Note: These light novel first impressions come courtesy of J-Novel Club‘s membership program, which allows members to read weekly parts of light novels as they are translated, before their official e-book release. These impressions cover the first 3 parts of volume 1.
One day, Lufas Maphaahl, the Heaven-Winged girl who was one of the most powerful players in the MMORPG Exgate Online and who had unified the entire continent under her rule, was finally defeated through the joint effort of several other players. Her human–and male–player had no real issue with his character getting “sealed” as it had made for a fun event, but he now had no character to play, so when he accepted a mysterious offer to take up a new role… he finds himself awakened as Lufas herself, 200 years after her defeat, in the world of the game itself! Now he has to deal with a few complications, like being in what was once a game world that is now all too real, being in a girl’s body… oh, and there’s the fact that Lufas, a widely-feared “last boss” in this world’s history that was thought to be sealed, is now back in action, and while a few centuries have passed, there are still people alive who remember her, for better or for worse.
One of J-Novel Club’s most recent licenses, A Wild Last Boss Appeared! looks to be another fun isekai for isekai fans. It has a few minor twists to the formula, such as having a guy from Japan take up a girl’s body (which so far hasn’t been used too much one way or another), but perhaps the most interesting thing here is how the protagonist reincarnates not just into a video game world, but a video game world that she had a huge effect on. Lufas not only has her own reputation to deal with, but also the fact that some of the “heroes” that had defeated her are still alive (and might also be inhabited by their Japanese players), while various monsters that were under Lufas’s control back then are now running amok. This can definitely make for some interesting content later down the line, though for now the story is just doing some simple “overpowered adventuring.” The novel also pokes some fun at game mechanics and how they would work in “reality”, like how, while all orcs can “drop” meat, only 3% of them have meat in good enough condition to improve your “HP”.
Overall, this is a pretty fun series so far and it definitely is going in interesting directions, so I will definitely be reading more of it.
A Wild Last Boss! Vol. 1 will be released as an e-book on July 12th, 2020. It can be pre-ordered on Amazon or at your digital e-book retailer of choice.
