The Player of the Fallen Family

It’s finally time I review this for myself, because I keep opening up the first chapter after a couple of months and being like “Oh what is this, is this good?” And then I’m sorely depressed.

Why don’t I like it though?

1st off, the art is beautiful. I think it’s slightly above the mid-tier slop that happens. Even looking at chapter 40 it looks nice. But that isn’t enough to get me to continue. The art, while beautiful, isn’t as focused on enhancing continuous movement to help tell the choreography in stories, it’s more done in flashy ways, with glam shots, hero shots, and magical ruin shots. Those are nice once in a while to set a mood, but these feel like they lack heart, and more are to show off.

2nd. Story is kind of all over the place. I see here that some people say that the novel is good, but apparently this isn’t following the novel’s route, or pacing? Either way, it feels a bit old-hack and too much? I’ll have to delve into spoiler territory but it’s just mostly personal gripes.

SPOILERS

He not only wants to gain revenge for having his fallen family, as well as having been tortured to death, but then he goes into some kind of after life where it seems like he goes through an eternity of battles with friends to come across some kind of god?

I don’t have issues with them not explaining anything about it, but it just felt like it came out of no where. I feel like there’s going to be a twist about it, but the whole premise itself feels like a twist. So then to have him come back and then talk about status windows like it’s nothing new is jarring.

I’m not sure if it’s like this in the novel, or if it’s just the webtoon, but the pacing feels off after that. It’s just a lot of progression fetch quests with no soul. “Oh, I have to break this curse… I broke the curse because of my experience.”, “Oh I have to learn magic… I’ve shown my teacher how amazing I am because I’ve already summoned my core.”, “I’m going to trick this guy and get my revenge… I know all these spells and I’ve already tricked them.” it lacks tension for me, and I feel like there are plenty of other manhwa that have done it better.

The fact that he’s a mage, and a swordsman, and then the 2nd-ish arc just shows him being awesome at being an assassin randomly, it all feels all over the place. I honestly don’t have a very good feel for this manhwa, and that’s why I keep stopping and coming back and being confused, re-reading it, being underwhelmed and stopping again.

I don’t mean to be harsh towards it, and if anybody likes it, you have every right to like it. It just doesn’t hit for me. I think for somebody who likes it, it could be a 4 or 5. No judgement, but I think I’m looking for something a little different.

Fallen family regression wise I think “Machinations of a Mercenary” Is by far my favorite version of this trope right now. It has just as beautiful of an art style, and they do a great job of the fight choreography, and the story feels more grounded. Even if the MC is still over powered, it feels less like there is some amount of tension as his power isn’t overly bombastic. And there are even chapters later on where it’s about the other characters as they grow and have to survive, and you actually care about them.

Anyway, this isn’t a review made to stop anybody from reading it. Try it. And if you love it, I’m glad. Just ain’t my cup of tea and I need some kind of reminder so that I don’t keep falling for it over and over again.

5.5/10 would not recommend, will not read again.