u/Mangert

I’m starting to get into competitive on Pokémon champions. Especially in a best of one format… it feels just riddled with… terrible variance.

Perish song players bank on double protect and win.

Rock slide is gigantic variance where sometimes u miss, sometimes u hit, sometimes u hit both and flinch both. Sometimes u flinch the one threat that would have OHKO’d ur team.

Overheat can one shot kingambit, but who cares if u predicted they wouldn’t protect, overheat missed!

Hurricane confusing -> hitting yourself

Dire claw -> sleep/para -> stay asleep/can’t move

Speed ties deciding games where whoever’s aerodactyl goes first gets the tailwind and then their partner wipes ur team.

Blizzard -> frozen -> no thaw.

RANDOM CRITS.

I see why Wolfey hasn’t won worlds again. Even when u are the best player in the world, there is just WAY too much variance in this game. Like holy shit, why would they make the matches live and die on 10-30% chances??

Like am I missing something? Can someone explain to me how to win when luck is just not in ur favor?

I just finished book 7 and now I have to painfully wait for book 8 to come out!

Spoilers ahead. I reposted to make sure it was clear this was not spoiler free. Read at your own risk!

This book does a million things well, but I’ll try to talk about as many as I can!

THE CHARACTERS! My god do they just feel so real I am completely invested. Every single character just feels alive. They all feel like real personalities with strengths and flaws. I’m not doing it justice but all I can say is, the characters feel like I’m watching the best actors in the world play a character. They don’t feel like characters, they feel like people. They talk like people. They make choices like people. They have desires, needs, fears, quirks, bravery, cowardice, ulterior motives. They are selfish, they are selfless. They are HUMAN. And not many authors can write characters and dialogue that truly feels HUMAN.

The message is beautiful. I’ve read a lot of books in this genre that are about a person, about progression, about just getting through the next day. Those books don’t have a message, they simply exist to follow a person’s journey and hopefully enjoy it. And that’s okay. But u don’t sit on the last page and just ponder. And I like doing that! DCC has something to say, and I love that. I love the themes of rebellion, fascism, the strong and rich abusing the poor and helpless. And I love Carl’s REAL catchphrase of, “fuck you all, you won’t break me.” And I think watching Carl struggle with that, and fight and fight while everything around him threatens to drown him. That is a story that I love. It’s not just about levels or stats (even if there is plenty of that), it’s about a man and a cat’s fight for freedom. Not just freedom for them, but freedom for all.

The system is so fucking well designed. I’ve read around 100 litrpgs, if not more. Magic/game systems can make or break a book. Everything about the way the system works, is amazing. I love the loot boxes, I love the achievements for doing cool shit. I love the unique classes and spells. I’ve had so many books say “the system tailors its rewards to you.” But no book does that as well as DCC. The system TRULY TAILORS EVERYTHING TO YOU. It’s like you’re the main character getting personalized rewards, but everyone is getting the same personalized treatment. And that creates interesting distinct characters with interesting distinct powers. Which all makes sense bc it’s all a tv show, it’s all for the entertainment of the galaxy. And lucky for us, it’s entertaining to us too!

To add, the health system in the “game” is the best I’ve seen within a Litrpg. It’s basically just the real world (if ur head gets blown off, u dead), and “HP” only really shows you a representation of how close to death you are. And health potions or healing spells, do what they would in real life. Knit your body back together.

Carl’s fighting style of mostly explosives is extremely unique and it fits perfectly in a system where health and mana exist, but fuck it I’m just gonna throw bombs bc everything dies to bombs. It’s very unique and makes for many interesting exciting moments. And Donut’s fighting style scratches the itch I have for loving Magic and cool Magic spells.

Also I love Carl’s character. Carl’s serious, focused, blunt self is the PERFECT foil to Donut’s ridiculous over-the-top personality. I love their dynamic so much and they complement each other so well as characters, as crawlers, as best friends. They are amazing dual MCs.

This book series has ruined my sleep schedule, it has caused me to neglect people in my life. I truly could not stop reading until I finally slowed myself down in book 7 (bc I didn’t want it to end, and bc I need to live my life). If you want an EXPERIENCE. If you want to truly live through Carl’s eyes and follow his journey as he fights and fights. This is the book for you. It’s an extremely serious plot and story about abuse of power, life and death, friendship, love, and the courage to not give up. But it’s colored in with tons of jokes, moments of joy and reprieve, caricatures, silly moments, and a good time.

Now what don’t I like about the book?

FUCK the fourth floor. The infamous “Iron Tangle.” Fuck it. I won’t lie, book 3 was tough to get through. For me and for Carl. Everyone in the book says it. I’m saying it. The Iron Tangle was needlessly complex, ridiculously slow, and just a slog. I didn’t care what the fuck the answer to the puzzle was. The Hekla storyline was the only interesting part of that whole floor. It was a SLOG. And considering the comments in later books about how much the characters hated that floor… I think Matt (author) is aware the mistake he made lol. I urge you to skim over all the explanation parts in that floor. The rest of the series is amazing. But yes the Iron Tangle single-handedly tanked my rating of the book series.

Mongo. I love pets. I love summoner-style classes. But I swear Mongo was essentially just a plot device and not actually a combatant. Yes, this is a nitpick. Donut kept using her copy spell to make clockwork versions of Mongo to fight. But MONGO NEVER FIGHTS. Yes that’s hyperbole. But I wanted a cool combat focused pet. Not a pet that is usually a liability and rarely helps (apart from being cloned into clockwork versions). Another crawler has Bianca, a terrifyingly powerful pet. Now THATS a cool pet. Mongo never felt exciting or an interesting addition to the team. More of a Mascot. And we are the Donut Holes! Donut is our mascot! We don’t need another. Mongo took away screen time from actually interesting characters. I guess I did like Donut’s mothering dynamic with Mongo at least.

Conclusion:

Seriously, if u like Litrpg, read Dungeon Crawler Carl. Before reading this series, my favorite series was Life Reset by Shemer Kuznits. My new favorite series is Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman.

Rating: 10/10 (would have been 12/10 god tier… but fuck the Iron Tangle)