Min-Maxing My TRPG Build in Another World

STRONG POINTS:
The characters and interactions are less cliche than I expected. The author hints at certain developments or creates characters that seem like they would end up in a certain way (because they so often do in this genre) and then moves in another direction. Don’t expect any great character depths – but there’s enough soul in the main characters to more or less stave off the feeling of deja-vu that many isekai stories invoke.

The most relevant to my positive impression is the arachne girl from the cover. She makes an appearance as a very proactive childhood friend exhibiting clear (though initially pretty childish) interest in the MC. Despite that she manages to avoid devolving into the background “banked” love interest – she remains an active character and maintains a bit of a back-and-forth dynamic with the MC with a hint of possessiveness, without also slipping into the annoying tsundere cliches (or becoming a yandere, although she does give some dangerous vibes now and then). The “other end” of the relationship is pretty solid as well. The MC manages to be neither a black hole protagoinst nor a turbo-virgin that blushes at the thought of girls existing in the same universe as him. He does notice the girl’s advances and isn’t entirely impervious to them, which in turn makes him pretty uncomfortable.

…which brings us to a word of warning that I need to add. Our arachne girl grows up as the novel progresses and her interest in MC matures along the way too. But she happens to come from a race that basically maintains their pubescent (at best) looks throughout their adult lifespans. A feature exacerbated by the fact that they are physically small. All that seems unnecessary and not necessarily in the best taste – and the fact that MC’s psyche is affected by previous life’s adult memories isn’t helping. If you are repulsed by the idea of romantic sub-plots featuring a girl that’s never going to look any older than early teens, while being even smaller than that – steer clear.

WEAK POINTS:
The writing is, frankly, a mess. The novel features the TRPG theme – and at times feels like a collection of assorted GM notes that someone tried to put together into a novel.

The theme of “game mechanics” takes a lot of place but is never explained enough for it intricacies to ever become important. All you need to know is that MC can allocate XP into skills and there is enough skills and their combination for the Author to pull anything they want straight of their ass (although, to their credit, they do it in moderation).

Another thing author spends a lot of space on is world-building. Normally a worthy endeavour – problem is, this world-building feels like GM notes on the setting: largely comes in the form of info-dumps on things that COULD be used in some relevant plots but, in the end, aren’t, not in a meaningful way, at least. Most things appear, are used for something trivial (if even that) and are never seen impacting the story in any way again.

There’s a similar issue with certain characters. At its worst we get a character that appears briefly as a supporting (borderline background) character for one scene. Then gets a whole chapter of background (including her race’s background and personal history) and pov of the scene in question… and then disappears from the story never to be as much as mentioned in passing again.

The chapters themselves are pretty choppy – they spend a lot of time on trivial stuff, may also have a bit of a build-up, and then often end abruptly, leading to a time-skip and leaving the reader with a feeling that they must’ve missed a couple pages. This gets much, much worse at the end – the last chapter end on a huge bomb-shell… and then is followed by an epilogue many years later, leaving the reader feeling that they must’ve skipped a volume or two. The bomb-shell – possibly the biggest damned revelation of the entire novel – is not addressed in the epilogue AT ALL, as if it never even happened.

CONCLUSION:
If you feel the allure of proactive loli waifus with a possessive streak but enough sense of balance to not fall into the pit of becoming yandere or an annoying tsundere character – then you may read this and enjoy your time. If that’s not to your taste, steer clear of this title since it has very little else to offer.