Pokémon: A Sense of Illusion

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Twelve years have passed since the end of the civil war. While Kalos is slowly recovering from the resulting economic and social upheavals, forces are already forming underground to overthrow the new government.

Sal is an orphan girl who knows nothing about war or politics. Together with her Pokémon, she struggles for survival in the streets of Lumiose. All that she wants, is to escape her life of poverty.

When Sal comes into contact with the rebellious forces, she gets drawn into a murky web of events. Suddenly, she must decide how far she is willing to go to gain her freedom.

What I can promise you though: I won't stop writing until the story is over.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: EducatedFool

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.8/ 5.0
Followers: 139
Views: 17,778

Chapters(17 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(3)

BaenendkindRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Solid 1st chapter. Darker than most pokemon fanfics, but nothing problematic in the first chapter. Morality is grey with a focus on survival living in the refuse pit of society, but does not involve predation upon others also in dire straits. MC has expected pokemon knowledge for someone of their background, almost none at all, so not a story for someone looking for a power gamer isekai.
GPSoaresRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Has a very solid start in the four chapters that are out at the time of this review. Dark story in a Kalos driven to poverty by civil war and political turmoil. Deals with themes like war orphans and realistic conflict in the Pokémon World. Characters are interesting and the art is amazing.
Anonymous PotatoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
WARNING! POSSIBLE SPOILERS!
Overall:
Pokemon: A Sense of Illusion is an intriguing story with solid narrative and worldbuilding. There are minor grammatical and textual errors, and occasional head-hopping, but they’re few enough not to be bothersome. Not perfect, but still quite an entertaining story.
Style:
The story told from several perspectives, switching between the main protagonist Sal and several other supporting protagonists/possible antagonists. The narrative switches between different characters in different scenes or chapters isn't too distracting, and allows the reader to get inside the head of the characters. The story isn’t overflowing with info-dumps or backstory either (while the author has provided additional backstory in the author’s notes one can read if they so desire). Overall, the narrative works fine.
However, I did find it distracting when the narrative perspective switched between characters in the middle of a scene. These instances of so-called “head-hopping” were few, but felt stylistically disconnected from the writing style.
Furthermore, while the pacing of the story isn’t really slow at all, the plot could’ve progressed a little faster, in my opinion. This may be a personal preference, however, as I find that most long-form fanfictions tend to have semi-slow pacing.
Story:
The story and setting of Sense of Illusion is much darker than the one in the anime or the game world of Pokemon. Yet, the story never veers into straight-up grim or overly edgy territory. It seeks to be realistic and in my opinion, it succeeds. As far as the plot goes, it’s like Oliver Twist if Oliver Twist was about the French Revolution. With Pokemon.
I cannot really evaluate the story any further as it is only up to chapter 12, and I don’t know where the story is going to go next (let alone speak of its quality), but what I’ve read thus far has been fine.
Grammar
There are a few grammatical errors and typos here and there. Nothing major, nothing too bothersome, bu