Junie's Reviews and Promo Book (Closed)

Review: Pokémon Unrivaled

Pokémon Unrivaled by @KuroDaGAWD

Genre: Adventure, Fanfic

Chapters Reviewed: 6 Chapters (Currently 7)

Update Schedule: Random

Quote: "Alder scratched the back of his head, 'sorry, it's not everyday the son of your star pupil decides to become a trainer.'"

Isaiah is starting out his Pokémon Journey at the age of fifteen. Not only is this a bit later than when most Trainers will start their Journey, but instead of starting off in the region he lives in, he's traveling over to the Sinnoh region to start. He doesn't know what kind of adventure is in store for him there, but one thing is for certain: Isaiah is excited to get out of Unova.

There are so many interesting characters in this story that makes it so enjoyable to read. I think that this is because of the choice on who's going to be appearing the story. First off, we are introduced to Marshal. Marshal may sound like a familiar name to some, but to me, I had totally forgotten who this guy was, and he's one of the Elite Four members of Unova! This was the first time I came across the guy in fanfic, so I was pretty happy to see him being used.

Marshal isn't just used as a name to mention either. From the beginning, you know this guy is going to be somewhat important because we are shown a scene with him first, and it's just him. It doesn't take long after that it's revealed that he's Isaiah's father. I'll admit, having a main character be the child/sibling/whatever relationship it may be to someone from the franchise can sometimes come off a bit cheesy, but I didn't really find that the case here. Again, Marshal isn't used much in fanfic, and out of all the Elite Four members in Unova, he's, sadly, one of the easiest ones to forget about. I'm glad that the writer took this route, and creating more of a storyline to it.

Another character—er, Pokémon—I don't see often in Pokémon fanfics is Aipom. This is with the exception of Dawn's Ambipom, but even then, I hardly see that. Personally, out of all the monkey Pokémon in the franchise, Aipom is one of my favorites. It's cute and easily lovable. I'm so happy to see that this Pokémon wasn't just one that Isaiah caught, but rather that Aipom's his parter. It'll be exciting to see what kind of adventure the two get into.

Speaking of adventure, the summary of this book mentioned something about Team Xul, and their new leader, Pluto. While there are a ton of battles in the first six chapters (which is great to see, and makes me excited for what's in store) they're not in the story yet. Personally, I would've loved to see them in action by this point, especially since Isaiah talks about Team Plasma and Team Galactic. This could be a way the writer is setting up for this new villainous team, but I was excited to see them in actions that I was a bit disappointed I didn't come across them yet.

True, in the chapters I've read, Isaiah has yet to reach Sinnoh, so that could very well change, but that's just my current thoughts on the matter.

There are also a lot of original characters mentioned in the story. I love reading up on new characters and seeing them incorporated in the story. Some are done very well, like Alisha, who shows good sportsmanship and is given great description as to what she looked like. Others are just mediocre. This isn't because they aren't unique. Many of the characters are different from one another, but the problem that I get is that there's nothing to describe what they look like. I don't even know who Isaiah looks like. Is he a miniature version of his father, or does he look like his mother (who also isn't given a description of what she looks like) in some way? It's hard to tell, and adding some descriptions—like what was done with Alisha—would help a lot.

When it comes to grammar, spelling, and consistency of cannon words, this story could use a bit of work on as well. It's not bad, but there are a few awkward phrases, missing words, and some dialogue stuff that should be looked over. In addition to this, there's a bit on an inconsistency in cannon words. No matter what, there needs to be an accent over the "e" in Pokémon, Poké Ball, and the likes. Sometimes in the story, Poké Ball is one word instead of two. A huge rule to watch out for is taking the time to spell out the number rather than typing the number. If the number "one" written in, it shouldn't be 1, unless it's bigger than the number ten that isn't in the beginning of a sentence (I know, this rule is really hard and confusing at first, but once you get the swing of it, it gets easier, I promise).