Worst Isekai Settings To Be Tossed In?

[Venumize]

I keep seeing people in fan fictions freaking out over damn near every setting they go to so I figured why not make a tier list on a Oh Shit list? Note this goes by just bring put in the setting with none game breaking powers, knowledge or tech.

40k. Cause really 40 effin K.

SCP. I mean really, every universe besides like 1 dies thanks to the SCP anyways and the ones that don't with for death. Unless you can stomp being like Trigon you are shit oiut of luck and will be caged for experiments shortly.

Worm. Everything dies I'm a few years unless super OP or super lucky.

Doctor Who. Horrific fates abound but they tend to happen spread out too, so you c possibly live a few life times okay if careful. On the other hand you could end up needing to scream without a mouth randomly.

Halo. The Flood. Or most human plants being glasses. Yeah, you are probably screwed.

Stargate. Depending on time or location, as if human in Pegasus before the Wraith die you are all screwed. Or on any planet not Earth or Tolan.

DxD. Incoming super machine gods thanks to a hyper powerful breast goddess really. Also every other supernatural existing to screw you over.

Buffy. They get their reality tweaked a few times, demons all over hidden in every corner, evil warlocks, evil good guys and the Chosen One is a necrophiliac with daddy issues. Good luck.

DC/Marvel. They tie as their multi verses get reset on the regular and actual literally narrative runs the show so unss Narrative likes you you will suffer. Also you will suffer if Narrative likes you.

DBZ(s). Random universal earasing, destroyer gods, evil super demons and time travel abounds. Ya screwed here to unless you get the love of someone important or become a literal god killer.

Elder Scrolls. I mean you are now in a multiverse with conceptual demons that control infinite realities. Oh, and the god conceptual are weakened by creating the world you are in. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts that can hurt you and cults are all over. Good luck with that.

What are some of yours? And reasons for them?

 

[Curse You Bayle!]

My man you mentioned the most popular ones, but have you gotten the alpha and the omega That is the fate universe, where, if you're not living in the main timeline, you get pruned for simply either being a dead-end, or reaching at Utopia.

You have never ending demons, gods, rogue servants and destructive grail wars across multiple universes.

Not to mention that if you don't have any defenses against precognition and post cognition, you are immediately deleted by counter guardians or sent to a dead timeline by our resident. Second magic user.

I don't even wanna talk about the types or ultimate beings. oh, and if you think you're safe by being in the past, depending on how far you are in the past, you also have to deal with a white titan that made all the gods and goddesses her bitch.

And let's not forget the most dangerous predators that are the most common that being other magic users in the setting, that if you show any semblance of being somewhat special, they will take every opportunity and use every resource available to them to either kill you turn you to their side or just straight up brainwash you.

Honestly most of the backgrounds for the heroic servants could be described as that one quote from the dark Knight, where you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself, become the villain.

Hope you're at least a Multiversal force if you plan to reincarnate in this universe.

 

[MuchCod1414]

Hate on Reincarnation

Most people live only once, and they cherish their lives as precious gifts. But there are some who are born again, with memories of their past lives. They are called reincarnates, and they are feared and despised by the society. Reincarnates are seen as unnatural, cursed, and dangerous. They are accused of stealing the souls of others, of meddling with the divine order, of being agents of evil. Many reincarnates try to hide their identities, but they are often exposed by their unusual talents, knowledge, or appearance. Once discovered, they face persecution, torture, or death. Other that this titbit its a generic medieval magic fantasy world.

From Isekai Experience CYOA

 

[Scopas]

For what it's worth, I think it would suck massively to be born into the Witcher universe. All the downsides of loving in the 14th Century with the extra menace presented by anthrophagus monsters living under every bed and bridge and infesting every wooded copse or glade.


It would suck even more to be an elf or a dwarf in that setting, where angry lynch mobs are also a very real and present danger.

 

[Curse You Bayle!]

Any hentai world if female without resistances to poison, mind control, pheromones, aphrodisiacs,etc.

 

[ReinZero]

Hate on Reincarnation

Most people live only once, and they cherish their lives as precious gifts. But there are some who are born again, with memories of their past lives. They are called reincarnates, and they are feared and despised by the society. Reincarnates are seen as unnatural, cursed, and dangerous. They are accused of stealing the souls of others, of meddling with the divine order, of being agents of evil. Many reincarnates try to hide their identities, but they are often exposed by their unusual talents, knowledge, or appearance. Once discovered, they face persecution, torture, or death. Other that this titbit its a generic medieval magic fantasy world.

From Isekai Experience CYOA

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I should point out this is poorly named amongst other things. The phrasing of it would be better called "Hate on Otherworlders". Or some other term with the same meaning. Because as is barring suicidal overconfident reincarnators and transmigrators, only actual portal/isekai'd folks would be caught. Except these folks are not born again or past lifey, but rather /displaced/ individuals now continuing their life.

Any hentai world if female without resistances to poison, mind control, pheromones, aphrodisiacs,etc.

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To be fair the same can apply to males as the gender bias of that hentai world matters a lot. Plus even if it's the favored gender you'd need a fair bit to actually benefit/prosper lest you become the collateral damage for ones that /do/ prosper.

---

Anyhow, my addition to the list would be...

Xianxias as a genre. Might makes right, tall poppy syndrome, I've got mine, etc. and more all blended together along with rampant plundering of the environment, collateral damage that includes massacres to genocides, and more! Well that's supposing your world doesn't get collaterally wiped out by some upper realm dispute (or say even an accident by their PoV).

 

[AscendantMouse]

Not many think of this one but stsr wars. Depending on the continuity and toa you could be dealing with any number of cosmic beings and apocalyptic events.

 

[jeronix]

Some of the worst without magical SI powers I think are
- Mass effect (Reapers, racism, government endorsed slavery, no way to gain power easily)
- World of Warcraft (bronze dragon flight, erases your timeline the second you arrive.)
- Any fromsoft Game (do I have to explain why)
- Darkest Dungeon (Eldritch gods drive the world crazy)
- AoT (medieval life, Giant man eating monsters)
- Reincarnated as a slime ( mass murders are a dime a dozen and the ONLY way for monsters to gain power is to kill millions of people)

some more shitty in a WTF way not straight up Kill you
- Cars (being the only human in a world of only Cars would probably be hell on earth)

 

[Sol Mark-1]

Fear & Hunger is another awful universe to arrive.

 

[John_Oakman]

F.A.T.A.L

 

[Hellhound_dow]

Any world or society that doesn't have toilet paper.
Any hentai world.
Any world with 'supers' in it. If you have power in it, you will inevitably be sucked into the stupidity and if you don't, you are collateral damage and a statistic.
Any era of Warhammer, at all.

 

[IsekaiFanBoi]

Mahou Shoujo worlds. The grim dark ones like MGRP or Madoka Magica. The idea of hormonal teenagers being gifted ridiculous power and having little to no people knowing about it thus reducing consequences just finds it hard to like living in. MGRP is a clear example if you know the backstories of some of the "magical girls".

Spoiler: MGRP

For those who don't know MGRP or Magical Girl Raising Project, think of it starting as a death game but magical girls. Anyway, in story, a character literally has her entire family killed and she can't remember who did it because her memories was altered—and maybe it's just perspective, but considering one of the MCs literally went to a random country and started collecting heads to bring it to "peace" just emphasises that MGs are probably common but rarely identified. That's not to even mention that MGs seem psychopathic in general and the magic world is actively trying to either be replaced with MGs or full of people who don't really give a shit about the normies.

 

[Soupervan]

Pokemon. Sure it's a series for kids but there's some major world-wide crisis every now and then only adverted by an idiot kid and his electric rat. With the butterfly effect who knows if you'll effect his narrowly adverting the end of the world?

Some Pokemon eat meat (or so it's implied) and guess what we're made of? Even if they're all vegans many Pokemon are big enough to kill us if they don't look where they're going.

Oh and Beedrills exist.

Despite being the starter world of many a jumpchain I'd rather not.

 

[Shadow Pen]

Perhaps the worst setting is that of ToME4, picture if 40k had Chaos fused together shortly after the warp and every populated world in the galaxy blew up.

Demons are in absolute control of the galaxy and the world of Eyal (the main world the game takes place) is death World where most middling Xianxia protagonists would be little more than fodder, and has a dozen things going on every century that could snuff out all life on it.

Eyal is the only world in which mortal life survives, which is only possible by a slowly fading "Barrier" which is/has held off the galaxy of demons from invading enmass.

 

[Oth]

Muv-Luv is a strong contender. Genocidal alien hordes that devour entire nations in the goriest, most disturbing ways possible, martial law for majority of the planet not named "United States of America", near-universal conscription and life expectancy of green combat personnel averaging at 8 minutes - for trained specialist-equivalents, with the tacit understanding that any ground force not in a Surface Fighter/Attacker unit is so much meat.

And if by some miracle Earth is fully reconquered, implications that the entire galaxy is infested with the BETA.

Tiberium universe (ignoring C&C4), with a debatably sentient evolving crystal cancer slowly consuming the planet from the surface and underground, with guaranteed excruciating death upon body contact. A Grey Goo scenario taking its time to fully impress the hopelessness of the situation. Can be expanded to any setting involving a spreading, incurable infestation.

Monster Girl Encyclopedia, falls under "incurable infestation" category by way of Demonic Energy.

One Way Heroics (and sequel), malevolent deity sweeping the entire planet with a wave of lethal darkness/light in a scene right out of the biblical flood. And defeating the Demon Lord/Fallen Angel merely repeats the cycle later, requiring outright temporal/transdimensional cheating to stop for (presumably) good.

Supreme Commander, where 1 ACU appearing has the potential to doom your entire planet - before considering whatever Black Sun does, and unleashing a genocidal alien force upon the galaxy.

Harry Potter as a Muggle, where you are considered fauna and can be casually ensorcelled by passing wizards without any due recourse, and your government essentially being a puppet to a shadow administration. And that you don't even get to experience any fantasy elements as compensation. Petunia's hatred of Lily, in this light, is somewhat understandable - the cool kids' club, and you're not invited.

Frostpunk.

Mandatory joke option: Mount & Blade Warband. Your skull will be drunk from. (The extreme amount of microfeuds flaring up on a daily basis and absolute bandit infestation is no slouch either, and living past teenage years on the northern coast (Vaegir/Nord) requires multiple miracles.)

Bonus option: Prophecy of Pendor. The sheer number of different doom legions sweeping through the place is utterly insane.

(P.S. Assembling list of "doomed universes not cheating cheats that cheat" from information in thread for personal use. Thank you all for contributions.)

Addendum:

 

[Bear Ribs]

1984. The state is all-powerful, sees everything, has total control of the population, and believes their primary job is causing as much suffering as possible. It's illegal to have sex with a person you're attracted to, the food is ghastly, your TV spies on you and all the entertainment is propaganda anyway.

Exalted. If you don't Exalt, you have zero agency and anything you build can be taken away casually via anything from mind control to straight up reality warping. If you do Exalt you get power but you're one of a tiny group with targets on their backs, and there are a thousand dooms all far stronger, smarter, and older than you that are just about to destroy all Creation and you're expected to handle them all.

Gyo. Just freakin' Gyo man. Nightmarish undead fish that can kill you from their smell alone, overwhelming the land on razor-sharp metal legs. Then the human dead they slew start rising on scuttling metal legs...

 

[Gamefreak1ed]

Blame! - have fun being hunted down by The City
Fallout verse - enjoy the radiation, the mutated wildlife and raiders

 

[Fluffy_Felines]

The Inheritance Cycle, you have to live in a medival world. That has magic which you'll probably never be able to use, and if you do manage it you'll probably die from accidentally overextending yourself.

Oh yeah and if anyone gets to know you too well they can find out your True Name and essentially enslave you.

There is hot elves though so make of this what you will.

 

[Daddycool101]

I can name dozens of settings.

Fate - Mages, vampires, counter force, murder death kill, etc;

Danmachi - Asshole adventurers and gods and monsters.

Xianxia - Everyone is an asshole who'd kill for the slightest advantage.

Worm - Space whales.

Cyberpunk - Corpo fucks you.

Skyrim - Civil war, harsh weather, dragons, thalmor.

Dragon age - The fade, blights.

Dnd/pathfinder - Monsters and apocalypse of the week.

Dxd - You're a Chew toy of supernatural factions and there's gonna be a war with machine gods.

To aru - Scientists with zero morals when it comes to experiments, reality warping magic gods.

Stormlight - Attacks from hell, a evil god, eye colour caste.

Taimanin - Where do I even start.

Zombie apocalypses - Society collapsed and you nerds need to fight for scraps.

Anti magic academy - Majority of the world is destroyed and the God is an asshole.

Exalted - Nothing you do matters unless you're an exalt, even then you need to fear the kungfu elemental monks or the fate ninja.

World of darkness - Nothing you do matters, period.

Marvel - Apocalypse now, no powers, everyone hates you (if you're a mutant), status quo is god.

DC - Same as Marvel.

ASOIAF - Shithole supreme.

Sky wizards academy - World is overrun by giant bugs, anyone killed by those bugs is erased from people's memories, unless you're a wizard.

Half blood chronicles - You're a slave to asshole elves.

Warhammer fantasy - Chaos and everyone else.

Age of sigmar - Chaos and everyone else.

Warhammer 40K - Chaos and everyone else.

Dragonball - The world gets destroyed all the time.

Mistborn - Choke to death.

Dresden files - Urban fantasy hellhole.

October daye - Turbo Dresden.

Overlord - Bunch of murder hobo edge lords conquering the world.

Skyward - Humanity is trapped on a world and killed regularly.

Mushoku tensei - Get murdered by the resident dragon god because he didn't see you in one of his loops previously.

Shield hero - The main villain is a sadistic goddess who's strong enough to destroy the universe.

Dies irae - The universe is being run by an asshole god and the magic his henchmen cast uses souls of people as fuel.

Generic isekai - Monsters, assholes, darklords, oh my.

Strongest rearguard - Fight to eat, even kindergarten kids need to level up so that they can eat.

Instant death - Everyone, I do mean EVERYONE is a cunt.

Anos voldigoad - Something something super OP, hostilities between demons and humans, higher worlds using lower worlds as pawns in a game.

Rwby - A world of bloody evolution.

Tensura (reincarnated as a slime) - Periodic population culling by angels, super stronk demon lords that need souls for levelling up, unpowered you and a world created by an idiot god.

Ultimate antihero - Periodic attacks by demon lords, asshole politicians that do whatever it takes to control the MC, even if its ridiculously stupid.

Magi - A super powerful cult that's trying to destroy the universe. A OP dude trying to mind fuck the entire world.

Orient - Humanity is gaslighted into believing that the evil overlords who rule them are the good guys, the overlords need frequent human sacrifices as lunch.

Dr. Stone - Be a statue for thousands of years or be a stone age dude.

Demon slayer - Stay out of Japan.

Twilight - Sparkly vampires.

The power - Women can discharge lightning from their hands and create a dystopia.

Sexy space babes - Earth is occupied by purple female orcs who'd like to fuck you.

Wheel of time - The devil's cage has a hole and his evil is leaking into the world.

Honkai - A world on the brink of collapse.

Infinite stratos - Only chicks can ride the local mecha, dudes are worth crap now.

Chrome shelled regios - People live in cities on wheels, horrible monsters frequently attack them.

Arknights - People live in cities on wheels, there's a revolution brewing, storms that cause magic cancer.

My hero academia - The biggest villain attack is now, everyone has powers, if you don't, you're a freak.

SAO - Congrats you're in a game that kills you if you die, if you aren't a part of the game, then it's ok.

Mondaiji tachi - You're in a world where people need ridiculous cheats to survive, hope you're immune to petrification, because the first arc villain turns the entire world into stone and you better get away from the location where the main villain fights.

Log horizon - You're a low level noob fighting for your life, your memories get lost everytime you die.

God eater - Humanity is on the brink of collapse and it's only a matter of time now.

Code vein - Set in the same world as God eater.

No game no life - Humanity is on the verge of extinction because they suck at games.

Campione - God descend from the heavens occasionally (once or twice a year) and cause chaos and widespread death. Can't tell if the people who kill them are any good.

Naruto - If you aren't a ninja, then you don't have any way to fight back. If you're one, then congrats, you're on the chopping block.

Jujutsu kaisen - Monsters form out of your fears and curses and kill you.

Chainsaw man - Devils formed out of your fears kill you.

 

[Daddycool101]

Any world or society that doesn't have toilet paper.

Click to shrink...

There are quite a few countries in the world that doesn't use toilet paper. But yeah, I'd flip too if there isn't any water to wash.

 

[ReinZero]

So to put it nicely, there's a lot of settings that on paper look like nice/good places to isekai into. In practice 101/10 are probably much worse than people actually expect if they don't have a combination of at least half of:

A) Plot Armor
B) Protag level Cheat(s)
C) Ideal Circumstances
D) Relevant Knowledge
E) Perfect Memory
F) Impossible Willpower
G) Improbable Competency
H) Plot Armor
I) Non-Deathworld Isekai
J) Non-Eldritch Horror Isekai
K) Equiv of Modern Comforts
L) Cultural Clutch Save
M) Free Linguistics Save
N) Plot Armor

Oh and it's 101/10 and not 100/10 to account for rounding errors.

 

[Hellhound_dow]

So to put it nicely, there's a lot of settings that on paper look like nice/good places to isekai into. In practice 101/10 are probably much worse than people actually expect if they don't have a combination of at least half of:

A) Plot Armor
B) Protag level Cheat(s)
C) Ideal Circumstances
D) Relevant Knowledge
E) Perfect Memory
F) Impossible Willpower
G) Improbable Competency
H) Plot Armor
I) Non-Deathworld Isekai
J) Non-Eldritch Horror Isekai
K) Equiv of Modern Comforts
L) Cultural Clutch Save
M) Free Linguistics Save
N) Plot Armor

Oh and it's 101/10 and not 100/10 to account for rounding errors.

Click to shrink...

Not to mention sanity and common sense.

 

[ReinZero]

Not to mention sanity and common sense.

Click to shrink...

Those are aspects of plot armor (both), competency (both), willpower (sanity), knowledge (common sense). It just isn't a strictly guaranteed thing.

 

[None of your bee wax!]

Any of the Doom games or movies.

Starship troopers: while the Government seems to be on the up and up when it comes to combating corruption, they also somehow failed to stop a meteor hitting the earth despite being a Void-capable society.

Edit: spelling corrected.

 

[Oth]

Any of the Doom games or movies.

Starship troopers: while the Government seems to be on the up and up when it comes to combating corruption, they also some how failed to stop a meteor on hearth despite being a Void-capable society.

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Debatable for Starship Troopers, existence of enough living Citizens on Earth to form a demographic body means that the Bug War is (somewhat) survivable, in the vein that World War II is survivable. Not a 100% or 95-99% mortality rate where bodies are thrown into the grinder with no hope of survival, and Citizenship is a pretty lie to bait the plebeians with.

If memory is correct, bookverse UCF actually has rather good technology for combating the Bugs, which too lack many of the advantages that the Zerg and Tyranids enjoy that make them proper world-ending threats, being "merely" oversized ant-analogues. (The Marauder Suit was supposed to be standard-issue to every soldier in the novels, instead of special forces equipment like in the film - and the cannon fodder being stuck with useless equipment. Putting them solidly up to par with Starcraft's Terran Marines.)

Spoiler: Artistic depiction of a Marauder

 

[None of your bee wax!]

Debatable for Starship Troopers, existence of enough living Citizens on Earth to form a demographic body means that the Bug War is (somewhat) survivable, in the vein that World War II is survivable. Not a 100% or 95-99% mortality rate where bodies are thrown into the grinder with no hope of survival, and Citizenship is a pretty lie to bait the plebeians with.

If memory is correct, bookverse UCF actually has rather good technology for combating the Bugs, which too lack many of the advantages that the Zerg and Tyranids enjoy that make them proper world-ending threats, being "merely" oversized ant-analogues. (The Marauder Suit was supposed to be standard-issue to every soldier in the novels, instead of special forces equipment like in the film - and the cannon fodder being stuck with useless equipment. Putting them solidly up to par with Starcraft's Terran Marines.)

Spoiler: Artistic depiction of a Marauder

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Starship troopers is a young action novel, my worries is that your existence is dependent on plot importance. (Can`t see any other way that Earth could have a Meteor thrown at it and the world government not preemptively destroy it before hand.)

 

[Oth]

Starship troopers is a young action novel, my worries is that your existence is dependent on plot importance. (Can`t see any other way that Earth could have a Meteor thrown at it and the world government not preemptively destroy it before hand.)

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Government false-flag, perhaps. A sting to the populace to rile them up for (more) war.

Depending on universe, Federation Service does encompass non-combat roles such as teaching and "experimental test subject", and living as a disenfranchised civilian may range from dystopian serf to (somewhat) tolerable working-class.

Citizenship is stated to mainly concern politics and the holding of political office, with apathetic sheeple likely to be left alone to keep the gears turning.

 

[Ajlove]

Living on the planet Lumar in Tress of the Emerald Sea would suck. There are a dozen moons in orbit around the planet, constantly raining down spores, to the point where the oceans on Lumar are just made of spores. If any spores come into contact with the slightest amount of water, they start growing explosively. Breathe in one, and you'll burst with vines. The only things that can kill the spores are salt and silver.

 

[Daddycool101]

Living on the planet Lumar in Tress of the Emerald Sea would suck. There are a dozen moons in orbit around the planet, constantly raining down spores, to the point where the oceans on Lumar are just made of spores. If any spores come into contact with the slightest amount of water, they start growing explosively. Breathe in one, and you'll burst with vines. The only things that can kill the spores are salt and silver.

Click to shrink...

Oh yeah, forgot about this one.

 

[None of your bee wax!]

Government false-flag, perhaps. A sting to the populace to rile them up for (more) war.

Depending on universe, Federation Service does encompass non-combat roles such as teaching and "experimental test subject", and living as a disenfranchised civilian may range from dystopian serf to (somewhat) tolerable working-class.

Citizenship is stated to mainly concern politics and the holding of political office, with apathetic sheeple likely to be left alone to keep the gears turning.

Click to shrink...

Not sure if parodies count as the same thing or a offshoot, but I feel we should also add the Helldiver franchise. Mostly it`s for all the obvious deaths we know are happening, plus near Human death tactics as standard doctrine.