I Was Invited to the Otherworldly Country As a Warrior, But I Refused and Decided to Start As a Soldier

nathandouglasdavis Aug 12, 2021

2

It was hinted at before (what with the mysterious voice and the Erosion Rate), but the fight against the two orthroses in chapter six made it really obvious that this is a deal-with-the-devil type of story, in the sense that the main character is able to gain massive power boosts in exchange for some vague negative consequences. As far as Overpowered Main Character stories go, ones of this variety have the most built-in tension and intrigue (because the power isn't free) and thus have the most built-in potential to become stronger stories than other varieties. But I don't think this story will become a good story. It struggles with having effective exposition and narration. The drama feels weak and doesn't always feel like it flows naturally and the worldbuilding comes across as kinda shallow and half-assed. The attempts at character development feel clunky and weak and, as of yet, I still fail to be invested in any of them. It also just drops or glosses over some things. Like, the examples I have in mind are how it just dropped what's going on with all those non-Yukizaku characters and what the king needed them for and how it just glosses over the communication method with Bultcress. Really shitty art. Distracting and inconsistent proportions on the characters. And most, if not all, of the monsters look ugly and derpy. The backgrounds are often just bland and boring too and the fight sequences are nothing to write home about. The dungeon landscape was just high grass. They could've done some really cool things with the dungeon, but they did the most boring thing imaginable. It should also be mentioned that it's dipping into some sci-fi adjacent space, with a dragon-like creature (a dragoon) that people can pilot from the inside (like DARLING in the FRANXX) and computer terminals and stuff.  [Reviewed at chapter 11]