Recommendations VRMMO that is actually balanced

What I'm looking for is basically something like Glory from The King's Avatar where there isn't a Hidden Class of Grand Destiny or Super Unbeatable Weapon of Godhood or whatever that will allow a crap player to become the best in the world with little to no real effort (Overgeared), or allow a decent player to roflstomp the world (most series with a VRMMO in them). I want the MC to be competing on a completely fair playing field, not playing their own game that has little to do with the game everyone else is playing even though they're theoretically the same.

I want the MC to actually be good at the game, though preferably not at the beginning. I like the Weak-to-Strong type series, so long as they don't rely on Pocket Grandpas, excessive plot armor, literally unbelievable levels of luck or other short cuts to power that require almost nothing from the MC and aren't available to the vast majority of players.

I especially prefer series where the MC can and does lose. It's a game. There's no reason the MC can't die. Therefore, s/he should; preferably due to their own mistakes rather than the machinations of Random Cliche Young Master #3.

I'd prefer to avoid romance as it is basically never done well and I'm sick of it, and would prefer (though not require) female protagonists. It would also be nice (but again, not required) if the MC wasn't a Fighter. Fighters are extremely overdone. And yes, I consider the MC of Emperor of Solo Play to be a Fighter, regardless of what his class technically is.

RRL etc. are fine so long as it's available in English, legal, online and free. No yaoi, horror or a**hole MCs please.

 

Impossible the market is for melee idiots since the authors can't do a ranged character justice

 

And u can't do those alive close ranged battles.

 

Following.

Also, Praise the Orc is great, but the MC is a fighter.

 

Glory TKA n't VRMMO but MMO

 

asking for a tall order there. first i would recommend a published novel or series. not these webnovels with their low tier writing and plot-hole filled stories. i would recommend the 'ready player one' series but you'd either have to buy it or bootleg it. so that doesn't fit your 'legal' criteria.


honestly, there are at least a handful of english published novels that are VR novels but again you'd either have to pay or pirate them. but it's unlikely you'll find any webnovels that actually fit your criteria simply due to the rapid writing speed and overall lack of editing and basic story checking.

 

Only sense torappu Online

 

Authors can't describe "true skillz" . Instead, MCs keep finding "amazing cheats" that nobody has ever thought about (as if in multi-million MMOs that would make any sense, lol).

 

Reign of the Hunters
The great theif
Thriller Paradise (I would say that this isn't horror, but leaning more towards thriller. MC can't feel fear and is trying to find it by playing a game which has scenarios in it.)

 

Reign of the Hunters

 

Your request is BS. In Overgeared, Pagma's Descendant is strong, true, but there are plenty of other strong classes as well that it's obviously built up to. In addition, Grid has put in quite a bit of hard work. I remember The King's Avatar tons of similar complaints early on, even though it was obviously building to Ye Qiu in a pro team, but frankly the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella and Unspecialized is exactly that super unbeatable weapon and hidden class you're complaining about. As for hard work? Sure, he's worked hard, but mostly before the novel started. You can't have it this way and that way and expect a decent recommendation. There are plenty of good game based series, such as Night Ranger, the rather new Shadow Hack, Breakers, Dungeon Hunter, and Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society, but you're holding up contradicting criteria. Honestly, Overgeared fits what you're requesting much better than TKA, yet you disdain the former and praise the latter.

 

Yeah, the funny part is Glory isn't even a VRMMO.

Um, most of the games with balance are japanese slice-of-life VRMMO stories. Like Only Sense Online, A Certain Middle-Aged Man's VRMMO Activity Log, Nonbiri VRMMOki, Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu, VRMMO Summoner Hajimemashita. Some of them have unbalanced stuff, but when they do get unbalanced there's eventually a patch to fix it.

Avoid anything Chinese, yes including the ones people recommend here - they all have cheating MCs without exception. Korean novels too. JP VRMMO games with actual stories tend to also have cheat type MCs, but not so much the slice-of-life novels.

 

Moonlight sculptor

Kind of..

Legendary Moonlight Sculptor is a hidden class with no difference to the normal sculptor class besides the accompanying item that boosts stats. And a few moves learned when obtaining the class. (It is still possible to learn those skills on your own but since this is another wish fulfillment fantasy no one ever does or bothers to get the job or copy him cause it is stereotypical “weak” class (not really ) like archer in VRMMO Ossan or Only Sense Online

He does “lose” technically in a few quests because of the fault of greedy character but the novel is written in a way where failure isn’t really a failure. Like a quest line to change history and protect a npc results in failure because he is too busy killing all the unique mob monsters for exp instead of doing the quest but will still be written into history books for his accomplishments regardless.

The MC is the best player but the author will still say otherwise because he doesn’t have the highest level and other crap.

 

Youre asking VRMMO stories without any of their trope. Dont bother asking stuff already on NU. I've read them all and they atlreast contain one of those.

 

peerless while emperor, Reign of hunter

 

Closest I can remember is one about someone who goes in on the global launch day and tries to break the game, he's the first person to die and gets a title because of it, and he gets some special trap ability when he tries experimenting with the limits of the game.

Also, You said you want the MC to die? Look no further! All Things Wrong has that covered! (Though not in the way you're thinking )

 

I recommend Thriller Paradise as well, only thing is that mc does have a “cheat” but I’m really reading it for the scenarios and not so much the fighting. Honestly there really isn’t much fighting involved and the mc is not playing to level up or anything

 

It's on hiatus but it's still one of my favorite.

 

I regress, Unspecialized class is only strong of its Jack of all trade strat, and pretty much weakens if the game gets more level updates(as it only has level 20 and below skills). Meanwhile, in Overgeared, the plot isn't really developed in power trampling in the first place, but more in a character development from selfish "trash" to mature "qualified individual". So the two have different values in retrospect. Still, if basing in character behavior it pretty much hits jacob's criteria of weak-to-strong(Overgeared is).

Lastly, "good game base series" and "Shadow Hack" altogether? wut? how the? From chapter 1 to 50, It's just an "I'm stronk" type of novel, and its development is consist of 90% of wuxia-xianxia generic plot-line, aside its character.

 

In short you want a power up story without any sort of cheats, helpers or pure luck in a VRMMO settings.

Would one of those Japanese VRMMO where the MC is doing something so unique and strange that nobody does but he managed to hack at the stuff because of plot armor or similar?