Having problems coping with life but have nowhere to turn for help?
Why not try a crazy new therapy!
The early research data shows getting thrown into a fantasy land full of mythical creatures to fight for your survival will give you a fresh perspective on your existence.
That’s what Shaun, the ex-roofer, turned couch-potato did, and it’s working a treat!
His objectives? Avoid being eaten, deal with unrequited love, level up as fast as possible and save the Kingdom of Anatoli from an apocalypse.
His rewards? Become a legend in the real world.
My Opinion: 164 pages, $3.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
The story has a bit of a rushed start with an overweight main character (MC) who has a food addiction going into a year long full immersion MMO to cure him of his issues. It's a bit of a whiny start, but it does get him into the game world fairly quickly.
I was intrigued by the premise, a VR game designed to help people with addiction. But the story didn't do anything to advance that. It instead becomes a slice of life story where the MC levels, meets another player, fights monsters, and is handed a particular quest.
On the game mechanic side of things are ok. There’s lots of levels, skills, abilities, and power progression. I did like the inventive use of tools as weapons and the skill tree that went with that. But there’s also a level of overpoweredness that felt a little unearned. This is partially because of a big 6 month time jump in the story early on and the way the author had the MC suddenly level to solve a problem. Not too big of an issue, but it made some of the fights feel a little easy.
On the story side of things it felt like the plot shifted a few times. There’s an early premise of the MC going into the VR full immersion to break his addiction to food, but that’s never developed besides stating it’s fixed. The story becomes more slice of life as the MC and another player adventure and get given a quest to fulfill.
There were some issues that the story had that stopped me from enjoying it. The biggest of which happens about the 30% mark, when the story forces in another addict player who was so irritating I lost any enjoyment of the story and almost put the story down. There were also early issues with stilted dialogue and some minor technical writing issues. But the thing that pushed me very firmly away from good, where the conflicts in the story. They were a bit too simple and were solved with wand wavy spells, convenient allies, or luck, which left me disappointed. The end also had a weird twist that frankly made no sense and destroyed the premise of the story.
Overall, I could see potential in the premise and the fights weren't bad. But the other issues noted just lessened my enjoyment enough that I couldn’t give it a good score.
Score: 6 out of 10