May 21, 2024
If you're interested in reading a lighthearted, fun manhwa with a good balance of MMORPG gameplay and BL romance and with zero toxicity and annoying drama, this is it.
Now to start things off, for those mainly interested in the romance, I'm going to first point out the main element that may negatively factor into whether or not you will enjoy this manhwa: the main leads are dense and take a while to figure out each other's real identities - that they're actually a couple in the MMORPG they play. Due to a past experience, Jigu, the male love interest, is strikingly paranoid about having stalkers.
...
After the protagonist, Yeo-woon, moves in next door to Jigu, a series of coincidental meetings and misunderstandings begin to pile up between the two that lead Jigu into mistakenly believing that Yeo-woon is a stalker. This can be incredibly funny and/or incredibly frustrating to the reader, as through their many meetings and interactions in-game and in real life, there are numerous hints and coincidences that signal that they're the same people that are going out in-game. Yet they somehow don't notice. Well, to be slightly more specific - 35 chapters in and one seems to have suspected so but the other still seems to be completely clueless. Because of this, the romance is a slow burn. There's also quite a bit of focus on the characters playing the game rather than what happens outside of it, although the amount of screentime between the in-game and real life worlds seem to become more balanced as the story progresses. It seems like it's going to take a long while for the main leads to meet up in real life (as shown to eventually happen based off of the first chapter) and develop romantic feelings for each other.
On to the positives. The story is relatively simple and light-hearted, but the characters are likeable and the comedy is great. Yeo-woon is very friendly and nice and does a good job at fending for himself in-game despite playing like a newb. He acts slightly more mischievous in-game than in real life, but Jigu is the one who really shines when it comes to having a contrasting personality between the two worlds. Jigu is an annoying little shit in-game, but as the story progresses, he becomes a lovable little shit. His cutesy appearance and behavior in-game paint a funny, stark contrast to how he is in the real world: a buff man with an intimidating look but is a first-class tsundere. The other characters are likeable as well, many of them being other members of the same guild as the main leads who like to help Yeo-woon and enjoy watching the drama that unfolds between the two main leads. Despite the slow burn, the two main characters have good chemistry both in real life and in-game and play off of one another well. They start off on the wrong footing, but the development in their relationship seems to be very organic and not too rushed/slow.
This manhwa does a particularly excellent job at handling the realism of playing MMORPGs. The game seems to be based off of Maplestory - there are cute chibis used as avatars for leveling up, grinding, crafting, jobs/classes, parties, NPC quests, chat features, trades, guilds, guild/couple events, PVPs, etc. Players often use abbreviations such as lmaooo or use emoticons or like to smack talk/taunt other players.
The art is nothing too spectacular compared to other manga/manhwa, but it's still good and the in-game character chibis are extremely adorable.
TL;DR
If you love:
- Gamers & enemies to lovers trope
- Simple, lighthearted, fun BL
- Slow burn
- Oblivious guy x tsundere/blushy guy
- MMORPGs
- Stark contrast between real life/in-game personalities (Yeo-woon: friendly but oblivious and shows interest in Jigu irl, often weirded out by Jigu's in-game character and not particularly interested in getting too close to anyone in-game; Jigu: a tsundere and wary of Yeo-woon irl, playful and clingy with Yeo-woon in-game)
- Anticipation for online to real life identity reveal
- Cute in-game character chibis
- Wholesome and funny in-game interactions
and if a bunch of coincidences and misunderstandings piling up while waiting the long game for the main leads to discover one another's identities/start dating in the real world won't bother you (much), give this manhwa a read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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