Respawn Condition: Trash Mob

First of all, I didn't expect much from this story at all because of the title and thought it would be some more of the same, but I've been corrected. It is interesting, in the way that a peacock sits in a flock of geese. The author knows how to write narration, not just telling you "I did this, and that did that" and whoever he/she is is fully aware of how to keep a strong voice of the person's story we're following, and for that I thank them.

Grammar is solid, and has either been edited heavily or the author actually knows what they're doing, there's way too many stories littering this place with awkward grammar, broken phrases or just a complete ball drop of the two. There's no need to worry if you're going to get a complete mess and question whether or not the author passed english lit at all. 

The prose is the strongest part for me, because its aided by the author's relevant skills in english there's a sandwich of the author being able to express themselves without being bogged down in tiresome mistakes. The voice is prominent, and will always be there on every single chapter. The indifferent, melancholic feeling you get is pervasive. 

About the story, for the protag to die and get respawned every time is nice, we don't have to worry about some super-generic story coming out of this piece. It's pretty much a solid slice of life in a straight up "you know what you're going to get, even on 30th chapter" sort of deal.  

What I can say is the pacing is... so mind-bogglingly dragged slow that it feels like I'm trying to draw a perfectly straight line for twenty miles. The piece is meandering and honestly aimless, not really giving us a reason to read when every chapter is just our protagonist a haze and shrugging around to stretch into monotony. A good quarter to half of the chapters can be cut without losing much of what happened, because the same sort of memory-haze narration will keep up again.

I think this story for most people will be hit or miss, because of the issues inherent to the storytelling and character. But its not bad, its greater in value than most low-quality trash that gets uploaded here, and I will rate it with my honesty.

This is a rather unique story that I think many can find appealing if they give it a chance. You can tell the author really knows what they're doing here, as the writing doesn't really feel amateurish. I'll admit that the earlier chapters are slow but because the main character is endearing it keeps you engaged, and for me if the characters are interesting then it doesn't take a whole lot to keep me going. 

If you don't like slowly paced stories(at least in the beginning) then this might be a pass for you, but if that doesn't bother you then I would certainly recommend giving it a shot.

Respawn Condition is a story about Agency. More specifically, a lack thereof. Living up to its (Ultra Slow Burn) promise, the story spans 300 chapters dedicated to the thoughts of our Main Character as he navigates his many lives in the deepest pits of the darkest dungeon. 

Perhaps the most obvious distinction in Respawn condition is the strength of the first-person narration. The reader does not see the outside world, the reader sees nothing but a mind, and how that mind interprets the world around it. And so one can see how that mind, and by extension, the word it describes, changes up until the very very end of the work. That journey is what I most enjoyed about Razzmatazz's writing.

Grammar:

The Grammer seems to be professionally done. I don't recall ever noticing a Grammatical error that was not obviously inserted for narrative purposes. 

Style:

The ascent into madness throughout the story is what you come here to read. Although does not shy away from action, it does a great job of showing things through the lens of the ever-changing main character's point of view, making fights less about interaction with others, but how we see Mr. MC perceiving that interaction. This is exemplified by the explicit use of Metaphors and Archetypes, not as a means to show "the MC is genre-savvy" but instead as means of exploring how they would affect a captive subject (the MC) exposed to them. 

 Character:

There is only one real character in Respawn Condition: The MC. This story is about him, and him alone. You're going to be reading his thoughts, from the irrational to the completely lucid, to the absolutely insane, and see how the ratios and content of those standards change throughout. The limited scenarios that the MC does interact with others, particularly towards the end are used to highlight just what has happened to him in comparison to those that are a little less impacted by his constant cycle of death & rebirth. 

Story:

Surprisingly, for a fiction that resolutely sticks to a single character, the underlying plot is complex and far-reaching in how it coherently explains so so much. Because of the active focus on the psychological aspects of the story, hints and messages are dropped fairly infrequently, and many of them are half-truths at best. But dedicated readers can (and have!) pieced together the story of the dungeon long before it is explicitly revealed. So while the background question of "why" things happen is less focused on, its substance & presentation is top-tier. 

This is one of those stories that I keep coming back to. It's been a wild ride with big ups and downs. The writing is fantastic, and the story moves at a sedate pace but doesn't pull anything out of the emotional moments. I wish I could put my words into thoughts and really do it justice with an indepth review, but all I can say is it's good and I like it.

Review writen after Chapter 162 (most recent right now):

A nice, slow paced story. Tha MC is quite interestin and at least to me represnting a new aproach.
The story develops rather nicely and until now changes are rather logical inside the consturcted world. If you´re looking for a new story to read definitely check this one out if you´re willing to be in for a long and nice trip.
There are action elements but they´re not dominating. If you are looking for another fantasy action beatdown maybe look for somehing else. Here you´ll be more likely to find a story talking about many things some more some less deep anf acompanyiing the MC through their story.

A nice, slow paced story. Tha MC is quite interestin and at least to me represnting a new aproach.
The story develops rather nicely and until now changes are rather logical inside the consturcted world. If you´re looking for a new story to read definitely check this one out if you´re willing to be in for a long and nice trip.
There are action elements but they´re not dominating. If you are looking for another fantasy action beatdown maybe look for somehing else. Here you´ll be more likely to find a story talking about many things some more some less deep anf acompanyiing the MC through their story.

I encourage you to just try the first few chapters and then judge for yourselves. :)

Things to look out for (wether positive or negative is up to you) WARNING: This might contain minor spoilers. Realy just minor though.

- Lewed content being teased lightly but until now nothing explicit.

- Some darker emotions and realizations by the MC.

- Non human perspectives from the MC.

- Some Dungeon and LitRPG elments without actualy leaning into any sterotypes associated with such stories.

- Partly amnesia on the side of the MC.

- An slightly underpowered MC. (Might change)

Once again, I encourage you to just try the first few chapters and then judge for yourselves. :)

Although I have rated character and story as the weak areas of Respawn Condition: Trash Mob, I want to make clear that the difficulties here are directly caused by the MC's memory problems combined with the fact that the MC often either physically can't talk or can't understand human-speak.  These aren't bad story-design choices; they contribute to Respawn Condition's great style.  They just make the plot advance slowly because the MC regularly forgets clues they have previously noticed and contextual information they have learned.  Not to mention the fact that the MC's personality doesn't have a solid foundation but is instead slanted by each new life makes it challenging for readers to really understand the MC's essence as a character.  It's an interesting challenge, but does overall reduce reader empathy.  I do feel that the current place in the story has had too many male incarnations in a row, because the gender flexibility of the MC was one of the first traits I really noticed and liked about them in the first arc of the story.

That said, I don't like the thief.  I like sister slime, the goblins, Piotr, I'm frustrated that the plot seems to be opposed to the MC's personal growth.  I like it when the MC has a spiritual or philosophical epiphany, but then the MC seems to get punished into forgetfulness. To show how the plot progression is sort of fighting itself as well: the mystery of the dungeon's turbulent past and the hero cultists is one of my favorite parts of the story, but the MC has been hurried and/or killed past two different places that would have been perfect for finding out more about that plot thread so far.  So that's also frustrating.  I was eagerly expecting the stained glass windows in the church to turn out to be a clue related to this, but it turned out not to be, as far as I could tell.

Grammar, not to much to say here; it's quite good except for the occassional mix-up of similar sounding words, and the fact that "tell you what" always compels me to mentally 'correct' it to "I tell you what".  That last thing might be just me though.

Style, I am freaking impressed with the atmospherics and themes here.  This story is right on the edge of being too traumatic for my personal tolerance, but it's all quite artistic or philosophical trauma that doesn't feel gratuitous.  (Except maybe the moral of being an ooze didn't quite fit with the story's other themes; not quite sure if that was intended to build on the rats or not.)

If anyone else were stuck in this story as the MC, this would be a horror story. The MC is stuck in an eternal loop of reincarnating and getting brutally murdered by the hero. The fact that it reads like a slice of life is a testament to the magnetic optimism and graciousness of this particular MC that makes it impossible not to root for them.

The MC is struggling to retain their individuality and memories against the pressure of the dungeon that wants them to be a trash mob. While the MC can overcome many of the dungeon instincts, as the story progresses it becomes clear that they're not as much in control of they're own mind as they claim. Well written, one of the biggest strengths of the story.

“I appreciate the dungeon-master, he really tries his best. He’s calculating, methodical. He has a plan. A plan that has never-ever worked, granted. But a plan nonetheless.”

The MC is always finding small things to appreciate, whether it's the aethestics of the dungeon or the uniqueness of each creature they're reincarnated as. The MC refuses to blame others for their suffering despite having plenty of justification to. Reading such an appreciative, thoughtful MC is refreshing.

Yes, the pacing is slow. I don't think it's that much slower than many other slice of life stories, though. I think what's really slowing down readers is the paragraph length.

To the author: please, please, go back and break up paragraphs. A lot of people read RR on mobile — go to a random chapter and try resizing your browser window to very narrow. Having all large paragraphs is intimidating. Your prose flows smooth as butter, so I think if you break up the paragraphs, readers will fly through chapters. This story is super bingeable.

On that note, the writing is great. The voice is tremendous.

I think some reviewers may be confusing the very colloquial voice of the MC for poor grammar/style. The MC is laid-back and uses relatively simple speech, and a lot of the sentences are very short, but the prose is strong. Grammar is great save for a few tense shifting issues in the early chapters (didn't see them later on), and some comma splices which most RR readers don't care that much about.

For the Author: Writing Critique

Most of the more negative reviews came at chapter 20 or before, and it's not hard to see why. Respawn Condition: Trash Mob has a slow pace, particularly for the first dozen chapters or so, and at that point the plot was pretty shallow. Even I was close to dropping it and writing the story off as a dull slice of life. But fortunately, I decided to give it a chance and see if the plot got a little more interesting. 

My expectations were blown out of the water. Here at chapter 80, where the plot is thicker than jello and each question answered just prompts several more, I'm left wondering where the simplicity of the early chapters went. Respawn Condition is slow, but it's actually necessary for proper plot development. The answers are far more satisfying when the lore is uncovered piece by piece in an intriguing manner, rather than stuffed down the reader's throat with info dumps in an attempt to keep a fast pace going. 

Respawn Condition is suprisingly complex and quite unlike anything else on Royal Road. If you like unconventional stories, mysteries, time loops, dungeons, or pixel art then click the "start reading" button already. 

But if you don't have enough patience to get past the early chapters or expect to be spoon-fed the plot, then this story is not for you. 

This is a weird review for me, because this is a weird fiction. You can see from my rating that I love everything about this except for the story, but we'll get to that.

Razzmatazz's style of writing is... polarising, to say the least. I'm all over the comments praising the way the story is written but I've noticed other reviews criticising the same things I love about it so it must be a subjective thing. Either you'll love it or hate it, and I unabashedly love it. It's oddly melancholy and anyone who has experience with dementia patients will relate to the dsijointed, stream-of-consciousness type of writing in this story. It does change a bit as the MC gains more power but the essence is definitely there.

The story though, I have to criticize. The plot moves at a glacial pace. This could be the greatest plot since A Game of Thrones but we'd only find out at chapter 500 lol. I can't give it under three stars because I did legitimately enjoy it, but tbh if this style of writing didn't uniquely appeal to me, I would have dropped it after 10 chapters of literally nothing happening.

Grammar is great tbh. I always find this section weird as I'm yet to review a story with grammar so bad I have to deduct stars but yeah, it's a smooth reading experience. The author fixes any typos pointed out fairly quickly, so full five stars.

The MC is quite likeable, he finds happiness where he can in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. I especially like how the body he's in has a tangible effect on the way he thinks and acts. You can tell Razzmatazz has thought about this.

All in all, if you don't mind a slower paced story, this is definitely for you. This is a "comfy chair by the hearth in the late evening" type of story. The kind you'd read when winding down from a long day at work. Followed and favourited

Its a decent read, not binge read for me personally, I can only read a little hear and there before I burn out, as the basic plot can be a bit slow and repetitive at times, you can usually skim 1/3 chapters and not miss much.

Its interesting even if it's slow though, you really get the opportunity to see what life is like as some of the creatures, but it does go on a bit here and there, without much pay off.

There is pay off and it's nice, it'd be nice if it was just a little faster, spoilers but you dont get any dialog for about 50-60 chapters depending on how you look at it, and it can be a long time before you stat needs get to see dem stats.

The real problem with this story is the lack of alternative perspectives, I think this could be 5stars if their were just a few alt pov chapters or if the author let us expirience more dialogue when it final appears in the story.

Litterally there is a plethora of opportunity for pov chapters and its would be good to see what others think about the strange happenings I the dungeon.

P.s. I hate that gawd damned elf