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cadybear420 · 1 month

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Cadybear's Reviews- The Phantom Agent

Welcome to the thirty-eighth official Cadybear's Reviews! Today I'll be talking about The Phantom Agent, which I have ranked on the "Gold Tier" at 8 stars out of a possible 10. My last and only playthrough of this was during October-December 2022 (and completed in October 2023).

I really enjoyed this one, partly because I’m a sucker for secret agent/spy/James Bond type stories, and partly because there were a lot of refreshing elements of this.

First, I love having a MC that is experienced at their profession rather than the usual newbie. I know PB probably makes the MCs newbies to make them more self-insertable, it is possible to have a self-insertable MC that is also experienced.

Like, we’re playing a secret agent book. We already expect, going in, that MC is gonna be a secret agent, one way or another. Sometimes a newbie MC can make the introduction to the environment and the characters feel more natural, but it can also work to make them more experienced/familiar if you leave the backstory up to interpretation. Anyways.

Second, this is probably the only GOC-LI story in the whole app where the wlm route is infinitely more interesting than the mlw version. I’ve seen some people suspect that this one was written with a mlw route in mind, rather than how most books tend to be written with wlm in mind. And I do think that’s possibly true, considering stuff like fem!body MC being complimented for their “broad shoulders” when they wear the premium doctor disguise, or m!Agent Grey’s swim trunks being described as “a swimsuit that hugs his hips” (extra pain on that last one btw, when are we gonna get male/masc!body swimsuits that actually hug their hips instead of the shopping bag ass swim trunks).

But whatever the case, it still made for a damn good and refreshing wlm playthrough. MC can be flirty, but in a very suave way, rather than sultry and enticing manner that PB often gives to flirtatious MC behaviors. Instead, it’s characters like Nurse Lou and Alexis Reid who are flirty in an enticing manner. We’ve got Nurse Lou, who gets reeeaaallll hot and bothered for MC after learning they’re the one who saved the hospital. We’ve got Alexis Reid, who acts very seductive and almost femme-fatale-ish to MC.

It’s such a great change in pace for MC’s dynamics with hookups and LIs. Even little moments with other GOC characters like MC checking out Agent Grey’s ass and hips in a vent, or Rowan hooking their leg around MC’s hip when they’re fighting, are just refreshing as all fuck.

I didn’t care much for Agent Grey though. I mean, they were alright as a character and they do fit the role of the obligatory prissy/sultry female character that partners with James Bond, but at least those ones had some character. Grey was much more stale and didn’t really have a lot of personality outside of basically being a tsundere, so that made it weird when they tried to push them as a big romantic love interest.

Rowan wasn’t bad either, but they weren’t exactly much better in terms of how much character they had and I found it harder to get a feel for their history with the MC. Similarly with Perdita, I never felt like they had as much importance as the writers wanted them to have. And they don’t really explain how Rowan’s death was faked or why they sided with the Architect.

Also, I loved the music. Especially the opening theme, which is very clearly inspired by “No Time To Die”. The neurons that were activated in my brain when I watched that movie and we got to the parts of that song that sounded just like the tune from TPA. Like, the first few instrumental bits in the middle of the song are almost the exact same as the last part of the Choices soundtrack. Definitely adds to the whole “James Bond” feel of the story. If anything confirms that this story is PB’s take on a James Bond film, this is it.

Overall, I think it’s a fun story. Not one of the best-made stories, it’s still pretty uni-directional, but it’s still a breath of fresh air in its respective Choices era, and probably enjoyable if you like to chill out to spy stories.

#choices stories you play #choices #choices game #choices stories we play fandom #choices stories we play #choices tpa #tpa choices #tpa #choices the phantom agent #the phantom agent #cadybear's reviews

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choices-binglebonkus · 1 year

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I haven't caught up with TPA since like late December, but I've been rereading your post about 10 Rights and Wrongs with TPA and I wanna add my thoughts on it. I'll mainly only comment on stuff that I have something to say about. These may be subject to change when I complete the book.

Soundtrack

Agreed with you, it's absolutely brilliant. It has a James Bond vibe that I like, and even ignoring that it's just really well-composed. I love the adventurous intro theme especially, as well as the steamy scene track– I will happily listen to those on repeat and never get tired.

Outfits

Agreed on that too, I didn't vibe with majority of the f!MC outfits besides the default ones but they still did do a good job making them look good for the most part.

I definitely hate the fem MC having a crop top as the cold outfit. I wouldn't mind it as much if they did the same with m!MC; it'd still be impractical, but like, either give both of them crop tops or neither of them crop tops. Enough with the "must be sexy because woman" outfits, goddammit.

Speaking of shitty outfit gendering, I also hate that m!MC's "sexy underwear" equivalent to fem MC's lingerie is a goddamn robe and boxers. The robe is admittedly nice and has a "luxurious evening" vibe that I like, but come the fuck on, stop playing it safe and basic with the m!MC and m!LI outfits all the damn time.

Vivian

I'm very mixed on her. On her own, I quite enjoy her as a character. She's fun, she's got some good lines, and she doesn't really come off as obnoxious.

But in the story, she just feels weirdly out-of-place in it? Perhaps because I've associated TPA as being the Choices' edition of a James Bond adventure, so it does feel unusual to have one of the main characters be a quirky nerd type. But hey, that does make TPA a little more unique.

But while I haven't caught up, I know others said that missions and tasks are way too easy with her being present, hence the lack of stakes.

Hookups

I didn't play any actual dirty-30 hookup scenes, but I did enjoy the buildup scenes to them and I'm sad we haven't gotten other hookup opportunities. Especially since I played as wlm, where the dynamics were very different from how PB usually writes their average wlm romance. I am forever here for male Lou swooning over f!MC being heroic and male Alexis's femme-fatale-esque persona. I found them way more interesting than the majority of MC and Agent Grey's dynamic. Speaking of which...

One thing that is nice about the romance is that MC is the one who is more experienced in GAIA while Agent Grey is the new member. Honestly it's very refreshing (especially as wlm) considering how often PB's romance involves MC being the newbie and LI being the boss/teacher/celebrity/etc.

But character wise? Agent Grey doesn't work as an LI. Or at least not a main/single LI. It's It feels like they're only the LI by virtue of being MC's work partner. I'd rather Agent Grey have just been... still our work partner, but also as a casual hookup option like Alexis and Lou rather than our romance interest.

Possibly controversial opinion, I think a book that is just "no romance, only casual hookups" would be something unique for PB to write (granted the hookups don't take over the entire story). PB needs a break from writing romance and it shows.

GOC/Pronouns

A lot of people said this one "actually feels like it was written with male MC in mind for once". I have a lot of issues with that statement due to the fact a lot of the fandom's takes on what counts as "female coding" can be very dubious.

Regardless, even if this was written with mlw in mind, I've still been finding it very enjoyable and made sense (dare I say better and more unique) in a wlm route.

Any actual gender coding errors I've seen or heard about are very minimal. Though I will say that it made me want to sob to see male Agent Grey's swimsuit described as a "swimsuit that hugs his hips" despite his swimsuit in question being boring swimtrunks and a basic-AF open beach shirt rather than, yknow, a swimsuit that actually hugs his hips.

And that's about all I've got for now.

Thanks for your insights anon!

#this was fun to read #I love when people dissect books and their aspects #asks #the phantom agent

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masked-alien-lesbian · 10 months

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Apart from Blades, I think all the books that are left to come out this year are gonna be single LI after seeing TBB LI

Yeah apart from Blades and Kindred, I bet you're right! That's the vibes I'm getting from all the books being released the last of this year. From what I've heard of Dirty Little Secrets and Unbridled, it sounds like they're more than likely single LI. TBB is definitely single LI. Alpha gives me single LI goc Wolf Bride vibes and all that's left is Ship of Dreams (SOD) for vip in November and we don't know much about SOD but it sounds like a Titanic like book and imo that sounds like a single LI book but of course we could be surprised but 🤷‍♀️.

#I have mixed feelings on single LI books #Most single LI books #I don't really care for the LI #I usually prefer a side character #And canon f!characters/LIs are just written better #But lately the f!versions of the goc LIs #Are better written than the older books #And in multiple LI books #The f!LIs are usually outnumbered and overshadowed #By m!LIs #WTD was a beautiful anomaly #I think I prefer the newer dual goc LIs books #Like ID TPS and Guinevere #More options than single LI books #choices #pixelberry #playchoices

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