I'm always down to give an isekai a shot. They're usually pretty bad, but I read them all the same. Surprisingly, this is one of the good ones. Most isekai have an OP MC where his/her "cheat" ability is so strong that there's no real tension, or the world is underdeveloped to the point where the setting is nonexistent, or there's a harem of ladies that throw themselves at the MC for no reason at all. Often it's all of the above. This one bucks that trend, to the point where the story is actually compelling. The recipe is the same - so you know the drill - but there's a bit more heart here than in most of the isekai schlock out there.
Here's the deal, MC finished playing game 2 of a 3 game series set in a fantasy world. He then reincarnates into the villain of game 2 as a child. MC wants to change the events of the story, not because it leads to HIS "bad end", but the bad end for others. It's a common isekai story, but it's just different enough to be interesting. Also, he's not instantly OP, which is great. I mean, he's just a kid. He gets hurt, nearly gets killed at times, and his decisions have far-reaching repercussions (his actions take place before the start of game 1, so the butterfly effect is in full swing already). He IS getting really strong - sure - but he doesn't start that way. It took him like 6 months for his sword skill to hit level 2, and then another 3 years (time-skip) and he still hadn't hit level 3. Sometimes it seems like most isekai are worried that they're going to get axed within a dozen or so chapters, so they need to get to the insane action immediately. This one is taking it's time with the power-creep and I'm a fan of that. At most, he can kill rank D monsters, and that's a struggle. He's not flicking his wrist and killing rank SSS+ monsters by the bushel. I'm sure he'll be killing some crazy monsters and doing some cool stuff pretty soon, but so far it's been pretty tame. Then there's the world. As of chapter 9 (current) he's still just a 13 year old kid in his tiny village, but we already know about royal factions, the history of the world, and where the story is going. I'm a sucker for a well-established world with characters that act with intelligence. Since I found that here, I started reading the web novel so I can keep the party going.
Personally, I'm giving this a 9 for now, but objectively I'd say this is around a 7 or so. It's pretty darn good for an isekai story and frankly it's just fun. It has more heart than I was expecting and for that alone, I'm going to stick with it for a while.
