Hell Mode: Volume 1

Hell Mode, Book 1

By: Hamuo, Taishi - translator

Narrated by: Diontae Black

"'Level up even while offline'?! That's not a game on 'easy mode'—that's just an AFK game!"

The online game Yamada Kenichi had been playing religiously is shutting down its servers, leaving him with a void in his heart. He looks for a new game to fill it, but everything he finds is way too easy. The kind of game he likes—the kind punishing enough to make players want to spend thousands of hours on it—just isn't around anymore.

"What's this? 'You are invited to a game that will never end.'"

Kenichi stumbles upon an untitled game, one promising incomparable challenge with unprecedented potential. Without hesitation, he selects the "Hell Mode" difficulty. Lo and behold, he finds himself reincarnated in another world as a serf!

Now called Allen, he sets out to unlock the secrets of his mystery-laden Summoner class; without the convenience of walkthroughs, game guides, or online forums, he must grope his way to the top of his new world!

©2020 Hamuo; English translation copyright 2021 by J-Novel Club LLC; Original Japanese edition published in 2020 by Earth Star Entertainment; Cover illustration by Mo (P)2023 Tantor

Slow burn, cooked well.

100%, I was initially drawn in by the cover and then the summery. I saw plenty of reviews online talking about how it was a "generic isekai" to which I disagree. While not a new concept, it definitely was a different approach to the idea and I thoroughly enjoyed the way the author had explained Skill leveling and Leveling. As a gamer who also enjoys higher difficulty games (Monster Hunter ad currently playing FF16 on Final Fantasy difficulty) I really wanna play this one, too.

Great

It’s over all a great story and I can’t wait for the next book and more after

A good listen

I really like the way the story started with the main character birth instead of him starting out over powered right away. I like the stories progression too

Awesome unique story!

This book stands out in a crowded genre. I can’t wait for the second volume!

A Mixed Bag

This one is a little hard to rate as I felt much of it was fairly generic and derivative. However, there was enough of a twist to the usual Isekai reincarnation story that it made it interesting enough to listen to. The book had some consistency issues and the way things were explained were a bit wonky, but overall it was enjoyable if not a bit dull. Despite that, the book started to get interesting towards the end, enough so that I'd love to continue listening to the series once the next book is released. In short, it's has a shaky start but shows promise.

story was very fun new spin on the typical isekai.

the story was great, let's get that out of the way. The recording quality and narrator were not. Yhe quality of the recording was very poor. you can hear an electronic tone in the background and a high pitch tone also. Now the narrator was good except for one problem I struggled with through all three books available. He has a lips, "together" turns into "togever", "father" is "faver". It kills the mood of the story, it's the grand Duke giving a major speah then drops a "togever" and sound like a child. To give the narrator credit he was so good in the rest of the narration that I still listened to the 2nd and 3rd books. It was just seriously distracting and ditracted from the performance.

everything

the only issue was the random ringing and buzzing noise of the mic. other than that I loved the book.

Good one!

I really liked the book. i didn't find any part boring. The only thing I'm wondering is, are the summons going to be useful at some point, or are they just going to be stat buffs for the mc

The was a good book

I absolutely adored it! The voice acting was superbly executed and really brought the whole thing to life.

love it

it is a really good story, and I'm excited to see where it's gonna go, how's he gonna rise in the world and the end the author says a bit of my own life. can't wait to hear volumes 2 and 3