Redefining the META at VRMMO Academy Vol. 1 (light novel) (Redefining the META at VRMMO Academy (Light Novel)) Kindle Edition

It is an intriguing story about massive online roleplaying gaming. Nobody gets stuck, nothing goes wrong. It is just a slice-of-gaming with the MC liking to strategize and experiment and win by using the weakest classes and synergizing them.The book provides a good explanation on all massive online game terms. No prior knowledge required. It keeps it short and avoids getting too technical. For me it is the perfect middleground. The game feels like an actual game, no mechanics that would never be used in real games. While the MC loves to grind (to better calculate risks), the story itself glosses over it and only describes the fights with new tactics and effects and well at that.It is a bit short even for a light novel. While it could be worse, there still is a bit of imo needless 'fan service' (panty shots, awkward falls, reveiling clothing) and what might become a harem (male mc with only female friends). No echi though. Still, the tropes are not particular dominant and the characters are likeable and not too one dimensional.All in all, an entertaining novel, maybe even for people wanting to know a bit more about online gaming. Looking forward to the next parts, whether as a slice-of-gaming or with more plot as one particular event hints at as a possibility.

There is a story here but much of this novel is buried as a game tutorial. Its a online immersive high school where gamers thrive. This story is a weird batch of Baka & Test and Log Horizon. Minus the comedy. Minus a semi-realistic RPG life properties setup.The main characters are two long time gamer buddies, one male and one female. The male is a gamer who loves selecting less popular classes of avatar to show off how brilliant he is by displaying their hidden talents. The female, who was thought to be another male by her friend, also dabbles in the selection of lesser avatar classes but not as passionate about it. Her interests lie mostly in gaming with her male buddy and having not yet escaped the friendzone with. They team up to tackle in school VR. Okay, that is a good build for a story. I can go with that.The premise is fine but the execution the author took is questionable. The story fails to progress a single scene away from explaining the layout/gameplay of the school's VR. Even the teen chitchat can't carry on very long without breaking into explaining more about the game and how it works. The cute interactions between the boy and girl are cut short to explain more VR rules. I would recommend the Sword Art Online Progressive light novel series before this. With the SAO Progressive, the story focuses on the characters as they struggle to progress in the game. This story barely touches on the characters as they progress which makes getting attached to them harder. If a reader can't care about the characters half way in, a reader wont care about the story. It was a good effort on the author but I do not recommend this.

I read this light novel because of the premise interesting me. In fact, I found the premise so fascinating, it kinda drove me to buy and read this book over others, which is a feat! Only after finishing did I find out that the original Japanese author is the writer of a manga I've been enjoying. Well, let's go over the good and bad, hm?THE GOOD-This. Story. Is. Fun. In the afterward, the author explains that he wanted to write a story that was fun and seemed like a world someone would want to live in. I can honestly say he succeeded!-I'd love to attend VRMMO academy, it seems like the best education I'd ever get!-The protagonist, Ren, isn't your typical audience surrogate. He plays games to pick apart the mechanics, test everything he can, experiment with different builds, and picks intentionally weak Classes and find ways to make them strong. This interest of his is a hobby that has dictated how he plays MMOs and video games, and the fact that he has such a clearly defined motivation that a reader probably can't relate to is honestly refreshing and makes him seem more real and fascinating to read about. He also has a clearly defined backstory, with several mentions of his parents and their jobs, so there's no lame "parents overseas on business" cliche going on. While his parents don't appear, Ren mentioning them shows they're very much in his life.-The cast is loveable! Each of the girls who ends up becoming part of Ren's main party is interesting and I'd love to read more about them! Most of them get some backstory and explained, and as a writer myself, I love how each of them clearly has personality traits explained by their lives and home situations! I won't spoil it, but I can assure you that each character's current personality and interests were colored by their experiences growing up, which is just great to see!-The relationships. Akira has clearly been crushing on Ren for a long time, but the novel doesn't beat you over the head with it. As much as Akira likes Ren, she still puts their friendship first and it really only comes up when others tease her over her friendship with Ren. By the end of the first novel, Kotomi MIGHT be starting to develop feelings for Ren, but it's a slow and gradual process for her, and her reasons for liking Ren are different from Akira's. Yuuna, meanwhile, just teases Kotomi and Akira for how they feel about Ren, but doesn't seem to feel anything more for him besides respect and friendship so far. Ren, meanwhile, has completely realistic and relatable reasons for not feeling the same way about Akira: He spend his time with her thinking she was a guy, so he's still stuck in the "she's my BFF" mindset.-Sexuality. Red is still is a red-blooded pubescent male, so he still finds Akira beautiful. He's a BIT of a perv as expected of a boy his age, but he's not lecherous. While he enjoys what glimpses he gets, he doesn't objectify the girls, nor does he go looking for glances or leer at them, which is wonderful to see. Akira's costume is revealing, and she's uncomfortable with it, but she only wears it for combat, and there's actual story and worldbuilding attached to her Class's costume, so it's not really skeevy or trashy. In fact, all in all, the fanservice is light. A treat when it appears, but it's not raunchy or overbearing.-The story has an overall acceptance and tolerant view of MMORPGs. Ren acknowledges that he has his own way of playing an MMO, and it's very wholesome that he acknowledges that others have their owns that may be different from him. Ren isn't an unrealistic saint, he's just a genuinely good, chill guy like you might meet IRL in an MMO. He's accepting of other people's playstyles in an MMO, but that doesn't mean he relates to them or respects them. He just acknowledges and accepts them. It's very nice to see.-All in all, the story is quite low-conflict. There's no major overarching threat for the fate of the world or journey. The characters are just four teenagers attending a virtual school and playing an MMO for rewards and advancement. The result is a story that can be tense in some of the fights, fascinating with how it explores it mechanics, and just genuinely fun to read the characters have fun.-The illustrations are nice! I can only imagine how overjoyed the author was to see his characters come to life like that!-The story makes it clear that failure IS always an option. Not only do Ren and party die more than once due to their initial strategies not working out, but the story makes it clear that, while Ren has a hobby of turning "bummer classes" into desirable classes, he doesn't always succeed. It's just that the ones he fails at remain bummers, while the ones he succeeds at become the talk of the meta, so most people just don't hear about his failure cases.-It's very clear that the author had genuine artistic passion for his work!THE BAD-This is probably the translator's fault, but a lot of the time, conversations are written one dialogue line after another, with no "he/she said" narration between it. This isn't normally a problem in some stories, but... in this case? It can be sometimes. The translator doesn't seem to have a good grasp of "character voice." The four main protagonists have differing personalities, but this doesn't show enough in their dialogue. They can often sound roughly the same depending on the sentence, so during four-person convos with lots of back-and-forth and no "[name] said" between them, it can become difficult to tell who is saying one. Luckily, this doesn't really happen in any conversation where knowing who says what is absolutely crucial for comprehension, but... as an author very good at character voice myself, it's kind of frustrating.-Ren tends to go on a lot of first-person narrative explanations of MMO terms, mechanics, and meta. While this is great for explaining things to someone who doesn't really engage in MMO culture, it can make the pacing a little choppy at times, though this doesn't overly diminish the enjoyment of the story.-While the VRMMO is generally well-built, some of the mechanics seem... iffy at best. Enemies will ALWAYS 100% attack whoever has the highest aggro, a tank can block nearly all damage when taking a defensive stance, a good number of abilities and assets are locked away behind events. Most egregious, characters have talents they get when first creating a character that rely entirely on RNG and you can't reroll them. That means that a lot of the reasons that Ren's party's "bummer classes" are so good don't come down to smart builds as they do them getting lucky and getting the right drop, reward, or already having the right talent. In fact, some of their luck just reeks of narrative causality, but... Well, the story is fun, conflict isn't the point of it, and I'm not a realism nut, so it isn't all that much of a problem to me!-The story has a few plot points that aren't resolved by the end of the first volume. Currently, there are four volumes in Japanese, though this is the only one translated. Hopefully I see more of these unresolved plot threads in later volumes!-Volumes 2, 3, and 4 are out in Japan, but not translated...-The shipping between Akira and Ren makes me frustrated that I might have to wait to read more about their lives...-Personally, I feel it would've been nice to see Akira get more used to wearing her Sword Dancer costume in public, but I acknowledge that it's more realistic, relatable, and respectful that she's still embarrassed by it. I do find it very romantic and wholesome that Akira doesn't mind wearing it casually around Ren, though. <3FINAL THOUGHTSAll in all, a very enjoyable read! I read it in bits when I was waiting on appointments, riding in cars, or outside on the porch. It helped me get through quarantine, and I really hope that volumes 2, 3, and 4 get translated! I'm really interested in more of the characters' adventures as they play through this VRMMO, attend the academy, and develop their group dynamic and relationships! It's not perfect, but it doesn't need to be so long as it was fun and enjoyable! A definite recommendation!

This was a fun light novel to read. It manages to straddle the line between ridiculous and interesting with a main character who has an ... interesting hobby and outlook on challenges.It's set mainly within a full dive online world where an experimental school system is being run to drive up educational standards amongst a demographic that are shut-ins and video game addicts.It works fairly well and the characters come across as well rounded for the most part.Unfortunately there is some "fan service" as usual - which is very annoying. Seriously authors/editors/publishers - just save that for the manga or better yet, the fan -fic sites.

Best school ever. but in game character ever was this overpowered they get nerved. But seeing as this is just a book it's just a fun light novel make a great cartoon . Bad things. Top I would pay for leanth of book. Nice things. Any age book .makes you smile a lot. Hope he ends up with he's friend at end of serious.

Really liked the plot line, under dog becomes over powered.Anyone who ever wished school was part of a vrmmo look no further

I loved reading this, and look forward to the next one.

This is a ridiculously fun to read light novel Haven’t seen something like this in a long while totally recommend it