The Dark Lord Zer0 isn't just a story about a villain, it's my response to final fantasy tropes

Final fantasy 1's garland was a villain caught in a timeloop after being handily bested by four heroes of light.
the twist is the very first wtf moment in gaming, where the villain exists in both his future and his past, sends himself back in time, and ultimately is defeated a second time, but only after savaging the world and its elements all to prepare to send himself back in time once more.

the dark lord zero's plot is like anti-final fantasy because it uses these tropes but highlights many of the horrific realities behind them.
it's not alone in being targeted, persona is also on the dark lord zero's chopping block so to speak, chiefly in book two.

However book one is sort of a self contained homage to the very first final fantasy, the inspiration for the story is garland's own timeloop but another source of inspiration lies with the fall of dracula from castlevania lords of shadow, which really helped the building of the story.

if say, final fantasyXV is a fantasy based on reality, then the dark lord zer0's first book is a reality based on a fantasy, it starts off in the "real world" with the book's lead character and antagonist, lord zero, before he becomes the villain, and across the first book he's forced into a journey that pits him against the four heroes of light guided by a crystal.

much like gabriel belmont, zero is a good man forced to do terrible things, but where lords of shadow offers elements of choice to the plot and gives clear indicators that there were other avenues, the dark lord zero contrasts this by putting zero in horrifically unfair, one-sided encounters where luck and only luck might save him.
from a dragon razed city of portland, to a mythical heavenly plane where he becomes the disciple of an ascendant first emperor of japan, to a battle against a fox demon swordmaiden, zero's endless journey thrusts him into situations he can't escape and pushes him into becoming a monster, despite his desire to escape.
through it all he'll be faced with enemies on all sides and be made to question the very nature of heroism.
zero's story ends in the final arc, but for now the planned arcs are as follows.

Book 2: Heaven is the reaper arc, and is heavily inspired by persona 3.
Book 3: Void is the Gilgamesh arc, yes, a direct inspiration in more ways than one, it also alludes to the myth of susano'o and yamato no orochi.
Book 4:Myth is the final arc, the requiem arc and closes out the book, and the story of the time loop as well as the tragedy of zero.

for each book, one of the warriors of light ultimately perishes as they're caught up in the dark lord's schemes, for each book a celestial arch-spirit based on the four spirits genbu, baihu, etc will also be featured, genbu and xaunwu, the chinese version of genbu, having already been featured.


The dark lord zero series draws extremely heavy inspiration from final fantasy and shin megami tensei, so if you're fans of those games, you will love this series.

the first book: slumber, which contains the downfall arc is out now but will be getting an updated rerelease with new cover art and some extra chapters later on.
please check it out.
the dark lord's journey into a neverending nightmare begins here.