Salvos (A Monster Evolution LitRPG)

Salvos is not a groundbreaking masterpiece.  It's not an exciting adventure the likes of which you've never seen before.  You will not be bowled over with awe at its unrelenting magesty.  But that's not what a story has to be in order to shine.  Sometimes I just want to read something that gives me a goofy smile.  Salvos is that story.  

A lighthearted adventure about a demon trying to go home to see her friend, Salvos starts off a little dark but quickly progresses into an almost sitcom-style journey about a silly, dorky demon girl who likes to fight making friends with humans and repeatedly baffling them.  The plot progresses smoothly and sensibly, the character motivations are simplistic but consistent, and Salvos's slow character progression, while occationally heavy-handed, is satisfying and enjoyable to read.

MelasD is a fantastic author with an excellent sense of grammar and flow.  Chapters are snappy and I never found myself getting bored with the pacing or uninterested in the current objective.  Past the beginning section, the story just feels fun.  Tropes from similar stories are introduced with amusing twists, combat is snappy and interesting but never feels grim, and the constantly upbeat attitude of the main character is a joy to read.  

To anyone looking for a simple fantasy romp to make you grin, I can't recommend this enough.

The main character is silly, adorable, and thoroughly fun to read about as she progresses from a 'demon larva' as innocently cute as a puppy into a 'midday demon,' an overpowered toddler bubbling over with enthusiasm and energy. Her adventures and interactions with the secondary characters are amusing and enliven the usual LitRPG setting and world. Grammar, spelling, and sentence structure are superior. 

I like this story. It follows a young demon learning about the world and gaining levels and evolving to different subspecies based on her experiences. During her story she meets a variety of different beings. Some are sympathetic, while others are less so. But her adventures and personal growth are engaging and sometimes even emotional. There is also some great artwork in some of the chapters.

The writing style fits in well with this type of story. The story contains typical but highly enjoyable aspects of gaining skills, levels and evolving to more powerful demon subspecies. Salvos starts off knowing very little of the world and how it functions. As she learns about it, so do we. She is not OP, but she is a survivor. She does not always win her fights and sometimes has to run away, but she grows more powerful over time and gains more skills.

In terms of story and pacing, the first volume is really great. The second volume starts expanding on the world but also loses a little of its focus and direction; as it seems more like the random wanderings of Salvos and her daily life. The first volume was where Salvos had a long-term goal and a short-term goal and the focus was on achieving these goals with the occasional interlude. The second volume reverses this in that it seems like the focus is on side quests with the occasional interlude mentioning the main long-term goal in passing. There is nothing wrong with this new approach, but it is sufficiently different from the first volume's to feel a little jarring. The third volume seems to have more direction in it, in that Salvos is more focused and drive while still occasionally have side-quests that pop up or external events derail her from her current plans. I enjoyed it much more than the second volume. I like the fourth volume more than the previous two, and while there are still interludes with other characters' POV, I think Salvos is given more time to shine and show more of what made me so interested in this story in the first place (i.e. intriguing main character with a interesting view of the world). The interludes also show interesting character growth for some of Salvos' companions and help flesh out what is going on in other parts of the world.

If you enjoy this genre, this is an entertaining story and you should at least try it out. Just note that the second volume is a little less focused on Salvos and more on the larger world and the side characters.

PS: As officially required for an advanced review, some details on the spelling and grammar: it is decent. There are some errors but it is not an unreadable mess. Unfortunately, time constraints seems to mean that suggestions in the later chapters are left unaddressed. However, on the plus side chapter releases are relatively frequent and if I had to pick between more chapters to more editing, I would prefer the former.

Hope this feedback both helps the author as well as potential new readers.

Originally written 10 Dec '20 (when Chapter 12 'Two of Us' was the latest chapter); latest update 15 December '21 (when Chapter 245 'Nightsveil Part 5 (End of Volume 4)' was the latest chapter).

First off, I really do have mad respect and even envy for anyone who can keep consistently cranking out words on a regular schedule to this extent. That's a gift and no mistake. Nothing I nor anyone else can say can devalue that level of commitment and drive.

That said, there are issues here that are hard to miss.

The first of note is that including a litRPG system built into the world sets up a bunch of different pitfalls for the story and suspension of disbelief to get caught in, and Salvos proceeds to plunge headfirst into each and every one with enthusiasm. I won't go into detail because others already have.

Second: "Tell, Don't Show" is in full effect nearly all the time. A bit more subtlety would go a long way towards improving immersion and flow.

On a related note: brevity is all but avoided. All too often, many words are superfluous and don't really add anything to the meaning being conveyed. On the contrary, there are occasional bursts of purple prose that are just distracting. Too much of the time you can get by with just skimming the first sentence of every paragraph and backtracking if something catches your attention. You are unlikely to miss anything of consequence to the story.

Tied right into that last line is why you might be tempted to start skimming over things: pacing. The amount of writing it takes to progress the story a meaningful amount varies quite a bit. I suspect that's mostly just because this is a web serial where planning is problematic.

Characters: I actually don't really have much of a complaint about the characters. I think mostly they are simple but effective and show thought and feelings in a way that's a cut above most similar stories. Character progression, (and to an extent motivation) can certainly feel stunted at times for aforementioned reasons, but the characters are pretty good all things considered. I kept reading generally to see what happens to Salvos next.

Story: a bit meandering and nebulous. Doesn't exactly have much in the way of urgency or a compelling hook to it. It's been called SoL, but from what I've seen that wasn't really the initial intent. I think perhaps it just grew into that direction over time as that was what felt natural. But there are unresolved plot hooks from a hundred chapters ago that don't look to be wrapping up aaaaany time soon.

Bottom line: I don't like litRPGs. I still kind of like Salvos. Make of that what you want. 

It's... fine. I've enjoyed having this as something to read when I don't have the mental energy for something more complex. It's the literary equivalent of watching TV. Don't get me wrong, that's nice sometimes, but there's nothing special here. I won't remember this in a year.

It's got more sustain than many stories I've read in the progression fantasy genre. The pacing still suffers in the way that most all web fiction does, but for some reason I haven't gotten too bored after almost 150 chapters. It's long. There's a lot of it. I like that aspect.

I don't care much for the characters. The MC isn't very complex, on purpose, which sometimes works very nicely as a foil to the wider world (I wish this concept was explored more rather than hinted at), but often just leaves me wanting a little more depth. Her main companion is a bit of a sad fellow. He's not very motivated by anything, constantly doubts himself, and hasn't seen much character growth. C'mon author, you could make this a proper hypersigil real easily ;) Or at least one that does more than reinforce existing conditions.

There are very few typos. The overall writing style is fine. It neither elevates nor detracts from the story.

The plot is not particularly compelling. I am not confident in my own abilities as an author or critic, so I cannot say why, but I would guess that it's because it feels haphazard and without real stakes. One thing happens, then the next. Level up! Some of the characters express more emotion than in the usual story of this genre, I appreciate this greatly. But I want to see more! Higher highs and lower lows. Development in actual wisdom, not just [Wisdom].

I read the writing advice once that a good story needs not one, but three compelling ideas. This had one, in Hegel, but it was only shallowly referenced (repeatedly) until it became background noise.

Overall, if you're looking to fill time, give it a shot. Right now it's topwebfiction #1 for a reason. I won't recommend this to any of my friends.

Salvos the MC basically carries the entire story. She is an interesting character, cute, witty and smart. I would have called her mary sue if not for the fact, she does have flaws. But the story is too light hearted for any of the consequences to affect her in any meaningful way.

The world, if looked at from an ordinary human perspective, is an incredibly dark place. I am still not sure how the hell do humans still exist. They have been made too weak and the demons in contrast are too strong. A level 40-60 demon can basically rampage across towns and cities and totally destroy them. Later on this problem keeps getting bigger, when a couple of archdemons(<150) can  fuck around with dozens of level 150+ elites.

 Worldbuilding is pretty weak.

The story style follows a partial shonen anime style with character arcs and plots build ups. This has become more and more apparent in the latest arc. We have dozens of chapters of irrelevant side characters fighting these irrelevant demons all with those dialogues announcing their skills mid fight. Despite many fights occuring, there are no deaths. Atleast no deaths which mean anything to the MC. This reminds me of those dragon ball z episodes.

Basically I hated the Alyras arc. Too shonen for my taste

 The main side characters Daniel and Edithe are kinda interesting characters. While their interactions with MC is entertaining, unfortunately they cannot stand on their own. Daniel basically cripples himself by selecting a non combatant second class. Author may have something in mind for that so Ill give it a pass.

As I mentioned earlier, Story is pretty much shonen type. New Enemies keep popping up randomly after defeating pervious one. These new antagonist are higher level which Salvos somehow defeats by having....special power ups. Well atleast its not the power of friendship.

The story is still entertaining, although the last couple of arcs made me lose some interest. I also dont like, how little we know of the rest of the world or other species like elves, beastfolk  etc. Its way too concentrated on Humans/Demons conflict.

I feel like you could write an essay on how Salvos is the end-game of RR stats gamification. The chapters are very consistent, resulting in a short bit every day, but rarely does that advance the plot, improve characterization, or expand the world. I have never before wanted fewer action sequences before reading this webnovel.

The worst part is MelasDelta is good at writing--maybe even great at it. There are a number of scenes that do a great job with character emotions and evoking reader empathy. There are great worldbuilding concepts underpinning the story. The characters do have emotional development and complexity. But all of those details are just lost somewhere in 500 chapters of not that.

It started well, I liked the simple buildup, overcoming obstacles (almost always killing something), the growth of a demon child, and leveling with more skills. But over time it has got ridiculous a fight is now just some random grand skill against another grand skill, no matter the level difference always a win.

No foreshadowing. Just so random, not in who is going to win, but just what random effect/skill will happen, there is also no logical way Salvos should be winning all these battles. I can understand being a demon means she hits above her level, but against other demons levels should mean something.

The mystery of the father and her final position/level/class. Is midly interesting but the story lost its ability to sustain any interest long ago it should have either increased considerably the world building, spent time on character development, had way more plot, or finished. Instead it doubled down on the very shallow leveling/random skill mechanic from the beginning but way less interesting.

It would be nice if she stopped killing and won through some other way, she is princess of Hell and a literal god. She should be able to leverage this better than just killing things.

To keep it simple this story is really catchy, the vocabulary is varied and makes the reader's progression alongside the lines really smooth. 

The narration doesn't have loopholes and the author is always here to clarify some questions that we may have.

Really a nice book to read ! 

With the premise of the title I already get caught, I always like to see a non-human protagonist with a good development.

A demon that is born, thinking, in a world where everything is interesting for the new being, will soon find others and will have to interact with them to survive. The first few chapters already show the kind of approach that MelasD, the author, wants to give to this adventure and action story, it is worth giving it a try.