5 LitRPG Interfaces That Would Ruin Your Life.
We all wish life was more like a video game. In games, the rules are clear: level up, save the princess, save the world, or just get the cute guy with the freckles to ask you out on a second date. You know he’s not the canon pick, but Love-Love Princess 4 is all about breaking away from the cookie-cutter grind of the franchise’s earlier entries and finally letting the player explore with their heart.
Or so I’ve heard…

It’s a safe bet most of you would give a left ball and/or ovary to get your hands on a soul-bound video-game interface for your real, day-to-day existence. But have you actually thought it through? What if you don’t unlock magic or a nifty inventory system? (A ground-breaking addition to the Love-Love Princess franchise the true fans have been demanding since the second entry… allegedly.)
What if your UI slots into your life, instead of slotting you into a new one?
Lucky for you, Bardic Planet is here to answer that for you. You might not like the answer—annnnd it’ll probably lack the spectacle of seducing that hunky tiger emperor in Love-Love Princess 2: Purr-suit of Passion. But here we are, all the same.
System Alert One: The Procrastination Tracker.
It has to be done.
You know you have to do it.
You could probably knock it out in a few short hours—you just have to lock in and do the work. It’s just—
Holy hell, your bed has never been so comfy. And suddenly, this is the moment you realise you should’ve gotten into wood carving, knife making, or mastering the ancient art of creating a “big grape.”
YouTube has conspired against you. Father Time is in on the plot. Mother Nature’s working her angle—you’ll be up to the task right after you grab something to eat.

Then—to add to it all:
*Ping*
You get a notification.
Procrastination has levelled up.

And just like that—ain’t nothing getting done today.
So what if it’s not? Everybody knows your best work happens in the final five minutes before catastrophe.
Why change a system that’s been “working” since Year 9 homework?
System Alert Two: The Bank Balance Crit Monitor.
Maybe it was a night out on the town. Maybe it was a burst pipe, a chipped tooth, or your phone suddenly deciding it no longer remembers the concept of “on.” Whatever the cause, one thing’s certain:
It isn’t free.
Sure, that ninth double vodka seemed like a jolly grand idea at the time. That warm rush of invincibility?
Lovely.
But was it worth slipping, smacking your jaw on the faucet, and attempting to block a leaking pipe with your phone like some kind of drunken hydraulic engineer?
And right as you’re assessing the damage—
CRITICAL HIT!

Your UI flashes the numbers in big, dramatic red.
Your bank balance has taken 137 points of emotional damage.
Hey, you might even get lucky. If the whole thing was caught on camera, slap a sad violin over it and boom—viral gold.
System Alert Three: The Social Battery Bar.
Maybe you’ve just started a new job and need to get to know your colleagues. Maybe you agreed to some event months ago, forgetting that “later” does eventually arrive—and it’s arrived much sooner than the “never” you’d mentally prepared for. Or maybe you’re heading home and you’ve been trapped with the world’s chattiest Uber driver.
Whatever the case, let’s face it—you’re tapped.
All you want to do is slip out of your day clothes, order something in, dim the lights, close the doors, and finally find out whether the alt ending of Love-Love Princess 4 is as revolutionary as the forums claim.

Then your UI Chimes.

Recommended Action: Fake your own death, or politely excuse yourself—whichever requires less talking.
System Alert Four: The Cringe Replay HUD.
You know what it’s like. Work in the morning, but you can’t get a wink. You’re tired—exhausted—but your brain doesn’t think so. It’s far too busy replaying the day’s events.
They probably didn’t notice you fart.
That’s what you told yourself at the time.
Nobody said anything—but damn, it was a stinker.
They knew it was you. Curse those beans on toast!
(Or your local regional equivalent linked to catastrophic flatulence.)
It was a squeaky chair! That’s what you wanted to say. But no one buys that. They’re just too polite to tell you to your face…
Until now.

With the Cringe Replay HUD, you get scene-by-scene playback of only the most humiliating moments of your life—perfect for keeping you fully awake during those tortured hours of the night.
And just when you think the embarrassment is over…
NEW CRINGE UNLOCKED:
The time you said “You too” to the waiter who told you to enjoy your meal.
And best of all?
It even includes director’s commentary.

System Alert Five: The Bardic Planet Reviewer Interface.
You think you want this one. You really do. You imagine it like a blessing: a glowing golden UI descending from the heavens to guide you, empower you, make your reviews sharper, funnier, more devastatingly insightful.
Instead, what you get is this:

The Bardic Planet Reviewer Interface does not offer help.
It offers pressure.
It loads with a tutorial prompt:
NEW TITLE UNLOCKED: Bard-in-Chief
Responsibility has been forcibly equipped.
And from the moment it activates, your life becomes a series of stat adjustments:
+10 Insight
+20 Witty Commentary
–50 Free Time
+12 Minor Anxiety (Recurring)
–100 Ability to Read Casually Ever Again

You try to relax, but the Interface does not allow it.
Open any book for fun?
SYSTEM ALERT: “Scanning for thematic cohesion…”
Watch a film?
SYSTEM ALERT: “Structure weak in Act Two. Recommend rewrite.”
Scroll Royal Road?
SYSTEM ALERT: “Would you like to add this to your review calendar?”
(You press “NO.” The Interface presses “YES.”)
And then comes the worst feature of them all:
The Boss Encounter: Imposter Syndrome (Lv. 99).
Every time you hit “Publish,” the UI summons a massive health bar across your vision labelled:
“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?”
You battle it with your only available moves:
* Overthinking Strike
* Refreshing Analytics (Ineffective)
* Reassurance from Friends (Cooldown: 9 months)
* Blind Confidence (Cost: 40 Mana… this is the real world, you don’t have any mana)
And what do you get for your trouble?
NEW CRIT UNLOCKED: Author Tears +1
Bardic Planet Reputation +3
Public Expectation (Growing)
The Bardic Planet Reviewer Interface:
It makes your reviews better.
It makes your life worse.
And it unlocks the true endgame: never reading anything the same way again.
Clone_v2 is the Bard-in-Chief of Bardic Planet. When he’s not wrestling with the Reviewer Interface or unlocking fresh, steaming batches of personal cringe at 3am, he writes original web fiction on Royal Road.
Check out Captured Sky—a brutal, high-stakes fantasy set in the unforgiving world of the Dungeon.
New Chapters drop twice a week.
Discover more from Bardic Planet
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
