Recommendations I'm looking for Isekai/Fantasy that DOESN'T have game elements

Discussion in 'I'm Looking For...' started by Sir Laffsalot, Mar 24, 2021.

  1. Sir Laffsalot

    Sir Laffsalot Well-Known Member

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    Yep, I think game elements are the DUMBEST thing in isekai and/or fantasy novels. I prefer realistic, or believable, relatable type stuff.
    After all, how many times do you hear someone say: "Hey, what level electrician are you?" "I'm rank A with a baseball bat! There ain't a fast ball that can get by me!" "I'm a level 50 police officer! You'll never get away!" "I'm a rank SS cab driver! There's no way you're out running me!" "I just leveled up! My vitality is now 1500!", or anything like that? How many of you can see your soul board with your stats?
    Also, how many of you have gone hunting, killed your game, and had the carcass disappear, while leaving drops like money, new clothes, and/or weapons? Hell, take me hunting with you next time. I've always found it a pain to gut, clean, and process my kills, and then tan the hides.
    And NO shounen! I absolutely HATE shounen. They are all the same stupid story, with the same over used, dumb jokes.
    PLEASE HELP!!! I NEED to find a good read. Game elements should be left to game stories. I don't mind it there, because then I expect it. But reincarnations and summons to other worlds, should be going from rl here on Earth, to rl in a new world, so should be kept as real as possible. Game elements just kills the whole story for me, and trying to ignore it is getting impossible.
    I know of "Jack of All Trades, and Master of None," and "Tensei Kenja," both TL by Tiger Translation. Though not an isekai, "The Weakest Tamer Trash Picking Journey," and "Goodbye Dragon Life," are good and without game elements. Please let me know of any other good ones. I do prefer JP.

    Thank you all very much.
     
    Last edited: Mar 24, 2021
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  2. BigBadBoi

    BigBadBoi Well-Known Member

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    Just filter the level system and game elements tag
     
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  3. sjmcc13

    sjmcc13 Well-Known Member

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    A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
    Narnia.
    Alice in Wonderland.

    Look up Portal Fantasy, Isekai is just a subset of it with some added common tropes, unfortunately game elements is one of the common ones (but not universal) because it helps explain the picking up new abilities, but it is less common if you go back far enough.

    Last I remember "In a Different World with a Smartphone" does not have game elements.
     
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  4. Olives

    Olives [Former] Professional Basement Dweller

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    Have you tried Lord of the Rings? :blobsweat_2:

    Jokes aside, you could just read published fantasy novels that are Western. (Personal favorite series are "Ranger's Apprentice" by John Flanagan or "The Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore)

    In the end most of what you're reading on NU is some power-craze isekai levelling trend of mostly non-professional writers.
     
  5. simak

    simak Well-Known Member

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    In your joke is the barebones truth. When Japanese think of fantasy, they default to Dragon's Quest (DQ) CRPG, hence the game elements. For a certain generation of Western fantasy fans, there was Dungeons & Dragons, which RA Salvatore was a part of. Before that, Lord of the Rings. Prior to that, it was the wild, wild west of science fiction, fantasy, weird fiction, and pulp all combined into one. To understand that era better, I recommend Jeffro Johnson's Appendix N: https://arkhavencomics.com/product/appendixn/.

    So the Japanese default to DQ means that they often include game elements.
     
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  6. Sir Laffsalot

    Sir Laffsalot Well-Known Member

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    I'm not all that familiar with the search. I didn't know that you could do that. Thanks.
     
  7. simak

    simak Well-Known Member

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    Shini Yasui Kōshaku Reijō to Shichi-nin no Kikōshi = The Duke's daughter dies easily. Inspired by Harry Potter, Dungeons & Dragons, and some other fantasy works and combined into a good time. Does not have lit RPG elements.
    The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic = a fun isekai story.

    Those are the ones that come to mind. Also, you would probably get more responses if you separated out your rant & keep it to "no game elements", simply because this is Lit RPG central.
     
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  8. Sir Laffsalot

    Sir Laffsalot Well-Known Member

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    I liked Smartphone, until the Mecha part. I'm sorry, but I'm a believer in keeping scifi out of swords and sorcery/medieval settings, unless it's done tastefully like in "The Galactic Navy Officer Becomes an Adventurer." That's another with no game elements. He crash lands on a planet of swords and sorcery.
     
  9. Sir Laffsalot

    Sir Laffsalot Well-Known Member

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    True that. lol
    I'm also on Scribble Hub, but then I run into other issues there as well. :unsure::blobthinkingsmirk:
    I'll have to check out "Ranger's Apprentice" and "Dark Elf Trilogy." Thanks.
     
  10. simak

    simak Well-Known Member

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    If you like fantasy in general, this site has good reviews of fantasy & SF: http://www.castaliahouse.com/
     
  11. Sir Laffsalot

    Sir Laffsalot Well-Known Member

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    I read the whole LOtR series, as well as Tolkein's other novels when I was in school over 40 yrs ago. I also read ALL of Terry Brooks' series, as well as Raymond E. Feists' Krondor series (my favorite over the others). Oh yeah, and C.S. Lewis' series.
     
  12. Sir Laffsalot

    Sir Laffsalot Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the link.
     
  13. orangethegreatorange

    orangethegreatorange Well-Known Member

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    Lord of the Mysteries - the mc is a transmigrator. Haven’t read it yet but I believe it doesn’t contain any game elements.
    The Lazy King - while there are ranks for people and skills, such as demon lord or demon general and S or A rank skills, there aren’t clear levels nor does the novel put emphasis on stats. Plus, the story is really interesting.
    Emilone’s Temptation Labyrinth - mc transmigrates into the Saintess of another world.
    What Happens When the Second Male Lead Powers Up - mc transmigrates into the second male lead of a novel. So far, the novel looks promising!
     
  14. Sir Laffsalot

    Sir Laffsalot Well-Known Member

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    Cool. Thanks for the suggestions. :);)
     
  15. PeepoMrFool

    PeepoMrFool Well-Known Member

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    +1 LOTM
    Kingdom's Bloodline
    Nejimaki Seirei Senki – Tenkyou no Alderamin
    Mother of Learning
     
  16. Kamuizin

    Kamuizin Well-Known Member

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    I love Drizzt saga (that isn’t a triology btw, i have about 15 or 16 books of the saga and it isn’t even near the end of it), but then, that’s not what the OP asked for.

    i have one novel that you probally read already: Release that Witch.

    It’s isekai, as mc transmigate to another world, it’s medieval with fantasy thematic, but things are strict scientific there, even in magic mc find scientific patterns and through knowledge and rationality, the own witches of the novel understand better their powers and strength themselves.
     
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  17. Darius Drake

    Darius Drake A poster of verbose posts

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    I don't know if you'll like Knights & Magic or I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire, then, though neither have stat's or levelling systems.

    Just for additional information, Knights & Magic is a Fantasy World that a Mech Otaku reincarnated into, where people ended up making giant Mechs to fight the giant Monsters that come out from the area's that humanity have yet to settle. MC obsessively wants to pilot the Magitech Mechs, but is also offended about the fact that they're being used to fight Monsters, because, based on his Otaku Reasoning, only Mechs should be allowed to fight and destroy Mechs. He ends up improving Mechs significantly, redesigning things, and doing a whole bunch of stuff related to it. If you haven't caught on yet, the entire story is centred around the Magitech Mechs.

    I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire, meanwhile, it a Fantasy World that has developed to the point of Space Exploration... and has long since taken over pretty much everything in, at very least, their Galaxy. MC reincarnates from Earth to this universe after having his life on Earth ruined despite being a good man, and decides to become an Evil Lord in the new world. While he inherits his land from his parents early (who happily abandoned it, and him, to live in the Capital), he was dismayed because he couldn't oppress the people below them, due to them having nothing that he could take from them. Basically, the plot goes "MC thinks he's being evil due to having decently high taxes, killing people who cross him, and other such things. Everyone else think's he's a saint because he ensures that his economy functions, pays attention to how much the people beneath him actually have, doesn't participate in the vast wastes of money that the other nobility participate in, hunts down criminals, and pays his own taxes". Space Battles involve both Gigantic Battleships and Mecha Combat, and features in this story on a semi-regular occourance.


    Oh, and, +1 for Mother of Learning. MC discovers that he's trapped in a month long time loop after a certain event occurs, a time loop that ends with the city that he goes to Magic Boarding School in being attacked. He, eventually, sets out to take advantage of the time loop he finds himself in, improving himself magically and deal with the situation at hand. This story is unique in that it introduces and explores it's magic system in detail, with explanations on most things. It's one of the best Fantasy Webnovels out there. Some Golems, but no Mechs in this one.
     
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  18. Daresan

    Daresan Well-Known CN Master

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    Read some fastfood cultivation novels if you are bored with same jap crap
     
  19. Sir Laffsalot

    Sir Laffsalot Well-Known Member

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    Not into food porn, tyvm. If I were, I'd just crack open a Betty Crocker cookbook. Besides, a majority of the "jap crap" is full of food cultivation, and I said, I prefer JP, not tired of it - just tired of most of the writers. ;)
     
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  20. Grand_Rider_Iskandar

    Grand_Rider_Iskandar Well-Known Member

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    I'm okay about those actually as long as it's purpose is to digitize their skills and abilities.

    Max Level Newbie actually made this into a plot point. The Players are shit because they don't know how to cast spells. They just level up and shout spell names. So the MC decided to learn on how to actually cast spells. The story is boring though. There are no stakes.

    Then there's The Legendary Mechanic where the MC reincarnated as an NPC of an MMORPG he played before.

    Beware of Chicken. MC reincarnated into a cultivator, thought cultivators are stupid and left his sect. Became an OP farmer cultivator instead. It's slice of life..

    A ton of CN cultivation novels. Most are shit. The plot is literally just copy paste with different names and power levels. Some say they are good. But I doubt that any of them actually bothered to reread those cultivation novels.

    Jobless Reincarnation. It's the isekai anime of this season. Has around 21 volumes I think. The entire story is literally the MC's redemption arc. Yes, even in the later volumes.
     
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