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Again, I'm going to be honest. Just fucking skip part 1 and 2 and read this part. Unlike the other trilogy that I reviewed where you really had to read previous parts to know what's going on in the part you may be reading, this part can stand alone. In fact, the title to this part is the title to the entire trilogy, so that should tell you something. >.>

Again, this story gets a lot of praise, and while I do think it's one of the better works I've read, I think it's a tad over-rated...

Series: Yami no Matsuei
Title: Mercy of the Fallen
Author: gaudior
Genre: Angst, general, casefic
Rating: E (Author didn't rate this? Dunno why...)
Warnings: Mentions of rape (Actually, lots of mentions, holy shit), boarderline OOCness
Couple (if applicable): Tsuzuki/Hisoka, mentions of past Muraki/Hisoka and Muraki/Tsuzuki

Plot: 6.5/10 - There are two reasons why I decided to score this how I did. I was going to give this story a lower rating for plot for one reason and one reason only: It's beyond predictable. The entire casefic? I knew what happened from the moment it hit the table. The minor character in the story that gets briefly mentioned? You know she's actually someone REALLY important. The way the case is solved? Knew it was going to happen. The ending of the fic? Called that too.

( Major spoilers for the story! )

That is my biggest complaint about the plot. Maybe it's because I've read WAY too much in general that I can predict things before they happen, but I predicted pretty much everything that happened in this story.

The saving grace of this? The ideas, unlike the last story, are executed fairly well and they're all very creative (Though this author has a lot of creative ideas imo). And btw, authors? THIS story is how you fucking do cliffnotes. The info is there to tell you that it does have a reference, but we don't need to know it in order to understand the story. Cliffnotes should just be a 'oh, for your info, readers...' not a 'I kept things in fanpoodle japanese, here's your translation!' And the pun on Hisoka's name in the story is the only acceptable boarderline 'fanpoodle japanese' I'd accept, mostly because that's not something that's easily translated into English.

The ONLY other beef I have is the boarderline 'Gary Stu'!Muraki, and I'll get into that in characterization in more detail. Though unlike most fics, the author did actually explain about Muraki's actions and why he gets away with what he does and had a really creative idea for it. Again, Muraki gets away with a lot of shit in canon, so I think it would've been unfair for me to lower it because of canon.

Basically, this is a mixed opinion here for me. I think most people though will really enjoy the plot in this fic. Me, I just thought it was way too predictable and I shouldn't be able to predict the entire casefic from chapter 1 onward.

Also, this part doesn't really link to 1 and 2, hence my advice for reading THIS part only and ignoring 1 and 2.

Also be warned, there is a lot of mentions of rape in this fic. And it's not just canon here too and not just the mentions from previous parts either. Just a warning.

Writing: 9/10 - Nothing wrong with the writing, yet again. In fact, it's gotten better. The prologue at the beginning of the piece was really well done. The best written of the three parts.

Characterization: 6/10 - I still have a big problem with the characterization of Hisoka in this story, but it's not that bad as compared to the previous parts. Mostly because there's more characters in this story than the last 2, where it was just Tsuzuki and Hisoka and the minor OCs.

I really love Tsuzuki's character in this story too. Very painful and we actually focus around his angst for a change than let the focus be on Hisoka. Very rarely do I find a story with Tsuzuki angst, most of the angst is centered on Hisoka. As a big Tsuzuki fangirl, this was a good surprise.

Also, thank fucking God Oriya isn't a goddamn doormat for Muraki here. He is perfectly IC, so you Oriya fans out there are in for a treat. TOO many fanfics treat him like Muraki's doormat.

However, my mixed feelings are on Muraki here. I'm sorry, but he is very Gary Stuish in this story. ( Spoilers for the story! )

There's also less OOCness from Hisoka in this story as well. I think most of it has to do with part 3 being able to stand out on it's own and part 1 and part 2 having little to almost nothing to do with part 3. The only downside I have is that the sex comes WAY too early after part 2. It goes from Hisoka not knowing when he'll be ready to 'okay, it's 4 months post-Kyoto, he's ready!' and there's little to no lead in.

Part one goes to, 'I like you, Tsuzuki, but not like that', to part two going, 'I love Tsuzuki, but I'm not ready to sleep with him', and part three swinging to, 'I love Tsuzuki, and I'm ready!' The problem is that there's no build up from part 1 to 2, and going to part 2's ending right on into part 3 with no build up... Yeah. We got Point A to Point B to Point C, but we're missing the filler in between those points!

Again, why have a trilogy if none of your parts are going to link to each other and basically stand out from one another?

So really, this shouldn't even be a trilogy, this should be just a multi-chapter story. That's really a big fatal flaw to this story and the trilogy as a whole. This is... not really a trilogy, unlike Kouri's Live Through trilogy, where the plots of each part connect with the next work.

Negatives: Very predictable plot, boarderline Gary Stu!Muraki
Summary: A case comes in that ultimately leads to Hisoka making one of the hardest choices he ever has to make...
Overall: 7.1/10 - This really is the part that you should read, and skip part 1 and 2. I'd actually still recommend part 1 because the case fic is really good, but skip part 2 and go to part 3. The fic is predictable and a boarderline Gary Stu!Muraki may get on your nerves, but worth a read.

Is this the best YnM fic I've read? No. Not even case fic wise. While it's creative and I can understand a lot of people enjoying it, I think it goes right on the line of being 'okay' for me. It's definitely worth a read if you're craving fics that do justice to Muraki and Oriya's characters to some degree. Unlike the previous parts, the ideas are executed very well too.

Next up... Not sure yet! Maybe another YnM fic or maybe I'll take a break from fic hopping and cover a Visual Novel that I recently read. I've been reading a lot of otome Visual Novels lately, so maybe it's about time I covered them.

I'm going to be really honest here, I think anyone reading this series should skip this part and go to part three. Reading this part almost killed the series for me, and if it wasn't for me being stubborn, I'd probably would have given up on this series.

I already said Hisoka's characterization was really bad in part 1. In part 2? It's really fucking painful.

Series: Yami no Matsuei
Title: Surpassing
Author: gaudior
Genre: Angst, getting over fic (Is that even a genre!?), build up fic?
Rating: M
Warnings: Lots of mentions of rape, possible squick moments, OOC Hisoka
Couple (if applicable): Tsuzuki/Hisoka, mentions of past Muraki/Hisoka and Muraki/Tsuzuki

Plot: 5/10 - There's kind of no real plot, it's basically Hisoka coming to terms to his feelings to Tsuzuki and trying to deal with the aftermath of 'that famous night under the Sakura Trees'.

But it's not written well here. And it's really hard to explain it because it has nothing to do with the writing itself. I think part of the problem is that in part 1, Hisoka was desperate to have 'alone time' to figure things out and in part 2, he's hanging out and staring at Tsuzuki and is like 'oh, I love him', even though in part 1, he basically said, 'I like you, but not like that'. Like boy, make up your mind already!

Also, I highly doubt that after being possessed by a ghost is going to magically change Hisoka's views on everything. I actually like the idea of Hisoka starting to appreciate stuff he never seemed to appreciate. Like food. Or seeing places he's familiar with in a new light. Or deciding to spend time with Tsuzuki, which he seemed to have a BIG problem with in the previous part and in this part, he's suddenly a-okay with it. And touching him, even though the previous part, he obviously had a problem with! Or reading a book on sex (That blows my mind between 'holy shit, that's a creative idea!, 'wtf am I reading!?', and 'omg, I am rotflmao land!').

The problem is this story has a lot of good ideas, but they're not executed well. Being possessed by a ghost isn't suddenly going to change Hisoka's tastebuds or is going to improve any of his senses in such detail (A demon, quite possibly, but a human ghost? Probably not). Or realizing that he suddenly is in love with Tsuzuki isn't going to make him appreciate the taste of food or make the color and shapes around him stand out more. And if it did, I'm assuming he'd go to Watari about it, cause he's a doctor after all.

Him wanting to spend time with Tsuzuki all of a sudden should happen later in the fic instead of near the beginning, especially since the point of part 1 was more focused around, 'I need some me time!' and this takes a 180 direction to 'I need to spend time with him!'

Also, Hisoka randomly punching Tsuzuki because 'I felt like it', while amusing, doesn't he already kind of do that in the manga at least? Well, not like punch, but hitting Tsuzuki, yeah. So it's sort of doesn't make any sense (But you can say this is based on the anime, but doesn't he slap Tsuzuki around in the anime too)?

Though I will admit, I do like the fact that he thinks he's still possessed and when he tries to exorcise himself... yeah, things aren't going to go well here. And then he realizes that yes, those are his feelings, not the remains of a ghost. Again, that's a brilliant idea. But the lead in to get to that part, it's not executed well.

And then there's the whole 'I'm going to study about sex!' thing. Which I can totally see Hisoka doing. But something seems wrong. And then him coming to the conclusion that Muraki raped Tsuzuki and... yeah, this actually made me REALLY uncomfortable, and I'll talk about it in the characterization part.

A perfect example of a story that has some really great ideas, but they're not done exactly right.

Writing: 8/10 - This is where the story shines. The descritpions and the overall writing flow is much better in this part.

This was one of my favorite lines of Hisoka describing what he's feeling from Tsuzuki:

"How often did Tsuzuki feel really delighted, after all? Not just the passing pleasure of a dessert or a sunny day, but this sort of ringing bone-deep rejoicing? It blended with the physical sensation of Tsuzuki’s side against his shoulder, of his shoulder against Tsuzuki’s side, so that the touch seemed to vibrate colors almost too intense to handle. Hisoka sighed and realized that some of the pleasure he was feeling was his own. This... this is okay, he thought. This is all right. "

Basically, the writing is about the same, if not, better, than the last part.

Characteriztion 3/10 - Again, this story focuses on mostly just Tsuzuki and Hisoka. And while I think Tsuzuki is perfectly in character, the same can't be said about Hisoka.

Again, when the focus is on Hisoka and just Hisoka alone (Usually with his feelings towards Tsuzuki mixed in), it's boarderline OOC. Part of it has to do with the plot this time. This part is a perfect example of a bunch of really great ideas not executed correctly. Hisoka makes a lot of dumb decisions in this story, and the boarderline OOC does not help.

An example is Hisoka figuring he's still possessed and that he's not. His reasoning isn't off either, his views of the world has changed, and it started happening after he was possessed. But instead of, I don't know, talking to the DOCTOR about how his sense of taste and sight had changed, he keeps it to himself. I'd kind of think that if Hisoka's senses were off, he'd go to Watari about it, because that's kind of what doctors are for. And the explaination of his senses changing doesn't really make much sense. Love isn't going to magically make food taste better to me, that's for damn sure.

Hisoka also goes from one extreme to another way too fast too. Basically, part 1 doesn't really mesh too well with part 2. Part 1, Hisoka seemed too cold and distant. In this part, he seems a bit too emotional and accepting that he's in love with Tsuzuki.

And then there's the part I really didn't want to get into but I have to: The famous night. I could totally see Hisoka trying to find a book about sex and logically reasoning it out.

But the problem here, is that Hisoka sort of already knows what 'sleeping with another person' is, and at other times, he's ignorant of it. Not to mention, he's a rape victim, so...

I've read a lot of fics of Hisoka trying to get over this issue, from trying to logically analyzing it out, to the 'bathing in the light of the cock' type of scenario (GAG), to 'dark route' scenario, to just about every type of scenario. I personally enjoy Hisoka going the logical route, because Hisoka strikes me as a very intelligent individual. This fic tries to go to a more logical standpoint.

Oh, how I regret what I wished for...

It's almost painful for me to read, not because it's emotional or angsty or tragic, but... it feels really really off. It's really hard to explain why it doesn't work in the context of this story. Maybe it's because Hisoka seems too knowledgable one second and the next, he's completely ignorant.

And then I realized something that made me really uncomfortable: In this story, when Hisoka realizes that Muraki raped Tsuzuki (Urgh, I'll get into that), and realizing Tsuzuki still wants to sleep with him, even though he's a rape victim himself... THAT didn't sit too well with me, especially since the story takes place almost a month after they save Tsuzuki. It's like driving by a horrible automobile accident and not being able to look away.

Not to mention, some people think Muraki raped Tsuzuki when he kidnapped him during the Kyoto arc (Again, rapist!Muraki ~_~;;;;;;;). Is it possible? Canon-wise, I honestly don't think so. Muraki was only after Tsuzuki because of his self healing and his revenge on Saki. Could it have happened? I'm going to say no, but you could make a case for it, in the anime at least.

I think that's my overall problem. We have Hisoka, a rape victim, trying to deal with his feelings toward Tsuzuki, who is also a rape victim, but his feelings toward Hisoka are pretty damn clear, regardless of what happened to him. Not only were both raped, but they were raped by the same person, Muraki. Two people raped by the same person coming together... For some reason, I find the whole thing REALLY unsettling and I can see people being squicked out by it. Not to mention, I think part of me was angry that we reduced Muraki down to a one dimensional villian yet again.

Like, can we have a single YnM story without rapist!Muraki!? Or are we gonna forget the whole 'I wanna put my brother's head on Tsuzuki's self healing body!' scheme??? Isn't the fact that he probably messed Tsuzuki up both physically and mentally just as bad??? Couldn't we use a plot device more on the lines of mind rape and not physical rape!? And my question after reading part 3 is that no, we're not going to forget that, but I'll go into that next time.

Does this make it a negative to the story? No. Is it an unrealistic scenario? Not really. Can I see people feeling uncomfortable reading this? Yeah, I really can. Not to mention, I absolutely hate stories that use Muraki as a rape device, and while this is fixed and has it's reason in part 3, it doesn't make me any less annoyed about it here. And maybe that's why I dislike this part the most out of all three.

Overall, the characterization of Hisoka is off, and this time, it has to do with the plot. Which is a shame, there's not a lot of build-up fics for this pairing. Yeah, not enough build-up fics for Tsuzuki/Hisoka, I just said that. There's random drive by fluff/angst and there's your PwP fics, but actual build up relationship fics? You'll be lucky to find more than 10 and that's me being REALLY generous.

This part tries it, and has the ideas for it. But again, not executed well.

Negatives: OOC Hisoka, very squicky moments
Summary: Hisoka comes to terms to his feelings toward Tsuzuki alongside getting over past issues.
Overall: 5.3/10 - Honestly, skip this part. It's painful to read and if you're easily squicked by rape issues, definitely skip it. This part isn't needed to enjoy the last part of the series anyways. In fact, I'd say skip both part 1 and 2 and just go to part 3.

Next up, the conclusion to the series. And lemme say, honestly, it can serve as a stand alone story if you really don't want to read part 1 and 2. You'll see why.

And here we go on the promised fic series I wanted to cover. And boy, this is going to be a very unpopular opinion from me, because this story gets a lot of praise, as in 'Best YnM fic ever!' type of praise. And I'm like, 'yeah, it's okay, but that's it, it's just... okay.'

A friend of mine recommended me this fic WAY back when it was being written. I recently gave it a reread and I'm going to say this about it:

The first two parts of this story almost made me give up on reading part three. Moreso on part 2, which I'll eventually cover. That's... not a good thing. Like at all. But I did continue and unlike the other trilogy that I covered on here, part three is vastly superior to the first two. I'm also not going to count the fourth story in this, because it doesn't need to be read and can stand out on it's own.

And here we go. The Mercy of the Fallen series!

Series: Yami no Matsuei
Title: Exorcism
Author: gaudior
Genre: Angst, general, casefic
Rating: M
Warnings: Boarderline OOC Hisoka, mentions of sex, mentions of rape
Couple (if applicable): Tsuzuki/Hisoka one sided (!!!), it's more Tsuzuki + Hisoka

Plot: 7/10 - Okay, I'll say this on the plot. The casefic itself? Fits the YnM universe perfectly. Wonderfully researched as well, and a better example of how to use fucking cliffnotes. We don't need the background info, but it's there incase the reader wants to see how it ties into the story. This won't be the only example in this series.

However, the problem isn't the plot itself, it's really Hisoka's character, and it somewhat drags the plot down with it. Like I can understand him wanting to be alone with his own thoughts and emotions, more so because he's an Empath. But leaving RIGHT after the Touda incident? Yeah, no. Hisoka would damn well know better than that, even if you claim ignorance on his behalf. And then debating to send Tsuzuki back? At least he caught on that would not be a good thing.

Also, if Hisoka could feel anything coming from Tsuzuki, it's a wonder he survived with him up to this point. Maybe I haven't read the manga/watched the anime in a while, but couldn't Hisoka only pick up strong emotions only if he was touching Tsuzuki, at least pre-Kyoto arc? I remember him picking up some of Tsuzuki's emotions, but near the beginning of the manga/anime. I'm assuming he got better as using his powers over time, and I'm pretty sure Konoe was training him in the use of his powers.

Again, don't know if it's a fanon thing about Hisoka's powers or derivived from canon. I decided not to dock any points for that, because I really can't remember if it's a canon or fanon thing.

Not to mention, Hisoka is down right cold to Tsuzuki. I'm going to cover this in the characterization part more deeply.

Overall plot is okay, but the lead in to get there? Not so okay.

Writing: 7/10 - There's nothing wrong with the writing besides maybe an awkward sentence here and there. It doesn't derive from the story and that's what's good about this series. The writing only seems to improve more as the series continues and that's how it should.

Characterization: 3/10 - This is where the story suffers in my opinion and it's all on Hisoka here. I don't like the characterization of Hisoka in this series at all. I dislike it a lot in this part, and moreso in the next part, but we'll get to that later.

Like I said before, Hisoka is down right cold to Tsuzuki. I mean, like I said, I can see him wanting to be alone to get his thoughts and emotions in order. But even I know that just up and going and not telling Tsuzuki where he's going directly AFTER the Kyoto Arc??? No, not going to happen, sorry. This story would've benefitted more if it took place a week or two AFTER the Kyoto Arc, but it doesn't. And Hisoka would probably either tell Tsuzuki about needing alone time to think, and maybe put an empathsis on his powers as the reason why (And it would actually be truthful too), or be really sneaky and take time off when they're allowed to work again, because he knows Tsuzuki has little to no vacation time due to him blowing up the library again and having to pay it back.

Also, Tsuzuki comes on WAY too strongly, but in a way, I can see why. Hisoka basically tells him to live for him and then RIGHT after, up and walks away. So Tsuzuki's character is believable. I could also see Tsuzuki guilt tripping and hiding as well. So Tsuzuki's character isn't really the problem.

This is just... really uncomfortable to read sometimes, and it's mostly because I feel like Hisoka is on the cusp of being OOC to remaining somewhat IC. Basically, when the focus of the story is the case fic itself, Hisoka's perfectly IC. The only time is when they want to sync up to each other (aka, Hisoka is being stupid and illogical, when he's usually the logical one), but the reason behind it, I can let it pass, for plot's sake. When it comes to focus on Tsuzuki, it's cold and clinical.

Negatives: Boarderline OOC Hisoka, rape mentions
Summary: Post Kyoto Arc, Hisoka wants time to think and reflect. Surely a deserted mountain is the perfect place for that? Too bad life (or afterlife) doesn't work that way...
Overall: 5.6/10 - Not a good start to the series. If you're looking for casefic and don't care about pairings at all, this actually is probably one of the better ones. I'd recommend it only because the casefic itself is very well written.

Next up, is probably the weakest part of this series. And if you thought Hisoka's character was bad here? Nope. Part 2 is what almost made me give up on reading part 3.

Warning for bitchiness ahead. This also almost became a rant, so beware on that.

Actually, I take back about the series I was going to cover, because this... needs to be seen and said. Why? Well, I found a fic recently on Ao3 and recent YnM works? VERY rare nowadays.

I was also boggled by the amount of comments on this work. Skimming through the YnM section on Ao3, very few stories had more than 4 comments (This is discounting author replies btw) unless it was multi-chapter, multi-fandom, or older than a year. And this story was less than a month old! So curiosity compelled me to take a look at it.

I am FLOORED that this fic got as many comments as it did and NOT ONE FUCKING PERSON pointed out a GLARING mistake in this fic.

Series: Yami no Matsuei
Title: Closer to Me
Author: Veleda_k
Genre: Flangst
Rating: T
Warnings: A good idea that falls flat (Is that even a warning?), bland writing, Misspelling the MAIN CHARACTER'S name
Couple (if applicable): Tsuzuki/Hisoka

Plot: 7/10 - Okay, I'm going to give the author credit here. Basically, we see flashbacks of Tsuzuki and Hisoka interaction covering each of the anime arcs where one character visits the other. I thought it was creative idea and showing the reader how their relationship changes over the course of the anime. A perfect set up for build up fic or just random drive by fluff.

Now, if it was well written, this actually would be a better example of how to write fluff than the previous story I reviewed.

Le sigh...

Writing: 2/10 - The biggest mistake an author can make, and that instantly takes me out of a story isn't boring writing. Not common word spelling errors. Not period misplacements or comma splices. Not bad characterization.

It's spelling the canon character's name wrong. Worse, the main fucking protagonist. And yes, 'Clean Kill', I am ESPECIALLY looking at fucking you.

I counted a total of THREE times that this fic spelled Tsuzuki as 'Tsuzki' (2 times) and 'Tszuki'. And two of these are near the end of the story and one of them is the LAST FUCKING PARAGRAPH of the GODDAMN FIC! There is no excuse for this, like none. It's like the author just threw this up and didn't either read it herself or get someone to read it over for her.

Shame on you readers who left comments and failed to point this out. Because if this was my story? I'd be beyond embarrassed and would fix it asap!

This isn't going into how bad some sentences sound, how flat the story runs, too much 'noun verb' sentences, Surgatanus (It's Sarganatas and I looked it up on anime news network to make sure it's correct) and just... how overall bland this fic runs.

A few examples:

"(Hisoka had never used a computer before the Shokan division, but he was learning just fine. He wasn't an idiot. Unlike some people.)"

For some reason, the first sentence didn't translate properly into my head, and I realized it was because my mind kept trying to put a verb inbetween 'before' and 'the Shokan division'. It is grammarly correct, but it just... doesn't sound right. Also, this doesn't need to be in parenthesis, mostly because it doesn't add anything to the sentence before it. It wrecks the overall flow of the story.

And this isn't the first time this story has interrupted/overall bad flow, trust me.

"Tsuzuki's joking tone and expression faded. “Sorry. I wanted to talk to you,” he said again"

A period is missing at the end of 'he said again'. Not to mention, you don't even need it, because we already know who is speaking thanks to the beginning part of this.

"Tsuzuki needed comfort, that was clear. The problem was that Hisoka was terrible at comfort. It wasn't that he never looked out for Tsuzuki, but he did it by shoving antacids in his hands when he was hungover (or by nearly killing him to prevent the demon possessing him from killing everyone Tsuzuki loved, but Hisoka was trying not to think too much about that), not by saying the right things. For a mind reader, Hisoka was shit at knowing the right thing to say."

I'm going to admit right here, I had to reread this entire paragraph several times before it finally translated into my head. And then it took another read for me to understand just WHY it wasn't catching with me. And I found the answer: the parenthesis sentence interrupted the flow of the original sentence.

The sentence in the parenthesis doesn't even need to be in parenthesis yet again. It could exist outside of it. The sentence flow is way off, it almost feels like a really bad run-on sentence and I blame the sentence in parenthesis for that. This story has a pattern of interrupted flow thanks to the parenthesis that doesn't even need to be there.

Also, Hisoka isn't a mind reader, he's an Empath. While Telepathy and Empathy can co-exist with each other and there's canon evidence that Hisoka does have a bit of telepathy, his powers lean to reading emotions.

And really, did we use 'shit' as a description? Not to mention, that last sentence sounds really awkward.

"But he knew that if he had called in advance, Tsuzuki would have insisted he was fine. (It was what Hisoka would have done if Tsuzuki had ever called him before showing up.) Luckily, Tsuzuki was home, which meant Hisoka didn't have to feel any stupider than he did already."

An example again of a parenthesis that isn't needed. And again, another paragraph I had to read a few times before it made sense in my mind, because a lot of the sentences in the parenthesis? Really badly interrupt the flow of the story.

I'm going to stop because if I had to point out every goddamn nitpick at this story, this would turn into a beta read. And I'd be repeating the same problem over and over again. Basically, the writing flow is a complete mess.

Characterization: 5/10 - The characters are flat as pancakes and this is more tied into the flat writing rather than characters acting OOC. For the most part, the author was on par with the characters, but the writing makes them... flat. I also think part of the problem was me having to reread parts of the story because it didn't seem to translate right in my head. And having to reread the same paragraph 3 times or more totally threw my mind out of the story.

It's a shame, because I find a lot of fics that are decently written are wildly OOC. I don't come across too many fics where the characters are IC, but it doesn't feel like them because of the writing.

Negatives: Flat writing, canon names are misspelt
Summary: Sniplits of Tsuzuki and Hisoka, covering each anime arc, and how they fall into each other
Overall: 4.6/10 - Flat writing can destroy a really good idea. This fic is a perfect example of this.

Again, shame on you commenters who didn't point out Tsuzuki's name being misspelled. We constantly complain about quality of fanfiction. Well, how are we going to improve the quality of fanfiction when we can't point out obvious errors like this and not be called a 'troll' or whatnot??? Yeah, it's a hobby and what not, but have some mother fucking PRIDE in what you post up!

Anyways, I'm going to stop before this becomes a rant. NOW next time, I'm really going to do a series I promised last time!

Trying to find good fanfic on FF.net is a rarity. More so with YnM being as old as it is. I also tend to avoid the communties on FF.net because:

1. They're for old fic. Like 'back in my day!' old.

2. The community owners tend to have very different tastes from mine. Aka, seme!Hisoka. Like people still have this seme/uke mindset even today!? GET LAID ALREADY!

3. They tend to recommend one author like 20 different times. So if you don't like said author's works... yeah, you're screwed. ~_~;;

So yeah... That means I have to comb FF.net on my own. Granted, YnM is a small fandom (On Ao3, FF.net, it's still a pretty decent number), and it's not very active anymore. Though the last time I read fic for the fandom was at the end of 2004 before I got heavily involved with World of Warcraft, so a lot of it is newish to me still.

Combing through FF.net... is never fun. I do find a few gems here and there. But not in this case!

Also, it seems FF.net doesn't take it's 'no lemon' policy seriously anymore because finding E rated material is pretty damn easy to find on FF.net. Though, really, this story can get away with the T rating, it barely counts as a M fic.

Title: Stay With Me
Author: lil'hp fan124
Genre: Flangst
Rating: Auther rated it M, but it can get away with a T
Warnings: Boring ass fluff, out of nowhere angst, fanpoodle japanese
Couple (if applicable): Tsuzuki/Hisoka

Plot: 5/10 - Basically, Tsuzuki randomly comes over Hisoka's house, silliness occurs, fandom cliches up the bumhole, makeout session, OMG TRAUMA, happy end. It's cliche, it's littered with fanpoodle japanese, there's translation notes at the beginning of the fic, it's... honestly not even worth the read. Not because it's cliche or even boring, but because freaking translation notes at the beginning of a story ALWAYS makes me cringe.

I mean, there's not much else to say about the plot, because there really kind of isn't? It's perfect if you want a sort of pick-me-up random fluff fic. If it was better written, then it would be a good choice. Obviously...

Writing 3/10 - I'm going to keep saying this until I die, aren't I? STOP WITH THE FUCKING FANGIRL JAPANESE! Like holy fucking shit. Either fucking translate everything or write the mother fucking thing in japanese! Like EVERY phrase (With the exception of 'Ne') can be perfectly translated into English. And even 'Ne' can be translated. The only exception I'll let is 'san', 'chan', 'kun', 'senpai', 'sensei'. And even then, those COULD be translated. And I'll only accept it if the canon takes place in Japan. In something like a Final Fantasy fic, it takes me out of the story. More so when I have to refer to cliffnotes.

Your fanfic isn't a fucking research paper. The ONLY time cliffnotes are acceptable is at the end of the story and should only be used to explain something to your readers. The next story series I cover on here will be a perfect example of HOW to use cliffnotes to your advantage.

Also, too much 'noun verb' sentences yet again. ~_~;;

The only reason it doesn't go lower is beause no glaring spelling/grammar errors.

Characterization: 5/10 - Same old fandom cliches, same old 'SOKA!' parade, same old flirty!Tsuzuki, same old Hisoka freaking out because 'omg, that night!' You read it a thousand times before. And how did they go from waking up from a nap to making out? And Hisoka's perfectly okay being with it to freaking out? There's like... no emotions behind this fic? It's kind of hard to explain. It's like the fluff in this fic got run over by a steamroller. It might be because we don't really get a clear picture into Hisoka's head, and the irony of it is this is a first person PoV, so we should be inside his head!

It's also bad we go from a make out session that Hisoka is perfectly okay with to 'omg TRAUMA!' because 'WE NEED ANGST, STAT!' or because 'OMG THAT NIGHT!' with like no build up. Yeah, if you want to play the 'omg, TRAUMA!' card, you need BUILD UP! I feel like I started at Point A and went to Point C, and I'm left wondering wtf happened to Point B.

Negatives: Cliche, fangirl japanese with cliffnotes, very flat flangst
Summary: Hisoka gets a late night visit from an obviously drunk Tsuzuki. And... stuff happens?
Overall: 4.3/10 - Pretty mediorc flangst fic. If you're desperate for flangst, I'd still say look elsewhere.

Next up, a series that I want to cover. And this series... is probably going to be an unpopular opinion type of thing, so be warned!

It's been a while, hasn't it? As per usual.

This time, I'm going back to a fandom that I actually participated in over a decade ago. So be warned, you're going to see a lot of older writing on here, mostly. And I'm also going to try to go into these fics with a more open mind rather than a 'omg, grate story, writmoarplz!' phase. So you may see 'unpopular opinion' type of thing depending on the author. And I'm also going to try to post 'fic that I liked, fic that's bad fic' type of thing, aka, I try to find a good fic in my opinion and not rant/rave on just badfics.

As a warning, I'm a Tsuzuki/Hisoka shipper, so the majority of these fics are going to be on that pairing.

Let's start on a positive note! I found this fic totally by accident, and I am so glad of that accident too! And how can I resist a seme!Hisoka piece?

Series: Yami no Matsuei
Title: Worker's Compensation
Author: ladysisyphus
Genre: PwP (Is that it's own genre!?)/angst
Rating: AO
Warnings: Very PwPish, though technically has a case, some angst, seme!Hisoka
Couple (if applicable): Hisoka/Tsuzuki

Plot: 9/10 - Um, there's kind of no plot to this, so I'm not going to score here on plot, but more the idea. Why the fuck out of the many YnM fics I've read, barely ANY of them involve demons (Save the one from the Devil's Trill Arc), more so, in this case, an incubus!? It's like the perfect set up for some perfect PwP fic! This not only tickled my 'holy shit, why didn't anyone think of this till now!?' side, but it also tickled my Shin Megami Tensei/Persona side, as those games involve demons and yes, you can get a incubus as a demon in both series. This author also did write for Persona so... >.>

Basically, this story has the perfect setup for this series that you can write a PwP fic on it easily. And you'd think you wouldn't find any character building or angst and just get porn? Think again. Well, not so much character building, but angst... There's quite a bit of understated angst in this fic along with a ton of sexual tension. And it all basically boils to a head due to the case.

Writing: 10/10 - The writing to this piece? Brilliant. That's all I could say. You can feel the sexual tension from the beginning of this fic right to the very end. There's a lot of telling in this fic, which would probably be the only nitpick I have about it. But you can still feel the emotions and the angst behind it through the character's actions.

Characterization: 8/10 - This fic manages to keep Tsuzuki and Hisoka in character fairly well. Now granted, there's not a lot of character building here, and the story doesn't cover the typical 'fandom' heavy issues, like Muraki, the 'famous night', etc etc. It... really doesn't need to, in the case of the story. It does have angst in it that you typically find, but it meshes so damn well with this fic, and it's just the right amount of angst you'll be satisfied with. It also leaves on a 'yeah, we have to talk' note, but in a positive kind of light.

Negativities: None, unless you don't care much for PwP fics in general

Summary: A case goes... in a completely unexpected direction. And brings hidden supressed tensions to a boil.

Overall: 9/10 - Perfect fic to read if you want a one shot with sweet porn with a dash of angst.

Yay! And I bring fic! Yami no Matsuei fic! Like what the flipping hell!?

Title: Waiting
Rating: T and E
Paring: Hisoka/Tsuzuki
Genre: Angst/romance
Warnings: Flangst (fluff/angst), spoilers up to the Kyoto Arc, minor references to Tsuzuki's Shikigami
Summary: There are times where just saying 'I love you' isn't enough...
Comments: This fic is dedicated to both

katsue_fox and

rinoared.

You can read the comments in the links, though the Ao3 version is the 'real' version for this story. Why did I write this? Because I made a lot of promises way back before WoW sucked my life away from fandom.

As always, thanks to

katsue_fox for the quick beta read and for being so encouraging. It's only due to her encouragement that this fic is even being posted.

Also, I strongly advise reading the Ao3 fic over the FF.net one, because the flow is better and the lemon is really important to the overall tone of the story. And because the story is so long, I'm just going to leave links up to go to them!

Waiting T rated version

Waiting E rated version

I really wish I had involved myself in the Persona 4 fandom really, because this fandom produces a lot of good fics, even to this day. Granted, I haven't gotten to the FF.net section of P4, but most fanfics I read on badbadbathhouse, and Ao3 have all been for the most part good. I can't really find my prefered pairing, but I can settle with fandoms preferred pairing.

This next story not only explores the possibility of a female protagonist, but also a protagonist who actually is really a blank slate.

Series: Persona 4: Golden
Title: Still Waters
Author: futuresoon
Genre: General/angst
Rating: AO
Warnings: Teenage sex, genderswapped MC, Yuri implications, based on P4G
Couple (if applicable): F!Souji/Yousuke, multiple one sided pairings with F!Souji

Plot: 9/10 - While the plot is basically the same with a gender swapped MC, it explores something new that the game kinda doesn't do, which is the MC is a blank state, in a literal sense. Meaning all those times she was doing the social links? It wasn't because she wanted to make friends, but because of the 'mission' she was sent to do. In fact, she herself doesn't even know what she wants and doesn't want. It was an interesting concept to add in along with the gender bending.

Just be warned, this is based on P4G, so there will be spoilers for the new characters and some new social links.

Writing: 9/10 - Nothing wrong here, though be warned, it is written in second person and I know that's not everyone's cup of tea when it comes to PoVs. But it works extremely well in this story.

Characterization: 9/10 - Pretty much everyone is in character here. It was interesting to see the different reactions from the characters. I only wish we had seen more of the other social links, we only really see Kou and Ai's social links along with the main cast.

Negativities: None unless you don't like genderswapped MC fic

Summary: Yui Narukami isn't exactly your normal teenage girl. But she discovers a role that she is well suited for.

Overall: 9/10 Definitely worth a read if you wanted to see the P4 story from a female blank slate perspective.

And I realized I haven't reviewed a single Persona 4 fanfic yet! This fandom can produce a lot of twisted shit, lemme tell you. A lot of it is, thank god, good. I'm pretty open minded with pairings in general, even though I still really like the bromance of the main character and Yosuke rather than being for each other. But I guess the game throws too much hintings (You have to purposely go for it, they're still there though, mostly for the lulz) that I caved in and read for them. Didn't regret it, thankfully.

But then I saw the main pairing for this fic and I said 'fuck it, let's read it anyways!' Now, I've been reading fanfiction for close to two decades. I've never been disturbed by anything I've read, even the worst fanfiction I've gotten through fine. That ended when I read this monster fic.

Please be warned, I do spoil the game here, so if you haven't played the game yet, go do so right now, because Persona 4 is probably one of the best RPGs you'll ever play.

Series: Persona 4
Title: Sympathy Crime
Edit: For some reason the fic disappeared on Ao3. Hum, not a good sign. But you can still find the fic here.

Author: Sodomquake
Genre: Darkfic, drama/angst
Rating: AO
Warnings: Boarderlining non-con, graphic violence, mindfuckage, underage sex with a minor
Couple (if applicable): Adachi/Yosuke (!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!), Souji(MC)/Yosuke

Plot: 10/10 - This is... probably one of the most disturbing fanfics I've ever read. But in the good way. I... really cannot say what goes on without spoiling the fuck out of it, but basically, Adachi and Yosuke end up in a relationship that is beyond unhealthy and even boarderline consenual, not to mention, an underage minor sleeping with an adult. There is tons of mindfuck moments, moments where you laugh, moments where you cry, moments where you feel so hurt that you have to take a break because of it all. I mean, the fic starts off pretty normal, with Yosuke feeling a little down because Souji is juggling social links up the bumhole, Adachi being a sick-fuck, wants to mess with the team, and a plan forms. It then... just spirals out of control from there.

The thing of it is that it does so so naturally and if you didn't already hate Adachi after you find out about him, you will hate him a hell of a lot more here. What's worse, is when you start to feel sympathy for Adachi at some parts later on and you feel like your mind is about to explode because you're supposed to be angry as fuck at him and... Jesus...

This fic is sort of AU to the game, but it could actually fit very well in the game and it doesn't derive too much from the game's general plot in general.

Writing: 10/10 - Nothing wrong with this fic here. I love how the fic changes to first person and we get to see what Adachi is thinking, because holy shit, I wanted to stab him many times with a meat cleaver. But it also feels natural, and the reader needs to know what Adachi is thinking and plotting. And then after you find out what he's plotting... I think I had my stomach twist in knots a few times because of it.

Overall, there's like nothing wrong with it at all.

Characterization: 10/10 - The characters feel like themselves from the game. I know Adachi was mentally disturbed after finding out he's the 'real' culprit of the murder case, but this story takes it to another level. And it feels like something Adachi would do, considering how bitter he is at life in general, and he probably hates the Investigation Team a hell of a lot because they were "spoiling his fun". What better way to get back at him than this?

Yosuke here... man, he is thrown through the angst wagon and beyond here. The way he falls, and how everything just spirals out of control for him... Jesus. And then we have Souji trying to play the adult, only to have that break down eventually, and it's just... so heartbreaking. Especially seeing his best friend rapidly change and how he just can't handle it...

I really can't say anymore without spoiling it, so I'll leave it at that.

Negativities: LOTS OF MINDFUCK!, non-con with a minor, dumptrucks full of angst
Summary: Yosuke starts feeling depressed, it's also not helping that his best friend keeps blowing him off. Adachi notices, plots, and takes complete advantage of it...
Overall: 10/10 - If you can stomach the mindfuckery and handle the warnings, this is a MUST READ fic. Just.... don't read this story in one sitting.

Okay, we're back with a full review of this game. Now take this with a grain of salt. I leveled a CON/WHM with THM/BLM secondary, because I played THM in 1.0, so it was starting out fairly high level.

Title: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Rating: T, rating changes in game
Genre: MMORPG

Graphics: 7/10 - I'm just gonna repeat what I said under beta impressions: Probably the most beautiful game I've ever played. There's really nothing else to say about this, because it's the god to honest truth. It's also a number on graphic cards, because it basically means you need a high end graphic card to play this game.

Also, I discovered, this game doesn't have very good optionization. Meaning when you turn down something, you experience no increase or decrease in FPS and you barely notice the difference in game on top of it. This basically forces you to have a high end computer.

Plot: 7/10 - This gets a little bit of a lower score because while it does feel like Final Fantasy, it's really predictable. And granted, while the other jobs have their own little subplot, the two I did were.... okay. I wasn't really 'wowed' at the end of the story, because it basically continues into your relic weapon quest, and at that point I stopped. Why? Because the part I stopped at, to me, was where the credits rolled and that's it for me.

Music/sound: 9/10 - Again, just gonna repat what I said before: Familiar themes and new themes. I liked the original soundtrack to the game, and I like the newer music, especially the battle theme. And of course, epic fucking Chocobo music when you ride one. You're just riding a chocobo, but they manage to make it sound epic. :D

The one flaw is that the music sometimes doesn't play in certain zones, but I'm guessing that's a bug.

Gameplay: This is divided into 6 sub-categories since MMOs are different.

Combat 5/10 - The combat is slow, period. When you play a game with mechanics that require you to get out of crap fast, the last thing you want is slow combat. It doesn't help the global cooldown is 2.5 seconds. Also, instant spells/skills aren't exactly instant. Basically, you'll be mashing buttons, praying that your skill fires off.

There is some lag between special attacks firing off and movement too. I'm gonna leave this here, because this thread demostrates the problem far better than I can.

Dungeons start out easy and then start to get harder. On top of the combat and it's problems, it really makes the game stressful on tanks and healers. Which is a big no-no. Mechanics are basic if you raided in WoW, but due to the slow combat and the problems highlighted in the thread, it makes the game a lot more difficult than it should be.

Crafting 6/10 - Crafting is beyond boring and tedious, it feels like a class all on it's own, but not very fun, time consuming, and not very rewarding in the end. Granted, I did only get 28 of alchemy up, but it felt like a chore and it didn't help I was always having to stop and go gathering. Not to mention, a lot of mats you need are cross class. For example, you'll be leveling weaving and opps, you now need leather for something. So it's either level up leatherworking or go buy stuff.

Did I mention money is a problem in the game? Yes, money is easy to come by while leveling, but when you have a 50 and those repair bills and teleport bills start to pile up, you'll find your money going down the drain.

PvE (Questing, exploring) 5/10 - Again, your options for leveling are as follows:

1. Killing monsters. Tedious, I don't advice doing it unless you're farming for something.
2. Killing monsters via your class 'hunt' quest. You get bonus exp for killing a certain amount and the game will put something over a monster's head if you need to kill it if you're the right class.
3. Story quest. You need to progress through the 'main' story regardless, so always keep up to date on this. It unlocks different things in the game as well, so you have to do it.
4. Class Quests. EVERY class has class quests, which all have their own story. While they can be tedious at times, the story makes up for it.
5. Regular Quests. There's NPCs all over the place that offer quests. You can also skip them and come back to them with another class later, which I think is good.
6. Leves. This was the main method of leveling in 1.0, but now, it's basically optional. I only really did them when I felt myself getting behind. A good method of catch up if you run out of regular quests!
7. Fate. This is like Guild Wars 2 random events. Basically, random events happen around the world and the objective is different for every one, like collect items and give to a NPC, kill a boss mob, kill an army of invading mobs, etc etc. Nice way to pick up some quick exp while going to different places.
8. Duty Finder/Dungeon Finder. I have to say I'm not impressed with this so far, but it makes for really easy and quick exp. They don't even have to be dungeons, it could be a quick monster survival type of deal or just killing. Hoping the later Dungeons get harder or a 'heroic' mode for those of us who like challenges.
9. Exploration. Like WoW and most games, you find a new area, you get some exp. It's minor, but it does encourage to look and explore the entire map.

So why did I lower this? Because after you hit 50 on your main and want to level another class, your choices suddenly become very limited. Heck, you'll start to see that in your 40's, when your story requires you to be a certain level and you suddenly are out of quests and leve allowances. Your only options are doing dungeons, Fates, or grinding on mobs. And lemme say, the dungeons in this game are very unforgiving. Unforgiving dungeons + PuGs = terrible combination

The game has a duty finder, or basically a system that will auto sort you into a group automatically. The main dungeons consist of 4 people. Later, you'll see 8 man groups too. The queue times for dps are awful, ranging from 30 minutes to well over a hour. And later on down the line, especially the level 50 dungeons, Square decided to make limits on how many instanced dungeons can be open. So that means you can have a group of 4 actual people queueing up, but waiting over a hour because there's too many people queueing for this place. Did I also mention this is the best dungeon to farm end game tomes?

The bosses in this game are very unforgiving, and like I said with the combat system, you really don't want to mix unforgiving mechanics with pick-up groups. Story dungeons should be easier and there needs to be less trash in them, especially since you're on a time limit. Yep, dungeons in this game have a time limit, and while I've never failed to meet a time limit (I did come close in Cutter's, had a minute left), it's beyond stupid to have one. Raids even have one, which blows my mind!

PvP NA - No pvp yet, but if the combat doesn't improve, I don't see pvp happening in this game.

End game (50 only content) N/A - I'm not going to score end game because I didn't try hardmodes or the raids, but I will say farming tomes is not what I want to do. I did enough of that crap in wow, I really don't want to do it again on top of people being nasty in the duty finder, which I'll get to below.

Misc (Latency. bugs, configuration, community) 2/10 - Let me say this game had one of the worst launches I've ever seen. This includes vanilla WoW. The servers were so boggled down, that it fucked with the duty finder the first few days, mostly because everyone was trying to do the story quest and it required you to use the duty finder (Which is a VERY BIG NO NO! Lesson: Don't do a single player story mode alongside something like a Looking for Dungeon type feature). Then we had limited log ins and the dreaded 1017 issues. Basically, for a time, Square limited how many people could get onto a server. The only problem is there was no active working queue finder (Some people say the queue could only support 250 people at a time, who knows). So the only way to get into the game was spamming the 0 key on your number pad. What freaking game does NOT have a queue system in place!?

Now this was cleared up after 2-3 weeks, but it's still unacceptable. Not to mention Fates like Odin and Behemut would crash servers because everyone and their mom would go to them.

The community in this game is probably the worst I've ever seen it, coming close to how people are in LFR in WoW. From people yelling and screaming at each other and calling people newbs (Don't people realize that most people playing this freaking game are new at it!?) from racist and disgusting remarks in shout chat to people screaming and yelling at people to skip the cutscenes in a story dungeon... Not to mention gold spammers on top of it. And if you say one negative thing about the game, people will call for your head to be chopped off on top of it...

This does not bode well for this game.

Final Score 4.5/10 - Not off to a very smooth start at all.

Overall: 6.8/10 - An average MMO that's in a very rocky place and greatly hindered by it's slow combat and bad community. If you like pretty MMOs and your machine can handle it, try it out. Though imo, there's better options out there that won't cost you 15 bucks a month.

Beta impressions. It is much improved compared to 1.0. But to be quite honest, that's not saying much, since 1.0 was a huge pile of poop.

For those who don't know the story, a couple of years ago, FFXIV was released, and it was one of the worst MMOs I've played at the time, and the biggest flop in the MMO genre ever. The game was unplayable, the combat was delayed, you had a system that basically forces you at a certain point that you cannot gain exp because you played too much, as a PAY TO PLAY game. But the game was pretty!

Needless to say, the entire team of the original game was fired and taken off. Square/Enix basically came out and said 'We done fucked up!' and bam, a rerelease of the game. The good news? It feels like a FF game now, and the gameplay is much improved. The bad news? There's so many games out there now that are just, well, better, and some are F2P.

I might as well go through it since I can't even log onto the beta atm, so... Also, there's no spoilers for the plot. Most of this info can be found on other websites too.

Title: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Rating: T, rating changes in game
Genre: MMORPG

Graphics: 9/10 - Probably the most beautiful game I've ever played. There's really nothing else to say about this, because it's the god to honest truth. It's also a number on graphic cards, because it basically means you need a high end graphic card to play this game. Which means you need a high end computer to play.

Plot: 8/10 - Now this feels like Final Fantasy. From the opening to where you finally have control of your character, you feel like you're in a Final Fantasy world. This is what the game should've been at the start.

You can start in the three familiar towns (Which you can choose to start where) and while some of them got a bit of a facelift, if you played in 1.0, they're easily regonizable.

I won't spoil the story (And tbh, I think the story so far is more interesting than the story in SW: TOR), but even then, I think the story is different depending on where you start. In 1.0, I started in Ul'dah, and I chose to start there again. I can say I'm glad I made that choice.

You'll also see the staples of the FF series along the way, like chocobos and Moggles deliver your mail. And for older fans... you'll see! So it does have a Final Fantasy theme to it.

Music/sound: 9/10 - Familiar themes and new themes. I liked the original soundtrack to the game, and I like the newer music, especially the battle theme. And of course, epic fucking Chocobo music when you ride one. You're just riding a chocobo, but they manage to make it sound epic. :D

The one flaw is that the music sometimes doesn't play in certain zones, but I'm guessing that's a bug.

Gameplay: This is divided into 6 sub-categories since MMOs are different.

Combat 7/10 - The combat... is something to be desired. It's boring, to put it mildly. It doesn't feel as fluid and responsive as WoW's combat system, and again, like some other games, it looks like I've dodged something, and I still get hit with it regardless. It's not as terrible as SW: TOR (Which felt I was fighting with the controls 90% of the damn time!), but... it's just not as good as WoW's.

Like 1.0, you can switch to a different class, which makes having alts pointless. I think this is a good thing, cause if you're in need of something and someone in your group leveled it up, bam, switch, and the group can go!

I haven't played all the classes, but the 2 classes (Thaumaturge and Conjurer) I really played much of were about the same when I played them deep into 1.0. So thankfully, I didn't have to relearn a whole class. If you were a really early 1.0 player, Thaum might be a bit different, it plays more like a Black Mage.

I heard later on, the starter classes branch out into more Final Fantasy-ish classes like Black Mage, White Mage, Dragoon, Paladin, etc etc. I haven't gotten that far, my highest level was 31 back in 1.0.

Crafting 7/10 - Crafting is still crap, but much more improved than 1.0. You basically gather the mats or buy them, change your 'class' to your desired crafter, and go for it. You also have the chance to make the item much better than if you made it the normal way, but I have no idea about it, since I didn't play with the crafting system too much.

You can also level crafting the normal way or through leves, which most people recommend anyways. I'll talk about leves in the pve section.

I didn't work on any gathering professions this time around, so no comment on that yet.

PvE (Questing, exploring) 9/10 - I have to say, this is greatly improved from the original. To break it down, you can gain exp by:

1. Killing monsters. Tedious, I don't advice doing it unless you're farming for something.
2. Killing monsters via your class 'hunt' quest. You get bonus exp for killing a certain amount and the game will put something over a monster's head if you need to kill it if you're the right class.
3. Story quest. You need to progress through the 'main' story regardless, so always keep up to date on this. It unlocks different things in the game as well, so you have to do it.
4. Class Quests. EVERY class has class quests, which all have their own story. While they can be tedious at times, the story makes up for it.
5. Regular Quests. There's NPCs all over the place that offer quests. You can also skip them and come back to them with another class later, which I think is good.
6. Leves. This was the main method of leveling in 1.0, but now, it's basically optional. I only really did them when I felt myself getting behind. A good method of catch up if you run out of regular quests!
7. Fate. This is like Guild Wars 2 random events. Basically, random events happen around the world and the objective is different for every one, like collect items and give to a NPC, kill a boss mob, kill an army of invading mobs, etc etc. Nice way to pick up some quick exp while going to different places.
8. Duty Finder/Dungeon Finder. I have to say I'm not impressed with this so far, but it makes for really easy and quick exp. They don't even have to be dungeons, it could be a quick monster survival type of deal or just killing. Hoping the later Dungeons get harder or a 'heroic' mode for those of us who like challenges.
9. Exploration. Like WoW and most games, you find a new area, you get some exp. It's minor, but it does encourage to look and explore the entire map.

So there's a LOT of ways to get exp in this game, and you don't run out of things to do. There are a few annoying things like having to hand in items to the NPCs, and if it's more than 1, it's really annoying.

You also have an inventory for gear and inventory for your items and crafting crap, which is nice and gives you plenty of space. Of course, hoarders like me will most likely run out of room regardless. >.>

The 'flight path' is chocobos, and yes, you do ride on an airship too at some point, which are staples to FF games. However, I don't see a need for the chocobo paths if you own a mount. Currently, I could not ride my Goodbue mount due to an error/bug, so I can't really say.

Overall, the PvE is fun and you'll always have something to do.

PvP NA - I haven't played any PvP games and am not sure if PvP will be put in the game!

End game (50 only content) N/A - The beta only went up to level 20, so no clue on end game.

Misc (Latency. bugs, configuration, community) N/A - I'm not giving a score since it's still a beta, but I'm greatly disappointed at Square/Enix. Mostly for their lack of communication. There's a serious bug going out on some characters, who are stuck in the game, and when a player tries to log that character, they cannot log in. And there's no word from Square/Enix about it at all. Even a 'We're working on the issue' would be better than nothing.

Also, who thought that having very few NA servers and an overabudance of Japanese servers was good? Believe it or not, Final Fantasy is popular in the US and Canada. The fact that EVERY SINGLE NA server was locked for new characters is not a good sign. So people who want to play with their friends? Nope, not happening! This wouldn't be an issue if beta stuff wasn't going over to live play, but it is. I think it's a mistake to do, but it's not my choice, so meh... I think this was a stupid move and if the servers couldn't handle the load, you should have queues. I think queues would be better than not being able to play at all!

Also, who thought that not having any sort of fucking queue system was a good idea? Because IT IS NOT! Hence why I'm not playing, my server is full and there's no queue system. And I'm not about to sit around and keep hitting refresh.

The UI seems kind of sloppy with a lot of buttons on one side. Granted, this game is designed around to accomadate the PS3 console, but still. I didn't fiddle with the UI too much, so hopefully you can change it to how you want it to be.

Hopefully, things get figured out within the week.

Final Score 7.6/10 - Above average, but if I had to factor in the last part, this score would be much lower!

Overall: 8.4/10 - A game you should try, especially if you're a Final Fantasy fan. A good re-impression that has some problems here and there. Hopefully, Square/Enix will fix them before launch. If you're a Final Fantasy fan and don't get plagued by the game-breaking bugs currently in this build, give it a try. I'd recommend trying it out for the first month and seeing if it's for you.

Now we bring the pain! Also, High School AUs, more so in a fandom where all the characters are above the age of 18, is even worse. This is no exception.

Also, I think this fic physically hurt me, to the point where I can't even spell right anymore. I think this fanfic outtops that Watari/Tatsumi fic I read so long ago.

Series: Final Fantasy 7
Title: Some Where I Belong
Author: Ballerama-Beauty
Genre: ~~Melodrama~~ Angst/Romance
Rating: T, though it should get a M rating for language
Warnings: High School AU (This has it's own warning now!), verbal abuse, WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE ADULTS!?, violence, suicide, rape, WHERE ARE THE FUCKING ADULTS!?, this town needs to be wiped off the face of the earth
Couple (if applicable): Zack/Cloud, Zack/Aerith, Sephiroth/Angeal/Genesis, Vincent/Yazoo

Plot: 1/10 - Uh, what plot? A bunch of overdramatic angst in a teeny bop world. But it's to the point where it isn't even realistic!

Again, I cannot stress this enough: WHERE. THE. FUCK. ARE. THE. ADULTS!? No seriously, we got people being beat to a BLOODY mess, and not one teacher around!? And none of the teachers THINK about calling the parents of the kids involved OR calling the police!? And the people fighting aren't even suspended!? You know, back when I went to school, if kids fought like this, they'd be lucky to not only be expelled, but put in Juvinile Detention! This doesn't happen until much later in the story, and it only happens to ONE person instead of everyone involved!

Also, apparently, NO ONE calls the houses of any of the families in these things, because they would find out that an 18 year old is basically acting like the care-giver of 4 younger siblings. And the excuse? 'Well, the neighbors are afraid Sephiroth will kill them!' Maybe Sephiroth killed the police long before, because at least that would make sense why they are absent in this story!

Basically, Cloud angsts like a monkey and it's Zack's job to play hero. Oh, and everyone apparent drank the 'asshole' koolaid, because everyone acts like a total fucking prick, even people who are supposed to be friends. There's suicide attempts, which are always lovely. Oh, and there's violence and rape, ain't that nice to add to the blender of fuckness?

Look, I know people can be prejudice assholes, but 90% of everyone!? I don't think so. Even worse is that Zack's supposed 'friends' turn against him in a heartbeat. And the suicide attempts? Urgh...

Also, if you played a drinking game, where every time someone says 'Bitch' in this story, you take one shot, you'd probably be dead of acholol poisoning before getting to chapter 3. ~_~;;;;;

Also, the so called doctor that comes in and talks to Cloud. Holy fucking shit, you DO NOT tell someone who is suicidal that it is their own fucking fault. I'm not a fucking doctor and even I know that! I don't care if you were being "more analytical", you do NOT tell someone who wants to kill themselves to suck it up, you're creating all these problems! WHY did they let him out of the hospital??? HOW could they let him out!? He's a fucking minor and nobody has a clue that something serious is going on here!?

And then we got the 'child protection' coming in and playing the 'religion' card. ~_~;;;; Also, instead of taking everyone into their care, they only take ONE of them away. Are you for fucking real!? You couldn't see the kid with the scars RIGHT ON HIS FACE needs the help!?

This is just... really bad. Bad doesn't even begin to describe this turd of a fic.

Writing: 4/10 - Believe it or not, the writing itself isn't too terribly bad. There's a few big paragraphs that should've been chopped up and some dialogue that should've been divided up into other paragraphs, but other than that, the writing isn't half bad.

The flashbacks can be really annoying since it's basically copy/pasted from where it originally happened most of the time.

So it's not terrible, it's readable. But I wouldn't recommend anyone reading it, even if it was all in chicken scratch!

Characterization: 0/10 - Probably the first fanfic where I give NO points to characterization. NONE of the characters are in character at freaking all. You can change EVERY name in this story to something else and not have any idea that this was a FF7 fic at one point.

Cloud is annoying, period. He started out as a loner in the beginning and then became an emo whiny clingy idiot. If adults actually existed in this universe, he would've gotten the help he needed a while ago, and maybe Zack and Cloud could've had a more normal relationship. But nope, and it doesn't help that Zack is really confused and Cloud basically guilt trips/threatens Zack into liking him and giving him a chance. It also doesn't help that he has an obsessive bully following Cloud and his 'brothers' around and beating the shit out of them. Oh, and a stalker rapist, cause this story didn't have enough angst as it is with the bullying and wanting to kill himself!

Like I said above, Cloud eventually goes into a hospital, but instead of getting help, he's even MORE verbally abused. I mean, is the 'prick koolaid' in the water that these assholes drink!?

Also, Zack acts like a real asshole too. I mean, Cloud is in the hospital, and he doesn't visit because 'I'm busy with school and sports'. Are you fucking shitting me!? Even if it was a friend of mine who was in the hospital, I'd drop all my shit in a heartbeat and go to the fucking hospital and see them! Hell, I think Canon!Zack would have a spaz attack and go see Cloud, even if all he had gotten was a fucking paper cut, cause that's who Zack is!

And of course, what bad yaoi fanfic would it be without indirect female bashing? I mean, really? Aerith isn't the type of girl to be mean, period. I don't even think she has a mean bone in her body. If she knew Zack and Cloud hooked up, she'd ask for Zack for pictures and probably be their official fangirl. This is the SAME girl who convinced Cloud to cross-dress, for christ's sake!

In fact, NONE of the original cast members are even remotely friendly to Cloud. Which again, WHY write Final Fantasy 7 fanfiction when you can't even adher to even having these characters acting like their canon parts!? Even in AUs, most of the time, the characters retain their core personalities to some degree. WHY is Rufus stalking Vincent, I don't even get it!

AND STOP INCLUDING SQUALL NOT FUCKING LEON IN YOUR FANFICS! God, every fucking time I see Squall being called 'Leon' in fanfics, I want to take my copy of Kingdom Hearts and shove it up Square's ass.

Negativities: Bad fanfic, rape, violence, bullying, no sane adults, fanfic will make your brain leak out your ears.
Summary: Cloud's life sucks. Can Zack help him out? Not in this story!
Overall: 1.6/10 - One of the worst fanfics I've read in my entire life. I mean, this takes the cake, folks. I can deal with Mary Sues, I can deal with bad grammar and spelling, I can deal with OOC to a point. What I can't deal with is all the worst kind of angst plot devices, with a dash of yaoi, thrown all together into a blender alongside a mountain's worth of cow chips. If you want your dose of stupid forever, read this fic. Otherwise, do your brain a favor and stay FAR away from it.

Thanks to my butthead friends for getting me back on this craz train again! I bring good fic, but.... It's a mixed bag, at least for me.

Series: Final Fantasy 7
Title: Shards of Glass
Author: Soranokumo
Genre: General/Drama/Psychological
Rating: MA
Warnings: Violence, Dark, Psychological mindfuck, lemon and lime content, fanpoodle japanese (Seriously wtf), walking the fine line of non-con, game canon only
Couple (if applicable): Sephiroth/Cloud, Zack/Cloud, Vincent/Cloud, Rufus/Cloud, one sided Cloud/Tifa, faint Cloud/Aerith references (Yeah, Cloud kinda gets around in this fic. X_x)

Plot: 8/10 - The summary managed to get my attention, mostly because I love Zack fics. Also note, this goes by game canon only, since this was started in 2001 and finished in 2004, pre-dating even Advent Children. So yeah, his last name is the name that was popular in fandom before it officially became 'Fair'.

So basically, Zack wakes up in a hospital post-game. Of course, the first thing he does is to go search for our little chocobo-head (Really fandom?) ray of sunshine. Only... things are not good. Like at all.

Seriously, this story deals with some really dark issues and a lot of psychological issues. The first thing you find out is that Cloud was in a Mental Institution for a year after attacking some of his friends from Avalanche. Yikes... Not to mention, Cloud's behavior is very odd and sometimes downright disturbing in the story. As the story goes on, you discover the reason behind this behavior and it's... not good.

Not to mention, we have Sephiroth in the mix, but... it's not in the way you normally expect it. And you can kinda guess from the pairing listed above. This story can get boarderline squick between consensual and non-con too, so if you have issues with that, I wouldn't recommend reading this. I don't know if I would consider this under-age either, so be warned about skimming that line too.

I also don't really see the Cloud/Vincent pairing, like at all. They never struck me close in canon, and it seems Vincent takes a liking to Cloud in a more than friends way not too long after the game ends, which bugs me. It would make more sense if it was later down the line, and even then, I don't really see the pairing still. I think that partly tainted my view on it. I can let Sephiroth/Cloud slide to some degree, but not Vincent/Cloud.

The only problem I have with the story is the last few chapters are REALLY confusing and I got a little lost. It is kinda predictable what Cloud was hiding, it kinda boarderlines canon itself, in my opinion, but it doesn't destroy the story.

I do NOT want to spoil the end, but the story does end with a satisfying conclusion.

Writing: 6/10 - This got docked BIG points from me because of one thing: Fangirl Japanese. There is NO FUCKING REASON to have fangirl Japanese in a fanfic that does not take place in Japan, PERIOD. I let it slide with animes that take place in Japan, or have a setting like Japan (Which I was almost ready to give the benefit of the doubt with Yuffie, since Wutai has very heavy Japan influences), but it's really unacceptable here. And it's annoying, especially when you don't understand what she's saying sometimes.

This will continue to piss me off. There is NO NEED to have your fanfic with fangirl Japanese when you can translate it into perfect English and not lose the meaning of it.

Other than that, the writing is done well, and if the fangirl Japanese was gone, it'd probably would've gotten a 9/10.

Characterization: 7/10 - Meh, again, this is a mixed bag, especially how you view the pairings. I really only think Cloud looked up to Sephiroth as a 'hero' figure, and I don't think Sephiroth was really interested in any kind of relationship with anyone. If only going by game canon, I do see maybe Sephiroth and Zack being close (Even if you count CC, they do seem friendly to each other and get along fairly well), but I certainly don't see Sephiroth abusing his powers the way he did on Cloud in this story.

Zack is pretty much how I expected him to be, and the others of Avalanche are how I expected them to be. Except for Vincent and Yuffie to some degree.

I covered the Vincent/Cloud thing above, so I'm not going to go into much detail. Other than that, Vincent is for the most part in character. Yuffie is kinda clingly to Cloud and it kinda skims the boarderline of her being OOC, but I think given the story flow, she remains IC for the most part.

Cloud is how I expected him to be as well, given what he's going through. Though I do wonder why he isn't more screwed up than is.

Reno and Rude are funny as always. The Rufus/Cloud moments are more 'mindfuckery' than anything, so I can let that pairing slide. But again, what's with everyone wanting in Cloud's pants? It works in the guidelines of the story, but I did actually sit back and say 'Why does everyone want into Cloud's pants!?'

For the most part, the characters retain themselves and the little OOC you may see can be made up for it because of the story itself. The only problem I see people having is the pairing issue.

Negativities: Dark issues, squick, Fangirl Japanese (STOP FANDOM!), Cloud needing to start his own Harem (~_~)
Summary: Zack's been asleep for a very long time and finally wakes up... to a very different world. Regardless, he searches for the one he tried so hard to protect... Only to find things are never easy.
Overall: 7/10 - A fic that has some problems, but still definitely readable. Please note the warnings and the pairings, cause this fic is definitely not for everyone. I'd still recommend it, more for the issues the story handles, but if you have a hard time accepting the first 3 pairings, you might want to stay away from it.

Okay, time to do another Visual Novel. I will say, while I don't care much for the artwork on this one, the story blew me away. And for a freeware visual novel, I can actually let the so-so artwork fly by because the story is awesome.

Title: Frozen Essence
Company: Unbroken Hours
Rating: PG-13/13+
Genre: Fantasy/Romance

Graphics: 6/10 - Like I said, the artwork is very hit and miss. Some of the CGs are really nice, and at other times, the bodies don't really look right. For the most part, it's okay (And the artist has gotten better obviously with the new VN), but it could be a bit more polished.

Plot: 10/10 - This is where the VN shines, and is probably more important than the story. Basically, the world is balanced by 'essence', or you can think of it as elements to some degree. Mina, a young girl, is awakened from a long slumber inside a crystal, with no memories of her past. A strange character by the name of Oracle, guides her away and promises to protect her along with 3 other mysterous bodyguards.

The story also changes based on who's path you go down. We have 4 eligible guys and 1 'mystery' character, along with an 'alone' path as well. Depending on what path you go down will change the story, learning about that particular character's past or even Mina's own past.

It's really well down and it shocks me that this kind of story is FREE, because it's better than most commerical games. And the story itself is pretty long on top of it.

Music/sound: 9/10 - The music fits to the scenes perfectly from light-hearted music to battle-esque like music. The only thing distracting is the constant 'slapping' noise that happens a lot in the game, but that can be turned off from the menu scene.

Gameplay: N/A - It's a pure visual novel here.

Overall: 8.3/10 - A must-read visual novel. Despite the so-so artwork, the story well makes up for it. And it's FREE, you cannot beat that, period.

Fucking FINALLY found a really GOOD fic. And it's an AU. So this story is not only an example of good fic, but it's also an excellent example of how to write a real AU.

Series: Final Fantasy 7
Title: Blood of the Innocents
Author: Kumoashi
Genre: General/Drama
Rating: MA
Warnings: Violence, Character deaths, squick-ish moments, lime, AU, game canon only
Couple (if applicable): Zack/Cloud, one sided Sephiroth/Zack, hints of other various canon and non-canon pairings

Plot: 10/10 - Granted, this is an AU fic, but unlike 90% of AU fics out there, the characters retain their personalities and the story feels like it takes place in the FF7 universe.

Basically, this is a what-if fic. Cloud never went to Midgar, instead, he was captured by Hojo for the last 2 years. In that time, Hojo 'wakes' Vincent up, and basically, rocks fall from there. The first half of the fic takes place between the Nibelhiem incident and maybe a few days after that. The second part takes place during the game.

While some stuff that happens in the game is pretty copy/pasta, a lot of the story deters from the main game, but manages to stay within the bounds of the FF7 universe. This story also does a good job to Sephiroth and manages to incooperate the main characters as well as the minor characters.

Also, be warned. Some nasty things happen to the characters in this story that might not settle too well with people. I mean, you think Hojo was bad in the game, this story makes him 100 times worse. Some of the things that happen to the characters may not set well with people, just as a warning.

The ONLY problem I really have with this story is the spelling of Zack's name, I don't know why people back in the day called Zack 'Zax', when anyone whose played FF7 know it's spelt 'Zack' in the english version.

Writing: 9/10 - Nothing wrong with the writing here. One of the better fics that I've read. It does get wordy, and I wouldn't recommend reading it in one sitting. It's a really long fic.

Characterization: 9/10 - I don't think there's a trace of OOCness cept in Cloud's case, but it doesn't hurt the story given what happens to Cloud in this fic. I really loved Sephiroth in this story and I felt so freaking bad for him overall. I don't think I could've hated Hojo anymore than I could in game, but this story made me hate him a hell of a lot more and shows how creepy and sick this guy is.

All the canon cast makes an appearance, and while it kinda lacks the Cloud and Tifa relationship to some degree, it's understandable given the AU's plotline. The Zack and Cloud relationship is bitter sweet along with Zack and Sephiroth. I loved all the characters here and they all retained their personalities from the original game.

Negativities: Boarderline squick material
Summary: A 'What-if' story. Cloud never made it to Midgar, instead becoming a new specimen to a mad scientist...
Overall: 9.3/10 - If you want an AU fic done right, this would be the fic I'd recommend as long as you're not anti-yaoi and okay with boarderline squick material.

I am never going to find a fic that tops the first FF7 fic I put up, le QQ. I did find a few, but almost none of them are finished. It makes me QQ tears of blood.

This story is another crossover AU fic, and it's actually worse than the last one. I don't even know why I read it, especially since the ending just... comes out of nowhere and I feel bad, because the author admited that her irl issues were an influence on the fic. This was probably not the right way to go, in the characterization and the way the story flowed either.

Series: Final Fantasy 7 crossover (Kingdom Hearts)
Title: Sunday Afternoons
Author: lemon-sprinkles
Genre: Fluff/sap/humor/angst
Rating: MA
Warnings: Lemon, angst coming out of nowhere, too many characters
Couple (if applicable): Zack/Cloud and various other pairings

Plot: 5/10 - Like the fanfiction before it, it's another 'High School' AU fics. At first though, I was confused till I realized this game sort of takes place in the Kingdom Hearts universe, mostly, the town names from Kingdom Hearts are brought up. And Roxas is Cloud's little brother, don't ask me about that.

Basically, Cloud and his family move away and live in another neighborhood. Here, he meets Zack and things procede from there. The story is humorous in a lot of cases and it seemed to stay that way. Some of the humor is a bit over the top, but then again, it's not too bad.

Until the last 3 chapters where you find out that Zack randomly has Cancer and has like maybe a month to live. Seriously, I picked on a few hints, but for the story to go from having a lot of fluffy laughter moments into a serious angst issue does NOT fit the story at ALL.

Writing: 6/10 - The writing is okay for the most part. No real problems there. The only problem is the angst that comes out of nowhere.

Seriously, I do not mind angst at all. Lord knows how much angst I've written. But it has to be WELL WRITTEN angst that doesn't interrupt the flow of the story. This... isn't well written, it seems like it was added in at the last moment, and it disrupts what could've been a light-hearted humor fic.

Also, you do not have to kill characters to create angst. Some of the best written angst is the non-character death kind!

The real problem here though is the story starts off on a humor note and very light. And suddenly takes a 180 into angstland, which is never a real good thing to do unless the angst flows with the story. The angst here just interrupted the flow big time. I understand the intentions from the author's notes, but I don't think this was the best fanfic to do it with.

Characterization: 6/10 - Zack is, of course, in character. So is Aerith for the most part and luckly there's no real character bashing. Again, Cloud could use some work, he's too girly, as usual. The other few cast characters that make an appearance seem to be off a bit too. I can't comment on the KH characters and they don't really play a big role, but the ones I vaguely know are boarderline OOC.

I also don't think Zack would hide the fact that he has a serious Cancer that would definitely kill him from Cloud either. I know he's very cheerful, but to hide something serious from Cloud like that. There's also no real indication that he's sick either. I've had family members of mine die from Cancer, and a poor lady from my job developed cancer after she was transferred. She came back a few months later and I could tell her sickness got to her badly. A serious cancer that Zack has in this fic would NOT go unnoticed.

Negativities: OOCness, random drive-by angst
Summary: Cloud is upset after he moves away from the only town that he called home. But Fate can be a mysterious mistress...
Overall: 5.6/10 - The story would've been better if the drive-by angst was discluded from it. Even without the angst, it's not really a fic I'd recommend.

Taking a break from my power leveling in WoW. You know how some stories start out good or just all right and then just descend into badness? Well, this fic doesn't descend into badness. Mediorcity is more the word I'm thinking of, I think, here.

Also, I normally HATE AUs with the FF characters in high school, but I still read this fic regardless. It's not really a FF7 fanfic, but since the two main characters are from FF7, I consider it FF7 fic for the most part.

Series: Final Fantasy 7 crossover (Final Fantasy 8, 10, 12)
Title: Behind Blue Eyes
Author: zacks.little.puppy
Genre: Fluff/sap/sometimes melodrama/slice of life?
Rating: MA
Warnings: Lemon, story dragging it's feet (?), OOC Cloud, author has not played FF7 (!?!?!?!?!?!)
Couple (if applicable): Zack/Cloud and various other pairings

Plot: 6/10 - I'm not going to lie, the summary attracted me to the story and perked my curosity. Thought it didn't help that there were spelling AND grammar errors in the summary. However, I decided to give it a chance.

Basically, it's a AU High School fic. Cloud is apparently in a high 'level' class and gets assigned to tutor a student in the same grade that's having problems and is in the 'deliquent' class. I have no idea why the author worded it this way, because the students in the 'lower' level classes aren't really deliquents. It reminded me how my high school was divided, the 'smarter' students were in 'higher levels' while the students who were average or below average were in the 'lower levels'.

So the premise is basically these two, Cloud and Zack obviously, hooking up. And it happens about 15-20 chapters in. But you'll notice that the total count for chapters is 39. Why is that? Because of the warning I gave. This story drags it's feet REALLY badly after they hook up. I mean, we have a perfect premise to do conflict with, Zack's past, his parents, and how it would affect his current relationship, and it's TOTALLY IGNORED. Not to mention, his mom is in a mental hosiptal and his dad is in jail, and yet, at one time, they were a picture perfect family. WHY IS THIS IGNORED!? This would've made a great conflict to deal with when the two finally get together, and how Zack doesn't want his relationship to turn out like his parents. And it seems Zack cares for his mom, so why doesn't he go see her??

I don't understand why the author didn't end the story around chapter 20 or why she had almost no conflict (Though you could argue 'slice of life!' genre for this) after they hooked up, even though there were plenty of chances. And when conflict did come up (Penelo, Zell's crush on Cloud, talk about kids/marriange, Cloud's feelings on his father getting remarried), it's briefly brushed on and nothing comes of it.

And some of the conflict is silly, like the parents bringing up kids. d00d, they're 16 and 17 years old, let them date a few years before you even consider marriage/kids. Also, Zell's crush comes out of nowhere, and what happened to the Squall plot in previous chapters. That ended... very oddly.

There's also a subplot with his dad and Zack's... you know, it's NEVER said what his relationship is with Rick. And it's never said WHY he's living with his aunt too. Normally, guys don't live with a woman unless they're related or dating. Even a hint, like his aunt is a good friend or childhood friend of Rick's would've been better than nothing. This subplot is rushed too and comes to no conclusion since the story just... ends. It can't really come to a conclusion when the main plot had concluded like 20 chapters ago though.

Writing: 7/10 - The writing is okay. A few errors here and there, but nothing really wrong about it.

Characterization: 5/10 - It wasn't until like the last 2-3 chapters that I found, to my horror, the author never played the original FF7 game. BUT this author did play Crisis Core. Uh, you DO know you can buy FF7 on your PSP and play it on the memory card, right?

Besides that, there's no excuse NOT to play this game anymore. It's available on the PC again, there's a PSN version of it that you can buy for your PS3 or PSP. There's probably 'Let's Plays' out there if you're desperate enough. And don't give me the time issue, if you have the time to write a fanfic about something you like, you better damn well have time to research the origins of your fandom.

Moving away from my bitch rant, Cloud is seriously OOC here and I blame it on the story being WAY too sappy for it's own good after Cloud and Zack get together. Even then, the conflict was kinda melodramatic to begin with.

Cloud is also very very girly in this and there were some parts I really thought he was a girl (And even he admits acting too 'girly' in the story too!). YES, Cloud does dress up like a female in the original game, and yes, it's the 'lawlzorbeam' part of the game. But beyond that one thing, there's no indication that Cloud is a weepy wuss. He's emo, that's for sure, but not someone who would be clingy and want to wear jewelary beyond maybe a pierced earring.

Zack is mostly IC in this, though I think both could've toned down the 'I love yous' a LOT. I mean, sometimes in one chapter, they'd say it to each other about ten different times and Cloud would STILL blush at it. Or at just about anything Zack calls him.

The other characters are either IC or really OOC and some of the other FF characters serve little to no purpose. Penelo is one, why even include her at all. What happened to Seifer too? He just kinda... vanished. Tidus isn't even a scene, just mentioned briefly. Tifa gets dumped for the most part. Barret and Cid aren't even in the story at all and neither is Reeve.

I think the big problem for the OCC is that this story is just way too sappy and because of a lack of conflict, it doesn't go anywhere. So there's nothing for the characters to really 'hold on' to, and they come and go as they please. I mean, I could eat an entire bag of sugar and this story would still be sweeter than that beyond chapter 20.

Negativities: OOCness, WAY too sappy, little to no conflict in the second half of the story
Summary: It's hard to be one of the smartest kids in the school. For Cloud, his world gets turned upside down when he's assigned to tutor a student in the 'juvenile' classes...
Overall: 6/10 - Again, a perfect example of a story that should've ended 20 chapters before it did. I wouldn't really recommend reading this fic past chapter 20. If you desperate for an AU fic that's light on conflict, this story would fit the bill.

Remember what I said about the last post? Yeah, I spoke too soon. :(

I had a choice between two of this author's stories. I picked this one cause the other one was so horribly bad, my brain threatened to leak out my ears again. :( No really, the other story written by this author is one of the worse ones I've read, on par with that Tatsumi/Watari story I read so long ago. This one... isn't too bad, but it's far from one of the 'best AUs' I've ever read.

Series: Final Fantasy 7
Title: The Last Goodnight
Author: DamagedWorth
Genre: ~~Waah~~Angst/Drama
Rating: MA
Warnings: Language, drug use (!?), lemon, AU
Couple (if applicable): Zack/Cloud

Plot: 6/10 - Obviously this is an AU, so it's not canon at all to the game plot. But the characters are there or make an appearance from game canon.

But the plot itself... It's a real mixed bag.

So apparently, Cloud is a lead singer for a band. Supposedly this story is based on a real band and the story uses real songs (From said band?), but lord knows if I know about them. Aerith, Vincent, and Yuffie play alongside Cloud while Cid and Barret are like the 'bodyguards' to the band. Cloud's dream was sing to the whole world and he finally obtained his wish. But at a heavy cost. Along the way, he bumps into his childhood friend, Zack. And so begins the angst ridden train to hell.

Seriously, if you read this fic, you will think this is a 'Gravitation' AU, cept instead, after a 'certain incident', the main character goes down on a spiral to angst land. And yes, the drug use is a real warning, because Cloud becomes addicted to it. The others can't get to him, but maybe a childhood friend from his past can. Oh, of course he does, it's Zack. >.>

The story is believable enough, but does it fit with the FF7 characters? Not really. And we'll get to that later.

Writing: 7/10 - The writing isn't too bad. It's a godsent compared to the other fic this author wrote. There's some whacky scene changes that aren't seperated, so you may get confused. And sometimes the story goes to first person as well. But the flow of the writing is there and it looks like it's been beta-ed.

Characterization: 4/10 - This is where the fic fails though. There's Tifa bashing and it's such a shame, because the last fic dealt with the Tifa situation so freaking well. Here, you can tell the author doesn't really care much for the 'canon' pairing and just basically skips it. It would've been better if Tifa was another childhood friend of his instead of the way the author wrote her, and they tried romance, but Tifa couldn't stand how Cloud was, so she broke up with him, but on a good note. Or even give her a minor role like being the woman who owns the bar. Instead, she's made into a greedy money loving whore, which is NOT her character at all. ~_~

Reno isn't exactly in character. I know he doesn't care too much for the characters in game, but to stoop this low? I don't see that at all. I know the story needed a villian, but really shouldn't that go to Sephiroth? Though I don't think it would fit given the plot. And Sephiroth does appear, but in the oddest role. Also, we know Reno had something to do in the murder of Cloud's parents. I was expecting maybe Zack to play PI or something and Reno getting his just desserts and have HIS career ruined that way, but instead, it turns into 'Beat the shit out of him' instead.

Cloud suffers the worst from this. I mean, I thought he was emo in Advent Children, but he's downright angst ridden in this story. I see where the author was going with this, but it doesn't work for Cloud's character. Cloud is a stronger person than how he is here, and using drugs to avoid his problems isn't something his character would do. And it drags the story down, which is a shame, because Zack is perfectly in character and the others are as well.

Plotwise, if these weren't FF7 characters, it makes sense for this to happen, but given the personalities of the FF7 crew, in Cloud's case, it doesn't work, it'd be better if it was original work.

Negativities: Heavily angst ridden, character bashing, OOC Cloud
Summary: Cloud's dream has finally become a reality. But reality never matches up with dreams...
Overall: 5.6/10 - AUs can be good. But the characters have to retain their core personalities in order for an AU to work. While the writing is there, and the plot is a bit clever, the OOCness drags it down. A decent AU, but not really recommended.

Yeah, this is very unusual for me. I've stopped reading FF7 fanfic before all these prequels and sequels for the game came out, which was maybe around 2001. And this story really defies ALL my FF7 preferences, because at one time, I told myself I wouldn't read any sort of yaoi pairings and I would only read fics that support my OTP.

If I wasn't already okay with the pairing featured in this fic because of a friend, after reading this would've gotten me into the pairing.

Series: Final Fantasy 7
Title: Too Good To Be True
Author: Miko No Da
Genre: Angst/Sap/Drama
Rating: MA
Warnings: Spoilers for the entire game and Advent Children. NOT canon to Crisis Core, lemon
Couple (if applicable): Zack/Cloud, one sided Cloud/Tifa, past mentions of Zack/Aerith, hinted Sephiroth/Cloud and Sephiroth/Zack

Plot: 8/10 - Okay, so the plot isn't really original. Basically, Cloud comes upon a lab run by Hojo and lo and behold, finds Zack inside of the mako testing tubes. So friendship is rekindled, unresolved feelings come back, with some drama in between and all that, but sadly, Sephiroth is trying to muddle in affairs again.

It's a simple plot with a twist here and there, but it's not bad and it suits the story well enough. Though I find it funny that the game and the movie canon is followed to some degree while Crisis Core isn't. I personally don't have a problem with that, and Zack is pretty much in character regardless.

The only thing this story lacks is an epilogue. Most of the main plot is resolved near the end, but there are a few lose strings. There's no resolution about the files that Cloud found, even if it was nothing, it would've been nice to see this. There's no real resolution to the Tifa thing either, though you can kinda guess that a resolution between Cloud and Tifa is peaceful since it's strongly hinted on near the end.

Writing: 9/10 - Just enough descriptions and enough dialogue to keep a person happy. The only problem I have is the characters using the summons' names as cursing. It's just odd and I don't know if it's a fandom thing or maybe a prequel/sequel came along and started using them and it became some sort of trend in fandom. It doesn't distract from the main story though, and the flow of the writing is near perfect. Though I will admit to laughing out loud when Zack said, 'Ifrit's Balls!' >.>

Characterization: 10/10 - There is one thing I must give this author compared to any other authors out there. The author managed to write a Yaoi pairing and still being respectful to canon, aka, Cloud/Tifa and Zack/Aerith. SO many fanfics when it comes to yaoi pairings will resort to bashing of the females, but not in this story. This story, Tifa is as strong as she always is, and stepping aside to make the person she loves happy. Kudos to the author on this.

Even though this doesn't follow Crisis Core canon, Zack is perfectly in character from how I remember him in CC. A very cheerful guy who can be serious at times and cares deeply for the people he's close to, in this case, Cloud. Cloud's character is actually done fairly well too, and the relationship between Zack and Cloud is more on equal terms rather than your typical Seme/Uke pairing. Which I adore. I also love the banter between the two, it flows very naturally. The way they both interact with each other and the way Zack notices little things that Tifa didn't or even misunderstood shows how deep a friendship they had.

In fact, I think every character that's in this story is true to their characters from the original game. I mean, to be honest, I'm shocked at how the author pulled off the characters so well.

Negativities: Unless you're a canon whore to Crisis Core...
Summary: When Zack comes back into Cloud's life, things couldn't be better. Too bad that's not how life works sometimes, especially when it involves Sephiroth....
Overall: 9/10 - If you're not a Zack/Cloud shipper, this story could very well convert you to be. If you're on the fence about this pairing like I was, this story will get you over that fence. In fact, I would just recommend this fic on the basis on this is how you write a slash pairing for a fandom that has canon hintings of hetero pairings. Very well done.

Yeah, another one from Key. :D

Title: Little Busters! (All Ages version)
Company: Visual Arts/Key
Translation done by: TLWiki
Genre: Romance/comedy/angst

Graphics: 10/10 - I thought Clannad had some nice visuals, but Little Busters! is even better. Seriously, the Main Character, Riki, is freaking ADORABLE, in the 'I want to glomp him!' type of way. The girls are all pretty as well and the guys are drawn very well too. I really wish there were more CGs with Riki in it, but what we got was nice.

Plot: 9.5/10 - Man, the plot starts out really simple, but then throws a curveball at you. The story starts out like this: Our main character, named Riki, lost his parents when he was very young. He became very depressed until one day, he meets Kyousuke, his sister Rin, Masto, and Kengo. They end up forming a very powerful bond and, together, they form the Little Busters!

The game takes place in their second year in High School. Kyousuke decides on his usual whim to form a baseball team. Why!? Well, why not?

The game basically revolves around you forming a baseball team and on the way, you form bonds with certain girls.

( Seems like a very simple plot? Yeah right... SPOILERS! )

Also, the translation is top notch, now with the word wrap patch. Kudos for the translation team and good luck to them translating the three routes for the EX version.

Music/sound: 10/10 - I loved all the music in the game. I didn't play with the VAing on, so I won't comment about the VAing, but the music and sound standard is up to par.

Gameplay: 9.5/10 - It's unusual for me to give a VN a score here, but I did, because there's actual game play here. In your quest to making your baseball team, you have to, well, practice! This mini-game, shockingly enough, is really fun too, and the reactions from the characters if you hit the ball in their direction, or if you have the misfortune to hit too many of Rin's cats on the field, is funny as well.

There's also a 'pokemon' like mini game where characters will fight each other in a duel with some... odd choices of weapons, which are funny. Even more amusing is the titles they give to everyone else. :D

The mini games fit very well with the story, and are actually fun. And if you're not into mini-games in your VNs, you have the option to turn them off completely.

Overall: 9.75/10 - If I had to pick a perfect VN, Little Busters! would be it. As of now, I'm writing this for the all Ages version. There is a EX version that features 3 different paths and hentai scenes, which I have no idea would add or take away from the novel. The one I read had a couple of panty/booby shots, but nothing beyond that. This VN is really long, it took me twice as long as to get through it as Clannad. Seriously, why aren't you reading this NOW!? :D

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