General Isekai Thread

I so want to see an isekai where the MC transported into a REALLY difficult RPG, like Dark Souls series.

Edited by dRoy on Aug 24th 2019 at 4:13:33 AM

That's more or less what Re: Zero is. The protagonist's only special power is that he doesn't stay dead, much like a Dark Souls protagonist.

Re:Zero is more like a visual novel with a lot of bad ends and really difficult speech checks that doesn't tell you all the information you need to know, I think.

If you think about it, Dark Souls is itself almost an isekai. Lordran and its surroundings are hugely separated from every other place on the (presumable) planet, and the area is regarded as a forbidden and sacred land. You only get there by traveling via crow from a place that's already as far away from human civilization as the survivors can comfortably send those who are turning Hollow. It's already an extraordinary place.

Edited by RedSavant on Aug 23rd 2019 at 3:40:20 PM

Nah, you're still very much a native of that world. Unfortunately.

If anything, Bloodborne is more of an isekai since you spend the entire game trapped in a dream world.

You know it would be fun if the main lead was a girl who ended in a place similar to Candy Land/Tottoland/Sugar Crush. It would be fun if they ended up in a Literal Sugar Bowl, but a secret Crapsaccharine World. It could be a mixture of light and darkness, instead of being all out dark.

Edited by firewriter on Aug 23rd 2019 at 1:44:40 AM

There's a comicbook with that kind of premise already, I Hate Fairyland.

Just noticed that this wiki groups the Western "portal fantasy" genres together with the Eastern "isekai" - although I personally feel that the likes of Alice in Wonderland or Narnia are a far cry from Log Horizon or Kumo. I suppose that's more of a sign of a breadth of the genre than of different genres though.

Darkest isekai I know of and still follow^note I Reincarnated as a Noble Villainess But Why Did It Turn Out This Way? pretends to be a villainess isekai while actually being a low fantasy medieval politics and warfare story. Story starts with an infant poisoning her entire family. She's the protagonist. And also Vlad the Impaler.

Also I need to look up how this site defines portal fantasy because in many stories it is completely impossible to go back due to having died and also Just Because.

Edited by Arha on Aug 23rd 2019 at 4:24:57 AM

Yeah it's more of Games of Thrones then Dark Souls, but if you want isekai with lunatic difficulty set from get to go you get one

I swear to God these titles are melding together into one gigantic amorphous blob.

Seriously what the Hell does that title describe even a distinctive bit about its story, characters, or setting?

Also that is a good question, how many isekais are made nowadays that don't start with the protag dying & reincarnating?

They tend to be almost clickbait titles, so there's only so many variations on clickbait you can make.

LN titles are basically short snappy synopses at this point.

@M84

Instead of a kid being trapped there for decades and slowly going crazy from the inane cuteness, it's a high school or college student instead.

They're like those weird silver age comic book covers, where they come up with an often idiotically clickbaity premise, slapped it on the cover and left it up to the writer to make some sense of it.

Like Lois Lane as an astronaut saying "*GASP* Superman snapped my air-hose because I won't marry him, he's committing the PERFECT MURDER" while Superman has an evil grin on his face.

It's the same energy I feel.

Edited by GoldenKaos on Aug 23rd 2019 at 10:59:26 AM

Yup, pretty much what I was going to say.

Look, I just want to see some isekai action series where enemies actually pose some threat to the MC and have antagonists whose battles are either so grueling or creative that they become memorable. Is that so hard to ask?

Oh who am I kidding, of course it is too much to ask, because if MC don't curb-stomp everybody it gets in the way of power-fantasy. -throws up in mouth-

Eliza which Arha mentioned has plenty of gruesome fights.

Wrong Way Using Healing magic has surprisingly creative fights despite protagonist being muscle head especially later in story as he create more and more ways to abuse his healing magic.

Just to be clear, Wrong Way To Use Healing Magic isn't that gross one where the party healer reincarnates and uses his magic to sexually humiliate and/or rape his old team members, is it? Because I've seen that one around.

Look, I just want to see some isekai action series where enemies actually pose some threat to the MC and have antagonists whose battles are either so grueling or creative that they become memorable. Is that so hard to ask?

You haven't been following Kumo?

Dropped it after volume 5 and didn't pick it up.

No, The Wrong Way To Use Healing Magic is where the MC uses healing magic to survive Training from Hell and gain Super-Strength, Super-Speed and Super-Toughness as a result.

You're thinking of Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi

Edited by GoldenKaos on Aug 23rd 2019 at 12:06:01 PM

The title is definitely long and annoying, but it gets across that it's not really a villainess isekai. It just doesn't tell you that it's all about light cavalry, infrastructure improvement, political maneuvering and setting people on fire.

Also yeah Kumo's fights are pretty well choreographed in my opinion, but in the web novel, which is the best medium for it, the fights can be pretty uneven. Or rather it feels too much like a contest between equals when Kumo is supposed to be an underdog. And later she just kind of runs around stomping.

Edited by Arha on Aug 23rd 2019 at 2:09:34 PM

@ D.Roy: ...Thats literally what Re:Zero is.

Season 2 will make that specially clear based on the Material they are adapting for it.

Not gonna give it away, though.

Not really, no.

Yeah, Kumo was one of the better isekai story that actually had somewhat interesting power scaling. Shame the same couldn't be said about the human characters, but eh, I'll take what I can.

What exactly is Kumo?

"So I'm a Spider So What?" tends to get shortened to Kumo around here. Presumably because that's the main character's name and it's easier/quicker to type out.