Shapestealer [Tower Climber LitRPG]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Maya was chosen to die.

She was a nobody who lived on the streets. Cursed to enter the tower and died on the first floor.

The Administrator took pity on her and gave her one more chance at life. She was reborn.

Given the power to transform into the monsters she fights.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: VerilyEvil

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.9/ 5.0
Followers: 1,512
Views: 189,332

Chapters(35 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

oddy jokerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
love story so far especially heroine is likeable. even though she has flaws she not becoming asshole or jerk with her power and stay true to herself
story are face paced without any bullshit long explanation of stat etc which I like because it's more focused on story itself and easy to understand and enjoy
FJBRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Maya, a thief-turned-adventurer/sacrifice, finds herself forced to climb ever higher in a tower filled with monsters and challenges. Throw in a few RPG elements, some awesome shapeshifting powers, and a plethora of grisly opponents, and you've got a perfect mix going on here.
Far as I've read so far (10 chaps) this story has been clean and direct, without too much excess filler. Could do with a bit more worldbuilding, but I know that's not to everyone's tastes so I won't hold it against it. MC feels relatable, and competent enough to be believable. Just about everything I look for in an adventure story.
Hannibal ForgeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Shapestealer is off to an excellent start. It has great prose, excellent pacing, a somewhat unique concept, and a general sense of dark mystery and adventure that ramps up the more it progresses. I knew the Author was going to release it, but had no idea when nor what the content would be; and I can safely say I am extremely happy that I saw it pop up when it did. I mean it when I say this story is worth checking out. Don't be a fool and miss it, because you'll regret it! My nerd senses tell me it's going to be binge-worthy!
VeryBigMessRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall
Shapestealer is a fast-paced tower climber story with an interesting power system. It presents us with high stakes from the get-go, while keeping an air of mystery to its setting.
Characters
The main protagonist Maya makes reasonable decisions based on the limited information she's given, though I also feel that she has a certain "naivety" to her (not in a bad way). I enjoyed learning about the abilities and limitations of her class [Shapestealer] alongside her, as well as seeing how she utilizes her newfound powers. However, one minor criticism I have would be that her inner thoughts and feelings about the whole situation aren't touched upon in much depth, making it difficult for me personally to emotionally connect with her.
The variety of side characters help with lending a sense of mystery to the setting.
Story
Perhaps my favorite part of the story is its setting. The Tower is framed as a mysterious entity with a whimsical nature, at least up to the point that I am reading. Its unpredictability makes it a treacherous place, and we are quickly introduced to its perils. As such, the reader can follow along in the footsteps of the protagonist as she tries to make sense of the Tower to survive.
Prose & Grammar
The prose is great and there are no grammatical issues as far as I can see.
BlareRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Maya. She's an interesting girl, really, and how she was shaped really speaks a lot. Her ability is supposed to be overpowered, and yet, the dungeon and the story was shaped in a way that made it interesting. It was like invest your money in a stock that will always go up, knowing how huge the potential of the protagonist is, that's how I feel about this story, with its excellent characterization.
Style: The author writes in a way that is easily understandable for anyone by my standard, alongside with having a good grammatical structure. What impresses me a lot was how easy reading this story is. My only simple complain is how the system is sometimes not bolded.
Story:
Maya with her copycat ability is supposed to be overpowered from the get-go, yet, the author presents us with how brutal a dungeon can be, however, like I said earlier, it's rewarding and it's good. It's like Maya has a fresh journey as each floor goes by.
Grammar: The proses flow well, and if the proses flow well, a good grammar is a must, and this story has that. Overall, It's a rather impressive one.
Character: This story greatest strength, to be honest, Maya is presented perfectly as a struggling protagonist from the get-go, and yet, she was not the type that immediately complained, she just kept going with it. That is the strength of the story.
To be honest, the update rate is extraordinary too.
DragonsAwayRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I wish there was more to what we got from the main character. For example, she'll vomit from disgust, but aside from that we don't actually know how she feels about things. It makes any interactions she has with other characters feel brushed over. Also, she's a weird mix of naive and distrustful. The focus sort of seems like it's on the right scenes which aren't badly written. I'm not the biggest fan of fight scenes, so my skipping over them a bit reflects more on me than the author. Something I did like is that even in places where it isn't necessarily relevant, she is referred to as The Shapestealer. I felt like that drove in how she had been changed by the favor of a god, and was a really fun detail.
Overall, it really didn't pull me in, but it's not bad.
SchusfusterRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
I don't know. It's at once (maybe) unnecessarily complicated and too simple? I think it's the feeling that there's minimal progression evident, but the protagonist already understands the system, in spite of the fact that nobody has ever survived to explain any of it....I think this may have been far more interesting in the author's head than is necessarily widely shared, YMMV. It didn't hook me, but it's not awful. Just not my thing.
DidWeDoThatRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Overall the story is okay, but our MC lacks any growth. She continues to stumble her way through each of her problems without actually learning anything. You can have constant fast paced conflict but if the character we are following doesn't actually learn from past conflicts and problems then whats the point? She should have at least gotten either braver or more apathetic to danger as she climbed. Instead it’s the same scared little girl running around getting lucky. Tower also seems to have an insanely high death rate in just the first handful of floors.
I might come back to continue on but I cant finish it atm.
Robert HermanRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
Never particularly engaged me. Maybe I'm just not the target audience.
Some minor issues, such as referring to her by title when she's doing something mundane "The Shapestealer exits the water" for example. Some inconsistencies with her abilities...
Probably the most egregious is that when she transforms into a monster and duels it, she wins. This despite MC being a newbie to her moves, against an enemy who has been living and fighting in that form its whole life. This is never explained.
If you try it out, I hope you enjoy it more than I did.
FaercesRoyal Road
★ 1.0
This story is so soulless even with all the time and effort that the author has put in to making it work. The problem with novels like these is that it takes too much from common tropes and cliches that it fails to separate themselves from them and to build a convincing story underneath.
Sure, the tropes are fun, but there's nothing convincing underneath, no conflicts or stakes whatsoever. No interesting storyline or hook that sucks you in because the hook is the trope.
To make us empathize and root for a character, you can't just state something and move on, I could care less about the main character's backstory if they have the emotional depth of an air fryer.
There are many things to be improved on here, but if you enjoy a rinse and repeat tower litRPG novel, this might just be for you. Otherwise, feel free to pass and look elsewhere.