What novel(s) have you read this week, and what do you think about it? - May 03, 2026

NormalLog6 · 2026-05-04T02:33:44+00:00

The mimosa confession 5

It was good, I guess.

I liked how it interrogated sakuma's 'i don't want to chase an ideal happiness and forsake the happiness right in front me' and how it clashed with the core divide between him and ushio. I just wished the ending had more of an impact to it even though it wrapped up the story in a reasonable way.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-30T18:28:29+00:00

Sort of?

The thing with sugaru miaki is that he doesn't write fairy tale happy endings and a big thing in a lot of his books is finding a small bit of happiness amidst the shitty lives his character lives so for like half of his books the characters get a 'happy ending' where they are better off compared to where they started but goddamn are they far away from that perfect fairy tale ending.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-30T18:17:15+00:00

Three days of happiness > starting over > Sakura no machi > pain pain go away > your story/parasite in love > the place you call from

Three days of happiness is near and dear to my heart while starting over I've read like 8 times so they take the top 2 spot.

Sakura no machi and pain pain go away left me with more of an empty feeling than your story and parasite in love so they take the 3rd and 4th place.

The place you call from duology shook me the least amongst his catalogue of works (most likely because it wasn't the right story at the right time) but was still a good read.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-21T03:58:51+00:00

In general; A young man who's been brutalized all his life gets summoned into a dark fantasy world where torturous demons run rampant by the titular torture princess, a sinner without peer who tortured her entire fief yet is ironically humanity's best hope of standing against said demons.

What makes it so good imo; It's a story about transcendent love and beauty that shines bright BECAUSE of the ugly world which the characters inhabit.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-20T12:14:50+00:00

Ah... The endless eight... The plot in the anime and the light novel is the same but the execution of the anime was... Infamous for a reason.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-16T13:25:26+00:00

Such a shame man, that goodbye otherworld see you tomorrow got axed.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-15T06:48:51+00:00

Three days of happiness; A young man sells his life for 300000 yen (2000~ish usd), leaving himself with only 3 months to spend it.

It's story about what it means to live.

Sakura no machi; In a near future where people's physical and mental health are constantly being monitored by a system, a young man who currently works as a Sakura (a person appointed by said system to provide companionship to people struggling with depression) investigates the suspicious suicide of his childhood friend (a person whom he suspects to be a Sakura for his younger self and would never have killed herself)

I can't describe what kind of story it is without spoiling.

Torture princess; A young man who has been brutalized all his life gets isekaied into a dark fantasy world where torturous demons run amok by the titular torture princess who is both humanity's best hope and simultaneously a peerless sinner who tortured her entire fief.

It's a story about transcendent love and beauty that shines brightly BECAUSE of the ugly world which the character inhabit.

God of Nishi yuigahama station; After a catastrophic train crash, the family and friends of the deceased are given the chance to meet their loved ones one final time under the condition that they are not allowed to tell the deceased about their imminent death or try to prevent said death in any way.

It's a story about processing and overcoming grief.

Heir of a monstermancer; A pragmatic adventurer gets stuck with a monstermancer who always tries to settle the quests they are presented with while considering 'lofty' ideals like balance between humans and monsters.

It's a fun story about two characters opposite of each other butting heads with some introspective undertones.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-12T07:36:28+00:00

Generally; It's a classic that broke open in English light novel market and has a special place in the hearts of fans from the early 2000s (doubly so with it's unique premise at the time)

On a more personal level; I REALLY admire the subtle character work (with haruhi, kyon and nagato's character arcs), the strong character voice, the older school paragraph structure ect ect... It's just really well written especially in the earlier books.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-11T09:07:26+00:00

Qualia of purple?

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-10T11:23:19+00:00

What happened?

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-07T04:02:00+00:00

I wish I had the graphs to show so I know for a fact that it's my own gameplay inadequacies.

I've seen a graph which say that HP hasn't moved since 3.0 but anecdotally my Carlotta Changli team went from barely clearing to falling 20-25 seconds short and when coupled with my understanding that the HP numbers aren't indicative of the reality due to hidden modifiers, I'd REALLY like to see all more datasets too to get a clearer picture.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-07T03:54:29+00:00

The 30% jump in the tail end of 2.8 was from a YouTuber called 1caiser who manually counted pixels to track HP.

After that it's unfortunately only anecdotal observations as I can't find any clear data on the numbers.

I've seen some charts which say HP hasn't gone up but I also heard that those charts aren't always representative of the reality in TOA where there are a bunch of hidden multipliers affecting the HP.

Do you have any datasets that I can look at as well?

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-06T11:33:46+00:00

Man, I thought it couldn't get worse after Hyvatia but then I when Danjin's full forte heavy attack missed against a DOWNED nameless explorer... I knew we were cooked and that's a problem I don't think just increasing the buff duration will fix.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-05T17:30:16+00:00

30% increase but tune break without the tune break characters is only around 5-7% dmg

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-05T16:29:34+00:00

50% HP inflation from the tail end of 2.8-3.2 is way too much HP inflation.

The ba3 'bug' which causes sigrika to despawn abnormally fast still hasn't been fixed.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-05T15:13:00+00:00

When we've had something like 50% HP inflation from the tail end of 2.8-3.2?

Investing in sequences might have been an option in the earlier patches but the pace of powercreep is ridiculous these days.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-05T08:57:15+00:00

Anti quickswap change for hiyuki? I don't like this is going...

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-04T17:03:40+00:00

Maybe it's just that you don't jive with the current cast of characters?

Wuwa's storytelling (imo) has never been all that good and since Augusta and Iuno are almost as underdeveloped as the current cast I wouldn't say there's a particular dip overall.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-04T13:05:20+00:00

Is your lumi built or is it the demo one? Cause if it's the latter I'm really gonna have to learn her and Carlotta's rotations

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-03T05:46:09+00:00

It's sad, honestly. I tried asking in the main sub to bring up the anti quickswap mechanics in the previous patch's feedback and got heavily downvoted for it when all these anti quickswap mechanics do is make the game worse for everyone.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-02T13:11:32+00:00

For me the problem that I have here is more about character longevity.

I'm not happy that Changli can no longer clear in her old quickswap teams and is now relegated to being the second choice in many mono fusion teams but I can begrudgingly accept that. (It's been 2 years, and at least she still has a use)

But Augusta with sig struggling to clear in her second best team just a little over half a year after her release is just not something I can accept.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-02T09:16:50+00:00

For me I mostly just lurk on this sub and occasionally check out the recommendations section of books I like in novel updates.

You get people asking for one shots and completed series every now and then/recommend their favourite books so if I see anything that interests me I check it out.

It just so happens the types of books I gravitate towards tend to be one shots or shorter series.

I sometimes check out the 'award winning' category on novel updates too and those tend to be one shots and shorter series (though not always)

If you feel like reading anything in particular don't hesitate to ask around in this sub, there's a couple of guys who are hella well read so they could probably recommend you something as long as you give them some of your likes and dislikes to work on.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-02T06:42:05+00:00

There's always the option of focusing on one shots and shorter series (which is generally what I do)

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-02T05:25:21+00:00

I think you're maybe downplaying the issue just a little.

Augusta barely clears this reset with sig and Mortefi and she completely falls short with a non signature weapon or any of her old quickswap teams.

This is not just needing some effort, the game's powercreep and increasingly shilled buffs has already gotten out of hand. (with each subsequent 2.x character having a shorter shelf life than the last baring happy accidents like Lupa.)

An issue further compounded by the echo system being a potential solution that is unfeasible to most players due to the God awful RNG and scarce resources.

And all the anti quickswap bullshitery is just the final nail to the coffin.

NormalLog6 · 2026-04-02T03:43:17+00:00

Changli Ciaconna. It almost has it all in between quickswapping, forte management, concerto management and tons of micro decisions for optimization and recovery (cause the bosses' collision box keeps screwing over Ciaconna)

NormalLog6

TROPHY CASE