In the 21st century, the companies involved in VRMMO creation produced one virtual world after another. From alternate dimensions to subterranean worlds, every setting possible was explored. Then, one long-established company created a revolutionary piece of software. Incorporating an ultra-fast general-purpose AI called R-Evo that made NPCs no different from actual humans; boasting an open-ended story system with over 10^52 branches; and achieving the previously impossible feat of reproducing all 5 senses, this game, which pursued the ultimate realism, entered the scene with a great splash. However, video games ought to be like video games. Humans ultimately play games for relaxation. There was no need for the struggles and strife of the real world in the picture. Thus, humanity arrived at a conclusion: Advanced VRMMO games are not fun. From then on, game makers returned to non-aggravating systems, and VRMMOs steadily lost the popularity of their golden age. The story that is about to unfold takes place 10 years after the release of that problematic game.
— Opening Narration of the first episode
Ordinary High-School Student Hiroshi Yuuki, a former track team star-turned-VR game junkie, is tricked into buying a ten-year-old VRMMO called Kiwame Quest by busty video game store manager Reona Kisaragi. When he enters the game, he is at first impressed with the hyper-realism of the game (like the feeling of wind blowing against his skin and replicating his taste buds). However, he quickly realizes that this effect also has its downsides, such as experiencing actual pain and injury when getting hit. That reason alone is why the game he bought lost popularity with players and, when Hiro encounters his first NPCs, things may only get worse from there...
Full Dive: This Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life! (Kyūkyoku Shinka shita Furu Daibu RPG ga Genjitsu yori mo Kusoge Dattara), shortened to just Full Dive, is a Light Novel series written by Light Tuchihi (The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious) and illustrated by Youta. First published in August 2020 by Media Factory, the series has released four volumes thus far.
It has a manga adaptation with art by Kino and an anime adaptation produced by ENGI, which aired from April 7 to June 23, 2021.
The series provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Hiro tackles Martin in a fit of rage, causing him to shove a knife through his throat, killing him instantly. He tries to explain to Alicia, who witnessed the incident, that he did not mean to kill him, but when she is clearly growing more angry and disturbed, he quickly bolts out the door, which clearly did not help alleviate her madness.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The R-Evo AI system in Kiwame Quest allows its NPCs to be no different from regular humans, being capable of thought, emotion, etc. on their own, especially based on whatever action the player character has done. Based on how Alicia reacted toward her brother's death at the hands of her Childhood Friend, it's clear that this is not exactly a good thing.
- Anti-Frustration Features: The complete lack of these is the primary reason why the game is so comically awful. Since it's hyper-realistic, it's a running gag that even basic things players expect to be streamlined for them are made agonizingly complex. For example, instead of healing items restoring health, the player has to prepare and accurately apply them to injuries, which then heal at a normal real world pace (read: days), making the item - to Hiro's chagrin - barely any better than not having it.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: After accidentally killing Martin, Hiro tries to calm a distraught Alicia down and asks her where the healing herbs are. She angrily asks him in turn what good an herb will do when Martin is already dead?
- Awesome, but Impractical: Smoke bombs are pretty cool weapons, but Hiro learns the hard way that they won't explode unless their fuse has been lit. As fires in the game are usually started with flint, Hiro angrily says there's no way he'd be able to light them in the heat of battle.
- Bittersweet Ending: At the end of the anime, Alicia is dead, and Hiro, despite gaining a Heroic Second Wind, is defeated by Tesla and Govern, and as a result, his console and game breaks. However, Hiro learns from Kamui that there is a secret technique to reset him back to where he died, and Reona gets him another console, therefore giving Hiro a second chance. It also borders on Cliffhanger. However, we do get to see how Hiro's time in Kiwame Quest has changed him for the better, such as him taking up running again.
- Casting Gag:
- Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Kamui's Japanese voice actor, has quite the experience voicing a skilled high schooler who completed a nearly impossible to beat deadly game.
- This isn't the first time Kayli Mills has provided the voice of a blonde childhood friend who initially likes the protagonist, but later antagonizes him.
- Fairouz Ai, Shiori Izawa, and Aoi Koga previously worked together in The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious, another series that was written by the same author.
- In the Japanese version, Kamui and Reona are Kirito and Leafa, respectively, which makes Kamui rejecting her even funnier.
- Central Theme: Self-improvement. Your abilities in the game are those you have in real life. So the only way to get stronger in game is to actually get stronger rather than killing mobs and gathering XP. It will take Hiro moving past his issues and becoming a better person in real life if he wants to beat the game.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Hiro's final battle against Tesla has shades of this. He manages to get a last minute powerup that enables him to fight Tesla on much better terms and even strikes a blow that would have been fatal, if not for the poor quality of Hiro's sword. It's also possible he would've potentially won or at the very least, given Tesla a much better fight, had Govern not interfered from behind and left Hiro open to get killed by Tesla.
- Deconstructive Parody: To the point of also invoking Spiritual Antithesis towards Sword Art Online and other VRMMO series of its ilk:
- While Sword Art Online celebrates full-dive hyperrealism as well as human-like artificial intelligence despite the Aincrad iteration being a "death game", Kiwame Quest is anything but, as the idea of simulated hyperrealism and human-like artificial intelligence is soundly mocked.
- The poorly designed nature of Kiwame Quest gets invoked in-universe, with elements that would have otherwise been handwaved away in other series, such as a character being locked into a single character account and feeling pain from the game, is enough to drive it into being a dead game after the player base Rage Quit.
- Hiro himself is a complete antithesis of the Stock Light-Novel Hero. As someone who plays video games as a NEET, he doesn't have any exceptional skills that make him stand out. And since real-world attributes translate to his avatar's skills, he has no special skills since he's literally just another teenager in the real world.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The four main girls sing the closing credits song in-character.
- Early Game Hell: The ultra-realism of Kiwame Quest and its complete lack of Anti-Frustration Features gives it a very steep learning curve. The early quests are presumably to get new players acclimated, but the game's Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay, players acting like they're already The Chosen One, and just plain bad luck can throw the story Off the Rails before they can understand the game mechanics.
- Honey Trap: Reona essentially uses this scheme to get Hiro to log back in Kiwame Quest in Episode 4, promising that she'll marry (and have sex with) him if he beats the game. It works.
- The Most Dangerous Video Game: The stakes are very real in Kiwame Quest as the player only gets one life, and if you die in the game, it spells death... for your console. You either win the game or it destroys your console "as a feature". Naturally, this led countless players to sue the company over the destruction of their property.
- NPC Road Block: Martin and Alicia end up acting as this, from Hiro's perspective. They, believing he has gone insane, try to prevent him from leaving the town of Ted due to the fact that it's illegal for anyone to leave the town. It ends horribly for both sides.
- Red Herring: When Kamui reveals in his guide that the probability of surviving in Kiwame Quest if one chooses to join Tesla as a mercenary after the first goblin attack is 0.1%, Hiro is shocked. He initially assumes that this is due the formidable power of the goblins that vastly outperforms a healthy human male in combat. As such, when the goblins launch a second raid after the five days of training are over, he decides to stay with Tesla, who has started a fight with a huge, strong goblin named One-Eye, assuming he's the reason why the chances of survival are so comically low. However, once Tesla kills One-Eye and reveals the truth behind the goblin attacks, Hiro realizes in horror that the reason why the mission has such low survival rate is not due to the goblins, but Tesla himself, who will eliminate anyone who discovers the truth about the conspiracy he and Govern have established.
- Sanity Slippage: To Martin and Alicia, Hiro seems to have gone completely insane when he asks to go outside the city and find Flora Castle, with the former trying to beat some sense back into him. Unfortunately, this ends up getting Martin killed, and Alicia herself quickly goes insane. When Hiro finally escapes the house, she chases him down like a rabid dog.
- Secret Test of Character: The game non too subtly forces self-improvement on its players by making the only way to get stronger in-game is to get stronger in the real world.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Kind of the premise of Kiwame Quest, where the game is realistic in nearly every way:
- Hiro learns the hard way that unlike in a regular game where his character would automatically get strength and skills, trying to fight while out of shape and with no training results in him getting his ass kicked. Also, combat doesn't use a turn system and Talking Is a Free Action is not in effect, so Hiro trying to boast or make dramatic speeches in the middle of a fight results in him getting punched in the face mid-sentence. When he finally starts taking sword lessons, he still gets his ass kicked since everyone has way more training and experience than him.
- Healing herbs do not revive the dead, and Hiro learns to his chagrin that like real medicine, they do not instantly heal injuries. Even using them must be done by hand, rather than the usual convention of double-tapping them.
- Hiro keeps dramatically declaring that he's the main character and the hero of the story. Instead of gaining respect, this just makes everybody think he's gone crazy. When he tries it on Amos, he says that everyone has tried that trick.
- Hiro is eventually declared innocent of murdering Martin, but this doesn't reset the public and Alicia's opinion of him, and they still hate him.
- Outside of the VR world, the game itself is extremely unpopular due to it embodying this. Most gamers don't want such intense realism in a game and play in order to escape reality. The result is the game being a massive flop that barely anybody does or has ever played. There's also the fact that dying in said game would intentionally destroy your console, which, for obvious reasons, got the developers sued.
- Defeat Equals Friendship is averted. While Hiro and Ginji do have a somewhat friendly moment after their fight, the latter points out that making friends after a brawl is "high school drama nonsense" and says they’re just two people who met while playing the same game. As such, Hiro decides that they’re enemies and elbows Ginji in the gut, also showing that taunting a younger person when you’re older and have gout is a bad idea.
- Hiro's fight against Tesla is full of these:
- Hiro has an epiphany that leads to an 11th-Hour Superpower, enabling him to overcome his opponent in raw might. Unfortunately, his equipment is still crap, meaning that it shatters on his enemy's superior armor.
- Hiro gains another last-minute powerup in the form of an Energy Weapon. This finally gives him the tools and confidence he needs to defeat his foe, but it turns out that his opponent's female partner is not a Neutral Female. While all she contributes to the battle is leaning her knees into the back of Hiro's legs, she does it at just the right time to let Tesla fatally wound him.
- Together in Death: Alicia, by now a full-blown Yandere, tells Hiro she basically plans to commit a murder-suicide (i.e. she'll kill him, then kill herself) so that the two can reunite with Martin and be friends again in the afterlife.
- Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: The entire reason the game is so barren in the first place. It was simply too realistic for the majority of gamers who play to escape reality.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: A variation when it comes to all of Hiro's tormentors Amos, Palù, and Granada getting their Laser-Guided Karma. Hiro isn't the one who goes out of his way to get revenge on them. It's actually Reona who does it for him without his knowledge. However, seeing them get their lives ruined doesn't make Hiro feel any better and he ends up feeling bad for them instead.
- Wham Episode: The last few minutes of Episode 11 shows the true colors off both Tesla and Govern: she is a power-hungry tyrant who keeps the city of Ted under her thumb while keeping the ruse of a dignified queen. Those goblins attacking the city? They are actually trying to save their relatives who have been kidnapped under the queen's orders, keeping the people away from the town itself. As for Tesla, he is willing to rule Ted alongside Govern and he is willing to enforce her orders, even if it means killing off the people who know their secret, which includes Hiro.
- Worse with Context: The circumstances of the game company behind Kiwame Quest going bankrupt: at first we're lead to believe that they just sunk too much money into the game and it underperformed, but later Reona reveals that they actually lost a bunch of lawsuits because of a flaw in the game's code that makes the console self-destruct when the player's character dies.
