Genre Bending LitRPG, RPG GameLit with an emphasis on its Grimdark tone, active combat, and protagonist skill building and power acquisition. Features a no-nonsense protagonist with a tragic past and a reason to want to live in a videogame, even one as gritty and dark as the demon and revenant infested Project_DH.
You've previously known of her accomplishments as the #1 player of the death game Project_DH. To many, her gameplay stats and skill have made her an enigma to the hundreds of alpha testers imprisoned in the game as well as the developers assisting them. Now, you'll get to see the player behind the infamous avatar of IMMORtAL_Kalika, a determined young woman who carries the burden of a great tragedy within her, a tragedy that gives her strength, but one that also threatens to crush her from the inside out.
IMMORtAL_Kalika Episode 1 features an Alchemist class playthrough with spellcraftes utilizing the power of man and nature in tandem.
My Opinion: 195 pages, $2.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
First, you need to know that the main character in this story (MC), Ximana/IMMORtAL_Kalika, is a side character in the author’s other series Hell’s Glitch. This is supposed to be set in the same universe with this character playing an alpha build of that same game. If you’ve read that series, much of what occurs in this story will feel familiar and that’s a big problem.
This story, even though it has a completely different beginning, feels like it’s recycled material from Hell’s Glitch. It’s technically not. It’s more like two different people playing the same Dark Souls game and making different game choices. However, because there are so many similarities, it feels like a recycled story.
Both characters are game testers. Both play the same Dark Souls inspired game. Both character go through the same land and fight the same monsters. They both go on the same quests and meet the same NPCs. Both characters get to use the same weapons and the game mechanics are the same in both stories.
The differences come with the choices the two characters make. In this story, the MC, chooses a different starting class and uses magic. Though she eventually chooses a different build. She also makes different quest decisions, aligning with a different faction than the MC in Hell’s Glitch did. Also, the character in this story is kind of boring. Everything comes easy and there’s almost no challenge for her, which means there aren’t really any stakes. So, not that interesting.
Because of both the feeling that I’ve read this story already, and also that even those things that are different don’t provide any kind of character growth, I just didn’t have a good time with the story. It was predictable since I’d read Hell’s Glitch and there were no stakes with the character since I knew she’d always win.
Score: 5 out of 10
IMMORtAL_Kalika Episode 1 (LitRPG): The Speedrunner (Episodic Kalika)