So many comparisons between Ark and LMS here... For me, I found Ark by wanting to read something similar to LMS but I think LMS is more interesting, it makes me want more more more whereas for Ark I was reading just for the sake of finishing reading Ark and was also quite bored by it.
I can't exactly pin what made Ark boring, in fact I think it was fine in the start, the start was kind of funny and it was also original, I found his first title amusing and surprising. The start also showed how hard working he was as he grinded, he was actually working hard ! I feel like the rest of the novel didn't really mention him working hard to get stronger, he just got stronger.
After reading the other reviews, how boring it is might be because of the Deus Ex Machina someone mentioned. The novel itself often repeats how on every quest the key to solving it is always nearby, which means no quest is impossible. I guess that does make sense for a game but I think the author believes in the writing style where you build tension by making the characters face struggle and make it look like there's no hope but then a miracle happens!! If done well, it should make the reader feel nervous and then happy that a miracle happened. However, I think the author used it too much till it was just seen as a convenient way for the author to solve the problem. Too many miracles happening means you don't really need to rely on your own skills and tactics but rather just get desperate and get awarded a miracle... =_=
I also found the battles rather boring, most of the time I think it was just skill spamming, the only tactical one that I found memorable was when Ark was in the lower levels of the dungeon and he (with others help) set up traps for those chasing after him.
The fights with Alan are also incredibly dull and annoying, once again mostly skill spamming and Alan is also a character that just uses money to make his character powerful. He doesn't need to work hard to improve.
That leads on to the dull enemies that someone else mentioned before. The enemies only show one character trait, Alan is just a hater and the Red Man is just an OP character with no personality. This makes them very shallow and I feel like I don't care about these characters because they're both annoying flies. I find myself telling Ark to just kill them already instead of reading the dragged on fighting scene.
Obviously I care about the story to rant about it this long, because there were some good bits. The survival cooking that the author wrote about at the start was interesting, the pets were also likeable before their power mattered more to the story than personality. The arcs about just Weed and Shambala, in fact Shambala is a likeable character in general. The arc sending others to Lancel Village was also interesting. Lancel Village itself is sweet and likeable. Also the Merpeople arc was nice. Just generally I think the small arcs that didn't matter to the goal of the master key were the most interesting. Those were the times when Ark was interacting with other nice characters and the focus was Ark enjoying the game and not MASTER CODE! MONEY! etc. There also weren't any situations where Deus Ex Machina needed to be used and enemies didn't pop up.
A lot of the previous negativity towards Ark in my review is also due to just finishing the series and the 2 volumes leading to the end were all enemy battles and miracles. That means the chapters most fresh on my memory are the boring ones. The last battle itself was like what is happening... Wayyy too many Deus Ex Machinas and it was just ridiculous... I didn't like the last battle. The epilogue was rather amusing though. However it wasn't surprising.
Characters : 7/10
Plot: 6/10
Writing style: 7/10
Random arcs: 8/10
XD
overall 7/10
It had a good start but things soon got boring.
