YMMV / Kingdom From the Ashes, Rise

• Broken Base: The yaoi content. Those who are into it will enjoy the long paragraphs of it, especially Yuto and Shun's relationship. Readers who instead are more interested in the plot may find themselves uncomfortable, due to the heavy doses of it. Zarc, Yuya, Yuto, Yugo and Yuri's relationship in particular is either appreciated, for loving each other dearly, or causes Squick, due to pretty much performing incest (which, to be fair, is already being anticipated by the story tags, so those reading should be aware of it).
• Catharsis Factor:
  • For those who really despised Himika's bitchy attitude throughout the first season, Zarc threatening her is oh so satisfying to see.
  • For those who felt like Reiji got no comeuppance for his actions in Season 1, this story realistically shows the stress he's going through and he is chewed out by everyone when he reveals how he wrote the memories of Masumi, Hokuto and Yaiba.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Yoko Sakaki. The author notes state that they absolutely love her and wanted to give her a more prominent role and many comments state that they love how she contributes to the plot, her use of horror tropes and how she's the perfect mother for Yuto, Yugo and Yuri.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Fans in the comments immediately started shipping Yoko and Zarc once Yoko was in the know of what's going on.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Yuri's situation. He feels like he's going insane from feeling sensations of love and affection to the point that he's gone insane and close to clawing his throat out when Yuya summons Performapal Empyrean Magician (a monster based on Zarc) in their duel. He's afraid of believing that it's real and it takes Zarc's intervention before he seriously hurts himself.
  • Chapter 8 (Part 5) has Zarc reveal what happened when Ray defeated him the first time: he had to hear his sons crying out in pain and could do nothing to save him. Is it any wonder he's so protective of them all?
• Unexpected Character: Show of hands, who were expecting Raphael, Alister and Valon making appearances in the story?