Cenuki
VIP
4 years ago
·
EditedNot recommended
I will state now that this is a passionate review, because I truly do enjoy the series it's a part of and want it to be the best it can be. If I was to rate only about the beginning third of the novel, I would give this a stellar review.
However, there seemed to be a sudden drop off in quality that kept snowballing around that time. It's like the author completely lost motivation. Because of that, the bad far overshadows the good, leading to an overall negative experience. I found myself finishing the latter half solely for closure and to be prepared for Douluo Dalu 3 since I heard it returns to form (edit: whoever said that way back at time of this review is a huuuge liar. I read all this for nothing, bleh). If this was a one off novel not connected to Douluo Dalu, I would have dropped it regardless of my favorable feelings towards the author, but even those took a hit with this book. While at the time of writing this novel is shown as "Mostly Recommended," that is actually one of the lowest ratings for completed novels on this site if you compare. And considering the epic series it's branded with likely helping to raise these review scores based on proximity alone, that should tell you more about the state of this novel than I can.
Minor spoilers below as I list a few of my many reasons for disliking this.
Characters with promising starts are left behind, more than the average xianxia even. Out of the new 7 monsters, only a couple are relevant for more than half the book, and by the end it's only the protagonist and partner doing things.
The plot became repetitive with our protagonist repeating cycles of power up > confident a plan will go well > plan goes awry > forced to power up > repeat. There are several more repetitive things going on as well, but that is one of the most noticeable. Ps. Hope you like coma and amnesia plot devices.
The romance is... not very fit for the western audience. It's extremely forced, and there are a lot of polarizing happenings even when compared to the typical harem novel. Good chance you'll be frustrated by how situations are handled.
Protagonist himself is a hypocrite. Not to get too far into spoiler territory, but he'll ruthlessly kill one group and then spare another because they were pretty, despite that group obviously killing people on his side in later battles. The decisions he make more often than not work out in the end, but that's solely due to plot armor and the outcomes are not realistic and often break the immersion. They are absolutely terrible decisions that would never end well in reality.
The ending is not enjoyable at all. Almost nothing you want to see happen, happens.
Last big flaw I'll mention is that a beloved character in Douluo Dalu 1 becomes very, very twisted and irritating. Be wary of that if you read it.
Unrelated but important to note - beware of the comments. People spoil things left and right like they'll unlock extra chapters that way. And I don't just mean with this book but sequels. So if you're reading in order of release be very careful when reading comment section.
It's really too bad that the quality dipped so much. This was looking to be extremely promising as it had a strong author at the helm and a solid prequel to build on. It's unfortunate that I can only see this being enjoyed by people who are new to the genre. I wish it was enjoyable for everyone.
However, there seemed to be a sudden drop off in quality that kept snowballing around that time. It's like the author completely lost motivation. Because of that, the bad far overshadows the good, leading to an overall negative experience. I found myself finishing the latter half solely for closure and to be prepared for Douluo Dalu 3 since I heard it returns to form (edit: whoever said that way back at time of this review is a huuuge liar. I read all this for nothing, bleh). If this was a one off novel not connected to Douluo Dalu, I would have dropped it regardless of my favorable feelings towards the author, but even those took a hit with this book. While at the time of writing this novel is shown as "Mostly Recommended," that is actually one of the lowest ratings for completed novels on this site if you compare. And considering the epic series it's branded with likely helping to raise these review scores based on proximity alone, that should tell you more about the state of this novel than I can.
Minor spoilers below as I list a few of my many reasons for disliking this.
Characters with promising starts are left behind, more than the average xianxia even. Out of the new 7 monsters, only a couple are relevant for more than half the book, and by the end it's only the protagonist and partner doing things.
The plot became repetitive with our protagonist repeating cycles of power up > confident a plan will go well > plan goes awry > forced to power up > repeat. There are several more repetitive things going on as well, but that is one of the most noticeable. Ps. Hope you like coma and amnesia plot devices.
The romance is... not very fit for the western audience. It's extremely forced, and there are a lot of polarizing happenings even when compared to the typical harem novel. Good chance you'll be frustrated by how situations are handled.
Protagonist himself is a hypocrite. Not to get too far into spoiler territory, but he'll ruthlessly kill one group and then spare another because they were pretty, despite that group obviously killing people on his side in later battles. The decisions he make more often than not work out in the end, but that's solely due to plot armor and the outcomes are not realistic and often break the immersion. They are absolutely terrible decisions that would never end well in reality.
The ending is not enjoyable at all. Almost nothing you want to see happen, happens.
Last big flaw I'll mention is that a beloved character in Douluo Dalu 1 becomes very, very twisted and irritating. Be wary of that if you read it.
Unrelated but important to note - beware of the comments. People spoil things left and right like they'll unlock extra chapters that way. And I don't just mean with this book but sequels. So if you're reading in order of release be very careful when reading comment section.
It's really too bad that the quality dipped so much. This was looking to be extremely promising as it had a strong author at the helm and a solid prequel to build on. It's unfortunate that I can only see this being enjoyed by people who are new to the genre. I wish it was enjoyable for everyone.