Curselock [LitRPG Curse Magic Adventure]

TL;DR: Three guys who have recently gained their classes go about adventuring and punching above their weight class. Shows promise but lacks worldbuilding.

I've rather enjoyed the story so far and it's been easy to read, but it's far from perfect. Let's go over a few things:

The story says, right there in the title, that this is a LitRPG. It's true, but the elements are quite light. Everyone has a class which provides them skills/spells/abilities as they grow stronger, but everyones class is tied to their "Lord". The berserker for example chose the Lord of Berserking. The class skills level up with use, but there are no character stats or hitpoints.
The choice to bind every single person to a Lord through their class is pretty unique and makes the pantheon of this world absolutely massive. There is a lot of promise here with forgotten Lords, new Lords and there's even been some mention of an artificial Lord.

The characters themselves, have for the most part, been 'ok'. The side characters have been pretty good, but our main party of three don't feel properly fleshed out yet. Kind of like a new adventuring party in DnD, they are all unique individuals with backstories, but they haven't had any character building moments yet. We're still early in the story so there's plenty of time to give them those moments.

As for the worldbuilding, it's somewhat lacking in scale. We know of maybe 10 Lords so far, have heard the names of maybe 5 cities, know that there were some woods and tall grass somewhere and yet we're already in the third city. The travel between cities was one chapter with a combat encounter each.
There have been hints of greatness spread throughout here with promises of whats to come, but the background scenery on the way has been quite lacking.

Last thing I want to go over is GOLD. Leland paid 10 "dull and dented gold coins" to an entertainer (only time a coins condition has been mentioned so far), Jude paid 35 gold for a magical harmonica, a gold coin or few were spent at restaurants, Jude at one point lost his wallet (no mention of him getting it back) and they've had their horses stolen. All of this (especially the horses) with just a nonchalant shrug. Yet apparently 93 gold is a lot. My man Jude here spent 35 gold on a musical instrument as what feels like a joke.
My point here is that the value of money is pretty arbitrary so far. The protagonists have famous (and propably pretty rich) parents, so them being wastrels in regards to money is a fine flaw for them to have, but it hasn't been written that way. They seem like people who would understand the value of money, yet they obviously don't.

This turned out more critical than I intended. I want to reiterate: I like this story. It does a lot of things in a way I like really like, like the entirety of the class system, and I want it to do well.

P.S. Based on MC's spells so far, it seems like Leftright really likes percentages.

This story has a lot of potential but, at the end of the day, it really lacks... substance? I assume this is the authors' first attempt at writing a story and, if it is, this story is not bad. But it lacks the qualities a story needs for immersion. The world in which the characters live in is not described at all. There is absolutely no real world building. Descriptions are heavily lacking in this story, with most sentences describing either actions characters are taking or very superficial thought processes. The system is really cool/interesting but, honestly, the MC was made a bit too overpowered (will explain below, spoilers!)

MC is given a skill with a set chance to break a bone in the targets body (starts out at 40%). If this was something that could be casted just once with a huge cooldown, then fine; the fact that it can literally be spammed is absurd. Considering this, the % should have started around 2.5-5% and it should take a lot longer to level up the skill. After 20 chapters, the MC literally has like an 80% chance to break the bones of his opponents and can do this around five times in a row rapid-fire, no matter what defenses his opponents have. Lmao? He's pretty much invincible, it feels so unbalanced. You really need to put more thought into this.

Leaving the review at 3 stars as I don't want you to give up but really consider taking a step back and planning this out much more.

TL;DR : So-so characters and interactions, but if you like great fights and spells give it a try.

What's good :

- Detailed fights that flow well.
- Spell system reminding me of Sylver Seeker and Book of the Dead, though the MC isn't a necromancer ( yet ). Do note that the whole manipulating mana thingo has not been explored yet, but the description and some things said point towards complex spellcasting in the future. The spells we've seen are not the typical necromancer/dark mage stuff so that's a plus. Gets you interested.
- Cool stuff. Nice original things with concise but imaginative descriptions. Go read.
- Worldbuilding isn't too heavy, but it's definitely not absent.
- It's a bit early in the book to talk about the plot, but it doesn't look too bad right now.

What's not as good :

- The main characters are a bit ... meh. They are distinct, but their interactions don't feel very genuine/lifelike to me. A bit forced maybe, and this makes it difficult to care for them to me, despite their quite detailed backstories. Weirdly enough, the secondary characters do feel realistic enough.
- Some sentences seemed a bit wonky and had me do a double-take. I may just be stupid though.

Thanks for writing leftright, and good luck !

honestly the review title says it all. i really like the way that they have the skills and abilities set up. it leaves everything super open which means that a lot of super unique and interesting abilities are totally viable options. the biggest issue is that the it feels like there wasn't any thought given to the logistics of the world if that makes sense. at the very least it seems like the story needs more time spent on worldbuilding and workshopping. i am all for not spending an outrageous amount of time and words describing things, but there has to be at least a bit of it. the system isn't explained well at all. at chapter like seventeen i've gotten a picture of it but, but i have no idea of the scale of anything. the parents of the group are the best of the best, but one of them died to someone that the kids managed to kill days after starting out? it just doesn't make sense. on top of that is the leveling, it feels super fast relative to the effort of the battle. all in all the ideas seem really great, but they just don't lay anything with the semblance of a foundation making the scale of everything seeming like a total mess, and this is coming from someone who isn't picky at all when it comes to the worldbuilding usually, the way it is now just feels like i'm running into a new like plot hole every paragraph.

The strength of the story is on it's characters. the three boys feel very realistic the lords system is fun. All three have some cool powers and I can't wait to see what they get in the future. The world itself is a little underexplained, but in my opinion thats not important for a good story. a great read compared to other stories on this site and I hope to read more

I enjoy the basic premise and characterisation of the main party, however the execution is a bit forced. The interactions seem artificial between them and the conversations unrealistic.

World building is barebones and the interactions between the personalities of the characters and the world are really weird. The main character accepts meeting a possible patron deity with nonchalance and said deity acts out of their station; For seeming deities they act extremely interpersonal with someone they are granting a contract to and it creates dissonance between the concept and execution. 

Style: Does the job but nothing unique. Exept for the fights, I would say they are better than average but nothing breath taking. (3/5 very mediocre/average overall)

Story: I really liked the premise and the first chapter is a great hook but there are some plotholse that don't make a lot of sense (don't want to spoiler you'll get instantly what I talk about if you'll read it). It's a bit early to say much more but if it doesn't improve soon, I would not stay for more. (3/5 the problems is that it seems a little gerneric and uninspired at times)

Grammer: Here and there some typos but nothing a good editing session can't fix so (4/5 could be 5/5 if proof read and edited correctly)

Character: So with the uninspiring story overall, this is the biggest issue with this story. Our main cast is meh and a lot of people seem to tear up easily in this story. The character are kinda boring and it is hard to really care about them. (Just so 2.5/5 because there are a few character interactions that are quite ok but most feel forced. Maybe 2/5 if that RALLY bothers you)

Conclusion: If the author improves on the characters and make them interesting to read about and works on worldbuiling, this could be a fun read. Something nice where you can chill out and get easy entertainment.

Thanks for writing!