Pokemon Rejuvenation V11 Review [Through V11]

[Commander]

So you might remember I did one of these posts before for my thoughts on a large section. I really don't know what the hell happened, but somehow Jan managed to make me eat some of my own words. Actually, he really made me eat a lot of my own words which personally I think the changes really paid off.

 

And as before, I'm blunt and I think scores are pointless but for those who are only here for that: I gave it a C/C- out of pity last time. After fully playing V11, I'd say it's a B-. Better than a C, but not quite a B. Or pretty much a 8.0 flat out of 10. If that's all you care about, thank you and have a good day.

 

Rejuv is a very rare case where I drastically raise a score from my previous thoughts. And one thing that's mistaken is that I rage quit the game so I hate it. I did not nor did I stop playing the game. It's actually more like I've been debating what to do about the run since I don't think it's that useful as it's no longer a motivation for me to play (I wanted to focus more on playing the game instead of recording it down) and I don't think I really need to be as critical as before. I've calmed down and I'll think about how I want to approach it and I think doing this is going to be overall better than a run. Fortunally, I have a plan if I do go back to the run format. This isn't about a run though. This is about my thoughts and to really talk about the good, bad, the memey, and the Adam West Might of the game.

 

Graphics/Presentation

 

If Rejuv tops anything in the Pokemon Fan-game market, it'd be the presentation. Reborn is kind of special because it does a lot with a little. Rejuv is stocked full of it and I cannot praise it enough for doing it. I think Rejuv really found its niche and it just feels so much more alive than Reborn or really what'd you expect from a free RMXP game. I think my favorite thing is just seeing characters do a little animation fitting for the scene or have an emoticon pop up over their head. It really makes it easier to see and get a better feel for the characters. I guess some of them can be a little odd such as Aelita spinning on the rock during the bridge scene, but I would say I prefer that over NPCs all standing and talking. That's a common thing low budget games do so you could say I was taken aback by the sheer amount of changes V11 did to the game.

 

Another thing I want to talk about is the sprites. I feel like every character looks good to some degree but I do think the quality is a little inconsistent and apparent. I'm not really complaining but any main cast character really stands out compared to the rest and not really the good way stands out. It's like how Xenoblade characters would look in Xenoblade X. It just feels a little bit weird. Not a big issue or something to pull hair out of your head. I just think the really detailed style clashes with the generic NPCs. It's not worth changing though or to go through the effort. For what we have though, I think it's still great to look at. The sheer number of animations and facial expressions really help make each of them stand out. What I really, really am happy for is...don't call me racist...that there are a lot of colored people in this game. It really does get a bit dull looking at white person after white person and Rejuv really did mix it up by having quite a number of NPCs have darker skin which makes since given the whole islands theme. After experiencing this, I kind of wish more games did that to a much larger degree.

 

Now let's talk about maps. I feel like the one thing Rejuv was constantly praised on was the map design. I guess...I'm the popular opinion here in which I think they are just alright. It's certainly better than average, but I don't think it's really a deal breaker. Each map really does have a unique feel towards them. It's a good choice but it comes to the experience where the issue was. Let's look at the desert for a minute. The desert wasn't too bad which is a good thing since deserts are usually awful but I didn't see much that I'd consider memorable. Let's look at Golden Sun: The Lost Age now. That desert had a bit to explore and used the concept of the wind quite heavily. You need to make things float or fly up to move around which even after 8 years I can still recall bits and pieces of. Everything is good, but I just can't really say anything was phenomenal. There also small little graphic clashes here and there, but I think it's fair to let it slide given how ambitious Rejuv is. Small errors are worth the price to give a unique feel over a generic one. There's also Gen 3/4 and custom tile clashes but there's not enough worth noting in detail. I'm sorry to be critical here, but I just don't think the maps are the reason to play the game. I'll say it again, for good measure. I don't think the maps are the reason to play the game. 

 

There is one other thing graphic wise I'd like to mention: the battle backgrounds are just...so beautiful. I wouldn't even care if they had a purpose but all of the ones unique to Rejuv are just great. I could go on a tangent about how good looking so many of them are, but I think we kind of get the picture and it really should be experienced for themselves. I know the UI was changed and I kind of dig it now that I've been exposed to it for a long time. Usually I end up forgetting it got changed though. Eh, I think I like the old one better. Different people, different preferences.

 

Music/Sound

 

Jan has good tastes in choices. I can't say much else as my Laptop hates RMXP and the music often ends up a bit staticy and it is starting to drive me up the wall. I seriously have no idea how to fix it and I feel kind of bad because of that. It's good and good choices were made. Let's just move on.

 

Gameplay

 

Now here's where things get a bit...interesting. I really want to revisit this game on normal mode since Intense is its own experience and I did have fun in the mode and I also disliked it at the same time. Oh boy this is going to probably be the one that elitists are going to roll their eyes, but it will make more sense to everyone else. I want to start with exploration and quests first. I think a majority of the quests are great. I think a few of them are a little bit obscure (such as the Narcissa return to the present segment) which I think indicators such as an NPC standing outside the cave would be better. The other one was the Sashila Village Researcher quest had the most confusing explanation on how to start it. I think adding a "Meet me at my house" after accepting would clear that up. I think that's the only time I really needed help progressing a quest...other than Staryu because nobody told me they got moved. I do think there are a bit too many hide and seek kind of quests but I kind of have that sin as well. There is a lot of lore in the sidequests so I do one to go into those individually.

 

Then there's battle...ho boy. I want to start off by saying I think some of the fields are a bit too stacked in the opponent's favor. Souta, for example, gets an 8 turn tailwind from seed which cannot be removed other than cloud nine and all his moves pretty much get huge buffs including coverage moves. Those and some of the sig moves do go a bit too far. Crawli's is one of the biggest sinners for sig moves. It's on the line where it's just barely tolerable. I just want to say you are really playing on a dangerous line which could push people indifferent to fields to really hating them. I think it's more of clash of beliefs as I tend to believe that if you use a mon with a type advantage, you should still have an advantage over them. Sometimes this is not the case in Rejuv especially on intense. It's sometimes like rock paper scissors where the rock is covered in flames and burns the paper to ashes type situations.

 

Now Intense is a really odd duck when it comes to battles. I have my own particular style and I have a belief that there should only be a few fights that really get players stuck. I will always tell you the leaders/the big bads should always be stronger than anything else in the game other than superbosses. It just leaves a bigger feel of satisfaction overcoming a hard trial or boss. Intense tends to tread every significant fight like that. That makes leaders and big bads only slightly more difficult than others which doesn't result in the same satisfaction. Due to that little in difference, it could be argued intense is easier than normal mode. I'm not your boss so I can't tell you what you can or can't do, but this is food for thought when talking about battles. I absolutely loved most of the gym battles post Narcissa (I think that one was more my team though...stupid Dusclops) and they were probably my favorite battles...even if I kind of dominated Erick. They brought some very unique ideas to the table and none of them really were cakewalk, but I felt like they were fair as I didn't really have to go out of my way to design a team to stop them...except a cloud nine Swablu for Souta. That battle was still hard even after that though.

 

Now this is also my belief but I don't think story related quests should be the hardest things in the game. I'm going to go over the ones I personally felt went too far. A battle being hard does not necessarily mean it's a good battle nor does a battle being easy mean it's not fun. I kind of got a lot of samey feeling with rival/Xen Admin fights since many of them had mons that field similar roles so nothing stood out as much. I'm not trying to be mean but it does get a bit boring with that kind of style which is probably why I really like how Reborn went about it. I just don't think it's fair to compare the two since it is meant to be a harder mode. I'm also not going to put ones where I was salty because of my struggle such as Narcissa or Angie because the latter they do give you something to help counter it (cough *elemental seeds *cough).

 

The first issue fight is Spirit Keta. I just think the mon selection is just too limited to go up and fight a team that strong. There's two ways to go about it: nerf or change the fight a bit or give the player more options which are stronger and more viable. I don't mean like through us a Axew, but maybe something so that you don't have to rely on Solrock to get by it safely or easily. That Lapras is just way too strong. The next fight I think stretches it a bit is Geara on the bridge (post Valarie). You're in kind of a tight spot and that sticky web certainly doesn't help. I'd say tone down the Genar a bit or drop sticky web. This is mostly simply due to the limited area the player has access to and not so much the fight itself. I don't think this our last fight against him so save some power for later. You do have to take into consideration people going into the game on intense instead of it being a second go around.

 

The first fight I think really kind of pushes it too much is the Zetta and Geara fight. I don't even think it's them that's the main issue. I did have issues with the Aya team-up fight but that was more my levels being to low (85 really fixed that issue) over the fight itself. You can go back to that fight though and do it later. This fight you can't. I think the main issue I had was actually Melia. There's lots of ways to go about it, but I think the best solution would be to make Melia stronger. I don't know if that means a team change, giving her actual IVs/Items, or what, but that would really help balance that fight more for both normal and Intense. Normal is almost as difficult as Intense due to that. Normal definitely needs nerfed. I don't think any story fight in the game felt even close to this difficult because I was in more control and things hit less hard due to the level gap being less significant.

 

There are two other fights on Intense I had issue with. The next one was the Hospital of Hope police cops which was intimidate spam plus one cop having 4 and the other 5 which had a Mega and Z-move. These are generic enemies for a reward which is kind of meh at this point in the game (only did it because of story). I was kind of taken aback at how difficult this quest was because none of the others came even close in difficulty other than say like Novae fights, but you expect her to be hard. The hardest fight in the game for me was two generic cops...does that sound great to you? That's kind of why I'd say tone it down because I think it'd be a funny fight if it was really easy and ironic because they use an intimidate team. The other was the scientists in the Ruined City. It's another the opponent outnumbers you (which I always hate) but personally wasn't as bad. I just didn't want to deal with it so I broke my no item rule just to get by it. I just don't like generics being the hardest fights in the game. It goes to being you beat "this fight" instead of "this person" which a face always makes a difference. It could be argued you could wait to do them later, but they have story behind them so I don't know...another reason I don't like them being as hard. If it weren't for the story, I wouldn't bother with these fights. That should say a lot.

 

That's just my 2 cents as I based it on the 90% and how the fights were handled around those times. If you have no gripes with the 10%, then I suppose it's the 90% that's the issue and needs to be fixed. Instead of trying to have sidequests with lore/story have super hard fights, I'd maybe bug Jan if you could make a super hard optional fight where you can go all out for some reward. I'm not trying to ruin intense mode like some people might say, but simply pointing out outliers I think should be nerfed. I'll probably have more feedback if I go through the game on normal mode.

 

One other thing I'd like to see though is to have more breather moments. I think one of the only times I felt like we had one is when we control Melia and then Ren. Which reminds I absolutely love the fact that this idea was implemented and done but we'll get to that later. I think having points where you can cool down for a while and not worry about thinking as much is good as it's also the time to run around and do other things and take it easy.

 

...And another thing I remembered. Can we like cut the encounter rate in half? I know of Repels but I kind of just don't like using them as I like seeing what Pokemon are in the area. It gets a bit annoying to encounter a Pokemon every three steps. I'm the type of guy who also scouts an entire area before progressing the plot.

 

Story

 

For this, I'm actually going to be dividing it into each chapter (it will be spoilers) as it probably is my favorite part to talk about after the whole update. I saved it for last because there's a ton to talk about and I really think giving my opinion on each segment is better than simply an overall one.

 

Chapter 1 is actually pretty interesting when talking about the prologue. The most interesting part is how Narcissa has all these gadgets which we get all the dots connected in V11 with the past segment in that. The Maria segment is very interesting because we visit her house in two other instances which will be mentioned later on. The main thing to note is the fact that we've seen two houses where she lived in and we know the fate in each house yet it is different from the actual timeline. Who Madame X is talking to also seems interesting. It is possible she is talking to the player breaking the fourth wall. Other than that, it's a pretty run of the mill fun chapter. There were changes to fix some character issues like Amanda and near the end there was a cool surprise fight controlling Melia. I love the idea of playing or controlling other characters as it feels more interesting than watching a cutscene...most of the time. If you create a spectacle, then it is a bit different but more don't really do that or at a good level. My favorite scene is now Jenner hanging on for dear life against being sucked into the void.

 

Chapter 2 went from being one of my least favorite to my second most favorite due to one thing alone. The changes done in this one were softer but really did help change how characters reacted and handled it. It's not as good here, but is handled better later. I really, really like how they handled Madelis this time as she's flamboyant and her arrogance really does get the best of her. It's really helped separate her from Madame X. And that new Mewtwo fight is so much better than the old one as partnering up with Keta in an intense optional fight was great. I do think I'll like it more after WLL but I kind of understand why Keta was the way he is based on the small details. It even gets explained more down the line which helps such as why Zetta believed she was dead. My only disappointment was the fact we haven't seen Volcanion yet which I figured we did in the past or something given its dialogue.

 

Chapter 3 is where things get a bit confusing for me. Not really from a story standpoint at that point but how it happens. We're in a different point in the past given Marianette's age and then there's the whole prophecy thing. I never cared for prophecies since it's kind of just lazy writing and I never feel they really work. It's works that use the prophecy trope to break the prophecy trope where it gets interesting. I think it's a bit on the weaker side of chapters since we really don't have much context to go behind what happened there and the later parts of the plot are really hard to follow. For what it is, it's okay, but I kind of wish it didn't exist or happen. It is what it is unfortunately. The Anju thing is a bit more interesting as she is locked up in a frozen cellar for some reason which we know later she completely loses it.

 

Chapter 4 is...I just don't like Geara, okay. I'd say he's the weakest of the Xen Admins character wise and he just mostly is an asshole who does what he does. I think the Goldenwood segment is really just takes things too far with the exaggerated hate crimes on top of the whole hanging thing. I don't mind a noose being in a game but the idea of hanging a kid is one of those things that makes me a little nervous to mention or talk about when discussing the game. It's a very uncomfortable subject which is kind of why I'd like the noose taken out and the villagers ready to beat Mosley to a pulp. I think the play is a really great scene and Sirius was an interesting character...then I found out who he was which was something I joked about in my head. It went a bit too far.

 

Chapter 5 is the dreaded Blacksteeple. Even going through the game again, I just could not find myself motivation to read through all that dialogue. There is a lot of dialogue in this place so much of it is rather...dull if I'm being honest. I've had plenty of rants on this and while I exaggerated some, it really is probably the lowest point in the game...now. I'm actually someone who liked Madame X and I guess she's someone I could do a spotlight on even. I'm sorry but everything that happens here is explained and done better later which kind of is a low blow to this chapter which is kind of built up to be a revelation. At least Melia was handled better with her rewrites.

 

Chapter 6 is actually good. IKR? What I considered the worst chapter kind of got fixed. Some of the big areas I pointed out got rewrites and the animations really added a nice touch to making this chapter a lot better. One change I kind of dislike is how Adam doesn't interrupt Valarie to stay behind. Ren got some really nice touches in the rewrite which the hidden cove events were handled much better. It's funny how either I'm a really good guesser or Jan saw things I wrote and said "that's a really good idea" and went with it. I'm going more with the former. I know this part has gotten changed time after time, but I think now it's in its best format. I said I would make a how I would approach but I think Jan did it and he did it better than I would.

 

Chapter 7 I liked, but it got some really nice touches. So some things added into Rejuv were some heart-to-heart scenes as I'm going to call them. There's one here with Val which is actually really entertaining which Melia interrupts with a pretty humorous scene. There were a lot of rewrites here and even though I hated the bitch fight scene, I kind of dig the changes to it and the actual over the top Saki reaction. It's like taking a sour note and making lemonade out of it. Not what I wanted, but at least I can drink it down. Saki to this day still doesn't use EQ on Metagross. I demand it has explosion and only explosion and write the line based on that to let Venam say "Were you trying to kill me?" The whole cookoff change was kind of weird but it made a bit more sense. Also nice touch on adding another Madelis fight. Another optional win fight I really liked. The Angie segment was kind of the same and I saw the secret scene this time.

 

Chapter 8 was good other than the illusion of choice thing with the magma stone. Then Valor Mountain Summit happens. I can't say I'm a fan of the whole player character thing being the way they are. So you die and then come back to life. The thing that interest me is where the Crescent conversation happens and I'd need to reread it since I was rather tired at the time. Not a big fan of that concept at all, but I think that's better explained in Chapter 13...or 12. It's a good chapter other than that and I really liked the whole party puzzle where there was bonus difficulty if you had max hype. I kind of want to see the battle on normal mode. I don't have much to add on top of anything I said in the run. I really also like the added memorial for Jenner at the end when Melia finally shows regret for the things she said and acted towards him.

 

Chapter 9...is awful. So awful that it's my favorite chapter by a long shot. So one of my biggest fears was how time travel was handled and I don't think Rejuv does it well (then again any this theme is used it's always rough), but I like the approach Jan took on it. Everything that happened already happened is the approach Jan took with some slight alterations towards the timeline for past interaction. I still feel bad cutting that tree down. I wish we could've uprooted it or something instead. Anyways, this segment had a very small cast and it really helped build each one of them including Erick which I love that dork for some reason. I really like how he's just not very important yet a gym leader. It's a good practice as you don't need a lot of screentime to be a good or likeable side character. Can I also say that Gardevoir is a good evil villain and I like her so much better than Indy. The more I see Indy, the less I like him. Gardevoir is probably the best villain in the game. She doesn't have much screentime, but every moment she appears, your urge to murder her increases. I also like how we got a lot of breather battles here to enjoy the story and segments more. Also, I thought I was going to hate Erick based on how he looked. Why is it that every character I think I'm going to hate I end up liking?

 

Chapter 10 was okay. I don't mind there being a third evil team in this game (AA still counts...but so glad they are so much less involved after Terajuma) which I think really helps clash well with the opposing sides. I think Darklight woods at night needs some better lighting (it's like old Reborn thunderstorms all over again) but other than that I think this chapter is fine. I chose the Flora path because she's cute and I wanted to see where this rabbit hole went. Btw, I'm with Derog in which I don't like Erin. I think her character is fine, but I don't like her. I don't hate her, I just don't like her. I'll be heading into the bunker after posting this. I really don't like split paths and while there's really only two in the end, I just don't like having to replay the game to see how the other path pans out. I think this chapter was pretty good paced and introduced characters at a pretty good pacing. Speaking of pacing...

 

Chapter 11 in a nutshell is "Who are you again?" There were just so many character dumped into this chapter that it was hard to keep track. I still can't remember who the girl who owns the apartment's name is or Alice's brother. I can't say I'm a big fan of GDC, but I like the concept and the plot was pretty good. When people talked about Cassandra, I expected someone much worse than people made her out to be...kind of making me regret my decision of being on the side of probably worse terrorist than Team Xen. I don't think it would have mattered given Bladestar has another leader. Kind of impressed chapter 13 had an entire story split but it seems like it was a good split. Anyways, I really, really liked the Puppet Master and nightmare city as it was really kind of amusing to see all these people having nightmares. Also so glad my theory that we did something in the past to alter the present wasn't used and Aelita was pink due to sealing her soul. I do think the Puppet Master was a really cool and unique battle...despite hating partner team up bosses.

 

Chapter 12 was something. Kind of a random gym battle but we've had more random. As for the story, I really liked it. I think the first thing to talk about is the whole stink ball which people hate...for some reason. That's actually a tactic which was hilariously used in Atelier Rorona for an amusing scene and irl, that actually works really well. I think it was a well needed laugh instead of a shitty (pun intended) plot point. Trust me, that is the best way to get someone quickly out of a house especially when there's basically nobody around. I really liked the focus of the one over the many as it really is the hard choice to make. I really liked how the bad future was handled and it really showed Madame X in a better light. I can now see why people like Madame X over Lin. Madame X is strong but she doesn't act godly above everyone else and was willing to cooperate to get out of the future. She felt human in a sense. Lin just feels more like an omniscient being who just doesn't say much or really have much story with little involvement. I also like how it's not more obvious what the choice to do at the castle is. That was a smart move even if I would've picked it anyways. Also really cool Kenneth fight on intense. I really want a Z-ring and Darkium-Z Crystal now. Intense really makes me want to have a Z-ring which I think we're getting soon. After the bad future, I like how Gardevoir comes and does something bad at the perfect time. It had some really good twists one of which is who Vivian was which surprised me (I figured out the Taelia connection though...but I was slightly wrong about my theory). 

 

And now we get to chapter 13 which holy plot dump on a Mary Sue was that a chapter. We got a ton of answers dumped on us along with just a ton of questions...and a silver surfer who looks like Gadot. Not a lot of the Ren segments came to a surprise to me but I'm sure it did for quite a few players. As I said, I kind of put all the pieces together and it really just played out so well here when we meet Ren again. But I think what really hit me in the feels was what Ren gives us. It really shows that even Nastasia has a heart. There's just a ton of really good small scenes to build up characters and I think we got an explanation why Adam and Val are acting all weird. Now comes one of my biggest gripes...well two which have to do with the library segment. The first one has to do with the interceptor. I really dislike the fact that the player is practically God. It really puts a damper on things such as a sense of danger. I also kind of dislike Jenner being a Storm Chaser. That one is minor though. One thing though that I could see people disliking is Ren as a robot. I fucking loved the canon firing scene and I don't care how much people dislike it. Let the boy fire his laser. I also really liked the whole tournament thing having battles that were on completely random fields other than for Adam. I actually lost and got to see that in action. Team Veigue Squad had the misfortune of being on Mirror Field. It was also cool to play as Ren and it just feels so much better playing as a talking protagonist. Even the Melia intermission felt nice.

 

I have a lot of positives when you separate and talk about the individuals chapters, but I do have to talk about the whole. In my honest opinion, the overall story is just "meh." The problem is that it's trying to be this grandiose story with an epic plot and a lot of characters. It's trying to do all these things and include all these elements that it's either too confusing or not enough time is given to care. It's really sad as both sidequests and story segments that involve a small group of the cast end up phenomenal sometimes. It's often times when the focus isn't the overarching plot or Team Xen where I often say "Man, this is really, really good." I was going to make a post about sidequest but I think this post is getting long enough. The arc 2 sidequests all are often really good and easily some of the best in any Pokemon fan-game.  Whatever you're doing for subplots and sidequests just keep doing because you and your team really developed a knack for building them.

 

I think one worry people have is that the next few chapters are going to fall flat on their face with plot dumps or being easy to get lost making the game not enjoyable. I'll simply say that even if the main story falls flat on its face, I think the subplots will more than make up for it. Writing is hard. Even great writers stumble and fall and make terrible mistakes. It's really too late to steer Rejuv any other direction so I'll simply say just stick to mostly what you had plan and refining it any ways could come later. My advice for future endeavors is to keep your ambitions in check and simplify stuff when needed. You have what I'd say is a writing style similar to Earthbound in which the humor often tangos with the serious plot which one is careful to not step on the other's toes...which is quite easy to do. It's a hard style to learn and retain imo, but when mastered you'll often always end up with a fantastic product. I really don't have much advice other than to just keep working at it as the best I can do at this point is point where things don't work or don't feel right.

 

Closing Thoughts

 

I was told that Rejuv got better around GDC but...I actually don't think that's necessarily true. I think many story segments in Arc 2 actually help build and solidify shaky points in Arc 1 such as Zetta showing up in Nightmare City. Hell, I think the Reborn and Rejuv crossover thing in the game was an absolute blast. That was more fun than I expected it to be...even if I don't care much for East Gearen being redone. It just surprised me how much fun that even though I am caught up, I decided to go and complete the side quests...despite dreading a certain one in the badlands. There's a lot of things that need wrapped up such as sidequests still ongoing and it seems like the GDC arc will wrap up in the next version so I'd rather make suggestions once the arc is complete this time around. I really do like how Rejuv has really branched out and did take a few risks which one I feel might be stretching it a bit thin with the player's role in the story, but you can't know what works and doesn't if you don't try. I really did have a good run with Rejuv intense which I like the random trainers letting me easily manage a large team (18 mons roughly), but I could do without the really hard bosses. The older I get the less I care about struggling though I don't mind a little challenge.

 

Oh yeah, I also forgot about the whole how badges work. I really like how battles and badges are handed out at some of the weirdest ways such as them just giving you one at one point even if they aren't the gym leader. I kind of like that as it keeps the spin on how and where the next gym will take place. It's a good way to break the format and shake up the formula. Also, thank you for giving us good tms much earlier than Reborn. Reborn kind of put me in a weird habit as I often forget about good stuff in my inventory I went so long without it.

 

That was a really, really long post to make and I kind of only scratched the surface on some stuff. If you guys really want to know my thoughts or talk about anything more in-depth feel free and I should respond within a reasonable time. Otherwise, I'll be done with Rejuv for a little while. If we go by my old pattern, V13 will be released the next time I look.

[Vince&Sylveon]

The entire review was pretty spot on and on point. Awesome insight.