It's the year 2043. Infinite Dendrogram the long awaited VR online game has just been released, a virtual open world where you can take on whatever role you liked. Every player's actions affected the virtual world. Reiji Mukudori had been anticipating the game for some time and right after signing up as "Ray Starling" he encounters his first quest to rescue the young sister of one of the Royal Guards. It was a high level quest but fortunately for him, his older brother Shu was high level enough to help him out.

Despite being a low level newbie, Ray was determined to save the NPCs known as "Tians" in the game, as death for Tians were permanent and he wasn't going to let a innocent virtual inhabitant die. As he continues his adventure with his newborn rare Maiden-Arms type Embryo partner, "Nemesis", he begins to wonder if he'll still be playing for long when the game feels so emotionally real and so much killing surrounds him.

So another online VR game world show based on a light novel, this one from back in 2015 about 5 years after SAO. It doesn't feel like it's in the same caliber as .hack//Sign, Sword Art Online or Log Horizon because it's filled with cliche characters but at least they're fun to watch. I mean you've got a silly over powered "bear" that's designed with an obvious Doraemon reference. Then you have Nemesis with her non-stop bragging.

It's a cliche cast of characters but it's also not afraid of making fun of its own cliches.

First episode gives you a grand welcome to the VR game which I think would have been great if current MMOs could match. You can also relate to a lot of other things in the show if you're into JRPGs. Lots of talk about stats, buffs, skills etc the kind of chat you'd do when playing RPGs. Action scenes feel very much like a game, not much choreography for the viewer to appreciate the moves, just a bunch of flashy moves. Surprisingly you'd think there'll be a lot of fan service but there's only one short scene.

For the most part, it's pretty much just watching your average JRPG playthrough as an Anime. Silly characters to entertain but no intricate plot or tactics to make it stand out. However, half way through the show gets a bit more interesting as it becomes less game-like, focusing less on boss fights and quests and, more on bigger scale battles and the characters.

While SAO is more about a VR game that traps real world humans inside, this story focuses more on how engrossed real world players can get. To achieve this it even often reminds you Ray is in a game world.

If you don't like JRPGs then you'll probably won't like this and agree with Ray's motto, "It doesn't settle well with me."