Should we read up to chapter 19 and then stop?

 

Honestly, you probably could. there isn't really anything you need to know beyond the fact that:

Spoiler

Heracles and Jeanne were killed by Karasuba when the Hero Faction tried to recruit her.

 

Everything I've seen, from the rest of the story to the author's other work, suggests that the Kokabiel arc was a fluke that the rest of the story isn't going to get close to. It's still an above-average In Flight-like (certainly better than God Slaying Blade Works), but I really doubt it'll turn into anything greater.

 

A Demon Lords Hero, couldn't stand that story myself, none of the characters felt properly IC.

 

To put it bluntly, Demon Lord's Hero is pretty shit. The characters are, by and large, two-dimensional and the prose is extremely awkward, if I'm being generous. There's a handful of halfway decent ideas in the 2-3 chapters I read, but it's executed so poorly that I couldn't force myself to keep going.

I'm honestly surprised that anyone on DLP would consider it even 'almost recommendable'; I thought the standards here were rather higher than that.

 

I was bored so I read through the first arc and a bit, but yeah, it's shit. There's a mildly interesting villain but that's it

 

Bolded for emphasis. Demon Lord's Hero sits quite comfortably as Readable. It could jump to the almost good area.

 

Well, we are the forum that still has In Flight and God Slaying Blade Works in our Library...

But I do agree with Poytin that it is readable. Writing is reasonable, story is moderately fun. While it's epic points weren't nearly as good as those two, it certainly doesn't sink anywhere near the shitty harem lows. And while I haven't explored the Highschool DxD fandom much, it's probably the best one I've come across so far.

Like shitty FoZ crossovers, sometimes I'm just in the mood for a fic like this. And it still is better than A Demon Among Devils (a very similar crossover with Persona) and Through the World Door (a similar crossover with Familiar of Zero).

 

A Demon Among Devils has some cool moments, but the plot and characters don't hold up. The latest chapter was an exercise in pointlessness. Boring. The story is a whole lot of wank for the Persona protag and seems to be setting him up to become the new God in DxD'verse. "I do not judge; I simply accept." and all that wanky bullshit.

Through the World Door is less offensive to my sensibilities, even if the angst over "slavery" was grating. I'd have more respect for Saito if he was less beholden to his "life debt" rubbish and honestly killed those who'd enslave him [eg. Rias and Raynare] rather than accept his position as a slave so that the plot can progress.

 

It's in no way better than A Demon Among Devils man. Yeah it has its problems but the writing is a fair bit better .

 

Haven't read Through the World Door so I can't comment on that, but I will say that the above quote is just flat out wrong.

A Demon Among Devils has many problems, not least of which is the raging hardon the author has for the Persona side of the cross, but it is orders of magnitude better written than Demon Lord's Hero.

I'm not talking about the ideas or anything, just pure mechanical execution and quality of prose. DLH is unreadable; the characters are boring and lifeless, the prose ranges from bland to offensive to my sensibilities, and there's entirely too much 'tell' going on. I'm sure I could find more problems if I went back and looked, but it's been months since I tried to read it and I just don't care enough to put myself through that.

ADAD has problems with characterization and wank, but the technical execution ranges from largely competent to almost good, and that alone makes it leagues better than DLH.

All that said, I will gladly admit that I like the concept of DLH much more; I just wish it wasn't being written by a deranged howler monkey with a grudge against English teachers.

 

DLH and DAD are in the barely recommended thread and as far as I know, those two are readable. While not Library worthy, they're still better than the most of fanfics out there. I'd never recommend it to somebody but as a reading material, it's a decent timewaster and there when needed. I even had an argument with the author about DLH on how Shirou could use UBW when he was saved from the fire. Total asspull that one.

Also, I can't stand cameos. I hate it with absolute fury. Karasuba arc is my least favorite out of all the arcs and Shirou is too strong on this one. He's not even Archer for crying out loud and he's just curb-stomping people left and right.

 

To be fair, Shirou is nowhere near the strongest person in the DxD verse. Really, it's less that Shirou is strong (Though he is), and more that his NP's Make him a hard counter for those beings in DxD who can wipe whole countries off the gods be damned map. Also wouldn't be surprised if Shirou ends up having a hard time with Vali, or Cao Cao.

 

I read through chapter 15 or so of DLH. The one interesting character, the villain who had been built up as being super strong with legions at his disposal... got completely and utterly curbstomped. The reason I use this language is that at the end of the chapter before the climactic fight, the author actually said, I paraphrase, "this is going to be a curbstomp."

It's technically readable but the wank is way too hard, the characters are kind of boring and the constant 4th wall jokes/references are painful

 

We're talking about Persona fic, then it's time for the greatest Persona fanfic ever written.

A Different Kind of Truth is the story of a paraplegic jockey, whose family sends him to a small town in Japan so he can escape his past, and maybe find a better future. It has the best fight scenes, the best characterization, and the best main character.

Oh it's also a crossover with Steel Ball Run, and the entire thing is a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure love letter.

 

I read that before. The MC is a prick in that one right?

 

The Jo Jo part? If so Yes at first.

 

Can we just agree that pretty much all DxD fanfiction not written by Jon is utter crap?

You're clutching at straws if you think DLH or DAD are even remotely good.

 

Tbh, I preferred Gabriel's take on Dresden in DxD. Couldn't really get into Jon's story, too many things irked me.

 

Honestly, Demon Lord's Hero is just a crap story that is borderline unreadable that sometimes surprises you with a "Wow, that was pretty good." But you can't continue reading expecting the quality to keep getting better, because it doesn't. So it just quickly turns back to crap again.