Legend Chapter 85 Discussion

Legend is a bit of a mixed bag. I'll try to keep it simple and go over some points.

Plot; it's got a slice of life feeling. At chapter 85, where I'm at as of writing, there are hints of some overarching potential plot points, but nothing major or concrete at all. Just a random, kind of disjointed sequence of events. It's like reading a quest log or a journal, not a story so much. Feels like it might change around chapter 100, but that's 100 meandering chapters.

Main character; Rei is the MC, he's a quiet and reserved person of few words. I can't fathom what his life in Japan before he was isekai'd was like, it's like he never interacted with another human being? He was 17 when he got isekai'd but acts like he's 50 and had lived in a mountain like a hermit for 40 of them. Leads to his character feeling a bit bland and boring at times. But he's smart and doesn't act like an idiot, he's levelheaded and cold, he's a cautious character, and he does have his moments of emotion. He's also powerful, but the author was confused when he wrote the MC I think. Rei's written like he should be a super OP character, and he's certainly strong, but then the author went and put a ton of restrictions on him - giving him certain magic with limited use and a weapon weak in certain situations - in the end Rei doesn't feel very strong at all, just your average experienced adventurer; not like an OP protagonist. It's consistently written though, so it's not a big negative, just if you're looking for an OP MC Rei quickly meets people that are his equal or superior.

Side characters and relations. There are acquaintances that are introduced, but everyone's super generic character types like people who cheer for MC and people who are pointlessly arrogant and pick fights just to lose horribly. Rei is too cautious of people to form any real bonds, and nobody stays around long. Up to Chapter 85 there are people he sees frequently but he's still solo, so we don't get a chance to see side characters much and only passing relationships are made. However, that might change around chapter 100, or it could go back to solo...

World. The politics are briefly covered, other countries are touched on once or twice 70 chapters in, up to Chapter 85 is all in the same part of the world. There's virtually no worldbuilding and monsters are introduced as they appear. Not much depth to the world so far, a bit disappointing sadly.

I'll give my overall impression now.

It's a slow story. It's not particularly bad for a slow and relaxing read, but it gets a bit monotonous not having any meaningful relationships. A big part of the story is Rei's poor communication and interpersonal skills - which makes no sense as he's a 17 year old Japanese person who went to school normally, but I digress - so over the course of the story they're improving, but it's very slow. Meanwhile we're left with a socially inept MC who's a bit boring. The combat is interesting, but the Magic is one of the worst I've ever seen. Magic isn't explained in the slightest, but the MC has the most in many whole worlds and is described as mana in human form. Magic is said to use a chant and a mental image, but the chants are random and not explained, and can't be used in combat apparently, magic can be super strong but MC never uses it and it ends up feeling like it exists so the author can do whatever he feels like. The world feels small and confined, the story feels very suppressed. The MC and his Griffon have the ability to learn skills from absorbing the magic stones in monsters, how it works isn't explained, it's an ability that the MC would kill to hide from others. But he never goes out and just hunts a whole bunch of monsters for the stones even though he's got the ability. Instead he's raising his adventurer rank to the level required to kill them, but it's not a game setting so it's not like they don't spawn unless you're a certain rank, and it's not as though he's unable to defeat them. Lots of plot holes like that one that just don't get explained but seem pretty obvious, all for the sake of a slow story.

Now that's a lot of negative for 3 stars, but it's 3 stars because it's not a particularly bad story overall. It's just a very slow story without much going on and very little in the way of character development quickly. I think lots of people will enjoy it, because it's not unpleasant to read, it's just not a super high energy story. I'd give it 5 stars if there weren't so many plotholes and there was a bit more explanation and world building.