The Crime Lord Bard [A LitRPG Isekai • Anti Hero • Fantasy]

Overall: This story has a lot of potential, but it's held back by contrivance and lack of character progression. While the world feels interesting, we don't get to explore a lot of it in a way that feels particularly earned or fun. Some better characterization, some struggle, and development of the secondary characters would definitely make my rating go up.

Style: The style is a bit better than your average isekai. There are plenty of tropes, but they're mostly handled (outside of the MC) in a way that doesn't feel overbearing. This is a story that's both kingdom-building and litrp, so we get a decent mix of characters developing their skills and a meta-system for the "territory" the gang occupies. It works well about 80 percent of the time.

The prose is pretty solid, with some heavy reliance on poetry and musical writing. It works well with the MC's skillset and the overall tone of being a charismatic prettyboy hiding his real intentions. There are some parts of this that feel a bit silly, but it's not hard to suspend your disbelief and I found myself enjoying the vibe overall.

Story: There are some unfortunate disconnects between the primary story (the isekai and the reason for it) and the day-to-day life of our MC and his gang. While part of this is understandable due to the need to consolidate a power base, the MC seems to lose sight of things that had been important to him at the start of the story. More on that when we get to the character section. 

The world-building is solid, easily the best part of this story. Again, there are some confusing mechanics and disconnects with what one would expect in a world this old with powers, though. A couple of spoilers below:

I think if some of the weird disconnects and nonsense was solved, this could be a really great story. As of now, it's about average for RR.

Grammar: I saw no issues here. Maybe some prose that was a bit wonky during the more poetic bits of the story, but it's solid. I'd guess that the author has an editing process or alpha readers based on the quality.

Character: This is the weakest portion of the story. Most of my issues come down to contrivance and motivation. We're led to believe that the MC is a crime boss in his previous life. He's "unlucky" with firearms (good thing he got isekai'd to a medieval world, huh?), but he's ruthless, hyper-intelligent, and driven. He built an empire and controls the streets. But he's a GOOD GUY, everyone. No kids can be used to do crimes. He's also a classically sister-obsessed guy. When he's first sent to the new world, his main motivation for solving the mystery and getting home is his sister. Does he ever really mention this again? Nope. Do we ever get a scene where he misses his old life and has some growth around overcoming his homesickness? Nope. He's all business, all the time.

Speaking of business, he's so savvy that he immediately gains a foothold in a new city, owns a business, invents a cheaper alternative to the business he's in that would DEFINITELY already exist, and kills several people with a non-combat class at level 1. I'm all for ruthless, strong MC's, but this seemed a bit on the nose to me. The MC doesn't struggle at any point. All conversations he walks into he's gonna win. He does this through contrived plot points, overwhelming charm, and nerves of steel. Nevermind that he's taken the body of a disgraced noble who has no allies, he's the MC. Struggling is for other characters.

The other characters are pretty thin on characterization and motivation. The MC is this sort of pied piper that can make anyone follow him with very complicated plans at the drop of a hat. We don't have a large cast of side characters at this point, but all of them fit some kind of trope in a pretty blatant way. While the story succeeds in making the tropes feel like they fit, the characters are thrown into the pot because the story needs each of them to feel like we're going somewhere. None of them add much to the story aside from cookie-cutter gang members, sadly.

TLDR: Solid world-building (outside of the MC's invention), some fun ideas on how a system would function, but very weak characters that leave me wanting some struggle and earned payoffs.

definitely a great story ill be excited to follow with its great pacing, writing and near impeccable grammar! i love the different unique mechanics!

i definitely think that bards are pretty under represented in literature. the way the main character uses his different spells is inventive, something a lot of stories lack! 
ill be excited to see where this story goes!

It's a really fun read that actively goes into more depth of strategic decision making from what I've read so far, actively trying to explain why the MC's plan has been created the way it has; including what the MC thinks will go wrong and how that has been acciubted for. As well the MC is clearly an antihero but has a set of morals that he sticks too which looks like it will stop him from derailing into a murder hobo as well. Sadly the side characters have only just been introduced so I can't give a comment on how they look like they will turn out in the future.

Also the whole premise of the story seems quite fun, very similar to kingdom building story so far but I'm intrigued to see if the author will have their own spin on the genre. Speaking of genres it also features a DND style Litrpg system, it seems to be going fairly light on the litrpg part of the story so far with minimal gains through the MC's status screen.

So as an overall I would say that this story excites me from the chapters that I've read and I would recommend giving it a go to others as I can see a lot of potential in this story.

The Novel is written very good with a solid pacing and engaging Characters aswell as story. I want to read more and recommend reading it to everyone if they like novels where the main character is more then the guy with the biggest fist instead managing to achieve his goals with cunning and loyal workers.

It's not totally bad but I am not impressed. The MC personality is  not existent, his background story is an outlines of few lines. Just a label : "I am a bad boy with an heart of gold". The story and world building aren't very original so far, but the pacing is good.

If you're looking for a story about a villain with a code this is the story for you. Jamie is a gang boss who gets chosen. Given a system, a helper, and a class he's got a mystery to solve. As the story is still new there's a few mistakes here and there which I'm sure will be fixed with future editing. The story is interesting and I'm excited to see where it goes in the future!

I'm really enjoying the characters in the world greeting the benefits of having an antihiro in this world you'll really Rocked place reading the chapters as soon as they get out five stars.

It has great determination to achieve his goals and is leveled ahead.

Side characters are well polished and bring a lot of help development to the story.