- #1
All I can say is that a novel that could have been brilliant goes down the most boring route possible.The beginning is great. Rex Toren, now possessed by some random JP nobody that has excessive knowledge of a game world risks his life to save his comrades against demons. He uses wit and game knowledge mechanics to his advantage in order to beat a stronger opponent he normally could not have hoped to match.This, however, devolves into a life sim. While there is a pretty accurate comment from Rex, who said that he would build up heroes like a life sim, the fact that it really turns out that way is a huge turn-off. Gone are any risky or dangerous situations, and instead we are home to a boring novel in which Rex raises characters "optimally" using his game knowledge. 90% of the novel or more is going to be him abusing game mechanics that somehow mesh into the real world.Unfortunately, characters that could have carried the novel are not the priority in the novel. Due to the game knowledge that Rex possesses, apparently that means that all of the characters seem like literal NPCs than real people. The fact that all characters trust Rex or fall in love with him for no reason breaks any immersion I had in the novel. His sister, Resilia is the biggest culprit of this. Apparently, he divulges all of his secrets to her, but instead of questioning him or being wary, she just becomes a typical bro-con archetype with no reason at all. She randomly becomes immensely attached to Rex, and 99% of the time she acts as if she doesn't know that her "brother" is a transmigrator that's been transported to a game world. It's as if she's a convenient plot device! Which of course, she is.Other characters had potential. Especially Radd. It was nice that there was a POV change to Radd once in a while. If the novel maintained a focus on characters, changed POVs, and developed them all out instead of just rendering them flavor text, the novel could have gone a long way. Instead of picturing characters just as NPCs that Rex recognizes from a mobile game he played, if each character were developed enough to carry the novel, it would have been amazing. Really now. Despite all the focus on nurturing Radd, Prana, Nuku and the rest of the party, do you really get to know them very well? Not really. Fleshing these characters out are just not a focus. Prana especially has almost no personality at all. This carries onto other characters. Most of the characters you encounter through the lens of Rex is more like Rex spouting out game information about their stats or how they were in the game. It's soulless.In a novel where the story is predictable due to the near omniscience the MC has, you have to carry the story through characters. That, or somehow make the story complicated or have high hurdles for the MC to jump through despite the large hurdles. This does not happen, so it fades into obscurity as a novel that could have been greater than it actually is.
