I technically already left reviews for everything on my reading list before the deadline, but figured I might as well turn one of these in:
First Readthroughs:
Name of Fic: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Power Trip
What I Read: Chapters 45-47
How I Felt:
That ending. I mean, it made sense for the story and gave it a lot of closure, but
still. It's an oldie by now, but highly, highly recommended as a whole for a story. Since it's a very imaginative PMD story that does Xenofiction elements better than any other PMD story that I've read (which granted isn't much, but still) and takes a setting backdrop that is fairly rare for PMD stories.
I do have to wonder why the author rated it 'T' on FFN though, since it's honestly wholesome and inoffensive enough that I'd have rated it K+ at the very least were I the one in charge of managing its settings.
Name of Fic: Those Who Will Inherit the Earth
What I Read: Chapters 3-6
How I Felt:
It was quite something to see the main protags fall out so dramatically with each other, the environmentalism themes started intersecting with the plot more directly, and there's a very strong undertone of dread and foreboding starting in around Chapter 5 after Poppy teams up with a totally not malevolent force that I'm pretty sure totally isn't Yveltal. The description that's there in the story is very vivid and well done, I just wish that a few sections had more of it.
If only I had a bit more time and energy before RR concluded to keep reading ahead, since it felt like the shoe was about to drop in-story in very dramatic fashion. I'll definitely be reading more of this story, potentially in the imminent future to boot. Since I've fallen in love with the world and characters and want to see where things end up, even if I'm sure that it's nowhere good at this rate. ^^;
Second Readthroughs:
Name of Fic: Places We Call Home
What I Read: Chapter 6
How I Felt:
I'm of two minds of the chapter that I read, really. On the one hand, narratively it was basically a transition chapter that effectively undid a chapter's worth of narrative progress for Team Haru. On the other hand, as part of a second readthrough, I know that it sets up a
lot of stuff that happens in and around Theran Village afterwards, and it was fun to go back and see little details and foreshadowing that I overlooked the first time around.
I'm not sure if I'd have enjoyed the chapter as much if I read it through for the first time, but altogether I would say that I liked it. It had some really neat worldbuilding squeezed in, and being able to see buildup for things that I knew would be coming down the pipe was always fun.
Name of Fic: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rebirth
What I Read: Chapter 18
How I Felt:
Okay, so that emote was mostly at the premise of
pitting a military leader named 'Varus' against barbarians, how cursed that scenario is for a Roman-themed setting like the story's, and taking the piss out of a few moments that happened in my review, but yeah. I had quite a bit of fun re-reading the chapter.
More seriously, it's a very solid chapter that does an excellent job at selling a bleak, oppressive sense of the main character feeling helpless and overwhelmed as the world falling apart around him in brutal, violent fashion. And there were a number of details that I picked up this time around that I missed the first time that helped lean in more into that vibe. A number of parts of the chapter read
very differently in light of knowing a few twists in the plot that come not long after the events of this particular chapter, so it was fun to see events play out with "oh,
that's what was going on" in mind.
Again, highly recommended if you have a stomach for darker PMD stories and wanted a version of the story to catch up on at a leisurely pace since it pushes syndicated releases about once every two weeks. Especially recommended if you liked Knightfall's writings back in the ancient eras when he was active as a writer.
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# of chapters to read: The next 5!
