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
03/28/24 Otaku translation v1c16
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
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154 Reviews sorted by


Crimshine
Crimshine rated it
December 9, 2016
Status: v2c71
Without a doubt, one of the best Transmigration/Time-Travel story with game element out there. The MC have his knowledge of the game lore and his capacity as a ex-gamer to progress faster, without being OP (at first he struggles against the lowest level monster) He became stronger fast but he is certainly not the pure OP guy unmatched under the Heavens that CN novel writers like so much, it is often said that his strength growth is outmatched completely by some people.

The story is really interesting, the fight are very... more>> well detailed and not just "MC is so OP that whatever the enemy do he just have to fight for 2 min to annihilate them".

Secondary characters are well written and some of their interactions with the MC are quite funny.
A plus for the translation who is very well done.

Yup, try it, you will certainly like it. <<less
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mukkaar
mukkaar rated it
March 21, 2016
Status: --
Really good, although its kind of "game" genre there isn't that much stats stuff as other "game/stats" based novels. Which is really good as too much level stuff gets just wastes space on story. Also telling style is different from most novels, it has realistic feel. Even tough this is Chinese novel its somewhere between Japanese, Korean and Chinese and character names are western. At start this is bit confusing I like how this differs from most of the novels. Overall really good novel. 4 or 4.5 stars can't really... more>> decide which one. <<less
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Kiruschka
Kiruschka rated it
January 30, 2022
Status: v4c23
If you want to read "kingdom building" or something with a "system", you will not have it.

Around at the beginning of V3 it all stops and what happened are only fights, fights and fights.

And the fights are so god damn loooooong - and is showing from a ton of perspectives, which is fine but after some time, the characters dont show up anymore.

... more>> There are a ton of world building which go nowhere, which just will not stop!

Fine, tell me about the 400th city from 30 years ago which was kinda important, so what? If you dont make anything out of it, it is useless to know.

The insane amount of "deus ex machina" for no reason at all, is just... I dont get it.

The talks between the characters are... I dont know, it makes no fun reading it - most of them are long winded with no conclusion (I dont care about the talks if nothing happens in the end).

But! it is good translated and the story is somehow ok, 3/5 stars is ok but I dropped it. <<less
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avinashvamshi180
avinashvamshi180 rated it
December 31, 2020
Status: v3
The story has a potential. It was good in the beginning. The MC was smart and intelligent in the beginning. As the story progresses, I hated his character. He does everything for selfish reasons and reasons as doing for saving the Aouine Country.

Literally there are only female characters around the MC. I mean there are very few male characters around him. It made me wonder sometimes whether the author has any issues dealing with men. Literally all the female main characters like Princess, Freya, Amandina all like him. Its like... more>> he reincarneted once again not to save the country but to have all the main female characters to himself.

He disregards everything otherthan princess later in the story, all the characters from side characters to main characters praise so much it gets annoying really fast. He has incredible luck in the story, its like everything is scattered him. With such cultivation and unique card system the story can greatly expand and has such potential, yet the main character doesn't leave Aouine at all.

I just dropped the novel around volume 3 it got really annoying to like the MC. <<less
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idkvan
idkvan rated it
June 15, 2020
Status: v3c301
This story would be otherwise decent except that certain characters ruin the story. The MC is some sort of beta whose overly attached to a video game he played. Lets his plans be consistently ruined by harem members, they get in trouble, he has to save them, rinse and repeat.
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Shangori
Shangori rated it
May 29, 2020
Status: v3c340
You have to get over the use of blatant magic the gathering 'rules' that play more and more a role in the story as it progresses, but beyond that this story is absolutely Good, with a capital G.

The characters is where it's at. As with any story, without characters you can either enjoy, or see yourself in, it all falls apart. And this novel has them.... to a certain point.

And this is where I explain the 4 stars review instead of the 5 star. It's not really a spoiler spoiler,... more>> but I'll keep it between tags anyway...

Spoiler

While I adore most characters, it's mostly the female cast where it's lacking. Why? Well.. the harem tag comes into play here. The women WAY too easily fall in love or show devotion to the main character. And while I would be able to accept them individually, that is, they are all, to a certain extend, explainable, the combination of all of the 'accidents' and 'attraction' becomes a bit too much. You will have to accept some 'oh, her as well?' in here.

It's not a huge problem and I some are more problematic than others. The main 'waifu' sucks. Sorry, but one, she has no reason to fall in love with the MC and two, I just don't like her! And yes, I'm talking about Romaine.

Freya is next and while I love her as a character, she isn't great as a love interest. A generic tsundere that basically falls in love with him because MC strong, yo. A shame of a good character, really.

The two I do like and see having a reason to fall in love with him are Amandina (a royal that ends up as his right hand) and Scarlett (a mercenary that loses everything, becomes, basically, a zombie and has no one else to get attached to beyond mc)

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If you can get past these two obvious problems, this story really is one of the better ones on this site. The fights are good. Believability ok. The characters is where this story shines (and every story should make characters the main focus, tbh). Enjoy for what it is. And hope that translation keeps on going <<less
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qull
qull rated it
April 11, 2020
Status: Completed
*I read mtl version, so I might not be as accurate.

5/5 for first half, 2/5 for later half.

This is a system novel set in a western fantasy game world. This is considerably a slow novel. The writing style is akin to western fantasy novel rather than typical Chinese webnovel. There'll be a lot of flashback, flashforward, and change of POV. Many characters are introduced, and author will spend a lot of time describing the same events in their POV.

... more>>
Spoiler

First half: The MC can be super OP at time, but weak too at other time. However, the story focused on self-improvement and city-building. Apparently, I like how the MC climbs up and build his reputation to save the dying empire.

Second half: At one point, the novel turned into a God, Dragons, and Destiny type of novel. Whenever MC fight one foes, there'd be a 3rd party that took advantage of that and, often, kidnaps his friends. Then that person turns out to be an evil manipulator behind the scene, which MC must fight for the next war. This loop continues for a big while. However, the novel saved MC too much with all the "Destiny"--- for example, his close commoner ally turned out to be ancient bloodline and saved him out of trouble etc.

Final thought: As cliche as it is, his main girl turns out to be an ancient evil boss reborn that went unnoticed until final volume. I'd say it seems like a retcon to prolong the novel...

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fireutsie
fireutsie rated it
March 26, 2020
Status: v3 c280
Me: "How much plot armour does this novel have?"
Author: "Yes"

This basically sums up the entire novel. I can't believe how much plot armour this MC has. Treasures, inheritance, skills and other stuff popping up left and right like it's common goods.

The way the author tries to show the "complexity" of the novel is not done well. It's basically "wow, how did you do that?", followed by a long monologue from the MC. The writing in general just isn't there, I think the idea is good but the execution is... more>> horrible imo.

There is also an akward (imo) card system that resembles MTG that the MC uses during fights while the story has a bunch of modified DnD elements in it. While these concepts are interesting they are also rather hard to follow and not very well implemented.

But if you can handle all of this, then you'll find out that the story itself aside from a few arcs are decent. <<less
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Bugai-sha
Bugai-sha rated it
March 23, 2020
Status: c40
Review as of Chapter 40 (2 stars) :

The novel is FULL of plot holes. Until now, the MC tries to justify his s*upid actions by saying how it will change the course of history etc, but even an idiot can see that those actions were pointless.

... more>>
Spoiler

For example, MC bravely risks his life to light his house on fire in order to alert the town about enemy attack (based on his memory, MC thinks this will somehow reverse the fall of an entire country?). Anyway, the enemy soldiers already attacked the town with arrows before anyone noticed the fire, and the fire or its consequences are never mentioned ever again. It becomes clear that alerting the town wouldn't have had any big effect on the war anyway.

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The MC makes s*upid decisions and reminisces about pointless things from the "good ol' days" in the middle of fighting. Long monologues in the middle of battle scenes.

And the power system doesn't make much sense, MC becomes too powerful just by killing a few monsters and getting XP, totally unrealistic leveling pace even for video games. It is hinted that others (ordinary NPCs) without MC's cheat system also absorb XP (less than what MC absorbs, of course) and level up by killing monsters. In that case, the world should have already been filled with high level people who farm monsters.

Oh, almost forgot to mention, female companions are cardboard cutouts of cliche tropes (currently, there's one airhead and one tsundere). Their role is to do s*upid things (though not as s*upid as MC), get into trouble because of that, then be saved by the MC (using cheat skills) and constantly think about how awesome he is. <<less
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Leosinurat
Leosinurat rated it
January 22, 2020
Status: v1c38
I usually don't write a review and in early stage on top of that

This is just my personal taste but in transmigration to another world, story usually start with introducing the world, or at least he himself or other thing to make sure reader know who and where he is gonna start

But man I just can't bear it, start with self doubt? Really? Transmigration to an almost dead body? Plot armor in the very very beginning of story? Really? You can put all those things in mid stage or whenever... more>> you want just don't do it in the fcking early stages.

I just want to give this novel a chance, maybe it start horrible and better when the story is going, but man, holy mother of Marsha what the hell did he just encountered mind monster type that make himself doubt his self? A BIG BIG PLOT ARMOR AGAAIINNN?

Nope just nope <<less
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GronkJuice
GronkJuice rated it
January 28, 2019
Status: --
Hmmmm, not sure how to do this to honor my thought to the articulation needed....

Ok, so the story is rather interesting, has flaws yes, but still original enough that I enjoyed it. the major flaw was as someone else stated. It felt too much like if the MC was not in the world, it would be just another rock of rubble in the sky.

The mechanics are, strange at best. I enjoyed the TCG style card use, added an interesting twist tot he power dynamic. However, I failed to see... more>> its purpose. it is not used for much outside the MC having another OP ability to decimate his foes. on the other note I did enjoy the summons on it, they where more, human, than the living beings in the world.

Lastly it felt more like a power fantasy of the writer giving himself 'power overwhelming' then anything remotely close to an actual story with depth and purpose. I enjoy random s*upid writing just as much as the next brain dead reader, however I still want some kind of consistency and development of depth when you have over 200 pages of text. this feels like a written form of dragonball, and yes you get about 2 paragraphs/min of new/interesting development for every 3-5 pages/episodes. <<less
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zeidrich
zeidrich rated it
January 9, 2019
Status: v2c80
So far so good. A better interesting take on the game system+reincarnated/transported MC. While the MC is quite powerful, he isn't omnipotent. However, his extensive skills in swordplay and magic is far and above any other character.

While the game system does have a significant role in the story, the author doesn't regale the reader with constant stat updates or XP progress. Only when significant events occur does the author mention the game system. Most of the story involves how the game world works and future events that are transpiring.

Romance is... more>> in pre-teen/shounen territory with the girls blushing and the MC being very dense. Some action sequences tends to drag on, but the they are gripping. Characters are pretty one-dimensional, so far with only Freya, the deuteragonist, showing dynamic characterization. Everyone treats the MC as a all-powerful being because of the gap in skills. Most characters are cardboard cutouts of a standard trope. Romaine is forgettable, a nuisance, and not funny.

Recommended to those who like the genre and want a good story along with extensive lore. Not recommended for those who want to see a lot happening in the current timeline. Most words are explaining the past or remote regions/people that are almost entirely unrelated to the main characters.

Edit: Nothing really happens by vol 2. Ch. 80. Story about the different factions is not as interesting. Too much backstory. Pausing on this. <<less
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Potato Tomo
Potato Tomo rated it
June 2, 2018
Status: c320
One of my favorites. From story to setting to characters are all written well. It feels like I'm reading a published book when reading. It never felt that something lacks, and, as I saw how detailed the novel was, made it look as a masterpiece to me. Aside from the author, the translator did a thorough job at making the novel better.
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shelwyn
shelwyn rated it
May 17, 2018
Status: v4c21
It's a great series, I even read the machine translation just a little bit to read ahead.

I think the translator does a great job, he could probabaly make a decent amount of money by just working for qidian instead of running his own site, paying hosting bills and even adding invasive ads.

Guess it's up to the translator. Anyway he's really good at translating he just has a lot of real world problems it seems.
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Hantosh
Hantosh rated it
December 31, 2017
Status: v3c75
Plot:
MC gets transmigrated into an NPC of his favorite VRMMORPG. Then sets about trying to change the game's future history with his OP future/game knowledge.

Pluses:
- Translation is okay. The original writing isn't that good anyway, so the "rewrites" are a non-issue for me. I suppose they'd be easier to swallow if the typos and odd word choices weren't as common. The Chinese have words for Japanese-specific terminology like "onee-san, " "moe, " "chuunibyou, " etc and the author frequently uses them, so complaints about them are pointless.
-... more>> Epic fights & army battles. Follows the Rule of Cool trope as the story often breaks its own rules.
- Game turned into reality. MC has a game system, XP, loot etc. Stats would be interesting if they mattered/appeared more though.
- World building is okay, nothing really unique to make it stand out though. Mostly focused around medieval knight battles with random fantasy elements thrown in from everywhere.

Minuses:
- Pacing issues and interspersed with infodumps.
- MC has no backstory beyond the game. No personality besides his one-track goal of saving the kingdom/I remember this from the game/don't mess with my nakama! Basically his personality is generic and predictable, and given the story setting his motivational speeches feel like chuunibyou.
- Characters are rather shallow; they have a defining trait and don't seem to grow much beyond that.
- No romance. Could be a plus, except he accumulates a harem but nothing happens.
- Cliche VRMMO element mistakes; one-time quests, thousands of classes, persistent AI characters + changeable storyline (would never work in a game w/ millions of players), millions of items (hard to imagine w/ the garbage stats/unique effects on the items actually shown), super AI magic programming, etc. The MC knows way too much pointless minutiae (eg: heraldry, army compositions, minor characters, quest info/storylines, etc). MC has tr*sh gear for his level.
- Additional game mechanics are tossed in for no reason. The Magic The Gathering subsystem is tolerable until the full chapter infodumps, and every card battle feels like asspulls on top of asspulls. The terminology and even some of the cards themselves are copied straight from the game. The card game never appeared in the VRMMO and unfortunately it seems it'll be pivotal to the story's endgame (when he ascends to the god realm or whatever).
- Cultivator story elements start popping up later. Character/monster levels have a game level ranking and a cultivator ranking. Cultivator abilities aren't believable in a game setting (how do you balance everyone having hundred meter radius AOE attacks, flight, unique abilities/domains, etc?). MC has a secret OP grandfather, gets the best unique element, has a secret OP bloodline (in a VRMMORPG?), gets a secret OP inheritance (from you'll never guess who), keeps offending people above his level, etc etc.
- Presumably more RTS mechanics are introduced later after his base starts getting into full gear. Don't know if I'll last that long.

Recommendation:
Meh. The story translated so far (v3c75) is okay, my complaints mostly appear after that. Kinda feels like a train-wreck when the story keeps breaking the rules of its own universe. <<less
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aminit
aminit rated it
December 26, 2017
Status: v3c160
A good novel that's getting better and better, the game system is a little confusing.

v3c160 EDIT:

Well the storytelling is becoming more and more inconsistent and confusing, The MC thinking is all over the place, a lot of small or big events happens out of nowhere, I remembered that the translator spoke about these issues so I went looking and here is what he said which is spot on:

... more>>
Spoiler

1) Word padding/watering down content.

When I first started, the author would randomly add things like 'Brendel shakes his head a thousand times' (because the CN webnovel author is paid if they cross a certain amount of word count).

It's easy to deal with this. I simply remove them.

2) Plot holes/Logik Phail (logic fail).

The Plot Hole is a recent thing, and I didn't realize issue number 3 because Plot Hole kind of takes away the attention. The silver mines arc is the only one with such a big plot hole so far. Logik Phail sometimes happens when dialogue/actions don't link, but it's still easy enough to fix.

3) The upgraded version of word padding.

Now, THIS is seriously irritating.

The recent chapters are undergoing what I perceive as author's "whatever ideas that I can think of, I will just dump them in" chapters without checking for narrative flow (also related to how CN webnovels authors add bonus chapters because of their voting system).

Before Plot Idea A ends, Idea B comes in, and Idea C starts showing up, goes back writing about Idea A, then Idea D suddenly comes in, before going back to Idea A and concluding it, Idea B and C has nothing to do with Idea A and Idea D.

I start to fix all these darn issues, only to realize that Idea E appeared in the next chapter that's related to Idea A and D.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

This is even harder to fix when compared to the missing plot holes because I can't delete these Ideas away, and they are confusing as heck because of the number of ideas. I have to rewrite the entire order of all the ideas, make narrative sense, then fix word padding and Logik Phail.

Now I'm rewriting a significant chunk of things in order to fix things as they come in increasing levels. I'm spending days and days thinking on how to improve on the scenes in the future chapters. The thing is, I can't self-edit check my own stuff because I don't have the unbiased viewpoint here, and I can't stop because I feel that it can be better.

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The novel is still readable thanks to the translator and if you start skipping whatever nonsense the author throw at you. <<less
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NoLongerTheSame
NoLongerTheSame rated it
June 30, 2017
Status: v2c166
Giving it a 5. The story may not be perfect but a "perfect" story doesn't exist. It simply depends on the taste of the readers whether it's an aye or a nay.

The reason why I'm giving it a 5 is partially due to the effort spent by the TL esp. After reading his notes, you'd realize plenty of going ons are behind the scenes to get at what we are reading right now. Compared to other CH-ENG LN translations, this one gives off a less cluttered vibe and neatness. I... more>> don't know how the original text is translated but I like this one.

As for the story, although it's cliched, it still manages to draw you in; the story doesn't give off the common chinese LN-esque feel with all the giving faces, you offend me I spill your red liquid stuff. So if you are sick of those and you are also fond of RTW and similar stories, this is a good novel to add to your reading list. <<less
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Relhak
Relhak
June 28, 2017
Status: v2c55
+ Well written characters

+ Nice detailed battles and fight scenes

- Gets quickly confusing with many overlapping characters and vague descriptions of them

- The many abilities and side lore, which is meant to portray depth just add's confusion. Especially the convoluted cards system that is introduced in v2c50.
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rainx
rainx rated it
January 9, 2017
Status: c1141
Edited on 20/5/2019 ~ 1 * to 3*

Well, I decided to change a bit on my review after seeing this review of mine from years before. Thus, I thought back on this story. I could not remember everything but more than enough to comment, yeah.

I'm a Chinese and I read the originals.

This story as I remembered is quite unique with its game system and reincarnated into the gaming world. The system itself is somehow like DNF but more complicated. For those reading it for the first time, remember to keep... more>> in mind the difference between MC and normal people's way of strengthening is entirely different. I remembered getting mad when I first got into this novel in the past but it gets better later on so just continue on. Do your best!

Spoiler

The action and battles are pretty good too but to be honest, it gets bad in the latter parts. I won't deny it because the author kinda lost track of all those things he introduced earlier and it just gets cut off here and there.


The plot is what kept me going at first. Even after I reached the thousand chapter, I was still immersed in the plot, trying to know what will happen. But, the plot just went haywire when the author finally decided to reveal the female MC's (Roman or Romantica?) background. I think that was the first time I got so mad I rewarded my laptop one punch.
Well, that is just for me anyway. For those that likes deep plots and plot armors all around, feel free to be a customer and wait patiently.
Then, there is also the fact that this novel is centered around politics, very much. You will get to see lots of ugly asses trying to pull the MC down and small skirmishes that will last for hundreds of chapters. Then, the MC is also the type that tends to raise the c*ckroaches. Yep, the villains are c*ckroaches where they don't get killed and keeps coming back again and again. Well, not all but I remember some of them are like c*ckroaches indeed.
Also, as a side note. This author's naming sense is fantastic in it's own way. Making the name long to increase the word count for his chapters in Qidian is one unique style of writing indeed.
Well, this book isn't that shabby. For me, it is just average due to many parts that earned my minus. But, it should be quite an enjoyable read for those that likes isekai and gaming with a deep plot.
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Vindis
Vindis rated it
December 13, 2016
Status: v1c54
I rate this Novel 4 stars.

Reasons?

First the story is well written, MC is good to he start of as confused but later on we would be able to see more of his personality for character the girls are good too (All hail Freya!). This is my 1st review so I don't really have anything to say but it really is interesting and if your bored and have nothing to read this novel is a good choice. The only downside is that even though author is linking almost all of MC's... more>> opness to the 'Game' I really find it annoying that the author does not really say much about the game's system how XP are given base on the lvl of monster?? How ability points are given too is a great mystery to me, As if MC is trying to catch some elemental points out of thin air although elemental pool was not displayed on his system. <<less
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