This author is definitely a Pokemon fan and wanted to make his own more mature version. Does he do a good job? I think so.
His Pokemon universe is way more realistic and set in a much less Utopian world than the original Pokemon is based in. Noticeable examples: The pokemon and their trainers die in combat often and pokemon trainers are very much exposed to the combat like their pokemon and are often the focus of the battles themselves.
This story also heavily borrows from the wuxia tropes of power levels. The author establishes "soul power" and has the setup of basic ranks and levels of each. After X levels unlocks Y abilities, etc for both for the trainers and the pokemon. Unoriginal but feels okay. I like how trainers need to get stronger to acquire stronger pokemon while having your pokemon get stronger makes you stronger. Also like how the pokemon power levels are a little bit different (and obviously stronger) than the trainer's power levels.
Speaking of Wuxia tropes, this story suffers from the very frequent (what I like to call) "wuxia fluff" where the author always has to remind you how amazing the MC is. This really isn't saying much since if you're reading a Wuxia story, you will NOT be able to avoid this. Just how the format goes.. sadly.
The pacing of the story is pretty good. Although the author cheats a little with frequent time skips. These timeskips also break up any sense of character development since a lot of it happens off-screen.
The hook is great. Our MC is thrown into an island controlled by a messed up Team Rocket. Death is always near. Even when our MC starts to overcome his initial hurdles (not a spoiler since the MC can't die like in all other Wuxia), the author throws bits of additional plot points for us to chew on for future events. The author seems to be planning ahead which is great. Can't say the same for many other Wuxia novels.
What worries me a little is the 1800 chapter count. Having read up to around 150 chapters already, I can't imagine the story lasting more than 600-900 chapters before the author destroys the pacing, start using repetitive elements or makes our MC start traveling across worlds and fighting in the cosmos.
(-95)
