Commander

Sigh...here we go again. I get that you guys really want more Desolation but this isn't the way to really act. It'd be nice for Cazto give a status on it but he doesn't have to nor should you really anticipate something. Moat people doing big projects like this often go dark but it's entirely up to you whether or not you believe this game is still being worked on or cancelled. It is what it is and not much can be done about it.

@!!yxnT Which route did you take? Zekrom route doesn't have a Master fight while the Reshiram route does under those conditions. Other issue could be speeding through it or using an older version. Amaria was one of the most problematic leaders for me due to how the event is laid out. This is the only way I figured how to approach it as the alternative was rewriting both sides of the event pretty much from scratch.

Commander's Opinionated Gaming Articles What a Pile of Crit On the topic of RNG and Difficulty Want to know one of the most controversial topics that's not about politics? No, it's not abortion or whatever Twitter is doing. Seriously, I kind of am getting really, really ticked off about how far people are going to go with Twitter with those possibly false allegations or getting people hell for things they said years and years ago. Now you know why I don't like social media as if you have a face people will use that against you. People are weird and that's what this topic is about. I'm sure if you've played any RPG especially Pokemon then you are aware of how "luck" based it can be which leads to quite a bit of frustration. Why is this system used in so many RPGs if it leaves so much frustration? Surely it'd be a better game if it didn't exist in the first place. While my main focus will be on the crit factor, I do think it's now a good time to talk about difficulty. Let's start with the basics: what is a crit? A crit is the term often used for a critical hit. This is a random chance of a damaging move doing a multiplied amount from what it would normally do. This usually is double the damage but sometimes can be 1.5 or even 3 times. While it varies across the genre, we can use roughly 10% as a baseline to give an estimate of when this occurs. So 10% of the game will be experiencing this. That's not quite rare, but not uncommon either. Now how much of a factor is a crit in a game? Well it really depends as often times you'll just be getting some big damage but it really won't change the fight all that much or really shouldn't. Sometimes a lucky crit can change the outcome of your side, but these cases are rare and far inbetween. What happens if an enemy gets a crit though? Things can go absolutely downhill fast like in Pokemon it can phase through any multipliers and buffs and potentially one shot you or in Fire Emblem your unit is probably going to die. In other words, crits are unfavorable to the player more than favorable. So why is it still used so often? We have to take a step back and look at the mobile market or more specifically the gacha market. This market has grown so big due to one factor: gambling and the addiction people have. I'll admit it is thrilling to see the results of using the mobile game's currency to see what you get, despite it more often then not being something undesirable. It's confusing why people would be into something which brings more disappointment then enjoyment. It's frustration and it absolutely makes 0 sense why people do this to themselves especially when it probably isn't healthy. There's actually a bit of science behind it though. It has to do with some philosophy stuff called pleasure. The best way to describe it is that you have two foods: a candy bar and some dry chicken. The candy bar tastes better but will only fill your stomach for 10 minutes. The chicken is not quite as good, but will last for an hour. The mind often wants to go for what is best at the moment over what is more enjoyable over time. It's a chemical sensation that is quite hard to keep in check due to the craving of that candy bar. Those sparks often end up being more enjoyable than a full 40 hour game. It's crazy, I know, but it's important to understand. From a piece of paper, there is no benefit to critical hits, but it's the experience that really makes it such an important part of the game. These actually immerses you into the game and you don't even know it. The less common an unexpected outcome is, the greater the reaction is to it. It's like missing a 99% hit and getting hit by a 1% crit in Path of Radiance making you lose your Boyd. I wanted nothing more to yell and scream in frustration having to restart the entire chapter being so close to the end. These instances give us both a thrill and a sense of danger. Every action in Fire Emblem is always a risk as things can go very, very badly very, very quickly. Luck plays a part in every Fire Emblem playthrough, but...there is also skill. There's a lot of terms used for this, but the best way I can put it is that high skill is minimizing RNG factors that cannot be determined beforehand. Take an axe fighter for example. Say they have reliable, but a bit shaky accuracy. You could invest in raising their skill to hit more often than not. Missing less means you do more damage meaning you have more chances of being successful. Sometimes things can't be controlled which is why it's always good to have a stock of items in case one of your allies takes the fall unexpectedly. You will eventually prepare for and adapt to these systems. Now begs the question: what if a game doesn't have critical hits? It is impossible to make an RPG without RNG, but there are two games I want to mention that do not use the traditional critical hits. The first one you may be familiar with which are the first two Paper Mario games. The original Paper Mario had a near 0 luck involved only being on dodges for attacks by equipping badges. Everything was in a very controlled environment where as long as you approached the battle properly you were guaranteed to win. TTYD is a bit more interesting. It added many mechanics a player could take advantage of on top of random occurrences happening in the game. The results were the same as Paper Mario, but you had to keep an eye on many more things such as the audience. The other game series I want to talk about are the Kiseki games. I'm a huge fan of this series, but I'll leave my bias at the door. I'll be using Zero no Kiseki for this but I want to bring up a screen from in battle: There's a lot of things to be looking for here, but I'll help you out. The most important thing to look at is the turn order on the left. This is the most crucial thing to know about when playing the game. You also may see some icons to the right of the character pictures which are bonuses. An exclamation mark is a critical hit. I'm early in the game so I don't have a lot of healing powers so you have to be a bit careful since I can only heal six times before I need to start using items to heal MP. I really don't want to be hit by that critical hit but too bad, right? Wrong. The turn order can be manipulated. You see that wheel in the middle. Every action has a lag time called delay until you can take another action. Items and move give a much less delay over attacks and crafts (each action has a certain amount of delay). The shortest delay are artes which takes one turn to charge then one turn to use...like this: I...unfortunately don't have any artes on her other than this one so that's no good. It doesn't matter what action I take with Elie can't snatch that crit from the enemy...or can she. You may have noticed some red diamonds at the bottom of the screen. Those are indicators when a special craft called an S-craft can be use. It's usually a characters most powerful attack costing them all of their CP. That's awesome, but how does that help me? Well if I press the S key... You are able to select anyone's S-craft. The most important thing about an S-craft is that it's your ultimate weapon allowing a character to immediately take an action the very next action. So if I used someone's S-craft now, the enemy would still get the crit since everyone goes before it. However if I had a character take an action then use an S-craft, Randy (the ginger) would get the crit. The turn order is something you can manipulate and often using all the mechanics will allow you to make full use of it gaining bonuses or nabbing those crits. These are some weak enemies so I'd probably just heal a character and take the crit over wasting my most powerful strike since I'd have to build the CP counter up again. What both these game series have in common is that crits aren't random and you'll often know what is going to happen in battle. I personally prefer these types of RPGs as you are more often then not thinking about your actions ahead of time instead of hoping something might or might occur. Pokemon has started to get better about this by reducing the crit rate but those low numbers do have a price to pay. But I think the crit factor really doesn't leave that impact like being in much more control of how a battle turns out. These are more long term type systems which better reward you for learning over making risks like in Fire Emblem. Each game is different and you'll often find yourself more interested in some over others. Now let's step into difficulty and how you should approach it. Here's the answer: there's no one single definite answer. I think the best way to describe difficulty is the descent into the stages of Pooh's Home Run Derby which can be played here: https://lol.disney.com/games/winnie-the-pooh-home-run-derby (Yes, it's on the actual disney site). You start out against Eeyore who is easy enough that anyone should be able to beat him once you figure out how to actually hit the ball. Each stay gets harder and harder until you get to a point in which is succumb and admit defeat. The few that do defeat Christopher Robin are the ones who are wiling to take on anything. The game truly is the work of the most sadistic man who wished torture on humanity as I barely got past Tigger myself. I already accepted I cannot defeat Christopher Robin. Basically, I can take on a very hard challenge, but I'm not willing to go past my limits for glory. Probably could beat SMT if I worked towards it for example but I just am not that interested in the system (Social Links and the story are why I played through Persona 3). Anyways, difficulty is not a straight answer. If something is difficult that does not mean it's good. It's actually more of a sign it's a bad game like Pooh's Home Run Derby. What was designed as an enjoyable game for little kids has become a torture device and a meme across the internet. There are three factors that go into difficulty: progression, variety, and cinematography. If you say difficulty is simply hard or easy, then you kind of only understand the basic concept. I'll try to go into each of these the best way I can, but you kind of are going to have to define your own terms what is difficulty to you since it's on tastes on how important each of these things are to you. Let's start with the one that is important for all games more or less: progression. Progression is based on two things: scaling and learning curve. It's hard to explain but a harder RPG can often be easier than easy RPGs due to how they are designed. It's often why people felt intimidated to even pick up the Redux mod I created simply because the idea of harder means more struggle. It's also why I'll go into why I think Intense mode for Rejuv is easier than the normal mode. Scaling is important because not all fights should be treated equally in difficulty. When all fights are at the same caliber, difficulty becomes nonexistent since you are doing the same thing over and over again which you pick up the patterns and plow through it for the most part. My advice is to just pick 10-20 bosses (no more than a quarter). Those will be a much, much bigger threat then anything else in the game though only 8 should really halt the player at all. 4 is the best number, but 8 is safe to do. That's not really a command but a good suggestion to anyone building an RPG. As for learning curve, it's pretty much how you tell if an RPG is bad or not. A good RPG is one which will slowly guide your hand to learning the mechanics to be successful. Not gonna lie in saying Reborn and Rejuv kind of do a really bad job at this...especially Reborn. You're kind of expected to know how all of this works including field effects which learning all that information about a field really can be difficult as even I forget about them. Rejuv Intense is a bit more balanced on this as while these things do get shoved down your throat, you are given a lot more room for error allowing for a much bigger team to be raised to be able to swap them out. While a fan of these games may not understand why people dislike them, it's actually pretty understandable why people would dislike the games due to the lack of a good learning curve on them. You hit an unexpected wall and you might not be able to do much other than grind for an hour because the game really doesn't give you much guidance. Now let's go onto what my favorite topic about difficulty is: variety. Reborn kind of mastered this trick while Rejuv does a pretty good job with some misses here and there (way too much feels the same on intense). Variety means to simple shake things up to keep players on their toes. This is what I was talking about on the focus on a small amount of bosses. Putting the time, the emphasis and the investment into a smaller amount is more successful than focusing on everything. I'll admit some bosses in Redux I spent no more than 10 minutes editing like all the Dev corp fights and actually Solaris (might work on buffing him though). It's mostly just for a bit of a lull time not being as focused as you would for key bosses. The more important thing is to give a unique feel and touch to the big fights of the game. Gimmicks like field effects help, but they don't really create a solution. Reborn I feel has something really iconic in every fight such as Sigmund with his discharge boosts, Charlotte with her Heat Wave spam from the pits of hell themselves, Ciel with that surprise Mega at the end, though I do feel like the mono drops did lose some of that distinction and uniqueness (I really need to do a replay of it). Gonna stop here for a minute but I could probably spend hours on this topic alone. The last topic to talk about is cinematography or basically why are you fighting this boss? This both part of the other two and its separate category. The difference is the other two are used for actual difficulty, while this one does not effect it at all. When you hear the term hardest boss, a few names might pop into your head. I think the most infamous one being Sephiroth from the original Kingdom Hearts who by all means is far from the hardest fight in the series. It's due to some simple facts: design and motive. There's nothing wrong with being flashy which I think some people will say graphics aren't everything. Gotta admit when a boss does something cool like destroy the field it really sticks in your head even if it's a joke. Most of my favorite boss battles often have a cinematic moment whether it be their attacks or just their design in general. Sephiroth looks cool which is why I loved him as a kid even though I kind of hate him in FFVII. Anyways, the other part is the motive or the story behind the fight. If a game has a story, there is going to be a buildup towards certain characters. My favorite to talk about is Lloyd vs Kratos from Tales of Symphonia (the series has plenty of good 1v1 plot driven battles). I'll be putting it in a spoiler: If you set up a delivery, you really need to make sure to deliver even if it means going too far on a fight's difficulty. I feel like these fights get talked about more when a fight is set up then delivers. KH2 Final Mix Roxas battle anyone? Here's the funny thing: what I set my standards for a fun and difficult fight is completely different from the next person's. The same goes for luck and random unexpected outcomes. I often care more about the cinematics and buildup of big fights over the challenge and while I like things to be challenging I can keep my attention even when things get easy. Heck even with Kingdom Hearts III I've been having a real easy time after the Toy Story world since there's no giant robots that 2 shot me. At the end of the day you are climbing a mountain which you could climb a small hill for the same result yet that's not what people like to do. It's because it's difficult climb that people want to do it even if it's for the same view. What kind of mountain they want to climb changes from person to person but you probably could pick up some patterns what people like to see.

Yes

@chimeratech That's a hard question to answer but I can assure you that leaders have 3 fights. 1 that keeps their original style and the other two usually shake up how the battle is played. Most of the non leader bosses do tend to follow the pattern you talk about but everyone has been tweaked one way or another. Your second question is why I don't usually give out the PBS. Since the focus is on battles I often make tinkers to the PBS file if you use it then your game would be out of date or missing content. If you have a debug version of regular reborn I'd say just start a redux file, transfer the game over to Reborn then add the Pokemon in before transferring it back over.

@salgrem Believe it or not Singles Shade has a number of status moves like T-wave on Rotom, Will-O on Dusclops (could put it on Gengar but wouldn't matter as it wouldn't use it) and King's Shield on Aegislash. Early game fields are kind of odd ducks as they give benefits to leaders but unlike Rejuv, they often don't give defensive buffs to them until around Charlotte. There's very little I could do to really power shade up to handle dark types without making it ridiculously hard beating him without one. It's often why he has such a split opinion on him being a joke to him being quite a challenge.

It was meant to be a joke but I'm bad at making jokes I know, but this is just like asking Atlus fans if SMT or Persona is harder. People are instantly going to answer SMT since Persona was softened up to cater a bit more toward more casual fans. This is a bit of a more unfair comparison because one is meant to be much, much harder than Reborn's standard so there's only one obvious answer. It's a shame really because there's quite a number of interesting difference between the two if you compare them in a more fair way such as Reborn vs Rejuv Normal mode or Redux vs Intense. For those of you who don't know, Rejuv has quite a big gap in difficulty over both of those comparisons. Eh. I'm probably just weird and am more interested in harder to answer questions.

I don't understand the question. Are you saying that a mode meant to be harder than standard Reborn should be easier than it?

@Zarc He'll show up there once you progress the story. It does take a while to fly from one region to another after all. I have a life too, y'know

.............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. I am really bad at this. Don't fucking say anything. At all. Just. Don't. Chapter 54: Every time I say I'm done, let's assume it's simply a 2 week to 3 month hiatus I already know people are gonna be pissed as this is starting to become a regular thing. It's weird as when I cancel something I end up getting back to it but when something is on hiatus it never gets continued. So I guess pray I never go on a hiatus and cancel instead. But no, I do tend to mean what I say when I'm done I just am easily swayed to continue. I never want to look at that Geara and Zetta fight ever again though as I really, really dislike it and it's my least favorite fight in the game. I didn't mind the Intimidate spam and abandoned city fights as much since they were optional and you can always come back and prepare for them pretty easily. If you can't beat Geara and Zetta, you might be trapped and you have to walk down a large ass mountain. I'm really not looking forward to getting to that part. Okay, now let's back up for a minute and talk about what is going to change. I've played through the whole game so obviously I'm going to talk about future segments early which those will be placed in a spoiler just in case anyone hasn't reached those points yet. I really needed that light at the end of the tunnel. Anyways, I'm also not going to do videos again. It's not hard but it's a war to get those to work and I don't feel like dealing with Audio vs Outtakes anymore. Yeah, they'll be more disappointing but it is what it is. I'll be putting the other videos up through Angie on Intense public because I may as well since they are on Youtube. Just don't expect any more of those. The intense run is done and caught up to V11, however, I still have the normal mode run and a different route I can take. The script alterations I put in have been changed back to normal since I no longer am using a custom ruleset (though I'll probably restrict myself on items). Other than that, kind of expect that same old content as usual but I'm going to try and power through all the old content in one or two chapters because we really don't need to dwell too long onto it. (So this chapter doesn't have a cool background unfortunately) (Also look at my nice dead team) Nothing much to note...until Rorim B. (Hello there........other world Rorim. I'm Commander. In another dimension, I'm your son) (Gee...I wonder why) Thtat totally was unintentional as I had no idea the dialogue would line up like that. Oh parallel worlds how wack you be. (._. Ah great an important image is broken) So there's an image where mysterious lights pop up (Seeing the first line gave me Snakewood flashbacks) So something you may actually be surprised is that I actually like games that don't take themselves seriously kind of like this. It's when you stop worrying about logic and just straight up have fun. I could easily see people say all the corny stuff is stupid but it tends to make me laugh as this is the type of thing I'd totally would do if I had the resources and skills available. Some people this kind of stuff could be a big turnoff and I'd understand but sometimes you have to kick back and have a laugh. I'll probably do a Kingdom Heart 3 review and talk about why it works when I finish that game. Probably more collected and clear over that WLL. Not my proudest review but I did want to try and really avoid talking about big things. Anyways Rorim B fight wasn't anything big. (I have a level 95 Ninetales and Delcatty in the box if you think that's strong) (So...I don't fight Ren or Aelita...that's interesting) I think Rorim B should be buffed a little bit to make up for the lack of a second mini boss. It does make sense later though I think I would have preferred fighting Aelita now. (Also, meet Anelace...the one mystery egg mon I didn't want) (Yeah...I'm just gonna let you read this as I don't want to relive it) (You have no idea how many attempts that took) So I learned these were made way harder on intense by adding an additional Pokemon on top of evolving some mons into their Gen IV variant. I think this took me 30 attempts until the rolls finally went my way. One thing I really hate about mons and the whole difficult Pokemon fan-games is that it feels more like your rewarded on using better stuff and good luck and rarely ever is a skill level. RPGs really aren't hard in general and when things get difficult you can usually tell if it's your levels that are the main issue or more or less the lack of knowledge on the system. Because you aren't making full use of the mechanics, the game can feel a bit unfair or just brutal which can just be tiring. WLL really nailed the just right difficulty for most people imo but that's due to its restrictions. There's a part of difficulty I never talked about but it's also something to take into consideration: human error. 0 human error means you have to do something in an exact sequence and cannot be done in any other way. Low human error means limited options. The more human error is allowed, the more mistakes someone can make, but on the flip side it leaves more room to experiment. That's how I feel where gym leaders in this game really shine on Intense. You've gotten plenty of time to build a team and it's a good time to see how your results turn out. I'm not saying this is how to design battles, but it's to explain why RPGs often end up really easy the second time you go around. (Oh, believe me, that's who's coming up next) (Well this is the fight that broke me XD) I kind of got tired of soft resetting due to bad RNG which a lot of this plays out to be more or less. Damn increased crit rate. (Somebody got a makeover) (This man really needs a haircut. At least he looks more like the guy in the picture now) (I maid a mistake continuing this. Get it, oh that would have been better for the Angie segment) (Why did I even take pictures of this segment? Probably to space it out better) (Do you know how long it took me to figure out how to get back here?) Also I think Jan figured out how to prevent escaping with Marianette. So good on him fixing glitches. (Still creepy having a 10 year old watch me sleep) (This is actually going to be interesting to talk about) (You can blame a certain someone for that) (He's not talking about Marianette) So this is actually a bit of foreshadowing of an important element that's going to be coming into play soon. The problem with that though is that it makes the intro all the more confusing to understand. Did it happen or did it not happen? (This is going to have quite a bit to talk about since WLL does cause some headaches to talk about) (You said it) (Oh look I'm a pretty blonde girl) See? I can remember to do stuff when I go around a second time (And that's the same despite wherever you end it seems) (And you'll see the video but I didn't have much trouble against her. Praise Solrock for being so good in the early game) (Lita getting the kill was awesome) Let's go back and talk about the whole of chapter 3. (Same old Venam...still don't like her) (Oh boy this thing is still here) You know that odd thing that's in the room that nobody feels comfortable talking about. That's the noose right there. I know people are free to do whatever they want and this would be a completely different story if the noose was on the other side of the statue. It's the hanging of a small kid that really is a subject that shouldn't be handled so carelessly. I really think focusing on the scene having Mosley about the get the living shit beat out of her is more fitting as she is kind of asking for it. (It's Brock, president of Kanto) Didn't realize this detail but...wait doesn't this break the laws of canon...I have a headache now. Okay, I'm going to break this down for a minute and tell you Looker is in this game. Looker is also in BW which BW2 takes place a year afterwards which has Brock who doesn't look too much older than he did in Gen 1. If Brock is really old then Looker should practically be dead. It gets better. This game takes place sometime after Reborn which one of those leaders is the sister of Bugsy. You might be able to worm your way out of the Looker issue, but good luck with that one. Let me just do some numbers real quick: Let's assume Bugsy is 14 in Gen 2 and Brock is uhhh 15 in Gen 1 making him 18 in Gen 2. Let's really stretch it and say Shelly was born when Bugsy was 20 making Brock 24. Shelly would be 13 when Reborn happened making Brock 37. Assuming Rejuv takes place like 5 years after Reborn, that'd make Brock 42. Let's assume Looker was 20 in Gen 1 so he'd be 47 in Rejuv. In other words, being canon with stuff can be a real pain. I didn't even realize this issue until working on this chapter. Also how did this...oh right I went back to heal and did that. Right. Or was it 'cause I wiped. (How did I...) (Oh yeah. I had a lot of mons weak to grass on me. That was hell) (Oh joy I love facing rivals before being able to reach the town's PC) (I had to run back to Gearen to switch Pokemon. Oh how I love cockblocks like this so much) Being serious this fight isn't that bad...it just made things function in a very tedious way. (I've always wondered how they managed to grow trees inside here) (It's Chuck. Hi Chuck. I've missed you.) (I don't wanna be Mercy) Also a big event happened: (Karin evolved) Kind of sad I started using Karin less and less because She's worthless against Grass, Psychic I needed a good team to handle the 12v12. Souta I used the Sand Squad to win, and she's not useful at all against Rock given the field. Ground is probably going to on the desert so I pray she gets use against the Dark gym leader. (I guess there would be a purpose for having a gallows there...on the opposite side) (I wouldn't say took care of but they're busy right now) (Zit waz zin ze writting. Did zhi mention zat ze Geara ez ze enemy to distances zof large quantities?) (Also zwat am Zhi doing here with ze baby again. Zi can't stand redoing zit like zis) (Same old Geara the worst Team Xen exec. Oh...That reminds me I have to go back) >(Zis Commander person ez zho dumb ze forgot zat zi have to speak like zis for every picture. Zow dumb can a baby like zim get?) (Oh look it's Ren's diary. I should burn it) (This is just so that I can say I slept in Ren's sister's bed later to him) I hope that is Reina's bed or this just got awkward. (..............................................................Let us never speak of this ever again) So here's a cool little scene you probably didn't know about: (Really cool detail that didn't need to be put in) (And the burn of the chapter goes to Mosley. I'll give you a cookie later) (Mosley likes to hit on people. Trust me, this joke isn't as bad as the first thing that came to my head) (This isn't the only time you're escaped the clutches of helping me in battle) (I don't remember this) (Well Geara is harder than he was at least.) (And we're going back to this whole thing again) (Was that Mimikyu there the first time?) (I...don't remember) And this is what happens if you try to let him go first: (Well somebody is a sore loser) (You should because I got destroyed like so many times) (I did get destroyed) Yeah kind of weird not having these videos but I'll probably upload them all at some point or another, but I'll talk about my thoughts in them for their descriptions instead of digging around and editing this chapter with all of them. (Well time to get out of here...) (WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH JAN!) I don't know whose decision it was to have gym leaders give TMs again, but thank you. You get so many good TMs at really convenient times instead of super late like in Reborn. Reborn has this issue of giving okay things at such a late time that there's really no point in using them. (I guess I can talk about the strategy I used) So my strat was to Sand Attack Rotom then switch into Roselia to set up two sets of Toxic spikes and possibly chip damage Rotom. I then had Kilika come in and Rock Slide everything. Though I would switch to Liepard to take the Z-move damage and possibly break the disguise. Lycanroc would rock slide hax until Dusclops which I sent Luxray in and when it went to rest I needed luck and charge to be able to finish it off. I really had nothing to handle Dusclops. Once it was down I got a really lucky run where Karin hit sing for a 3 rounder letter her finish Misdreavus off. That one was really a bit too reliant on RNG for me personally but level 35 doesn't really leave you with too many good options. It's kind of why Post Geara and Zetta is significantly easier than the early game. The game really does just get easier over time which is something that just happens no matter how much you fight it. (............And I finally can leave this town and never come back) And... (We may as well just go through chapter 5 at this rate) (So I got sent down here. Fun. Now I know how this segment got changed) (Still finding these things randomly. I really hope we can get Zydoge because it's really not that OP and a pretty cool mon. It's also not hard to disable power construct either. Please, Jan. Will you consider it?) (Well you need at least two people and no more than 4. They also have to add up to 22) That'll probably go right over everyone's heads unless you played the game. I loved that game. (And a boss battle) So I actually missed some content before so here's the number one door: (Believe it or not, this story does have significance later) (Finally I can) (Rise above and reclaim my title as the Chickorita king) (Well this got changed it seems) (...........) (Oh, I forgot about this thing) (Wait hold on a second. What were those books about? Oh, now I remember) (When you meet one Blakeory you've met them all) (I find this line amusing for some reason) (Missing image talks about it being covered in golden leaves and mud) (Well this is a nice elephant in the room) So this uhh...possibly Erin. I dunno how these things work. She has blue hair now and she has white hair later. Heck if I know why. She's probably a super saiyan. (Oh look they have new models) (Yeah...we really didn't stand a chance) I really wish we fought one now just to show how strong they are and how you pretty much are supposed to lose. I know the whole nuzlocke thing but that is an opportunity I feel was wasted not having a battle meant to be lost but has no consequences whatsoever. (...This is a weird friendship) I also forgot to do this in V9 (If you really want to know what it was...) (And to think we spend 3 months in the bloody place) (I don't remember it being that high...Oh well I won't say no to more power) (Still managed to win) Yeah I don't like that you need quick guard to win this fight. It's kind of implied what that Yveltal is doing and its role throughout the story but we'll save that for another day. (Bro, you're my bro, but I miss having my own room) (Okay, now I'm sure Jan is reading this run because that summed up my feelings around this time) (Thank you...so much for changing this) (Heh. I don't think Neved has it in him to stoop that low) (...oh god it's coming back. There's a comment I want to make but that won't happen until like V11 areas. I'll give you a hint: Interceptor) (Okay, I will take this answer as acceptable) (And we know about this) (And we'll be using this later...for a certain Litten) (I'm on top of the world!) (Yeah, we'll be going there very soon) (He's a bit in a bind) (._. Snoop Dog has got to let off of that stuff) (That's uhhh...new.) (Well that was anticlimatic) Seriously I don't remember what happened but it wasn't that difficult of a fight. Not complaining but just saying. (Think about it this way, why the hell would we crash land in an open area where everyone can see if we're terrorist?) (Oh look someone using their status of power to actually do something useful) Thank god this finally got used somewhere in a game. Seriously, why isn't that used more than it has been given the importance of gym leaders in a region. (...I guess this dialogue is better than before. They don't seem to irritate me as much) (Guess that takes care of that) At least the dialogue makes a heck of a lot more sense now. Still don't have a lot of confidence in Crawli given these guys are his best of the best. (They look like they're having fun) (.....Terajuma in a nutshell) (Well it's nice to know where we can get a whole bunch of heart scales) (I'm gonna need one of these for later) (I had a joke for this, but I forgot it. Probably me berating myself. Hmm...something, something...damn you, Melia) (I love how there's no option of swimming across XD) (Way to make my life more miserable again, Braixen) (Well I don't think that would've solved the...) (This is different) I kind of used Abomasnow to field cheese her because I was not dealing with Swift Swimmers. Not much else to say and I don't know how I usually manage to keep everything a close match. (RIP Map art. You will not be missed) (Gee, I couldn't have figured that out by looking directly in front of me, could I?) (I swear to god Jan made them this dumb on purpose. No wonder why Angie took over the island so easily) (It's astonishing how much trouble they have killing a single Carnivine) (Well that happened) (Jan really likes his Harry Potter references) (This scene is so over the top it's priceless) And yes, Nim did rip her hair out. This game really is weird at points, but hey it keeps things interesting and entertaining with the reactions. This game is weird and that's the thing I kind of like about it. I mean that reaction is way more entertaining than the everyone griping dialogue. You really need those touches for the type of style Jan is trying to use. (...............Something tells me I should avoiding walking on this at night. You'd probably get wet and I'm not talking about falling into the water) (Oh...I guess that's fine. Better than what I thought it meant) (If only you could capture it. That'd solve the problem) (Hapi really wants his cuddle time) I like that little detail being added. I really like that instead of focusing on a changing the game to shape a better tone for a more serious game, it focused on really going all out on the fun and amusing moments. It's going to be a clash of interests which could be a huge turnoff for some, but I think it works. It's a cute little Hapi moment (see what I did there) which you really don't see Pokemon all that involved in most Fan-game plots other than big legend being powerful to help big bad. Do me a favor and go back and read the old screenshots because that's what I'm about to do. ...And while not too much has changed, I really like the changes that were done...also it's kind of hard to look at the older maps because I go "My god why did I settle looking at that" while looking at the newer maps. It's weird, man. It's like playing FFX then looking at FFIX. (Wait...who's the he? They can't mean Damey, right?) I know his full name but the nickname is growing on me. I mean some nicknames like Aelita being 'lita would make sense, but I like writing the name Aelita. Damey is also just fun to say...and would probably embarrass him. (Definitely know who the she is) (Well that escalated quickly) (Zu cannot run from Ze Geara. Ze Geara remember what ze babies did and ze babies are about to get ze time out) (Ze world...zit's as hideous as zi remember. Zit matches ze way zu look, Commander aka ze crying baby. Oh. I zee zat ze other baby is here. Ze one that passes out all ze time. Her name ez zof no importance) (Wait how does she know Geara...oh yeah I think he said it before choking her) (Zoh, but zi was! It zwas horrible being stuck with zese two zauzeges. Ze horrors zi ezperienzed) (Ze gods zave zined down on ze Geara zending zus zis savior virgin. Ze Geara fucked with her...mind to get zus out. What? Ze Geara ez a gentleman and would never do zuch unholy acts to za baby) (But ze mind fucking had zese strange rezultz. Zi zall call it Nimcumpoop. Zwut? Ze glares zar not welcoming me well) (Ze zulpture doez need zum work. Ze legz zar too zick. Zho zum people like zit like zat. ) (Zut up Zetta. Zis ez my monologue time. Zu'll get yourz later. Zahem! Now zit ez time for ze babies to die!) (Now zat zi zam a free man, Zi feel a generous of many. If ze blonde comes with zus freely, Zhi zall only rip ze gutz of zwon baby, force ze fox to cook zem, and zove zem down zanother babiez throat) (Zookie dokiez! Zen zwei zall do zis ze hard way. Even zho zwei zar facing two leaderz, za leader in training, za leader in ze future, and zat zwon guy who keeps kicking zar assez. Yeah, zis zall be an eazy victory for Ze Geara) (Zour zilence. Zhi underzand. Zu zar in awe on how great Ze Geara ez) (Zis ez why zi cannot talk to babiez. All zey do ez zout and fight. Zit is pathetic to watch. No matter. Zi zall end you all in zis battle) (...And let us never speak of this) There's an old saying "You can't fool anyone with the same trick twice" which should be saying if it isn't. The last Xen Exec we faced was Madelis and we face Zetta later. I think the fight went a little overboard with the difficulty. Geara's Pokemon imo are the hardest hitting Pokemon in the game. That sound crazy, right? First off, you probably don't have a full team at the cap leaving a bit of level difference which in the 40s is a huge deal. Second, he's the first boss to make use of sticky web which whatever chance you have at outspeeding him will go down the drain with that. That lets his slower Pokemon get more hits in which includes A Marowak with thick club and I believe a LO Clefable. There's also a Groundium-Z Krookodile and a Telluric Seed Persian (while the weakest still hits decently hard including a very dangerous slash and burn). This is topped with a LO Gengar with Sludge Wave and Energy Ball. Probably can see why most of the bosses afterwards up until the big fight kind of felt like a joke (besides Angie which is a different story) because they couldn't even reach near the level of damage Geara could. If you don't have priority for that Gengar, you may as well give up now and try to find a strategy to win with the wild mons on the island because you can't leave it yet. You can't even change the difficulty if you needed to. Then again, that's such an inconvenient system. Luck should really start a phone service or something at this point. I used a Telluric seed to get by which I don't think is available at this point. Also, it's a synchronize Xatu so no Magic Bounce tactics either before you say that. Val, Geara, and Ren should definitely be on the "lay off on the difficulty" category (mostly Geara) because we are in a situation where we are locked out of most of our utilities to prep. We don't have the move relearner (or the daycare) nor do we have access to many wild Pokemon. I'm going call this a "box" problem. Let's assume you have a box in which you don't know what's inside. There's a 50% chance that there's cheese in there. All you have to do to pass the test is eat the cheese then. Let's say you open the box and there's a radioactive rat in which if it bites you, it'll kill you, but you don't know this other than seeing an aggressive rat. The smart thing to do is get up to somewhere you can avoid it until you can think of something to deal with it. Your solutions are limited to whatever is within reach. If however you knew what was in the box, you could easily prepare for it and have an easy time killing the darn thing. The problem with "Box" problems isn't difficulty but the situation you can be stuck into. If handled poorly, you could lose quite a number of players who would normally have finished the game. That's kind of the reason I stopped playing Rejuv in the first place. How do you solve "box" problems? It's actually really simple which is an old technique that greatly reduces the chance of this happening. The first method is to have a gate. This is often a boss who is much more difficult than bosses or fights during the "box" segment. If you can't get past the gate, you can't get stuck in the "box." The best example of a gate off the top of my head (sorry for using this but it's something easy to refer to) is Redux's Dev corp entrance fights. Your first put into a double battle partner fight with two opponents who are quite strong and both slightly stronger than any of the box fights. You then fight a 6 v 10 against two orderlies who aren't as tough but have a lot of mons to take down. The fights during the Dev Corp segment may feel lacking but they actually are still stronger than Reborn's. They just feel easy because you are so prepared they can't really prevent progression. You may get a slight distaste if things go from hard to easy but a distaste doesn't usually stop people from continuing on. The second method is actually cooler to do...literally. It's simply to do something unorthodox with it. I think the best example of why it works is Symphonia's Lloyd vs Kratos. It's a 1v1 that was hyped throughout the story and while it's one of the easiest fights in the game everything around it just leaves for such an impacting and memorable moment making it one of my absolute favorite boss battles of all time. Instead of focusing on the fight being hard or meeting the quota, take a different approach. Most of my favorite fights are because of the story behind it and not the fight itself (which is why the Deagan fight is way, way above anything in Rejuv as my favorite fight. 2nd place isn't even close). Favorite Reborn fight probably would have to be the second Solaris fight. I also really liked the Texen fight a lot. (Ze cheating baby beat me. Zoh how would zhi have ever guessed zuch a predictable outcome) At this point I can't tell if people are excited or dread when Geara comes up as I have to torture myself to come up with all this cringy stuff. I still don't know how I haven't run out of materials for it. (Zhi doubt zis battle ez za win, but how ez blondie lasting?) (Adam, the strongest member is facing Carnivine...shouldn't that be Braixen there?) (To be made za fool by ze inferior member. Zhi must swallowed ze pride zof the pridest man and as for ze help of ze inferior exec. Help me, inferior exec!) (If zu don't, zhi will personally rip off zat hand and open ze portal myself) (Sigh...this isn't going to be fun) (Oh right I still have to fight this) So here's a funny story: I assumed there wasn't a PC in the rift like with Galvantula so I prepped a team meant to handle both then I realized I didn't have a bug type...other than Silvally so here's Silvally actually managing to be useful...which is very short lived. I want to like it but it's just not doing it for me. (Zho no. Ze humiliation zwei feel for zuch a predictable outcome of zis battle. Zwhat will zwei ever do?) (Zoh wait, zwei still have ze upper of hands. Zis ez unfair zerefore zi zall do something to help zu out, blonde zowflake) I want you guys to just imagine Geara and Eli switching roles. Admit it, it'd be amazing. (Ze wetnezz in zi pantz tellz me zwei zar on Terazum Island, no?) (Zi have za way to make zis work. Lizent to ze wordz of ze almighty Geara.) (Do zu zee zis zulpzure. Zit ez ugly. Zho ugly zit zould be changed back. Zis ez not art. Zis ez just shit) (But zince zis ez ze only way to succezz, Zhi zall handle looking at zuch a monstrozity for za while longer. At least until ze blonde zowflake ez tight in zour hands) (Zwei must be going. Bye-bye, babiez. And remember to bring spare clothez into ze void when zu visit zhere) (Oh ze zowflake zincs ze can get what ze wantz. Did zu know zat Geara wanted za toy robot when ze was a kid. Did zi get zat robot? NO! Life doez not give zhu what zhu want. Zo zhu best zut up and get over zit) (Zho ho ho! Zu zinc zi'd be dumb like ze idiotz with me zand not have ze plan of escape ready. NO! Ze Geara always haz a plan. Zat ez why zhi didn't uze ze ultimate weapon at my dizpozal.) (Now, Dragon Princess Chicken Warrior! Take zus zu zaftey) (Geara using those Giratina Sue powe...oh fudge I forgot to do Frenchera again. What is wrong with me today?) (At least somebody waited for me) (I...almost lost 3 times...) (...We're going to because we're almost hitting pic 999) (Eh, I'd say it was a mid tier battle. If you want a huge battle, play any of the Part 4 Radiant Dawn maps. Reinforcements. Reinforcements everywhere) (And we're ending on that note) I'll be making all the leaders up until Angie public once I reach that point. I'm not going to be doing videos after that though unfortunately because I don't want to keep worrying about the constant audio issues like I have been especially worrying about retries which adds to the chances the audio could go into corrupt mode. I seriously tried everything and fixed all audio issues but RMXP. As for chapters themselves there just wasn't much to talk about since I already went through this but there were a bunch of minor changes worth writing down and I did keep some pics as trackers to where I was at. But hey, a chapter is a chapter.

I'm going to be blunt and say what benefit do you gain about worrying about it? We've had 6 years worth of time to plan for a worst case scenario which isn't just Reborn getting shut down but the whole plethora of fan-games getting shut down. We have things on the table that we can do but there is no final solution if that happens. It'd actually be in Ame's benefit to get Reborn to have a C&D as more people would know about her and her other projects. So instead of treating it like a terrible thing, think about the positives. Now what I do recommend before the final release gets posted is download anything you are even remotely interested in as it may not be there for long. If Reborn gets C&D, then I'll be "deleting" the Redux (and original HC one) thread which simply is just the hide option. A measly mod is not worth getting the site shut down or someone getting into huge trouble. We'll figure out where to go from there when we get there though. Panicking over decisions and factors you cannot control doesn't help any one of us in any way. Just know that the world isn't over if it does happen.

Well it's about that time I talked about Rejuvenation again. Rejuvenation to me is kind of like Kingdom Hearts. The story at points makes me want to chuck the game at a wall and never look at it again, but it somehow manages to come crawling back and I somehow am still playing both. I really have a rollercoaster with this game but it's gotten better. It's like eating a fantastic meal while standing in a pool of black tar. It's an experience you can find quite a bit of enjoyment out of but at the end of the day you are in a pool of black tar which certainly isn't somewhere you'd want to be right now. That really sums up my thoughts of When Love Lies (or WLL for short). This is normally the part where I put a score and send you on your way, but we have an interesting situation here. Should this be considered part of the official game or a standalone game? You may hear the term DLC for this game, but perhaps it could be considered a spin-off instead. From a player standpoint, this idea would mean little, but from a critical standpoint it can make a huge difference. In fact, I think I'd have different scores for each basis. There's a lot of pulling and pushing due to this in which I'd give it a no score. I do not think a number would really give a reasonable comprehension of my thoughts on this game. But so that people will actually read this review, the two scores would be 8.5/10 and 5/10 which does not mean the actual score would be like 7.25/10. These numbers will only make sense if you read what I say. Let's just start with the basic stuff that's similar to Rejuvenation. The maps are kind of what you'd expect but they'll likely feel like a massive downgrade compared to V11. The graphics are good, but you might be slightly disappointed they aren't always at the level of V11 due to this being made in V10. The trainer sprites also share this fate not having Zumi's new style which likely is pretty glaring. It's like playing Kingdom Hearts 3 and looking at Kingdom Hearts 2. The graphics aren't bad, but they may give off a dated look. Personally it didn't really bother me all that much but I do have to bring it up because graphics are an important part of any game. Also I'm like the one crazy person who think Kingdom Hearts 2 looks way better than Kingdom Hearts 3. The simpler style I felt was more attractive to the eye. The music is what you'd kind of expect given this is a Reborn-esque (I hope I spelled that right) game. If you know of Reborn or Rejuv, you'd know what to expect here and honestly this isn't why you'd even try or download this fan-game. WLL is kind of an odd duck since it's the type of fan-game you don't really see. When people talk about fan-games, I think the minds of people have been warped into believing that they have to be these grand adventures where you explore lots of badges to get strong and become the champion. This is actually entirely false because a game's length does not determine how good it is. A game's difficulty doesn't determine how good it is. It all grinds down to the experience. That's why I feel it's a dangerous and destructive mindset to limit what a Pokemon game can be. WLL pretty much took this image of Pokemon and simply walked the opposite way. It's a short game where the narrative comes first and the reason you'd even play it. I actually wish more projects went with an approach like that because a really well done short game absolutely creams an okay long one. It's not always a simple task as making a short story is easier said then done. You have to tell a complete narrative in a small amount of time. Let's first start off with the gameplay as it's pretty simple to explain. Instead of the freedom of choice to select whoever you want, we go back to good ole Colosseum where we have a limited selection of mons to choose from. They are all quite good, but you will be rather restricted until about mid chapter 2 as you start out with only Lucario and you do get locked into a party of 6 for a specific chapter. It's actually pretty cool as you have room to experiment and are forced to use mons you might not normally use. What you think is good and what is good may be two different things (bless you Shuckle). I do like how you go around and search for Pokemon even if you do get one wildcard if you find a hidden Ultra Ball. This limited selection of mons really helps incorporate them more into the narrative which is not possible using the normal Pokemon formula. People into difficulty are going to be disappointed as the game is much, much easier compared to Rejuvenation. I personally enjoyed this as it let me mess around and experiment with little worry it'd bit me in the ass and I'd have to grind on wild Pokemon. The final boss is quite a challenge but you are given plenty to help fight and take him down. I actually would enjoy something more along the lines of this difficult over Rejuv's normal mode. Not hard, but not easy enough where you don't have to think to get by. Also I worried about movesets with the level jump but thankfully there is always a free move tutor on hand to make use of just in case. I actually prefer this limited selection type of gameplay as it gives you room to experiment but you actually experiment more under those restrictions. The reason to play this game isn't for the gameplay but the narrative design. Everything is made to flow well in a story as areas are small, you level up quite fast, and exploration is a minor focus (except for Route 3 hell). This change of style works quite well. In fact, I really, really enjoyed it. It feels more along the lines of a VN with combat incorporated over a Pokemon game with a story tacked on. Kenneth, the main character, actually speaks and he interacts with every NPC whether it be a generic one or even a trainer battle. They aren't like award winning strings of dialogue but the touch really does add an effect you normally don't see with Pokemon. It's the interactions that make me even spend time reading what generics say. Though I never did find out what was in that one locked house in Sheridan thinking back on it. But in all honesty, the talking protagonist really sold it for me to try this out. What's even cooler is that mons are involved in the story such as Kenneth's Lucario and Lapras. Let's finally get to the meat of this review: the narrative itself. The story is separated into 4 chapters for a total length of roughly 10 hours I'd say. It's quite short with very little to do outside of the main story. That's not a bad thing. So we start off with Kenneth leaving 4 island giving us a backdrop of why he's going to Gearen City. If you've played Rejuvenation, you already know how this is all going to end. WLL is a tragedy which the title is both and not deceiving. Even if you haven't played Rejuvenation, the plot is actually pretty predictable in which you can probably figure out all the plot twists well in advance before they actually happen. I figured out the true end very quickly at the tail end of chapter 3. Even though all the events are predictable, I'd say that nearly everything is executed quite well from the buildup of Tesla and Kenneth's relationship to his marriage in Chapter 2 to even his breakdown in Chapter 4. These interactions often really hit home and remind you that you can do quite a lot with RMXP over the standard stand and one place and say generic save the world lines. I'd say chapter 2 had me going "Wow, this is actually really good" and I kept forgetting to take screenshots. Something I don't think will ever get the praise it deserves is just how well this all flows even with the timeskips. My biggest complaint would be with the Tesla squad as we really don't get to see much of them outside of chapter 1 despite them all playing quite the roles in Rejuvenation itself (some minor with others major) where I still have a number of questions such as why Chasity's hair is purple. These are minor questions which I'm never expecting an answer. I said Jan has a knack for the side arcs and it really shows here as plot point to plot point really connect and all tie in together before burning up in flames...literally. I will say that some scenes were so well done that they are kind of unforgettable as that Sheridan Village Help Center will never look the same ever again. It is a tragedy after all, but even then I didn't expect something like that to come up and sting as much as it did. We even knew it was going to happen was the worst part. It's such a nice flowing narrative and I'm really glad I played through it. Now it's time to talk about the black tar pit we're in. I highly recommend plaything through V11 before trying to tackle this as things will make much more sense then...somewhat. This has to do with the ending. This was a tragedy orchestrated by a group which I believe has some connection with the storm chasers though we know very little about it. You get a large dump of info explaining this was an orchestrated set of events based on a lie in order to change the future. It tries to shed some light on what they had to die and why in order to alter the future but I think it's best for all of us for me not to go into that pit of tar and make sense of it. There's the simple explanation and then there's the longer more headache one. The simple one is this: love conquers all and love will be what changes the future. We are left with small hints on who the big bad is and who caused those fires. In other words, there's still many unanswered question that would be nice to have known. Also don't like how a single Pokemon manages to do all these things and is that powerful but that's Pokedex entries for you. This is the point where I get a bit controversial but this should answer that looming question over everyone's head. WLL is the retelling of information we know in a more redundant way. Remember how I said the plot was predictable. Well, it's probably even more predictable when you know how everything pans out. You only get one single thing lore wise out of this that wasn't in Rejuv: why were the fires created? Tesla and Kenneth could be argued about whether or not we'll ever find out but all the information we gained in WLL is in a better and more suitable format in the main game which we're likely to find out more about the fires later on. After all, a certain death bird has been making quite the appearances in there. I hate being blunt but I feel chapter 12 answered the questions that WLL answered better and in a much more interesting format and it's the story behind the interactions and knowledge beforehand what made WLL interesting in the first place. Do I dislike WLL? Far, far from it. I'm merely saying scores are nonsense as it's simply a grade of how effective it is at it's job. WLL fails at being an expansion of the Rejuvenation story in which there's no point in playing WLL if that's what you care about. Personally, I believe it to be more of a separate side story that could be enjoyed on its own, but is actually enriched by having knowledge beforehand in which you and live and travel through a journey with a character you've grown to know over time. If you go into playing WLL, you should go into it expecting nothing more than simply an experience. Simply expect a story with a beginning and an ending with nothing more than simple tie ins with the main plot. It is a nice meal and one I really, really enjoyed. It's when I look at the big picture I see the many faults it carries hence the pool of tar. I really do enjoy these types of games and it's such an odd duck that I hope people take inspiration from this and approach Pokemon Fan-games differently. Now that we're at the end, I suppose I should answer the question on the score. I totally think it's an 8.5 out of 10 game, right? Yeah...I hope you don't or you missed the entire point. Scores are simply a measure of faults. A 10 out of 10 means the game has little to no faults, right? I think that's a terrible system. I prefer to give something in which I believe how many people will enjoy the game. 8.5 would mean 85% of that particular group would enjoy this. We have an odd case as their are quite a number of factors to look at. It's a tragedy which manages to get a happy ending, it's a side game based off the content in Rejuvenation which can stand on its own for the most part, and it's a short game focused more on the narrative. While I enjoyed it more than Rejuvenation itself, I can certainly say it's not better which how do you score something like that? My complaints are also mostly wishes as I wished there was more dialogue and expansion of side characters like Chasity or we got to see the fire started from Venam and Amber's perspective. But the reason I say it's a no score instead of an 8.5 is actually this: Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go build a shrine for Knuckles the Shuckle ('cause he don't chuckle) the MVP of the run. May your legacy live on.

So how do I explain this since it wasn't clear? I suppose I'll post it in the Spoilers as it technically is spoiler and complicated