Overgeared Volumes 3, 4 and 5 Review

In the first couple of volumes, readers got to meet Youngwoo Shin and his alter ego Grid in the fantasy world generated by the video game Satisfy. In the game, Grid changes his player class (aka occupation, such as warrior, priest, blacksmith, etc.), becoming Pagma’s descendant and now he needs to complete missions to proceed in his own personal class quests.

After dealing with the town of Winston’s ruler and his corruption, Grid thinks he can now make it big and rake in a lot of money. How wrong he is… in fact, he seems to be the most unlucky person in the whole game. If something has a chance to go wrong, it does, whether it is crafting low-ranked items or accidentally encountering a boss monster way above his game level. So in short, no matter what Grid decides to do, something is bound to fail or attract disaster. Thankfully, he’s not one to give up when facing an obstacle, especially not when his family is in a lot of debt and he needs to earn even more money. Try after try, he forges weapons of rare, unique and legendary levels, attracting the attention of players guilds and of the Yatan Church, which seems to be enemy number one in Satisfy.

Grid, though, doesn’t hesitate to fight and to take advantage of any opportunity to get richer, even if it means finding himself in less than pleasant situations and facing enemies well above his level. Thankfully he has the equipment he and his blacksmith master forged to help him minimise the level gap. Moreover, if money is on the horizon, no challenge is difficult enough for Grid. It’s thanks to this attitude and personality that Grid’s fame (or infamy depending on your point of view), makes a splash in all of Satisfy and in the real world. He won’t be able to keep his hidden player class a secret for much longer, but the Tzedakah Guild might turn out to be the ally he needs. The guild is full of strange… powerful players who are willing to take Grid under their wing, and he’s willing to rob them blind although he’s not yet aware that the legendary item he created and sold was for a fraction of the price it could have been sold at.

Overgeared takes the readers inside an RPG video game, so we get to follow Grid’s journey alongside him, while we get only snippets of Youngwoo Shin’s life in the real world. He’s a game addict who has to rely on odd jobs to make money and even his family thinks that he’s lazy because he doesn’t have a full-time job. It’s only when he starts to earn money and helps paying off his family debt that they start to see him in a different light and are more supportive of his gaming. Although the story doesn’t go into many details, readers know that Youngwoo was bullied during his high school years, and even now he’s an adult, people make fun of him due to his passion for gaming. I believe it is this that has pushed Youngwoo more and more into the game, and his will to prove those people wrong has made him persevere against all odds.

While Grid’s character cannot be considered a ‘hero’ type character that one would expect in a fantasy story, his personality takes on more the ‘antihero’ type, as he’s not above using other players as shields, leaving weaker players to fend for themselves and, of course, he’s blinded by money. However, his character combined with the disastrous (and hilarious) situations that he finds himself in endear him to the readers.

From start to finish, each volume is full of action, monsters and battles, especially against the Yatan Church. There is a lot going on and a lot of missions to clear for Grid to proceed in the game as Pagma’s descendant, but little by little he becomes known as the legendary blacksmith, thanks to the weapons he’s able to forge and their ranks. Moreover, even if accidentally, he surrounds himself with high-level players who want to be in Grid’s good graces and are willing to overlook his obsession with  money.

Overgeared is written by Saenal and started as a web novel before being adapted into a manhwa by Monohumbug (REDICE STUDIO) with illustrations by Team Argo. Ize Press published the manhwa series in volume format for both print and digital in the English language. Volumes 6-9 are already out and #10 is available in May.

Our review copies were supplied by Diamond Book Distribution.