As per usual, my last review got censored by webnovel and I have no idea why. Thanks webnovel.
This is a review as of around chapter 250 from the mtl.
Early stars review (C1-C50 or so)
Translation: Since I read the mtl, I naturally don't know. Default number, 4.
Updating stability: Not bad. Updates every day. 4.
Story development: Very interesting. Desert vibe is interesting, as well as the dynamic between mc and his citizens. 4.
Character design: Could be better. We don't see much uniqueness in his units or his citizens in terms of personality, only in terms of what they can do. 3.
World background: Not bad. The idea of getting a system his friend designed for him is interesting. 4
Later stars review (C51-C250+).
Translation: Again, can't say. 4.
Updating: Not changed, 4.
Story development: Awful. He's literally fighting angels and gods when he's still a little mortal. It doesn't make sense, and it's not good.
Character development: Awful. Everyone is 1 dimensional. His citizens are completely incompetent, praising mc like a god. All of mc's units have become obsolete. Everything seems to float to mc when he needs it. 1.
World background: There's potential, but pretty much all of it has gone unused. Things like the company that a merchant's from, various gods, or the background of one of his citizen's famous clan exists, yet the author only dips his toes in. 2.
Long, casual review.
At first, I gotta say I really liked it. The main character was really charming and not overdone. The cheat wasn't game breaking, and there was a bond between the mc and his citizens that was very interesting.
His citizens even had a special trait thanks to him, which let them live better in the desert. Honestly, I loved the thought of that, and what could be done with it.
In the early chapters, I guess my only complaint is that there isn't enough of the citizens, and that his units don't really express uniqueness(despite having it) to make them interesting. Another complaint would be how he doesn't interact with other lords at all, but that's very common amongst these novels.
Sadly as of chapter 250, a lot of that's changed.
The mc, Richard, has become ridiculously overpowered. It doesn't make any sense, and it's not enjoyable. He has no opponents. When he fights, you already know he's going to win.
You need to understand something, this is a novel about a LORD. The lord's strength comes from his units, not himself. The author sees that, goes woopsy, and completely blows Richard's strength out of the water. It's to the point that his unit's become almost completely obsolete as Richard does all the heavy lifting himself.
When his strongest unit, an A-class(keep in mind there's no S-class, at least not yet) dragon hero dies, it's literally only a sentence or two. There's no tears, no frustration, no nothing. His strongest unit dies, just like that, and he acts like it didn't even happen.
Maybe it's because he just so happened to build a hero resurrection building, but still. He doesn't even revive his dragon once he gets back to his territory even though he could, but waits like a week before doing it. Worst thing, he revives the unit off screen! The author doesn't even care.
When he does get new units, they only shine for 1 or 2 fights. And by shine, I just mean the author actually writes about them fighting. It's not a cool, well written fight, but just saying what they do with no extra detail. It's almost like a turn based game. Every fight is the same. Nothing unexpected.
His units are practically not even part of the story anymore. There's even a huge arc, like 50 chapters or so, where his unit's only show up for the first 3 then disappear for the rest. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice arc, but still.
Even when his unit's do fight, they just unite under the sentence "Richard's units fought the enemy." None of their unique gimmicks, different styles, no nothing.
The problems don't end there. As I mentioned, Richard is ridiculously overpowered. When he's level 9, he's dealing with level 20s. An angel is level 21, and an average dragon level 18 for reference. When he's level 13, he beats a demigod with relative ease. When he's level 14, he, no joke, fights 3 evil gods, defeats 2, and escapes from 1. Gods are supposed to be level 30.
By the way, level 30 isn't level 14 x 2, but more like level 14 x 10 000. It's exponential, yet he deals with them like it's nothing.
He's not even in the same league as the other lords. Despite that the author made a whole arc about how every single lord get sent to a championship type thing, and it's whole point is to pretty much just butter up the mc.
The mc is also very weird in odd ways. When the novel first begins, he's described as handsome. Ok, whatever, pretty much every author does that.
100 chapters in though? Boom! Richard is literally described as having a face sculpted by god. What??? Ok fine, but if he's so handsome why isn't everyone falling for him??
He's also got a pseudo harem as well. Basically everyone that surrounds him is a girl(strong men don't exist. besides him) yet the author is too scared to actually commit.
It gets worse. He's supposedly smart yet he's so smooth brained in the weirdest ways. Remember those 3 gods he had to face? All 3 of those fights were completely avoidable. For 2 of them, he saw the danger, yet dived straight in. The third?
He broke the gods curse on one of his citizens that somewhat randomly became his. Ok. He, a level 14, broke a god's curse. Whatever. But how did he not expect the god to get mad at him??? He's supposedly a genius, yet not even 1 brain cell in the year or so he had to prepare to break said curse said "Hey, what if the god gets mad???" The worst thing is that he completely wipes the floor with that god! It's literally only hard enough to make Richard seem cooler or whatever.
Oh, and his citizens! They're completely useless! All they ever do is come back every 50 chapters for their pov that's literally only talking about how great and godly the mc is, and how proud they are of their city. They even keep saying that they're willing to die in battle for their city.
Cool! What's the problem? The problem's that they can't even swat a fly!!! They're completely filled with hot, delusional air! They keep saying these empty words, but don't even try to get stronger or invent something special to actually be of use to Richard! Even when something does get invented, it's this random kid in a sewing shop who just did it by accident!
By accident. Perhaps that's one of the biggest themes of this novel. He just so happens to get exactly what he needs, right before he needs it.
The hero resurrection statue just before his strongest unit dies. A goblin that just happens to know how to breed an ultra special rabbit. Some special honey, one of a kind honey that he gets right before a merchant arrives. The kid who invented something and became a hero unit, just as he happened to need heros. A random statue that just so happened to be the perfect weapon against an evil god. A very strong and old dragon corpse that happens to basically be 99% off that he needs. A level 20 power suit that he can somehow pilot with his level 10-14 reaction time. Spring water fountain fragments that he just so happens to need, from a guy who just so happens to be so desperate that he's willing to be extorted by mc.
I could go on and on. There's so many of these weird coincidences, or power level thing's that don't make sense. Level 14 fighting gods? Ok. Fine. Whatever. The gods are weakened on the "main plane" that Richard's on or whatever. But that level 9 fighting level 20s?
It doesn't make sense. They weren't sealed, weren't injured, no nothing. Yet he escapes from right under their noses.
God. There are so many problems that I have with this novel. However, perhaps the biggest one is disappointment. As mentioned, I was legitimately interested in this to begin with. Unfortunately that interest no longer exists.
So yeah. End of review.