I’ve made some rather harsh comments on this story at the start for a few reasons: I’ve grown to be quite familiar with Kaze’s works on Honeyfeed (having read many of his series and entries alike), I think his stories are of very high quality, but this story didn’t do it for me at first. However, as it progresses, I’ve changed my mind, and I now can say with confidence that “Time and Time again” is certainly living up to its author’s previous quality as well as serving to be one of the best stories in the current isekai competition.

Without a doubt, the main selling point of the book is the time magic “gimmick”. And while I still think that *overall* it is the weakest aspect of the story, it has been developed with a clear intention and clear thought in mind, especially in later chapters where you can really see the varied applications it brings and the details of mixing with conventional physics it uses - a great add that the average webnovel might not be even bothered to explain. And while the rest of the worldbuilding isn’t exactly stellar (I mean it’s vaguely medieval European fantasy, if there’s anything that does not need explanation it’s vaguely medieval European fantasy settings xD), it does what it needs to do relatively fine.

What, imo, makes this story shine is naturally its excellent cast, particularly the dynamic between Gideon and Roze. I will admit, I wasn’t sold on either one at first - the former was too much of the “standard OP MC” while the latter was where most of my grievances with time magic powerscaling in this story came from, but as “time” (pun intended) goes on they’ve been explored in such great ways. Gideon, once the mask finally decides to come off, has shown a lot more human moments, while Roze when she can finally apply the former’s teachings finally has her aura farming moments worthy of the broken time powers she has xD. But jokes aside, their mix of something between teacher/student, partners/soulmate dynamic, especially towards the ending chapters is something I absolutely adore (tho I admittedly am not a fan of the “implied romance” - I think it’s rather forced and bait-y lol). Personally I don’t think the side cast stand out *too* much but the party members do have their own moments to shine, so no complaints here.

Overall, I think “Time and Time Again” is very by-the-book in the sense of being an isekai entry for the contest. However, I don’t think it’s bad; as a matter of fact, I think it’s possibly the best level of execution one could get for a by-the-book entry. It has essentially set a line for all participants, and I will say, when the eventual winners are decided, if it’s not just straight up this one my expectations would be for them to be at least comparable to this story in quality.