Into the Dark - A Pokemon Isekai

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

When Alina Knighton woke up, the very last place she expected to find herself was in a clearing next to a mountain that could only be Mount Coronet in Sinnoh. Now that she's here however, she plans to make her new life the very best it can be, and that can't be very hard when you live in the world of Pokemon, can it?

A Pokemon Isekai fic that mixes the anime and the games together into something that at least tries to make sense.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2023
Author: Ashaman2122

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 1,569
Views: 634,708

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(8)

HowlerOneRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This fic took a few chapters to truly get rolling, but I like where it is at. The team that the MC seems to be putting together is looking strong, but not OP. Her starter is cutie. I am looking forward to more.
Hope the MC has good luck locating some caves.
Uh-hmmmRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It's still early, so the direction of the plot is somewhat unclear, but so far the story is well grounded in its world-building, without getting too gritty or dark. Lots of cute and wholesome vibes. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the ongoing partnership with her Eevee.
I am curious how the story will handle her being much older than the average journey-goer, it's not something I see come up too often.
InfernalSalamanderRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Pretty good so far. I've enjoyed it quite a bit. Hope she goes all in on pokemon training/battling, but either way it's been fun. Perhaps doing both coordinating and battling. Will be interesting to see further world building and the other known characters.
Thanks for the chapters so far, and keep them coming please!
StyxFiskRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
TLDR: I highly recommend this, it’s a great more realistic take on pokemon without becoming grimdark or edge lord filled.
a few things jump out as great but I’ll comment on the main two for me.
firstly, this just feels realistically how an average pokemon fan would behave and how various professionals in this world would respond, it makes it highly immersive.
secondly, while it’s kept incredibly light (like if your not paying attention it’s easy to miss/forget, but in a good it’s a single small part of the character way), the trans representation is done in a way that makes me super happy and easily makes this a much better story for myself. A lot of queer representation is stereotypical or heavy handed, but this feels like a natural part of the character and as someone who is trans personally this was an incredibly nice touch.
uavgasRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This is a great story, and I look forward to reading more. The MC being trans does not detract from the story and adds some crucial backstory for some of her mentality and the adjusting she has to go through in a new world, which I find fairly believable. Also, even if it needed to happen, she got done dirty in finding that camp in chapter 2. After that whole rigmarole, she deserves all the cosy slice-of-life in a Pokémon world. I also really like how the author adds the Pokémon lore to the story.
Keep it up!
TokipiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
There are only 4 chapter so far but the world is already presented as being more mature and realistic compare to the anime or other fanfics out there.
I believe Alina is a character with a lot of potential for development and exploration and I'm looking forward to seeing more.
junkbearRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
There's so much that I really like about this story. The world feels dangerous enough to have stakes without being grimdark. There are bad people and bad things happen but the story is ultimately a heartwarming and hopeful one. MC uses her meta knowledge to her advantage, but it's not a super cheat key that lets her easily accomplish whatever. She makes mistakes that aren't outright dumb and don't feel forced for plot reasons, then learns from them. Likewise, her successes don't feel like plot armor. Like I said, there's good stuff here.
The thing that's holding it back is the characterization. MC is the only one who feels like a full person, though there are others who come close. Rowan gets some good backstory regarding his relationship with Kane, and if there was any moment in the present where we could see how that experience affected the person he is today then he'd feel like a living, growing person. Kane himself, as well as Ted, are the others who are close but not quite there.
The rest, unfortunately, can only be said to have character traits. Which is fine in some cases, not every named character can be fully developed without bogging down the story. The granny in the music shop didn't need to be fleshed out any further for the scene to be a beautiful one. But the point where it hurts the most is the MC's pokemon. For a pokemon story to be truly great the pokemon have to be characters in and of themselves. While there's no escaping the trainer being the center of the group, it should feel like a group of characters who all have goals of their own, and are working together for the sake of those goals. They're not pets (no matter how cute they are), they're party members, and the story should be driven by and happening to the party. Getting another pokemon should have just as much character dynamics involved as another character joining the party in any other story.
tl;dr: It's pretty great in most ways, if more characters (especially pokemon) were more flesh
IDC-Royal Road
★★★ 3.0
Is the story complete?: NO
Did I drop the story?: YES
Is it hard to read?: NO
Did it do something to stand out?: YES
Would I recommend it?: YES
Thoughts:
A wonderful pokemon story featuring a trans-character, overall the story is more of a slow burn and Alina is no expert pokemon master with encyclopedic knowledge of the best pokemon and strategies but is in fact more like the typical fan who has a smatting of knowledge but does not live and breath the competitive scene, not for lack of trying though.
Be prepared for a slow burn and slow power progression as Alina shows that it's not actually that easy to be a pokemon master.