Why are Shadow Pokemon in this game?

[Norm]

Y'know, in a game with forbidden magic, weird reincarnation, demonic critters, and convoluted time travel, you wouldn't expect taht the thing I'd be most confused about is the implementation of a canon mechanic.

 

But yes. It does. 

 

Question's in the title, but more specifically, I want to ask what purpose do Shadow Pokemon in Rejuvenation serve (yes I've played the game) and If their implementation is really worth it. Why don't I just put that in the title you ask? Uh... that's none of your business you dag gone know-it-all

 

My main problem with Shadow pokemon as seen in Rejuv compared to canon material. Shadow Pokemon are the focal points of both Colosseum and XD. In Rejuv they feel like an thing implemented because it's sorta in the Essentials data. If you care about this sort of thing, The Bulbapedia article is a good place to learn a thing about Shadow pokemon. The concept is that Shadow Pokemon basically take a helpful pupper like Entei, a doggo with stopping power of a Panzer, but ethical values, and remove the emotions tocreate a super doggo tht can kill ya dead. then Cypher gets a bunch of super-critters and takes over the world n' stuff. That roughly sums up the conflict of the Game. But in Rejuv's case, Shadow Pokemon are just there. Instead of Salamence, Tyranitar, and Lugia. team Xen uses this potentially destructive technology to transmogriphy... Meowth, Finneon, and Bonsly... I guess A-Grimer's pretty spooky. 

 

Point is, the potential of Shadow Pokemon is mostly wasted in Rejuvenation. Like, the concept was enough to run two games, which are some of my favorites in the series. But Rejuv has about 3 plot points that actually revolve around Shadow Pokemon, and the one with the most weight (The Mewtwo part) is resolved, like, immediately (Which you could say is a whole other can of worms in Rejuv's storytelling). Furthermore, the villains straight up say they don't really care about the whole project, only vaguely indicating that somehow furthers their cause. You could argue that the explanation of Rift Pokemon necessitates Shadow Pokemon, but most of the Rift stuff doesn't hinge on canon material, being mostly created solely for Rejuvenation. In that sense it could stand alone.

 

I'm slightly less interested in the gameplay flaws, because that's something that's a problem in how essentials implements Shadow Pokemon. If you peruse that handy-dandy Bulbapedia article, it's evident that there is a lot of depth to Shadow Pokemon, too much for me to summarize effectively. Unfortunately the the essnetials toolkit essentially(pun very intended) guts the mechanics. For starters, Shadow Pokemon are treated as a neutral type (sans-Fairy), while in the main-games, Shadow Pokemon keep their innate typings, whilst being resistant to Shadow attacks. The second problem is the implementation of the moves in general. In XD, there are a lot of Shadow moves, and bosses would use some interesting strategies using their attacks (Like using a shadow weather move + Weather Ball). In Rejuv, Shadow moves are really restricted, only really being used by Mewtwo iirc. At least to me, the implementation of Shadow mechanics are bare-bones, and don't do a service to the core games, but this is coming from an Orre fanboy, so take it as you will.

 

Now I know it sounds like I'm advocating for the removal of Shadow Pokemon, and that's because I kinda am. In truth, I don't think that Shadow Pokemon are used very well in fan-games in general, and Rejuv is no exception. It does little with the concept in both narrative and gameplay. Jan has said before (paraphrasing pretty hard here) that the early stages of Rejuvenation's plot aren't as indicative of the whole Game's plot, and that many instances in the early-game serve as legacy features more or less. I feel that Shadow Pokemon are probably the most telling example of this problem. I think that the most apt change to Shadow Pokemon is to just get rid of them because of how tacked-on they feel. Granted, I don't expect this. Even with Rejuv being an unfinished game, It's still a free game, and I'm not sure if the time it takes to get rid of the feature is worth it. There are commercial games that leave in concepts that probably should have hit the cutting-room floor, so I don't expect Rejuv to polish it. Though I do think that if the feature stays, Jan and Co. should incorporate it into the story more. Maybe Giratina could be a shadow Pokemon, or Silvally. Or give all Xen admins a good snagable just like in Colosseum. Hell, I don't know. Just do something for this fussy fanboy here!

 

But that's about it. I've written more about a dead-mechanic in a fan-game than I've done on my college assignments. So I'm gonna just leave this pedantic rant riiight over here.

[Maqqy]

Maybe I’m wrong about this, but Shadow Pokemon are linked and actually define the concept of Dimensional Rifts. That was what the diary in the locked apartment in past Gearen city informed I think.

[Magus543]

Plus, since this game is designed not to let you use certain op mons, it just makes the selection of Shadow mons look weak. But I think in later chapters, the mechanic with will return improved.