High School DxD Light Novel - DX.4 (Volume 23.5)

[Tbolt]

I will agree with you BL but to a point about improving themselves. But in winning you don't improve it just puts a point to the things you did have worked.

[Lucidrago]

Originally Posted by Tbolt

Yep I sure do Rias beat Sona, one on one.

And how does Ise's reviews up to now have anything to do with anything imporant, as someone said "these are just fun matches" so what ever the commentators or fan's think means absolutely nothing

Only his first three matches had bad reviews. It's not about him winning or losing. It's just that for those first three matches, it should have been a clean, smooth victory for his team. Yet they slipped up, allowed their opponent to find openings, etc. That's where the bad reviews were coming from. Sona had good reviews for her Rating Game in Volume 5 even though she lost. For Rating Games, it's not as much about winning or losing as it is showing a good performance. But there haven't been any bad reviews after his match with Barakiel.

@Tbolt And why do you think that Saji has nothing? Saji has four Sacred Gears, Vritra's soul, and his Balance Breaker. Oh wait. He doesn't have a Longinus like Issei and Vali and doesn't have Ophis' power like those two. One is that Issei ISN'T going to use DxD G. That would be overkill. And plus Sona could possibly have countermeasures against it. And two Saji isn't someone to be approach carelessly or recklessly. Yes, Issei would win. But you're mistaken if it's going to be some one-sided curbstomp. Remember the Gremory vs Sitri Rating Game? Saji didn't have 4 Sacred Gears or a Balance Breaker and yet he still gave Issei trouble. Even if Issei wasn't using his full power, Saji was still holding his ground. If it was some regular technique-type, then yeah Issei could easily defeat him. Saji actually held his own against a Satan-class opponent like Bedeze Abbadon. Issei is the last one that would underestimate Saji.

[B214]

Originally Posted by Tbolt

And how does Ise's reviews up to now have anything to do with anything imporant, as someone said "these are just fun matches" so what ever the commentators or fan's think means absolutely nothing

The preliminary round works base on points, so better review = more points, bad review = less points. There's thousands of team in this tournament, there could be teams that goes undefeated due to facing weaker opponents and teams that loses matches due to facing powerful opponents. So ultimately the reviews becomes the determinant on who moves to the top 16.

[Lucidrago]

True. So while winning matches will help you gain points, getting easy victories like Rias' team isn't really giving her a whole lot of points. She would need to beat a team with more points than her or a team with extremely strong members that could give her trouble. Winning all those easy matches will mean nothing to Rias if she really isn't facing anyone of significance and her score isn't enough to get her in the Top 16 by the end of the tournament. Issei has faced Barakiel's team and Dulio's team. And he's about to face Sona's team and Team God Alliance. While the tournament has only one month left till it ends and Rias is now just only facing someone of significance which is Vali. Rias could increase her number of wins and get in the Top 16 that way and just get lucky and get opponents that aren't on her team's level. But is that really helping her along? For example, would Sona's and Seekvaira's score have gone down that much considering they faced god teams where it was kind of clear who would be the victor? Now if Issei beats Team God Alliance, even if they had a lower score, his score would skyrocket due to them being a team of powerful gods.

[Sparda4]

Originally Posted by Lucidrago

@Tbolt And why do you think that Saji has nothing? Saji has four Sacred Gears, Vritra's soul, and his Balance Breaker. Oh wait. He doesn't have a Longinus like Issei and Vali and doesn't have Ophis' power like those two. One is that Issei ISN'T going to use DxD G. That would be overkill. And plus Sona could possibly have countermeasures against it. And two Saji isn't someone to be approach carelessly or recklessly. Yes, Issei would win. But you're mistaken if it's going to be some one-sided curbstomp. Remember the Gremory vs Sitri Rating Game? Saji didn't have 4 Sacred Gears or a Balance Breaker and yet he still gave Issei trouble. Even if Issei wasn't using his full power, Saji was still holding his ground. If it was some regular technique-type, then yeah Issei could easily defeat him. Saji actually held his own against a Satan-class opponent like Bedeze Abbadon. Issei is the last one that would underestimate Saji.

Agreed and here's another point Saji has a balance breaker that combines all 4 SG's into one. But he still has the potencial to achive a balance breaker with each individual SG and it is even possible Saji can gain something similar to triaina and CCQ.

@Tbolt And i can see your underestimating Saji but everyone has preferences so i'm not going to tell you what to like.

[DragonOsman]

@Lucidrago: Actually, with the Barakiel fight, all that happened was that the line "To the majority of teams, they are a simple and straightforward terror" was added to everything else people were saying about him and his team. What was already being said didn't change, and it stayed the same actually. Go back and read again, and you'll see what I mean. Where are you guys getting the idea that his reviews got better after he defeated Barakiel? That didn't happen. Not from what I remember.

Here's the quote about it from the end of Volume 22 Life.5:

Originally Posted by Volume 22 Life.5

After this game, the opinions of the critics changed. The voices pointing out that we were not familiar with strategy, and that our experience of the games was shallow did not change, but this was added on to the end of all that.
—To the majority of teams, they are a simple and straightforward terror.

See? Can you say from looking at this that their reviews are better?

And Tbolt, as others have said, considering the fact that they're called Rating Games, the ratings and reviews do matter. Don't conveniently forget stuff just to trash Saji.

@Sparda4: I mostly agree, though I'm not sure about him getting something like Triaina and Cardinal Crimson Queen. They were supposed to be a way for Ise to find an alternative to Juggernaut Drive, which is supposed to be the Heavenly Dragon Sacred Gears' equivalent of Breakdown the Beast. As such, since I find it unlikely for Saji to be able to awaken Breakdown the Beast, I also find it unlikely for him to awaken something similar to Triaina and Cardinal Crimson Queen. But let's wait and see either way because I could turn out to be wrong.

If it's just about him getting his Evil Pieces mutated and gaining Promotion forms with Vritra's power, like the Triaina and Cardinal Crimson Queen, then that I can see.

[Tbolt]

Well everyone wishing that Saji will suddenly raise above Ise is fine but they will always end up being the people standing in a field yelling "Were number two, Were number two". But oh well I just like reading what people pull out of their...head.

And Osman these are not official rating games, And don't forget what you want to happen means absolutely 0.

[DragonOsman]

I don't agree with the thought that Saji can surpass Ise. I'm saying Ise will beat him, but that if he isn't careful, it could turn out like the Gremory vs. Sitri match again where Ise ended up retiring because of what Saji had done. The bad thing about here is that if he retired in this match, he'll make his whole team lose. Because he's a King here.

Edit: Also, I added this to the end of my post:

If it's just about him getting his Evil Pieces mutated and gaining Promotion forms with Vritra's power, like the Triaina and Cardinal Crimson Queen, then that I can see.

[Sparda4]

I'm not saying i want Saji to be stronger then Issei ( That's impossible to begin with even before Issei got his new body) i've said this a few times already but i guess i'll say it again. Power distribution aka MC get's a powerup everybody around him needs to get one also from main characters to side ones this is how it needs to be unless a character has a cap that has been set for them.

[DragonOsman]

What will you do if Saji's cap has already been reached? Or if it's kind of low and will be reached very soon?

[Sparda4]

I doubt that Saji's cap has been reached and it wouldn't make sense story wise, where not at the final battle stage so there's still room for improvement. When you reach the final boss then you get the series end power level and the cap along with it, we're not on the final boss so everybody has more room for improvement.

[B214]

^Agree.

I don't think Ishibumi will let Ise and his close allies reach their cap now. At least not for another decade or so.

[DragonOsman]

Another decade in-story, you mean? Though Ise's probably still improving three decades from now in-story, and it'd be good if Saji can also keep improving at that point.

But I mean, Saji's power comes from Vritra. And he has no blessings from Ophis or Great Red like Ise and Vali do. Where will he get more power-ups after he's reached the cap of Vritra's power?

[Sparda4]

Saji is a technique type and with him learning and later mastering it and through learning how to get to know techniques better he can learn more techniques like magic techniques or even demon power techniques.

[Hakai]

He's a Sacred Gear user, they're known to evolve according to user's wish and they get more powerful with strong emotions(of course there's a limit, for each).

He can also improve his basic Devil abilities/physical strength with continuous training.

I can see him surpassing Vritra's original strength eventually tbh.

[DragonOsman]

Yeah, you're right. It'd be great if that happened. Would be good to see how strong he can get.

[Sparda4]

Oh yeah i forgot the Balance Breaker sub species that's something Saji could do (It's kinda ironic that everyone around Issei and Vali with a few exceptions are sub species SG users) Azazel did say it's possible for anyone to do it but it seems Issei and Vali don't have the time (and luck) to create one. It's kinda funny if you think about it.

[DragonOsman]

They probably have the luck, but yeah, I can agree about the time. But can they really make a sub-species Balance Breaker when they already have the normal kind? And it's the same for Saji if I'm not mistaken, though I guess he could just get individual Balance Breaker forms for each of the four Sacred Gears he has like you've said. If he can make one or more, if not all, of those ones a sub-species Balance Breaker, and he does so, you'll have gotten your wish.

[Sparda4]

Yeah but even i know that with the max for the series as a WHOLE is <30 or is 30 volumes the chances of Saji getting all 4 Balance Breakers and to get them on the level where Malebolge Vritra Promotion is now are very low. Him getting all 4 Balance Breakers that i can see but the odds of them reaching Malebolge's level is slim at best.

[Lucidrago]

And plus him using all 4 of his Sacred Gears and combining them into one Balance Breaker would be way stronger than having individual Balance Breakers for each Sacred Gear. Saji could definitely reach Satan-class levels of power as he is now because none of Issei's allies have reached their cap so far with Saji probably being able to overwhelm some Ultimate-class devils. Now he's not going to reach Super Devil levels of power like those that have a Longinus but he could still be one of the strongest devils in the Underworld. If the creator just gave him power-ups now, it would be asspullish and would just make the series like Bleach. Where suddenly the characters are just suddenly getting power-ups out the ass just because. I could see Saji having some new techniques and using his power better and gradually getting stronger, but that's it.