Alright, this round was a bit lonelier than I initially expected while doing an interest check, but if nothing else, I've got my own impressions in, so I figure I might as well out there for the world to see:
Name of fic- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: The Shadow Catalyst
What I read - Chapters 4-5
How I felt:
This one was a bit of a mixed bag for me, since there were a number of mechanical hiccups here and there and I'll admit that breaking away to two (initially) unrelated characters after three chapters building up Ember and her journey to reunite with her father caught me off guard. That said, I thought that for all its rough edges, it did a lot of things right. The characters it introduced were charming and we got to see how they responded to bad situations, and they even wind up crossing paths with Ember for an imminent teamup by the end. The worldbuilding and glimpse at the broader setting were also well-appreciated, too.
Really, if you found yourself having a good time with this story come around Chapter 3 or so, I fully expect that you'll have a good time with these chapters by
@Kbludoh and likely with the ones beyond.
Name of fic- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Nostalgia
What I read - Prologue + Chapter 1
How I felt:
That's not so much a comment about the
story per se, which I thought was an alright black comedy if a bit lacking in polish in some places and more the apparent main character who was introduced after being discovered in a fateful incident in Brine Cave a hundred years after the events of Super, raised by a local Rescue Team, and grows up into...
something, alright.
It's a bit too soon to form any firm judgements on this one, but it seemed like it was shaping up to be a breezy story full of over-the-top action. I intend to come back and get in at least another chapter or two under my belt sometime later in this event, so even if there were some things about it that could've been tightened up,
@Synidfar was clearly doing
something right with this fic.
Name of fic- A Life You Will Remember - a Pokemon Violet novelization
What I read - Chapter 1
How I felt:
Okay, so admittedly, I don't normally pay much attention to novelizations fic-wise since they have a tendency to veer off into "bruh, why am I not just playing/watching this" territory. This one definitely got me to re-evaluate my priors, and it
almost took the cake for my Week 1 fic recommendation. Like yeah, about two thirds of the chapter will be really familiar if you played Pokémon Violet, but the added third, multilingual elements, and changes of framing to better get into the head of
Miraidon that
@BraviaryScout threw in go a long way to making it feel like you're not just rewatching the early game again and breathe life and a sense of history in the setting.
Highly,
highly recommended if you're a fan of S/V. TBD if I'll have the time to come back for more during this event, but it's definitely on my radar for the future, and with the story still fairly early on in its run, it's easy to jump into without feeling overwhelmed.
Name of fic- The Foolish Oddish
What I read - Wandering
How I felt:
Which granted considering the tags on the story, I'm sure will wrap straight around to
in the not-too-distant future, but there is a
lot of charm and humor in the opening chapter from bouncing Ragweed, an Oddish who wants for nothing in her life as a Mystery Dungeon encounter beyond stories to collect, and Elkesiss, a fidgety and hyper Zubat with his (nonexistent) eyes set for one day seeing the world outside their dungeon through the cave exit far, far below.
Really, the only reason why this story
isn't on my list of Week 1 recommendations on the Hype Thread is that
@Negrek isn't a new author to me. I know that she's more famous for
Salvage on this site and in general (which is also an excellent fic in its own right if you're into darker sorta-trainer journey stories), but if you're into PMD stories and have the time and energy to throw at a 12k three-parter, this story's well worth your attention.
Name of fic- Krookodile Tears
What I read - first gift
How I felt:
Okay, I went into this story knowing exactly nothing about it other than that I'd originally planned to dive into it back in RB3 and it didn't happen thanks to being crowded out and... boy did it hurt to read sometimes. Like I suppose I should've been less surprised when I noticed that the preamble to the story said that it used to be a chapter of
The Envy of Eden before
@kintsugi spun it off into its own thing.
The TL/DR of the first installment of
Krookodile Tears is that it's a second person PoV fic from the perspective of a young child who has committed a major faux pas against the Pokémon that live in the vicinity of what is now Route 4 and wandered off into the Dragonmother's Gift while being a bit
too pushy about trying to befriend a Sandile to be trained. One thing leads to another, with the protagonist being slated to be handed over by their father to Samira, a
n Alpha leader amongst the local Krookodile who in lieu of the more mortal punishment due for the protagonist, orders them to be made to live among them until the child can learn the error of their ways.
It's a haunting and melancholic ride, with a lot of love put into the folklore and breathing life into a bygone Unova that is at once very familiar and very,
very different to the one we all know and love. I have no idea what the next two parts (third gift is hosted offsite since it was never uploaded here) will hold in store from this story, but I have every intention of finding out this Review Blitz.
Once again, the only reason why this isn't on my recommendation list from the Hype thread is because it was from an author that wasn't new to me, otherwise if you can swing about 19,000 words of story, it's well worth a read.
Name of fic- In the Land of Ascenrir
What I read - Prologue - Chapter 1
How I felt:
Okay, I had
some bones to pick with this story, in particular how the two large-scale fight scenes were narrated, but this story was off to a really promising start as a high-fantasy flavored PMD. Things begin with a personality quiz in second person PoV for the protagonist where we pick his(?) brain a bit, before cutting in the first chapter to Axel, a Shinx born with an Absol's horn into a village where most of his neighbors don't particularly like or trust him. We get to see a few snippets of his early life growing stronger, making a friend through Skarn, a village Squirtle that I'm sure we haven't hard the last of, all as storm clouds gather as the feared and dreaded Berserkers start popping up in places closer and closer to town. Which I'm sure is
totally only a sign of good things given that they can coordinate themselves into entire armies. Right?
Right?
Jury's a bit out on how I'll feel about this story after another chapter or two under my belt, but
@Akasura Shirone clearly put a lot of love and effort into this story, and at least from what I read, it's well worth giving a short.
Name of fic- PMD: Fated Futures
What I read - You ok? - Trying again
How I felt:
Well, I suppose that'd be a bit more accurate for how the main character reacted over the course of the first three chapters that I read, featuring Mark - the human-turned-Cubone who gets discovered by Simon the Squirtle and Rose the Growlithe from Team Timeless and discovers that he remembers bupkis about who he used to be and now has to figure out how to bone lizard in a world where being able to fight is taken for granted, and those that fall behind tend to have problems of the mortal variety.
The story is presented in bite-sized chapters. While I had some quibbles about some of the description being a little
too spartan in places as a result, the overall result is generally well-done on
@JuegAriel . The story apparently has some puzzle/ARG elements on its
PMDFF release, which might be the preferred version to look at for readers in for the long haul, but at least for the parts that I read, it felt like a pretty seamless conversion (minus a picture in the first chapter that you totally need to port over, JuegAriel), and it's worth poking your head in to give things a shot.
Name of fic- Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Fogcut Voyage
What I read - Prologue
How I felt:
This was another one of those mixed bags for me. Like there were a number of rough edges that I pointed out at length in my review, but at the same time, I'll admit that I was more than a little bit of a sucker for the oceanpunk premise
oh and the raft of Xenoblade references, don't think I didn't notice those, @Kiba Makuro . But the long and short of it is that T'nuri, a Cubone from the ship
La Llovizna gets washed up on an island and finds out that a dreaded Ruinous Fog is spreading about the Archipelago Continent and leaving destruction in its wake. Said fog turns out to roll in on the island not long afterwards, T'nuri discovers that the poisonous miasma
isn't a total meme and catches a glimpse of a future party member before the fog catches up with her and things fade to black.
Really, if you find yourself having fun with this opening chapter, give the broader story a shot, since even if it could stand to get a bit of extra polish, there's some pretty positive signs that this will turn into a pretty fun yarn of PMD swashbuckling adventures on the high sea.
