- #1
I would rate this novel as a masterpiece up until around the Hotoya Village arc, but everything after that is just meh.The story follows an MC who gets isekai to a dark fantasy game called "Firefly of the Dark Night" without any special powers. Early on, he is truly a mob (with some help from Yandere girls), and he has to craft genius plans (or at least be somewhat prepared) using his in-game knowledge to survive his tragic situation. But with the arrival of the Hotoya Village arc, he starts jumping into fights recklessly, getting surprised by almost every enemy move, and getting beat up without a solid plan. It's like he forgot all of his in-game knowledge and cleverness, relying on his power to solve everything, to the point that I sometimes forget he was even an isekai MC.The tone of the story is another issue for me. The early arcs had a lot of violence and gore. A whole sub-chapter dedicated to torturing someone was pretty normal. But after the Hotoya Village arc, that kind of stuff almost disappears. Even the Aoi flashback arc was like 1/10 as gory as the Earth Mother arc. I get that the author wanted to tone it down, but it’s too much, and it’s a minus for me.The reason I keep reading is because of the world-building. "Firefly of the Dark Night" has a massive setting that could stand alone without the isekai MC. Things like the youkai's revenge plan, the power struggles within the Onitsuka family and the court, and of course, the yandere girls fighting for the MC are all really intriguing.I’d give this story 5 stars for the early arcs, which mostly contribute to the 3 stars I’m giving in this review.
