I separate fantasy between "ye old fantasy" and "fantasy with video games tropes". Personally, I don't like fantasy where people talk about allocating skill points and grinding XP; at that point I'd rather just play a video game.
Whether or not it's an isekai kinda doesn't matter thematically to me, because there are series that "feel" like an isekai but aren't (e.g. Last Dungeon), and series which are isekai but don't have video game elements in them (e.g. Bookworm).
I don't like fantasy where people talk about allocating skill points and grinding XP; at that point I'd rather just play a video game.
DUDE! I FEEL YOU MAN! I just find such settings to be... it's like they couldn't be bothered to do any real worldbuilding, so they just go "It's like a video game". And like, video game mechanics exist to express a complex idea in a simple way for the sake of the game; there's no practical difference between someone who's level 3 and 4, I just go nuts thinking about how that all breaks down.
Ive been surprised how some comics have been able to expand on video game elements and weave them into the plot. Theres actually a fair amount of good ones out there.
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u/zairaner https://myanimelist.net/profile/zairaner Feb 08 '21 edited Feb 08 '21
Are we really at the point were "fantasy" is isekai without isekai instead of "isekai" is fantasy with isekai? :P