The RPG Apocalypse (LitRPG)
by Bombchuu
- Gore
Life isn't a game. Well, maybe it is now.
Every day is the same for Joseph. Study; go to class; repeat. He can't help wondering what it's all for? Who is it all for? Life is dull and there's no prospect of that changing. Is some excitement too much to ask for?
"Get to safety if you wish to survive!"
Joseph's prayers are answered, but not in a way he could ever have expected. Goblins, ghouls, kobolds and a myriad of monsters and mythical creatures have spawned all over the college campus and beyond. The carnage is shocking.
If he's going to survive the RPG apocalypse, Joseph is going to have to figure out the new rules fast. And is it wrong to feel so alive, when so many other people have died?
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Not Quite an Apocalypse
Reviewed at: Chapter 16: Sewers
tl;dr: First 10 chapters are amazing, afterwards it stops being 'RPG Apocalypse' and more 'RPG', if you came here for a story about the world falling apart following the arrival of a LitRPG system it probably isn't for you.
No major issues with the style or grammar of the story, nor any inconsistencies that jump out at you.
The first 10 or so chapters were great, amazing even, with characters that felt alive with unexpected (yet understandable) twists. If i were to review based on those 10 chapters alone this story could easily be a 4.5.
However, when I first started reading this (based on the title and tags) I was expecting a story about an apocalypse brought about by the arrival of a LitRPG system, which for the first 10 or so chapters was the case until it all of a sudden turned into a high fantasy isekai.
In my opinion this is where the story started taking a bit of a nosedive. As it stands, there doesn't seem to be much direction in the story now and many of the decisions that the MC (and his party) makes are what you'd expect from someone playing a VRMMO rather than a person who is actually there. What i mean by that is that the (new)world and the other characters interactions just feel.. hollow and without any impact other than reaching the next level or completing the next quest for the sake of it.
This from a character and story perspective can make it a bit jarring to read since previous events in the story, if anything, would make the MC LESS inclined to have this sort of attitude and as a result it just doesn't feel believable that anyone would act this way outside of a game. As a result the stakes don't feel real and everyone feels like an NPC not an actual character.
Inconsistent
Reviewed at: Book Two: Chapter One: The ‘Expert’
The story is a good time-killer. That being said there are quite a few inconsistencies.
Inconsistency one:
Where is everyone? The story takes place on a college campus. The average number undergrad students is above 6,000. Even assuming that 99% of people died, that would still leave 60 people.
Inconsistency two:
The intellegence of the characters seems to change as the plot needs. For example when they recieved the quest to kill the kobold mystic they decide to attack it head on, instead of using guerilla tactics or attacking them from a roof. This is despite the kobolds outnumbering them almost four to one. Later on they not only devise a complex multistep plan, they do so despite being exausted and running for their lives.
Inconsistency three:
Why is there any mention of a fee or limit on the use of the safe zones? The system teleported them to another world after the grace period was over, so it was not only useless, but deliberately wrong. Therefore it goes against the how the system is portrayed as not kind, but fair.
Inconsistancy four:
The theif bugs ruin the idea that Eastrath (the beggining continent) is for begginers. These things are above average in strength when they are alone. However, they have absurd numbers.
"Every crevice of every wall, even the area where the column met the roof, was absolutely covered by egg sacs.
There must have been hundreds of eggs in this room alone, all of them still unhatched."
"More than one insect usually hatches out of an egg"
As there are hundreds of eggs in each room, multiple bugs per egg, and multiple rooms, there will be thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of them hatching. All of this from one female thief bug. Assuming only .1 % of theif bugs become female egg bugs, that is still quite of few. Give these bugs a few years to breed and they should be able to tople a kingdom. I'm surprised that they are not the rulers of the continent already.
Inconsistancy five:
Why did they need to start from the bottom as adventurers? It has been stated that they are in the begginer continent where adventurers often retire. If that is the case, then the adventurer's guild would be accustomed to powerful people popping in. Said powerful people would not want to have to help deliver a cow for no pay.
There are probably more but I stopped reading
eh
Reviewed at: Chapter 14: Egestor
The story is fun but poorly written, they killed one of the best characters for no apparent reason, the death is mostly forgotten a day later and no one is bothered by it ?.. sometimes they treat it like a VR and other times they take it seriously which makes it hard to see the world as real...
they are also suddenly in another world without explanation why...
it feels like this story was intended to be a game turned real but that idea got scrapped but the elements remained from it or something and its verry annoying.
Why are you doing this to yourself?
Reviewed at: Chapter 8: Hunted
This is one of these Stories that shoots itself in the foot for no reason in particular.
The System is good, the characters semi-well written, the progression sort of laid-out.
My biggest gripe is what others would call "artistic freedom".
The author makes the characters as smart or dumb, the enviroment as detailed or generic, the fights as pitched or sedate as is needed to advance the general story.
You can do this in other stories, in a RPG-System driven one it impacts consistency to the point of failure of suspension of disbelief.
One fight the MC uses the enviroment and his brains to figure out a way to kill a high-level mob, a few chapters later he stages a poorly thought-out assault against a boss-level mob along with its guards with his group without any regards to the enviroment or even basic tactics.
After the aforementioned assault the sidecharacter that's been with us the longest dies, which even then would have been excusable if this death would serve as catalyst towards charactergrowth or further progression towards the goal.
Instead it does neither.
The story lost me at that point, so im dropping it now, as the negatives just started to overshadow the positives too much for me.
One star for trying, one star for getting the story to the point where i was invested enough to write this review to warn off future readers.
Wanted to like this
Reviewed at: Chapter 14: Egestor
The general idea of this is what you would expect from a LitRPG. Plenty of plot armor to keep the characters alive and a ton of found just in time items to kill bosses. The MC isnt anything special. Typical OP mage that stumbles into some awesome abilities. The one thing the story had going for it was the interaction between the MC and one of the side characters. It was actually feeling really smooth and drawing me into the story and then in a random fight that didnt and shouldnt have happened the way it did the author decides to get rid of that character. At first I was like ok here comes the epic quest to bring back the friend. But nope. And from that point on the whole story just felt flat. The MC just feels useless as another character takes over leading the party and other characters have all the good ideas or find the info needed to move forward. Our MC just kinda gets dragged along. Ill give this 2 stars since the first few chapters arnt bad. Past that I wasnt interested.
It's okay but
Reviewed at: Book 2: Chapter 5: The Elysian Fields
The story is okay but it gives you false hope as you read the first few chapters I thought I finally found what I was looking for, a apocalypse, system fiction but after the first few chapters it just turns into a generic isekai with a few twists. If you are looking for an apocalypse then this is the wrong fiction past chapter 13
Pretty shallow
Reviewed at: Chapter 5: Level 6
It's neither poorly nor well written. The prose gets the job done, but is rather anti-septic.
Little in the way of plot save "he woke up and killed x" and "the next day, she and I did y". Opportunity cost of reading this is considerable given quality of plot of alternative stories on this site. No sense of overarching story, little explained about current place in story, just a daily grind.
Read if you really have nothing else to read and don't want to settle with something that is legitimately bad.
Love it
Reviewed at: Book 3: Chapter 9: A Vision of the Future
Love the story and the cool class of soul harvester thank you very much. Love the main character and story line. Like the game mechanics. Like your world building, your world building is very discriptive and keeps me wanting to read on to see what is next. I love the characters so far.
Started out good.
Reviewed at: Book 3: Chapter 3: Motivation
Started out great then it just flipped the switch. This story had such great potential and then the writer just rammed a change down your throat that makes no sense with everything we know and wasn't really plausible.
Kills off his party in a manner that truly makes no sense then immediately gives the MC an overused trope of an overpowered class.
Above-Average Battle Junkie LitRPG
Reviewed at: Chapter 13: Yetera
TLDR: This story seems too be a well made Battle Junkie litRPG. While there doesn't seem to be much plot point right now I believe in the author to pull it off.
In general I think this story is pretty above average as far as I've read. It seems too just be grinding for the level up at the moment, and if you don't like that this isn't the story for you. I trust in the author to create a good plot and story instead of just constant grinding. I look forward too the story progressing even though the only motivation of it seems to be not dying and power. I would usually dock it points for not really having a plot but it's too early for me to tell at the moment.
Style
I feel like the style is very straight to the point and the author just throws what happens at you. I feel like it's a very clinical style of writing without a lot of personal taste from the author. But it does get the meaning across, and as far as I can see it's a very clean style. Even though it doesn't have that touch that some authors can give.
Grammar
There are no errors that I can see but I also don't look for errors or care that much about them. There most likely are some but It's way better then most things so who am I to judge.
Story
So far I feel like the story has very linear progression and it's plot is purely reactive. I don't really see the main character and his friend being pro-active besides fighting monsters. I think this is the worst part of the story since there doesn't seem to be much development in this department yet. But I hope that the author will change this. (And I'm not gonna decrease my score until it's late enough to tell.) :)
Characters
Often I feel like the main character (and side characters) are lacking the 3rd dimension. But the characters (almost) always make the decisions that I imagine they would. In my opinion the characters need a little touch up and need to be more 3d like touched up backgrounds. Or just little quirks that make them who they are. I also feel like everyone's more level-headed then most people would be but it's not unrealistic.
Conclusion
In conclusion I think this story is a fairly good Battle Junkie LitRPG. While it doesn't really hit the standards of a really great book in my eyes. It is a good book too read and I would recommend you to try it.