I ended the Spiral Series before Z World ended.

I ended the first volume of Heiwa before Z World ended.

The game got rebooted before Z World ended. Twice.

There have been like fifteen format.

I'm having fun.

Ok look Im about to speedrun this book's review without rereading the entire thing because fuck my life, FGO farming has become my priority.

I'm gonna split this review into five parts for the sake of shortening my work load, because I still have to start Heiwa's second volume, and because it makes things easier to take apart:

-Zeroth Dragon Road Trip;

-Yozora vs Ayaza;

-Z World Protagonist Zeon;

-Yza vs Ryuusei;

-Grand Finale.

-Zeroth Dragon Road Trip-

Z World starts with the greatest prologue I ever read in my goddamn life. Younger Fox was popping off the right way. CFA base is the shit, fuck you, fight me.

So the first arc is about these masked figures searching for the Zeroth Dragons and use them to revive Gyze and the good guys trying to stop them, and it also introduces the new protagonist, Yozora Shinsei.

And Yozora gets cucked out of this world, like holy shit, this man doesn't get a break. He isn't even the best protagonist in his book.

Each Zeroth Dragon is in a certain place in the world, with Stark and Dust having their locations revealed in the first Ryuzaki OVA, those places being Russia and Portugal.

The book starts off with an explosive start, pun fully intended because dad humour is the only humour I have, with Ryuzaki and Yozora blitzing through the CFA Russia Base in order to get Stark, and through the use of the A to Z plans, beat the shit out of the guards and kill the CCEU's version of CFA's developer Rem. Fun stuff.

Prologue aside, Yozora ends up in the same school as the characters of the old book, who got cucked because screentime, and right after that, we meet the anti-hero of the book, Callum, who fyi, gets less cucked than Yozora.

Then spring break starts and big man Ryuzaki flies everyone to America, where Zeon becomes a siscon with Kristy and the Yozogauche memes begin. Ah, great days. This is also where we emet the first masked figure, the man with Drachma. But him, being as much of a loser as he is, loses Drachma and I forget his name. Oh well. (I have the chapter list next to me and saw his name was Inferno after I wrote this)

And the Zeroth Race officially begins!

And everyone fucks off somewhere else because of course they do!

A party goes to Malasya, where they get cucked by Callum's group, and this loser Masaru lsoes to fucking Silver Thorns. Dont worry, he isnt relevant after this.

But the girl who kicked his ass is. Izanoku, who sucks at cooking but is cool everywhere else.

Maxios is also there and he loses to Callum's Bladewings before he can stride. Why does this happen? Because Assassin was restricted yet.

Zak from the old book is also there and actually gets Zoa! Hurray for him!

Also the masked figure there was Aina, who's name I can actually remember.

Moving on from there, Europe time baby.

Ryuzaki and Yozora go to Portugal to get Dust but Callum cucks them. And thats it. The entire Portugal arc.

The England arc on the other hand last more time and basically reveals who the masked figures are, because a bri'ish girl they meet there snatches the mask of Sin, one of the masked figures, and reveals him to be on eof the people Backlion offed last book. This basically sets the idea of the masked figures being someone who died, which is then supported by the next masked figure, Spectre. No, not the tree hugger.

Spectre freezes people where they stand, and for anyone who actually bothered to read Forbbiden Chains, knows he's Shouri. But being a rejected mc isnt enough to stop Kotaro from yeeting him with jazz hands.

Whoever got Ultima, Im sorry for you, because Fox actually made the idea of Ryuzaki rubbing it in his balls before putting it in the Big Ben canon. Mans got strats.

Next up is the next masked figure, Magus! But fuck that, it means shit when Ryuzaki is narrating! LETS GOOOOOOOO!

Magus doesnt use Magus and Callum fucking yeets her out of the plot, moving on.

Not Moegiddo time in China, Ryuzaki tells Yozora and his girlfriend Chiharu to go get their fuck on while the crew gets the dragon, and Trio gets a dub against- What was his name again... Oh, he beat Magus, not the NK guy. Well then. Good for him.

Also Max returns to the plot to do something.

Plot ensues, everybody loses the Zeroths to the masked figures, Yzora gets kidnapped and then brought back, and then Ryuzaki and Callum have one of the best chapter of the book, because goddamn it was moist. Putting it on the Moist Meter, its a good 95%. Why not a hundred? Because it has Ryuzaki and I dont need to sound more bias than what I already am.

Gyza is back, crab raaaaaaaaaaaave and he takes the body of a loli. Well then.

Callum fights Gyze but gets yeeted, Ryuzaki fights Gyze and gets yeeted, Yozora fights Gyze and doesnt get yeeted.

Gyze is gone, crab raaaaaaaaaave and the loli he took is in critical condition.

Then Ryuzaki drops the 'You're Yza' bomb that anyone kinda knew already because Arashi cant keep his mouth shut about spoilers and scene.

Z World's first half is pretty pog, and my review probably sounds more like a plot sypnosis than ana ctual review because it ended ages ago. Moving on.

-Yozora vs Yza-

The second half of the book begins... And it can be resumed like this.

A new guy arrives at the school but he'll remain unnamed until we get to Zeon's section, Ayato reveals Yza is probably at Cray and Ayaza was the big bad guy behind the revivals because he's Overlord. Yeah, good guy pussy, now there's an egg rulling DE.

Oh right, the plot.

Zeon becomes the MC, even during this part, and makes a portal to Cray. He and Shika, who now has a girlfriend, yeet themselves to Cray, world build Cray ten times better than the book that happens in Cray actually did, Backlion flexes might is right on Sin's bitch ass and then Yozora fights Ayaza.

The fight was honestly pretty good, but overshadowed by what was to come, to the point where I forgot what the OST used was and then accidently used it for Gin vs fucking Sakuya. Oh yeah, this is big brain time.

-Z World Protagonist Zeon-

So Zeon becomes the protag. And utterly annihilates Yozora as a protag. And supporrs the Handfight Throwguard meme that all the books ended up doing. Maybe he wasnt that good of a MC...

Nah, he was the real MC of this book, dont @ me.

Jokes aside, Zeon gets alot of light in the second half of the book, so much that he gets to protagonist levels of good. His love for Rukia, while sad most of the time, is the driving force of the plot, which then explodes into his fight with Kakusei, making one of the best chapters of the book, and then ending the arc in one of the other best chapters of Z World. Overall, Zeon amde Yozora vs Ayaza seem like nothing.

It's a shame that ZeKia didnt go canon, because Zeon really did deserve it.

-Yza vs Ryuusei-

In another words, chapter 71.

Z World -if- was honestly great, an alternative world where Yza takes Yozora's place and the whole story changes? Holy shit, it was great. And seeing Yozora being destroyed by this new world that was just in his mind was truly frightening.

But then everything goes to shit. Because time contraints and overDress on the horizon, a large portion of the books gets shrinked, and instead of Yza having another personality, you get Ryuusei Kirukiru. And he's the worst character I ever read in Fox's stories. Even Yukina is somehow better and I can't believe Im saying it.

Yza fights Ryuusei, who's bitchass is jsut cheating, but in their fight we get one of my favourite moments of the entire book, that being the history of Stardust Knights. That world building made me hard, I love world building like that, I applaud Fox's work and would give him a prize in person if the world wasnt cucked.

Another great aspect of the fight is how Yza's imagination projects his friends as units, and when we get to a point where even Yuuto shows up, I applaud. It was really good.

But another bad aspect was the cards. The entire fight was made of fan-cards, alot of them broken beyond belief, to the point of making Pendragon be a vanilla. And saying 'But it was for the final fight, it made it cool' isnt an excuse for shitty card making. The overpowered cards were a major turn-off of the fight.

If you ignore Ryuusei's worthless personality, cheating and the skills of the card, you have a really good chapter.

-Grand Finale-

AH yes, all the loose end tying and stuff. Overall, the ending for Z World is great.

Yza returns, gets the world saving succ from Rukia and makes peace with his personalities, even Ryuusei for some ungodly reason, and we get all the branch manager and clan leader stuff. Hell, even Ayaza gets redeemed, really good.

But then.

Oh, but then.

We get to the festival, and like Smash, everyone is here.

The festival chapter begins Z World's tradition of throwing away logic and making a giant meme, and goddamn, I love it.

From an out of nowhere underground story, to Yza publishing his book, TO THE CHAD, THE TRU STRONG MAN KIDANI SHOWING UP, the festival chapter is the peak of all things godly.

Everyone is there and everyone gets a happy ending. Shour gets a gf, Yza goes out with Rukia, Fubuki meets his future wife, the carrot inflation, Ira still being irrelevant and going to jail for stealing signs, and so, so, so many other things. For more that I'd love to say it all, its best if you go read it.

And yo, if you really like references, then you'll love this chapter. Yza meets a man built so different that his dick makes not one but two second gen protags.

And hey, some stories might have their protagonists ascend to godhood, but do they have Kidani?

And the final chapter, Good Game.

Even if most of it was a meme to some degree, it still was a great finale.

The truth beyond CFA, the future of the underground fighters, Yza and Ryuzaki simping for rem-chan like me and Fox simp for hot girls, but also Ryuusei getting a job as the new underground king, which in my opinion is kind of a turn off because he was a jackass, he probably doesnt deserve a good ending. However, I guess that is fine too, because in the end, even Yza accepted Ryuusei as his negative, something more people should do.

And Yza and Yozora finally finding peces among themselves, ending the story as they start another game of Vanguard, the game that connects everyone in the CCEU, just like the yggdrasil that blooms in V22.

It's not a lie that alot of things in Z World aged very poorly, I mean we're about to enter a second reboot for the game, but even so, you want to read a classic Vanguard story, then why not try Z World? I can assure you that it aged ten times better than Cray's Collapse.

Even if the start or the middle feel off to you, the ending is something you are sure to love, because it embodies how Vanguard can connect people everywhere. I'd use the V22 line again, but one time is enough.

I skimmed through the plot alot, and this review might not be very good, but still, go read Z World. It aint that bad.

To end the review, allow to me quote the story:

"At the very least, this city will never betray us. So live desperately! Your story is never decided until the very end."

I'm Shida, doing bad reviews whenever I have the time or mood for it. So see ya.

P.S: Go work on Generations and make the Spiral Soul arc 3 review or else somebody is gonna catch these hands.

I cant be assed to make a meme for this so have the Ishigami meme. There is no meme, now make the SS review and shit on me ripping off romcoms for an entire arc.

Jokes aside, you did good, man. Good luck on Generations.