Although this isn't a bad episode, this doesn't feel like the best episode either, largely because the screen shakes whenever an action occurs. Having it happen whenever either Alula or her opponent takes over 1/3 damage would have made sense, but shaking the screen every time is annoying and potentially nauseating.
Another issue is that I prefer episode 3 (my probable favorite) and 4's battle UI/appearance over this episode. Having the phone take up most of the screen doesn't look as good as seeing the battlefield for the entirety of the fight. Fortunately, that's the only other major issue.
I do like how hard the fights were though, I now know the pain of the people who hate the guys who don't spend mana to use their attacks, because this time that opponent was a nasty fight. Even if you spare no one (I played with minimum and maximum kills), there's still a good chance he'll beat you if you're not extra careful. The guy with his weakness and resistance reversed was creative, but it would have been more fun if you spiced things up by boosting his attack power for at least one turn after getting hit by the attack he resists.
I decided to go through the series before making a review. Here are my comments about the story, based off my rerun through the whole series:
Problems:
-I noticed both Aki in ep. 2 and Sara in this episode indirectly mention that getting defeated three times in a row apparently counts as 5 deaths even if a player never lost before. Although it's not a major issue, mainly because it cuts back on annoyingly repeated battling, you never mentioned that clearly and I a few red flags raised in my head at first with Alula not losing a battle beforehand...
-In the first episode, you didn't clearly show that Alula's first opponent apparently died. He must have died, or she'd only have 5 kills before fighting her gym teacher: 2 from episode 2, 3 from just before said fight.
-Sara's health and attack power seriously jumped from 5100 in ep. 1 to impossibly high amounts in this episode (Sara hits harder than Alula can heal, making her unbeatable)? To me, that feels like a cheap way of preventing multiple endings. Example: 2 from getting defeated and having your alignment decide what happens, 2 from defeating Sara and either killing or sparing her. I suppose having Sara this way makes sure that people who aren't interested in replaying just for endings sees the apparent canon ending, so mission accomplished in that sense. Even so, I'd bet most of us would have been happy to see all possible endings for themselves, so it's somewhat of a shame there's only 1 ending, especially since there's little to no interaction between Alula Falling and the rest of Universe .08 (otherwise there'd be an issue on fully deciding on a canon ending like with Chaos Girl).
Plot holes unfilled:
-Alula dropped her phone at the end of the first episode and you never showed how she still had it. My guess is she either picked it up or it teleported into her pocket by the same magic that installed the App and made her a Death Game partner.
-Star knew Alula's name without asking Alula for her name. Perhaps Star knew Alula before she became her Death Game partner? Or Death told Star that Alula was going to be her partner, unlike with Alula?
-Star admits that Alula isn't her first partner, but says nothing after that. Based on how Star introduced herself, either she really was an AI (highly doubtful) or she was somehow at least one other player's Death Game partner, probably someone who ditched their phone the same way Alula and Sara did. It's supposedly possible that the last player she was the partner of lost all their lives, but that wouldn't seem right seeing that a Death Game partner dies when their player does...
-**I never looked closer into the fact that Alula had a flashback involving a Clear Soldier in episode 2. Does that mean Clear Moon is what really killed Alula's, and potentially Sara's parents? I wonder if that includes Dead Detention main character Max's dad and other Universe .08 characters...
Questions remaining:
-Star said "No one wants to see their partner die. I know from experience" in episode 2. Does that mean Star was a player before? If she was, did she get spared from death by another player before she probably broke her phone?
-Any chance we'll see Alula again? I'll be fine with Alula never showing up ever again, some stories are like that, but it would be interesting if we saw Alula again. Perhaps the Chronicle Bulletin gang could stumble upon the currently unnamed guy who's now Alula's partner...
P.S. For those wondering, the ending song is one of the one's listed under Credits and Info: 'Death by a cappella.'