A Late-Start Tamer's Laid-Back Life: Volume 1

A Late-Start Tamer's Laid-Back Life (Light Novel) #1

by Yuu Tanaka, Nardack (Illustrator), Yuko C. Shimomoto (Translator)

The Law of Justice Online, also known as LJO, is the hottest new VRMMORPG of the season, and office worker Yuta Sasaki is one of the lucky few granted access to the official launch. After some careful research, Yuta is chomping at the bit to start his virtual life as a Tamer, a class that harnesses the powers of wild monsters. Luckily, upon building his character, Yuta manages to land not only his chosen class, but a heap of bonuses to boot! He soon finds, however, that his abilities are not all they're cracked up to be, and that the talents of the rare first monster he is granted lie not in combat...but gardening! Already well behind the other adventurers, and facing a long and slow progression path ahead of him, Yuta is left with two choices—start over from scratch, or make the best of what he has been given. For Yuta the choice is obvious: When life gives you manure...start up a farm!

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Comedy

357 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 25, 2021

Reviews

[Pablo García · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is a complicated and convoluted story about a man that is older, loves to game, but has no idea how to game. That and it seems that he is also mentally challenged. This main character dies 3 times in the first half day (12 hours) of the game going live. He sells all of his equipment because he did not know that he could have gotten quests and materials for free at the starter town. The author keeps including forum posts, but has never ever had the main character "read" the forum posts, "get informed" and do things better.
The author loses "game balance" by giving his main character thousands of coins because main character can't seem to avoid getting bullied by the other players...What is the point of singling him out as the Silver (noob/game idiot)???
Regular gamers use a profession like Tamer to find and domesticate stronger animals that help him or her hunt and level up. The author chooses the worst possible tasks and lowest possible monetary gains for this main character...Main character prefers to become a kind of potion maker (alchemist) without having that profession, and a "farmer-hand" without knowing anything about growing food or planting seeds, trees, vegetables or fruits...
The story is not about a laid-back life, it's about a person that is incapable of playing a game that does not require any special abilities or skills and yet, the main character majorly sucks at playing this game...and it is incredibly annoying to have to read a story where the main character does everything wrong, all of the time, just because the author wrote it in this way...
If you are thinking about reading this "atypical fantasy novel series", that is not action-packed, not funny (at all), and is depressing and constantly tries your patience, well, this story (maybe) could be for you...But I do not recommend it...

[My · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title wasn't kidding about the "laid-back" part! I love the slow, atypical pace, especially since it involves a lot of farming and crafting.

"Unorthodox gamer" would be a fun genre to have more of. Kinda reminds me of Bofuri, although they're still very different books. Looking forward to the next one!

[Aelvana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yuta is all set to dive into the newest VRMMORPG, with his ideal class of Tamer already mapped out. He's planning to blaze a path forward. But reality isn't so kind---his first monster is useless for combat, and a Tamer's low stats means he's stuck doing the lowest-end quests just trying to scrape by.

I didn't like this. I wanted to read about monsters. Tamer class, you know? But his "monsters" are all basically human-form (and then he gets a squirrel at the end. I'm out. I wanted at least a dog or cat).

Beyond that, though, the story has a couple of real structural problems. The monetization scheme of this game is absurd. You pay money for randomly rolling classes/stats, then LOSE THE MONEY if you can't pick fast enough? That feels like automatic consumer protection lawsuit, honestly. And since this is the first thing that happens, it's knocking me out of the story before it even has a chance to get going.

Then there were the forum conversations, which are mostly not that interesting but continue to eat up a lot of pages. And the idiotic devs giving titles like "Silver-Haired One" and then getting mad when the player gets ganged up on because . . . you really couldn't have made it more obvious.

The only saving grace about this game so far is the lack of PVP. It spares me the griefers, at least.

The little quests that lead to some deeper mysteries/dungeons were fine, and so was his skill progression (even if that's basically 100% farming at this point and not monster-taming or raising at all). But the beta tester's overreaction to his revelations feels like the narrative is going out of its way to pump him up.

Overall, there are far better virtual reality stories. This one can be inoffensive when it's not being outright irritating, but so far there's nothing other stories haven't done several times better. I rate this book Not Recommended.

See my reviews and more at https://offtheshelfreviews.wordpress....

[Joshua Caron · Rating 1 out of 5]

Authors who have never played video games before should not be writing MMO stories. I mean really, that monetization scheme at the start is incredibly dumb, and are we really supposed to believe that 'the player who died the most on the first day' only died 3 times? Really? And then there's the quests. Ones that the book said took hours, but only involved pulling weeds or washing dishes.

I just... Why would someone who's clearly never played any kind of video games before bother writing about one?

[Tim Nielsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun relaxing story

If you want to read a story that's relaxing entertaining and just downright fun this is the book for you. I like the way the characters are developed and the author writes about what the main character is thinking about without going into too much detail which detracts from these kinds of stories in my opinion. All in all the characters are engaging the humor is nice the peaceful feeling is great can't wait to read the next one.

[Bryce Conley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

A good but quick read. I’ll look forward to the next installment in the series. I like the heavy focus on farming and the tamed animals are really well done.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Struggled with it at the start, put it down for a few days. Was fine after that. Really enjoyed the forum style chapters.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an incredibly relaxing read. I read this before bed each night and enjoyed it so much.

[Camy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely LOVED this book. The hero is such a nice guy you can’t help but root for him with all the problems he has to face. This has become one of my favorite series. (Some moderate cussing)

[Andy Febrico Bintoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another VRMMORPG life, a journey in a world which the main character choose to begin as a tamer and focused on production because of his starter pet.

[Sammie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very pleasant and enjoyable surprise. I liked this much more than I thought I would. It gives me strong Bofuri and Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear vibes but with a male tamer who does a lot of farming and crafting. It's very slice-of-life so the pace is slow and relaxing and yet, surprisingly, also quite eventful.

[Chase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comfy

[ReadToBreathe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would have enjoyed the story more if it was an incarnation. I'm not a fan of having modern life stories mixed with games.

[Wetdryvac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun

[Marlana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this one up when it was on sale and to my great surprise I really liked it.

This is a laid-back slice of life story that follows a casual gamer. Along the same lines of Bofuri, but the protagonist is a bit more familiar with games though he isn’t a pro like Shagri-La Frontier’s main character.

This is a relaxing slice of life with cute characters and minimal drama. I recommend it.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cosy, with isekai vibes despite not technically being an isekai. Nice to see a story where there essentially aren't any true stakes because it's a game. Really fun little read.