Isekai-esque fun times part 2

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Isekai-esque fun times part 2

Novels I have read or am reading, which include skills, level/game system and/or reincarnation, basically isekai, or just some kind of similar fantasy setting. The list also includes my score for them and what I thought about them which might include slight spoilers (sorry), some novel 'reviews' are shorter either because I've forgotten about them or just didn't have a lot to say about them. Mostly Korean and a few Japanese novels, I haven't and don't plan on reading any Chinese novels, i honestly can't understand the cultivation and divinity thing most of their novels have so i tend to avoid them, and I avoid slice of life novels like the plague. The list isn't in any particular order, the ones near the end are the ones I've read most recently. I will update this list and add novels I like and find worth reading every time I discover one. Unfortunately, there is a limit of a hundred novels per list on this site so if you want more recommendations, you can go to part 1 of my journey through isekai-esque novels!

Link to part 1 of the list: novelupdates.com/viewlist/11416/

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16 Followers

Y0LT

Created: Jul 17th, 2021, Updated: Jul 25th, 2024

Created Jul 17th, 2021

Updated Jul 25th, 2024

KR (4.1)

#51A Frontline Soldier Awakened as a Gamer In The War!

260 Chapters Every 27.5 Day(s) 1013 Readers 9 Reviews 05-30-2024

Action Adventure Fantasy

3.5/5 Purely action focused novel with a main character with a vendetta against all monsters. Combat is done really well I really appreciate the unique... more>>

KR (3.6)

#52I Became The Academy’s Blind Swordsman

0 Chapters Every 898 Day(s) 4222 Readers 26 Reviews N/A

Action Adventure Fantasy Harem Romance School Life

1/5 Kind of a huge disappointment. The main character as he gets sent into the game gets an insanely op item, the blindfold that literally... more>>

KR (3.9)

#53The Villain Who Robbed the Heroines

276 Chapters Every 12.5 Day(s) 6058 Readers 91 Reviews 12-09-2024

Completed Action Adult Adventure Ecchi Fantasy Harem Psychological School Life

5/5 To start this off this novel isn't for everyone, there are a lot of pretty realistic depictions of ab*se, torture and manipulation and others so don't pick this up if you're sensitive to that stuff since this psychological stuff is one of the main focuses of the novel.... more>>

KR (4.1)

#54Genius Wizard Takes Medicine

24 Chapters Every 5.5 Day(s) 2664 Readers 20 Reviews 04-06-2025

Action Adventure Fantasy Sci-fi Shounen

4.5/5 Really freakin great! Sci-fi novels usually are a hit or miss but I can confidently say this novel nails the atmosphere and setting. The cyberpunk-esque world mixed with a tinge of fantasy is perfect and absolutely my favorite part of the novel. The magic, the superhuman abilities and technology, gosh it's everything you'd ever want, the world is complex and feels really thought out without it being too jarring.... more>>

KR (3.6)

#55The Martial God who Regressed Back to Level 2

0 Chapters Every 33 Day(s) 3356 Readers 26 Reviews 05-07-2025

Action Adventure Fantasy Supernatural Tragedy

4/5 Honestly? This is pretty fun. The concept is simple but with a very cool unique twist that the system is basically made by godly aliens to make every species compete with each other, there's no alternative dimensions or whatever(at least up to where I've read), elves and other beings are literally just aliens that humans have to fight against to survive in a colosseum gladiatorial contests like sports teams and honestly I just love the idea. (although we mainly focus on our Earth, but it introduces more and more fascinating ideas as we go on)... more>>

KR (3.8)

#56I Became A Third-Rate Villain In The Hero Academy

329 Chapters Every 25.7 Day(s) 3849 Readers 24 Reviews 06-08-2024

Action Adventure Fantasy Harem Romance School Life

4/5 Quite good. It's a bit basic and pretty cliche plot wise, while not being boring and is written pretty well. The thing that stands out the most Is the growth of the main character, I really appreciate novels that take their time not rushing everything, the main character isn't powerful, he doesn't have OP skills and struggles a lot, but with perseverance and planning he gains strength and allies and gradually becomes powerful while not being overwhelming all of a sudden which is really rare to find among the type of novels and I think this novel handles it really well. Everything feels deserved, even sometimes I wish he got a bit more as... more>>

KR (3.6)

#57I Became a 6★ Gacha Character

569 Chapters Every 1.3 Day(s) 3477 Readers 19 Reviews 06-06-2025

Action Adult Adventure Ecchi Fantasy Harem Supernatural

3/5 This is OK. Firstly I really love the setting, being reincarnated as a game character and having to actually pretend to be a npc while actual people are just out there playing the game themselves is a fantastic concept and one I wish to see explored more, and I appreciate the author and translator somehow not making the gamer/streamer talk not so awkward while still being probably the most realistic depiction of that type of culture I've read so far in novels(as someone that enjoys my fair share of gacha games and watching streams)... more>>

KR (3.9)

#58Academy’s Genius Swordsman

0 Chapters Every 308 Day(s) 2146 Readers 18 Reviews N/A

Action Adventure Fantasy Harem School Life

4/5 Åwesome! The premise is something pretty much everyone reading this recommendation list should be familiar with, second chance, battle academy, op protagonist and saving the world but with one key detail missing, the game system, and honestly it's quite refreshing to see something like this after reading the same stuff for a while.... more>>

KR (4.3)

#59Genius Warlock

0 Chapters Every 3.7 Day(s) 4107 Readers 41 Reviews N/A

Action Adventure Fantasy Mature Mystery Psychological Sci-fi Seinen Supernatural Tragedy

4.5/5 Astonishing! A lot more mature from what I'm used to but it was a very interesting to read. The worldbuilding is fantastic, all the different kinds of magic and just the agonizingly realistic portrayals of the world is mesmerizing. The warlocks power is really dark, seeing, taking and manipulating human emotions is such an insane way to make the dark magic system and I applaud the author for doing it that way because it's just so unique and fascinating... more>>

KR (3.6)

#60F-Class Destiny Hunter

154 Chapters Every 34.9 Day(s) 647 Readers 4 Reviews 03-27-2024

Action Adventure Fantasy

2/5 My feelings are really mixed on this one. There are many concepts and ideas in this that I enjoy like the overall game system is very unique and interesting, like having zodiac signs and fortune telling incorporated in it was very captivating... if it was explored more, the trope is barely ever mentioned or plays a part in the story even though at first it seems like it might be a big deal...... more>>

I like the side characters, all of them are cool and have interesting powers and personalities. I like the setting of the main character, having the ability to steal others powers but having it only work on dead humanoids is tragic. The main character isn't some psycho maniac that kills others for their abilities like some other protagonists in these type of novels, he hesitates and actually spares some awful people because it would bring harm in the future and I really find that type of character interesting... But we rarely get to actually see him and his thoughts...

The overall story and progression is quire interesting, but the author just never really commits to one idea, instead just bloating this novel with random tropes that make no sense and don't fit at all from what was known beforehand and just blatantly inconsistent. For example like why the f*ck are literal gods just f*ckin watching the main character live his life while commenting like children on random cringy game forums? Why the f*ck and how did a random organization show up filled with a ton of random powerful people managing and literally creating dungeons and trials for people to train before even the awakening of the system and humans, and why do they have so much screentime and influence? How did the main character not steal a single ability in his whole previous life but somehow knows all the secret rooms and techniques in the dungeons he explores? Maybe the answers for these questions are given later on, but the fact that this type of random sh*t happens out of nowhere without any explanation or prior notice and isn't acknowledged or explained at all is so frustrating when trying to get immersed in the world.

The conflicts and action is unsatisfying, mostly because of the reason mentioned above. We literally just finish a fight that took multiple chapters of setup and on the next one we've already moved on with a time skip or a meaningless perspective change, not even being able to see the rewards or any sort of satisfying conclusion or even the main characters thoughts, it's like a whole f*cking page was ripped out of the book in between. The villains are awful and not in a good way, all of them are identical, just a person that's obsessed over something materialistic get involved in a conflict with the mc, the mc rejects them in some form, they get upset and completely obsessed and no matter how much the mc apologizes or helps them or even rewards them they try to mu*der him the next chance they get to even the point of seppuku, there's no character growth or any meaningful motivation, they're just one dimensional losers that serve no purpose to the overall story other than giving the mc some new abilities.

Okay, the rant is over. Honestly no matter how hard I try to say good things about the novel I can only think of the bad stuff. The translation is great aside from a typo every once in a while. I'm not giving this a terrible score because overall the novel is still fairly enjoyable despite the many faults it has, but yeah just very disappointing and unfortunately not written well at all but was full of potential, at least at the beginning. <<less

KR (3.9)

#61The Academy’s Time Stop Player

205 Chapters Every 22.7 Day(s) 2322 Readers 17 Reviews 09-13-2024

Completed Action Comedy Fantasy School Life Shounen Supernatural

3.5/5 Good. I think this novel succeeds at what it's set out to be, a kind of 'my hero academia'-esque power fantasy, nothing really jaw dropping but it's entertaining to read still. Most of my complaints are nitpicks with the writing:... more>>

The combat action is pretty meaningless, any sort of tension really just feels forced because the main character can just solve anything, he has literally all the time in the world and a boundless mental prowess, the only thing standing in his way is his own laziness. Every single fight pretty much goes the same, we encounter the villain, see their pov being arrogant, the main character beats them up and then we see the enemies pov again of them regretting their decisions and dying, it's pretty repetitive and predictable, I think it's mostly just done for the comedy aspect but yeah it's just not that interesting after a while since you already know what the mc can do and he's unstoppable.

The protagonist isn't the most fun to watch, he doesn't really stand out much, he isn't very motivated and is just emotionless at times(I know he can't feel pain or fear because of his ability, but he also just doesn't ever seem happy or interested in something, him hiding his identity as the irregular and the system forcing him to do good things while he tries his best to avoid doing anything is just awkward). I do like the way the time stopping power is implemented, but yeah without any restrictions and it not being really expanded on more aside from some extra small abilities it also gets kind of boring and just a means to an end.

The side characters also aren't the most captivating, we rarely see one of them for more than 1 arc and even then we just don't find out much about them, i don't know why but the kid strongest aside from the mc, the sword kings disciple is just so boring and such a nothing character, even though he shows up almost more than any other side character he's just so soulless and never does anything.

Other than that I just feels like the author relies too heavily and overuses perspective changes, sometimes we see the same scene 3 times even if it's the most mild thing that the mc has ever done with no consequences and it feels tedious to read through. But my shitty opinions aside, this novel is still fairly fun if you've got time to kill, the translation is pretty much flawless which is probably my greatest plus. <<less

KR (3.7)

#62Pick Me Up!

615 Chapters Every 2.8 Day(s) 2426 Readers 12 Reviews 05-31-2025

Action Adventure Fantasy Supernatural

5/5 Really just awesome! The premise is very similar to 'I Became a 6★ Gacha Character', my favorite part of the novel, but with an actual story. I had low expectations since the it didn't look that appealing from the first look, but as I started I was just possessed and couldn't stop reading until I ran out of chapters. The world, atmosphere and the game environment is just so dense and full of so many fantastical parts while being pretty realistic and just grim at times while at the same time having the most ridiculous and chaotic scenes ever, I couldn't stop laughing whenever the protagonist was crafting anything..... more>>

KR (3.9)

#63The Crazy Villain Regains His Sanity

64 Chapters Every 18 Day(s) 1424 Readers 10 Reviews 06-09-2025

Action Comedy Drama Fantasy Psychological

3/5 Decent. The starting premise is heartfelt, a protagonist that went sicko because of his uncontrollable power and ended up as the most evil villain, mu*dering everyone and just being crazy, returns to the past very regretful and tries his best to turn it all around for his family as he regains control of his mind. I like the overall story progression and it's just pretty laid back fun if you've got time to kill, it isn't that thought provoking, thrilling or emotional, and the world and atmosphere is rather bland, but it's still adequate.... more>>

KR (4.4)

#64I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game

876 Chapters Every 3.3 Day(s) 4327 Readers 53 Reviews 06-08-2025

Action Adventure Comedy Fantasy Mature Psychological Romance Supernatural Tragedy

4/5 Good. The premise and world is generic, but it's written pretty well. There are plenty of very emotional scenes and tense strategic battles and good moments. The pace of the story is mostly good, there were a lot of strong and impactful character moments, and I really just liked it overall.... more>>

KR (3.9)

#65I Became a Villain’s Hero

126 Chapters Every 27.3 Day(s) 2634 Readers 34 Reviews 05-15-2024

Completed Action Drama Fantasy Harem Slice of Life Supernatural

5/5 Went in with the lowest expectations and went out with a rollercoaster of emotions, wholesomeness, drama, tears and depression. This novel focuses primarily on loneliness, and the effects it can have on people that really isn't afraid to go to pretty dark places. Pretty much binged the whole thing In nearly one sitting as I felt emotionally attached to every single character and plot point personally that I HAD to see through to the end without sleeping.... more>>

KR (4.3)

#66Incompatible Interspecies Wives

243 Chapters Every 6.2 Day(s) 4838 Readers 38 Reviews 05-06-2025

Completed Adult Adventure Drama Fantasy Harem Romance Slice of Life Tragedy

4.5/5 Really great, after reading and loving 'I became a villain's hero' from the same author, it doesn't disappoint. Relationships and character writing shine once again, characters are full of life and moving, the story, the setting, the atmosphere, a lot more action they're all just great.... more>>

KR (3.6)

#67Why Are You Becoming a Villain Again?

136 Chapters Every 3.7 Day(s) 3188 Readers 35 Reviews 06-03-2025

Drama Fantasy Harem Mature Romance Slice of Life

4/5 The concept is quite simple and cliche, the couple of the first chapters were a bit uninteresting but It very quickly grows into something special, me being unable to avert my eyes from the screen. As I've said with both of the author's previous works I've read, relationships and drama really shine through in their writing. Characters, although not all of them this time, are very memorable.... more>>

KR (3.9)

#68This World Needs a Hero

0 Chapters Every 392 Day(s) 1292 Readers 10 Reviews 05-13-2024

Completed Action Drama Fantasy Mature School Life Seinen Tragedy

2/5 To start this off, the concept is f*cking fantastic, the main character, a basically emotionless monster(doppelganger) disguising themselves as the savior of humanity is just so fascinating and can definitely lead to a very good novel, but unfortunately this novel throws that captivating interest I had out of the window barely 3 chapters in and is instead a painfully mediocre professor fantasy academy setting fanfic being indistinguishable from the rest. Maybe I went in with way too high expectations after reading 3 fantastic books in a row but I was just very underwhelmed. Granted, I could only make it about 40 chapters in but it failed to interest me further after the prologue as... more>>

KR (3.7)

#69Level 4 Human in a Ruined World

2 Chapters Every 884 Day(s) 863 Readers 9 Reviews 07-15-2024

Action Adventure Fantasy Psychological Sci-fi Shounen

3/5 Not really the most unique novel, but it does what it does well. The premise is kind of all over the place and every action makes less and less sense the more you think about it, but it's still enjoyable to read through. The translation is good, the action sequences, the ridiculous items/abilities and overall progression is fun. The system, the protagonist and characters are one dimensional and forgettable but it's serviceable and there's pretty much nothing going on main story and emotion wise aside from the primary goal of survival and getting stronger and overcoming increasingly stronger obstacles.... more>>

KR (4.1)

#70I Became the Fiancé of a Dragon in Romance Fantasy

99 Chapters Every 43.2 Day(s) 3080 Readers 18 Reviews 11-01-2023

Completed Action Drama Fantasy Romance Slice of Life Smut

4/5 A garbage noble falls off a horse and remembers his 'past life' and changes, we all know the drill. The concept is a bit unoriginal and story wise there's nothing that surprised me that much, even the big twist at the end was easy to predict, but I still enjoyed it. ... more>>

KR (3.5)

#71Genius Regressor Makes Mythic Items

355 Chapters Every 4.6 Day(s) 930 Readers 6 Reviews 04-07-2025

Action Fantasy

3.5/5 Quite alright. Beginning concept wise this is nearly identical to 'The Martial God who Regressed Back to Level 2', if you liked aspects of it and wanted to see more I can very easily recommend this to you. I always enjoy a modern world game system setting and this one is different in both good and bad ways.... more>>

Starting with the good, I prefer the overall progression and combat a lot more than lvl2 martial god, mostly because it actually feels a bit more balanced, at least in the beginning, alchemy and item focused novels always get pretty creative with their abilities and this novel does deliver, just casually creating a cool ass mythical item out of basically thin air is just super badass and fun even if the power difference gets absurdly lopsided it never gets too repetitive. The constellations/gods, the streaming aspects and the way they were presented felt a lot more fun and dynamic. I really like the main character as well, just the jadedness of his personality because of all he went through in his last life while still being kind, his knowledge of alchemy and just overall being fun to watch really elevate it above the somewhat forgettable one of lvl2 martial god's in my opinion..

But my biggest issue with this is the kind of bad pacing, rushed feeling and management of the story, the novel just doesn't like to sit with 1 normal plotline for more than 1 or 2 at most chapters and it just takes away any emotional attachment or impact any good scene would've had, whenever something genuinely compelling is about to happen, we immediately switch POV's setting up new irrelevant future plotlines and completely blueballing the readers.. It just feels like someone cut like a dozen different arcs in multiple parts and placed them completely randomly throughout the book, it just feels wrong. Whatever is written is almost always pretty good, the story and characters and genuinely interesting, but the above issue of us never actually being able to just get invested in any of them properly for more than a single chapter or line just takes away any initial interest I had...

If it just allowed itself to linger more on the sad, bittersweet or happy moments, if we could see the important characters interact with each other more, I'd confidently rate this higher which does hurt to say as I probably won't read this again.

I've only read 75 chapters (as far as the translation was at the time) so my issues with it could definitely be improved upon later, it's still overall very enjoyable, even if you haven't read lvl2 martial god. This also made the literal Philosopher's Stone a sentient doting cute girl so what is there not to like.. <<less

KR (4.3)

#72Regression Is Too Much

162 Chapters Every 4.2 Day(s) 3034 Readers 18 Reviews 06-05-2025

Action Adventure Comedy Fantasy Romance

4.5/5 What started as a clever and funny parody of the genre over time becomes a really thrilling and unique story. Granted the translation is only 87 chapters in and the original story isn't even finished yet, but I can definitely see the high potential of this.... more>>

KR (3.8)

#73I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills

58 Chapters Every 19.6 Day(s) 1508 Readers 9 Reviews 02-11-2025

Action Adventure Fantasy Harem Romance

3.5/5 Going in I wasn't expecting that much, and overall the plot and story arcs are extremely cliché and predictable, but the novel twists them in a somewhat fun way and has many awesome ideas sprinkled in everywhere.... more>>

KR (4)

#74I Became the Hero Who Banished the Protagonist

53 Chapters Every 49.8 Day(s) 2976 Readers 31 Reviews 06-05-2023

Completed Action Adventure Fantasy Harem

3/5 My thoughts on this are a bit complicated so I'm diving into high rant territory. The beginning and overall premise is really intriguing. I can say the first half of this novel is great, not perfect but really good. The story is fun, absolutely love the main enemies just being actual disasters, each having the power to end the world, and the struggle of the main character having to beat them when always at a disadvantage was thrilling and the conflict of him being forced to be the embodiment of a true self sacrificing hero was tragic, the overall action was fun. Not all characters are great, but I liked both of the 'main'... more>> heroines in the first half, Daphne and Marianne were cute and I was actually rooting for both of them to succeed.

But most of my problems show up after around 80 chapters, right after the end of the 'mist disaster' arc. Everything was going great, my favorite heroine Marianne was coming out of her shell and nearly confessing her feelings, she says she never wants to part with the main hero and it's all freakin adorable, we have 2 last disasters to beat, the main character is getting stronger and everything is shaping up for a neat clean ending, but barely even 5 chapters later the hero leaves and goes on another side quest(after it was explicitly stated that he wouldn't be sent out on any missions until the next disaster shows itself, but he goes searching for it anyways for plot i guess).

THE ACADEMY ARC. Marianne and every other thing that was important to the story beforehand is pretty much abandoned and never mentioned for the next quarter or more of the book. It was just incredibly frustrating, pretty much everything that was built up, everything that was interesting about this novel is thrown out of the window and falls flat face first and we're left with the author introducing new irrelevant filler storylines, the main character has to relearn pretty much every lesson he already learned in the previous dozens of chapters in more convoluted ways, brand new harem members arrive, older 'villainous' characters needlessly redeemed for fanservice, that aren't even well written, pretty much everyone starts becoming more and more down bad for him, and the story starts becoming so painfully slow. It's just such a huge downgrade and disappointment just to fill out more chapters/word count, I could go on and on about all the issues with the story but I don't think it's necessary.

Aside from the deteriorating story the translation as well is VERY questionable, It was very hard not to notice the very simple mistakes, character names like Iris constantly misspelled as Isis nearly every time she's mentioned, often many other pronoun mistakes, it overall just sours the experience, I was letting it slide for the first half because the story was good, but as it worsened in quality I just gave up, I'm not even interested in seeing the ending anymore.

To explain my rating, for the first half of the novel I'd genuinely give it a 4.5 because it was just so interesting and written well. but what it becomes is so bad that I considered giving it a 2 or something, but I decided to meet in the middle, since it was still a fun time for the first 80 or so chapters and I'd HIGHLY recommend stopping once you feel it getting worse, if you find it good after that that's fine, but this is just my opinion. <<less

KR (4)

#75I was Thrown into an Unfamiliar Manga

42 Chapters Every 43.5 Day(s) 3055 Readers 15 Reviews 10-20-2023

Action Comedy Harem Romance School Life Slice of Life Supernatural

4/5 Just a fun lighthearted romcom. The setting is fun, the characters and writing is good. Wouldn't call this a masterpiece but It's great at what it tries to accomplish.... more>>

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Comments (6)

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Sareza· May 18, 2025 02:26 AM
Thank you for the list, it's really great
Reply · 1 Like · ·
Chikyuu· Apr 15, 2024 03:50 PM
read most of it and agreed woth your ratings!! love the list
Reply · 1 Like · ·
- Chikyuu· Apr 15, 2024 03:52 PM
  although some that you rated highly fell off and become bad if you read the MTL
  Reply · 1 Like · ·
- Y0LT· Author · May 14, 2024 02:21 PM
  @Chikyuu Sorry for the late reply but yeah, some of my ratings are perhaps inaccurate/outdated as of now since translators change, issues are fixed or made worse etc. which is unfortunate but all my reviews and score is based on my experience and subjective opinion. After I add something I rarely touch it again, this has been a personal project of mine for a couple years now and after all I forget stuff/lose interest/move on, but I'm glad you liked the list and thank you for the reply, it means a lot!
  
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FanService· Jun 29, 2022 12:36 AM
You are a great list maker, I feel your hunger for content. I to am starving but I need meat give me at least something with 100 chapters not this one bite grubs they only stimulate my apatite.
Reply · Like · ·
- Y0LT· Author · Jul 9, 2022 07:54 AM
  Thank you for the compliment! I haven't read much lately because I wasn't able to find new novels to read so I've been taking a break so in the meantime the content piles up more, I don't really control how many chapters a novel gets translated for so I just add stuff that seems promising and I enjoyed reading even if it was short. Thank you for the feedback.
  Reply · Like · ·

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