Oh, how I missed Hojo and his condescending tone. And all these fun facts and references (hah, nice catch with the angry birds.) As usual, there's plenty of caustic humor and anecdotes to spice up the reading. The gang-raping monster cats definitely made a fascinating entry-if not extremely grim (that poor one guy who killed himself.) I also laughed at the way that Grimguard was slain.

My favorites were the Foulander, Gagighandi and Garuda entries, although now I'm really intrigued about these Unknowns. Guess I'll have to wait 'til the end to learn more!

Very creative! I like it for its creativity if nothing else.

Pleeeeease tell me you are continuing this! You write Hojo so well -you had me laughing extremely hard at his little snide comments throughout- and you've actually made me take a second look at the monsters of FFVII. :) Needless to say I have a greater respect for them now and will be looking at them much differently when i play the game again. lol!

I am thoroughly impressed by the amount of effort and research that goes into one of these. This fanfiction will actually make a good research tool, so thasnks for writing.

You've improved since the FF9 bestiary. Hojo is a much more fun narrator than Ipsen, and his sheer malevolence makes for entertaining reading.

I check this fandom regularly, there's no need to PM me when you update. I might not review, but I'll probably have read it, because this fic has caught my interest.

Great stuff again, full of creative tidbits and fun facts (I didn't know that about moonlight and mithril!) Hmm, why does it not surprise me that Hojo's not the religous type? His dismissal of St. Christopher amused me.

Tons of lines stood out and made me laugh this time, such as, "something tells me that you'd be an easy target for poisoning if you didn't do that on your own already." I've never been so entertained by a piece of literature that constantly insults me.

"unless of course you were blind, in which case you have my sympathies," might be the only sympathy anyone ever gets from Doc Hojo, hah.

"Much like the Cripshay, Edgeheads detest water. Unlike their weaker cousins, however, they can short circuit if exposed to too much moisture..."

You might mention this before the paragraph above it, for clarity-although I'm sure Hojo would berate my intelligence as a reader for not being able to look up and make a simple connection. ;)

Speaking of, there are plenty of funny and interesting glimpses at Hojo's (rather sadistic) character, like his wish to murder with coffee (lol), the Dorky Face stone on his desk and the way he seemed to get more satisfaction from punishing his assistant than the subsequent make-up sex (another hilarious line).

I also like how even while we're learning so much about the world, there's still an aire of mystery in some entries, with elusive creatures that defy documentation-the Cuahl entry is a nice example. And the Death Dealer managed to sufficiently creep me out. If a guy who can methodically slay dark dragons and armored golems and call death claws a "moderate" challenge tells you to RUN from this thing, that's an impressively heinous foe.

Actually, now that I'm looking at all the monsters this way, FFVII's Gaia seems ten times more dangerous than FFIX's. o.O

You don't need to send me a PM to let me know your story's updated. I saw it on the front page. I go here everyday. P Maybe I should just add it to my alerts. And then I'll go kiss a Marlboro, because Marlboros are sexy. So's their breath. At least in combat. I love screwing with monsters, it's so fun.

I love how Hojo considers normal dragons to be boring. I can actually see where he's coming from. Compared to all the other beasties on Gaia, dragons are so... generic. The Dragon Rider entry made me lol at the end. "The make-up sex was pretty good, but meh, sex isn't everything." I never thought of Pandora's Box that way, though how come Hojo said no one's seen it more than once? Unless you were referencing the glitch where Dragon Zombies only cast Pandora's Box once per game. But still, I kind of wanna know why no one sees it more than once.

By the way, are you gonna do the Weapons? Probably not. They're considered myths before they awaken in-game, and they can't exactly be studied. But you've alluded to some mythology (the priest's entry made me laugh-it certainly has that melodrama you see in early fictional works), so maybe he could talk about some Weapon mythology.

I was surprised to see this referencing Ipsen's manuscript-although I shouldn't have been, since this isn't the first time you've included other worlds in these bestiaries (including our own, as I see by some of those scientists' names.) The clever way you tie these worlds and mythologies together is part of the fun-Diodon Pascalminimus, indeed.

Haha, Hojo's acerbic personality definitely shines through here. I don't think there's a single entry so far that doesn't insult either the reader, his assistant, the population at large or the company he works for! (Good thing the president doesn't look like much of a reading man.) He's also brutally candid in a way that's hilarious-I had to laugh at the bit about Lucrecia in the Armored Golem entry, and then at his mention of the unnamed Turk. Gee, I wonder... ;)

The species themselves are fascinating, as expected (and I want to try some beachplug meat now. Somebody spot me a couple hundred gil.)

The very last line cracked me up, and I also laughed at the unique graffiti on the Temple of the Ancients. Hah, shame on those two.

There's a surprising (if slight) humane side to our narrator, too, as we can see in the Bandersnatch entry (and the Black Bat one, even if it's a little creepy to find those things cute.)

The best part is I feel like I'm really learning something about this extraordinary world-and we're just beginning, eh? Lookin' forward to the next part.

This is very interesting. Most people, when they write fics, only mention monsters and magic in passing, and don't really elaborate on it. Imagine my delight when you incorporated the two as major parts of society. Monsters are roaming the countryside, and the ability to cast fireballs is available to everyone at an affordable price (since 70 gil gets you a meal at Wall Market, 600 probably isn't that expensive), and the world hasn't incorporated that into their lives at all except for "kill it?" I have to say that it's quite a daunting project you're taking on, and very well-written. Hojo's such a pompous asshole. XD

Holy crap, you're doing this for VII? I love you, man.

Already enjoy the tone of the work-Hojo's arrogant, erudite voice comes off very well. I'm totally looking forward to the rest of his dissertation, eccentric 'outbursts' and all.

Interesting...is this going to be another bestiary? I'll keep reading

I really have no idea what's involved in writing a PhD dissertation, but I liked this :) Hojo was a human being once and I like stories that explore that facet of his character. People often depict him as being 100% sadistic serial torturer, but in a sense he tortured with purpose. He was a scientist at the end of the day that was allowed to indulge in human experimentation. You can see traces of cruelty in here that would later form the Hojo we know of in the FF 7 compilation. Also, this was very in character for Hojo. I imagine he talked something like this. Anyway, I think this is a great idea :) I enjoyed it _