aren't enough to break the cycle. During one of the runs, he realizes that everyone must already be turned into data inside the game for the Game Devil to accomplish such crazy feats. During another run, Error realizes that Roku has available storage in his Black Knight class. That could mean that they could leave some sort of message for themselves during another restart, or potentially transfer memories from their current game into the next one. At Roku's inevitable deathbed, Error realizes the condition for the restarts are Roku dying. Thus, he sacrifices his physical body in the world to transfer his knowledge to Roku, being sent into the Game Devil's database and taking over the Black Knight's body.

As Error tries to aid Roku, he realizes that every time Roku's perception of his knight is shattered, the game automatically resets. The only people who seem to remember anything are Error and the Game Devil. Error goes through such lengths to help Roku because he wanted to read the next chapter of his manga, and wanted people to be as excited about it as he was. To ensure Roku makes it far, the Black Knight never breaks character. And that's what got Roku this far in the journey before the Game Devil deleted this buggy knight.

Although the Black Knight was deleted, that only sent him to the Game Devil's database, where he can brainstorm a strategy to end the game once and for all. Within the database, there are still traces of Error's existence, like a sketchy drawing Roku made. He's then confronted by another Roku, an accumulation of all the data in the Game Devil's logs. He's watched Error do his best to help him and thanks him. Roku comes to the realization that there's no way he can beat the game. He doesn't have the power to change anything and he's certainly no hero.

After retaining his memories, Roku was able to have an immensely successful campaign where he reached level 99,999. The end is in sight and Sugosugi is ready take to challenge him. After all, Roku was never his hero, for he always rooted for his antagonist, the Devil. Roku wanted to avoid violently confronting Sugosugi, and tried to peacefully solve it by showing him his new manga. Sadly Sugosugi was unimpressed, believing that reality had changed Roku. His manga was all wrong! He has no intention of bringing the world back to how it once was—instead he'll play with Roku forever. Now, Roku has no choice but to defeat the Game Devil if he wants reality back as it was.

Regardless of the Game Devil's further resets, it was Error who ultimately tricked Sugosugi into stopping the game by hacking into Sugosugi's true mind and generated scenarios where Roku was at his strongest. If he wanted to keep Roku here forever, all Error had to do was give him his perfect scenario. Sugosugi deleted himself and the game, unfortunately leading to Error being erased as well…

At last, the world is back. Now, Roku is determined to finish his manga so that anyone can read it, not just his warped childhood friend.

Equipment

Black Knight Gear

By job shifting into Black Knight (more on that later), he gains his trademark black armor and his sword. Now he looks like a real hero!

Phone

The Game Devil may have knocked out his phone's service, but it's become an essential tool for him in this day and age. The Black Knight lives in his device and he can use the phone to store items. It has a 'world map' of Japan that shows notable locations. The Game Devil can also send announcements through it.

Healing Herb

Ven explains it the best here.

Abilities

Black Knight

Roku can summon the Black Knight from his phone. The Black Knight is the Game Devil's archenemy who encrypted himself so that he's only visible to Roku. While the Black Knight wants to support Roku on his quest, Roku is the one doing most of the heavy lifting. Through a method called job shifting, Roku shifts to the form of his/job class and gains his arsenal. The Black Knight job is known for having a seriously high attack power, but is weak against large numbers of enemies. While he is invisible to everyone besides Roku, he is able to help Roku in combat on rare occasions. When facing against Ashida, the Black Knight manifested and helped Roku block a magic attack. The true identity of the Black Knight turns out to be Error, a hacker Roku befriended during the infinite resets, who sacrificed his physical body so Roku could retain his memories after resets. The Knight retains his memories after each reset of the game and never loses his stats. If he is deleted by the Game Devil, he gets sent to his database. Thanks to the Black Knight, Roku retains his memory and level after resets.

Statistics Amplification

As a player and survivor of the digitization wave, Roku has the potential to level up by killing enemies and bosses or completing quests. Unlike the usual protagonists that become stronger by leveling up, Roku has two separate levels. There's his personal player level and the Black Knight's job level. While Roku is able to level up during each playthrough, The Black Knight is always maxed out at 99. The rate of Roku's growth depends on on the height of his overall level. Since his job level is maxed out, his player level rises faster than the average player. His high class level also lets him kill targets with the maximum damage output consistently: 9999 hit points.

Resistances

• Reality warping (while the players are susceptible to becoming pixelated after they die, the Black Knight is impervious to the effects of the Game Devil's reality rewriting powers and can block Roku so he isn't affected by them. Roku later on resists it all on his own)
• Memory manipulation (thanks to Error, he now remembers events from previous runs)

Digital Storage

Much like your standard RPG, Roku has an inventory where he can store his items. Items he obtains can be stored as data inside his phone.

Regeneration (Low-Mid)

If Roku experiences any grave injuries in a fight, he instantly recovers max HP when he levels up. That's able to heal wounds as bad as severed limbs.

Data Physiology

As it turns out, everyone is already inside the Game Devil's game, having their matter turned into pure data. This allows for them to store bits of themselves in parts of the game that collect data, but results in them forfeiting their physical bodies and being sent into the Game Devil's world.

Forced Resets

If Roku's image of the Black Knight is destroyed in anyway, Roku has a breakdown and it triggers a complete reset of the game. Take Error's true identity for example. Roku doesn't remember Error before he became the Black Knight. If Error reveals who he is to Roku, he'd be outraged because the Black Knight is his own creation, not some kid or computer program.

Wind Manipulation

Roku can swing his sword so fast that the winds caused by his swipes can cut people

Flight

He's capable of this when he's at his max level

Techniques

Sword of Darkness

His job's special technique, Sword of Darkness deals lots of damage when he swings his blade.

Feats

Overall

• Spent 14 years dedicated to making his manga a reality
• Killed a boss goblin in one max-damage hit
• Grinded to reach level 18 by killing 1,000 goblins
• He killed Captain Death, an overpowered raid boss that had a countdown attack that could instantly kill people once it hit zero. Roku lost an arm in the process, but was able to kill him in one blow after Emimi buffed him
• Helped his party defeat a skeleton mob
• Instantly defeated a level 58 opponent, despite being level 31 at that point
• Blocked a spell from his level 96 mentor Ashida despite being level 31
• During one of his runs, he completely maxed out his stats and collected the best gear, outlasting all his party members with Error
• In one of his runs, he reached level 99,999
• Aided Error in defeating Sugosugi, the Game Devil and stopping the loops

Strength

• Sliced a cyclops in half that was twice his size
• Instantly hit a muscular player to the other side of an arena, making a small explosion
• The Black Knight's continued existence according to the Game Devil is a world-ending threat
• At a high enough level, he can cut through multiple buildings with a single strike
• When he reached level 99,999, the Game Devil surmised that his strength has reached the limits of his game world. Ven thinks of it as Roku having the potential to destroy this very world
• Exchanged blows with the giant Game Devil

Speed

• Scales to Ven, who has 949 agility, letting him move so fast he and his clones leave afterimages
• He can fly so fast that buildings break around him

Durability

• He fought valiantly even after his arm was sliced off
• The Black Knight was able to block a reality rewriting wave that simultaneously pixelated and wrecked Tokyo. Given the destruction mostly broke down many buildings, it could be in the town level range. Later Roku would endure the same sort of wave point blank and remained unaffected by it

Weaknesses

• Due to the class of the Black Knight, he Lacks AoE (area of effect, damages all targets in the area) attacks and is vulnerable to large groups of enemies
• Like in RPGs, he has a MP meter that lowers with each attack he performs. Once it's depleted enough, he can’t lift his arms to perform techniques that require it. He can restore loss MP with items or by leveling up
• He's incredibly stubborn and refuses to creatively branch away from his Black Knight story
• In the words of Ven, Roku is a meganoob

Matchup Potential

While the Game Devil is still in its early stages, a lot has happened plot-wise since it began and Roku already has a decent amount of content to work with. He may have a simple toolkit and I'm really not a fan of his character, but what interests me the most is the art direction potential. What if this was a hand drawn fight mixed with sprite elements? Not like Popeye vs Saitama where there's an entire animation style change. Instead, it could be set in a 16-bit world with hand drawn characters, and could have a lotta fun pixelated effects and soundbites. It could really lean into the whole video game centric aspect of the Game Devil's setting.

NEXT TIME ON WCAB… whenever I feel like it