Jul 21, 2025
Oh, what a love letter to the isekai genre this is...
There are so many tropes, I'm getting lost in all the references! But similarly, I feel like the way the information is portrayed here is very haphazard... I can't help wondering if the aforementioned number of references factors in. If anything, it feels like the way the tropes are deployed and installed drives a lot of the worldbuilding, but the connective tissue between the tropes is quite sparse.
The narration jumps quite a lot here as well, but this time, paradoxically and ironically, I feel like scene breaks would've helped. Since we're essentially fast-forwarding through Ace's life, this is meant to be a game, and the memories are apparently quite disjointed (?), presenting them as quick 'episodes' might've given them a little more structure. Maybe it would've helped establish a cadence of sorts? Or maybe not.
There's also a bit of a question on my mind here. Sure, we know who Ace is, but I feel like we're lacking a lot of info about who Haruki is. I think the issue I take is that I'm not entirely sure where Haruki ends and where Ace begins - if at any point. It feels like he's pretty much acting like himself, but also slotting into Ace's life to some extent and the blend is heterogenous enough that it's quite visible.
As for the plot... maybe I'm a tad daft, but I'm a little confused what Ace's stake in all of this is? Did I miss when he said why he was so concerned about the world having discrepancies, or what his goal was to begin with? I remember him saying this is an 'isekai scenario', meaning he's maybe preparing for the worst? But that feels like it's sidelining his character and rallying it behind the whims of plot... And I don't like that! Make the character breathe, dammit! Stupid JRPGs...
Anyway, those were my two cents. Hope they make sense 
