Pokémon Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Path of Valor

[JFought]

I'm back! Here to do a set of chapters for January! I wanted to do twelve for blitz, but since I couldn't manage it, I decided to try and do some extra reading for this month. I did eight this time, for a very specific reason that'll come up at the end of this.

Thoughts on Chapters 45 to 52:

• We finally get to see more of Ryujin in this set, and the way they fit into the world is starting to make more sense now. Reptiles are discriminated against in the Aeon Kingdom, and so Ryujin is what was built underneath that (literally). And that's how Yiazmat has connections to their leader. In hindsight, the fact that they're called Ryujin should've made it more obvious, but actually getting to see Scale City helps to really put it into context.
• Poor Chiaki. He's Igneous now, so he can't play video games anymore . I do wonder how the name change will go over with the main party: I don't expect he'll be Chiaki again anytime soon, but it remains to be seen how his status as a fugitive will resolve. Also poor Scarlett too. I like the parellel being drawn between the two here, where they both just wanted to feel important and respected by their peers.
• Demerzel is doing something with Shimmer... Keeping my thoughts to myself on that, there's still a lot up in the air.
• Valkyrie give her backstory to Noctum during their fight, which does raise some questions, given Gene had called her Prisma earlier in the fic. Is her story with Ryujin a cover? I had almost thought that the overseer stuff we learn a little later was going to connect back to her, but the overseers seem fully unaware of who she is, so whatever's going on, it must be confined to this universe. It's also possible Prisma is going to mean something else later on, but I suppose I'll see.
• Speaking of overseer stuff, it seems like this is where the "Guiding Light" sequel promise really comes into play. Some of it is definitely going over my head a little (what the heck happened to shane at the end of that fic), but that's mostly just from my perspective as someone who only read halfway through and is trying to pick up the missing pieces. The fic still seems relatively self-contained, though I'll be interested to see how this all ties into the plot. Obviously Paradox is not going to be content with just taking over this dimension, but the GL ties specifically seem to be the main reason for the omniversal scale, and there's been a lot of teasing for it so far with all the Ahsen stuff, so I'm curious. I suppose we'll learn more once we meet that stranded agent (tessa, maybe?).

• Quetzal puffed out his feathers. "I still cannot believe nobody told me we were having a strategy meeting! I didn't even have any time to prepare for this!"
  
  "You were napping. I didn't want to be rude." Jade laughed nervously.
  
  "I just forgot." Gene shrugged.

  admittedly i completely forgot about him too ^^; (was he actually forgotten about in that scene?)
  
  

• "Return, Guardian!" Xeromus called.

  ...ansem?
  
  

• Rebels? Oh, shit, it's Gene?!

  Unfortunately this is a dead link now.
  
  
• Finally, Despiar/Necrozma/Bahamut reveals his role in the plot: he's the Masked Man of this needle-pulling adventure! It seems like we've mostly dropped the Despair moniker though. It's nice to see that he has a role after all (and a meaningful one at that), though I'm still trying to piece together why he was introduced so early on as "Despair" in the first place. I'm still going to reserve my judgement, as there are still a few things that haven't really become totally clear yet. But critically speaking, I'm still in that mindset of questioning his purpose in the story.
• Commenting specifically on the Centiskorcher fight, I really liked it. Certain aspects of it were a little hard to keep track of, but like, overall I really liked the pacing of the fight. The reveals, the cutaways to Paradox, the music choices, Scarlett's moment of redemption, it all came together really well here. Definitely one of the highlights of the fic so far. It's also interesting to see that Scarlett has her own sage, too! That makes two characters other than Yuna (and now bahamut) who have sages under their command.
• Also poor Widget. He didn't last as long as an antagonist as I thought he might (though his replacement might fare better). It seems like Paradox's self-destruct command failed somehow, though the chapter cuts off before we really get to see. I'm feeling like everything's set up for Widget to get an arc here, so I'm interested to see where this goes in the next chapter.

Spoiler: Typos and Errors

Gene couldn't fully Phantom Warm away from two Hydro Cannons.

new ability unlocked?

On the one hand, Igneous was glad the dragpult caught on quickly.

He wasn't about to say she was carrying a few Sages around with her. That would really set the dragpult off.

These are both fairly close to each other in the same chapter.

And with that...

holy shit this really is final fantasy

I have now caught up to my own first review post! (and in one more chapter, I'll catch up to my second.) Seeing it there kind of puts things into perspective, knowing now that this isn't even the fic's halfway point. Though I suppose it's also been three years since (double though, that would mean the majority of this fic was published in the second half of it's lifespan).

Looking back at that comment though, more than Final Fantasy, I've really been feeling the Ratchet and Clank inspirations (especially from Rift Apart). It helps that the main villain and his forces are transparently an expy for Emperor Nefarious (the musical number was a really fun way to reference content that only made it into the credits of that game), but it's all over the sci-fi elements and overall tone of the story, too. Really, the story takes inspiration from so many sources that singling out Final Fantasy feels reductive in hindsight. I suppose I should count myself lucky to even be able to catch half of them ^^;.

Anyway, this was a good set! And it ended with what felt like a pretty big win for our characters, too. Next chapter it looks like we'll be seeing a lot of reunions, so I'll see you again in February for how that goes!