Rozuka

To sum up a somewhat long review: This is a novel with a solid start that, unfortunately, ends up eating away at it’s own identity. The very start has a few plot holes that make you scratch your head but, for the most part, can be accepted. Once those are put to the back of your mind, the story actually does become fairly enjoyable though. The video game world progresses at a decent pace and, unlike many novels, the supporting cast actually end up being more than just filler. They often have important backgrounds and meaningful abilities, or connections, that help contribute to fights or resolutions. This is especially notable with the initial blend of real world elements that make that transition far more approachable. At some point though everything turns into web novel soup. The first issue is the repetitive and, fairly web novel standard, practice of “absurd power ups followed by invalidation of said power ups only to introduce another power up.” Often occuring due to situations that should be easily resolved, but suddenly include hidden forces that manipulate trivial relationships or interactions to put Ethan’s friends and family in danger. Then, there’s the bigger issue of the game world abruptly ending up entirely sidelined due to the convoluted, real world hodge podge. For me, the best part of the story is the high magical realism aspect. The inclusion of traditional martial arts is welcome, because it just feels like a merger of Eastern and Western fantasy. However, for some reason, there are these drastic, forced theme shifts that feel like a desparate attempt to breathe new life into the story. How the hell did we end up with our spellcasting, druid shapeshifter using a stealthed Gundam to fire laser beams at martial artist beast folk in an underwater island?!?

I’m a sucker for the game powers to real world style of novel and this one had a great start for one such story. Had things continued to progress more like the first half of the written story, I would have still loved it. To keep things short, my issue with the story can be summed up by saying that the MC we follow is, for all intents and purposes, a puppet. All of his actions feel like sporadic instances but, in reality, are preordained results. Power ups are all from third party guidance and fated encounters. His real world problems also fall into the same boat. If it isn’t for someone else piecing everything together or someone guiding his path, he just ends up going in circles. It makes it extremely painful to read since you can predict the same situations popping up over and over, just with new names to fill the slot.

Generally a great read. There’s no glaring grammar or structure issues that cause confusion and author is clear about updates and/or delays. As far as the novel itself; it has an interesting take on the summoning aspect. Alongside a rather solid start, that really sets a tone for the world they live in, things look very promising. There is a good balance of power growth, world building and character development, while building up for a, clearly, inevitable conflict. While there are definitely ebbs and flows in action, I would say that the novel, generally, balances things well…until around the mid 400s or so. Once you get to this point, things start to turn and there are large swaths that feel like a chore to read. There is a much larger emphasis on political intrigue but it’s introduced in the most vague and cryptic of ways. So we get introductions of families and characters that are only relevant for very brief periods, followed by the standard, bland, drawn out bid for power. The story suffers tremendously here as we are force fed this political narrative for a kingdom that, as a whole, has zero ambition. Everyone is okay with being stagnant. Too scared to try new methods of evolution or to explore the wilds around them, yet they wish for power. At the same time, the majority of the cast is suffering from brain damage. The “adults” are incompetent but try to remain secretive to fulfill empty pride. The, now, teens are a caricatured mass of poorly written teenage angst, despite being so well rounded as literal 10 year old children. It feels like the story is literally going in circles as they fight the same enemy, with a slightly different spin, except every character is just a worse version of themself… As I said though, up until this point i really loved the novel and, because of that, I’ll continue to give it a chance. Here’s to hoping it’s just a minor slump or something and the 200 or so chapters still to be read can recoup things.

Story started off sensational but, as time progresses, cracks are starting to become fissures. Firstly, I assume its a secondary language thing, but I don’t recall SG having nearly as many issues. Some chapters are perfectly fine but others feel like an autocorrected mess. Where similarly spelled words with different meanings (such as following instead of falling) were used. The repeated use of “off” as an adjective is very jarring as well. For some reason, half of the actions use that word for no reason after and ruin the image entirely. For example; slicing “off” a limb is very different than having a sliced limb. You can still understand these descriptors but it severely hinders continuity. Grammar issues aside, the power scaling and rapid reveal behind the truth of the invasion seemed far too sudden. Said reveal provided so many tools to Levi that the core cast, as a result, have been reduced to cardboard cutouts and much of the intrigue is gone. If the story is only meant to really follow Levi, with Jasmine and Arthur somewhat relevant, that’s totally fine. It would just be nice to not have the wasted buildup of the other characters, who are quite enjoyable. In most aspects, the story seemed like an immediate improvement to the best parts of SG but, with the above in mind, it feels like we’re going to get a new Felix dragging the husks of interesting side characters across the finish line.

Promising start thrown away by attempts to combine too many popular concepts into one. The quality of the writing is good. Far better, in fact, than a lot of novels you will find. If the updates do come as often as noted, that’s doubly impressive. As far as the story goes…it does its job as a brain off, power fantasy. That’s widely where the positives end though. As said, the novel actually had a solid start. The MC might have been slightly insufferable and dense at times, but he was his own individual. The increase in power, although still rapid, at least felt somewhat earned and genuine. The side characters were decently fun and offered comedic relief. Unfortunately, all of that ends up being shoved to the side because the system, effectively, becomes the main character. “Character development” is the main motif of the system’s “supposed” actions. Everything it requests and rewards for, are based off metrics revolving around said progression…except there is no value to any of these changes. It arbitrarily decides to make adjustments constantly and with its power seeming so beyond the scope of all other entities, nothing feels coincidental or exciting. At some points even the system doesn’t follow its own motto and gives the character massive shortcuts. MC just turns into a sloppy, confused mess of a puppet to the system. He is indecisive, emotionless and naive all at once. A combo that literally makes no sense and comes off as bad as it sounds. The so called “struggles” and “hard work” for his power stopped being existent long ago as well. Death became not only physically meaningless, but progressively less so mentally/emotionally as well. So you end up with a human puppet, flying through levels of power at breakneck speed and zipping past any area/world/character that might ACTUALLY be interesting. These pieces being the only saving grace as some of the intrigue and background on the lesser known characters and overall plot is well done.

To the credit of the author, the writing itself is of the stronger showings in the app catalogue. The world itself and the power systems involved felt quite fleshed out. You can tell a lot of thought and effort went into creating both world as well as story. Many of the side characters and villains are well thought. With growth or motives that you can see and feel. The real issue comes in the form of the MC. The author labels him, in the synopsis, as cynical and damaged but promises growth. The issue is that there is no growth. The MC does have a relatively tragic past and it would definitely affect anyone but the level that it is overplayed in the novel, along with the flippant shifts MC makes, drags the story down tremendously. I could understand if the duality was used as a show of conflict for development. However, despite being often portrayed as clever and flexible, he never tries to wrestle his past. You don’t expect the MC to be a saint but he continually hinders himself in his self righteous thinking before someone else leads him down the right path, either in word or by suffering in his place. He then turns around repeats the “woe is me, maybe I should die” shtick, seems to make progress then regresses. Once or twice is fine but at this point I sense a bland, recurring pattern. Truly a shame for a novel that has so depth and promised character growth.

He was the student the instructornwas talking to, and excited about, earlier at the track event.

Even if it’s a Western setting people do have their cultural norms still. I always like it more when scenarios are diverse like that personally.

Your pfp matches the comment very well. I can Definitely see you really live your fantasies through peoples cringey harem trope novels.

Could be one of those situations where it’s only possible on things much weaker or with very low willpower/intelligence.