TeamPlayerSwampert

Aye I was hoping someone would make this thread. I'd like to offer my 2 cents, including Desolation as well. I'll divide into x categories: main story, characters, balance/challenge, mapping, music/themes, sidequests, and quality of life - ratings on a scale of 10, with 5 being "average." These are just my opinions btw *SPOILER WARNING* 1) Main Story (this will be the longest one): Reborn - From the start, Reborn is not your older brother's innocent Red/Blue/Yellow Pokemon game. Instead, we are given a dark, gritty dystopia that is being decimated with environmental terrorism at the hands of Team Meteor. The quest to fight team Meteor is compelling and dramatic, with an element of horror as well (Sirius using his Chandelure to burn Eclipse who tried to rebel, Lin beheading Ame, and being unkillable, Pulse Hypno, etc...). I've always found cults especially fascinating and eerie, so I enjoy the mythos/lore added by the Arceus cult and the secret behind the door underneath the grand stairway. The reputation system that greatly changes the plot and dialogue based on key events (Solaris' Garchomp, battling Taka at the WTC, etc...) Rejuvenation - This one also deals with a dark, gritty story including an Arceus cult, but in a more fantasy way - even the humans have powers. This is personal preference, but I think the magical powers in Rejuv are at times a bit ridiculous (especially anything involving Crescent, Spacea, and Tiempa) and act as a deus ex machina to force the plot rather than let the story develop organically. It feels like the people are more powerful than the Pokemon, which is NOT the reason I play Pokemon - Madame X even says this if you somehow defeat her Yveltal at Blacksteeple. Also, death does not matter at all which is obnoxious to me. On a positive note, I really enjoy the time travel aspects and the Where Love Lies backstory was excellent Desolation - imo the most interesting of the three. Deso dials up the reputation system to 100 and your choices truly matter. The horror elements of dreams/Darkrai, brainwashing, visiting graveyards, etc keep you at the edge of your seat. The character interactions add so much life to the story. There are a healthy amount of dramatic plot twists in just 4 episodes. Team Crescent and the Black Foxes are formidable antagonists, but the true intrigue lies in the Shiv-Nova conflict and backstory over the Onyx Stone. Verdict: Reborn: 8.5/10 Rejuv: 6/10 (was a 3.5/10 before V9 but keeps improving each episode) Desolation: 10/10 *none of the other sections will be nearly as long as the first one* 2) Characters Reborn - Taka, Anna, Charlotte, Adrienn, Julia, Hardy, Cain, and Cal are all very likeable characters that I care deeply to protect. Other characters like Titania, Bennet, and Heather grow on you after a sour start. The characters you are supposed to hate like Fern and Blake are entertaining as hell - they're fun to hate. Solaris, ZEL, and El have complex backstories that make them sympathetic or at least intriguing. The weak links in this cast are the cringy Terra and bland "big bad" Lin -but the latter could improve greatly next episode. Rejuvenation - Nancy/Mom, Tesla, Aelita, Venam, and Keta are characters that I truly enjoy interacting with and/or traveling along with. I truly feel for Zetta. Madame X is by far the best "big bad" of the three games so far. Evil Nim, Cassandra, Neved, the Gardevoir, and Isha do a good job of making you hate them in an exciting way. Despite these good characters, this cast is held back by Melia being a bland Mary Sue while hogging up screen time, along with how Crescent/Spacea/Tiempa are literal gods who are probably stronger than Arceus itself, making the protagonist's actions feel insignificant. Desolation - Traveling with Ava, Scarlett, Shiv, and Connor make you feel like your not alone - their personalities breathe a lot of life to this game. Nova, Amelia, Lillith, and Aurora are formidable threats that keep the story compelling. Rosetta, Garrett, Hardy, and Emily are fun too. Baron is kinda bland/generic anime villain tho. Verdict: Reborn: 9/10 Rejuvenation: 7/10 Desolation: 9.5/10 3) Balancing/Challenge Reborn - Very just and fair, though some of the field effects border on being ridiculous. Forces you to become a better trainer. Excellent pokemon are accessable if you put in the effort, even early on. Overall, this provides a challenge that the mainline games couldn't compete with. Least difficult of the three, but still very challenging. No boss is truly "unfair" and you don't need to counterteam but you must play strategically. Rejuvenation - Provides difficulty options, which is always a huge plus. Even more challenging than Reborn. Very exciting and pushes you to your limits as a trainer. Some of the custom moves (Crawli) are broken. Valarie is the most difficult gym leader out of all three games and might be a bit too hard for most unless you specifically counterteam. The other gym leaders and bosses are fair and just for the most part. Desolation - Tristan might be too difficult (fighting Mega Lopunny, one of the best megas, and eviolite Porygon2 in just the third gym before you have access to most of the OU or UU pokemon?) but the game gets much easier if you do the sidequests and collect the items, TMs, and credits. After Tristan, it's easier than Reborn but until then both Aderynn and Tristan give you hell. Can be a bit too generous with TM's after Tristan. Verdict: (10 means best balance, not most difficult) Reborn: 10/10 Rejuv: 9/10 Desolation: 8/10 *all of the next sections will be very short* 4) Mapping Verdict Reborn: 8.5/10 (starts as a generic city, but improves tremendously once you leave Reborn city. Aventurine region and Ametrine region are very well done) Rejuv: 10/10 (so pretty, every cave, dungeon, or forest is so breathtakingly beautiful and well made) Desolation: 7.5/10 (opposite of Reborn, starts beautiful but then turns into a generic city) 5) Music Verdict All three: 10/10, GlitchxCity is bae 6) Sidequest Verdict Reborn: 8/10 (7/10 before neo-Reborn City, 9.5/10 starting from neo-Reborn City - onwards) Rejuv: 9/10 (I love the help center requests, they are very fulfilling to complete. Other sidequests are fun too) Desolation: 10/10 (forget Pokemon, to me these are Skyrim-tier good. The Rangers guild is so much fun and add to the mythos of this game) 7) Quality of Life Reborn: 7.5/10 (timely-placed healing shard/machines, Tauros riding, early available Power items and EV reducing berries) Rejuv: 10/10 (Audino trainers, EV training rooms, fast travel by truck, can remove HM necessity with Golden items) Desolation: 8.5/10 (Audino Trainers, fast travel by teleporter, rematch bosses with the Manor, just the Manor in general)

Hi! @not Azery This mod is pretty dope! I wanted to ask how you were able to mod Reborn to this extent? (ie new typing and movesets for pokemon) I would like to make a similar mod for both Reborn and Rejuvenation but with a few more changes, such as: Absol Dark/Fairy Mismagius line Ghost/Fairy Masquerian Bug/Water with Levitate Florges line Fairy/Grass Electivire Electric/Fighting + Close Combat Rapidash Fire/Fairy + Pixilate Tsareena Grass/Fighting and a handful more changes

Luxray + Dark Type + 20 Base Speed (90 is fair, 100 might be a bit too good though) + Strong Jaw as a 2nd ability (STAB thunder fang/crunch and Ice Fang coverage)

I believe Mankey is located in the Obsidia slums, my dude

I feel the same way, especially about how Dair is one of Cloud's most reliable approaches in neutral. The nerfs to limit break from Smash 4 were necessary so no complaints here, still a shame that normal Cross-Slash deals less knockback. Nair still has decent enough range while Uair remains pretty excellent at juggling. It'll be interesting to see what Cloud experts discover regarding combos, especially out of grab . Fair spikes and off-stage Cross-Slash KO's are as satisfying as ever in terms of edge-guarding imo Also, I adore FFVII on so many levels as well! I'm normally against using characters with terrible recoveries but I made an exception for Cloud because of how powerful that game was to me. It would'e been dope if Barret or Tifa were assist trophies, as well as maybe giving Cloud a Sephiroth-themed skin with white/silver hair and more importantly a Zack-themed skin for obvious lore reasons. He's probably going to be my 3rd best character for sure in Smash Ultimate for sure

You good bro @Ainz Ooal Gown I used Serp in Rejuvenation and it's a powerhouse with Leaf Storm + HP Fire + Sub. The Reborn shiny for Serp clean as hell too!

(See username) For real tho, Swampert has excellent synergy with most grass-resist mons, especially fire, flying, and poison types since Swampert can switch in to the majority of ground, electric, and rock types then send 'em to the Shadow Realm with EQ and waterfall

Maybe you get Poipole by catching/having pokedex data on every non-legendary pokemon except Budew

You can upload them in a .zip file or through MEGA. I have shiny Reborn follower sprites for the entire Hydreigon and Infernape family lines btw If you upload them before the E18 release, maybe Ame might notice and ask for your permission to implement them into the Reborn file?

Will there be a Spork update with the new move animations from Reborn E18 once that's released?

^ this so much. I love Gen VII mons but Serperior is more threatening and fitting for Fern. Also for Aster and Eclipse, I feel like Electivire and Magmortar are more fitting than two Lycanroc's.

>69% nice On a more serious note, what are some expectations you guys might have for new mega stone availability in E18? I could see many becoming available with the addition of Rock Climb but perhaps it might be ideal balance-wise to withhold some of the top tier ones after the Elite 4, such as Metagrossite, Salamencite, Lucarionite, or Gengarite. Then it becomes a question of where to draw the line? Some of the OU ones like Zard-X and Lopunny could potentially be too strong, but we already have access to Pinsirite which can be just as good in the right hands. Personally, I'm really hoping for Gardevoirite and Altarianite

Agreed my dude, Culture II had some bangers but tbh after a while it felt repetitive. It's not bad but I liked the first Culture more at least

Seconding @Norm's suggestion. This could be implemented as password codes at the beginning of the game when Amanda asks you if you would like to add a password. Ex: 1111 = Ralts 1112 = Ralts + skip Intro 2222 = Axew 2223 = Axew + skip intro etc...