The Kings Avatar Live Action (Quanzhi Goushou) Review of Episode 2 Still Amazing!

After the last awesome episode (by the way, you can see a list of the latest episode reviews here: Kings Avatar Live Action News & Reviews Thread), this weeks show had to be really special to keep up the excitement. This can’t be a drama, it needs to be more of a thriller!  I actually had a sneak peak at this episode before completing the review of the last show. I couldn’t help it.  It looked great and possibly even better – and it is.  If you liked the last episode, you will love this one too.  The story is developing very nicely and although there are slight differences between the anime series (see HERE for background information about the saga), they aren’t too bad.

The commitment from Tencent Penguin Pictures is very clear and the high production values of the first episode continue into the second.  Particularly the mixture between 3d animation (during the gameplay and the live action drama.  It seems quite natural to transition between both mediums and the story is enhanced because of how well this is done.

The story moved along at a great pace, there was no part of the episode that was a little boring or even too slow.  If anything, it was difficult to keep up at times although that may have been because of the poor quality of subtitles.

If I would criticize anything in this episode it’s that the humour is pretty stoopid.  They need to get someone who can direct comedy sketches because writing crew and director were struggling.  Also, non Chinese speakers like me are struggling with the subtitles which seem to be auto generated and much of the story subtleties are lost in the translation.  I’ve tried to put together a list of the main characters so that you can identify their names, ID’s and the groups they are affiliated with.  Hopefully it will help you understand this great story.

Key Players Appearing In This Episode

Name:  Ye Xiu ID:  Lord Grim (Jun Mo Xiao) Class:  Un-Specified Guild:  Unassigned (sometimes plays as member of Lanxi Pavilion).  Once known as Fighting God Ye Qui when he was with Excellent Era (Jiashi).  He now works for Chen Guo who does not know he was once Ye Qui (who was her idol).

Name:  Chen Guo ID:  Chasing Haze Class:  Gunner Guild:  Unassigned. Manager Happy Internet Cafe (pet name of GuoGuo by Tang Rou).  She is a very enthusiastic supporter and player of Glory but we rarely see Chen Guo win a match.

Name:  Tang Rou ID:  Soft Mist Class:  Battlemage Guild:  Unassigned. Tang Rou is affectionately called Xiao Tang (Little Tang) by Chen Guo. She originally thought that Glory was boring but was beaten by Ye Xiu in a duel and has vowed to get even.

Name:  Bao Rongxing ID:  Steamed Bun Class:  Ranger/Brawler Guild:  Unassigned. Works in a warehouse. Unusual way of playing but quick and agile fighter with a good sense of spacial awareness.  His ambition is to game professionally.

Name:  Tao Zuan ID:  N/A Class:  N/A Guild:  Team Boss of Excellent Era (Jiashi).  Committed to making the guild the best and most profitable.  He is ruthless enough to fire his star player (Ye Xiu) because he thought it is what the sponsors would have wanted.

Name:  Sun Xiang ID:  Autumn Leaf Class:  Battlemage Guild:  Excellent Era (Jiashi).  Is new to Excellent Era which was handed to him after it was taken away from Ye Xiu. His  previous class was a Berserker.  He is not very popular with Su Mucheng.

Name:  Su Mucheng ID:  Dancing Rain Class:  Gunner Guild:  Excellent Era (Jiashi).  Childhood friend and staunch ally of Ye Xiu and his biggest supporter.  She is a exceptional Gunner who is rated as the best in the game.

Name:  Chen Yehui ID:  Darkest Shadow Class:  Spellblade Guild: Excellent Era (Jiashi).  All round scumbag.   Rarely wins his battles and although considered a good solo player, does not do well in a team.  He bares a grudge against Ye Xiu who once threw him out of the team for selfish play.

Name:  Chang Xian ID:  Sleeping Moon (aka Little Moon) Class:  Swordsman Guild:  Full Moon (Yue Lun) a lesser known guild new to the 10th Server. Captain and Boss . Little Moon is a journalist intern and huge fan of Ye Qui – but he doesn’t know he is Ye Xiu (the Network Manager of the Happy Internet Cafe

Name:  Yu Wenzhou ID:  Swoksaar  Class:  Warlock Guild:  Blue Rain (Lan Yu).  Very highly respected player and venerable team captain of Blue Rain.  Accomplished tactical player known as one of the Four Tactician Masters in Glory

Name:  Huang Shaotian ID:  Troubling Rain Class:  Swordsman Guild: Blue Rain (Lan Yu).  Vice-captain of Blue Rain.  Is sometimes used as a weapon to disorientate his opponents with his quick speech and aggressive, antagonistic banter.

Name:  Xu Boyuan ID:  Blue River Class:  Swordsman Guild:  Blue Brook aka Lanxi Pavilion (I think this is an affiliate of Blue Rain Guild on the 10th Server as they have the same logo).  Team Captain. A well respected player. One of the top swordsmen on the 10th Server.

Name:  Xi Zhou ID:  Bound Boat Class:  Cleric Guild:  Blue Brook aka Lanxi Pavilion (I think this is an affiliate of Blue Rain Guild on the 10th Server as they have the same logo). Vice Captain.  Friend and of Xu Boyuan. Can sometimes seem disrespectful, but is always there to support and carries out Xu Boyan’s requests, usually without question.

This episode opens with Ye Xiu asking Chen Guo for a job in the Happy Internet Cafe.

It turns out that he has no skills for the job that he is applying for but Chen Guo was very impressed with his skills at playing Glory and she offers him the job.  As with the Guild he just left, Ye Xiu is able to stay in a room on the site of the Internet Cafe and although the room isn’t particularly pleasant, it has a bed and is warm enough. Ye Xiu is quite pleased to accept the job offer.

Later, when he goes to bed, he dreams of life at his old guild and wakes up late for work at his new job.  When he gets downstairs, the Internet Cafe is busy and he tries not to be noticed by the boss.  It doesn’t work and she asks him to change a lightbulb.  This next sequence was really badly handled and a bit silly.  He changes the bulb but it doesn’t work. He tries to check the fuse box and blows a trip switch. For some peculiar reason this means that everyone has to leave and the the Internet Cafe must close for the rest of the morning.  Very silly! A trip switch would only have caused a few moments delay while the computers booted up again. Anyway, because the Happy Internet Cafe had to close for the morning, he theoretically now owes the boss a lot of lost revenue and I guess the point of the story is that Ye Xiu had got off to a bad start in his new job.

Meanwhile later in the day a rather precocious journalist intern called Chang Xian is being thrown out of the Jaishi building. He was supposed to be getting information about the recent tournament win of the Autumn Leaf team but was thrown out – we don’t know why. He sulks for a few moments before going across the road and into the Happy Internet Cafe.  He gets his account and login details set up after Ye Xiu messes things up and he settles down to play Glory.

He is in a bad mood and decides to get his character a ‘first kill’ (the first time a difficult boss is killed on that server) by using new players as bait for the boss so that they can be killed while at the same time doing enough damage to let him finish off the boss and take all the glory (and loot), His character is called Sleeping Moon.

Moon manages to find a few new players and explains the concept of attack and keeping aggro or hatred (where you ensure that you keep hitting the boss enough that they are taunted by you and follow you around while others hit it, then others aggro the boss and the share the damage but are able to increase the damage done). Ye Xiu logs into the server and decides to play his new character Jun Moxiao (I think that is translated to Lord Grim as it was called in the Anime version). They head out to kill the Cat Demon.

When it finally attacks, Lord Grim holds off attacking while Moon and his new pals attack the beast and most are quickly killed.  Moon is also taking a beating and when Jun Moxiao reveals that he knows Moon’s plan and that it is he who will take the kill and the loot, Moon gets very annoyed and shouts – then dies. To Moons further distress, Lord Grim then kills the Cat Demon and takes the First Kill of Forrest Green achievement and the loot (which can be used to upgrade his weapon).

Moon is livid but he gets a telephone call about a report that is due and has to leave for work.   Ye Qui gets up and continues his job as an Internet Cafe manager…. badly.

Meanwhile, back at the Autumn Leaf guild that recently threw out it’s star player. The replacement star player, Sun Xiang is getting cold feet about talking to the press.  He is worried that the love for Ye Qui will be too great and that he will get a harsh reception. The boss explains that it won’t make a difference in a few months, nobody will remember the now retired Ye Qui.

Meanwhile, Moon is trying to get into the Jaishi (Autumn Leaf) building to attend the press conference.  He only manages to get in because he hides behind a large bunch of flowers.

In the Internet Cafe, Chen Guo is preparing herself for the press conference and hopes to see her favourite player, the venerable Fighting God Ye Qui, but we all know that’s not going to happen don’t we.  She chastises Ye Xiu for being a clutz around the Internet Cafe. The press conference begins and the requirement of Ye Qui is announced.  Although Sun Xiang gives a very eloquent speech to introduce himself and his objectives for the guild and the Autumn Leaf team, Chen Guo is not very impressed and Moon, who is hanging out with the press throws his flowers at the panel telling them the Autumn Leaf belongs to Ye Qui!

It seems everyone is against the eloquence of Sun Xiang except Ye Xiu who was watching the announcement on the tv screen in the Happy Internet Cafe.  He feels that the game is changing all the time and that there is always room for new blood.  But older players can also adapt and improve, new players don’t have a monopoly of greatness.  “We won’t know until we fight, ” he tells Chen Guo.  She agrees with him.

Moon returns to the Happy Internet Cafe and is in a bad mood,  Worse still, he finds that everyone is talking about Lord Grims amazing kill. Moon badmouths Lord Drim in game and when Lord Grim finds out, he asks the group to come unto another dungeon for another first kill attempt on a different boss.  He tells them that he will pull agro this time and ensure he hits the boss first.  The rest agree and secretly scheme that they will just let him die and then claim the rewards and first kill (yeah, like those guys could kill a boss!)

The next boss is a spider monster, are really big and scary one! As promised, Lord Grim opens the battle with a volley from his 1000 Machine Umbrella.

Just as he is about to make a huge strike at the monster, Chen Guo moves his mouse away and gives him an errand to do.

The rest of his team look on slightly alarmed as the see Lord Grims HP (health points) going down because of the Spider Monsters attacks.

The ending of the episode is a total cliffhanger.  Lord Grim has been beaten by his real life boss who is asking him to do some mundane chores like put on videos of (that-old-has-been) Ye Qui for the benefit of other Glory players in the Internet Cafe as they might find it inspirational. Meanwhile, Ye Xiu can see on his monitor in the distance, his character, Lord Grim being beaten up by a Spider Monster.

Another really good episode.  The humour sucked-pants to be honest, but that’s the only poor part of the show.  Yang Yangs is settling into his role effectively and the lovely  Maggie Jiang brings a charm and fun aspect to the show that the forced comedy sketches missed out completely. I have already seen parts of the third episode and that looks amazing too.  I can’t rate this less that 9.2 again, it would be higher if they hadn’t tried to add some poor comedic scenes that came across as fabricated nonsense.

Yep a deservedly massive 9.2 out of 10!  What did you think?  

(by the way, you can review this show yourself by clicking on the Users tab in the review block at the top of the page.  You don’t need to register and we’d love to see what you too thought of the show.)

The Kings Avatar (Quanzhi Goushou) Episode 1 Review is HERE.

Latest Episode Reviews and News is here: Kings Avatar Live Action News & Reviews Thread

The pictures, story, news details and everything else about the Kings Avatar Live action TV series are copyright Tencent Penguin Pictures, Linmon Pictures and Phoenix Entertainment. All rights reserved.

This article is copyright Tony Fawl and not for reproduction without the authors express permission.

Thanks to the very cool Raphael Canaris for the following clarifications in this review: Sleeping Moon’s live character name is Chang Xian and the in this live action version of the story,  Chen Yehui plays a Spellblade and not a Battlemage – he played a  Battlemage in other adaptations of the saga.