The Arcane Emperor

Unlike in most stories where the protagonist ends up in another world he did so thanks to his own power and not a plot device summoning that just happens for no reason other than to allow the plot to take plce. Even if it was not intentional it opens up a lot of potentional directions this story can take from there that would not be possible with the cookie cutter plot devices.

The MC has the perfect mindset for a great story of magic study and adventure, he doesnt lack determination in pursuit of his goal and the most important : he does have a goal.

With a good balance of righteousness and ruthlessness the MC is not overly cruel or softhearted and makes the right choices to survive in a ruthless world while coming out on top in a conflict. He is neither the hero nor the demon lord but has his own designs on what to do with the world he ended up traveling to.

His companions are a rare mix of individuals that promise a lot of trouble due to their background , perfect for keeping the action running wherever he goes. Their personalities are authentic and diverse enough to make even casual conversations entertaining and their interaction doesn't get dull or repetitive.

Overall its an interesting story that hooked me since the first chapter and hasn't let me down ever since. The only reason I'm giving  4.5 stars to the story score and not 5 is because his ability to learn in his sleep is on one hand unique but on the other hand quite lazy and overpowered. His goal is the mastery of magic and all he has to do for that is sleep.

Edit after chapter 25: changed score to 5 , MC doesnt get the easy way out of training for the more difficult spells anymore and gets off his lazy behind to actually train.

Read up to chapter 24, Good writer.  While I'm not really a huge fan of the story or plot, the writer is good enough to bridge the difference.  

My strongest problem with the story would be the main character.  Granted in a game world style story the main characters are going to be overpowered badasses.  But everything just comes too easy to him.  Even his "struggles" are momentary.  Most of his problems are his own fault, many of his crisises are the result of him running from trouble instead of destroying it, then he just destroyes it anyway making it feel unstatisfactory how you just wasted time reading a few thousand words about what a dangerous situation the MC was running from only to learn nope, the mc was just running because... whatever?   

In short the story has no tension.  

The author tries to create some with some of the subplots, but with the character locked away from those overpowered foes powerleveling, it's pretty apparent when he does emerge from the dungeon and face everyone chasing him he'll be seriously overpowered and those "lurking dangers" will be easily crushed like every other challange he faces.

OVERALL: 3.5 / 5.0 - mediocre MC, sorta dull supporting cast mostly meh story, carried by a solid storyteller with good writing competency.

Style: 4.5 / 5.0 - the style of the story is written in a 3rd person voice, overall the author is rather good with this voice and the story flows well.   It's not perfect but it's close enough.

Grammer: 4.5 / 5.0 - simple easy sentence structure, solid use of language, little to no obvious errors.  As a technical writer the author is quite strong.  This score isn't a 5.0 only because the writing level isn't particularly high; the competency is quite high, however the language is simple, as is the sentence structure.  Almost too simple, in some cases he actually can confuse the reader by oversimplifying the scene.  Still a cut above most writers here.  

Story: 3.0 / 5.0 - basic story, while the author has some nice twists to the concept of the "transported to the video game or fantasy like world" genre which keep the concept fresh, it also uses those mechanics as a crutch in the place of story telling and scene setting like most of the more mediocre works in the genre.  You get a lot of status screens which mean little to nothing (as the MC will just curb stomp everything anyway) or grinding/sleep learning/skill aquisition sessions interupting whatever interesting plot might be trying to happen around it.  And the plot is sort of lost in all of it

Character: 3.0 / 5.0 - the only thing keeping this from being lower is the undead knight companion, who I have to admit is about the only character I like, and who seems to have a personality in this story.  The flirting between the MC and the female cast is about the only signs of life we have between the rest of the characters.  The MC is unlikeable and astonishingly stupid (mostly when the plot needs to put them in crisis), I still can't gather what the MC sees in the wolf girl beyond her being cute and having a fetish for animorphic girls, frankly she seems to have whatever personality the plot needs at the time, and her character's motivation seems to be "be main girl", while the 3rd person talking fairy is so close to every other fairy i've read in other literature, I can't be sure "what" she is suposed to be.  It's strange I find rarely meantioned side characters more interesting then the main plot in a book, but this is one of them.

Arcane Emperor is one of the most addictingly written novels I have read in a long time. I don't know exactly what it is about it, but I find myself hungering to read the next chapter after each session in a way that I'm not used to.

Arcane Emperor has excellent pacing. Rainer Nvos is powerful, but not too powerful, and he grows strong quickly, but not too quickly. While the audience gets the satisfaction of watching him grow, he still struggles frequently as he finds himself running into enemies from every direction. These struggles then let his character develop.

One of the best qualities of the author is his ability to write good characters. Rainer makes a lot of friends wherever he goes, each with their own histories and personalities, and while some characters feel a bit flat at first, they quickly gain depth as the story progresses.

While there were few characters that stuck out for me greatly, overall I was very pleased with all of the background characters introduced, and one of the great pleasures of the series is reading their varied and well-written interactions. Gunthar in particular,

 is probably my favorite character at the moment.

Some of the earlier chapters have semi-frequent minor spelling and grammar errors, but those disappear as the editing/proofreading quality increases. They do not detract from the story or writing quality otherwise.

Reviewed as of chapter 77.

Seeing as I haven't been on in awhile, I was somewhat surprised to find that a new story had risen to #1. I wanted to see what the hype was about, so I decided to start reading.

First of all, I want to make it clear that I'm writing this review as if I were reviewing a professional work, and not just a story written on here. I've read several stories on here, and this is definitely one of the better ones in comparison. Yes. It's trope-y. Yes. Some of the characters lack depth, but there are definitely some good elements blended into the story.

Now for the actual review. 

Style: Due to the nature of the story (a in-depth magical researcher in a world w/ status windows), this is resulted in some problems. The magic is explained in detail (which I like), but that also becomes an issue. After the initial flair of the details, I found myself starting to just skim over the magic expositions. While a lot of detail is given, it's not necessarily presented in an entertaining way. Yes, we hear about his failures in his sleep world, but nothing in detail. It's generally just *failure failure failure* *poof* *epiphany* and it works right away. I'd personally appreciate more on how the epiphany came to be (adjustments of past failures) rather than exposition on how certain aspects of magic... feels. I may be biased, but inset laws and playing off of those always seems far interesting than. "This feels right. Lets wing it." It may be too late to change this though.

As for the system, I'm a strong believer that systems disrupt the flow of the story, since I have an extremely hard time imersing myself in a world with status windows and stuff. It's just not relatable or remotely realistic. That's just me though. Personally I think you did this alright, but it feels like a limitation.

Grammar: No serious complaints. I never found this a huge deal unless it made the story literally unreadable tbh.

Story: Lots of complaints about the early chapters. The MC's thought process isn't explained enough when it matters. Esp during the whole "kill everyone to protect Kara and the fairy" dungeon sequence. The action when analyzed was logical, yes, but it lacked the foreshadowing leading up to it. Even if the MC has been established as logical, it felt like he just went full sociopath on us. As for the end goal (school), it was introduced in an odd manner and it currently feels insubstantial. He hasn't talked about funding, recruitment, or a concrete curriculim yet. It's mostly been 1 on 1 interactions that slightly relate to it.

I enjoy that there's signs of foreshadowing where you drop certain plot points down as foundation for the future. Instead of just leaving them be, you constantly reference back to them (ex. wyvern egg, and the cook) in casual conversation.

My biggest complaint about the story, however, is tied to the characters. Unfortunately I can't grade story and character seperately.

Character Score: MC is somewhat fleshed out, but still has moments where he seems robotical. How do I put it? He's too "logical" and "perfect". Flaws about him seem to be superficial and forced in rather than genuine and problem-causing. Everything seems to play to his advantage rather than him working towards it. Does he work? Yes. It doesn't seem like he does though. Nothing has seemed like a genuine threat to him thus far aside from the lich in that quest, and even then he blew past him easily when it came down to it. Tatics seem lacking and are much closer to brute force. I commend you for creating a MC that actually thinks and works towards a defined goal instead of creating another glorified slice of life (a problem a lot of stories on here has), but I can't help but feel that there's a lot of untapped potential here.
Unfortunately the biggest character problem isn't the MC. It's Kara. Initially I was quite pleased to find a female character and love interest that isn't just a personified blob of fanservice (not that I'm accusing the author of doing that now). She was just as strong as the MC and had some defining character traits, but it didn't stay that way. Even before the MC advanced to Archon, she was already fading into the background. She fell in love with him what almost seemed like instantly after the kill-everyone incident. Most of her supposed budding love was off-screen. Rather than someone who brought any insight or competence to the table, she quickly descended into nothing more than extra mobility due to her wolf form. As soon as the MC advanced, she disappeared all together. Soon enough, she brought nothing to the table that the MC himself couldn't bring. You see that she's upset about it, but it doesn't seem to be anything serious. Instead, she just happily plays the role of the girl that needs protection (her power might not fit that role, but her personality is starting to).es, you can argue that Kara brings a side quest to the table, but there's been very few signs of it thus far (until recently). This was honestly quite upsetting for me to see. I'm hoping a new arc fixes this.

Other characters:

Theo and Gul(whatever I can't remember his name. SkeloBro it is.) are well done. Theo brings experience and knowledge to the table. SkeloBro plays the straight man and the side quest role. They both have definitive character traits (Theo less so, but mainly since he was introduced later). Good job here.

Luna. Eh, personally I don't like these types of characters (cutesy kids stuck in mature bodies), but she brings her healing magic to the table, and the side quest. No serious complaints here without being extremely biased.

Other fairies: Reason I'm grouping them like this is because none of them have been all that fleshed out. The author has the issue of not being able to flesh out characters in an efficient manner without dragging it out and requiring them to have a lot of screen time. I advise the author look into short stories and see how characters are fleshed out near-instantly with minimal screen time.

Overall: My Review title.

I will start with the one and only problem this story has, well it has a lot of problems if you hate OP characters and what not, but I like them so it only has one issue... The only thing this story does wrong is that the system used in this story makes introducing new characters extremely difficult. I mean lets be honest, it takes 99.99999% of the population years just to level a single ability or skill to level 3, a lifetime to reach level 5, several to go beyond that, and yet any new characters are either going to have to be unrealistic based on the world setting we already established, extremely old bastards clinging to life, or be miracle leveled and OPified by the MCs strange arcane methods.

The story does everything else right.

One of the best novels I've read.

The characters feel verry alive and the way the MC acts and reacts to his enviroment is really belivable. The characters are well written ant they are unique and there is a good amount of info in presentating them to give you an understanding about them.

The pace is good and keeps you immersed in the story and you always want to get that next chapter as soon as possible. Tho you know that the wait is worth it.

The mindsett the MC has about magic and his curiosity about everything magical is wonderful to read about and this is one of the main reasons I look forward to the next chapter. What new magics will he find/develop and how will he use them?

TL;DR: It is bloody good - [LitRPG, OP MC, focus on small group so far, good - though not excceptional - characters, interesting world, mild 18+; updates weekly, long-ish chapters]

For starters, this is a fantasy LitRPG with a not overly "balanced" (in terms of power) protagonist and a dark-ish tone (not a tragedy, though). There are harem elements, but not to the point that it becomes annoying (it essetially only means that there will be multiple female love interests). It is also quite graphical in both violence and 18+ content. If that is not your thing, well, too bad for you. You are missing out. I am a bit biased on this topic, because LitRPGs and overpowered MCs are two of my favourite two things. But that's just me.

If you do like this sort of thing: oh boy, you are in for a treat. Mild spoilers (or maybe not even that) ahead. Also, profanity. And rambling... . Basically the most unfocused and probably unhelful review you will ever read.

- Progress as of the time this review was written: Chapter 67 -

Characters

The protagonist, Rainer, is a bit of a (magic) nerd. He can literally learn things in his sleep. Because that is fair and balanced.  He is a nice guy, but not your typical "I am the dense good guy and don't want to hurt anyone" MC. Thank bloody fuck. More of the (not so) average, decent university student / magical scientist / possibly slightly murderous kind of nice. There is also a certain ruthlessness, pragmatism and "grey morals" streak in him - very good. All in all, a decent, relatable character, not a cardboard cutout. Not the most complex or deep personality, but it is more than adequate. Not a lot is really known about him so far - in terms of backstory - about his time before his little accident.

The (main) support cast (if that is a thing.... you know what I mean) is on the smaller side - so far at least - compared to other WNs and is focused on a small group of "people". I can't say too much apart from that they all seems to be pretty good, albeit not most complex, characters. This is not a (very) character driven novel, but the relationships/interactions feel natural and make sense. Everything else would be a major spoiler. Some of the things you really won't see coming. A certain dungeon, everyone?

Also, adorable "pets" are adorable.

Grammar

Some mistakes here and there. Nothing major that would disrupt your flow.

Style

It is written from a third-person perspective, usually Rainer's, though it feels more like a first-person perspective.

This is a LitRPG, so expect massive tables, many "skill aquired" messages and the like. Even more so than in other novels of this type. This disrupts your reading flow a bit - as is to be expected.

The style is very "technical" and rich in details when it comes to explanations concering skills, attributes and all that jazz. Might be a bit dry at times for some people, but I like it. Nothing tickles my gamer-itch quite like half a page worth of explanation of all the new shinies the MC just got. And I mean that.

When not talking about skills or shinies, the only thing I can say about the style is that it is "good" and that I quite like it. Not the most amazing ( in terms of structure/ descriptions) or fluent read ever, but then again, what is? Don't ask me, I have no clue concering the details. Sue me...

Story

The MC accidentally teleports himself to another world. A fantasy world. Who would have thought? Not the most original premise, but that is all the bad things you can say about that.

The world is more complex than your typical fantasy/game world in terms of systems, relationships and races. And all I can say is that it might not be the only world he will visit, although I guess by far the most part of the story will take place there. Not that much has happened in terms of major events on a kingdom-wide, much less global scale. But that will change very soon, I imagine. But I guess we won't get a lot of conquering, empire-building or "saving the world" (intentionally that is), which I like.

 Rainer starts out as your typical lvl 1 punching bag without any real power, but that changes changes not too soon after. And at a certain point it escalates rather beautifully. And again at a later point. And probably again and again... god I love this. It is basically his personal power trip, but without the "hey look I'm soooo cool and awesome (*cough* annoying *cough*)" part.

During his adventures he meets a couple of interresting "people" that become his companions - including female ones. Not quite a harem story (yet) and probably won't have a lot of those elements. His female company is not the focus anyway, but rather the relationships between all members of the group and other people, and - equally important - lots and lots of of new shinies and skills for our favourite magical nerd to play around with. Not that he does a lot of the latter, as he is pretty serious.

---------

Well that concludes this particular trainwreck of a review.

Thanks to the author for writing this! Now, if there was only more of it..... :( (yay for unrealistic expectations).

How this novel manages to rank first on RR is beyond me.

Be it style, grammar, story or characters, all look incredibly shallow and unpolished to my eyes. Style and grammar especially so.

The author is in dire need of an editor or proofreader or whatever it's that can help them to better shape their thoughts. Unnecessarily long sentences ravage whatever semblance of coherent thought this novel should/could have. Commas and semicolons are used following strange and obscure punctuation rules that elude my knowledge. Periods formed by a couple hundred words long PHRASES instead of short SENTENCES are the norm. And few more things among which is a light case of malapropism.

All in all, I don't think this novel is nearly as good as it's made out to be by some of its readers. I wouldn't recommend it. Still, this is my personal opinion as a reader and should be treated as such.

I'd like to conclude saying that I haven't reviewed in a long while and that I don't enjoy giving 'negative' reviews either. The only reason I did so today was because of the absence of any review with which I could fully agree.

Lol, This story has such an inflated status and it feels purposely done when most of the positive reviews are from seemingly throwaway accounts. Overall its pretty much meh. It had a good premise but it wasted like 80% of it and ended up a bland poorly executed fiction. Relationships rushed, MC is a plot puppet with no actual personality. MC's magic is super easy mode contrary to what the beginning made you think.

I want to leave a serious review too, maybe help the author make this already somewhat amazing story even better.

Style: The writing style is in some ways awkward, but it is a style that is easy to read, some authors start writing trying to formulate huge and complex blocks of text which they simply don't have the skill to wield.

The short and succinct style makes for a smooth reading experience. A lot of improvements will be necessary before I deem it 5/5, but you are on the correct way already without many fatalistic mistakes making the rating easy to reach as long as hard work is applied.

Story: I honestly don't know what a story score is even supposed to be, to me it sounds like a weak synonym to the overall score. Never the less I imagine the creators of this system thought it to be a scoring for the world creation and story progression.

Okay first world creation, great job with some refinement I would imagine this world being something that I find in professional works, sadly some of the cliches are, cringy, well executed but still lowering the overall rating. Other than that mistake I believe the world you write about engaging and entertaining, with only 24 chapters to go on you might still mess up, but hey, that's life.

Story progression is in some ways too fast and in some ways to slow, these two managing to balance out a bit. The gaining of skills and the escalation of conflict done in a way that ensures you will either have to rewrite significant parts of the story or end it prematurely. One of the only great stories I have read with a similar escalation of conflict is Worm by Wildbow and some Fanfictions I would rather not mention. But the thing about Worm is that it reached your level of escalation at what I think were 500 k words.

Grammar: Not really much to say here, the uses of the times are horrible at some points other than that the things that bother me most are the common comma mistakes.

Character Score: The characters are at most times nicely fleshed out and have an apparent personality, sadly some of the personalities are cliche as well. To be quite honest I think the best fleshed out character is Leaf, yes Leaf, the level 3 scrub wannabe blackmailer.

In most stories the main character gains an enemy, the enemy then proceeds to dog our hero until the end of time until dismayed, turned via humiliating defeat, or more often death.

Leaf after realizing there was no conceivable way actually to blackmail Rainer and Kara(?), simply decides not to do it showing a thought process reminiscent of an actual human and not of a mere caricature only there to progress the plot. 

Overall it's an entertaining story, although lacking a proofreader, sorry for the insult if you do have a proofreader.

I think the world you created has much potential just as you, the writer, yourself.

Practice makes perfect