What an excellent trilogy! I liked these three stories so much I sent myself the link to the first one to my email address at work so I could enjoy them there too. Beautifully written, they capture the lovely high-fantasy spirit of the original game so well... it's always been my favourite RPG (Suikoden too!), so what a treat to find at of all places!

Yay! (Disregard the other review, for some reason I missed this when I did it ^_^;;)

I'm glad Rydia got a good ending

Good FFIV fanfic.

Very good FFIV fanfic.

I think I love you. Please write more. This is what I've been waiting to read in this fandom for so long...

Wow, it's taken me forever to get a chance to review this properly. 'Bout time, huh? :)
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Anyway, I love it. It ties up the trilogy beautifully, and I feel that Rydia has grown up quite a bit over the course of things. So many of the scenes are just wonderful-- in particular, the part in which she can't figure out what to do with a too-full teacup struck a chord with me. And everything involving the Giant was just perfect.
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The way the characters and their relationships are handled is fantastic. The end of Rydia and Edge's conflict, and Rydia's subsequent character growth, feels very, very right to me, as did the final scene. I honestly couldn't think of a better way for everything to end.
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Also, the gems custom? Love it. And it's a great example of how fleshed-out the world is in these stories.
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The only nitpick I can make is that a few semicolons felt out of place to me (and if I'd gotten a chance to type up a review earlier, I might have been able to say which ones. Bad me!). Other than that, just... wow. Wow for the whole trilogy. I may have to get around to making a Favorites list because of this. :)

Wow...such a wonderful piece...
This entire "Underneath the Smoke" trilogy is incredible.
You put such life into these characters, its outstanding.
Not to mention your lush detail and wonderful pacing...
ahh...I'm starting to gush; I'd better stop before this turns into some kind of love poem.
But really:
This may be the best thing I've read on Fanfiction.net (or anywhere else).
And I'm not just saying that.

Sweet and touching as always.

One little nit, though - at the end of the game, when Kain says he's going to train at Ordeals, the hair of his sprite is clearly already blond. Or maybe I'm just clueless. Sorry if I'm annoying you.

Wow, that was short and sweet... It's about time I found decent FF2/4 fanfiction. And Rydia is my favorite! Gotta love green hair. What a pleasure to read! ::glomps bright-blonde-haired Kain:: Not just for the lovely dragoon. Awesome story.