Its pretty hard(or in retrospect, easy) to review a LN because the only thing you can fairly judge is the plot and pacing of the story. Vocab, descriptions, command of language is out of the question since, we have to take into account translation difficulties (I find it unfair to penalize the fan translators or the author) and unlike manga, it has almost no visuals. Therefore I may sound quite harsh on a lot of my LN reviews.
Now this is another summoned to another world LN. MC, Yusuke is transported to a fantasy world of magic. The background here is more towards Magic vs Anti Magic. People who possess aptitude for magic are divided into different caste according to the element types/colors(fire=red, water=blue, etc, with red being the ruling caste) and then theres “Artless” people who cannot use magic, designated color white. Most Kingdoms are ruled by these magic users but Artless people are oppressed. There is also a pure Artless Kingdom who apparently have a formidable army that hones their physical skills and conditioning.
Yusuke on the other hand has the designation Black, he possesses magic that is out of the norm. Hence he has been suspected of being the Demon God(Black) though all factions kept their reservations & stay their hand as he can be a powerful tool. Which unfortunately is exactly what Yusuke is. His benefactor who found him tried to protect him and wanted him to learn more of their world hoping he will not judge the world as corrupted and turn into a Demon God to destroy it. MC winds up becoming friends with royalty and even inducted into their military forming his own platoon. From then on he is thrown into wars between Kingdoms, conspiracies, assassinations, mediations, coups and fighting magic monsters, the usual stuff though its mostly military missions. Don’t get you hopes up for “Kingdom(manga)”-like intricacies in plot building, this LN is ways behind. The pacing of the LN is comfortable, no rushing or dragging of plots but so far up till chp 70, the bottomline is, the story is just “standard”, that’s it, nothing exciting or epic.
Now Yusuke’s ability is not all that great, instead of control over elements, he has the customization ability allowing him to customize items including surroundings. Bestow stats, changing the structure and function etc, it even has a User Interface(UI) to facilitate. However it has its limits due to the item’s quality, material etc. It’s a refreshing ability, I’d admit, that is not found in other LN but unfortunately it sounds only cool on paper instead it feels underwhelming when in action, I’ll explain as I go along. MC has no physical combat skills, conditioning and experience like the Artless and he cannot utilize the elemental magic, so don’t expect epic fights from him. In fact, the fight scenes in the LN is pretty much mild and boring. Magic in this world is not as destructive as high fantasy. MC mainly relies on customizing some moderate stat enhancing equipment and in battle uses his ability to form traps and some tricks (hole in the floor, walls to trap enemies, building forts instantly, teleporting by on ground referencing, modifying/weakening enemy structures). His direct dmg is from his platoon who can use magic/art, be warned they are not top class combatants, just your bunch of normal misfits. So again no epic fights. Good thing is he delegates combat manoeuvres to a senior soldier in his platoon since he has no combat experience, a wise choice. He is mainly a commander that decides the direction of the mission while combat is left to the “NCO”.
Yusuke comes of as humble guy who is happy-go-lucky and has soft side for ladies. I won’t say he is dense but more of “don’t think too much”. Despite that he is sometimes perceptive of things which helps in his missions and people relations. He also ends up having a harem though to him there is only that one girl. In his spare time he enjoys creating things which are mostly inspired from our world, they don’t end up becoming a revolution because it’s more of a pastime. Now, because he has ties with the Princess and has his own platoon (therefore tied to a faction) so one can’t help feeling that he is being pulled by the nose most of the time. Through his missions he is exploring more of the world while helping others but if you look at the big picture, he is nothing more than a tool for politics, nothing wrong with that but its kinda disappointing considering he has the unofficial title of Demon God. Along the way he befriends people from all walks of life, from villager to noble and manage to strike lasting relationships with them. The LN does have considerable character development on his friends and peers but regrettably not that deep plus its only a few of them, of course priority goes to his harem girls (I wish his male counterparts get some limelight, after all they’re battle buddies). If you ask me, they’re all pretty much forgettable save for his harem girls who got more focused on.
All in all this LN is as the review title says, so-so. There’s hardly anything that pulls me into the story nor is there anything that’s absolutely atrocious that’ll make me drop this LN. The translators did a reasonable job so those allergic to bad translations won't have any issues with reading this LN.
(-25)
