Liar Game Chapter 158 Discussion/159 Prediction

[Josef K.]

This is the thread where you discuss the current chapter of Liar Game.

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[Mike050]

I guess this forum is pretty slow?

Liar Game is one of the most intriguing works out there, it's like a more adult version of Detective Conan/Gamble Fish, something that really gives readers both clues how to solve situations and the final payoff.

Just amazing stuff.

[Josef K.]

Well not everyone reads it that way though. The game itself is fun but how the characters cope with it is more fun. At the beginning Kaitani tried to give the series "neutrality", but when we explore the characters more, and with the new concept of the hearts of people coming into play, we tend to lose track of the lgical aspects of the game.


Now this chapter was not that good, after Kimura is revealed to be the true leader these two chapters have been slow, though I guess we need to hurry up with the next move already so we can have a new scenario to talk about. Akiyama's plan better happen in the next two chapters.

[Reclaimer]

First place gets 100 million per player that ends the game unranked. Akiyama has 596 coins. Chasing 1st place only makes sense if he can make more than it would cost which is almost impossible. Assuming he stands pat and gets 3rd, he ends up with 506 million after the 10 million 3rd place bonus and the returning 100 million. Assuming it cost him all his coins to get 1st place, it would take 7 players ending the game unranked for him to make more than doing nothing. Now if he can get 1st in such a way that the money transfers to his allies rather than the cult, it might make sense to do it, but this is not a game to chase the money and hasn't been since the beginning. Kaitani is just wasting time.

[kkck]

I guess this forum is pretty slow?

Liar Game is one of the most intriguing works out there, it's like a more adult version of Detective Conan/Gamble Fish, something that really gives readers both clues how to solve situations and the final payoff.

Just amazing stuff.

Well, the current game is a tad less interesting than past ones and a big part of the issue is that the last few chapters have not focused on the game itself. Admittedly I have not been as attentive to the last arc as to the previous one, I keep forgetting details of the mechanics of how the game works. To boot they went as far as making samue, one of the main contestants, even less interesting...

[Reclaimer]

The constant breaks don't help the arc to gain momentum either.

[Josef K.]

Added a poll, these breaks really are getting annoying, it feels bi-weekly for some reason now.

[Reclaimer]

I kind of wonder if that is their plan. Not necessarily to become a bi-weekly series but to give Kaitani consistent breaks. e.g. if a normal series publishes 45 chapters a year, expect 35 from him. That would still be annoying, but it would be a lot better for the fans than 6-month hiatuses for no apparent reason.

[kkck]

Well, I do wonder what akiyama's plan is. So far they made it clear that under any circumstance harimoto will complete his straight flush and get first place. I wonder if it will come down to power play again although since that was done I have my doubts about it. The interesting part about this is that samue and kimura could end up being kicked out of the game altogether. It just got to me now. What happens if no one bids for certain things? Samue has to get certain cards and get rid of certain cards so he will need people to big for some of his lots. Perhaps akiyama plans on setting things up so that no one bids for the lots which his followers have to get rid of thus making them pigs? Not sure what the rules say about that.

[Reclaimer]

Well, I do wonder what akiyama's plan is. So far they made it clear that under any circumstance harimoto will complete his straight flush and get first place. I wonder if it will come down to power play again although since that was done I have my doubts about it. The interesting part about this is that samue and kimura could end up being kicked out of the game altogether. It just got to me now. What happens if no one bids for certain things? Samue has to get certain cards and get rid of certain cards so he will need people to big for some of his lots. Perhaps akiyama plans on setting things up so that no one bids for the lots which his followers have to get rid of thus making them pigs? Not sure what the rules say about that.

If no one bids on a card, it returns to the person who discarded it. Also, having more than 5 cards is not an issue. (That was explicitly mentioned when they went over the rules.)

[kkck]

Having more than 5 cards at the end causes no problems? I thought I read that somewhere... too lazy to look for the chapter though. Still, screwing harimoto's group into keeping all their cards would have been brilliant.

[Valiowk]

Here's my take on things. The minimum goal for the non-Harimoto side is for them to end the game with a total of 596 + 230 + 151 + 190 + 67 + 312 + 300 - 7*100 - 2*150 = 846 coins between them - this is their total profit if they manage to to exchange cards between themselves so that the five people with cards all have a placing (which is possible given the cards they have - if Shimoharada's 9 of Spades goes to Saeki, Yasukawa's 7 of Clubs goes to Shimoharada, Taninaka's Jack of Diamonds goes to Yasukawa and Saeki's Queen of Clubs goes to Taninaka, then they all have at least one pair) and they only have two pigs. Now, note that the non-Harimoto side can end the game with more pigs and still achieve this outcome if they get 150 coins from Harimoto's side for each extra pig. Given this observation, there's a guaranteed way to achieve this goal - simply get Taninaka, Shimoharada, Saeki and Yasukawa to bid 150 coins every time they do a card transfer (and do the card transfers one-by-one, so that Yasukawa actually has 150 coins on his turn to bid). If Harimoto's team decides to bid more for one of the cards being transferred, the non-Harimoto side gets 150 coins to cover the extra pig. More importantly, the 150 coins coming in from Harimoto's team would actually go to the right person, so the non-Harimoto side doesn't have to worry that the 150 coins would go to somebody who's not willing to cover the extra pig later on. (To see this, note that the potential pigs make money from selling a card, not from bidding and winning a card to make a pair, since they're bidding the 150 coins they would have to pay if they became pigs anyway.)

The only potential hiccup I can see is if the 4 potential pigs on the non-Harimoto side are still selfish enough that they think of bidding <150 coins during the transfer process and Harimoto realises this, since this would cause trouble for the person trying to sell a card. Otherwise, it'll be interesting to see what Akiyama does to get even more coins out of Harimoto's team.

[Reclaimer]

Having more than 5 cards at the end causes no problems? I thought I read that somewhere... too lazy to look for the chapter though. Still, screwing harimoto's group into keeping all their cards would have been brilliant.

Link.

Here's my take on things. The minimum goal for the non-Harimoto side is for them to end the game with a total of 596 + 230 + 151 + 190 + 67 + 312 + 300 - 7*100 - 2*150 = 846 coins between them - this is their total profit if they manage to to exchange cards between themselves so that the five people with cards all have a placing (which is possible given the cards they have - if Shimoharada's 9 of Spades goes to Saeki, Yasukawa's 7 of Clubs goes to Shimoharada, Taninaka's Jack of Diamonds goes to Yasukawa and Saeki's Queen of Clubs goes to Taninaka, then they all have at least one pair) and they only have two pigs. Now, note that the non-Harimoto side can end the game with more pigs and still achieve this outcome if they get 150 coins from Harimoto's side for each extra pig. Given this observation, there's a guaranteed way to achieve this goal - simply get Taninaka, Shimoharada, Saeki and Yasukawa to bid 150 coins every time they do a card transfer (and do the card transfers one-by-one, so that Yasukawa actually has 150 coins on his turn to bid). If Harimoto's team decides to bid more for one of the cards being transferred, the non-Harimoto side gets 150 coins to cover the extra pig. More importantly, the 150 coins coming in from Harimoto's team would actually go to the right person, so the non-Harimoto side doesn't have to worry that the 150 coins would go to somebody who's not willing to cover the extra pig later on. (To see this, note that the potential pigs make money from selling a card, not from bidding and winning a card to make a pair, since they're bidding the 150 coins they would have to pay if they became pigs anyway.)

The only potential hiccup I can see is if the 4 potential pigs on the non-Harimoto side are still selfish enough that they think of bidding <150 coins during the transfer process and Harimoto realises this, since this would cause trouble for the person trying to sell a card. Otherwise, it'll be interesting to see what Akiyama does to get even more coins out of Harimoto's team.

While breaking even on the game is nice, there is also the issue of previously accumulated debt of the losing players. No one is going to go for a plan that causes them to leave the game with hundreds of million in debt. I suppose Akiyama and Nao could shoulder more debt as they did in previous games (if Nao steps in and replaces a player passing onto the next game like I suspect she will, that increases their debt clearing power even more) but without knowing exactly how much they have in debt it is impossible to say if that is a viable option.

[Josef K.]

Well Recalimer, then we are back to the same scenario that Nao took everyone's debt and yet continues to play in the LG, though that will be repeating it for the third time I think? Or did Akiyama also do that once? But for him it was so that he can continue playing the game?

I still think one of Harimotos group will be engaged, Abe and Mikamoto now that I think about it, BOTH can be, if Nao and Akiyama can prove to them who the REAL leader is.

[kkck]

So when is the chapter coming out? We haven't had one in two weeks so far. Is the manga on break once again?