Is Hero of All Trades Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Quick facts
Format	Webtoon, 89 chapters
Run	2024–present · ongoing
Community score	AniList 6.4 · MangaUpdates 6.8
Content	Violence
Where to read	WEBTOON — official

Overview

Na Kang-in wakes up in present-day Seoul with no memory of who he is or how he got there. The only clue comes from a voice that turns out to belong to ACE, an AI combat companion who informs him that he was once a soldier in the Earth Federation Army, decades in the future, and that his body still carries an enormous range of combat and survival skills from that life. With no memory to guide him and a modern city that doesn't know what to make of him, Na Kang-in and ACE start working together to piece together his past while dealing with whatever present-day trouble crosses their path.

What it does well

The premise's biggest strength is where it's set. Instead of another dungeon-and-magic fantasy world, Hero of All Trades drops an overqualified, future-trained soldier into ordinary modern Seoul, and that contrast gives the action a different texture than most of this genre. Watching tactics built for a war that hasn't happened yet get deployed against street thugs, corporate security, and everyday criminals makes even small-scale fights feel specific rather than generic.

ACE does real work as a character, not just an exposition device. The back-and-forth between Na Kang-in's blank-slate confusion and ACE's clipped, informative commentary gives the story a reliable comic and tactical rhythm, and it keeps the lead from feeling isolated the way a lot of amnesiac-hero setups do. That partnership also helps carry the central mystery — what happened to Na Kang-in, why he's here now, and what the 2082 Earth Federation actually was — which gives even the more episodic early fights a sense of forward motion toward something bigger.

The modern setting keeps paying off as the story continues. Rather than treating present-day Seoul as a blank backdrop, the story uses it to generate real stakes: ordinary institutions and ordinary people reacting to someone operating on a completely different level than anyone around him.

Where it falls short

The earliest chapters lean on a familiar shape — an overpowered lead easily handling outmatched opponents — before the larger mystery plot gets enough room to become the story's real draw, which can make the opening feel more generic than what follows.

Because his amnesia is the central hook, Na Kang-in himself stays somewhat opaque as a character for stretches; the story is withholding who he was on purpose, which is effective as mystery but means his personality has less to work with early on. And since the series is still ongoing, the bigger picture behind the 2082 setting and what actually happened to him is being revealed gradually, so it asks for patience if you want those answers soon.

Verdict

Hero of All Trades takes a familiar overpowered-protagonist setup and finds a genuinely fresh angle by grounding it in the present day instead of another fantasy world, with a real mystery driving the action forward. It's still building toward its bigger answers, but the modern setting and the Na Kang-in/ACE partnership make the wait worthwhile so far.