Dungeon Defense

Description

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Do you know how this world ends?

Become the hero and defeat the 72 Demon Lords. The game that was boasted as the absolute hardest strategy game, 『Dungeon Attack』.

I used to be the ‘hero’ who had accomplished everything in this game, but after answering a suspicious survey, I found myself in the game as the weakest Demon Lord, 「Dantalian」.

With only my eloquent tongue and my memories of conquest as a hero—.

In order to survive as Dantalian. I shall tear this world apart.

Associated Names
One entry per line
Deonjeon Dipenseu
ダンジョンディフェンス
던전 디펜스
Related Series
Dungeon Defense (WN) (Web Novel)
Recommendations
The Lazy King (13)
My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending (12)
Dungeon Hunter (9)
The Second Coming of Gluttony (9)
Your and My Asylum (9)
Sevens (8)
Recommendation Lists
  1. enjoyed my time
  2. An actual attempt at ranking
  3. Novels That I Have Read Over The Years
  4. Peak Villains
  5. Op Mc / simulation systems

Latest Release

Date Group Release
11/26/17 Shalvation Translations v5 afterword
11/26/17 Shalvation Translations v5 intermission
11/23/17 Shalvation Translations v5c4
11/11/17 Shalvation Translations v5c3
10/28/17 Shalvation Translations v5c2
10/17/17 Shalvation Translations v5c1
10/09/17 Shalvation Translations v5 prologue
10/06/17 Shalvation Translations v5 illustrations
02/03/17 Shalvation Translations v4 afterword
02/03/17 Shalvation Translations v4 intermission
02/03/17 Shalvation Translations v4c5
01/29/17 Shalvation Translations v4c4
01/21/17 Shalvation Translations v4c3
01/13/17 Shalvation Translations v4c2
01/04/17 Shalvation Translations v4c1
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Zackarotto
Zackarotto rated it
July 14, 2017
Status: v3
The first chapter of this series was good. Real good. We have this clever hermit hero who is forced into some type of high-stakes cosmic joke, but he uses his wit and the game mechanics to uproariously overturn the whole situation, first quietly making a mockery of his brutish captors, and then basking in their despair after he finally plays his hand. It seemed well-written and joyful in its ridiculousness. It was exactly the kind of fun story I come to this site to find, and I'd have read ten... more>> volumes of that no problem. Only, I wasn't allowed to, because that first chapter was the end of it. Our hero soon suggests that he worked too hard during chapter one, so he becomes a chronically lazy protagonist for the rest of the volume. This gets old fast, so the author completely erases this character trait by the next volume. He no longer seems to detest being around other people either, as the author settles him into the character he's most comfortable writing: a psychopath with no civility who constantly waxes philosophical, without anybody asking him to, either ranting about the obvious in too many words, or saying abject nonsense, or occasionally something which the translator -- who does an admirable if awkward job otherwise -- wasn't fully equipped to put into English.

When I say that a bloviating psycho is the character the author is most comfortable writing, I don't just mean because Dantalian's personality stabilizes there. I mean because it also describes the next four most frequently-appearing characters as well. Lapis. Barbatos. Farnese. Elizabeth. All quickly coalesce into a whole f*cking harem full of the same person: power-hungry, contemptuous of human life, intimidating, sadistic, and full of "insights" no reader in their right mind should care about. If the author wanted to be Georges Bataille and write transgressive fiction about people screwing underage-looking girls, abusing animals, burning innocent prisoners alive or otherwise violating the Geneva convention as efficiently as possible, he should have done that up-front instead of trying to wallpaper over all the game mechanics from the first chapter, upon deciding he just wanted to use Saving The World as an "end" by which all insane sadistic tendencies could be excused as "the means".

I kept giving it a chance up through volume 3, but should have given up sooner. I'm not saying I found nothing at all to appreciate: I liked the Go matches, for instance; maybe because two characters managed to do something for a few minutes other than congratulating each other for their shared lack of morality. And any story that quotes Diogenes can't be all bad. But the more I look at it, the less I like it. From the "dark and transgressive" side, Dantalian can't seem to be consistent about whether he cares about anyone or anything. If you've really got an itch to see that stuff done properly, just look up what books are banned in your country or at your local library or school and go to town reading all of them.

And to see it critically from the fantasy side, the "Ars Goetia" demonology is a cliche source -- apparently this is not even the first series to use the name "Dantalian", among the 72 others, as the name for its main character -- but maybe excusable given that it's supposed to be sourced to a generic fantasy video game, one that names its nations uninspired stuff like "Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom", at that. But it also leaves too many obvious questions unanswered for too long, like: how the hell have the Demon Lords never died before if there's only 72 of them, they can be killed conventionally, and they've been around for hundreds to thousands of years? And if new ones are born to fill vacant positions, what does any of this matter? Or: what was with that reverse-loyalty test Humbaba and the other witches pulled on Dantalian? How did they actually envision that working out for them?

Read something else. <<less
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xlefr7
xlefr7 rated it
July 27, 2016
Status: v1 afterword
Review made at the immediate end of volume 1 translation.

Just with the 1st volume, this novel is complete; in other words it was so good that I am afraid the 2nd will fail to live up to the degree of quality it was. The synopsis provided does not do the first volume justice, it even feels like it was written for the first version of the book (webnovel; the translated book we see is actually version 3 which is explained in the aftword). The MC, in short, is scum/maniac/cruel/sad*st in... more>> the best way possible for readers. I would say this MC is mix of Misogi Kumagawa (personality) from Medaka Box with Tyrion Lannister (political cruelty and ability) from Game of Thrones and the character of Benedict Cumberbatch (brilliance/mind) from Sherklock Homes all into one. The prologue gives a brief show of the type of character the MC is, from then on the first few volumes shows a bit of action and drama, and with chapter 5, quite literally the climax (so many readers will attest to getting a hard on due to the brilliance of the MC) of the story. To admit, this novel is not for everyone. It has a lot of perspective of every other side character, the MC is more of a anti-hero than a man on the side of a justice, he prefers deceiving and using other people than doing things himself, he is often lazy and leaves stuff unexplained until the situation unravels itself to everyone (aka teasing the reader).

tl;dr so far vol 1 MC manipulates people into submission with words and very few actions. <<less
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saekicchi
saekicchi rated it
September 27, 2016
Status: v2 afterword
First volume was amazing, however I feel cheated after reading volume two. The protagonist's personality shift came out of nowhere. I kept reading until the end of Volume 2 to see where he's coming from, but using love as an excuse when there's not even enough development to lead there left me disappointed. I expected Dantalian wouldn't change his principles from such a shallow thing (I think it's shallow because they only ever had physical relationship, not enough emotional developments) or even if he did, I expected it to be... more>> more of a tragic/eye-opener moment wherein he'll realize where his dad was coming from. I expected a lot, I guess. It's so rare to come across good novels that I unconsciously projected all my expectations and only ended up disappointed when they did not happen.

I have nothing against anti-heros and I could've kept reading as long as it's worth it but I couldn't help myself from dropping this.

It lost its charm from the first volume. : (I would recommend you read it, but not the second volume onwards. It's saddening to see a story with so much potential be ruined like that. <<less
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CreamPuffDelights
CreamPuffDelights rated it
November 8, 2017
Status: --
Summarizing my review first, I would be the first to admit that I know full well why some villain protagonists tend to be so much popular than their respective heroes. Similarly, protagonists that stray off the beaten path in some way, or are twisted in one way or another are also rather popular nowadays.

Dantalion however, is not one of those protagonists. He starts off in volume 1 as someone who had to grow up under rather unusual and brutal circumstances, however the subtle actions he takes to protect his sisters... more>> and the frequency at which he makes comments about his family gives me the impression that despite his twisted way of thinking, at his core, he still holds on to his morals and is a good, if jerkassish person as his decision to sacrifice half of humanity for the opportunity to fill his pocket is any indication.

The issue starts halfway through Vol 2 and Vol 3. Due to circumstances in Vol 1, his actions has brought some attention to himself and as one of the puniest, weakest Demon Lords around, he has to do some rather questionable and outright cruel things without remorse. The story is still enjoyable at that point from a top down perspective because his actions are simply a way for him to survive.

However as the story goes along into Vol 3 and Vol 4, Dantalion starts to slide down a path wherein anything that isn't directly useful to him is automatically relegated to "amus**ent fodder" in the sense that if they're going to die, he might as well be the one to kill them, because why let someone else enjoy it?

Basically, without extenuating circumstances, Dantalion becomes a full blown horrific jackass without a moral compass whatsoever. Some readers may enjoy it, otherwise this genre would not be so popular, however IMHO, the story went from a reasonable anti-hero's struggle to survive, to a novel where the author does his utmost best to think up the most twisted and demented things in order to display how insane Dantalion has become in the process, but went overboard wherein the story simply becomes a stage where all the characters devise all sorts of over the top, INSANE, s*upid, COMPLEX strategies in order to OUT - MAD each other. No that is not a misspelling. In short, some will enjoy this story after volume 1. Some will not.

Similarly, some will think Vol 1 is very boring and typical. But everything after 2 is a rip roaring comedy of horrors featuring every kind of mentally ill villains you could possibly envision.

I'm personally one of the former, the complete lack of anything resembling decency, the absence of even a shred of humanity in this story makes it a rather poor time filler for me. Hence I will have to take my leave. Adieu. <<less
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Primordial Heaven
Primordial Heaven rated it
November 17, 2020
Status: --
The reviews are very misleading. Let me clear something up: If you are expecting a ruthless novel, this is not it. Every single character complains about how hard their life is every single chapter, usually taking up towards eight paragraphs for one speech. The author mixed and mashed a lot of nihilist philosophies together which would be interesting if the characters were actually nihilistic. Someone who wants authority, either to rule the world to destroy it, is not nihilistic.

The MC - Bland would be the best word to describe him.... more>> He's not very intelligent, but because everyone else in this novel has the IQ and EQ of a child or pre-teen, he's seen and hailed as a genius. The author explained that because of his past, he now is emotionless. But let's get into his past. Without the melodramatic speeches and boring monologue, his first life is actually ordinary, and above average. Sure, his father has a harem, but why is that a bad thing? I'm confused, really. I mean, there are literal kids born into s*avery being forced to mine coal until they die, getting constantly tortured, drinking dirty water, and barely eating, but apparently the apex of suffering in the authors mind is having a "bad father", lol.

Characters - One dimensional. Author tries to make them deep or something with long expositions about their backgrounds, but this is not good writing. You do not use exposition for backgrounds, even for an LN, this is terrible writing. Besides the characters constantly complaining about how hard their life is, spewing their pseudo-philosophy, and giving cringe speeches, there is nothing else to their characters.

World - Terrible world building. Author gives very little detail on the terrain, there is no map or local geography presented.

Meh. I was expecting a dark and cold world but I got a world where people only complain about how hard their life is all the time. It'd be fun if the MC grew some f*cking balls and acted like a man. <<less
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Dimensionist
Dimensionist rated it
August 21, 2019
Status: v2 afterword
So, here's the deal.

This is a relatively niche story as is. It's an edgy, cynical, 'look-at-me-I'm-so-smart' take on the whole Isekai evil protag genre, but *within* that genre, it's actually not bad. Pretty decent, actually.

For the 1st volume. And that's the problem.

The prologue, the in-media res battle with one of the heroes, and the 1st volume solidly characterizes the MC. He's cynical, smug, edgy, arrogant - basically, exactly what you'd want in a novel like this. He does have his own principles, however, and the 1st volume hammers them down... more>> firmly.
Spoiler

The reason he executes the heroine is because she doesn't even care about the lives of all those who died in her initiative. The reason he loathes his father is because he was unwilling to rein in his wives and completely disregarded his own innocent children, in order to maintain a lovey-dovey relationship with his SOs. The reason he backs off in the end, when he was having so much fun crushing the self-righteous demon lord Paimon, is because her subordinate sacrificing himself for her ruins any joy he was feeling.

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He's portrayed in the 1st volume as someone who hates people who use others, and sympathizes with the underdogs and underlings, the downtrodden and 'faceless'. Probably because he and the people he loved were the same.

Enter volume 2. It tries to act clever and portray the MC and his love interest as these cliche archetypes (as though anyone would actually fall for that), and then tries to pat itself on the back for it. It dedicates entire chapters just explaining what the hell was going on rather than, you know, actually advancing the story, the characterization, or even explaining something new and interesting - because clearly, a recap chapter is necessary - after all, its not like idiots like us readers would get the author's brilliance, amirite? -_-

That's not the worst bit, however. The worst is that this is a volume that completely dunked on the existing characterization and pathos of volume 1, seemingly just for shock factor and Shyamalan-style twists. I expected going into this that it would be another evil protagonist being evil, and hell, I'm okay with that. Volume 1, however, suggested otherwise. It established a character trait for the MC, and then in volume 2, after far too little time had passed and far too little focus had been put on the matter, the MC...

Spoiler

Completely disregards the very faceless masses on whose behalf he executed the heroine. No, I'm not just talking about the random innocent people he killed, this is an evil protagonist after all (though the execution of that part was pretty cringe-worthy - 'oh no, I'm in love, what do I do? Guess I'll mu*der people, she likes mu*der, right? She told me so'). No, my problem is that when he recruits the general (whose backstory is again painfully edgy, but hey - this is that kind of story), he just *shrugs off* the deaths of the demons he recruited and pushes her to sacrifice more, just for training. Hey, remember when he executed the heroine for doing something much less revolting, but in the same vein? Remember when he *loathed* his father specifically for the kind of behavior where he didn't care about the people depending on him in favor of his own desires? Yeah. Such bald-faced hypocrisy is a major turn-off.

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It doesn't end there, of course. We ended volume 1 with the love interest subordinate to the MC, and outmaneuvered by the MC every turn. But a *good* story has love interests on an even keel, right? That's how a good relationship is built up? And romance is, of course, necessary in every story.

So let's force a romance between the two, have them behave in completely OOC ways - even the female MC, this pragmatic, use-anything-to-get-ahead succubus spawn is now apparently b*tching at the MC for trying to please her, rather than taking advantage of his momentary insanity and try to get ahead - because she also fell in love with him. For some reason. Oh right, it's not quite 'love', because that's for normies - in edgy, cynical novel world, they have to spice it up, so it gets paragraphs upon paragraphs dedicated to how it's so different. Blegh.

The 2nd volume is basically entirely shock factor and twists, right up until the end. Rather than enriching a good story, these two aspects dominate and replace the story. Which is why I dropped it there. <<less
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Wujigege
timbone rated it
October 14, 2016
Status: v3c1
It is a story wrapped in a pretty package. When you open the package only disappointment awaits you.

If you enjoy sick gore and disturbing stories then you might enjoy this. The flaws are well hidden in the first volume as you were still opening the package. The author is very inconsistent, seemed to forget the moral baseline that he established. Oh the story has a lot s*x fetishes. I bet it was popular as it can cater to any fetish you can imagine.
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Temaniel
Temaniel rated it
September 11, 2016
Status: v2 afterword
I enjoyed the first volume, but lost interest after reading the second.

There's an unpleasant shift in personality. In the first volume, he's a smart character surviving through deception. In the second volume, he seems like a temperamental child who loses his way, his original personality, and his charm.
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Governator
Governator rated it
September 21, 2016
Status: v2 intermission
At first, it did look very interesting. Becoming a weak Demon lord in a ex-game setting? Medieval world with magic? Sounds cool. Sounds different than the majority of Eastern novels around here.

The final parts of chapter 2 turned that into a complete disappointment. The MC grew up... from a small time trickster to a psychopathic a**hole. Same for his lover, same for other characters. It's like watching Harlequin, Joker & the gang in the making. Or, in fact, MCs of multiple other novels who are/become a**holes.

This novel avoids many cliches... more>> and that is quite good. The problem is, to do so, it turns to pure s*upidity (which is "explained" by psychopathy and the thirst for authority). I would not recommend this unless you liked slaughtering kittens when you were a child or something of that sort and have a touch of megalomania. <<less
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delorz
delorz rated it
August 23, 2016
Status: --
The MC is confused, in denial, and a self-proclaimed pessimist. He has no sympathy. Really a bad example for even criminals. Looks at the world as if he knows everything in terms of the way of life.

Personality wise, he's like a lot of people that recently popped up in the 21st century: Doesn't give a damn about anyone else, hates reality, thinks that what he does is naturally right etc. I honestly don't know why this has so many 5 star ratings.
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Gsichtselfmeter
Gsichtselfmeter rated it
August 27, 2019
Status: v3c2
A story is fun if it is one psychopath interacting with a bunch of normal people. The more psychopaths you add in the mix, the less fun it becomes. This story is full of psychopaths. Not fun. Furthermore, the MC often claims that liking lolis is a mental illness, but the author clearly doesnt think that way, seeing as the story is full of "even though she has the appearance of a child, she is 500 years old" loli girls that climb in the MCs beds.

The first volume starts great,... more>> but then it just deteriorates into "I am very smart" and "look how twisted I am" fan service without substance. 2* <<less
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Rangle
Rangle rated it
September 27, 2016
Status: v3 illustrations
I always like novels that deal with mature themes. But unfortunately after reading volume 2, I find the dialogues are nonsensical and a bit childish. It seems to be written for emo teenagers. The main character is boring and annoying. Maybe, I'm a bit pampered from reading characters like Gene Wolfe's unreliable narrators. I shouldn't expect too much from a LN but I got too hyped from all the positive reviews on this site.
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Dekao
Dekao rated it
September 14, 2018
Status: v5 afterword
It's a shittier and edgier Breakers. Filled with plot contrivances and idiot characters to make the MC seem smart, this novel is nothing but mu*der hobo characters wrapped in a loosely packaged political Ars Goetia backdrop.

The worst thing about this novel is that the author really had something going in the first volume. A quick witted MC without dad issues and no apparent psycho tendencies. I could see that premise taking off into an enjoyable read. Navigating tough the political landscape of a demon continent as a lower ranked king.... more>> Instead the author flipped the script with a sudden character development of mental issues and a case of megalomania. And that's for 4 of the main characters. <<less
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DekuHero
DekuHero rated it
November 19, 2017
Status: --
WOW, would you just look at all those good reviews. Just look at em.

With tags like: Dark, genius protag, antihero protag, and many other things that made this sound ideal to read I thought for sure I would enjoy this. I love dark novels with a cold and intelligent MC.

WOW, check out those reviews and the rating! I haven't seen anything this one sided in a long long time! It's got over 1700 people giving it 5 stars while only around 90 gave it 1 star. Must be good right?... more>> I assumed so.

So I started reading.

Short story with no spoilers at all:

The MC is wayyyyy too idealistic. Reading the first part of the prologue I thought this was pretty cool and exactly what I was looking for and then the MC shows what he is really like in the second half and I think... well maybe ill give it another shot. NO WAY 1700+ PEOPLE COULD ALL LIKE THIS IF IT WAS sh*t RIGHT??

Spoiler

1st chapter and The MC is explaining why his dad is garbage and how shitty his life is because of his dad. His dad is a bit of a pervy grandpa at worst. His son makes him out to be tr*sh because he has a f*cking harem and his mom treats him like crap because his dad doesn't give her enough attention or some crap. Doesn't that just make the mom tr*sh? Anyway the dad ends up in jail because he groped some high school ass not knowing the ass was attached to a high schooler.. or even a woman. He's a pervy grandpa type. His son treats him like sh*t as his father is giving him life advice based on his own life short comings. His dad is actually a solid bro dad that loves his kids. He ends up dying in jail and his son the MC could care less. He recalls a time when his mom took out a knife to kill his dad and his dad stood behind him supposedly using him as a shield. He once again gives his mom a pass, but hates on his father. His dad was apparently rich as f*ck and left him with a lot of money and a company, but he chose to pocket some money and live like a Neet for the rest of his life drinking beer and eating noodles. This is the guy who thinks his dad is tr*sh btw. He is apparently okay with taking his dead fathers money, but not his advice or returning his love. What I'm trying to get at is the MC is an idealistic, naive, sexist, child.. that is the furthest thing away from a cold and collected prtoag. His character is cool, but it's not him. He's tr*sh imo.

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<<less
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akacs
akacs rated it
September 22, 2018
Status: v5
Volume 1 : Best bait ever

Volume 1 is truly good, weak but intelligent, manipulative, and cunning.

MC is Yagami Light V.2 Psycho edition

My advice is just read it, there will be parts which are over the top cringy and edgy and just mindf*cking, but when the MC uses his manipulative skills to crush someone or persuade someone you'll just be happy that all the cringy stuff you've read will be forgotten.
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LoneCookie
LoneCookie rated it
October 16, 2016
Status: v3c1
So, reading through most of the negative reviews, I've noticed most of the hater's hate point comes from volume 2. And that's... what I can't understand the most. They say, "The coldhearted and lazy MC got more emotional and this ruined his character, " but can they tell me exactly why he got more emotional and drastic? Isn't it shoved right in your face exactly why he got that way, completely different from volume 1?

Spoiler alert! ... more>>
Spoiler

It's frankly put in the novel for even a blind man to see, that this was caused by a silly emotion called "love, " which the MC absolutely did not think would happen. But although this happened, it was premeditated that it would happen... matter of fact, in volume 1, chapter 1. His father, that waste of life, gave us readers some foresight--- the MC will make many mistakes, just like his father did when it comes to women. Even the main female lead thought the MC was acting foolish, just the same way as the readers did. Doesn't this explain that the author in fact did not forget the MC's personality?

[collapse]

The one thing I will agree on with the haters is that the author did neglect the use of those unique abilities, such as the MC's one to read into one's affection level. It doesn't hold any true purpose other than seeing another person's favor with the MC rise or drop depending on his actions. Doesn't exactly help him win a logical argument with another individual or win wars or anything of the sort that he was planning. I'd prefer for him to pick another one of those abilities--- they might of been useful.

But overall, I'd say this novel is a perfect 5/5. Beautifully written with beautiful characters everywhere. Heck, even that waste of a father was a top-tier character. <<less
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Trent
Trent rated it
July 15, 2016
Status: --
Comedy takes advantage of savviness.

I guess it's witty.

Not always credible, and sometimes over-the-top. Nevertheless, 5 stars.
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vitas
vitas rated it
May 28, 2020
Status: v5 afterword
Before writing a review, I took care to read all available volumes and some of the reviews of my fellow critics. I won't go in great detail, there are lot of older reviews that do so.

What I noticed is, there are 2 categories of readers: those who read only first half of the novel (usually first 2 volumes) and dropped it there, and those who read all 5

The first group of people are disappointed with the change of style between vol 1 and 2.

Vol 1 is about typical NEET/loser protagonist... more>> (although protagonist considers himself a winner) who reincarnates (?) or somehow possess the demon lord Dantalian from a RPG game. The said demon lord then continues to live as in-game character. The interaction with game interface continues (typical for such novels) to be present for a while. It seems he is the only gamer present in this world, living with NPC (I think most of the people reading this review played some RPG's in their life, and don't need explanation for the terms I use).

Different from other korean novels in the same genre, this novel is VERY dark/edgy. In fact it is the darkest novel I ever red. People and demons die non-stop throughout the whole novel, usually by beheading but all kinds of killing/ execution are present. This seems as a refreshing/interesting approach from the author (if you are into dark fantasy, any Diablo 2/3/4 fans here?), at least in 1st volume. In later volumes, even when main characters interact with each other in non-aggressive way, somebody is dying in the background. You may think, this extra-dark tone could be actually funny, and sometimes it is. But most of the time it is intended to be disturbing. The problem is, when death is always present, it stops being interesting/meaningful. Instead it starts to be annoying. This is why I felt the need to skim some of the text, but there are some key plot elements mixed with death scenes, if you skim you may omit something important, so I ended up in a dilemma how to read it... A good novel shouldn't make me feel this way, one of the reasons I rated it with 3.

Starting with vol. 2, the whole style of the novel changes. The RPG elements and the interaction with game interface are almost absent. Instead we are reading a pure dark fantasy, the NPC characters are now real (?) and we are supposed to root for them. Also there are elements of pe*verted s*x and politics; welcome to Game of Thrones version 2.0. Except it ain't.

All the main characters (the protagonist and couple of cute girls, and no, surprisingly it is not a harem story, at least not yet, the novel is on hiatus a.t.m.) are mentally ill (a.k.a. broken)). Dantalian's 'daughter' Farnese is classical case of schizophrenia, no exaggeration. Also, you can google 'psychological disorders list', most of them are present in this novel. If you watched the movie 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest', then reading this novel will seem like watching a worse version of the movie. Reading about unusual, crazy people may be interesting for some people, that's why the novel is so high rated. But these characters also have no redeeming qualities, except the fact that they like other psychos like themselves. Ironically the only character I could root for, Stiri, who is 'broken' too, but has some resemblance of moral values, is actually a side character.

Also there is a lot of unnecessary dialogue and overall a lot of filler and pseudo-philosophical ideas. I mean, should I take seriously mentally deranged people speaking 'enigmatic' words? No thanks. Also, author uses oxymoron (a type of figure of speech which involves contradiction) A LOT. For example: Farnese was silly while being smart, or: The witches had pure hearts while being sluts. I mean I get it, he wants to make an impression of competent writer, but enough is enough.

The author is eager to explore psychological issues, yet the world itself is rather bleak. How did the NEET guy teleported in a game-like world and became Dantalian exactly? Who are the demons and how much do they differ from humans? How does one become a witch, what is the limit of their power? What is magic? How strong are the different types of demons and what magic powers do they have? There are a lot of pics with cute moe girls, how about an elementary world map? No.

On the bright side, there are some plot pieces that come together as a whole only after reading another chapters or even volumes. Putting those pieces together can be fun, like solving a riddle. But if you skim them accidentally then there is no fun. So if you are ready to become a professional skimmer, give this novel a try ;) <<less
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Lunitan
Lunitan rated it
July 25, 2017
Status: v2
I don't really see what all the fuss is about. Guy is transported to some game world where he knows the future and then lazes around. Sure the MC has these moments where he turns from an unlikable good for nothing NEET into a crazed psychopath. Is that supposed to be cool?

You might say the MC is smart, he get's into all these situations and then his psychopath side comes out and solves them, amazing! I disagree. I'd contend that he get's into these problems because he doesn't plan ahead... more>> and is a NEET that can't communicate and is just lazy. I'd even say that anyone who passes the tutorial could do better than him, especially if they pick the most broken ability, creature summoning. Anyone can do what he does if they also had the foreknowledge he has, he barely exploits his ability to predict the future and instead does next to nothing. He has tons of gold laying around and does nothing with it, does nothing to secure his life and position unless he is forced to (Remember if that letter didn't come warning him of incoming troops he would have just died from not being prepared), and doesn't even really use his mind reading ability much. He has intelligence without wisdom or will, which is worthless.

So an unlikable character that isn't particularly competent and is always reacting after being cajoled or otherwise forced into action. So in other words the worst character possible. What does this story have left then. The supporting cast? All similarly unlikable, made up of megalomaniacs and psychopaths. The enemies and politics? Somewhat interesting but it loses all tension when I realize I don't care if any of the characters live or die. How about the prose? Bland formulaic light novel writing. So why is this story so highly rated? Simple, it's junk food power fantasy, nothing more. It doesn't even attempt to hide it's true nature, which I don't know whether to applaud or condemn. Either way I won't be reading anymore. <<less
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orario
orario rated it
August 17, 2016
Status: v1c3
I got attracted by the very high rating but..

There's too much tr*sh talk and too little action/meaningful events.

The MC might be smart but he's as weak as a goblin. It's probably that I'm bored to a fault right now, but this novel doesn't bring me any kind of enjoyment. Instead of getting stronger and having a spine, the MC only relays on tr*sh talk... and a system with affection points... like seriously? -_-

... more>> Anyway, after the 2nd chapter I got bored. Dropped it in the middle of the third.

It's a Korean novel but it actually has that vibe of a run the mill Japanese LN <<less
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