It's one of these! I like the general concept of the cheat power here even if it makes it hard to really connect with most characters. But it is just One Of These. So ymmv. I had a nice time though.
This book was so close to being a four-star read, but its pacing issues prevented it from reaching that mark. The protagonist spends an excessive amount of time dwelling on her own thoughts, contemplating various character builds. However, when the story finally picks up, it becomes quite enjoyable, and there’s a satisfying sense of character RPG development. Fair Warning: The story concludes abruptly, so we will have to wait for vol. 2 to at least finish this arc.
DNF, dropped it at ~80%. OP protagonists doing their thing in a flawed computer game is one thing, and something I certainly can enjoy, but this series just doesn't cut it for me. For one thing, this game is flawed in a way that would chase away most players very quickly, although to some extent I can ignore the bad game elements if it serves an enjoyable story. These kind of stories are mostly carried by their characters, and having the MC being a loner actively avoiding other players is one thing (and NPCs who are effectively slaves to the MC don't count), but going out of their way to humiliate them without any reason beyond testing a few things just doesn't sit well with me. Just not my kind of story.
There was a fair mix of things I rather enjoy with things I wasn’t as sure of. The execution was also really interesting.
Furthermore, like “Bofuri” this wasn’t actually an Isekai. But was rather immersive regardless. (If you liked this, *highly* recommend “Bofuri: I don’t want to get hurt, so I’ll max out my defense”)
While I wouldn’t necessarily call this a favourite, it was written well enough and I will be reading the next one.
I get that the protagonist is playing a video game, but the talk of stats and points (especially in the first half) just gets way too dense. It does improve as the book goes on, and I feel like the 2nd volume might be better. I did enjoy the brief cuts to how NPCs are viewing events, it's an interesting perspective to show