If you could level up and raise your stats?

An adventure of a life-turned-game

Story by Sung Sang-Young

Illustration by Sang-Ah

My first take on this manwha that it is going to be another MMORPG theme anime like SAO (Sword Art Online) or Log Horizon. But after reading the first few chapters I was taken by surprise by the fresh perspective and new uptake on this kind of genre. Check out this brief overview of the story.

One day our protagonist Han-Jee-Han suddenly can see other people’s level floating above their head, if you are not familiar with the term, “level” it is a number describing how powerful or how experienced a player is in MMO. This was a shock to our hero and he does not know what to do and don’t have  a slightest idea as of how he obtains this special ability. He named this phenomenon as “The Gamer”, his body looks normal but now it has the mechanics of a gaming character. He can see his own inventory and has storage for items as well.  From time to time there is an information window that pops out in front of him giving information on various things, like quest opportunities to item descriptions and there uses.

He later found out that he has his own stats, like in games. Usually these stats are classified as Strength, Intelligence, Agility, Dexterity, Luck, etc. Depending on your build is what stats you’re going to raise, and most of the time this determines if your character is good or bad. Through leveling he can acquire additional 5 stat points, in which he can allocate to his needs. Han-jee-han put in all his 5 stat on strength, as you do in order to increase your attack power in most games. He later regretted his decision, putting all his stats on strength was not a wise decision, because what is the use of brute strength in this  modern era?

Like in most games, you need to acquire a certain amount of experience point to increase your level. You can obtain this experience points or EXP for short from questing or killing monster. This is also the same case with our protagonist.  He has a list of quest that he needs to do in order to level up; one example is doing his house hold course or doing his homework. Later on some monster like creatures are appearing out of thin air and defeating them gives him exp points and item drop.

One day like any other, our hero stumbles upon a battle between a person titled “black summoner” and a” soul blaze fist user” just then he realize that his not the only one with strange abilities. He ended up being dragged into the battle between those two. The battle concluded into a draw, and this is the first time Han-Jee-Han discover how to acquire skills or abilities to use in battle.

In the next few days Han-Jee-Han notice that his childhood friend Shin Sun-il’s level has increase by 3, this was a surprise to him since his entire classmate’s level stayed the same. In his growing suspicions, Han-Jee confronted Shin Sun-il and to his amazement, his friend also has special abilities. Shin Sun-il explained that their powers was given to them by a divine being called Gaia, who is the embodiment of the world itself. Gaia’s will is mysterious and profound, the methods of selection is still unclear; most of the candidates are selected randomly but some gain power through sheer dedication to special training. The ability manifestation differs from person to person. The abilities granted is mostly it is determined on what most affects the psyche of that specific person. For example our protagonist here who loves games was given the ability “The Gamer”.

It’s all well and good that a certain person has special abilities. However there are certain restriction or rules, regarding the usage these abilities and skills. For example our hero here can manipulate his stats, so what if he puts all his points on luck and then spend his time in a casino. Of course he would win all the games but that would be unrealistic for a normal person, people will have questions and doubt about the casino and soon they will have questions about that person. On this scenario Gaia will put some kind of curse, and from that point on, the life of that person will be ill fated and will end in death. This is how Gaia balances the world; the people who have special abilities should not interfere with the normal workings of the world and should avoid affecting it dramatically.

Here is the review.

This manwha’s story is mostly character driven and the story centers on gaming mechanics that some readers might not be familiar with. But throughout the story, the gaming terms and mechanics are well presented and explained.

The special ability “the gamer” in the real world is indeed a unique concept and has a lot of potential to be a fully blown comic. The gaming concept for me is what really makes this comic quite fun to read.

Very relatable; being a gamer myself it is easy to pick up. This comic brings in MMORPG element and mixed it with real life, that gives off a unique outlook on this type of genre. I must admit It brings good old memories playing MMORPG, ah nostalgia.

The comedy is well execution and not force.

Pacing of the story is a bit slow, we often see Han-Jee-Han grinding. For those who don’t know what grinding is, it is repetitive process within a game to obtain a particular item or to gain experience needed to level up. It’s a bit boring to read and it’s also boring in online games, but this is how these games work. You need to spend a ton of time and money in order to get better items and to level your character.

I would like to see more about the world where Han-Jee-Han lives and add more depth to his character. Lacking some actions in some cases and a love interest might spice things up a bit, since its high school, hormones and urges usually drives teenagers. More emphasize on battles and skills, especially on boss fights, lacking a lot of concept and volume to the battle scenes.

Good artwork; the comic has a good, clean, crisp look; pleasant to the eyes, and like most manwha is in colored.

Overall I would give it 7.5/10

The word lacking runs through my mind when I’m reading this comic, it has a lot of potential to be great. I hope in the future installment it will be much better, still a good read and it has its moment here and there. I’m looking forward for more crazy antics in this real life gamer’s body and I hope there would be some epic battles to come.

Thank you for talking you time reading my blog.

Dark August

Wealth?

Glory?

Power?

 Revenge?

Or something that surpasses all others?

Whatever your desire,

`that is here`

This is my favorite manhwa, so I wanted to review it so here we are.

First of all “Tower of God” is a manhwa by Slave. In. Utero (SIU) the pen name of the author, it is from South Korea.

For those who don’t know what a manhwa is, it is a comic or manga from Korea, but it has its own style and presentation. Let me just briefly explains some difference between the two, manga are mostly multi-panel and manhwa is usually horizontal scroll type of comic. One biggest difference between the two is the way you read the comic, on manga you willl need to read it from right to left and with manhwa is your typical left to right comic.

Well enough said about manhwa, let me give you a brief overview of the story and I’ll give my review afterwards.

The story begins with a boy named the Twenty-fifth Baam, odd name I know, but his predicament is as odd as his name, on the first few chapters of the story, you can see our protagonist Baam being held underground. Well is not really clear if he was being held, imprisoned or what, the writer did not provide clues about his origins and as of why he is there in the first place, I’m guessing that this will be revealed on the latter part of the story and I think this is one of the main plot of the whole story.

In this dark lonely existence, Baam has found his light in Rachel, the very first person he sees and the story wraps in this meeting between the two. When I was first reading this, I thought to myself hey, this is your typical boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, girl is in distress and boy came save the day; however is far from the truth. Just keep reading the manwha and you will know what I mean. Rachel was  Baam’s savior and his salivation, and who can blame him, no one wants to be alone. This light of hope that our hero religiously put all his hopes and dreams is a mere imitation of light, in the vast darkness that Baam lives in, even the dimmest light can shine like a star.

Not much is told about the world except an existence of a tower which grants wishes that has several floors that you are supposed to climb to reach the top. Once you reach the top, it is rumor that it will grant whatever you desire.

Residents inside the Tower, take several tests on each floor level and failure in this test ends usually ends in death. Upon passing the said exam,  you will be granted some title starting from rank E to rank A so far, and once you pass this exams you will be called a ranker and will be allowed passage to the next floor.

People who are from the tower are called regulars and there is this irregular, people who are from the outside that grant entry to the tower without permission.  The irregular are feared throughout the tower, this is because of the immense power that they wield and history writes that all irregular who entered the tower created chaos and disorder.

Let me get to the good part here, our protagonist is a irregular, yoohoo, but  he does not have any special skills or abilities at all, but let me tell you this guy has some balls, total disregard for his life as long as he can chase after Rachel. Yes this is the only reason why Baam entered the tower in the first place, to rescue her, as so he thought. Rachel had an innocent dream of seeing the stars, but this dream can only be achieved by climbing the tower and reaching the top. Rachel has somehow managed to break-in the tower and Baam follow suit.

This is the start of their wild adventure together inside the tower; Baam will meet a princess, an alligator and the daft punk mabye??? But whatever lies in his path, he will overcome and endure and will do anything to reach his dream.

Finally the Review

The Story

Everything starts off slowly, but I kept on reading it, and before I knew it, I was hook and I was unable to stop reading, after I finish a chapter, I was craving for MORE.

As the story progresses, you will see the different people living in the tower and how the world ideology revolves around in climbing the tower. We will see how Baam develop his character and the friend that he meets, along his journey to the top. This manhwa will be a roller coaster of emotion and is filled with drama, suspense, betrayal, loyalty and good old one-on-one brawl to the death.

The story touches the elements of a shounen anime, it progresses through the journey with building friendship, comradery and fighting together as a team.

The battles in tower is usually between teams, later on they are categorize in different position, which signifies what role they are to play in an event of a battle. In order to ascend the tower, they need to work well as a team in order pass the test.

The tower is complex, each floor is said to be continent in size, with different  as you get higher and higher the test difficulty increase. There are also different parts of the tower, one part of the tower is used for residential, another is where they held the test and lastly the part the connect all the floors. Each has it own guardian that maintains the shinsoo on that floor.

A Shinsoo is a force that can be manipulated to enhance physical abilities, power weapons, and even manipulate the elements.

The characters

The characters are diverse; they have different races and appearance. There is a large interesting and likable or hated characters with variety in personalities with their back stories. As the story progresses we can see the character development.

Another thing that I like is that a number of times in the comic, the battles focus on team formations and team fights, the character must match each other’s strengths and weakness to move forward or overcome challenges.

The Artwork

First of all the comic is in full color, At my first glance of the comic, it looks little rough. but still look pretty good and throughout the chapters his artwork also improve and  quite few are superb especially in the fights. Also I notice how manhwa tends differ on how they present facial expression than manga.

Although what annoyed me is this comic, is that a few characters design in comic is gender neutral, which had me guessing if it was male or female. Later on was revealed.

Fun and interesting comic, one of the best reads that I came across, I just fell in love with the manwha and I strongly would recommend that you start reading Tower Of God. The protagonist is not your typical hero that you see in every other actions anime out there, where the hero has god like powers and the side characters are just support to give more focus on the main character. Tower of God deviate from that path, it emphasizes more on teamwork and must put their trust in each other.

My overall rating would be 8.8/10

Thank you for talking your time in reading my blog and I have more reviews to come, be sure to check them out – Dark August