The Royal Gym (An AU Pokemon Story)

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Quinn Gray’s life was… well, gray. Bland apartment, dull job, ordinary hobbies, non-existent social life. He lived up to his namesake and that was okay. He had a roof over his head, food in his fridge, and his best friend, Phanpy.

Sure, Quinn had dreams of challenging gyms and battling in the League, but he couldn’t afford to chase dreams. Chasing dreams was for people who had living mothers and present fathers, or so he thought. But a Royal letter proved him wrong.

Now it’s up to Quinn to add a little color to his life.

What to expect:

-Warning: Organized Crime and Gang Violence.

-Alternate Universe. All original characters, settings, and storylines.

-Gym-Building.

-Revamped Gym System based on professional English and American sports.

-Catching new Pokemon will be rare.

-A slower pace than most Pokemon fanfictions.

-Gritty and unforgiving world. Main characters will have setbacks and need to struggle through obstacles.

-Pokemon will be mortal and can potentially die through battling.

-All comments and critiques are welcome. Many changes to the story including changes to the synopsis have come from comments and reviews.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Shield Buddy

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 326
Views: 52,659

Chapters(19 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(7)

Quirky_1Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Well written. Really enjoying the premise of starting a gym for Pokémon. Looking forward to more. A little concerned about the length between updates, but so long as the writer proves to be a consistent updater that gives a heads up about going on hiatus or on break with a specified time limit… this will be worth reading!
CobbaltRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is set in a more realistic Pokemon world and not the setting of the games, where gyms are more like real-life sports gyms, or perhaps better compared to martial arts dojos, and the "gangs" are more like real-life organized crime. The protagonist, Quinn, comes upon an unexpected inheritance, but soon learns that it comes with some very dangerous strings attached.
I like Quinn a lot. His character is believable - he's been down on his luck for so long and seems very insecure and inexperienced, and he grabs on to an opportunity when it's presented to him, without thinking about what that opportunity brings with it. How he goes ahead with running and growing his gym while also dealing with a violent and knife-happy mob enforcer metaphorically looming over his shoulders should be interesting.
beardenkRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
As the title says. I am very much enjoying the story. I may be a bit biased in that I enjoy this genre of fiction, but I really do like the more realistic spin on one of my favorite fantasy series. This story seems to have the hallmarks of a really good one. The plot is set to thicken with action, adventure, drama, and more than a little danger; from people and pokemon alike. Take your time to flesh out where you want to go with this story! Keep it up!
rrname12321Royal Road
★★★★ 3.5
Quinn is a miserable person and I don't want to read about him and misadventures that are sure to come. Stuck in a dead end job with dead parents, worrying about losing his job and place. The start of the story seems to set the tone for the story. He cuts a cut on his foot from a stone. Shortly after he gets pooped on by a bird. Then his father dies. Welp. Not my kind of pokemon story I want to read.
James_KnightRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Update: I will leave my review mostly unedited as it reflects my initial impressions reading, but I do want to thank the author for updating their blurb to address the concern I had of it feeling like a bait and switch (see author comments in chapter 15: added details about gangs/violence/etc). If the blurb that appears now was there when I initially found this story, I likely would not have started reading it. I think overall, the author does a fairly good job telling their story. It is just not a story that particularly appeals to me. I wish the author the best of luck as they continue telling their story.
Story:
For the most part, I enjoyed the first 9-10 chapters. Seemed mostly SoL focused, a guy with a not as great a childhood, missing his mother who had passed away not too long before, but in general trying to make the most of his situation. Chapter 11 however is where the story took a fairly large shift in tone that I wasn't expecting and is where I feel will be the spot most people decide to stop reading or continue.
Without too much spoilers, the blurb and first several chapters give the expectation of the MC struggling to build/run a gym due to lack of battle experience and trying to build the gym's reputation up. This expectation is somewhat violently placed as a lesser concern by a confrontation on literally the first day after he moves into the gym.
On the first day of being at the gym and trying to clean it up, the leader of the gang that apparently controls the entire town shows up for a "talk" and explains how things work around here, and when MC states he doesn't want to participate in the pit fighting the abandoned gym was used for, the overzealous henchman violently attacks the MC and his Pokemon. After which the gang leader informs MC they have until the end of the month to pay 10,000$ for "protection", or be replaced as owner.
Style:
The initial part of the story, I quite enjoy the feel of. Mostly SoL, rather tame Pokemon fights (very high regul
Carlos SalRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
I just find it dificult to read this story and connect Quinn as the main character. So far (up to chp 17) I feel like I read barely past an introduction to this fic even after 44k words and to be honest I didn't find any joy at reading this.
Quinn comes at the start as a hardened young adult that endures all of what his life had thrown him but as soon as the plot starts he is a naive little guy that get trampled immediatly.
His pokemon of 9 years can't take down a common human with a full power atack but a knife almost kills it. By this metric a pokemon can get knocked out ba a human punch. All that monstous power that pokemon have and it all ends like that....
I don't know, maybe I just don't get it (certainly posible), but so far I wouldn't recommend this story.
dtgRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
The main character has such low financial literacy, and even though I know that there are people such as this it makes it difficult to read. Main character inherits a failed business from a relative he has never met and decides to keep it open instead of selling it. The main character has no money for repairs, debts he cant afford to repay, and he has already been attacked by organized crime.