I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated (WN) Chapter 196 Discussion

If you're looking for a Fluffy x Serious Business story, this is up there as one of the better ones.

The ML and FL share the leading role but mostly this is a novel focusing on the ML (the sword) for the general narative and FL (pettit succint catgirl) for interactions and the bulk of character development. It's a good formula for developing what is otherwise a pretty timid and quiet character.

The relationship is mostly teacher

student, which is nice touch when everything else, particularly JP, is some romance or another. That said, there is some room for interpretation.

The action revolves around a gamified fantasy setting. The execution is pretty well done. The one-catgirl party of two, has the typical growth advantage, but is severely lacking in many other aspects, from combat tactics to social relations and just plain general lack of knowledge of the world (one is a reincarnator, the other was a s*ave until recently).

Won't go into details but the plot fits nicely togheter, there's an overarching mystery, the world has a palatible internal consistent logic to it, there's various interlocking subplots and submysteries, and characters introduced in one arc come up again. Side characters have their own agendas, and will vary in their alignment with the main heroine and her sword-sensei. However, since this is pretty fluffy, a lot of the time the bar only really goes down to "highly suspecious" / "dangerous unknown" rather then outright hostile towards the main heroine.

If there's a downside it's that the world is very average. It's not bad, it's actually very consistent, but there's nothing that will necessarily wow you. There are towns, there are monsters, countries, dungeons, etc, and they're as average as you can imagine them.

In short,

• • ML, FL party combo that stick together like glue thoughout

• • Action has strategy and depth to it. There's also plenty of political conflicts.

• • Gamefied western style cultivation system.

• • Interesting relationship between ML and FL

• • World and conflict are logically consistent

• • Plenty of interesting characters all round.There are followers but their story is mostly inserts into chapters and they don't (perma-) join the main party or follow every whims of the main heroine

• • The villains get plenty of exposition on their background and motivation

• • Translation is good. First chapters are a bit rougher, but quality picks up a lot once CardbordTL picks it up.

Make of that what you will.