Alright, another year, another trip down last year's highlight reel to get in some pre-sprint recommendations for those who want to hit the ground running:
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Soaring Over Heaven by
@Z102eternal
Okay, I'll admit that I took a bit of a leap of faith on this recommendation since I initially made it after only reading the first chapter, but
man was it a memorable first chapter, and the others I've read so far have been pretty solid, too. Also, the author wrote it under the influence of a hefty dash of
Xenoblade brainrot, which I am ever so slightly biased towards given my number two fic in terms of active effort thrown at it is a bit of a kindred spirit in that regard.
But even putting aside personal biases, there's genuinely a lot going for this fic. The setting of floating continents and sky pirates is
very uncommon for a PMD story in general, the cast is memorable and charming, and the story has a mixed-media presentation with art lovingly drawn by Z102eternal himself on each chapter. There was a lot of passion and love for the craft just oozing from the first chapter alone, and from what I've heard through the grapevine, the later chapters aren't a slouch in that regard, either.
I'm personally planning on returning to this story a couple times during this Review Blitz. If you are hunting for a fun PMD story and a free Week 1 bonus along the way, you could honestly do a lot worse than spending time with a few chapters of this fic.
For This to Finally End [Kieran battle theme lyrics] by
@elyvorg
I honestly hesitated with whether or not to nominate this one last year since the combined reviewable wordcount of the fic was less than 1000 words, but between it being from an uncommon genre for fics here and the overall quality of what
was there, I felt that it was worth the recommendation anyways.
To start with,
For This to Finally End is effectively a songfic, showing off just what was going through Kieran's mind battles from different points of time in the Teal Mask, Indigo Disk, and Epilogue DLCs to the beat of his battle music. It works
far better than it has any right to. The lyrics are sequenced tightly with the songs' melodies, and after elyvorg went and added hovertext for timestamps, it's pretty easy to get a feel for how it flows. The overall package does a
very good job of getting into Kieran's mind and showing him grappling with his insecurities in live-time as his attempts at growing stronger for self-validation hit a wall with the player character, in all of its concerning, wince-inducing glory.
Be warned that all parts of this fic heavily spoil the DLC content of S/V, and you should not read this until after playing through it if you care about that. But if you already have and you're looking for a little quickie to throw onto your reviewing pile, you could do far worse than
For This to Finally End, and you might even find yourself singing along with it before long.
Free to a Loving Home by
@Ambyssin
So my recommendation this week is
Dark-Clothed Small Human's longer, Galarian cousin with the first-person narration swapped out for second-person narration. Okay, that's selling this one-shot quite a bit short, but more seriously, it's a very heartfelt gap-filling backstory to the Galarian postgame Type: Null in which Ambyssin attempts to show how that state of affairs might have landed said Type: Null in that position.
Ambyssin can sometimes be a touch self-critical about this story, and while there were a couple bones that I had to pick with it, it was honestly cute and endearing enough that they're ultimately minor matters in the grand scheme of things for its ride. Amby's always had a bit of a thing for Type: Null and Silvally, and he really lets his love for the species shine here with an immersive xenofiction perspective that does a great job at getting into its character's head and the highs and lows of his journey to a place he can call home.
Just remember to check your eyes after reading, you might find some unexpected sand in them after reading.
mountains will never by
@kintsugi
This one-shot was part of the crop of Legendary PoV fics from 2023's Aeons and Avatars contest, which is a one-shot that is in turns somber, melancholy, touching, and heartwarming about Yveltal being reborn in the wake of the Ultimate Weapon's firing in XY's backstory. Things go down, incredibly lifelike statue gardens are made, and a death condor comes back to life,
not quite as the soul that it used to be.
There's only so much about the story that can be said without heavily spoiling its plot, but it's a genuinely touching glimpse of someone thrust into the role of having to become a psychopomp with some help from the Yveltal-that-Was, their interactions with the various souls they come along the way, and their journey to try and piece together fragments of their own past.
This oneshot seems to have slid under the radar since it's been reviewed all of four times since it was posted. But if you have time to spare for a little under 6,000 words, you could do a lot worse for reading material to fill your plate in this upcoming month.
For those
still looking for more reading material to chew on, I also have my highlight reel recommendations
from Review Blitz 4, a similar slate
from Review Blitz 3, and everything that I linked to in
my post on the on-site Master's Eight thread.
