Title: Villains Are Destined to Die Vol. 1
Author: Suol, Gwon Gyeoeul (Original Story)
Publisher: Ize Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 262
Genre: Isekai, Thriller, Romance
Publication Date: November 8, 2022
The Story
A girl lost her mother and was sent to live with her father in a wealthy family. Her father resented her, her two half-brothers wanted nothing to do with her. Life was a living hell. She worked hard at studying and got accepted into a prestigious university, using it as an excuse to move out and finally be freed from her less-than-desirable life. Upon doing so, she overheard some of her classmates fawning over a dating sim mobile game called Daughter of the Duke’s Super Love Project.
After being pressured into playing it, she became hooked. She pulled an all-nighter and cleared the game’s Normal Mode; however, there was a new ending that wanted you to pay 100,000 Won to unlock. If you didn’t want to fork over the cash, you could clear the game’s Hard Mode to see the ending. She kept trying but died over and over again through incorrect choices. Giving, up, she fell asleep and suddenly woke up in the game world!
She has assumed the role of Penelope Eckhardt… the girl perceived to be the villain from the series. Now, she must navigate through the game world to win one of five boys’ affection and clear the story… only for an uncertain hope of returning to her original world.
Characters
The story centers around our girl in the role of Penelope Eckhardt. Here, she can only speak through commands but eventually unlocks the ability to say whatever she wants. Until then, we are only taken through her inner monologues as she tries to piece together the best possible route to avoid dying; however, when she unlocks free speech, she decides to dive more into the Penelope role and becomes brasher, straight-forward, and more commanding of respect.
When this happens, it holds a duality of meaning. The first is that she needs to play the role of Penelope to sound convincing; however, the second part I believe stems from being fed up with being mistreated back in the real world. She simply isn’t going to be taking any of that garbage in a game world. Still, she has to walk a fine line because she’s unsure if dying in the game means she will die in real life as well.
Because as such, Penelope is all over the place. She’s meek, timid, a bit shy, bold, brash, and “take you by the balls” straight-forward all rolled into one. What version of her depends on whether or not we see her in the present time or in a flashback. All of that comes together to shape her into the character she becomes throughout the first volume.
As for the rest of the characters… well… there’s not much to write home about them. Derrick is the older of the two half-brothers. He’s very stuck up, stern, and very sharp with his tongue. Reynold is the younger of the two and while he is hot-headed and sassy, he shows more concern over Penelope than Derrick does… even if that concern comes in the form of scolding her.
Callisto Regulus is the Crown Prince and has just as abusive, controlling, power-hungry, gigachad written all over him. In fact, he didn’t give any second thought to killing Penelope just for being in the vicinity of him after he dragged an assassin to his younger brother’s birthday party! Yeah… that’s a hard no.
The only one that seems genuinely sweet is Eclise. As of now, he remains Penelope’s best bet at clearing the story and getting back to her world.
Final Thoughts
At first, I thought this was going to be an isekai where the main character was going to be bound by the choices of the game. Then, she unlocks the ability to speak freely and that changes things up. The nice thing is that even though she enabled free speech, the option is there for her to turn the choices back on which serves as sort of a cheat sheet for her whenever she needs it. She also has the game’s menus and systems at her disposal but she rarely uses them. She’s relying on reading the room and making her decisions from there which is a bit reckless. I would have called this a fault of the series but even the main character is self-aware that these actions have their risks.
Since the character is aware, that makes the series more interesting. She realizes that she is free to say what she wants but she needs to be careful because her very survival hinges on every word and choice that she makes. Plus, with her making her own choices, the game’s characters have interesting reactions. While these reactions just come off as them being surprised, I couldn’t help but think that the game glitched out with Penelope going off-script.
I suppose to make the series interesting, this was a necessary plot twist but it does kind of break the laws of gaming. Even if you were to act freely, how would a game’s AI even know how to respond? Now, it no longer seems as if Penelope is in a video game and the characters no longer seem like just that… characters. I guess you have to suspend your disbelief a bit here and overlook that but it is a bit awkward. Most people may not think like that but, having a degree in game design, a plot like that sticks out like a sore thumb and makes me question how something like that is even possible.
Overall, it’s an interesting story and the first volume held my attention. I want to see how she gets out of the game and back into the real world… if that even happens. I rarely see an isekai where the character manages to get out these days… either that or the series is still ongoing and they haven’t reached that point.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter @JJPiedraOELN
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theouterhaven
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was provided for review by Ize Press
