TLDR: Bait premise, in reality, just a typical academy romcom with big more personality / exaggeration. Enjoyable story, for at least where I've gotten to, but the story has multiple problems. But being more of a slice of life genre, these don't really get in the way, other than leaving a more stale plot.

We get an interesting premise, MC Reincarnated not into a normal romcom love dovey academy game, but a dark souls level difficulty type dark fantasy (not actual fantasy). Where every misstep can easily plummet down all hour... more>> trust and affection, causing you to die like being mu*dered or kidnapped.

Frankly I liked the story. But that doesn't mean to mention it is a very amazing story.

There was something off. The problem? They didn't really actually lean into it that much. It really just feels like a generic academy rom com with multiple love interests (harem), that have just a bit more exagerations and personality.

The protagonist also completely deviats off the story route immediately, making it even more like a standard romance academy novel reincarnation, as he isn't actually avoiding death flags. It's just forced into the plot. And all the red flags are now very generic open ended type now, rather than true plot/character specific. You just have a forced in plot reason for why the MC needs a harem.

This naturally opens many plotholes, as the MC immediately deviated off the main route. Can't he just avoid these senseless things then? Of course there's a lot of plot armor to forcibly make romantic plot events happen.

The novel is also a very heavy wish fulfillment type novel. The MC is talented and gifted at everything, having zero faults at all, other than being semi rude and blunt, which should definitely not be done in such a game, but plot holes and armor am I right? The girls are also just too convenient, and being a game with suppossed very realistic outlook and extremely harsh difficulty, every single one is again, just way too convenient.

Though I'm happy for it, the setting being a harem game with multiple female lead love interests with crazy endings, other than the MC being popular, we only see one extra other than his live in adopted (?) sister. But again, I'm happy for this, as most harems are written bad, especially in novels like this, so it'll let me enjoy the story longer.

Though I've only read 9 chaps and I'm sure I'll drop it later, at least so far it has been enjoyable. But again, not a wowzer story. The slice of life elements in between plot points fit my niche pretty well, like the MC being a god of games and going to the gym.

Welp, I did drop after reading a few chaps afterwards. The story is just too much of a rom com and the unique settings are just really thrown out from the start. Not really to my tasts <<less