Hello there! It's been quite a while since I last jumped into this fic - all the way back in February 2023, if memory serves. But nearly two years later, I figured I'd check out this fic again seeing as how you have a nice heat bonus built up that I figured I'd cash in on. So may as well get into it, starting with where I left off last time...
Chapter 5
Looks like some interactions with whoever brought Sam to this world, if I had to guess. Though I'm presuming they have a physical presence in this world, almost like they're by his bedside, watching his unconscious self. They clearly want to be kept hidden, though - so will it be a matter of playing "Guess Who the Voice Is?" among the Guild folk here?
And whoever this Voice is, their communication lines are still clearly patchy as hell.
I'd get that looked at if I were them.
What a thing to wake up to - a grumpy nurse. Right after being accosted by a Swampert murderer - yeah, not exactly the best entrance to this world, eheh.
Alas, there are only so many Pokémon in the world that know Heal Pulse.
This Blaziken's name is Rex, huh? Has this guy made himself the Aegis' driver, by any chance?
Wouldn't be the first PMD fic I've seen where a human says they have amnesia in order to hide the awkward truth that they're a human. I suppose it's a weird enough truth that would have a good few folks go
upon hearing it. A wise move on Sam's part, perhaps.
Chapter 6
(/jk of course.)
Quite a visually appealing town we have here in Robinswood. Woodland towns usually bring out the best in fairytale-esque setting like this one.
So this is a setting in the canon world, though the Continents feel like faraway places. And judging by Rex's words, that was all a long time ago where the heroes of each continent saved the world.
Seems we're taking a leaf out of Rescue Team's book with all of these natural disasters abound.
Oh, Jack is RT!Caterpie all grown up! Awww, nice to see the little buga from all the way back then evolved.
I wonder, then - if this is Caterpie from Rescue Team, then where are the RT heroes today? I have an inkling where one of them ended up, and a hunch that we may well have seen both of them...
Chapter 7
So the islands in the Sea of Wonder are carved out by mainlanders? I suppose when these islands are brand new chunks of land rising from the sea with seemingly no native inhabitants, there isn't really a society to 'take over', so any new society really is built from the ground up.
Such a new society, in fact, that they haven't had room to sort out universality of different sized 'mons in this town. Hopefully that's something they get around to in future.
Aaaaand now time for Sam to get carried away by these new arrivals and have Jack wondering, "Where did he go?"
And now a bunny brawl is about to ensue...or it would if this Froakie didn't appear and break things up. Lemme guess, he's gonna be Sam's partner for the foreseeable future.
Aidan certainly seems to have it all together - I'm presuming he's something of a junior leader to this lot.
And now Sam has a place to sleep! Settling in nicely.
Chapter 8
By the way Jack is mentioning the bandits here, I'm gonna make an assumption that we're not gonna see the last of them. And there's definitely more to that Swampert than meets the eye, I'm certain of it.
Aidan sure is speaking rather nonchalantly about the natural disasters and not giving a hoot about how his new partner's taking it. No wonder Sam's shaking like a leaf - imagine how one like him would feel if they were told the world they landed in had a disaster every five minutes. (Well, not quite that short, but you get what I mean.)
And on his first day, Sam has indeed found his partner. Ah, if that's not a common trope, alright. An oldie but a goodie.
Chapter 9
Over to Rex now, who's getting on in years. Almost certainly proof that he was more active as a Guild member in his younger days. I'm presuming that's the premise of Mercenaries of Dawn, where we see Rex in his own adventure as a younger 'mon.
Oh, so Esper was PSMD!Espurr? Lotta callbacks to the main games, huh.
Seems like something Not Very Good™ is going to be enforced upon the people of Robinswood which will almost certainly see society on the islands shifted about in a considerably worse way.
Meanwhile, over to Sam, who definitely hasn't mastered the art of Ember yet. We could be here a while, folks.
A headache for Aidan? Hmmm, something tells me that's not normal.
The discussion about Alice makes me wonder if she's a misunderstood, and maybe Sam will be the one that will make her turn away from the path of the grump. Either way, definitely more to her than meets the eye.
Emotions bring out the fire within - or something like that, anyway.
Looks like there's an announcement to be made - which will no doubt be that worrisome thing that Rex was poring over earlier.
Chapter 10
The biggest downside for isekaied humans in PMD worlds - being smol.
Aidan clearly needs to improve his leapfrogging skills when he's not much a climber. Think outside the box and all that.
Aaaand now that Alice is here, time for everyone's mood to go south and for arguing to break out. Good thing Sam's the peacekeeping type.
Seems like there's bad blood between Aidan and his family - I guess that would explain why he'd want to stake things out on his own and not go after the $$$ like his parents.
Sam having peacemaker vibes does further my theory that maybe he will be the one to calm Alice down and make her more amicable. Maybe she'll be a possible future team member.
Good thing Rex doesn't idle when there's pressing matters to attend to.
Oh no, whole towns being destroyed sure ain't a good thing, alright.
And to think this might well be an amped version of what was going on sixteen years ago? Doubly Not Good.
But hmmm, what's this sudden second-person POV? Probably that mysterious voice from a few chapters ago. That said, I do feel like if you are to change POVs like this, then it should be made clearer through a line break or something like that.
Strange that they're this invisible, ethereal entity. My money's on the one who brought Sam to this world.
But it appears we'll have to wait a bit longer to figure out just who they are.
Chapter 11
I see Robinswood has its own version of a Guild alarm clock in this Noibat here. I wonder if there's always a
feeling from the other Guildies if a sound-based Pokémon like Loudred or Noibat ends up as a new recruit, as if they're thinking, "Oh no, my mornings are going to be ruined from now on."
The Noibat's named Nia, eh? Time to make her headcanon voice a Welsh accent, especially considering we've already got a Rex in here.
So Alice is quite strong, then? I wonder if that has any relation to her being 'cursed'.
I presume that since these are islands we're on, that there'll be a sea port and Sam will travel on a ship at some point afterward.
I'm not sure whether Broken Woods dividing itself into three smaller Mystery Dungeons is a good thing or not. Since yes, that does mean Sam and Aidan will have an easier time, but on the other, the Mystery Dungeons breaking down implies a sense of instability, which could be worrying in the future when it could well get worse. Just what'll happen to the ferals within, and the land taken over by the Mystery Dungeons?
And now Sam's here to ask another question that a younger 'mon would be able to answer in a heartbeat.
Conclusion
But I guess we'll have to wait until next time to figure out how that question's gonna be answered.
I enjoyed getting back into this fic after so long away from it. It feels quite close in feel to the canon PMD games, and seeing as how it's an extension of the canon PMD world with the newly formed islands in the world, that would make sense that it steers closer to canon than the original setting. Especially since there are outright confirmed characters from the days of Rescue Team, like Jack, as well as Rex who's heavily implied to be the Rescue Team hero (at least that's my presumption). This new setting of Robinswood builds on something new with its setting, yet familiar all the same.
One point of praise I have is that the chapters are nice and short. Very digestible, and that does make for easy reading and getting through chapters, knowing that they're not too long and thus it won't take too much of an effort to read them.
I am curious where some character arcs are going to head. The most intriguing one to me is Alice, with how she's written off as a curse by just about everyone and acts out against them in an aggressive, distrusting manner. Yet I'm hedging my bets that Sam might be able to make her cold side thaw a bit and make her more approachable, after which there could be some big apology for her from everyone in the Guild who mistreated her. Or maybe not - maybe she won't learn her lesson, she'll end up striking out on her own and become allied with the Big Bad of this fic, whoever they might be. Then there's also Aidan, who I'm willing to bet will have some confrontational arc with his snooty parents who will visit the islands at some point to try and persuade him to come home. And finally, I'm willing to bet that Rex is the human from Rescue Team, and will have some kind of "I know what it's like" moment to Sam, where he fully explains his story, what he's been through, and what being a human typically means for this world. Seeing as how this is quite Rescue Team-related, I'm not expecting any of the other heroes to come into the picture - but I guess that remains to be seen if the other Continents will come into the picture.
One slight criticism I have is around character names. It might seem like an odd nitpick, but I do feel that some of their names are a bit...on the vanilla side of things. I have to confess that when I hear quite common English-sounding names such as 'Jack', 'Kyle', 'Greg' among most characters in a setting like this, it does take me out of things a little bit. It can feel a little odd in a fantasy setting, one separate from our world, for the characters to only have names that are quite common in our own world. Ultimately, it's not a huge deal, but I do think peering at Behind the Name for names a little more unique might be worth it. I use this site a lot for naming characters and I can't put into words how much of a godsend it's been for me as a writer. Even among the 'English' section, there's plenty of obscure and interesting names to consider. Or you could take a leaf out of Hands of Creation's book, where for every common-sounding name (Owen, Alex, Rhys), there's usually a name that's rather unique (Amia, Gahi, Anam). Given that you're many chapters into this, perhaps it's a little too late to implement it, but it was a thought I had nonetheless, and one I wished to voice.
There's some other small criticisms on the prose side of things, namely with the occasional instance of two characters speaking in the same chunk of text when grammar says to parse them apart, along with some species not being spelled properly. These are some things that an editing pass or two can solve, and they're only small issues at the end of the day.
Anyway, that's all for this review. Hopefully throughout this year I might be able to get deeper into this fic through a V-Wheel or Review Tag over at United. I enjoyed it and hope to see more. Good work, and I wish you luck with your writing going forward.
Chapter 5
Looks like some interactions with whoever brought Sam to this world, if I had to guess. Though I'm presuming they have a physical presence in this world, almost like they're by his bedside, watching his unconscious self. They clearly want to be kept hidden, though - so will it be a matter of playing "Guess Who the Voice Is?" among the Guild folk here?
And whoever this Voice is, their communication lines are still clearly patchy as hell.
I'd get that looked at if I were them.What a thing to wake up to - a grumpy nurse. Right after being accosted by a Swampert murderer - yeah, not exactly the best entrance to this world, eheh.
Man, even in the Pokémon world, we have a nurse shortage.
Alas, there are only so many Pokémon in the world that know Heal Pulse.This Blaziken's name is Rex, huh? Has this guy made himself the Aegis' driver, by any chance?
Wouldn't be the first PMD fic I've seen where a human says they have amnesia in order to hide the awkward truth that they're a human. I suppose it's a weird enough truth that would have a good few folks go
Chapter 6
Avoiding copyright with one extra S, I see.
(/jk of course.)Quite a visually appealing town we have here in Robinswood. Woodland towns usually bring out the best in fairytale-esque setting like this one.
So this is a setting in the canon world, though the Continents feel like faraway places. And judging by Rex's words, that was all a long time ago where the heroes of each continent saved the world.
It's actually Duraludon. I did notice there were some species in this part that were a bit misspelled - something that might be worth cleaning up on another editing pass, perhaps.
Seems we're taking a leaf out of Rescue Team's book with all of these natural disasters abound.
This part should be separated into three separate lines, like so:
Oh, Jack is RT!Caterpie all grown up! Awww, nice to see the little buga from all the way back then evolved.
I wonder, then - if this is Caterpie from Rescue Team, then where are the RT heroes today? I have an inkling where one of them ended up, and a hunch that we may well have seen both of them...
Chapter 7
So the islands in the Sea of Wonder are carved out by mainlanders? I suppose when these islands are brand new chunks of land rising from the sea with seemingly no native inhabitants, there isn't really a society to 'take over', so any new society really is built from the ground up.
Such a new society, in fact, that they haven't had room to sort out universality of different sized 'mons in this town.
Hopefully that's something they get around to in future.I'm surprised that a Snom would be asking for this given his incredibly disadvantageous typing.
Aaaaand now time for Sam to get carried away by these new arrivals and have Jack wondering, "Where did he go?"
This is one grumpy Buneary right here. Betting her Frustration attacks do sky-high damage.
'Cursed freak'? Calling it now, this Buneary's a human. And if this is the treatment they give humans...then maybe it was a good thing Sam chose to keep mum about that side of him.
And now a bunny brawl is about to ensue...or it would if this Froakie didn't appear and break things up. Lemme guess, he's gonna be Sam's partner for the foreseeable future.
Aidan certainly seems to have it all together - I'm presuming he's something of a junior leader to this lot.
And now Sam has a place to sleep! Settling in nicely.
Chapter 8
I'm surprised to hear that Aidan, a Water-type, is from a continent not exactly plentiful in that sort of thing. And it also seems he's a little rich kid...I wonder if that might imply anything about certain parts of his character? For instance, naivety around how certain things in the world work, as well as maybe his parents being snooty pricks of people? I guess we'll see if this thread unfolds into anything.
Ah, so that explains that. And that's probably helped a bunch of towns get water that wouldn't have had good access to it otherwise.
By the way Jack is mentioning the bandits here, I'm gonna make an assumption that we're not gonna see the last of them. And there's definitely more to that Swampert than meets the eye, I'm certain of it.
Ah yes, the usual increase in standards for something the less scarce it becomes. Although I get the feeling that the Guild will need all the hands it can get if these natural disasters keep up.
Aidan sure is speaking rather nonchalantly about the natural disasters and not giving a hoot about how his new partner's taking it. No wonder Sam's shaking like a leaf - imagine how one like him would feel if they were told the world they landed in had a disaster every five minutes. (Well, not quite that short, but you get what I mean.)
And on his first day, Sam has indeed found his partner. Ah, if that's not a common trope, alright. An oldie but a goodie.
And now we have quite an embarrassing ask on Sam's part, to do something that most toddlers have probably been able to do until that point.
Chapter 9
Over to Rex now, who's getting on in years. Almost certainly proof that he was more active as a Guild member in his younger days. I'm presuming that's the premise of Mercenaries of Dawn, where we see Rex in his own adventure as a younger 'mon.
Oh, so Esper was PSMD!Espurr?
Lotta callbacks to the main games, huh.Once again, another instance where this should be two parts instead, beginning with where Rex begins speaking. The exchange in dialogue would make it clearer who's saying that second part as well.
Implying that there...is something going on behind the scenes? Businessfolk sure do have a knack for shortchanging their customers, and I wouldn't be surprised if Aidan's parents got to where they got to today through a fair deal of swindling.
Rex has a kid? As in, a child? Nice to see that passage of time.
Seems like something Not Very Good™ is going to be enforced upon the people of Robinswood which will almost certainly see society on the islands shifted about in a considerably worse way.
Meanwhile, over to Sam, who definitely hasn't mastered the art of Ember yet. We could be here a while, folks.
A headache for Aidan? Hmmm, something tells me that's not normal.
The discussion about Alice makes me wonder if she's a misunderstood, and maybe Sam will be the one that will make her turn away from the path of the grump. Either way, definitely more to her than meets the eye.
Emotions bring out the fire within - or something like that, anyway.
Looks like there's an announcement to be made - which will no doubt be that worrisome thing that Rex was poring over earlier.
Chapter 10
The biggest downside for isekaied humans in PMD worlds - being smol.
Aidan clearly needs to improve his leapfrogging skills when he's not much a climber. Think outside the box and all that.
Aaaand now that Alice is here, time for everyone's mood to go south and for arguing to break out. Good thing Sam's the peacekeeping type.
Seems like there's bad blood between Aidan and his family - I guess that would explain why he'd want to stake things out on his own and not go after the $$$ like his parents.
Sam having peacemaker vibes does further my theory that maybe he will be the one to calm Alice down and make her more amicable. Maybe she'll be a possible future team member.
Good thing Rex doesn't idle when there's pressing matters to attend to.
Oh no, whole towns being destroyed sure ain't a good thing, alright.
Explorers stocks in shambles.
But hmmm, what's this sudden second-person POV? Probably that mysterious voice from a few chapters ago. That said, I do feel like if you are to change POVs like this, then it should be made clearer through a line break or something like that.
Strange that they're this invisible, ethereal entity. My money's on the one who brought Sam to this world.
But it appears we'll have to wait a bit longer to figure out just who they are.
Chapter 11
I see Robinswood has its own version of a Guild alarm clock in this Noibat here. I wonder if there's always a
One too many uses of 'shit' here in this sequence. Might be better to mix it up with other words of similar impact like 'damn'.
I suppose when you're small like Sam is, there is more distance to travel as a result. The woes of being smol continue.
The Noibat's named Nia, eh? Time to make her headcanon voice a Welsh accent, especially considering we've already got a Rex in here.
So Alice is quite strong, then? I wonder if that has any relation to her being 'cursed'.
Geez guys, with all of these things you're saying about Alice, you're making her sound almost sympathetic. I'm even more certain there's a softer side to her, or another side that we're not hearing about thanks to these guys' prejudice about her.
I presume that since these are islands we're on, that there'll be a sea port and Sam will travel on a ship at some point afterward.
I'm not sure whether Broken Woods dividing itself into three smaller Mystery Dungeons is a good thing or not. Since yes, that does mean Sam and Aidan will have an easier time, but on the other, the Mystery Dungeons breaking down implies a sense of instability, which could be worrying in the future when it could well get worse. Just what'll happen to the ferals within, and the land taken over by the Mystery Dungeons?
And now Sam's here to ask another question that a younger 'mon would be able to answer in a heartbeat.
Conclusion
But I guess we'll have to wait until next time to figure out how that question's gonna be answered.
I enjoyed getting back into this fic after so long away from it. It feels quite close in feel to the canon PMD games, and seeing as how it's an extension of the canon PMD world with the newly formed islands in the world, that would make sense that it steers closer to canon than the original setting. Especially since there are outright confirmed characters from the days of Rescue Team, like Jack, as well as Rex who's heavily implied to be the Rescue Team hero (at least that's my presumption). This new setting of Robinswood builds on something new with its setting, yet familiar all the same.
One point of praise I have is that the chapters are nice and short. Very digestible, and that does make for easy reading and getting through chapters, knowing that they're not too long and thus it won't take too much of an effort to read them.
I am curious where some character arcs are going to head. The most intriguing one to me is Alice, with how she's written off as a curse by just about everyone and acts out against them in an aggressive, distrusting manner. Yet I'm hedging my bets that Sam might be able to make her cold side thaw a bit and make her more approachable, after which there could be some big apology for her from everyone in the Guild who mistreated her. Or maybe not - maybe she won't learn her lesson, she'll end up striking out on her own and become allied with the Big Bad of this fic, whoever they might be. Then there's also Aidan, who I'm willing to bet will have some confrontational arc with his snooty parents who will visit the islands at some point to try and persuade him to come home. And finally, I'm willing to bet that Rex is the human from Rescue Team, and will have some kind of "I know what it's like" moment to Sam, where he fully explains his story, what he's been through, and what being a human typically means for this world. Seeing as how this is quite Rescue Team-related, I'm not expecting any of the other heroes to come into the picture - but I guess that remains to be seen if the other Continents will come into the picture.
One slight criticism I have is around character names. It might seem like an odd nitpick, but I do feel that some of their names are a bit...on the vanilla side of things. I have to confess that when I hear quite common English-sounding names such as 'Jack', 'Kyle', 'Greg' among most characters in a setting like this, it does take me out of things a little bit. It can feel a little odd in a fantasy setting, one separate from our world, for the characters to only have names that are quite common in our own world. Ultimately, it's not a huge deal, but I do think peering at Behind the Name for names a little more unique might be worth it. I use this site a lot for naming characters and I can't put into words how much of a godsend it's been for me as a writer. Even among the 'English' section, there's plenty of obscure and interesting names to consider. Or you could take a leaf out of Hands of Creation's book, where for every common-sounding name (Owen, Alex, Rhys), there's usually a name that's rather unique (Amia, Gahi, Anam). Given that you're many chapters into this, perhaps it's a little too late to implement it, but it was a thought I had nonetheless, and one I wished to voice.
There's some other small criticisms on the prose side of things, namely with the occasional instance of two characters speaking in the same chunk of text when grammar says to parse them apart, along with some species not being spelled properly. These are some things that an editing pass or two can solve, and they're only small issues at the end of the day.
Anyway, that's all for this review. Hopefully throughout this year I might be able to get deeper into this fic through a V-Wheel or Review Tag over at United. I enjoyed it and hope to see more. Good work, and I wish you luck with your writing going forward.