- #1
Status is volume 1 of the official LN I'm not a Hero.The author states in the afterword that he is first and foremost a game developer / designer and likes to torture his players with difficult tasks who take an endless amount of tries to get past them. But luckily for the MC of the story he as the author, as a player, he wants his characters to overcome those trials.In fact, in difference to many game-world novels the systems and rules of this world are not just complex but also well thought out. But since this is a real world game rules only apply to a certain extent. A very simple example right from the beginning would be that in games dungeon walls are basically indestructible. In reality a wall is a wall and no matter how sturdy with enough force can be penetrated. The MC uses this fact to reach an unreachable platform that functions as a shortcut to get out of a place after conquering a dungeon to get inside instead and skip the normal route.I really like that take how the MC exploits those game mechanics. Also Rex himself is wondering how this world of Braves & Blades is definitely a game world since it has pens and paper notebooks and a casino with slot machines and is not a realistic fantasy world but has tons of gimmick items.Also the original game is not just playable with a controller but the true fun is playing it with a “Wiimote”. As everyone who played games like Wii Sports knows you don’t need to really swing your whole arm with the virtual tennis racket, you only need to flick your wrist to get the same effect. The MC uses that knowledge to manually do sword arts that are way more efficient than the automatic one’s that are always the same after being executed by the press of a button.All these exploits allow the MC to fight enemies who are way stronger, the author comes up with a lot of tricks during those fights and they all make sense and are even foreshadowed if the reader pays attention to detail.The MC is reincarnated as one of the poster boy characters of the game, Rex Tauren, who actually is just a mid-level character with mediocre stats who is supposed to help the player in early game but is useless later on because it is almost impossible for him to level up and become stronger.In general this is a very good read if you like video games and know about game mechanics. If you just want to read an interesting fantasy novel you might become a bit disappointed because story-wise there is not much going on, it is a typical game setting after all. The forced encounter battles are fun and well described, the change in point of view gives insight into other characters feelings but I think also distract a bit too much.So far, after reading vol. 1, I would give 4/5 Stars.
