I think its more than poor translation (though it is that too).

So interestingly I opened the Comic Book version and gave it a go. It is pretty good. I'm not a huge fan of the medium (i never read comics even as a kid) but I got into it and enjoyed it.

I went back to the web novel to see if i could get into it then. I couldn't. It was still horrible.

Part of it was the translation (for some reason it is translated worse in the novel then the comic even! like the same scene has different word choices). 100% that's part of it. but I suspect part of it is also the different medium.

In the comic I think you can get away with less... well... story. Since the pictures fill the gap. So you don't need description, less scene setting, etc.

So while a large part of the web novels problem is the poor translation (definitely) that creates a stilted format... I also think part of the problem is the same 'words' don't work without the pictures as a crutch. Or maybe 'crutch' is too negative (implies a bad thing). Just different mediums.

But without the pictures framing the story is objectively just poorly written even putting *aside* the translations. Add the bad translation in, and it is imo cringe worthy.

That said, I fully give props to the comic that it was a lot of fun and even engaged *me* who doesn't like that medium. So if *I* liked the comic version it has to be good quality.

 

I finished the comic in one sitting. It was interesting, despite how I'm not really good at looking past the poorly-so-translated text. Since we're judging based on the story and not that, I'd say it's slightly above the general LitRPG rabble.

The MC's road to power is more than a little unbelievable to me considering the immense pain and mental anguish it would entail, but it's mostly glossed over in favor of getting more powerful. It doesn't really feel like there are consequences to anything because of that, though.

Spoiler

For example, Subaru from Re-Zero has a similar power, but he's still terrified of using it. It's a last resort, presumably because dying sucks. This guy just impales himself like it's no big deal. And really, burning to death? Literally having your skin slough off and eyeballs boil? Sometimes staying alive for minutes? He's just... fine? Did I miss the part where he can't feel pain anymore?

That, and the author was incredibly quick to abandon any repercussions from going back 24 hours. Each time he repeated the conversation with the sword saint to change a tiny detail, he had to wait an entire day. That could've taken weeks, assuming he's human and fucked it up occasionally for no other reason than because humans make mistakes.

What was he doing for those weeks on end? Nothing interesting, apparently. For a guy that is completely unafraid to use his time traveling power to relive the same day ad nauseum, he's shockingly disinterested in doing anything fun. Honestly, I would just accept it if the author told us he was doing pushups every second of every day. He seems like that kind of guy.

Going back to Subaru, the world makes sure to fuck him over every now and then with a bad "save point." It doesn't seem like there are any such limitations or consequences for our boy.

Gripes aside, the side characters are actually pretty interesting; certainly more than the MC himself. And the art is great. The story was compelling enough to make me read it (in manhwa form, I don't think I could read the webnovel), which puts it above most manhwa. It does fall into the trap of devoting entirely too much time to random, unimportant "side quests" like the entire thing with the empire. Does anyone actually care about that storyline, or that the demon king is really some kind of tragic figure? Honestly, I just want to read more about the characters he's actually going to develop and not the one-offs.

I'd give it a 4/5 for the medium, with a far less generous rating for fiction in general.

 

I just started reading the manwha. It sounds like it should be a MarySue-Type story, but somehow isn't.

Tchweek!

For now, I rate it 4/5.

 

I will disclaimer my review by saying that I am completely disregarding the quality of the translation. It's a fan made translation and the translators change during the course of the story and as a result the quality wildly changes also.

But I think it's clear that if you look past the translation, that this is a well written story. The

Spoiler

Otome arc

is the jewel of the crown in this regard, where the author establishes the rules very early on and then later does something that feels like an asspull, but actually is completely within the rules established. It's a wild ride of original thinking and fresh ideas.

The story just feels fresh, it seems to be a stereotypical story of the genre but it does things differently from the very start.

This is an absolute 5/5 for me.

 

How far ahead of the comic is the webnovel?

 

The latest chapter of the manhwa covers the events of chapter 40 of the webnovel. The webnovel translation, that I've found at least, is on chapter 125.

 

I just read through the first few dozen chapters of the web-novel and it was quite bad.
A part of it was definitely the bad translation (with the translator sometimes including author notes like "LOL ISN'T THAT CRAZY"), but I just didn't dig it. The concept was nice but poorly executed. Everything goes smoothly for the MC. There are no stakes.

In Re:Zero the trauma of dying and loss of friends (or relationship development) due to the reset helps keep it grounded. In here, the dude kills himself several thousand times with a knife with no issues.

There are some nice touches in the world building but I never really liked it.

I have not rated it due to me not wanting to read the manwa (not a fan of manga/comics/whatevs), but it would have to be
2.5/5, rounded to 3 due to novelty.

 

This is pretty great.

Webtoons tend towards the edgelord incel bullshit of a character being knocked down by assholes, gaining power, and then becoming the ur-asshole and revelling in it. This has the dude striving to do better, to be better. To use his reset ability to find the difficult but better solution. It's like when you've played through an RPG a couple of times and you know all the right choices to make to hit the 'good ending', not just the quick savescum to an infinity+1 sword.

The cheapness of his deaths was a bit grating at the first big batch of them, but it hasn't dipped so low as that since.

I like the Aincrad style dungeon, and the skills so far that all characters have seem to be relatively low-key for litrpg, which is actually refreshing.

5/5

 

The first "Season" of the manhwa has just finished. I finished that and then immediately jumped into reading what there is available of the webnovel as well. The localisation is definitely very rough at first, but once the regular translator comes around it feels coherent and enjoyable again.

Not getting into webnovel spoilers directly, but I think what I love most is the way the world and setting constantly find ways to expand and change itself. That and how it sets up something and then isn't afraid to head in a different direction entirely, like how Floor 12 changed drastically from what I thought initially it might be.

5/5

 

I'm up to date on the manhwa, but I'm holding back from going to the webnovel, The art and presentation is a good chunk of what makes it enjoyable. I'm happy reading updates as they come.

 

In a lot of manhwa/webtoons I feel like I'm zoning out and just scrolling scrolling scrolling through empty white-space and meaningless waste panels. Never got that vibe here, and it did a lot of good to retain my interest.

 

Chapter 70 just dropped for the manhwa, and I think it's safe to say that this is the best litrpg/tower story to come out of Korea by an order of magnitude. It is so far above the rest in the genre that it feels like a disservice to rate it.

The very beginning of the story ticked some pet peeves of mine and I didn't have a lot of faith going into this arc since I thought it'd degenerate into the trash typical of the rest of its ilk. That was proven dramatically incorrect. The characterization, character development, writing, world-building, art, dialogue. It's all in a league of its own. I'm tempted to read the webnovel at this point, since I'm so impatient.

All that said, in regards to the rest of the thread, I thought it was funny how Palindrome talked about training yourself to translate bad prose as you read real time. If we're honest, we've all been doing that with fanfiction all along.

 

I enjoy it, but I wouldn't go that far. The Heavenly Demon stuff has been enjoyable, but it's not really as unique or amazing as a lot of people seem to think it is.

I'm definitely enjoying reading this, but for me it still hasn't distinguished itself as one of the best.

 

The author can't really do dialog or character interactions with the wider cast very well which I think holds it back. They recognize this and don't force it at least, but it's a fairly noticeable flaw.

What are the better other manhwas to compare to though? I feel like most of the litrpg/tower climber ones are just all kinds of terrible

 

Solo Levelling is really good.

 

Solo Levelling, as mentioned, is the king of this genre.
Also higher up the totem pole than SSS-class, for me, is Omniscient Reader and Overgeared. Archmage Returns is slightly better, imo, and around the same quality as SSS-class you have things like Kill the Hero, Return of the Disaster Class Hero and Second Life Ranker.

 

True solo leveling is definitely the best here. I still like SSS though because of the character growth. Though I'm worried for its future considering that they have so much story to go through but significantly less character growth (especially because they can't really kill off other characters for it). I'm hoping it doesn't get too repetitive with similar scenario's across each floor

 

Whoa there. Solo Leveling is a mediocre story, though with a few rather excellent highlights, that is hard carried by the art team. The actual narrative and character work is bordering subpar, tbh. It's just acceptable because of how beautiful the whole thing is.

SSS-Class Suicide Hunter is pretty firmly the best Tower/Dungeon manhwa, though there's a handful of good ones. Kill the Hero and Omniscient Reader are a tossup for the #2 spot, IMO, and Return to Player at #4. Special mentions for Solo Leveling and Leveling with the Gods both for being mediocre, but serviceable enough, stories with exceptional art that elevates them far above what the writing truly deserves. Definitely worth giving both a shot, if you haven't already.

There's a few other top-tier manhwa in other genres available (Great Mage Returns After 4,000 Years, Legend of the Northern Blade, The Only Necromancer, and Arcane Sniper spring immediately to mind), though hands down the best of the lot is Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble. The writing is pretty sublime there.

Also, guilty pleasure shout out to Advanced Player of the Tutorial Tower and Tale of a Scribe Who Retires to the Countryside; the art is generally subpar for both, and the writing is generally mediocre with flashes of brilliance (especially arc 1 of Tale, that's legitimately great), but they're both strangely compelling and worth taking a look if you're curious.


Anyway, back on topic, Suicide Hunter is easily top of the pack, if only because the author is capable of a degree of nuance and subtlety and has an at least vague understanding of how human beings work, both of which the Dungeon Manhwa scene is severely lacking in. The story is an actual narrative with people and growth and integrity, which is far more than can be said for 99.9% of the genre, and automatically elevates it above its lessers.

 

The MC of SSS-Class Suicide actually feels like a human being. You can tell how the events of the story influence him into becoming a better person who has empathy. Striving towards clearing the tower in a human way rather than just "My power level is maximum" is a more enjoyable story.