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A lot of the web novels I've read are pretty similar in terms of the broad strokes. Also most of them are terrible. Out of the ones in the OP I'd at least strongly recommend not reading Arifureta, or dropping it as soon as they hit the bottom of the labyrinth. I also dropped Souen no HIstoria but maybe I'll give it another look, first few chapters were terrible. Mushoku Tensei is not something I can recommend either. I might recommend the first couple of volumes but the later stuff gets way too sexual and I'm not sure whether it's worth it to continue. The sunk cost is the only thing that would keep me reading. Knights and Magic is probably the one I'm most excited for. Good and clean first volume. I like Overlord so far, hopefully the series doesn't get too long because it seems like the kind of series that can't keep going long-term. It's getting an anime so that could be cool. Tate no Yuusha is really good but I'm about halfway through the novel by chapter count (something like 180) and I stalled because I couldn't see where the series was going. I'm going to catch up eventually. For ones not mentioned in the OP: Tsuyokute New Saga is starting out well enough. Instead of reincarnation a hero who barely defeats the demon lord gets sent back in time a few years to before the start of the demon invasion. Think a new game+ run of a game with a strategy guide. E? Heibon Desu yo?? is one that I want to like, and I want it to turn out well. Its spin on the reincarnation story is that it's a girl, instead of some shounen protagonist with combat cheats. I'm hoping it will be less combat focused but there isn't a lot to judge it on so far. There are also two Korean novels I can recommend, they're similar in format to light novels so I figure they belong here. Legendary Moonlight Sculptor follow a money-obsessed power gamer playing a massive VRMMO. The story structure can be a bit repetitive but it has some really nice spins on ideas. I don't think it launched the genre but as far as I know it's the most popular of its kind in Korea by a large margin, with something like 44 volumes out. Ark is very similar to LMS but doesn't follow a sculptor. It does some things differently and I think it's worth recommending to anyone who likes LMS.
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Jan 14, 2015 08:13
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HiveCommander posted:What happens to make it turn to poo poo? (Please save me from eventually reading it if it is) The main character becomes a massive edgelord, the series goes full harem, and it's just embarrassing to read. If it were a better written story just up to the end of the labyrinth with the same idea it might have been good. HiveCommander posted:Heibon Desu yo is the one about the girl who is reincarnated as a noble, right? I wasn't too sure about that one but I may give it a try once I'm up-to-date on Overlord. There's not a whole lot of it out yet. I am cautiously optimistic.
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Jan 14, 2015 09:59
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Reading Only Sense Online, it scratches the exact itch I wanted it to scratch without being creepy about it, which is a rarity for web and light novels. Bears a lot of similarities to Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, in case you liked one or the other. One I forgot about is Rokka no Yuusha which follows deals with six prophesied heroes who are supposed to beat the demon king. They're all identified by a mark on their bodies, but when they meet up there are seven of them. I haven't gotten too far yet, more of a back-burner project for me, but it was recommended to me and is well liked.
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Jan 15, 2015 04:00
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SerSpook posted:Only Sense Online is probably the best of them. It doesn't take itself seriously unlike the SAO like stuff. And I actually really like the Sense system the game uses. LMS is worth a try if you like OSO. It's not as perfectly clean but it's comparable, helped by Weed never spending more than a book or two in a row with the same companions. There is a lot of combat, and instead of being chill Weed is an incredible power gaming sperge, but they scratch the same itch. I'd at least read the first volume. The idea of a VRMMO with a strong AI making a magical, balanced, and unique experience for every player at the same time really appeals to me. I'd love to play one but I don't think I'll live long enough to see anything even close.
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Jan 15, 2015 05:09
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New chapter of Overlord came out http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/2015/01/O24.html. I really hope the author doesn't drop the ball with this series, but I just can't see this series having a long run and still being entertaining. I finished reading the first three volumes of Only Sense Online and gave the other novels the translator is working on a look. I didn't find the others to be very good, which is a shame because the translator is fast and doing a great job on his end. Alice Tale was okay but much more typical of the genre. Serious Frolicking posted:The funny thing about that one is that the skill system it uses actually seems kind of viable for a mmo. However, everyone acts as though skill points are some incredibly rare resource and that non-combat skills are worthless even though it all seems very much balanced around trying a bunch of things. You don't even have to keep the non-combat stuff equipped and leveling it provides more skill points. This results in there being absolutely no documentation on skills which are trivially easy to acquire and try out. Even the hilarious skill system from moonlight sculptor makes more sense, because the worst offenders are all locked behind a super secret quest line that Weed never explains to anyone. The gimmick behind LMS is that the game is controlled by an AI, so it can tailor the game to every player at once. It's not really certain that the quests he did existed in the game before he did them. Desuwa fucked around with this message at 08:33 on Jan 18, 2015 |
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Jan 18, 2015 06:17
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HiveCommander posted:You've never played EVE, have you? Speaking of Mondaijitachi, I like it but I had to drop it because I found the translations to be of so low quality that they were almost unintelligible on a line-by-line basis and were incredibly difficult to follow at a higher level.
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Jan 18, 2015 07:10
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Ottumon posted:Legendary Moonlight Sculptor has a strange charm to it. The prose or translation is nothing to write home about, but there's also nothing aggressively bad about it. It's... mediocre in most aspects, I think, but I still like the author's enthusiasm. It's like a 6-year-old kid describing his dream game in a very Not a harem but the Seoyoon stuff gets creepy enough. I just finished volume 20 and it ended on a scene that did shock me. Not as bad as most LNs (yet) but I'd found LMS to be really low, though not completely free of it, on creep before that.
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Jan 20, 2015 19:46
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way. The Geomchis are awesome, but I don't really care about most other intermissions. Thankfully the author keeps them very brief so I don't feel like I have to skip a lot.
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Knights and magic volume 2 chapter 1 is up. This series is a lot like I wanted Mushoku Tensei to be, at least thematically. Sort of the Log Horizon to MT's SAO, though improved in a different way by taking the creepy poo poo out.
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Jan 28, 2015 21:32
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Ottumon posted:I read until volume 20 and I don't see what's so shocking about Seoyoon and Weed re-enacting some video game wedding? Or is the shocking scene the part where the translation group reveals that the author doesn't want it to be translated further? The Seoyoon plot in general just really creeps me out. Perhaps surprise would be a better word than shock. It's the kind of scene that I'd expect more from a sleazy harem series or something.
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Jan 28, 2015 23:09
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Overlord volume 3 chapter 2 is completely translated. That explains the stinger at the end of volume 2, and actually sets up a nice plot. I also like it showing that, despite their overwhelming power, they can't just run rampant over the world. Or maybe Momonga could, because he's also smart about it and plans ahead, but not his underlings. I'm guessing Shalltear lost her mind and went on a rampage, it sounds like she was still stronger than the humans and did kill the person with the artifact before she was fully controlled. I'd be fine if this volume ended with her being put down and the rest of the main faction learning some humility or caution from it.
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Feb 15, 2015 03:34
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Sinking Ship posted:I thought that development was kind of bullshit actually I mean Momonga and crew just plow over everything to that point like really plow, nothing any of the characters has encountered thus far has even come close to the least of their powers, I mean like 5 minutes earlier they spent half a chapter talking about how this warrior was at 'the peak of human power' and he unloads everything he's got at Shalltear and she doesn't even realize he's anything special. Stops him with a finger. I mean when every enemy any of the characters has thus far encountered has completely and totally been unable to do anything and then some rando with a staff pops up and mind-controls a vampire... I dunno maybe it'll turn out to be some highly specialized item for controlling undead but it just seems lame as hell. Yeah that actually did bother me too. I gave it a pass because they said it was the big god-given artifact from the theocracy. I'll let it play out a bit, but Shalltear is probably the only character from team Momonga that I'm neutral towards whether she survives or not. She's pretty annoying and petty, I'd also be fine if she gets rescued from the brainwashing and mellows out a little. e: Also, to be fair, this is exactly what Momonga was warning them about earlier, and he was actively taking precautions against the possibility in volume 2. I don't like super magic bullshit god artifacts coming out of nowhere, but this was pretty telegraphed and it works, thematically at least. Desuwa fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Feb 20, 2015 |
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Feb 20, 2015 19:22
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Two novels that haven't even been mentioned in this thread, as far as I can tell. Gifting the Wonderful World With Blessings is another one of those reincarnation stories where the MC is super competent, but this one is more because everyone else, especially his party members, are incompetent. The reincarnation gimmick is that you get to ask for one thing to bring with you, whether a skill or an item, and he asks for the goddess he was talking to. Translated by skythewood, and it's fun. Rokka no Yuusha is about a prophesied six heroes who save the world, except this time there are seven and the MC is suspected as being the fake. I haven't actually gotten very far but the series seems to get quite a lot of love, so I thought I'd mention it. I'll give Zhan Long a look, a point in its favour is that the MC is older and not a teenager.
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Feb 25, 2015 06:56
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Serious Frolicking posted:I've been thinking about Zang Long despite how underwhelming it is in general. It isn't really like most of the vrmmo wankfests, because the game is just a game and not the means by which a character can live a literal second life as a fantasy hero. Rather, the guy's life itself is the fantasy, and that fantasy includes having the time and resources to play a fun vrmmo. Well, a fun vrmmo with an unbelievably lovely crafting system. I mean goddamn, a crafting skill that makes mana potions and only mana potions? That's really dumb. I've been reading this and it's really quite fun. However I just reached the point where he switches to being a swordsman and I'm kind of ticked off. It was nice to have an MC with an unusual class, and he was some kind of war priest. I was expecting him to eventually get some kind of Paladin class, but I guess he still is in a way. His luck is pretty bullshit but I don't mind it too much.
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Feb 26, 2015 07:04
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I don't mind a mary sue power fantasy as long as it's fun to read. That's a very small set of works, though, but Zhan Long has been fun so far. Desolate Era is pretty fun too, even if it's just getting started. Not sure how its longevity is going to be with such strict power rankings and everyone being superman, but it's not bad so far.
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Mar 13, 2015 20:47
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I stopped reading shield hero once they got to the village arc and then never left it. It introduced far too many characters that I can't bring myself to care about (and they're all ~special snowflake~ characters who are just as good at fighting as the main cast because reasons) and went on for at least three or four times as long as it needed to. It was very plain that the author had no plan and was just filling time. Also serious ending spoilers for shield hero, which I had spoiled for me: they beat back the waves and then, when everyone is celebrating, a bigger more evil bad guy that no one knew about comes and kills everyone. Shield hero wakes up in the real world and decides it was all a dream. The end. The author said that it should be a tragedy because it started as a tragedy.
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Mar 21, 2015 22:35
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I dropped Zhan Long when the translator put out a massive warning about extreme xenophobia. I can ignore some level of that but if it's as bad as it sounds I just wasn't going to be able to tolerate it.
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Apr 19, 2015 06:51
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FriggenJ posted:Dropped this one VERY quickly. One of the main characters is a 11 year old slave who wants to jump the main character's bones in EVERY chapter. It's really gross. It was going somewhat well until that point too. A shame. I kept going because I have terrible taste and a high tolerance for stupid poo poo and he sleeps with a prostitute a few chapters after that. Destruction Flag Otome isn't terrible though, at least not yet (and that's about as much praise as you can give most of these). It's about a girl who gets reincarnated as a really petty rival character in an Otome game who gets a really bad end no matter which route the heroine takes. By not being a terrible person everything changes. There's a story with a similar premise that I haven't gotten around to here. Most of these WNs have a good idea or two but drop the ball very quickly. The writers just aren't competent and most of these would be better off if they kept their length down to one or two LN's worth of content rather than trying to make a long series with no direction. The most common trap is probably just introducing too many characters. I dropped shield hero during the village arc when there were like 15 or so named characters actively participating in the story that I didn't care about and couldn't keep straight.
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May 31, 2015 08:54
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I feel like half of these could save two volumes in aggregate if they just cut out the boilerplate adventurer's guild explanations. None of them have anything to add to the concept, at all. Every paragraph that talks about one could be replaced by single lines. "I joined the adventurer's guild to get an ID card [because a pseudo-medieval society has really anal TSA agents at every entrance to every city]." "My rank went up because I'm not an incompetent!" "I got the super god rank that only one person in history ever got and was verbally fellated by every named I should catch up on OSO, it's pretty chill.
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Jun 3, 2015 07:49
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Sinking Ship posted:It's pretty terrible that I know exactly what you're talking about with the whole 'generic' light novel fantasy setting. The whole concept of adventurer's guilds and the like in fantasy is a bit... But then as a person who actually reads the poo poo from time to time I can't hold my nose too high. Though the one I've been reading most recently, Grimgal, has a very *unique* take on the genre while simultaneously not really stepping outside of the dumb adventurer guild and 'skills' and other bullshit tropes hardly at all. It just plays it a whole lot more seriously. I've only gotten like halfway through the first 'level' (volume? unno) and the tone gets surprisingly bleak and dark for what is typically really lighthearted fare - and not in that creepy way a lot of LNs do 'dark'. What springs to mind is in the party one guy chooses a 'death knight' class and so to advance his abilities he has to cut off ears or something ( can't remember the exact mechanic) but it has all the other characters commenting on what a loving psychopath it makes him out to be, because actually removing the ear from a corpse is a lot more hosed up than right clicking pixels or whatever. It's interesting for a light novel. I read that and liked it.
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Jul 1, 2015 03:40
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ConanThe3rd posted:So it's EVO: The search for Eden in Japanese YA Novel form? Sounds fun. It's more like Re:Monster but without any creepiness.
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Aug 8, 2015 22:05
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Sinking Ship posted:e: though honestly it'll be cool if we get something other than stupid sex jokes out of the Albedo segments, so, net gain? I don't know about the later LNs, but she's an LN-original character so don't get your hopes up. Apparently Demiurge was the original leader of the guardians, which is why he's the one going off to do volume 6 stuff.
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Aug 15, 2015 20:08
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Seems spiders can be scary too. Maybe not as scary as skeletons, who also have the monopoly on spooky. I'm betting Kumo will be the reason Julius had to take over as hero. Should give us a firmer timeline.
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Aug 29, 2015 02:34
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Algid posted:The previous hero was the one in the prologue. It's not clear as written but it mentions the hero and demon lord cooperating as being the "tragedy", and they both died from the "backlash" (probably death via mana drain, which explains the time delay before Julius took over) instead of actually hurting each other with their magic. Space magic is also something that can "reach the gods" (psedo-admin power) so they were cooperating to fight an admin. I don't believe they were cooperating, unless you're getting that from the untranslated novel. The translation reads that they were fighting each other using dimensional magic, killed each other/themselves from backlash, and the magic bled over into other worlds. But I did forget about that. I knew they were all reincarnated at the same time but we don't know where Kumoko's current time fits into the overall timeline. She could be weeks or months old, though probably not years.
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Aug 29, 2015 04:06
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I've still read worse. I am able to follow what's going on in this even if the tenses, plurality, and some sentences get mangled. Sure, if this were something I paid money for I'd be getting a refund, but its fine for something someone is doing for fun or to practice at English. Though I think they'd want a literate native English speaking editor to make corrections so they can improve more if that's their goal. If you want to see something truly unreadable try to read the fan translations of the later mondaiji-tachi novels.] e: Didn't realize the translator "learned" Japanese from anime. I'm amazed it came out as well as it did, good job on their part even if it's pretty rough at times.
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Aug 29, 2015 04:20
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They decided that whatever owned that nest was too much for them to deal with in combat and might have teleport magic, so they were going to run away, but they decided to burn it down first. Sure she could have done it without any deaths but she doesn't really have any motivation to do that, not when the alternative is tons of experience. If someone is going to burn down your home and all your food stockpiles I'm not going to get too mad if you kill them, especially if you're not torturing them like so many LNs like to do.
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Sep 7, 2015 20:06
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Adelheid posted:why would she torture them? isn't that taking extra time to do something that isn't gaining her experience? No, she wouldn't and she has no reason to. A lot of these really lovely WN/LNs have the MC torture the people who've slighted him and it's often the point at which I drop them. The other lovely thing that pops up a lot is the weird obsession with slavery, which shouldn't be a problem for Kumoko.
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Sep 7, 2015 20:58
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Got around to reading The Lazy King since someone mentioned it earlier. It was pretty good, short, and to the point. I rather liked it but there is one chapter of R15 stuff that feels a little out of place but isn't terribly creepy. It's a reincarnation story but that doesn't factor heavily into it. Apparently there's a part 2 but part 1 feels complete enough on its own.
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Sep 9, 2015 09:12
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If humans weren't meant to be killed why do they give so much experience? Checkmate, atheists. Also betting the thing with her mother was just a mistranslation.
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Sep 9, 2015 17:47
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Algid posted:She stopped using parallel will for combat a while back (right after taboo lvl10), and D just mentioned in 149 how the way she is using it was unexpected and its basically an out of system attack (direct soul manipulation/ attack). Huh, I did bit pick up on that either and it's still not completely clear to me what happened.
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Sep 9, 2015 18:31
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darkgray posted:Well, to spell it out, in Kumoko ch131 we learn that all the parallel minds are off somewhere doing Strange Things that is meeting with resistance for one mind and going well for the others, and then in ch135 Kumoko bumps into the Spider Death Squad, which was sent out by Mother, who has "finally" realized she is being devoured from the inside. Kumoko then contacts whichever mind is in charge of attacking Mother (meaning other minds are attacking targets somewhere else) to get a location report. In ch153 it's further discussed that the (ongoing) process of devouring Mother is having distorting effects on Kumoko's psyche. Ch149 discusses the method somewhat. Huh, when I read 131 I didn't pick up on the minds controlling physically separate bodies. I thought they were just deep in thought/mediation and not paying attention to what the body was doing. Makes more sense this way.
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Sep 9, 2015 19:09
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Kumoko picking up telepathy and language skills is going to become like Jee-Han from The Gamer taking points in Wisdom, I swear.
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Sep 13, 2015 02:28
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darkgray posted:Er? Isn't she confirmed dead through sensei's weird magical list? Thought that was why her name came up in the first place. I haven't read past the translation but I assume ruler's can block each others powers and searches. If that's true I can see blocking the search making her show up to sensei as missing/unlocatable and then being assumed dead. In that case I wouldn't be shocked if one or two of the other four dead students also reincarnated as monsters or maybe demons and were able to block the search.
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Sep 13, 2015 20:56
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This is like grinding reputation with a faction you don't care about just to get titles.
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Sep 14, 2015 17:01
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I really want Kumoko to knock sensei and Shun down a peg. They're far too confident for things with only four limbs.
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Sep 15, 2015 18:25
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Somewhat minor spoiler from future chapters from comments apparently there's one person between Kumoko and Gyurigyuri/the administrators in terms of power that we haven't met, that isn't one of her classmates. The power gap is supposedly substantial. Don't read those comments though. Learned my lesson.
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Sep 15, 2015 20:03
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The world seems oddly spider-centric. I bet the world itself rests on the back of a really big spider. e: darkgray posted:I spent a couple of days reading the first five "volumes" of The New Gate, and it's not terrible. In fact, in terms of prose quality, it's probably in the upper echelon among web novels (which is not amazing praise, sadly). I've read the first two translated volumes and it's not bad. The MC is horribly, horribly OP, even by the standards of these WNs, though he doesn't really let it get to his head. I guess most of the appeal for me is how the world has changed to deal with all the players logging out at once and the mythology that has sprung up about players over generations of the "NPCs" that were left behind. Not sure how it'll do for lasting appeal but if the next three volumes are worth reading it should be fine. The similarities to SAO and Log Horizon are pretty obvious, though the game was popular for years before turning into a death game and that part of the setting is used as backstory rather than a major focus. It's no Overlord or Kumoko but I enjoyed what I read. Desuwa fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Sep 16, 2015 |
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Sep 16, 2015 18:45
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The way I read it is she attacked and absorbed her mother's soul, along with the other Queens. Wasn't expecting her to have to restart, though since she still has her skills and her stats still appear even if they're "decreased" it should take nearly as long. I was wondering what she was going to be doing for the next ten years but I guess we're not quite ready for a time skip.
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Sep 17, 2015 20:30
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Mark your drat spoilers.
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Sep 18, 2015 04:37
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Some of that stuff is definitely not in the translated chapters, or is supposition that's likely to be true. It was presented as facts so I reasonably believed it was a spoiler. Now if the translated chapters mangled it so badly it wasn't recognizable when these things should have been known, well, that's a different issue but at least say so. At least from the translated chapters we still have no idea who Shiro is, or at least no firm idea. You're going to have to point it out to me if I missed something that paints a clear picture. I know I've misinterpreted some of the Engrish before, but even from the comments on the translation blog there are still wild theories about Shiro. There's also no reason to believe she didn't evolve into a humanoid spider/arachne, she's been aiming for it all along. Anything is possible but barring contradictory evidence it's also pretty reasonable to assume the demon king is her main body, or at least was during the scenes where she was giving out orders. e: Serious Frolicking posted:This page is covered with untagged spoilers for the same series. poo poo, this includes the post I quoted! So, exactly why did those two get butthurt about my post only? I didn't even mention anything from yesterday's update. Yeah and we'd been tacitly okay with talking about the newest chapters in unmarked spoilers, though from now on I guess we'll all be more careful. What looked like massive, game changing, unmarked spoilers was a wake up call. I think it's reasonable to treat it like an anime where the newest batch of translated chapters should be spoilered but everything older than that is fair game. Desuwa fucked around with this message at 08:45 on Sep 18, 2015 |
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Sep 18, 2015 08:40
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Serious Frolicking posted:Shiro went nuts for fruit. Kumoko runs multiple bodies and a sweet tooth is one of her defining traits. Plus, she just kind of looked at Julius and he turned to dust. I don't know where the heck that body came from, but it is totally Kumoko. Who knows, it might even be her main body. There doesn't seem to be much point in Kumoko running both the demon king and Shiro at the same time, though it's not impossible and it is one of the more likely ideas. The other thing is we know the demon lord is new, because the generals don't recognize her power/right. If Ariel wanted to be demon lord Ariel would have been demon lord for thousands of years. As for why she'd evolve into a humanoid, well, why not? It's been her goal for a long time even if she really doesn't have a logical reason for it, being a shut-in and all. Even if she gets to the point of having many bodies at once the fact that the egg she took over became her race shows that her "main" species means something, so presumably she'll level up at some point and choose to evolve. Sure maybe some of those are pretty likely, but some aren't, and some alternatives that are just as reasonable are possible. It was not weird to assume your post was spoiling a bunch of things; your pet theories are generally reasonable after all.
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Sep 18, 2015 09:37
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