The Amber Sword

Description

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An RPG gamer who played the realistic VRMMORPG ‘The Amber Sword’ for years, finds himself teleported to a parallel world that resembled the game greatly. He takes on the body of an NPC who was fated to die, and with the feelings of the dying NPC and his own heartrending events in the game, he sets out to change the fate of a kingdom that was doomed to tragedy.

Associated Names
One entry per line
Heroes of Amber
TAS
琥珀之剑
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
I am the Monarch (12)
Release that Witch (12)
Night Ranger (10)
The Second Coming of Gluttony (8)
My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending (7)
Sevens (7)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Masterpieces in their own category
  2. The Mt. Tai of Chinese Novels
  3. Win Life with War Strategies
  4. Western Names Part 2
  5. A Web-Novel otaku's MUST READ. (CN version)

Latest Release

Date Group Release
03/25/24 Otaku translation v1c15
03/22/24 Otaku translation v1c14
03/20/24 Otaku translation v1c13
03/18/24 Otaku translation v1c12
03/16/24 Otaku translation v1c11
03/13/24 Otaku translation v1c10
03/12/24 Otaku translation v1c9
03/11/24 Otaku translation v1c8
03/08/24 Otaku translation v1c7
03/07/24 Otaku translation v1c6
03/05/24 Otaku translation v1c5
03/04/24 Otaku translation v1c4
03/03/24 Otaku translation v1c3
02/29/24 Otaku translation v1c2
02/27/24 Otaku translation v1c1
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154 Reviews sorted by


Hitexh
Hitexh rated it
June 4, 2016
Status: v2c40
One of the best Novel out there. The MC is mature and wise. One of the best respect I had for MC is that he is not wasting his time for putting revenge on his old friend, when he has the chance to. His objective is more important that he even prefer to hide all his own achievements. Unlike other Chinese novel story that aim to put their own clan on TOP and seeking revenge. Fumu~
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BlinkToThePast
BlinkToThePast rated it
September 6, 2021
Status: v4c130
I've been reading this story for years but I think I'm done, it's progressively gotten worse. I saved up about 100 chapters to binge in the hopes it would rekindle my liking for the story but I couldn't get through it.

The author has built an interesting and detailed world that he has no idea how to tell in a manner that is understandable. To give you an idea of what I mean imagine reading a 30 chapter stretch of a novel but every so often a chapter is missing or... more>> put out of order or a paragraph is spliced from one chapter and put into another. That is what reading through v4 chapter 100-130 felt like. And that is not an unusual occurrence. It is a horrendous feeling to go from one chapter to another and feel like there is large tracts of story missing because the author abruptly skips forward or backwards in time for no apparent reason.

To add to that the translation has gotten notably worse, for example: names of characters or species randomly change (as in suddenly a character named Maynild started to be called Nemesis for no reason for a couple chapters at a time). A character referred to as 'he' will suddenly start being called 'she' for paragraphs at a time or general stuff like misspelled/misused words, incorrectly combined words (as in forgot to press space), or entire paragraphs duplicated in the same chapter (because the translator forgot to delete an old edit or something). It feels like the translator has lost their editor/proofreader because it's the same translator with a notably worse quality. This is bad when the author is also confusing and hard to follow.

Finally the arcs drag on to the point it's unbearable, I thought if I save up chapters and read them at once it would be less of a slog but no, it's just as painful to get through. Which is a shame because sections of this story are genuinely fantastic to read, you just have to get through 50 chapters of filler and confusing lore dumps to get to them. <<less
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berdanka
berdanka rated it
August 7, 2019
Status: v3
The first problem of this novel is how the author is info-dumping some baseless and abrupt expositions expecting that you should believe him.

For example, he tells how MC loves this country, how he supports the princess and adores the warrior girl. But it feels like some random trivia without any proof or base and not something that should drive the plot. It doesn't feel like a reason to risk your life, because it's not "Past Plays a Big Role", it's more like fan memories of a hardcore gamer.
Also, this... more>> "reincarnation into the game" setting is a totally unrequired element because the author never tells you about the protagonist's real life. He could just say that the protagonist is not the otherworlder but some random overpowered guy that time-traveled and reincarnated. Nothing will change.
Further, the main character's ingame past is very obscure. His motives are weak, and the author tries his best to avoid speaking about it.
The last major problem, terrible translation. Translator can't stop blabbering. His comments destroy any immersion you managed to get. Not to mention the fact that he took some liberties with translation.

Present four problems ruined this novel for me. Don't know about what potential people are talking about. <<less
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A solid and slow world development which unravels as the plot proceeds. Every extremely good rewards and power-ups of the MC are acquired through hard work. The only downside for me is the slow translation. Over the course of 4 years, the translator only managed to produce 200 chapters and note to that that he was multiple times faster back then. He has another 1200 chapters to translate. At this rate of translation, we need to wait 24 years to see the final chapter. This project is impossible to finish.... more>> Don't read it even though the translator is doing a good job in translating and editing. This will become a legacy series where you will have to read the novel along with your kid who is in college. <<less
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ZeroBlink
ZeroBlink rated it
January 19, 2019
Status: c30
The reason why I'm going harsh on this is solely, because the writer wrote himself into that situation.

1. Reborn in a game, with knowledge of the future.
I'm used to transmigration, time travelers and other mc's of that type, that's not a problem.
The problem lies with making the game world REAL.
See in game, I can cope with tremendously s*upid and incompetent characters. It's like "well ok... s*upid npc's be s*upid". In this case you can't say that, for these characters everything that happens is 100% physical (unless the... more>> author flips the script later on). So when I see an incompetent idiot put herself in danger over a piece of equipment or idiot MC awaking a world boss if not entire undead army over his own carelessness. It really takes me out of the action and the setting. I hate novels where everyone is just INCOMPETENT.

2. No respect for authority.
This random nobody (MC) goes around dictating everyone around and they take it... no, just no why are the leaders so INCOMPETENT that they let a KID order them around??????? WHYYYYY

3. Gaming mechanics.
If I had to cut off a finger for each situation the MC asspulls a mid-combat XP and AP level up to save his ass, I'd be finger-less. HE kills 3 skeletons... hmmm "let's get a skill that makes me invulnerable for 5 minutes".
Great moves author.... nice power progression, giving a level 1 noob overpowered artifact and endgame paladin skill.

4. Artifacts... by current chapter his decked out in artifacts that are 40-50 level above his own. <<less
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Valefor
Valefor rated it
September 16, 2018
Status: v3c171
REVIEW SHORT VERSION

This is one of the BEST novels on this site. READ IT ALREADY!!!!!!!

REVIEW LONG VERSION

... more>> This "Chinese" web novel is worthy of 5 stars for several reasons.

First, the author has accomplished the almost impossible task of seamlessly combining aspects of Chinese light novels, Korean light novels, Japanese light novels, and even western epic fantasy novels. The novel includes: a famous card game themed cultivation, reincarnation into a VRMMORPG game world (resulting in some but not all knowledge of the future), romantically dense protagonist, tsundere/ditzy/inventor/tomboy "harem" members, levels, XP, stats, skills, magic, crafting, rare/interesting equipment/items, medieval/fantasy politics, medieval/fantasy factions, divisions within factions, militaristic/gaming strategies/tactics, large/small/one-on-one battles, and weak/challenging/impossible enemies. I am certain I left out some aspects which should have been included but one should be able to get the gist of what the author has accomplished by incorporating so many aspects into a single novel, not even considering how well the final product turned out. Bottom line, if you at least like the action version of two or more of the listed novel types you will enjoy The Amber Sword and if you love two or more of them like I do you will place The Amber Sword in your top 5 novels list.

Second, the translator goes above and beyond what even a paid professional would be expected to do. The English is almost flawless. The translator went back and reedited early chapters to reflect information revealed only in later chapters. The content is streamlined for better flow and comprehension in western culture. The translator even includes personally found appropriate music for every major/important chapter. In fact, I almost fell in love with the translator when I read chapters 19-22 from volume 2 with the perfect background music.

Third, the depth and development of the world building found within this novel is astounding. There is a proper and well defined base ancient/world history, race histories, individual realm histories and even character histories. The politics are not divided into two, three, four, or even ten easily defined factions. There are clearly (eventually) defined historical, cultural, racial and ideological factors which developed each division of each faction. On a scale from 1 to 10 on world building where The Lord of the Rings, Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones, and Mistborn are 10s then The Amber Sword is at least a 7 if not an 8.

Fourth, almost all the characters also possess a surprising level of depth and development. All major antagonists, companions, and side characters have detailed backgrounds and future storylines which the author shares through the protagonist's memories of the game. Several of the weaker/side antagonists return stronger, return reformed, and/or cause mischief to the protagonist through a third-party. The "harem" girls grow emotionally stronger, physically stronger, and/or display more hidden facets to their personalities the longer they accompany the protagonist. Finally,
Spoiler

the summons of the protagonist grow/display in the same way the female companions do just to a lesser extent. This is something I truly appreciate the author for, since it would have been easier and probably acceptable to just leave them as blank or single faceted creatures.

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Fifth, the protagonist is both noble and a realist. Please notice that I did not write a noble as in a noun but rather noble as in an adjective ("having or showing fine personal qualities or high moral principles and ideals" google. Com dictionary). Unfortunately in many novels today, noble characters tend to be portrayed as naïve, foolish, and/or tragic, while cynical/selfish protagonists succeed at the noble characters' expense. I can understand this trend because it is fresher and quite often more real world relatable for noble characters to have this weakness. Thankfully, The Amber Sword has a noble protagonist who is also a realist ("a person who accepts a situation as it is and is prepared to deal with it accordingly" google. Com dictionary) rather than an idealist ("a person who is guided more by ideals than by practical considerations" google. Com dictionary). This interesting mix of qualities creates a character who is morally "good" and yet does not suffer the stereotypical weaknesses of such characters. This combined with his strategic and especially tactical genius makes him one of my favorite protagonists of all time.

Sixth, the previously noted militaristic/gaming strategy and tactics are major factors to why this novel is so great. This novel is one of the very few which brings in large scale opposed groupings and has them combat strategically not in just the preparation phase but through multiple counters and recounters until the battle is completely over. On the tactical front, the protagonist uses previous gaming experience to prepare for encounters but several tend to have an unexpected twist which causes the protagonist to improvise on the fly. I like how many encounters do go according to plan because it both proves the value of the protagonist's game knowledge and highlights the twists of other encounters.

Seventh, the protagonist is powerful and has plot armor, but is not over powered/"armored" enough to always win, let alone win easily. Also, the protagonist starts out truly weak and progresses quickly but not too quickly. These factors result in him losing/running away from many minor enemies whom he is later able to crush with ease and him utilizing his quick feet, tongue, and/or wit to escape many major enemies. Once the protagonist reaches a certain power level, he encounters three types of enemies; those he defeats with ease, those he is "David versus Goliath", and those he has no chance at all against. I particularly like this aspect because it provides variety, visible progression, giant-killing/underdog fulfillment, and a pinch more realism to the story.

THE NEGATIVES

No novel is perfect and The Amber Sword is no exception to this rule. The faults I have noticed include the card game themed cultivation, the stalling of female companion growth/display, and the lack of equal strength rivals/enemies.

The card game is overly technical and hard to follow unless one truly understands the inspiring game and takes notes on each card which is obtained. I once read an author's opinion on successful magic systems in novels. According to the author, one must either go with a mystical system with limited applications which imparts a sense of wonder upon the reader or a regulated system governed by rules which allows the reader to predict possible applications of the magic. Unfortunately, the author seems to be aiming for the latter but achieving the former. The Amber Sword has so far avoided any crashes from this conflict but I worry about the future.

Once The Amber Sword reaches the third volume, there is a noticeable decrease to the development of the female companions. They begin to resemble cookie-cutter harem girls who can only think about how wonderful the protagonist is. It has not gotten to the point of reducing the rating of the novel but if it continues it will do so.

Finally, the protagonist has no equals in his sphere of relationships. All other characters he involves himself with are superior or inferior in society and combat. This prevents the story from having either a proper rival or a true companion. Unfortunately, at least one of these two traits occur in many light novels. I can only hope that such a character appears in this novel eventually.

PET PEEVE

While this does not affect the novel in any meaningful way, I personally hate that the first novel ends at chapter 56.

Spoiler

It is the shortest novel by far, leaves a cliff hanger, stops just short of the first strategic battle, and just before one of the greatest duals in the history of light novels.

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The first novel should end at chapter 84 (Volume 2 chapter 28). I also believe that this is the minimum point one must read to before one can give a truly accurate ratting for this novel. <<less
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terraheart
terraheart rated it
May 17, 2018
Status: Completed
Read whole novel, refreshing take on Xuanhuan.

Edit 27/09/18
The translations is fine and but is tweaked to make the novel flow better - however as of 27/09/18 the translator has stated he has made changes to the raws so there are actual discrepancies now, it is difficult to state the full impact of these changes as they are in its infancy and although the core plot seems to be the same, this is no longer a 1:1 translation.

The other issue with the translation is that it's extremely slow and erratic... more>> (by erratic I mean releases/month) - at current translation rate it would take 10 years to complete whole novel.

The novel itself is well written with great character development but the romance is very weak which is a shame because the characters are excellent. Basically the romance in this novel is limited to blushing/ awkward feelings. By end the MC does have a harem and intimacy is implied but for most of this novel the reader is left to their imagination.

The plot is good but can get needlessly convoluted at times. The combat system is fine but getting the two fighting methods (one is magic the gathering card game tactics, other is classic sword fighting) to flow doesn't always work.

I rated this novel 5 stars because the characters are great and I like the MC who is ruthless when he needs to be but usually is rational, calm and caring. The girls are diverse albeit all of them seem to love him. The exploration and world building is very well done. All the chapters are approx 50% longer than your typical light novel which I really enjoyed.

If you don't like reading machine translations then you might want to skip this novel as it will be a very long time until it's fully done. The machine translations itself is actually on the more difficult side to follow but if you do keep until the end you'll be satisfied with the albeit slightly rushed ending. <<less
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sleib
sleib rated it
January 21, 2016
Status: --
Awesome novel... How come I have not read it before!!! protagonist calm, rational and with great potential. Story itself is very interesting too and has some depth, once I started reading couldn’t stop until I read all translated chapters. Update speed is slow though : (
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Senpai07
Senpai07 rated it
November 22, 2020
Status: c1200
At first I was enjoying this novel... The MC is mature due to the fact that he has the knowledge of the previous game...

But when the time that the knowledge of the game is practically useless you can feel that his though decrease from mature to that of an idiot teenager...

Also there are too many side stories/fillers that you feel that you want to skip just to read the "main" plot...
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DimaShishandra
DimaShishandra rated it
September 23, 2020
Status: v3c376
I woul rated first ~250 chapters as 5 stars. But later I became disappointed.

At the beginning you can see some interesting action, some MC development, usage of game elements etc.

But later game elements just disappear - tonns of exp MC got from farming is not even mentioned. Thick plot armor and luck replaces logical fights and development. Relationship and side characters become shallow - it's like it doesn't matter as MC already conquered them. Fights rely more on luck and unexplained items than on strategy/experience/correct level ups. It's kind of... more>> mess. Like author hopes to keep readers interest by throwing a lot of uselessly big unimportant for plot events. <<less
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timma
timma rated it
April 19, 2019
Status: v3c210
First I'll repeat the one thing that made me give this a chance. Ignore the cover. I'd also say ignore the harem tag. Unless that's a plus for you.

Things I like:

Second chance (ish), Not a loner (like solo play), does try to recruit peeps.

... more>> What I dislike:

Child of fate type plot.

Trying to save literally everyone.

Author drags stuff out so long I get frustrated.

I'll be honest, I made it as far as I did only to realize that I overall disliked this story. I kept hoping the MC would smarten up or sit back and control the strategy from the background, but instead you get this OP guy fighting above his level most of the time (even though he's constantly getting OP power ups/team members). This is because as one other reviewer said, "a novel with great potential and to see that potential squandered is frustrating."

I feel upset making it as far as I did. As I find out more about the overarching plot instead of being hyped I'm just disappointed. I hate seeing the characters had personality shoved into the background for hundreds of chapters while the latest princess/harem candidate is constantly antagonizing the MC. <<less
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Genisyn69
Genisyn69 rated it
December 12, 2015
Status: --
One of the better “wake up in game world” stories. I like how the author tosses in differences that could be both “first to find”, or because it’s an actual world, and no longer a game. Interesting way to world build, but so far they are doing a great job. Tons of cliffhangers though... (love ’em hate ’em, but they always win..). (written after reading from 0-33 chapter translation)
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colombopl
colombopl rated it
March 9, 2020
Status: v6c308
[I lowered grade and changed some of my review after reading more arcs of this story. See below]

It is my first Chineese LN and I must say that it indeed is better that most of JP counterparts I read till now. What keeps me reading this story is beautiful description of main goal of Brendel which is saving Aouine kingdom, royal princess Gryphine and the Goddess of War Freya. His main super power is knowledge about a future gained while playing VRPGMMO game.

When I read The Amber Sword it was... more>> very clear that it is a game transposed to a story. Mainly it is RPG. There are strategy elements and a bit of economy. Next kind of mixed game is playing cards which I do not like personally. But in this LN playing cards looks quite convincing.

Pure RPG continues in whole 1st volume. In 2nd a story starts to be more twisted and looks more fantasy like. Or we may say that there are more side quests. And gradually strategy and cards elements are added. The Amber Sword is emotional and very dynamic. I would even say that too dynamic. It looks quite artificial when MC meets dangerous unexpected adventures one by one. You will find a lot of battles ans skirmishes with monsters. Power of Brendel is increasing but this game is intelligent one and its difficulty level is increasing as well.

As story is really good written reading it is very smooth and hard to brake away from it. Of course more then one woman fall in love in MC so we have got a harem. There is some kind of main romantic plot with Romaine but it is not exposed much.

Both translators are decent but I miss previous one (Wolfie Honyaku). First of all it is because second translator changed some side characters names. There is a lot of them so it may be hard to follow who is who. When I read more and more chapters of a story then I start appreciate modified version and talk to myself: "Wolfie Honyaku, PLEASE COME BACK" (EDIT: Lately he is back). Author creates events of this WN in very messy way.

[EDIT at while reading 6th arc]

After reading a story at arc 6 I decided to lower my grade of a story as I was dissapointed too many times. "The Amber Sword" is built on hangovers. There is a lot of events that are not finished or finished without proper epilog. For example:

Brendel and his subordinates are fighting Madara noble. Fight is almost finished. Madara noble is surrounded and..... Story continues few months later.

Romantic part is dissapointing as well.

Spoiler

At some point of a story girls say stright to Brendel that they love him but he simple ignores it.

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It looks like he uses this bonds to have perfect subordinates. Maybe with one exception.

Author wastes sometimes the whole chapter to describe ONE power/skill that may or may not be used to win an outgoing battle. Or we have to read about events that are not important at all like when princess is thinking about buying a present for MC. At the some time important events and adventures are skipped or describe very frugal. And author skips at all important parts fo a reader like when people would be mesmerized by gigantic and beautifull stronghold build by MC.

You can skip part about witch Sophia in arc 5 as it is inconsistent with arc 6.

RPG, economic and military parts become disappointung as well as author simply forgets about them or gives an example that they were useless anyway.

A story has few another plot holes on a very basic level so they are too visible.

(Example: MC is climbing on vertical cliff using a rope. In the same time he holds/or support somehow a girl... and at the same time he fights monsters with a sword. He would need 4-3 hands to do it)

Summarizing I still like The Amber Sword but I am dissapointed.

P.S.

I did not read this story for a long time because of an awful cover. <<less
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dark.matter
dark.matter rated it
September 21, 2019
Status: v3c238
It's really a novel where you turn off your brain to enjoy it, but if you actually use your brain to look into this novel you would find this is a piece of complicated garbage. Like seriously it cant be more bullsh*t pulled out from the author, he describes one thing and then forgets after 10 chapters, he keeps on info dumping about useless things in history or stuff that dont matter instead of taking time to actually explain things that are actually important its to the point I'm sure... more>> that author doesnt even know what is he writing if you ask me, one of the most infruiating things is the author drags out things too much like stuff that can be described in 1 pharagrah are extended to 1 chapter and then he decides toTIME SKIP or change POV at the worst possible times like you would GET A CHANGE OF POV AT A CLIFFHANGER which literally leaves a bad taste cause when you get back into the fight after the change of pov it really kills the tempo, and the author literally time skips 1-4 months after a boss fight when things aren't even properly closed yet LIKE people want to know what happened after the battle like where are the side characters or how much exp the MC got from the fight. Oh right did I even talk about how the STATUS window isnt displayed fully even once after the first chapter we would really like to know the progress of all the stats of the MC atleast once to understand things but nope we dont get it, we supposed to just randomly guess he increased his level last chapter or he increased his strength to 20+ cause of the last fight.

Spoiler

The card thingy dont make any sense at all after the beginning and author randomly info dumps things about it and expects you to makes sense of it.

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Story is 2.5/5

Enjoyment 2.5/5 I was hooked to the novel at the beginning and kept wanting for more but the things not making sense got on my nerves and I had to shut my brain to get through it

Translation 3.5/5 theres too many simple mistakes in transaltion almost every other chapter. Also hope there was faster releases but I get it and thats alright.

All in all the premise of the novel is good (if you dont try to question elements) the MC isnt half bad, the world is interesting and I like game elements and back story of the world if only it actually tried to explain things in a logical way instead of jumbling up everything it would have been a good story, everything is jumbled up and you cant seem to understand anything properly. I like complicated things but its a waste if you cant get things through properly.

TLDR : Well you can enjoy this novel if you just shut your brain and just dont try to question things thats what I did after a point in time and got to the latest translated chapter. But DONT READ THIS NOVEL IF YOU WANT THINGS TO MAKE SENSE CAUSE THEY LITERALLY DONT AND AUTHOR JUST PULLS OUT THINGS FROM HIS ASS AND EXCEPTS US TO TAKE IT WITHOUT ANY EXPLANATION. <<less
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Sanatoga
Sanatoga rated it
December 4, 2018
Status: v3c198
EDIT: Once he enters the Dark Forest, the protagonist picks up a 500 pound idiot ball and becomes only marginally more foresightful than a shounen protagonist, which really drags down the story. From that point on, I'd probably rate the story at "Good" (3.5 / 5). It's still entertaining, but not really engaging. Doesn't change the fact that the first few hundred chapters were amazing, though.

-------------------------------------------------

[original review based on up through the end of v2]

While it's not without its flaws and the rich world might be a turnoff to some,... more>> this story is a veritable diamond among the roughshod stories that dominate this site. It's rare to see so many different threads and ideas in one place, and even rarer to see them all fit coherently into the narrative.

This is not a finely polished story, but even as it is now, it's so overflowing with potential and the author's own enthusiasm that I will quite happily recommend it to anyone. Seriously, just read it.

Relevant Tags: Fantasy, Strategic Battles, Weak to Strong, Kingdom Building, Multiple PoV, Clever Protagonist, Caring Protagonist

Rating: 5 / 5 (Masterful)

Spoiler
  • Writing: 4 / 5 (Very Good)
  • Translation: 3.5 / 5 (Good)
  • Characters: 4 / 5 (Very Good)
  • Story: 4.5 / 5 (Excellent)
  • World: 5 / 5 (Masterful)
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Reasons to love this story:

Spoiler
  • Amazingly deep world.
  • Everyone is clever, and while the MC runs circles around ordinary generals, the big players are every bit as cunning as our protagonist. This makes for some fantastic intrigue and a very engaging story.
  • Contains elements of hero vs. Hero Isekai combat, kingdom building, strategic warfare, psychological manipulation, and good old-fashioned friendship. And somehow makes it all work.
  • No crappy teenage romance.
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Reasons to hate this story:

Spoiler
  • Lots of info dumps, and almost no repeated information between info dumps. You can still read the story without retaining all of that, but you might find yourself confused by many of the MC's cleverer manipulations.
  • Characters, even minor characters, are all inhumanly determined and clever. This means that emotional interactions and lighthearted exchanges between characters are much less common. It also makes the characters feel rather unrealistic, although they're by no means unrelatable.
  • Writing is kind of odd/inconsistent. Still not sure if that's the author, the translator, or both. In general, it's very good, though.
  • No romance at all, really. What 'romance' does exist is mostly just the cute antics you saw in elementary/middle school. You can basically ignore it.
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Rulerhades
Rulerhades rated it
October 7, 2018
Status: v2c35
The problem I find with novels like this one are the way that the MC is a god. Pretty much anything and everything is solely about the MC and all thoughts from supporting cast only have to do with the MC. You could replace pretty much any side character with a talking piece of cardboard and I honestly feel like it wouldnt make much difference in the story. Even the enemies are only thinking about the MC, the world might as well revolve around him at that point. Not to... more>> mention that the MC can do anything he wants just because he knows the future. In a tough situation? Throw in some legendary items only he knows the location to. Knowing the future to an extent shouldn't make someone omnipotent, especially not to the point where the MC is able to overcome literally any challenge. How in the heck does he remember the specific stats of a single monster from the early game? He fights with opponents that are supposedly way above his current level, and the fact that he defeats anything he comes across just deflates any tension. You could skim any battle scene so far and he would win without any substantial loss. Another thing that rubs me the wrong way is the setting and lack of details. There is basically no background given of our MC other than the fact that he was thrown into the world of a game. He gets an OP item called a card of fate and it isn't explained. In fact, it might as well be a yu-gi-oh card with how they work. It feels like the author was too busy thinking of another character to idolize our MC or throwing another BS game term or item at the audience instead of actually giving life to the side characters or ideas he has. Decent idea, horrible execution. <<less
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Isaic
Isaic rated it
January 21, 2018
Status: v1c32
I was only able to read to ch32, while the reviews that have read further rated this rather highly, so keep that in consideration. I have two problems with this novel.

Now, a lot of reviews give a description of the novel so I won't go into that. When starting this novel you must keep in mind that, after occupying the new body, the MC is no longer just a gamer from another world, a combination of the gamer and the original occupant of the body (which I will call "the... more>> original" from now on). (The two souls did a melding thing.)

I believe this is how the author explains the MC's rather extreme (imo) caring towards the people in this world. Which I understand when it comes to the first girl character, "Romaine", since "the original" had feelings for her. I even understand wanting to protect the group that saved his life a bit later, you know since they saved his life. However what I don't get is the MC's attachment to the 2nd female, "Freya". She was part of that group and they fight together a bit so I understand some affection, but at ch25 it says this:

*light spoiler
Spoiler

"he already treated this determined and kind lass as his most important partner"

[collapse]

Wth? Up to this point there has been no romantic interactions and not a lot of other interactions between them. Ahh, and Freya is clearly supposed to be a tsundere.

Point being, the relationship is extremely forced by the author. That is my first problem.

While it isn't a big issue, the second problem is that the MC has a very extreme need to save this country, Aouine. I would get how badly he wants to save it if he was from this country and got sent back in time after living through its destruction. Yet, he didn't. He didn't even deal with this country much in the game, since it says this country was destroyed the start of the game. Now you can add that onto the "soul melding" if you want, but it also said that "the original" just wanted to do some adventuring and get rich. Nothing about dreams of becoming a hero.

My issues all stem from things in this story feeling "forced", which takes the enjoyment of reading away. To be fair, only the relationship with Freya is obviously forced, while if not for that then the rest wouldn't be a problem. If you don't have an issue with that then I expect this novel could be quite enjoyable. <<less
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Monk3yofchaos
Monk3yofchaos rated it
March 20, 2021
Status: v4c64
Yeah the volumes are veeeery long. You'll have to get the chapters somewhere else as Novel Updates doesn't have it (probably removed due to copyright or dead website).

4/5 cause the first volume is weaker compared to literally every other volume of this novel

The story is a very slow burn with satisfying results all around. It has good world-building. It has a Western Fantasy setting with western-fantasy names. The synopsis may seem pretty cliche but it's done very well. You need to have the suspension of disbelief in the gaming system... more>> but that's about the only part that you need to not think about. Everything else flows smoothly and although sometimes the author forgets about some characters temporarily by not mentioning them, he doesn't delete them or kill them off-screen (Ahh Launch, where art thou).

Now on to the main review: (from the synopsis and a few of my own words) Your MC is Brendel, an NPC in the VRMMORPG The Amber Sword. He was supposed to die very early on but with the "soul" of a player from the real world, he manages to overcome death looming over him. The two's personalities and memories merge with the player's side taking up more.

(Since the game world in real life is many times faster, the player can live multiples of years in them. The world in the game is basically another world at this point where there's extremely advanced AI and AI generated voices and quests and basically everything.)

The MC is heavily invested in the game because he had basically lived through the events in the game. He wants to save the kingdom he was invested in and with his knowledge of the future, it should be easy right? Well not really, he's basically playing a new save game with none of his old stats but he knows what choices to make and how to make them. It doesn't help that the NPC body is not very strong early on and it's satisfying seeing the MC power through with pure skill alone without any OP abilities.

Like I've said, the starting is very slow. It takes a bit of time for the pace to pick up (basically starting 2nd volume) with no random ass inventions or a cooking montage. The 2nd volume picks up the pace very nicely there's a bunch of intense action (not just the MC one shotting everyone)

The main cast is lovable. They grow a LOT and aren't just "the harem" for the MC. They have actual personalities and there's no love drama or anything whatsoever, the whole country is almost always at conflict and the MC doesn't goof around at bad timings either. The author does put up random ass fan service for no reason though, which is what I don't like. At least it doesn't impact the story at all and it's around 3 lines at max whenever it happens (like twice or thrice). You could honestly pretend that never happened and nothing would change.

The final parts of Volume 3 is the best part so far (in this specific novel) and one of the best arcs overall I've read. It's a wild ride and if you ever reach that part, you'll know how hype it was.

I'm just ranting ahead so just skip it if you want.

And please for the love of God don't read just 20-30 chapters like that other guy and say it's tr*sh. At that many chapters, you shouldn't rate it at all. At least finish the first volume of the novel. AT LEAST! I won't judge anyone who's at least put up the effort to read something and then decided to whether drop it or not. The guy literally says a certain characters haven't had development WHEN HE'S READ ONLY HALF OF THE FIRST VOLUME? How does that even work? <<less
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troutrun
troutrun rated it
April 9, 2019
Status: Completed
The Amber Sword is an average game transmigration light novel that is neither great nor terrible and held enough interest for me to finish reading the story. Since there are already other reviews that provide a good background for this story, I'll just summarize some of the things I liked and didn't like about this story.

One aspect of this story that is enjoyable to read is the MC is not a bloodthirsty mu*der. While the MC kills his fair share of enemies, there are countless situations where the MC avoids... more>> bloodshed or is the bigger man and lets his enemies go after accomplishing his initiative. Sometimes, the MC turns the eventual enemy into friends or subordinates.

What I don't like about this story (in list form) :
-- The card battle system (like Yugioh/magic cards) employed in the story is very confusing.
-- The MC gets every inheritance, occupation and godly item available, but still gets his bu*t kicked over and over.
-- Plot armor and forced plots are very strong in the story. Despite knowing the future, the MC makes blunders and irrational decisions over and over, leading to death or near death, and is saved only by poorly explained plot armor.
-- The love story part in this light novel is not genuine. All the girls fall for the MC despite the MC not making any moves besides blushing. <<less
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pravinpkt
pravinpkt rated it
November 3, 2018
Status: v3189
Initial premise of the story is one of the best I have read...

But the shear number of cliche moments screws up any enthusiasm to read this story..

Example

... more>> 1) Valhalla is supposedly a very important place...

2) On his way in order to save some one he kills a nobal... now he could have hidden or left asap since point one but no he wants to be a hero and start a war will be rest of the family of the guy he killed... NOTE Importance of point one to later readers after considering the ramification of failure no sane man will delay it...

3) But our supposed smart man is busy taking over a shitty territory and procrastinating till the very last moment to go after Valhalla when his knowledge should have told him how dangerous it will get..

4) Now then he has delayed as far as possible and mana tide and monster tack starts in the way to Valhalla he seas people from empire that have piety much screwed him but over and saves them (DUN DUN DUN HERO SUTPIDITY MOMENT)

5) s*upidity in 4th causes multiple s*upidity in late steps... He saves GIRL A than BOSS A Searching for GIRL A encounters him... BOSS B also after the Empire Group Mistakes him to be from empire and attacks him... GIRL B asks him about GIRL B yada yada yada yada... HE DID ALL THIS sh*t IRRESPECTIVE OF POINT (1)

6) At the end when the guy is a last make or break moment he is still hanging one to GIRL A who I might add SCREWED HIM OVER AND STARTED 90% OF THE PROBLEMS HE IS FACING

7) WHILE this is happening the more powerful guys the supposed friend of druids who are also enemy of the villains are just watching him getting screwed from 3 sides..

AFTER ALL THIS s*upidITY HERO IS SUPPOSED TO BE SMART AND BECOME SOME CHESS PLAYER

Now I get some authors want to make some thing exiting... some thing to show that all the trials aren't easy... BUT there should be a limit...

After the limit is crossed it becomes IRRITATING to read not ENJOYABLE <<less
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