Reviews for A New Chance At Life |
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![]() ![]() Well that's quite the unnerving reveal considering how wild canon can be. |
![]() ![]() Been reading this story, don’t know why but I had a sudden urge to read some Altoshipping and so far I’m liking it. Although this chapter I feel is slightly contradictory and could’ve used some more implications on Ash. For the latter, assuming this is Altoshipping, I can’t help but feel that one other benefit of Latios’s power is extending his lifespan greatly. Would’ve made Latias happy and in time Ash could move to Alto Mare and live with her there. Assuming Ash does have a longer life span he’ll eventually lose all his friends and Pokemon but Latias and Latios are still with him and when numerous books close numerous new books can open, including new friends and Pokemon. After all, Ash is an optimist, in the face of his own tragedy he would see the bright side of it. Regarding the former, isn’t the whole point for Latios and Latias is to get stronger? Latios is fine getting captured but not Latias? She dosent want to battle? Wasn’t that one of the selling points? She can’t get stronger and expand her power without battling and training and sometimes even training isn’t enough. You need that experience in battling to sharpen your experience in order to be prepared for anything, adjust abilities, moves, strategies etc etc. After all the bond between Pokemon and Trainer is exactly what gives Pokemon their strength. I’m not sure why Latias dosent want to battle but she’ll have to eventually. Team Rocket is still a threat and once Jessie, James and Meowth finds her they’ll double down stalking Ash and potentially get other Rockets involved. I’m glad that Ash and the group respect Latias’s wish but she won’t get experience or strength by just observing, I hope throughout this story she realizes this otherwise it’ll be her brother benefitting from the power only. Yeah I know, reviews and opinions on a story long since competed. Feels pointless dosent it? But I couldn’t help it lol |
![]() ![]() I’m assuming the lore of this story is the same as your other story so that means certain pokemon are immortal and are literal gods. Also that demigod pokemon exist which is what I’m assuming Silver is since I’m also assuming only one god of a legendary pokemon can exist at once. This this leads to believe that in this chapter Latias and Latios had a sort of ascension slash awakening considering the current god pair of Latios and Latias are dead or sealed in a crystal ball. While I don’t think these two have actually reached god good yet I’m assuming they have started the path towards it. Either that or you know I’m completely wrong since the legendary lore for this fanfic could be totally different from the Mewtwo vs Rayquaza fic you made. If that’s the case then I simply need to ask how you plan to make that fight look like a metapod vs metapod fight when the power ceiling is so much lower in this fic. Like yo Rayquaza and Meetwo just nuked an entire island off the map in their fight in that fic. |
![]() ![]() ![]() I still come back to reading this from time to time. It's that good. |
![]() ![]() ![]() this story is a ficking banger |
![]() ![]() ![]() And I'm back with Part 2 of my review, this time covering chapters 14 and 15, Ash vs Gary. Going right into Chapter 14, Arcy of the Past, I noticed a lot of smiling in this chapter. I find this to be an excellent way to induce dopamine into your reader and make him/her gain a more positive opinion of this chapter. Very good stuff. ["Indeed," Professor Oak agreed. "Especially the last one against that Jackson kid, the way you returned his Meganium's Hyper Beam was brilliant."] Ah yes. I must give you my most sincere apologies, Arcy of the Past. After much reflexion, I came to realize just how ingenious the strategy Ash pulled in that battle was. You go above and beyond when comes to this stuff. [The flames hit the water and were extinguished, turning into a billowing cloud of steam that was blown away by the airborne fire dragon's wingbeats.] While Charizard lacks the Dragon typing, it's just a technicality; he's still a dragon in our hearts. I enjoyed reading the buildup to the buildup. A true "calm before the storm" moment. There is one thing I want to point out: Charizard's characterization is excellent. Making his personality akin to Goku is great way to imply how strong he is. This is another testament to how good your writing is, Arcy of the Past. And now, Ash vs Gary begins, and I am confident in saying it's a masterpiece. It's great to see our resident MC is still here with us to provide pertinent and substantial commentary. Let's get into the battles, shall we? Heracross vs Nidoqueen was short, but it was amazing. I liked that Ash showed his smarts in an independent way, and the strategies used were simple but effective. Snorlax vs Nidoqueen. I cannot lie; it was the battle of all time. The way Nidoqueen ignored Hyper Beam's recharge turn? It was marvelous, a testament to how well Gary has trained her. Moreover, Nidoqueen slipping on the ice was a hilarious bit of comedy. You keep outdoing yourself, Arcy of the Past. Snorlax vs Blastoise. Short and great. The way you upkept the games' canon by giving Snorlax a quick KO due to the all the damage he had taken was absolutely excellent. Bayleef vs Blastoise. [Bayleed released her vine whip and used the momentum of the skidding to power up her next attack. "Catch her with Bite!" Gary ordered. Blastoise quickly opened its mouth and caught Bayleef by the leaf on her head.] I cannot lie, Arcy of the Past, your writing is so advanced I was able to picture in my mind exactly what you meant to convey, a laudable skill not all writers possess. The battle as a whole was phenomenal. Gary once again shows off his expertise by anhilating Ash's pokémon without even using super effective moves. The fact healing with Synthesis didn't skew the battle in Bayleef's favour just emphasizes how much of a threat Gary is. Speaking of which, Ash vs Gary is very well written, because the losses on Ash's side feel so natural it's insane. Ash is losing because while he's playing 3D chess, Gary is out here playing 5D chess. Pikachu vs Umbreon. Just like the other ones, this battle was top notch in the quality department. I especially liked how you subtly implied Ash's aura sense isn't inherently psychic, or else it wouldn't have worked on Umbreon. Pikachu vs Alakazam. ["Iron Tail!" Ash ordered, seeing that Gary had fallen for his trap. Pikachu's tail shined a bright white as it became iron-hard. He charged at Alakazam, the returned electric bolt being guided to his tail and absorbed safely. Once again his tail was hyper charged as it crackled with electricity.] Ah, of course! By turning your tail to iron, you create an improvised lightning rod, which enables this clever strategy to work. Nicely done, Arcy of the Past. Charizard vs Alakazam. I enjoyed it thoroughly. That is all you need to know. Charizard vs Blastoise. This is where the biggest change you've made, which was to have an ice field, takes effect. And what an effect it is! Turning the battlefield into a pool? An excellent strategy. Charizard vs Nidoqueen. I give this battle an excellent/10. And now, with all the setup you've provided, it's finally for Latios to pull the reverse 3-0 sweep. Latios vs Nidoqueen. A one-hit knockout? That's se great power scaling, there, Arcy of the Past. Latios vs Gyarados [[Gyarados] appeared in the pool. It growled and glared menacingly at Latios. Latios glared back at the Gyarados, and suddenly the Gyarados didn't feel so powerful or scary.] Based. Wow. The battle was an absolute one-sided beatdown. And what an incredible beatdown it was, with how Gyarados had practically no chance to counterattack. Latios vs Arcanine. I feel like I don't have to say anything, as the result is obvious, but still. Great battle. And just like that, Latios decimated Gary's team, bringing this chapter to a close. Man, what a chapter this was! On another note, I've finished reading ANCAL, and I'll summarize my overall thoughts on it. Ash vs Harrison — Fine/10 Ash vs Dickson — Bruh?/10 Pidgeot's return — ALRIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT! Setup for the sequel — yes/10 Now that I'm finally done with this, this is where the story gets good, right? ... Right? |
![]() ![]() ![]() And we're back with Part 1 of my Silver Conference Arc review. Today, I'm covering Chapter 11-13, the preliminary and pool battles. Quick heads up: I've decided to forgo filtering myself. From now on, If I find something negative or that I didn't enjoy, I will point it out, because Arcy of the Past deserves to be roasted. With that said, let's begin with Chapter 11. I'm not even going to sugarcoat it. This was a terrible start to the arc. Why was half of the chapter filler? I don't think it was worth gutting the battles for a bit of comedy. Speaking of which, let's break them down. Battle 1 was sus. Pikachu won *way* too easily. His opponent had eight badges, just like Ash. Why was there such a discrepancy between their skill levels? Battle 2 had only one thing of note: Ash learning how to sense auras. It was cool, but it didn't save the battle. Battle 3 was just bad. All in all, the battles were all short and uninteresting. I didn't care for Ash's cluelessness. I don't know if it was my taste in humour or your writing style, but the jokes, I didn't find them funny. And for that beginning scene, I have to question why you forced Latios and Bayleef to participate from inside their pokéballs. Why, Arcy of the Past? What stopped you from having them outside Ash's balls preemptively? This chapter, being the result of the buildup from all the previous chapters, fails to deliver a good introduction to The Silver Conference, which is a darn shame. And now, I tackle Chapter 12, which begins with an actually well-placed exposition dump. Then, we shift over to Bianca joining the party, which is fine, I guess? And finally, it's time for Ash to do some teambuilding in preparation for his match. Wait, did I say Ash? Oh sorry, I meant to say Brock and Misty do the teambuilding *for* Ash, because when you have two gym leaders tutoring you, *obviously* they're supposed to do your homework FOR you, instead of helping you until you build up enough autonomy. Arcy of the Past, you *do* know twins exist, right? It wouldn't be too weird for disguised Latias and Bianca to exist near each other. Then again, this is the same world where Ash has been 10 for 25 years, so what do I know? Before I talk about the battle, I just want to quickly mention the absolutely wasted potential that is Sadistic Latios. Crazy how you had a free way to add tension, drama, and setup for character development, but you just said "nah". Arcy of the Past, your brain is too advanced. Now I can talk about Ash vs Macey, starting with Phanpy vs Rapidash. The first issue has nothing to do with the battle, but with Latios. Why is he doing the thinking for Ash? It kind of defeats the purpose of testing Ash's skill. With the battle itself, the strategies Ash used are sus. Arcy of the Past, what made you think using Rollout gave you the same momentum as riding a motorcycle (in the sense that a sudden stop from a speeding motorcycle would launch the driver off)? Defense Curl doesn't boost your Special Defense stat, so it wouldn't mitigate the damage from Rapidash's Flamethrower. This is basic knowledge I feel you should know already, Arcy of the Past. Apart from all that, I actually enjoyed Phanpy vs Rapidash. Larvitar's battles. I don't know how a two-week-old pokémon manages to outperform Phanpy, who's older than him, and three pokémon who have exponentially more battle experience than him, but at this point, I shouldn't even be bothering to question your absurd logic. Against Rapidash, I can kind of (?) understand, as he was hurt. But the others? Larvitar vs Electabuzz. I don't like using the term, but I must admit this battle had some plot armour in it. When Larvitar gets hit by an electric move, it's ineffective; Ground is a part of his typing. But when he gets hit by Iron Tail, his Rock typing is ignored? I hope I don't have to elaborate further, Arcy of the Past. Also, why did Macey use an electric move against Larvitar twice? Even once is too much; you can't tell me this the first Ground pokémon she's facing. Larvitar vs Quilava. Quilava got no chance to fight back, and that sucks. I know Larvitar has the type advantage and all, but again: Larvitar is a two-week old child; how is he this strong? Before I touch on Squirtle's battle, I need to talk about the bit with his shades. Having the other pokémon comment about how cool Squirtle looks with those glasses is SO CRINGE, it actually loops back to being based. Quilava nullified the entirety of Squirtle's Water Gun with fire? In order for that to happen, it would get quite hot—really, really hot. I sure hope Ash and Macey don't mind getting a few first-degree burns with all that heat washing over them. Then again, this is the same world where Magcargo can inexplicably exist without destroying the world, so what do I know? Apart from that, Squirtle's battle was fine. Not bad, but not great either. I've nothing to say about the Team Rocket foreshadowing. All in all, this chapter was rough, but it wasn't terrible. And now... *sigh*, Chapter 13. This chapter was... Well, there were *some* parts I enjoyed. Notably, the training session, and the... Uh... Yeah, no. Only the training session was fun to read. I know I'm going to rouse some shippers, but why is Latias thirsting for Ash? I don't know about you, but I 100% wouldn't want my hypothetical female dog to look at me the same way Latias looks at Ash. Let's break down the battle. Orderly. First, the MC. One snippet from this chapter perfectly sums up my overall thoughts on him: ["The first battle will be Jackson's Golduck versus Ash's Pikachu," The MC said unnecessarily.] Arcy of the Past, the fact you knew this guy's commentary was unnecessary and yet still kept him in eludes me. Second, Latios. He's just there to give Ash the exact advice he needs, which completely kills any possible tension Ash could have had with dealing with something he didn't know about. And this brings up a question: how does he even know all of this? Wasn't he stuck on Alto Mare for most of his life, only making excursions on rare occasions? Very convenient that he was able to encounter and analyze the exact pokémon Ash would be fighting this chapter. However, him roasting Golduck was pretty savage; I'll give him that. Man's hit him with the "L ratio skill issue not a real psychic." Third, your keyboard. Actually, I don't know if it was your keyboard that was prone to malfunctioning, or if you have a major skill issue/dyslexia when it comes to differentiating a Pokémon term and the goofy ahh term of the same spelling. Arcy of the Past, sometimes, it looked like you were capitalizing words at random. Were you sleep-deprived when writing this? Fourth, the power scaling. Where was your logic when you were writing this? How does a fire shield block a Thunder attack? That is unfair AND busted. The shield could have *reduced* the damage, but it couldn't—and *shouldn't*—have nullified it completely. Arcy of the past, I would like for you to explain your insane reasoning which led you to making Cyndaquil faint to a single Tri-Attack. Are you lying about being a Pokémon fan? Because it doesn't seem like you know a whole lot about them. The worst offender has to be Bulbasaur vs Magneton. Bulbasaur gets hit by Thunder, but he's okay; he resists electric moves. But then, five seconds later, he get hits by a few stray lightning bolts and he's suddenly in trouble? Arcy of the Past, where's your consistency? Moreover, Magneton fainted from 2-3 turns of Leech Seed and the clash between Solar Beam and Tri-Attack. I feel like I shouldn't have to say this, but you *do* know this would be largely insufficient to knock out Magneton, right? Fifth, the inconsistency with the facts. Pikachu trained his speed and his reflexes by endlessly dodging his teammates' attacks. This would have also doubled as stamina training. And yet, Pikachu got tired after dodging three attacks, getting hit twice and grazed once, and using Thunder twice. So now I ask: what was the point of that training? Sixth, Meganium. He called Pikachu a "rattata", which is not only dumb, but it's also racist. Just because they're both rodents doesn't mean they all look the same, *Meganium*. Congratulations, Arcy of the Past; in your convoluted attempt to sound more clever than you are, you put racism in Pokémon. Pokémonism? Poké-ism. And last but not least, I gotta touch on this battle's writing. There were some instances that stuck out like a sore thumb. Notably, when Ash gave an unorthodox order and let his pokémon be momentarily confused before he clarified his plan. Why didn't he just give the whole order? The opponent is commited to whatever it's doing; there's no risk of a counterattack. Moreover, Ash's strategies don't even end up being that clever. At least, not clever enough they're worth bringing special attention to. This next snippet I have to isolate from the chapter to talk about: ["Pikachu can't move in the air, use Body Slam!" Jackson shouted. Meganium began to run towards the falling Pikachu, hitting him in the chest rather hard. Pikachu, guessing Ash's next order, rode it out and grabbed onto Meganium's head.] What's even happening here, Arcy of the Past? What am I meant to visualize? Why didn't Pikachu get knocked back after getting hit? Had you meant to bamboozle me by breaking the laws of physics? If so, I can confidently say you succeeded. The final instance I want to talk about, the instance that broke me, is Pikachu using Iron Tail to deflect Meganium's Hyper Beam. Arcy of the Past, this makes very, *very*, VERY little sense. This would be comparable to someone using a knife to try and block a bullet. It wouldn't work, no matter which way you look at it. And Pikachu returning the volatile beam back to its sender makes even *less* sense, for reasons self explanatory enough I don't need to elaborate. All in all, this chapter left me with emotional scars the likes of which will take months to heal. Individual chapter review is done, so I will now properly address your overall writing. 1) This story is old and it *shows*. The absurd amount of explicit telling leaves almost no room—if any at all—for implication. Couple this with bad paragraphing, cheap and lazy expressions in "sweatdropping", and overuse of redundant or stiff speech tags, and you have yourself a story that is annoying to read. When it's good, I can overlook the bad, but when it's bad, it's just bad. 2) Mareepishly? Arcy of the Past, I don't know what you're thinking, but that word should be taken in, shot, and sent to The Shadow Realm. I've seen you use "sheepishly" in earlier chapters; why did you change it now? Whatever lies ahead, I hope I've built up enough tolerance to endure it, or else I may not live. |
![]() ![]() ![]() And I'm back with Chapter 4-5, the Blackthorn Gym Arc and Chapter 6-10, the Buildup to the "The Silver Conference Arc" Arc. Chapter 4 Now that we've started the journey properly, the pacing has skyrocketed. Now that our gang is traveling peacefully, we get to see how everyone acts, especially Latias, being the ever curious pokémon she is, as well as mischievous. Pikachu surprised me with his snarky attitude; that rodent was surprisingly confident for someone in yeeting distance. It's great to see Brock working toward his goal through you showing his expansive knowledge. The worldbuilding was cool to see. I mean, a community between legendary pokémon? That's pretty sick. It would've been cool to go more in depth in the Eons' training so we could see how it feels for them to use their psychic powers, but oh well. Annie and Cloakey escaped? Oooh, future plot point setup! Oh, and casually dead people too. Neat. Chapter 5 I can see you take great care in your descriptions. The picture you paint of the environment brings the world alive in my mind's eye. But honestly, who cares about that? let's talk about the battle! My man, you broke the 4-move rule! That is so based! My respect for you is now over 9000. There's nothing about the battle's content that I didn't enjoy; all the matchups were very fun to read through, and emphasizing the use of strategies over brute force was something I intensively appreciated. All in all, banger chapter with a banger battle. Chapter 6 is a calm chapter with a focus on setting up future plot points: The Silver Conference, the egg, and whatever it is Giovanni is plotting. Not much to say about this chapter. 7/10. Chapter 7 is also well grounded in its pacing, focusing on Prof. Oak, Prof. Elm, and Delia's reactions to Ash's legendary companions, before it finishes with an explanation about Ash's situation with the egg. Nice chapter overall. I especially liked Delia in this. And the recounting of every time Ash died/almost died. Chapter 8 finally adresses the egg in the room in full focus. It was wholesome to see Ash make Larvitar open up to him. Trust will take time to fully blossom afterward. Dayum, Chapter 9 goes hard! Latios didn't have to go that hard! It's great contrast for his ruthless nature to clash against Ash's extremistn't nature. And the next goal for our heroes' story has been conveniently set up in Hoenn. You love to see it. Oh yeah, the action was dope all around. Chapter 10 was great. Now that's you do a training session! Very poggers. You even went in depth with Bayleef's training. The only thing that sucks is we didn't get to see everyone's breakthrough, that moment of realization where they go "Got it!", but I understand that it would drag the chapter on for too long. The setup for The Silver Conference was well done as well. I'mma go read that, now. See ya! |
![]() ![]() ![]() I have finally decided to start reading ANC. Since I have a lot of chapters to go through, and I'm starting at the very beginning, I'm going to group chapters into arcs and review them that way, starting with Chapter 1-3, the Intro Arc. The pacing is quite slow, which makes sense, because there's a lot to set up before the adventure can begin properly. Mainly, these beginning chapters' purpose seems to be to: A) summarize the events of Movie 5 with the plot twist of Latios' survival (I've never watched this movie, so I'm assuming he was supposed to die); B) establish that Ash can now comprehend Pokéspeak; C) have Latios and Latias join the party on their adventure. All things considered, the setup was done quite nicely, and the reason you came up for Ash to understand pokémon is believable. I'm not gonna lie. Your paragraphs low-key make my eyes bleed, but I will power through because I know your current writing has better paragraphing than this. Yeah, that's it; I don't have much to say right now. I'll hopefully have more to say once the chapters have more story to give. See ya on my next review, I guess. |
![]() ![]() ![]() Couldn't Latios and Latias theoretically use psychic to create and air-shied around them? Then if they accelerate and maneuver gradually Ash could ride them going their top speed. Also, if needed, they could use psychic on Ash to create a pseudo-G-suit. |
![]() ![]() ![]() Okay, no, Ash didn't get either of the first two badges out of pity. I hated that the Alolan series tried to imply this, and I hate it just as much here, because it is a bunch of bullcrap. Against Misty, a rematch may have been valid because it was a third party (Team Rocket) who interrupted, but he was still winning there (Not that it matters, because he had already been given the badge anyway, he just refused to take it without a fight). Brock, though? Ash forfeit because Brock's siblings got in the way specifically to prevent Ash winning. They literally cheated on Brock's behalf. The idea either badge was out of pity is absurd. |
![]() ![]() ![]() What a lame defeat. I ignored the fact that Ash could have defeated Gary and Harrison even without Latios’ help. All Ash needed was a bit of training like you did and then an additional braincell or two to pull of much better strategies than the anime and he would definitely win without Latios’ help. Latios then will be revealed in the quarter final vs John. Let’s say he actually needed Latios against Gary and John. And Ash is to fight John without Latios. Then why use Larvitar of all his his pokemon? Plot. Of course it’s for the plot. Just so Ash would lose. The same way how Ash lose his tournaments in the anime. Plot. He wants to give Pikchu and Latios a rest because he is concerned for them? Then why send out a Larvitar who is only months old to fight in the freaking quarter finals? That’s hypocrisy. If wanted Ash to lose so bad just so you could write him to improve more next time, then at leasr do it the freaking way. Do you remember Muk? It would have fought a lot better than a crybaby larvitar. How about kingler? I know totodile is already his water type for this match. But Kingler would have definitely smashed that weakened Tyranitar to fine powder and cut Togetic a million happy pieces. But you know what? I still thank you for writing this story. So far so good. I’m just pissed with how Ash misused Latios and practically gave John the win. |
![]() ![]() ![]() I loved this fanfic! nothing to complain about to this point except 2 things, 1. Delia calls Prof. Oak, "professor" lol not just Oak 2. in chapter 9, I think the friendship crack between Ash and Latios should have been done a bit more properly, it seemed to be done in a haste |
![]() ![]() ![]() Damn. I know it went like this in canon but I wanted misty/ash romance. that one amazing fanfic I read but I think got dropped ruined everything other ship for me. the ash/misty relationship in that was just too good |
![]() ![]() ![]() phanpy and larvitar are way way too young and weak for the semi finals |