The MC is contradictory. He is a hardened mercenary in his first life. Yet when he resets to his past he is too casual about trying to save his brother's life. The story spends so much time on the MC getting dressed, baths, food, and other indulgences which he enjoyed when he was younger. The MC should know if an attempt at someone's life is thwarted, there will be additional attempts unless the person who is behind it is stopped.

Spoiler

Ch18 after two attempts on his brother's life in the same day, what does the MC do after thwarting the second attempt. He goes home and takes a bath.

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The MC doesn't seem to dig for information/knowledge that much as well, which is his most powerful thing with resetting (Knowing things). Why are he and is brother not talking? What is the relationship between his brother and the princess? What is the status of his families business? What does his brother keep hinting at? A key point of this is the "Bobs" and when he has a chance to know more about them... nothing.

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BLIC

Status: ch 14 – the ball (part 6)

Jul 13, 2022

TL;DR: Surprisingly good. You should read it.

Summary

Player 0.4 begins like many "second chance" stories. A man dies in battle as he watches his nation and comrades fall to the enemy's hand. Full of regrets, he is somehow brought back in time by accepting an omnipresent system's offer to "restart the game" and become a "player" instead of an NPC.

Things of note

Right off the bat, several interesting challenges are presented in Player 0.4

After every regression made by Luca Frey (our protagonist), his surroundings are slightly changed
While Luca has access to a status window, his access to other functions is limited to only 40% (hence the title Player 0.4).

Although the novel is yet in its infancy, I think these details are quite promising and original. Another thing to note is that Player 0.4 (as of now) is fairly lighthearted. Internal conflict or psychological distress is not something you will see despite Luca's multiple deaths.

Characters
As for our protagonist, he is a standard guy who is rather rash and stupid but not excessively so. He has empathy and interest in things outside of himself with his overarching goal being to save his empire/family/friends. He isn't good at plotting or playing mind games, so those who are expecting a cold-hearted genius will likely be disappointed. As of now, he is a good protagonist.

Since there are only 14 chapters currently, it is difficult to say much about the side cast, but so far every character introduced has been unique and interesting (in particular Luca's older brother). No character seems to fawn over or hate the protagonist needlessly, and antagonists appear to have a mind of their own (ex. Chapter 13). I'm looking forward to more character interactions.

Mechanics
The writing style resembles that of Korean web novels: streamlined, entertaining, and efficient. The grammar is on point, and transitions between scenes/dialogue are well done. Descriptions are sufficient, just enough to allow the reader to imagine the world and follow the plot but not so much as to drag the story's pace. I prefer this style, but some readers may miss more flowery descriptions or detailed internal monologues.

Overall
A firm 4.6. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys an entertaining and original fantasy novel (especially if you like time loops). Five-stars as the author must continue to write with vigor because I am itching with excitement for another chapter :)

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enphoius

Status: ch 12 – the ball (part 4)

Apr 3, 2023

I would like to say I'm enjoying this but I just can't. The overall writing style is good and I have no issues with any grammar, spelling, or syntax issues. The story follows a deviation on the standard regression/time loop style story. Where this story falls apart for me is its pacing. Its just so god awfully slow that even if I'm enjoying the story it feels like it will take decades of writing to get through a year let alone the 2 days that have passed as I stopped reading. The writing in that scope is good but I just can't get behind the pacing. The other big pet peeve I have is with the use of the System or lack there of. I understand the System in this story is unique as described in the title itself but so far the system has no use and I have a really hard time when litrpg's just have a system and not use it. Overall if the pacing issue and the system issue weren't present I would probably give this a 5/5 but pacing is a huge deal for me and as I said so is system usage.

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Bodoncio

Status: ch 121 – house of arankagul (part 7)

Aug 9, 2023

I've been following this novel for a long time now, and I have to say, I love this one.I've always been a big fan of time travel and resets stories, and player 0.4 can easily scratch this itch of mine. Different from most novels that involve this theme, here each death reset feels impactful to the plot and characters. It's a story with a slow development, but that doesn't mean that's shallow. It's obvious to see how much preparation and worldbuilding the author made, but they do not show everything to us. Readers must fight and earn each new piece of a clue to understand everything it's happening in the background. However, after each answer, there are 2 more new questions begging for attention.I love all characters, every single one is different from the other, having a story for themselves that it's not always told to us, but shown with each of their actions on their days. The novel is primarily on our MC perspective, but author does not shy on making pov chapters to expand the story. MC is a bit of a dufus at first, but seeing his growth is marvelous. I have nothing to complain about Player 0.4, I just hope more people can learn about this gem and read it.

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Perc_30

Status: c78

Feb 25, 2023

This is a great story I suggest you not hesitate to read this novel. The world building and storyline is unique, the only problem is this is a regression type novel so you have to be patient at times. 5/5 would recommend.

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Poison_Ice_Blade

Status: c12

Jul 6, 2022

Summary: a man, in the prime of his life, has just died protecting his city as a humble soldier from an invading army of demons. A mysterious voice talks to him in his dying moments promising a do-over. The man accepts and find himself in his 19 year old self again, the voice explains that he has been made into a player (but with only 40% of the features unlocked) of the dead game with no more players due to the game’s insane difficulty. Our MC doesn’t really understand whats going on but hes gonna try his best even if it means dying multiple times to get the perfect ending.

Honestly I really like the story. Its definitely an original concept, and is written well. Kinda has a re-zero vibe with the whole dying and rezing thing. Unfortunately we aren’t really far enough into the story to have really stockpiled information, but thats fine by me! I definitely prefer a slower pace.

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BrittleBlade

Status: c90

Jun 23, 2024

story is ok it might become a 4-5 in later chapters but the beginning is a slog

When the author mentioned it was a slow burn I prepared myself. But about 50 or 60 chapters of nothing appeared. Like slow burn and all and I liked the past 6 rounds but even xianixa padding doesn't take this long at least the chapters after that had progress, round 7 was pretty bad with how long it took.

Spoiler

I wouldn't say the beginning of round 7 was bad but the rest of the round was just boring. I'd like to compare it to the past 6 rounds as in those rounds he meets new characters but he does die and take a different path every time and the new information can be quickly put to use. Round seven was not that, it just kept introducing new information and new characters like bruhhh it felt like I was playing an rpg with fun mechanics and a boring story, I really wanted to skip those chapters. Like Leona, the dragon and grandma part was fun but after that I honestly just wanted him to reset with the new information, and wasn't interested when he met a new character from going in the wardrobe as it was just boring.

One reviewer states that the author doesn't give too much information but I disagree. The other character pov can be nice but it is frustrating getting the information from them rather than the MC, so much useless information, the biggest one is when the mother's pov was shown and some macguffins were introduced (those things will be forgotten by the time they show up again). There are time when it is good like Micah's POV, at least that affects the world, or Chase Dylan's POV.

Another is the slightly deceptive title and synopsis making you think that he will regress alone or he will meet regressors later at least with the newest chapter in arc 3 calling itself "there's another player". The problem is that nope in the story not much days has passed and the mf already got an experienced regressors attention and there are more of them. And the fact he causes the reset makes you wonder why the story somehow continued past chapter two. I liked Chase Dylan's POV but overall having what is essentially a big big threat to any regressor just introduced so early in MCs journey is just bad and makes me question why the others won't just kill him repeatedly like how Chase quickly dealt with MC one time. The MC hadn't even trained or gained strength yet and you already introduced something that endangers his REGRESSSION! Usually such a threat wouldn't have noticed the MC yet until the middle or end.

That's like a hidden chosen one story making its chosen one suddenly revealing they are in the limelight of the world all along and whatever they did was seen by the world and its very powerful evil forces and expect the readers to believe the more experienced evil forces who know the MC is the chosen one didn't just murk him at the start.

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