- #1
Originally a light novel reader here whose coming back to read the wn, hoping that it gets past the 4th volume in terms of content (around chapter 100 of the web novel). Unlike the ln translations, reaper scans are a great translation site, so the quality is guaranteed. To make sure the content wasn't too different, I read the wn MTL translations for this review.The first 65 chapters are quite enjoyable; character motivations are clear, the plot is enjoyable, and for the most part, the story feels grounded. The author clearly has a vision for this novel, and executes it decently. The whole novel has an air of mystery around it, both in terms of why he's here and the nature of his abilities. The story is more mature; it does get darker as the chapters increase but has enough of a balance with more heart felt moments that it doesn't feel too dark. Overall, It has an interesting premise and plot progression, a solid 8/10.However, at around chapter 65-70, the story takes a sudden and major dark turn; the setting and characters as we know it gets completely flipped over. This is where that mind control tag comes in, and it isn't pretty.Spoiler
The protagonist and party loses, and characters we know either gets killed off or become guinea pig pawns by being mind broken and transplanted with fake memories. Chapter 71 starts with the main character believing that the person who mind broke him is his savior. The MC is in a completely new kingdom, with a completely different cast around him and motivations. The MC and the other mind broken characters have drastically different personalities, and coupled with a new setting, feels like a different light novel
[collapse]The problem with this sudden turn is that it was not executed and built up well, and is an extreme turn off because 1) the turn has several themes which are extremely unappealing 2) it does not get resolved anytime soon, and we are left with that setting for the forseeable future 3) the focus of the story shifts away from what originally made the story appealing into something else, with the original motivations of the characters messed up. This part is where I suspect a lot of readers will drop the novel. In essence, the story gut punches you at chapter 70 and if you manage to stomach that, leaves you blue balled for at least another 50 chapters. Given the 16 ln releases and some 600 chapters, it must have been damn good at making it up to the reader, hence why I'll track this in hopes of getting past that hump.All in all, I'll leave this as a 4/5 as that's the quality of what it is right now and in hopes of generating enough interest to keep this translation going. However, I leave this warning about chapter 70 so people know what to expect before getting slapped by it.