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Furious Lobster posted:Speaking of Kenkyo, which I marathoned thanks to the translations on ff.net, in 284 Enjou's feelings towards Reika are made pretty clear for those still in the dark. I also didn't realize that this was still ongoing, so that's a pleasant surprise. Wait, there are translations up to 284 somewhere? Wat.
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Sep 29, 2017 10:10
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sunken fleet posted:Wait, there are translations up to 284 somewhere? Wat. oh no, I've been slowly reading the japanese through jisho.org since we're almost caught up with the current releases.
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Sep 29, 2017 16:04
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Man, after catching up with Forge of Destiny I decided to check out some of the other "quest" stories on that website, and most of the other ones are really terrible. Like I came across this one that could basically be summed up as "what if my cool OC were friends with the Madoka Magica characters and she knew everything from the show and also dated Mami and and and..." I became vicariously embarrassed just from reading some of it. Most of the stories in general seem to be based off some existing IP, and usually one that is kinda lame, like Bleach or something.
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Sep 29, 2017 22:23
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Furious Lobster posted:oh no, I've been slowly reading the japanese through jisho.org since we're almost caught up with the current releases. Oh word. Feelsbadman.
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Sep 30, 2017 01:20
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Ytlaya posted:Man, after catching up with Forge of Destiny I decided to check out some of the other "quest" stories on that website, and most of the other ones are really terrible. Like I came across this one that could basically be summed up as "what if my cool OC were friends with the Madoka Magica characters and she knew everything from the show and also dated Mami and and and..." I became vicariously embarrassed just from reading some of it. Most of the stories in general seem to be based off some existing IP, and usually one that is kinda lame, like Bleach or something. Well, quests are like fanfics and webnovels: 90%+ are terrible, and you have to sift through the muck to find the pearls. Or, at least, rough cuts that with some polish, could be a gem. Speaking of Bleach though, there is one quest that I think is quite good: Now You Feel Like Number None. Featuring a silent Arrancar protagonist, the QM is quite good at keeping the power levels down / reasonable and playing around with the lesser known characters like Cirucci, Esmerelda, or Ururu. It updates fairly regularly, and the quest feels like it has actual character arcs. Panopticon Quest is... a OWOD Mage story that started with a lot of promise. I do think it's still worth reading despite not really liking the latest arcs and that it's basically to the point of very irregular updates. I really liked the initial protagonist, Jamelia Belltower, a Palestinian NWO Senior Operative and her team, but somewhere in the latest arc, she ended up off-screen a lot of the time while her financier subordinate took on more and more importance. I think it starts off a bit rough because of some technical difficulties and feeling like the story was meandering, but it hit stride about the time Moscow gets invaded.  Battle Action Harem Highschool Side Character Quest (No SV, You Are the Waifu) sounds like it should be terrible but is actually quite an interesting take on the genre. The main character is Anna Sanchez, a girl who wants to make friends and hates being late.  BECAUSE SHE WAS LATE TO THEIR DEATHS. It's clear the QM put a lot of thought into the not-giant robot battles, but the update is infrequent with months between updates and sometimes, I feel like he needs an editor to tell him to cut it out with the giant info dump or detailed fight scene between two random characters. That said, the updates are behemoths and I do like most of the characters.Sartier Quest: A Tale of Song, Gods, and Trouble is an original quest using what is commonly referred to as the CK2-quest mechanic. Essentially, the idea is the quest controls a faction, organization, or nation-state of some sort with a certain number of action points that can then be spent on various options, usually split among some variant of Martial, Diplomacy, Intrigue, Learning, Piety and so on. The quest was complicated to play mechanically given all the possible options and the map, but the updates themselves were pretty neat in how they were written. More story-like than the usual CK2-ish quest! I thought the setting was quite unique - to have an Italian flavored setting with song magic and lots of faction maneuvering among the Great and Vassal Houses. It's one of my favorite quests, which is why I was so sad it basically died. 
Katreus fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Sep 30, 2017 |
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Sep 30, 2017 06:40
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I dug around too but only found two worth a read that weren't also completely dead. Paths of Civilization follows a civilization around, with one or two turns per ruler before the next one takes over. Pretty straightforward, more willful rulers or past decisions can force decisions on the players, and there are plenty of things going constantly wrong. Katreus posted:Battle Action Harem Highschool Side Character Quest (No SV, You Are the Waifu) sounds like it should be terrible but is actually quite an interesting take on the genre. The main character is Anna Sanchez, a girl who wants to make friends and hates being late. This one is the weirdest mashup of Muv-Luv and Knight Run (and generic high school battle harem) that I didn't know I wanted before reading it. I don't know that I'd recommend it to other people who don't like either of those, but it scratched a very particular itch I had right after rereading Alternative.
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Sep 30, 2017 08:30
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Ytlaya posted:Man, after catching up with Forge of Destiny I decided to check out some of the other "quest" stories on that website, and most of the other ones are really terrible. Like I came across this one that could basically be summed up as "what if my cool OC were friends with the Madoka Magica characters and she knew everything from the show and also dated Mami and and and..." I became vicariously embarrassed just from reading some of it. Most of the stories in general seem to be based off some existing IP, and usually one that is kinda lame, like Bleach or something. I mentioned it before, but we have several goon run ones on this forum, though usually without as much dice stuff. They aren't usually in pre-established settings either, so they feel less like a fanfic? Some are pretty short and haven't been around that long, others are complete, and others are massive and been running for several years. Master post of them here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3764360
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Oct 1, 2017 00:11
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sunken fleet posted:Wait, there are translations up to 284 somewhere? Wat. Well, actually, the fanfiction.net translation just hit 284 today so yes. There are.
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Oct 1, 2017 03:44
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Ytlaya posted:Man, after catching up with Forge of Destiny I decided to check out some of the other "quest" stories on that website, and most of the other ones are really terrible. Like I came across this one that could basically be summed up as "what if my cool OC were friends with the Madoka Magica characters and she knew everything from the show and also dated Mami and and and..." I became vicariously embarrassed just from reading some of it. Most of the stories in general seem to be based off some existing IP, and usually one that is kinda lame, like Bleach or something. If you head over to Spacebattles, I recommend "A Geek's Guide: C.O.R.E" and "A Geek's Guide: Rise", read in that order. Especially when you figure out which particular turd of a series those quests managed to polish into something interesting. Also, back at Sufficient Velocity, I recommend "Ten Pounds of Gold". Even if you don't like pro wrestling.
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Oct 1, 2017 04:00
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The Sandman posted:If you head over to Spacebattles, I recommend "A Geek's Guide: C.O.R.E" and "A Geek's Guide: Rise", read in that order. Especially when you figure out which particular turd of a series those quests managed to polish into something interesting. I have mixed feelings about the AGG Core and AGG Rise quests. On the one hand, it updates very regularly, the story feels like it progresses fairly rapidly, and it's the popcorn superhero of quests. AGG Core is a little hard to get into: the prose is dry info-dump at times although it has its moments (diplomacy crit train) and it's fun to have a protagonist who actually focuses on diplomacy / speech. AGG Rise is ridiculous. It scratches that FE itch where you love to see the numbers go up / Fallout itch for perks and some of the fight scenes are very good. But otoh, even relative to his other quests, the harem building is relentless - like BAHHSC plays with the genre but is not a harem - for the, of course, three male leads, the power escalation is insane for a matter of in-game weeks, and IMO, it's at its worse when it tries to cater to the source material in its build-up of the source material protagonist. I actually prefer AGG Deathworld out of all of his quests. It's the only quest with a female protagonist, there's little to no harem building (perhaps not surprising given a female lead), the original setting with the aliens, the UN, the sci-fi equivalent of magic powers is pretty neat, and it's got a fairly self-contained finished story with a character arc. The downside is that this was pre-threadmarks so it's a little harder to read it, some of the plot lines were a bit miss with me since they seemed to meander, and the QM tried to put a bit too many disparate quest types in with the stock market updates somewhat underwhelming. I did like how it played out in story and for the main character, but not the actual micromanaging part. I don't know if I'd recommend the AGG series to someone who's not very used to the usual shounen harem animes or quests. Maybe if I prefaced it with the idea that it's a guilty pleasure.
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Oct 1, 2017 04:53
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TheDemon posted:Well, actually, the fanfiction.net translation just hit 284 today so yes. There are. Huh. I've been following the oniichanyamete translation for like ...a long time. Didn't know someone else had picked it up and gone way ahead, that's cool. Except now I have like 100+ chapters to catch up on 
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Oct 1, 2017 07:53
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oniichanyamete never finishes any of their projects
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Oct 1, 2017 13:35
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Well I mean 'finishing projects' is kind of a high standard to hold when you're talking about free translations of garbage that tends to sprawl out hundreds upon hundreds of chapters. He picks up a lot of cool and interesting stories and I'm glad he does. Its nice to have one translator that doesn't bother with "generic shounen harem thing #9001". Also he did finish bathroom goddess and evil god average which are both pretty good imo.
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Oct 1, 2017 19:39
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The fourth Cradle book, Skysworn, just came out. The Jai Long fight was neat; I wasn't expecting Lindon to actually lose, but he did, despite putting up a good fight. It was also nice to see Jai Chen finally being proactive (and in a very Lindon-esque way at that: just stabbing someone way above her (what level is Jai Chen anyway?)).
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Oct 1, 2017 20:07
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Silver2195 posted:The fourth Cradle book, Skysworn, just came out. The Jai Long fight was neat; I wasn't expecting Lindon to actually lose, but he did, despite putting up a good fight. It was also nice to see Jai Chen finally being proactive (and in a very Lindon-esque way at that: just stabbing someone way above her (what level is Jai Chen anyway?)). I don't think anything's been said about her advancement. I'm more curious how things will go now that Makiel has changed things. My original prediction for Lindon is that he wouldn't return to the Sacred Valley until he was powerful enough to save it. I wonder how things will go, now that Makiel has basically set off a chain reaction leading to more of the dreadgods awakening.
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Oct 1, 2017 20:12
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:oniichanyamete never finishes any of their projects Finish Evil God Average, to be fair. I wish he hadn't, though, that ran out of steam pretty quickly 
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Oct 1, 2017 20:19
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The most LN Title for an LN. As the result of I, a former eighth grader syndrome patient, took advantage of psychology effect, somehow I ended up having to conclude an agreement with the school’s first beauty
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Oct 3, 2017 12:33
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Silver2195 posted:The fourth Cradle book, Skysworn, just came out. The Jai Long fight was neat; I wasn't expecting Lindon to actually lose, but he did, despite putting up a good fight. It was also nice to see Jai Chen finally being proactive (and in a very Lindon-esque way at that: just stabbing someone way above her (what level is Jai Chen anyway?)). Well, just finished. I really wonder what will be Eithan's reaction to being betrayed by his family. It's possible that he will try to wrestly control back, but I get the feeling he just doesn't have time to do that without sacrificing everything else, so he probably will just end up leaving the family completely. Which, well, will suck for the family itself.
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Oct 3, 2017 15:29
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Arkeus posted:Well, just finished. "Betrayed" is a strong way of putting it. He mostly deserved it, frankly.
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Oct 3, 2017 15:34
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Arkeus posted:Well, just finished. I have a theory that Eithan's removal from the head of his family is a large part of what Makiel was trying to accomplish by speeding up the awakening of the Dreadgods. To be fair, a decent amount of this theory is meta, based on the fact that the wax symbol is the cover image and that the letter is juxtaposed beside the "Makiel's full influence on the fate of Cradle" report that we were denied, but it also stands up on its own I think. Cassius would never have pushed for it if Eithan hadn't reacted to the Phoenix like he did, and Eithan not having the backing of his clan makes it seem less likely that he could influence the world at large. Maybe. Then again, if the Arelius main beach is really gone then is clan is pretty meaningless anyways, so maybe not.
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Oct 3, 2017 15:49
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Silver2195 posted:"Betrayed" is a strong way of putting it. He mostly deserved it, frankly. He put his clan in the best way to reap the reward from secret info he got from a Monarch, which he couldn't quite say but could say it was trustworthy. He was betrayed after bringing his clan glory again and again because he has a arrogant attitude and was an 'otusider' from that branch of the clan That theory above is interesting. I like it, though I wouldn't dismiss the timetable being pushed up and having to fight many dreadlords instead of just the one
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Oct 3, 2017 16:47
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uh, what is "psychology effect"?
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Oct 3, 2017 20:17
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the story seems to be about him using principles of psychology to manipulate people
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Oct 3, 2017 20:26
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Remember that time you took that class called "Psychology" in High School and suddenly understood the underpinnings of the world around you? Now imagine you took that newfound power to write a crappy fiction. Also you have a really horrible sense of naming things in this hypothetical.
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Oct 3, 2017 22:45
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Arkeus posted:He put his clan in the best way to reap the reward from secret info he got from a Monarch, which he couldn't quite say but could say it was trustworthy. He was betrayed after bringing his clan glory again and again because he has a arrogant attitude and was an 'otusider' from that branch of the clan It's not just his arrogant attitude. His attempts to manipulate Jai Daishou make him partially responsible for the Bleeding Phoenix's attack, he's always forcing other people to risk their lives, and he's always wasting money.
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Oct 4, 2017 00:31
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Kumo 310: Ugh Heros are so boring
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Oct 4, 2017 05:16
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Silver2195 posted:It's not just his arrogant attitude. His attempts to manipulate Jai Daishou make him partially responsible for the Bleeding Phoenix's attack, he's always forcing other people to risk their lives, and he's always wasting money. His attempt to manipulate Jai Daishou is also responsible for saving the Aurelius clan and making it stronger and he is not always forcing other people to risk their lives, indeed he is actually trying not to do so, offhand I'd say the Aurelius clan as a whole tend to do that more than he does.. As for money... the big argument on him wasting money is that he is psending his time on Yerin and Lindon however not only is it his time, but it's also something that has shown to be worth it When you come down to it, this was just The dad being butthurt by Eithan taking his place
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Oct 4, 2017 05:28
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Synthbuttrange posted:Kumo 310: Ugh Heros are so boring Pretty naive of Shun to think that Julius is free to kill all the demons he wants in a war, but he shouldn't be killed by someone on the opposite side. I know Shiro doesn't care, but if he brings up Julius again she should tell him about all of her "children" that he killed even after she saved his life years ago. and don't get me started about Natsume's death, Shun being merciful with him would have led to his friends being killed by his naivete.
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Oct 4, 2017 06:43
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i'm pretty sure that shun never actually fought any of kumoko's kids, much less killed any.
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Oct 4, 2017 06:48
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:i'm pretty sure that shun never actually fought any of kumoko's kids, much less killed any. Julius did
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Oct 4, 2017 06:56
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logger posted:Julius did I remember Julius cutting down some of her clones in battle but don't recall anything about her kids. Can't really be bothered to check given the length though.
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Oct 4, 2017 06:58
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kumoko's kids hang out exclusively in the labyrinth. i'm not sure when julius would have killed any, either. she has clones all over the place, though.
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Oct 4, 2017 07:13
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Oni has a way bigger beef than that with the humans anyway. 
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Oct 4, 2017 07:18
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i'm pretty sure that the tamer who enslaved him is one of the other reincarnator's father, though i don't remember which one.
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Oct 4, 2017 07:22
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Julius killed all the clones she sent out to spy near him.
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Oct 4, 2017 08:50
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those aren't her kids and they were made to be disposable. since the current issue is killing sentient beings including non-humans, why bring up how julius killed a bunch of non-sentient beings? it's a peculiar digression.
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Oct 4, 2017 10:19
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Good news everybody! Dungeon Defense now has the fifth volume's illustration up. We can (relatively) soon expect the story itself to show up.
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Oct 6, 2017 16:15
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By the way, are those Cradle books something I would probably enjoy if I'm enjoying FoD? I'm looking for something similar, but it seems like most actual "straight" xianxia stories (as opposed to something like My Disciple Died Yet Again which takes place in a similar setting but is otherwise atypical) slip too far into typical Asian WN "overpowered wish fulfillment protagonist" territory. One thing I kinda like about FoD is that, even though the protagonist is exceptionally talented and is lucky in various ways, you still get the impression that people "below" her are fully capable of hurting her and the author isn't afraid to let genuinely disappointing things happen in her social life (characters growing closer and then genuinely drifting apart is something very rare in stories like this). She also comes off as less important than some of her peers, for whom she's a pretty peripheral figure at best.
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Oct 7, 2017 22:58
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I have not read the latest Cradle book yet, but the protagonist survives mostly through extreme amounts of luck in the circumstances of people he meets. Any power he gains is mostly due to political machinations of people far above him.
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Oct 7, 2017 23:16
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Ytlaya posted:By the way, are those Cradle books something I would probably enjoy if I'm enjoying FoD? I'm looking for something similar, but it seems like most actual "straight" xianxia stories (as opposed to something like My Disciple Died Yet Again which takes place in a similar setting but is otherwise atypical) slip too far into typical Asian WN "overpowered wish fulfillment protagonist" territory. One thing I kinda like about FoD is that, even though the protagonist is exceptionally talented and is lucky in various ways, you still get the impression that people "below" her are fully capable of hurting her and the author isn't afraid to let genuinely disappointing things happen in her social life (characters growing closer and then genuinely drifting apart is something very rare in stories like this). She also comes off as less important than some of her peers, for whom she's a pretty peripheral figure at best. I haven't read FoD so I can't speak to that, but I'd say to almost anyone that they should give Cradle a shot, especially someone who is familiar with the tropes of a typical xianxia story. The first one in particular reads like a xianxia origin story that benefits from A) being written in English and B) being written as a novel, so it tells a relatively complete story with a good structure. After the first one they stop leaning as hard on the xianxia tropes and become more traditional western fantasy novels, with a magic system based on cultivation and a continued focus on getting "stronger" and reaching the next level of power. By the end of book 4 the protagonist is definitely not yet OP, although he has started to walk that path. One of the best parts of the story is that ~10% of it is written from the perspective of a God Tier (not the actual power level name) warrior and her tangentially connected story, and those bits do a good job of keeping in perspective exactly where the main characters stand. Tldr: they're great, give the first one (Unsouled) a shot at least.
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Oct 7, 2017 23:25
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