Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: The Phantasmagoria

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Paint a picture of a long-sought after paradise that is so fantastical, it is as if you're dreaming. Enter Liam, a human turned Pokémon dropped into the Celestic Continent. Here he will be thrust into the crux of a future thousands of years in the waiting, as the threat of the ever-expanding Mystery Dungeon looms over the continent.Requiem...

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2021
Author: Z2H

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 285
Views: 96,337

Reviews

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Community Reviews(2)

Al6Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I do not do reviews often. I am making one here because it's a small story, and I know it helps. This review will be entirely spoiler free, save for truly minor exceptions, I want people to jump into this fiction completely blind, story wise.
I will preface with this: You do not need to be a mystery dungeon fan, or even really a pokemon fan to enjoy this story. All the lore is entirely unique to the story, only general concepts from the PMD series are used, and even those have their own takes on them.
Overall score: 5/5
This is the score I would give this fiction, compared to everything else on Royalroad. It is not the actual score I would give it, compared to ALL stories I've read, but by Royalroad standards it is a 5/5. This is because I am aware that Royalroad only cares about 5s and 1s. So 5 it is.
Style score: 5/5
This story is unique. I'm sure there's other PMD fanfiction out there, especially those made into ROM hacks for the games or similar, but this story truly does capture the essence of PMD in its whole. It truly feels like I'm playing one of the games, I can imagine most scenes in my head. Overall, the author has found the middle ground between a story that, at it's core, is still appropriate for teens to read, while holding itself as a valuable experience and entertaining story for any and all adults.
Grammar 4.5/5
The wording, save a few minor inconsistencies, flows exceedingly well. The author, at least in the earlier chapters, has a tiny tendency to utilize odd turns of phrases at times, this along the minor grammatical mistakes, while it doesn't take away at all from the reading experience, makes me unable to give it a 5/5.
Story 4.5/5
The story, as of chapter 22, has a very clear direction. There's no pointless wandering, the pacing is sustained all throughout and I'm always eager to read a new chapter. There are virtually no flaws in my eyes, except two.
1: From the beginning of the story, to where I am now, our main characters stay mostly stagna
41r1Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Note: I use a section-based format for clarity.
[Spoilers] and [Criticism] are marked with labels and separated cleanly so you can skip them.
Section breaks are indicated with underscores to make navigation easier.
Overview
This is the story of a boy who was reborn in the magical world of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. That means the usual staples of the series—trainers, gyms, etc.—are completely absent. The entire population is made up solely of Pokémon, living in towns, working jobs, and leading normal lives. It feels like a "monster city" story, but everything’s under Nintendo’s IP.
Interestingly, the Pokémon aspect is so secondary that you don’t need any prior knowledge of the series to enjoy this. There are areas that could use improvement, but overall, it’s a solid read.
Style
This is always subjective, but I found the descriptions somewhat lacking. The author often breaks down scenes into multiple short sentences, each one describing a separate detail without much flow. It doesn’t ruin the story, but it does slow the pacing and makes some areas feel fragmented.
Grammar
The grammar meets what I’d call “5-star RR standard.” Clean enough not to get in the way of reading.
Story
The worldbuilding is deep: multiple continents, factions, and relevant characters exist—and major decisions do get screen time. The story is slow-paced, which might not be for everyone, but it’s not a flaw by default. The intro is a bit bumpy (like most isekai), but the plot settles into a consistent rhythm afterward. Still, the plot seems to lag behind the planning, which slightly hurts pacing. Interactions are good, but the overarching story doesn’t always keep up.
Most of the time, they just fight their way to the end without the author giving any relevant information about how the dungeon looks/works/feels.
— Spoilers Below —
I liked the addition of industrial advances in the world. It gives the author more creative freedom and lets the plot branch out from the usual tropes.
— Spoilers and C