Dramatic Melody

Well it's more like you're only bringing 4 of your 6 Pokemon so you can afford to have the options, but in case something goes wrong and you brought Kangaskhan and Rayquaza anyway, there are possibilities of a last minute decision.

Well I just don't like HGSS and didn't value its post-game content highly so B2W2 wins by a wide margin for me. But it was more than just post-game that I liked in B2W2 of course.

Definitely, which is a shame since that would've been so much more exciting if we got the news that they were being announced and released same day right then and there, but oh well. It's entirely possible I'm overstating how much they spelled it out, but I thought the implication was clear enough. And I guess, but Awakening had been out long enough that it also wasn't really a massive spoiler, in that people who would probably care enough likely played the game by then.

Yeah it's definitely going to be nice, have a few games I want to play through while I'm home not stressing about classes.

Oh, that's good to hear. Because I still have no idea what the main plot's supposed to be. I've seen glimpses of Rayquaza and Deoxys and weird ramblings from Ampharos but nothing of actual substance, darnit!

Oh, it's a shooter game? Those actually give me motion sickness, so I wouldn't be able to play anyway. XD I pretty much am just a pokemon fan anyway. Nothing else comes close.

It definitely sounds like you're stressed, and I don't blame you for being so. Just try to take it one thing/day at a time, okay? You certainly can get everything done, even if it does seem overwhelming right now! And don't worry about ranting, it's totally okay.

It should be more apparent in her recent letters, so I'm glad you think so. I just wanted a second opinion, and I think I'll ask Praxiteles as well since I think s/he read every letter of the revised version fairly recently. It's okay if you're not the most attentive - I feel like it's one of those fics where you're meant to simply go along for the ride, and eventually you'll want to go back and spot all the little signs that were leading up to the climax the whole time. At least, that's my hope for this little slice-of-life fic of mine. The characters themselves will certainly be doing a lot of reflecting, so!

Haha, well, I think I've been playing two weeks now??? No idea. My concept of time is messed up. XD Dunno what's up with these ghost story chapters, but I find it kind of hilarious that they're like "n-no, ghosts don't exist!" when ghosts existing in the pokemon world is 100% a thing.

Heh, I've heard nothing but great things about Splatoon. But from the graphics I've seen I don't think it'd be that appealing. I don't really even like Animal Crossing's graphic design, but the Happy Home Designer or whatever concept was cute enough to try it.

Well, queue-ing posts isn't a bad thing. XD How much is left on queue? And I've written about two chapters so far, but they won't be released until sometime mid-2016, probably. By then I should have more done.

I also had a question about FitD. You'd think I'd know this, but I'm not sure it's a concept I've fully explored enough in the revised version, though it was definitely there in the original (which I know you haven't read, no worries). In short, I just want to know if you think one of Haley's goals/motivations for writing Markus has become, essentially, to "fix" Markus's problems. I think she definitely expresses that notion but hasn't reached the point where she's putting all of her effort into doing so. Just wanted to get a reader's opinion before I go ahead with the plan I have for this next letter, 'cause quite a few paragraphs is dependent on this idea.

Yeah, usually just the first turn to take advantage of Scrappy or Inner Focus but there can be cases where the opponent outplays that and KOs you turn 1. It's not the most common thing but it happens.

B2W2 are still what I'd consider to be the best overall of the main series game, even if I like ORAS more. There's just so many things those games did right, linearity being one of those things I wouldn't even call a flaw.

Yeah at the end of the day, all that matters is that they're unique enough as characters. Definitely seems like they've learned from Ryu/Roy, though I can't deny that it was cool to get them announced and released right then. I remember a short scene they showed in an early trailer with Azura and a dragon with a few lines that greatly implied that this was Corrin. Maybe most people didn't make that connection because it was probably at the end of the trailer but I don't think it was very cryptic. But yeah, if it's early then it's doubtful that this is a major spoiler, even Lucina wasn't a huge spoiler for that long into the game.

It was stressful but on my way out of my final on Thursday I could only think about the fact that I'd be home the next day. Definitely glad to be on break though, gives me time to mess around with stuff in Mystery Dungeon.

There's some places here that do discounts for cash payments, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's common. Maybe I just don't pay enough attention, haha. And I'll let you know! Not really sure when that'll be, but if PSMD's as short a game as everyone says it is, it might not be too long now. At least, my friend said he beat it in 3 days, but he also has a ton of time on his hands and I don't, so...

XDD The last thing I need is the urge to buy a Wii U, oh god. Though I do hear already there's some other great titles out there for it.

Research and news articles don't sound so bad. I couldn't really do a job involving using those a lot, I don't think, though. Speaking of Trainers of Hoenn, I've been stumbling across some of those posts on Tumblr nearly every day. Seems you're back to writing? And yeahhh, I think my first major attempt at a plot-driven story will be the sequel to my first fic (Survival Project).

Well that's the thing, there's always the possibility of Kangaskhan getting KOed before you Mega Evolve it, which can happen since its pre-Mega abilities have some use. But yeah, having the ability to freely run the two best Megas in the format really puts some pressure on the opponent.

I mean there's a lot of unanswered questions, but they're the kinds of things that can easily be addressed in a sequel as well as they could be addressed in a remake. It's interesting that both are still realistic possibilities at this point though.

I didn't realize it, but you're right, Stationary is fragmented. I feel like 24 Months' fragments being separated across months makes it feel more separated, and so the fragments seem to be an integral part to telling the whole story, which I like. It's also one of my personal favorites out of what I've read of your work, so I'm a little biased. And good luck on your Yuletide fic! I wanted to enter, but the end of the semester was ramping up in terms of workload, so I decided against it.

Thanks. I felt like the one-shots up until that point had been pretty typical as far as style, so I wanted to switch it up just a little. Now if only "Orange" would get finished. ;_;

No promises, since I'm the king of procrastinating, but I think now that you've posted yours I'm going to go through the three so far and review them. So expect a review soon-ish!

Yeah, Rayquaza is actually very enabling in that regard since it has an item anyway, so it's not really limiting an items slot unlike other teams that run two Megas in VGC. And I mean, 150/150 offenses with Life Orb is still one of the strongest offense combinations in the game.

I'd actually hope for a sequel more in general but we'll just have to wait and see what they're doing. B2W2 were just really well executed in that regard but given how simplistic XY was, I wouldn't mind a remake either.

Huh. :/ I would think they'd at least have sales, but I guess if there's no competition, there's no need to have sales, eh? And I got Happy Home Designer. The concept seems cute, and I've always wanted to try an Animal Crossing game anyway. I'm not going to open it though until I finish PSMD and whatnot, though. I lose interest in things fast so I imagine if my motivation to play video games runs out rather quickly I can just return the game and get my money back.

XD Don't laugh at me, but I think sometimes I stare at the console itself more than I actually pay attention to the game. And I don't think I'll really play MK7 - not a fan of racing games in general anymore - but it was still worth the trade.

XD Hey, nothing wrong with having something to look forward to.

Haha, FitD is required reading, is it? XD Like it's a textbook or something. I never read those. But yeah, I pretty much just... don't plan things out anymore. Nothing turns out the way I actually plan them, so no point, it seems. Not to say I don't have ideas. But. My notes are literally just snippets of conversations/monologue/whatever that I want to use at some point. Figuring out how to develop the interactions between my characters so that the conversation is actually brought to life and is pertinent in the grand scheme of things, and figuring out how my characters' thought processes change over time, is far more interesting to me than actual plot events.

Well like I said, Xerneas/Groudon is probably the easiest duo of legnedaries to use in this format so there will be a lot of that. The building around a different Mega thing isn't really a problem though since it's very easy to run Rayquaza and Kangaskhan on the same team, and they happen to be the two best Megas in the format. It'll be awhile before people catch on though.

Yeah, really the only problem with Calem/Serena is that at they don't stand out as much, partly as a result of being the opposite gender player character. If we end up with a remake instead of a sequel, hopefully we'll get more from them.

XD Well, see if any good 3ds deals are going on near you! I know Best Buy had a buy one get 40% off recently so I bought Animal Crossing and one of the many jrpgs that are on the 3ds that I somehow did not know about until yesterday. Oops.

I think sea green is one of the rarer colors. I had blue originally but mehhhhh. The 2ds came with mario kart 7.

Hooray for goals in 2016 right?

Well you certainly made good on your promise to review. I appreciate it! I admit that I had no intentions of making that a Kenneth focused letter. It just kind of happened. It was a better idea than what the original letter 9 had though, believe me.

I guess 24 Months was a very satisfying fic to write then. It's too bad I don't see that many fragmented one-shots on here. And understandable. It's probably much better to work on your own stuff rather than reading a rough draft of another fic. Just wait for the posted version. And I look forward to more trainers!

Thanks! I guess I work better under pressure. XD

For sure, you can definitely make great teams without Rayquaza (Kangaskhan/Xerneas/Groudon is absurdly easy to use) but I'll most likely be using it on every team I make. Mainly the problem is people are pointing out flaws that are either not flaws at all or just those that are outweighed by the positives.

I didn't care for how the friend trio was handled, but I think Calem/Serena were done pretty well for the most part. They weren't outstanding characters but I think they were very realistic as rivals. They wanted to beat you because they wanted someone to help them improve and saw you as a great choice for that. You also fight them often enough and have actually competent teams during the main game, which was very refreshing. They should have had a bit more to their personality but as a rival, I liked the role reversal.

Yeah, I think it's a lot of fun though. The only annoying thing is people are dumb and somehow don't think Rayquaza is one of the best Pokemon in the format. Also people think Golduck is good.

I just overall prefer a character who is not an obnoxious kid that refuses to acknowledge a loss even when they have no reason to, so I've preferred not having rivals like Blue or Silver. I mean really if we could get more rivals like Barry I'd be satisfied but I'll take "different" over something we've seen them try before.

I think A Link Between Worlds was one of the easier, more tedious games. I'd recommended its predecessor, A Link to the Past, if you want an actual look into what LoZ is really like. But since that's not on 3DS, I might recommend Ocarina of Time in 3D instead.

Oh, yes, the poliwag thing was great. XD I admit I haven't played since then, but I did take advantage of Wal-Mart's $80 new 2DS deal. I got my refurbished one from gamestop for $90 so... I returned it and got that bundle instead. And I got the color I wanted from the beginning - sea green! It's beautiful. :')

Yesss, write the PMD one-shot. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO. And now I kind of want to incorporate aspects of the PMD series into my own stories as well. How that would be possible, I don't know. Yet.

XD Well, that's fair. I'll look forward to it. At least you'll have a while before I publish the next letter. I've only written one page of it so far.

Landorus-Therian is the popular one, with Thunudurs shortly behind it. Both are still good in the current format though, especially with Delta Stream being around to help them.

I don't know, for a Pokemon game I think they did a solid enough job with Cheren and Bianca. Hugh I almost don't know if he can be considered a traditional rival, since he never expresses any desire to compete and just sticks to bettering himself for standing up to Team Plasma. That's what I think is better about Hugh though, we don't need every game to throw in a friend or character who exists solely for the sake of being a rival.

That's such a specific interest, but it makes sense, haha. I also plan on reading them all, if not dropping a review for each of them, but I'm waiting to read most of them until they're revised and posted. I did read Negrek's, though, and wow. It's great, and it's pretty understandable how it got first place.

Thank you! It still needs a little work, but I'm glad you liked it. I wish there had been time for you to beta it before the contest, but unfortunately I was too irresponsible to get it done in time. ^^;

XD Welp, that settles that then. I WILL DO EASY MODE - if I ever get the game. Haven't touched Triforce Heroes yet, but I'm on chapter 6 of PSMD now! Ended the Poliwrath River dungeon on a crazy note. I'd tried the dungeon like 5 times, and just when I actually decided to not half-*** the boss battle, my battery started to die. Did not have my charger. I was yelling at Ampharos to shut up during the cutscene afterward so I could save quickly and not have to go through 10 floors AGAIN, haha.

And ugh, Cyndaquil is so cute in general. :~) I remember Cyndaquil/Squirtle was my team for the first two generations of PMD, but I've tried to branch out and use someone new each time. I am very strangely attached to that Cyndaquil/Squirtle team and I feel that if I keep using those characters in different games/stories I'll lose that sentimental value. I can tell you I've never cried so much over a game except during those first two PMD storyline endings. I am probably making myself look so weird right now but oh well. ...I think some of that sentimental value comes from having written fanfic about that team, actually.

And oh, it's fine, take your time. XD I'm way behind on reviewing myself but I don't want to force myself to read. I end up skimming and that's not really fair to the writer who put so much time into each chapter.

Haha, you know what I always say about feeling obliged to read that unnecessarily gigantic fic.

That's just how I'm writing poems and such. It's such a good place to be. It turns out that if you're writing right at the moment of conception, then if you can pull it off, you can get everything you need all at once -- plot, mood, language, situation, etc. Instead of hunting for everything weeks later.

Agh, I take a lot of time with conversations too. Sometimes it's easy. Like generally it should be easy because you're just talking to yourself in different voices.

Heh, I figured you'd do pretty well. I couldn't imagine anything else like it being entered, and I feel like your characterization (a huge part of your one-shot) is always great. I do want to apologize for maybe pushing you in a more dramatic direction, though! It seemed like the judges might have thought it was too much. ;_;

I think Overlord and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Plasbad draw me in the most, just based on the reviews. Blackjack's and Negrek's look interesting as well, and they ranked highly so there's some guarantee of quality too, but I'm not familiar with either of those canons, so I'm naturally a little hesitant. Speaking of, I really need to play Colosseum and XD at some point.