hmm... i cant think of any novel i read which have what you need. its either "straight win" or "struggle then win" pattern, lately i read novel with plenty of food like ancient-foodie-survival-guide. trying to increase my recipe repertoire
That gambling novel sounds interesting, if you remember the title, do let me know, thank you. I have read Renegade Immortal before and remember about him losing his body, I stopped reading and forgot about it once I caught up with the current translation and found something new to interest me while I waited for updates on it. Thanks for reminding me, it should be a good read now that the translation is finished. Although I did mention wanting the protagonist to fail repeatedly, I didn't mention that the MC should be filled with gloom and misary, though given the difficulties and setbacks they'd face its understandable that they would be. To better express what I want in an MC i'll try using boxing as an analogy. Saying that, the only thing I know about boxing comes from Hajime no Ippo. Most novel MC's listed on this website when compared to boxers would be heavyweights and their story opponents would be featherweights. The conflict is dull and the ending expected. The balanced stories you mentioned would be two boxers in the same weight class fighting it out, the story is interesting and gets you focused and raises your tension. I've seen and read such stories and I do enjoy them. The problem is the MC boxer's win record. Although the fights are close, and is a great match, the MC always wins. Their record is 18 fights, 18 wins, 15 KO's, 3 TKO(If I remember correctly TKO is where they run out of time and then win by points from the Judges). As I said at the beginning of the thread, if they lose, its usually a major turning point that will only happen once or twice, almost always near the beginning of the novel, when they are still weak and inexperienced. While the lose comes as a shock and is unexpected, subsequently giving a boost in tension and immersion, I still believe the MC will absolutely win the next match, thus lowering the tension. Although I think a boxer that only wins one in every five to seven matches would make the wins more memorable and raise the tension and immersion dramatically, due to me rooting for the MC to win, ideally I'd like a novel where the MC's fight record was something like 18 fights, 10 wins, 2 KO's, 8 TKO's 6 loses, 2 ties. The fights would be filled with tension because I'd honestly never know if the MC would win or not. That's the kind of novel I want, one that keeps me in suspense, wondering if the protagonist will succeed, instead of one where although the story is great, I fully believe the MC will win. As for the metaphoric KO's and TKO's, you could replace them as the opponent died(KO) and the opponent lost but escaped and might plot revenge(TKO) or something similar like the conflict was completely resolved or being it ended but complications still exist. All in all I hope that this explanation didn't confuse you and actually makes sense. Thank you for putting serious thought into my request and I'll be sure to give Terror Infinity a try. If you know of, or find any novels that match my ideal, please inform me. I forgot to mention that I'd prefer no Yaoi novels from foreign countries. I've only read one Chinese one before, but it made me question weather the author hated gay men, and was trying to scare them straight, as the fate of the protagonist was truly tragic. I only got a few chapters in before I couldn't stomach it. I might want the protagonist to lose, but I don't actually want them to suffer. I haven't read a Yaoi novel from any foreign countries since. I have recently read an Original on Webnovel called Haven Online. It could use improvement, but its a nice soft story, at least a million times compared to the one I read before. Although it does tell a story of a gay couple that reminds me of what I think most, if not all Yaoi novels are like from China around chapter seventy I think? If your interested in Yaoi novels, give it a shot. Thanks for your other recommendations.
I’ve never read it personally, but i think Gate Of Good Fortune fits your needs. The MC constantly gets fucked in the novel as you can see from the reviews, so you can give that a try. I also suggest Kuro no mao if you want something dark and depressing.
Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - It's been a long time since I read this and looks like the links are dead. On the other hand, it has been adapted to a 12 episode anime series. I believe I only read 2 or 3 volumes. The protagonist is average with no special skills or abilities. His party faces a lot of setbacks. Where I stopped reading, they'd only just started to be considered competent. No idea if he or his party becomes overpowered later.
I highly recommend The girl who ate a death god if you haven't read it yet. She might be strong, but wars can't be won by an individual... It's completed and you can finish it in one afternoon.
The only thing I can really think of is Molting the Moral Coil. The mc suffers large losses more than a few times and doesn't easily win any fights till around chapter 200.
I get what you're feeling. I feel the same but the difference is instead of looking at novels where MC often loses, I've been asking around for MC who is forbearing, can take humiliation, can take defeats, can take insults and lie low to accumulate power but without much results. However this post gave me a new insight into possibilities. Will look into it and remind you when I find one as I have never really come across such a scenario in any novel.
Reverend Insanity. Dude always has to sacrifice something to achieve another. It's sometimes a hit or sometimes a miss. It's what's cool in the novel. Is the MC the chess player or a chess piece? Well, you should read to find out.
what type of masochistic requests are you making ? supposedly you live vicariously though the mc or at least empathize with mc, why would you like the humiliation of defeat?
Well maybe because it's relatable. It's not abot being humiliated or being insulted but being able to overcome those negativity.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/reincarnated-as-a-dragons-egg-lets-aim-to-be-the-strongest/ Definitely has its ups and downs https://www.novelupdates.com/series/atelier-tanaka/ MC screws up a bunch and only wins when his cheat is involved. It's a pretty interesting deconstruction of the typical isekei with an almost typical JP protagonist.
this one similar to the death god one https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-girl-who-bore-the-flame-ring/
Sorry can't think of any Novel that would fit that description have been lazy in the last Year with trying to find new Stuff.
sorry I can't help not active in NUF anymore as busy. Nowadays I just read the Chinese source instead of translation as sometimes inside joke loses it meaning in translation