Apr 05, 2025
back to constructive criticism. I think you front-loaded a lot of narrative lore dumping into this chapter, and you could paint a much richer picture by weaving the important details into the action, especially when it came to the stadium.
For example, you could replace the four paragraphs beginning with "The Potheel Stadium" with something like:
Zane craned his neck to look up in awe at the large arched doorway as we entered the stadium, but I just yawned. Cracks and dirt along the walls betrayed the stadium's age. Long gone were the glory days when it hosted the Capmon World Cup. Even the advertisements for Potheel Pharmaceutical pinned to the walls were tattered and faded, showing just how little its title sponsor cared for the stadium these days.
As we lined up behind the dozen or so nobodies here to challenge the Badge Trainer, allowed my gaze to wander across the stands, remembering how packed they had been for one of my final matches on the road to the championship. Men and women of all ages packed into the seats, their excitement filling the stadium with an undeniable energy. Now, barely two hundred bored parents sat spread out among the stadium's forty thousand seats.