LitRPG Podcast 142
LitRPG Podcast 142
Nov. 16th, 2018
Hello everyone, welcome to episode 142 of the LitRPG podcast.
I’m Ramon Mejia. I’m here to bring you the latest LitRPG news, reviews, and author interviews. I have 4 new LitRPG reviews just for you.
Before we begin I want to give a shoutout to a Richard Van Scherpenzeel for making a donation to the podcast via Paypal. Thank you Richard for helping to keep the podcast going and keeping it ad free.
https://litrpgpodcast.com/support
New Releases and Reviews:
Transformation LitRPG (09:00)
Russian translation. Slice of life RPG apocalypse with a lucky MC.
Score: 7.1 out of 10
HereAfter: Dragons Rising (14:23)
Not a bad story, but RPG stuff doesn’t really matter
Score: 6 out of 10
Save Point: Upload (Book 1 - Sci-Fi litRPG Series) (20:47)
Weird but entertaining
Score: 7.3 out of 10
Dungeon Lord: Abominable Creatures (The Wraith's Haunt - A litRPG series Book 3) (23:55)
Interesting to see the IRL storyline come back.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
(Play Music 2)
LitRPG News
The good folks at Soundbooth Theatre have created The Official 'Dragon Seed' Soundtrack. jRPG inspired music 🐉🧙♂️🎶 composed using the EastWest studios sample libraries, have been sprinkled in throughout the audiobook for the Dragon Seed, which should be out any day for you to enjoy.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1822629184684006/
Out Now!
The Third Realm (Ten Realms Book 3)
http://books2read.com/u/mqZJDd
For A Few Minutes More: A Book of Cerulea (Sam's Song 2)
New LitRPG Audiobooks
The Arena's Call - Adventures on Brad, Book 4
Re-Start - Level UP Series, Book 1
Lewd Kingdoms: Shadow's Edge: A High Fantasy Digital Adventure
Upcoming LitRPG:
Guardians Of The Round Table 3: Singed Feathers (Nov. 18th, 2018)
A Song of Shadow (The Bard from Barliona Book #2) LitRPG series (Nov. 19th, 2018)
Island Kingdoms' War: Evolution Online III (A LitRPG) (Nov. 20th, 2018)
Fate of Camlan: A LitRPG Adventure (Camlan Realm Book 4)
(Nov. 22nd, 2018)
Limitless Lands Book 2: Conquest (A LitRPG Adventure) (Nov. 23rd, 2018)
Guild: A LitRPG Novella (Monsters, Maces and Magic Book 3) (Nov. 26th, 2018)
Civil War: A litRPG Adventure (The Rogue Dungeon Book 2) (Nov. 27th, 2018)
Eden's Gate: The Omen: A LitRPG Adventure (Nov. 30th, 2018)
Cultivating Chaos (VeilVerse: Cultivating Chaos Book 1) (Dec. 1st, 2018)
Hero (Level Up Book #2) LitRPG Series (Dec. 10th, 2018)
Redemption (The Rise Of Resurgence #3) (Dec. 15th, 2018)
Freehaven Online: Winter Dungeonland (Book 3) (Dec. 16th, 2108)
Dungeon Mauling - A LitRPG GameLit Novel (The Good Guys Book 3) (Dec. 19th, 2018)
Finding a Body (The Dark Herbalist Book #4) LitRPG series (Dec. 27th, 2018)
Level Up: The Knockout (Book #1) LitRPG Series (Jan. 9th, 2019)
*A side story set in the same Level Up universe, different MC*
Onto New Releases and Reviews
(Play Music 3)
New Releases and Reviews
(Picture 1)
Transformation LitRPG
The familiar world collapsed overnight. As the Game Transformation progressed, disasters occurred throughout the Earth. Materials changed their properties, new species of flora and fauna appeared, and there was no more electricity. The Game was massive, spread across multiple worlds, and when a new planet was added, it was converted into a huge dungeon, completely replacing the previous civilization.
However, the alien plans for Earth began to go awry from the very beginning. The conversion was less successful than expected and then an ordinary young man stole the bonus for the first gaming action in the new dungeon, depriving the invaders of their perk.
How can he manage the situation? Which of the aliens will become his ally? Which ones are his enemy? Dare they rebel against the all-powerful invaders, regain their land and even create a new world?
My Opinion: 306 pages, $2.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
Note: The story is translated from Russian and it shows sometimes. There are small semi-regular technical writing issues and some phrases that just don’t translate at all. The author says he plans to update the novel soon with a better translation.
This is a slice of life RPG apocalypse story. The main character (MC), Yaroslav, is caught up in it all when the whole world is transformed by space elves. He lucks out and gets some early bonuses for first kills and rides that streak of luck as far as it will take him. The story really just follows the MC as he lucks into or follows his intuition through adventures, finds allies, and kills his way to power.
The game mechanics are shown throughout the story but are mostly notification based as the MC gets bonus after bonus for his lucky achievements. Much of the power progress comes from this luck and not necessarily hard work on the MCs part, especially early on in the novel. It’s explained in the story why he’s so lucky, but that doesn’t mean the MC doesn’t use what he has effectively.
Overall, there’s good action, some interesting stories, and even a bit of intrigue between the various alien/fantasy factions. But, some people may be turned off by the lack of hard work on the part of the MC for his power or the wandering slice of life nature of the story. Me? I don’t mind either and had a pretty decent time seeing where the Russian story went.
Score: 7.1 out of 10
HereAfter: Dragons Rising
Nash Evers has never played a video game in his life…he didn’t intend to start after death.
These days, most people have their minds uploaded to HereAfter when they die and keep living into eternity. For Nash this means infinite opportunities to grow his wealth and power. A perfect death.
That is, until he gets drawn into a game he can't escape, with rules he doesn't understand, and stakes he never imagined.
Dragons Rising is the name of the game and the humble HereAfter citizens fill the role of NPCs in wealthy gamers' VRMMO experience.
The experience points are real, the magic is real, and death—for NPCs like Nash— is real.
Nash teams up with his hacker son to try to survive and bring down the corrupt organization that started all of this. But it's going to take more than a few potions and some grinding to teach this old dog new tricks. Nash has destroyed men and corporations, even conquered entire nations—but he's never faced anything like Dragons Rising.
My Opinion: 269 pages, $3.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
There are some nice character development moments in the story. The relationships and behaviors of the characters feels realistic and interesting. The well developed characters are the best part of the story.
The game stuff, while shown throughout the story, doesn’t make math sense and the RPG rules that are established aren’t followed. The main character (MC) dumps all his stats into a non-combat stat, charm, and leaves all other stats at low levels. Yet he’s repeatedly the bad ass fighter for most of the story able to beat monsters many levels higher than him, sometimes double his level. It was fairly obvious even from the first time the MC gains a level and his health jumps from something like 15 to 60 despite him only having a couple points in the stats that relate to health. It became super evident the stats and levels in the story didn’t matter when the reader stopped seeing stat points applied at all. There’s even a point in the story where the MC reveals he’s been hoarding stat point and not using them so that he can see where he really needs to put them, which is fine. But that means the MC, whose combat stats are penalized as a merchant class, has been fighting monsters 5-15 levels higher than him with the same stats he’s had since he was level 4 and winning. There’s about 5% of the story where the author uses an interesting leveling mechanic related to the MC’s class, merchant, but even that loses specificity and is used as a way to justify the MC leveling without ever giving details. Eventually, the RPG stuff just disappears in regards to both the main character (MC) and the villain in the story. Instead they’re described in more fantasy like terms throwing around never before established powers and abilities.
Ultimately, the resolution in the story occurs not by any earned levels or power, but from suddenly introduced artifacts of power that solve everyone’s problems magically/hackingly.
Overall, the story is well written on a technical level, and the good character development and interesting interactions between them is almost enough to carry the story. There are nice themes of love, loss, redemption, the emptiness of wealth, and the sacrifices we’re willing to make when we love. However, I read the story because the author told me it was LitRPG and I lost enjoyment because the RPG game stuff ultimately doesn’t matter in the story. The VR game world definitely matters, but none of the RPG rules do since their ignored or conveniently missing when the story needs to progress in a certain direction. However, if that stuff matters to you less, you might end up liking this more than me.
Score: 6 out of 10
Save Point: Upload (Book 1 - Sci-Fi litRPG Series)
Adam Harris’s name has just appeared on a top secret list of extraterrestrial origin. Unbeknownst to him, he’s one of a handful of individuals capable of implementing a Save Point, a static moment in time he’s able to revisit over and over upon death.
It’s a good thing, too. Brain cancer was turning into a real drag…
The government owns the list though, and they’ve wasted no time snapping him up. According to them, he has thirteen days in an alien realm to learn as much as he can before the inevitable, at which point his memories, Skill Progressions and Weapon Proficiencies will endure despite his body resetting.
Then it’s rinse and repeat.
But there are unwritten rules to the game he’s about to play, and unseen forces acting in judgment. Adam will have to learn the hard way that dying is the easiest thing he’s going to do today.
My Opinion: 450 pages, $2.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
This is a weird story. It’s a good story that was interesting enough to read it all 450 pages in one sitting. But it’s definitely weird. It’s kind of like the hunger games, except with some super weird aliens, RPG mechanics, and respawns. Like I said weird, but interesting.
On the game mechanic side, things are fairly light. You see the main character’s (MC) sheet fairly early in the story and get notifications about the new skills and abilities he learns and grows. But the mechanic that really play a bit part in the story is the respawn system. That’s the one that is the core of the story and is well used to dictate the pacing.
Overall, I can’t really say much about the storyline without ruining the sheer oddness of it. It definitely feels slice of life sometimes but then just takes some turns that left me scratching my head. Still, I liked it. But then again, I like weird stories.
Score: 7.3 out of 10
Save Point: Upload (Book 1 - Sci-Fi litRPG Series)
Dungeon Lord: Abominable Creatures (The Wraith's Haunt - A litRPG series Book 3)
The Light strives to purify the kingdom of Starevos from evil... and only Dungeon Lord Edward Wright stands in their way.
The Heroes of the Militant Church, led by Inquisitor Gallio, scour the forest in search of the Haunt, while Ed desperately attempts to uncover the secret behind the Heroes' origin.
Can Ed and his friends defeat the Inquisition and secure their own place in the world, or are they destined to become the monsters of their own tale?
All over Ivalis, the portents announce blood and fire as the ancient traditions return and abominable creatures long thought forgotten stir in their tombs. Both the Dark and the Light loom hungrily over the Haunt, and only one thing
is certain...
If pushed, Dungeon Lord Edward Wright will fight against them all.
My Opinion: 618 pages, $5.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
Though there are a few translation snags again, the story was entertaining and expands on the good stuff from books 1 and 2. Personally, I liked the little moments where the lore of the world was told. It makes the story world feel fuller and gives context to some social behaviors. The fights when you get there, are good. It was also nice to see a change of scenery and that the real world comes back into the story. There is good RPG progress with the main character’s (MC) dungeon lord powers and while I’m not a fan of the latest minion add, her inclusion stirs things up amongst the group.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Dungeon Lord: Abominable Creatures (The Wraith's Haunt - A litRPG series Book 3)
That’s it everyone!
You can follow us on
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/litrpgpodcast/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LitRPGPodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3-eBvpm-g7IkjfVktObGAA
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/geekbytespodcast
Our Webpage: www.litrpgpodcast.com
Other LitRPG facebook pages
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGGroup/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPG.books
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGsociety/
If you enjoy the podcast and want to support us you can also find all the other ways to support the podcast at www.litrpgpodcast.com/support
Thanks for hanging out with me today. Until we can hangout again, remember to go read some LitRPG!
(Music 4)
Music Credits
"Blip Stream" "Mighty Like Us" "Big Shift" "Vivacity"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/