www.novelupdates.com/series/archfiend I was a little off put by the current rating, but isn't this novel actually pretty alright? I mean, the author lays on the plot armor a little thick (looking at you, Animus Armament) but the plot flows smoothly and the world building/power dynamics are quite solid. Are people put off by the "poetic" writing/translation, or have a bunch of readers looked ahead and decided they didn't like what was coming?
I'm not sure for other people but the problem i have for the novel is that i can't immerse myself while reading it and i feel like everything is very complicated . I only read till chapter 2-3 though but i'll give it a try again since you said its poetic .
A novel can be good even if it doesn't have 4.0 or higher rating. If it has a loyal following then it'll stay above 3.5 unless the translation or the release schedule is bad. Anything below 3.4 you have to be wary of.
Well, the translator tries really hard to match the literary tone and I appreciate that, but they're also occasionally in need of a really strict editor It's true, I mean, if it were actually in the low threes I probably wouldn't have started reading in the first place, but 3.7 still seems disproportionately low when there are much weaker novels hovering around 3.9 just because they had an exciting first arc. Actually, maybe that's what's up. The first couple of chapters were pretty confusing and weird, so a bunch of readers just rated low and ran away.
The novel is pretty good once you get past the initial plot armor. It has some ofthe most suspense / action filled chapters I've come across in a web novel, especially once the plot opens up and the reader is exposed to a world vs world war Aside from the plot armor, I blame novels like MGA and such for the low ratings of Archfiend : people have become used to a minimalistic vocabulary when reading, with few attempts at an artistic style. Initial Archfiend is at times literally poetic ( quotes from actual Chinese poetry ), and it tries to give a more solid impression of the environment and mood instead of just describing the action. I guess impatience and an action oriented / instant gratification mentality are also culprits
I've got a bit of problem with the few latest archfiend chapters. Spoiler: Spoilers Dao Master Ancientpine clearly said to let Xu Yangyi to enter his treasury to select anything favorable to restoration of his arm. But when he enters there were only 9 treasures only, I am quite sure he know what the hell he is keeping in his treasury and none of them were favorable to restoring an arm. Also not only was he not allowed to choose any of the treasures. But specifically hinted to take the Qi Condensation Array. This events seems out of sync even when it's somewhat acceptable as he needed to defend the Longsu Provinces so it was a timely gift. But what happened to its original intention of restoring the arm, you can't just blatantly change the whole purpose without indicating it. Did the author not think it through as he writes or what.
Yeah, that did seem a little odd. Maybe he'll get something else from Ancientpine later? I wouldn't think Ancientpine would be saying it to fool anyone else, given there wasn't any unrelated party there. Oh well, the arm should be resolved soon one way or another.