Beast Taming: Starting From Zero

The fact that this novel doesn't have 5 stars is a f*cking sacrilege. Look, if you're expecting a shonen-style novel, tragedy, heavy plot, villains, fights to the death and unique history, then this isn't for you. This is a found-family-style novel, "quick growth", comedy, battles, MC with luck on her side, and exploration. Here are a few points I want to clarify regarding other comments ... more>> Spoiler Is MC OP and the plot boring? Yes and no. MC's dream is clear from the start, which is through the roof. She is lucky in that her mutated beast codex allows her to see information about her contracted beasts and allows them to grow quickly the more they fight. Basically, if her contracted beast has an affinity with x or y ability, then they can quickly learn it. (If it does not have that affinity, it takes 100 times longer to acquire it, and the possibility is still slim.) But are things just handed to her? No. Both MC and her beasts work very hard to achieve the strength they have. Basically, her beasts are addicted to training and fighting, while MC spends a lot of time in such intense self-study that I got a migraine just thinking about going through something similar. (In an arc, she had to undergo training to improve her defense, receiving beatings and internal modifications with worms. If you tell me that she had things handed to her on a silver platter, it's because you didn't read anything.) This is what makes it entertaining for me, MC's path to her dream is long, and many things happen along the way, yet she is still far from achieving it, even though she has it easier than others. This makes it more satisfying. [collapse] I've read other similar beast taming novels, and you know what? I don't think they're half as good as this one, but surprise, surprise, they get better reviews because people like bloody fights between magical beasts, a cold, serious, and extremely arrogant MC with an air of superiority, and the most nonsensical growth you can imagine. But hey, to each their own. If I had to summarize what I loved about this novel specifically, it would be the relationship between the MC and her beasts, the most unique thing I've seen among novels of the same type, each with a drastically different and "human" personality, insecurities, goals, and thoughts, and the development between them and the MC has me hooked, If you want to read something lighter and more entertaining with beasts as family and a main character with a mature, kind, but firm personality, then this is definitely for you. As an extra piece of information that may further define the MC: she is not a heroine nor does she have a savior complex, nor does she go through life imposing her way of thinking and seeing things on others. The times she has stepped forward in matters that do not concern her are because her beasts have wanted her to and she indulges them, which for me is a 5/5 in personality <<less

Don't get me wrong, that three stars is a very positive score for me. If there were percentages, I'd say this was a 3.5 star story. Above average but nothing exceptional. The story is still in the progress of being written so it is very likely that what I say now will not be the same as it is at the end. I will update when that time comes. For my current impression though I have to say I am underwhelmed but still intrigued enough to not drop the story. That is ... more>> a positive thing. I drop stories 90% of the time, but not only am I still reading this story but I am also writing a review about it! And not only that, I'm willing to wait for updates! It must have something, right? Well, kind of. The beginning had me fascinated and I binged this story for like two weeks straight and read nothing else. I was fascinated by the mc's story with her mother and maternal side of the family, the interesting world building, the cute beasts, the comedic moments, and the at-times serious beats to the story. I was fascinated for two weeks straight and was convinced this was going to be my next focus. But then I started to notice the flaws. Everything I praised about the story is still there, it's still present. It just has become more obvious to me that what makes this story great keeps taking a back-seat to the stuff about making the main character more powerful. And not in the satisfying progression fantasy kind of powerful. No, this strength building journey is a lot more bland than that. It's the grinding type that basically imprisons you into sitting through every. Single. Moment. The beauty of story writing is that you're crafting a story, not giving a playbook on how to be the strongest being on the planet. Your readers have very little spare time and they're choosing to read your story over any other. That is an honor. But in this work your time is not treated as such. So it is very frustrating when the more interesting areas of the story are being pivoted away from for the sake of skippable scenes. It feels like whenever there's some sort of progress being made in other areas, the author goes back to writing mind-numbing battle scenes that aren't very relevant to the story. And I actually really like overpowered characters. I hate reading about characters who are extremely limited in what they can do - I'm limited in my own life, why should I bother suffering by reading about that kind of life in my precious spare time? But like I've said time and time again, overpowered characters need excellent pacing in their stories to work. Otherwise, it's very easy to take you out of the immersion of the world and what you're left with is feeling like you have to do chores to get a glimpse of the good stuff. Bad pacing feels like work. And work is never a good thing. But this story's pacing is not a deal breaker, it's just a tad lackluster. It's just a little disheartening to see potential and then having that potential yanked away from you in favor of a battle with a character that appears once, will never show up again, and does not give any sort of benefit to the character that nowhere near equates to the value of the time that you the reader lost looking at mind-numbing hours of text. I might be being a little overdramatic- it's truly not as unbearable as I'm making it out to be. I wouldn't have read nearly a thousand chapters if that were the case. But I'm frustrated and have no idea how else to express that sensation, so I'm gonna let myself be a diva for once. It's a story with the potential to have a plot but the author keeps trying to make it appeal to the shounen anime crowd. Even the way the characters are treated is like a classic shounen anime. You keep getting introduced to new characters but very rarely do any of them stick around. Why even introduce all these people in the first place??? I keep trying to see the MC become an actual person who has meaningful relationships with anyone beyond her mother and beasts but anytime there's a spark of potential, again the author just puts it out by pivoting to unimportant new battles, new locations, new characters. I want things to mean something!!!! This story has an excess of information that does not assist, only drowns out the soul of the work. There are plenty of interesting characters, interesting workd building, comedic moments. But none of that means anything when they don't stick around. Nothing means anything in this work. The only saving grace is the mc's pets that are very adorable. They are the stars of the show and I am reading this story solely for them. That and the mc's mother. Everyone else does not matter in this story. I will update this review again when we get further along in the story. I do hope that these things improve as I really do like this story but I cannot in good conscience say this is deserving of more than 3.5 stars. <<less

After looking at the recent reviews, I realised this novel might not be for everyone. 1. The MC is very much OP. If that bothers you, don't read this one. 2. As of now, the MC's transmigration is only useful to explain her lack of common sense and her skills. 3. The side characters are only that: side characters. I reread the entire novel and I still could not name a single other character's name ... more>> Spoiler (although some are recurring) [collapse] That being said, I can't disagree more with the recent 1 star reviews. This novel is a hidden gem and is quite unique compared to the ones I have read before. 1. If you grew up with Pokemon, this novel might very well be for you. Imagine if people didn't peak at 11 years old but actually became more competent with time. Imagine if the "beasts" didn't stop evolving halfway through your journey and could use more than just 4 moves. This novel shows exactly that world. To me, the world is what makes this novel. 2. The translation is good. I have been a translation reader for almost a decade now and this one is above average. There are still some small mistakes here and there but even after rereading the whole thing to write this review, I could only catch 3 mistakes that really bothered me. 3. The pace is also good. Even when rereading the novel, I never felt like I hit a long boring part. Even the parts that were less interesting were there for a reason. 4. While it's true that the MC is overpowered, it's not done in a boring way. She is talented but she also learns and works on her mistakes. It's not a story about OP MC hiding their talent. She is growing and learning as she goes. It feels much more realistic than many of the OP MCs I have read before. 5. The team interactions are great. While the human characters are mostly side characters, her beasts are all different and have their own personalities. They grow, they struggle, they feel weak, they feel strong, they grow... They each shine at different times and in different ways. They are fun. Overall, this novel might not be for everyone, but it is perfect for me. It's fun, I always wait for the next chapter, and I often find myself smiling while reading it. It's good enough to be part of my top 10 favorite novels ever, on here and with the ongoing DMCA-pocalyps, my only remaining, ongoing, smile-inducing novel. <<less

This is a fairly standard genre peace. The quality of the writing is fine and it doesn't make heavy use of the same cut and paste descriptions again and again. The English translation (A Dreamers World) is solid and a step above the official translation on Webnovel. The story itself is fairly cosy. It's too fast paced and dynamic to really be "slice of life". But at the same time there is no massive drama or angst, no one courting death and no real danger until the later (500+) chapters. The ... more>> protagonists cheat ability doesn't seem that overpowered which was welcome but despite that the protagonist is definitely too OP. Not really a problem as its part of the genre but it does make you wonder why the author spent so much time on the earlier tournament arcs when there was zero tension. The MC does start to lose battles later and they never get arrogant which keeps them likeable despite being OP. Surprisingly a lot of the secondary characters stick around and while basically no character, including the MC, get much "character growth" the relationships and the MC's reaction to people and their reaction to her feel a lot more natural and organic than a lot of these stories. There's no accounting for taste but a lot of the complaints seem a bit weird. The MC being a reincarnator is brought up constantly and informs all of her person relations especially her family ones. Also some of the complaints are explicitly refuted in the text itself e.g. It is explicitly explained why the MC decided to be a beast tamer and all the world building re-enforces that choice (non beast tamers are second class citizens that live in danger with limited career and life opportunities you would have to be insane in the setting not to aim to be a beast trainer). Similarly complaints about fights "in the wild", in every single one of them multiple beasts attack if and when they can and the MC or the antagonists trainers get attacked in literally every single one. I mean some of the complaints read like the people didnt read the novel. <<less

Love the story, I'm looking forward to new chapter every day. Like others said, the MC is OP and basically never lose, so if you aren't into that then this isn't really for you. The cheat system is very hand off, it's basically a passive that increases pets' experience and skill efficiency. So no random missions or rewards that come out of nowhere. MC's is lucky though, so like in many other novels, she will be put in tough situations then come out of it gaining good stuffs. The story has a good ... more>> mix of progression and SoL, the pace isn't too fast nor slow. MC is moving forward fast, but still has plenty of fun interactions between pet/pet, pet/human. The fights are mostly tournament style, pet vs pet only. And because she obtains new pets, pets learn new skills or make better use of old skills, they don't feel stale. Below are some refutations of the other review: Spoiler -MC risks her life to stop strong trainers from capturing and forcing contracts with unwilling pets. The MC and the trainers don't know each other, and MC can't even form contracts with said pets, so she isn't trying to snatch them away, she is doing it for ethical reasons. But on the other side, MC also drools over strong uncontracted pets and even mentions that she would force a contract if she could. She actually considers this as an option before saying that the pet is too strong, so she'll have to resort to trickery instead. This is so hypocritical and I don't understand MC's stance here. ->This is just bad reading here. MC doesn't care much about other trainers forcing a contract. She even wants to just get away because said trainers are stronger than her. MC's big thing though, is that she usually supports her pets' want. In this situation, her pet was very eager to help the other unwilling pet, so she chose to help it too. This will happen quite a lot, where MC will choose to do or not to do something based on her pets. Eg: Someone bribes her to intentionally lose battle, she only refuse because it'll ruin her righteous image in her pets' eyes. [collapse] Spoiler -MC makes important life decisions without considering other options or thinking about it. She's a trainer cuz she's a trainer, and she battles because she battles. ->It's a fking beast taming world, everyone trains their pets there. She decided to go all in aiming for the top place because she loves the battles, and she has the cheat to do so. Doing so will also make it easier for her to travel around. You don't need some kind of deep trauma backstory to aim for something. [collapse] Spoiler -Fights are basically pokemon battles. We have moves, we have turns, and for some unknown reason you cannot sneak attack outside your turn. You can't attack the trainer, and the trainers do not attack either. And this is outside the arena, in real battles. There are no rules in fights, but everyone behaves as if rules exist ->False, outside the arena, they absolutely target the other trainers. There aren't a lot of outside arena battles in the story, but in all of them, the priority is to knock the trainers out, even just targeting them will help distract the pets. This is a civilized society though, killing is avoided, so you'll see many situations where stronger trainers get handicapped cause they can't go too hard. [collapse] <<less

A fun and light read, strongly reminiscent of pokemon. There are some significant weaknesses, but the distinct personalities of both humans and pet beasts and the nice scattering of humorous content keep me as a reader engaged and in a good mood. Since enjoyability is the primary reason for reading these kinds of books, I believe that while slightly inflated 'Beast Taming: Starting From Zero' does deserve a high rating. The primary weakness of the work is that the MC is too OP. It's fine to be powerful and have quick progression, but ... more>> in my memory the MC has not lost a single time the entire 515 chapters I have read so far. Not even a draw or forfeit, or winning with significant costs that require time to recoup. The suspense of an uncertain outcome is entirely absent. Whenever the author needs an excuse, the answer is money or luck leading to money. Please leave all your financial know-how at the door, because true frustration awaits otherwise. <<less

Fun story. This is type of novel that rely heavily on shock factor, its actually one of the annoying thing in the novel, so many lines fawning over MC, I recommend skim them altogether since they became old very fast, its not like they're important most of the time. Other than that I find this novel very enjoyable, the daily life of MC and her beasts, how they meet and how they bond. I also like how light themed it is, well sure there are some shady stuff going on but ... more>> there's nothing overly complicated, no revenge story whatsoever, no unnecessary nationalism no petty bickering etc. Character interaction are funny too and even if MC is op as hell her challenges aren't light either. I also like how they handled tournament events because it only focused on MC battles, so it doesn't stretched like most tournament events in other media. One thing that I absolutely like about this novel is the build up for upcoming major events, I absolutely love it and the pace is really good making it satisfying to read for such a power fantasy story unlike most where sometimes they dragged too much making it tiring to read or pacing it waay too fast. Honestly one of the best power fantasy I've ever read, but if you expect something serious, gritty, and majestic grand plot, you'd be disappointed. This is light comedy themed power fantasy much like pokemon itself, but MC is op af, granted I dont know much about pokemon, but from what I've heard there are nothing gritty or dark about them except its lore, the story itself is rather light. <<less

Pretty fun story, and I'm enjoying the evolutions, but it's getting harder to overlook how much the story steals from Pokémon. Most of the abilities and moves introduced in the past ~100 chapters have been direct copies of Pokémon moves. Which would be fine, but they even copied stuff that doesn't make sense in this world. Fortunately, the MC is not boring, and the 'golden finger' is not overused and doesn't feel cheaty. My only complaint about the MC is that this isn't transmigration/reincarnation, she never uses any of the knowledge ... more>> from her 1st life or even brings it up after the first arc. Edit: Oh and I almost forgot about the random unlimited balance debit card MC randomly wins from a lottery. This is the turning point at which the writing starts getting weaker.
I feel like the novel could easily be a 4/5 if it got a real translation, but the edited MTL holds it back quite a bit. <<less