Some unique changes/twists for the Isekai genre…

[ElijahRyne]

Here is a few examples of some twists for the common Isekai setting. The goal is to hopefully inspire a new less formulaic story. This genre can be quite wide, but I find that most stories have a Tolkienesk, Mid-evil, and/or D&D inspired world with a litRPG system thrown on. Some of these ideas, if not all, have been done before to some extent, due to how widespread the genre is. Feel free to add your own twists.

1. Have the MC be an average serf/freeman, instead of having them being OP. There can still be a litRPG system of sorts, but it tracks more on the profession. I imagine a more family/town focused story.

2. Have multiple protagonists with unique cheats, but the protagonists can die and you don’t know who will survive. It can be a battle royale of sorts, a survival game, a war story, and/or whatever you want.

3. Instead of being in the mid evil era, have it in a different time period. How does a fantasy world deal with an industrial revolution? How does it look in the Stone Age? What about on the seas? In the space age? How would class conflict play out in fantasy revolution?

4. Have a personal system that issues tasks for rewards instead of a litRPG thing, Chinese novels do this all the time.

5. Have a reverse Isekai.

6. Have a reverse Isekai but in WW2.

7. Do a romcom Isekai.

8. Have a Poe inspired Isekai.

9. Do a deconstruction of the genre if you feel up to it.

I hope this lists helps someone go away from the dark path, even if I know it is unlikely.

 

[Indicterra]

Some unique changes in isekai huh.....


Give MC an actual brain capable of complicated thnking and little bit of personality,

That will make him unique 1%

 

[Missivist]

I like reading isekai, and each version seems to struggle hard to be unique.

1. Seen it.
2. That's kind of all over the place, isn't it? It would be hard to build a viable plot line through all that. It sounds like the kind of webnovel that goes on hiatus after chapter 30.
3. Most of those sound familiar, except stone age. Well, there was one with the MC as a god of a world that was in the stone age at one point. Or ones where the MC became a goblin, which is effectively stone age. Or a story with one-way time travel back to the stone age, which had the same effect.
4. I think I have seen a couple like that, set in cultivation worlds. Isekai does not need a kill-to-level system, or any system, really.
5. Seen it.
6. Okay, the WW2 setting would make it different. It might becomes he story of an OP hero taking out tanks to save his squad or something.
7. Seen it. Seriously, isn't that almost a whole sub-genre?
8. Poe? It's hard to imagine would that look. Probably a bit weird.
9. Hmm... I have seen a few where the MC gets summoned two or more times, takes it on as a job, or even takes control of the process. I am not sure how to deconstruct it much further.

Okay, WW2, the stone age and some Poe-esque world could all be unique settings. That's worth thinking about.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

9. Do a deconstruction of the genre if you feel up to it.

Both HKN and FTS are at their core deconstructions.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

You can surely make it unique, but how relatable would it be?

Theoretically, I could make an isekai where the MC is reincarnated as a turtlepire (turtle plus vampire) in a Sci-fi world where all of the animal people are different supernatural combinations. There are ratghouls, theroghosts, etc. You know, whatever animal plus supernatural creature, and then give it a unique enough plot. Maybe they have to suck the supernatural continuum out of black holes?

The only thing is how relatable can you make something that is completely outlandish? How would you humanize the characters, but also make them feel unique?

 

[KidBuu699]

Personally with the amount of stories that are around I would say that you really aren't going to be perfectly unique. There is always going to be something in common with others.

I think still to this day one of the most unique I read was actually a combination of two other stories. The author dropped it and it has been a long time so I don't exactly remember if the mc was an isekai or not. The thing I remember was it was a combination of pokemon with attack on titan. So the pokemon became feral and straight up started a war with humans who in turned hide in guarded/walled cities. Mc was a soldier/scout/trainer(don't remember) who was tasked with capturing/training pokemon to fight back.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Instead of being in the mid evil era,

let them be in the very evil era, like ours. Wait, that's just urban fantasy

 

[SsemouyOnan]

>unique
>isekai

Pick one.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

>unique
>isekai

Pick one.

Both and I raise you >Overpowered Protagonist

 

[sven123]

I read a few good ones that (unfortunately), got discontinued. One is a chinese cultivator (a sect leader or something) from xianxia world, got isekai'd into a fantasy world where he became a dungeon core and have to adapt and survive from nothing. He tried to create a cultivation and martial arts manual as a loot for his dungeon and things spiralled from there.

The other one is a pokemon story but there, the moves can be improved and learned via a combination of science knowledge and straight up xianxia sh*t like energy, inner power, and whatnot.

If you want something crazy and outlandish isekai-ish story, there is always Experimental log of crazy lich, which is just chinese gintama in fantasy world actually, but very unique IMO. What other novel move from creating a 1 meter thick rules and regulations book for a FUBAR interspecies soccer to a divine war between multiple gods in a few chapters without being awkward?

 

[Vnator]

My first story here was of a veteran protagonist working for an agency who makes sure isekai's are comfortable for the summoned heroes. He ended up intruding on another isekai protagonist's story because something terribly wrong was happening, and he ends up deconstructing a lot of what happens while also getting into his own adventure outside of that. The beginning is a bit rough, but by the halfway point it really gets good! It was my first story, so you can see my progress as a writer as it goes on, and it honestly holds up decently well

https://www.scribblehub.com/series/276570/the-isekai-police/

 

[SsemouyOnan]

Both and I raise you >Overpowered Protagonist

I raise you once more, the protagonist is a vampire

 

[Arkus86]

Mid-evil

I wonder why nobody does low-evil or high-evil. Your list is missing "medieval", on the other hand.

 

[CubicleHermit]

3. Instead of being in the mid evil era, have it in a different time period. How does a fantasy world deal with an industrial revolution? How does it look in the Stone Age? What about on the seas? In the space age? How would class conflict play out in fantasy revolution?

There's a lot of good western fantasy set in later periods or worlds based on later periods, ranging from Regency through to faux-WWI (hat tip to Patricia Wrede's Mairelon the Magician and sequels.) There are a fair number of alt-WWI and alt-WWII stories, as well, including in translated Eastern Isekai works.

Also, hat tip to the "I Couldn't Become a Hero So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job" where the worldbuilding is a pretty fun attempt at "what happens in a magical world when it catches up to the modern day in terms of technology/consumer culture."

5. Have a reverse Isekai.

There are a number of really good reverse Isekai published novels, The Devil is a Part Timer being the most notable to my mind.

6. Have a reverse Isekai but in WW2.

I'd love to read this; I've read a number of fun WW2 crossovers (Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series - aliens invade during WWII, and I don't remember the author, but WW2-but-with-vampires-and-similar-horror tropes) but Isekai-ing into WW2

7. Do a romcom Isekai.

Blatant plug - I'm writing something that could be described as that, see my signature.

It's also a very, very common trope crossing over with the "villainess" genres, and for the most part, that's what "Trapped in a Dating Sim" (novels/anime) is even if there's some amount of adventure story there.

Also, if you count time-leaping/time-travel as a sibling-trope to Isekai, there are a ton of these where it's "I go back to [high school/college] and do it over" (Haibara's Teenage New Game+ for one recent example, or Remake Our Life for an older one) or more rarely, "I see the future and this leads to a romantic mess" (My Wife is Wagatsuma-san)