Commander

So instead of telling you why variety doesn't matter I'm going to give you a situation: let's say you have a choice between a rock and a feather. The rock gives you the power to punch and break through any material while the feather lets you be able to soar at any distance. That seems like a very tough choice given you could do so much with both. Now let's say the task at hand is just navigating through a cave with a lot of dead ends. Suddenly that choice becomes nothing more than simply whether or not you want to make your life more difficult since you can't really fly in a cave (and for the jackass who wants to be like "there can be bottomless cliffs" then assume it's a tunnel). There's a difference between choice and freedom of choice and if fights were designed like Crawli there really is no freedom of choice. Without that freedom or ease then there's no point to experiment beyond what works at the risk of losing any and all progress. I can't tell you how many times people complain about difficulty being "too easy" yet stats show that being "too easy" works. Look at Pokemon, Zelda, Final Fantasy, the Trails series, the Tales of, or the Atelier. Most of these games are easier than Reborn and Rejuv (though also have difficulty modes to make them brutal) yet they are very well liked and recieved. It should make you go "Why?" I often actually tone down the difficulty for leaders by using a "weaker" team in order to better gauge the damage ratio. Obviously, they have to be harder than the original fight, but I still want them to be winnable with teams with a large variety and if you have a team designed to basically counter them then it should be easy. If it's not, then you can imagine so many options just falling off quickly and needing to plan instead of experience. Only reason I'm not struggling like I probably would is because I know what's coming. Most people won't be that lucky. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 43 Resorting to Violence I'm getting worse and worse with titles. Anyways, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do about this run and Redux. On one hand, I really just want to get this done and finish it, but on the other, it's a good breather for working on the mod. And if it isn't obvious, I can only work on this or the mod but not both at once. No, neither is canceled but given I have like two years before I can officially complete and close out Redux, I'm not really in a hurry. Though at this point I think people are very aware. I just like restating it since most projects usually get dumped. Also anyone who bitches about low motivation: imagine having to edit and improve dialogue that most people won't even read and those that do and respond will pretty much just gripe or bitch about it. Yeah, I have to spend hours upon hours editing dialogue knowing that (and I still won't do a half-ass job like I did). I'm not complaining about the work since I ultimately am choosing to do it, but I just want people to think about that before griping how much work something like a run or fixing a program is. Probably still have a good 60 hours worth of work fixing that mess of dialogue. Also, you are probably are wonder why I'm getting worked up about battles. I've said this before but I know there are two people who worked on them. That's two people who are doing half the level of work I pretty much do. But being honest here, I get making the fights slightly more difficult due to AI but that old wonky AI can be slightly controlled without throwing super OP options into the mix. Making the fights isn't that hard (unless you do like 100 which that can take a month XD), but testing them is a pain. I mean V9 was honestly at the right difficulty and it's kind of sad all of that was thrown away instead of built off of since it was fun using options like Seviper (and I even felt bad using Walter since he hogged that spotlight). Hell, I probably would have brought Albedo in to have some fun since I really like using him but he's fallen off almost into worthless now. And we're going back to pretty much relying on Walter even more. If the devs are still reading this run (honestly, I probably wouldn't) then I just want to make one quick reality check. Your fandom is not your playerbase. There are many, many people playing the game you might not even realize just like how I don't know many of the people who are even reading this run. Let's just talk about the 10% aka the fandom part of the playerbase. Most of these people are close to die-hard Pokemon fans and are really into the competitive aspect (and were brought in due to Reborn). These people are going to have a very skewed perception of game difficulty and where it should be since what is easy/hard for them is very different from what the average person is. That's kind of why I get where Shofu is coming from in his latest Reborn episode (but pretty much disagree on a lot of his ideas, but I'd rather not make this a roast on him). When testing the battles, you should go into it with a mind of the average player or cater towards the weaker ones. That does not mean making the normal difficulty super, super easy, but more along the lines with an understanding. While it is what you want to do, but if you guys keep aiming towards satisfying the fandom with this harder and harder difficulty, I'll gladly be jumping ship after Shota since this isn't a game for me which is fine. This is just something to think about when doing these tests. And with that, I get to pictures (even though most of us are here just to see an angry guy get salty about a free fan-game): (...Sorry, but I don't think Fish is gonna fix you) Aww...I really hope I have a pic of the new Surfing Sprite. I worked weally hawd on it. (It's cold and dark...just like you, Melia) (Are you seriously still bitching about the heat? Oh look a back of the sign. Wonder what the secret news is this time) ("Strange man murders orphans' godmother" Huh. Remind me to stay away from that loon) (Also says something about magnets...why would I ever need that?) Oh, I almost forgot. While I do want to try and cover many sidequests, I'm probably going to forget and miss a lot of them since they are all kind of out of the way. I can't promise I'll finish the Type: Null and it usually takes a month a badge to even get back to playing the game. So even if you tell me I'll probably forget. I know the following sidequests I kind of skipped: -Poilwag (1 missing) -Corrupt Pokeball (missing Magnet) -Old Rod (whatever bloody Pokemon that was) -Artist guy on Route 2 (Nope) -One van thing on Route 3 -A couple trades I also know about there being an Eevee from a certain trade now which I don't think I'll do. I'm not a big fan of using Eevee and if I was going to use one it'd be Flareon or Glaceon. Yes, I'm the one guy who really likes Flareon. And also, I probably wouldn't even dare try using a Delcatty in these games (in a more relaxing one like XD maybe). (I think someone's bandanna is on too tight) (...Can I just jump in the ocean over there and drown?) (Oh look, someone that was completely forgotten) (Look at how great your friends are. Completely abandoning you because Melia said so. Isn't Melia such a great leader?) (Oh yeah I caught a Kingler) (YES! I was smart enough to take a pic) So now my noble steed has a part to play in this story. Yeah I edited the surfing sprite to be that though I'm not doing a bike or fishing one (no need to honestly). Now come, Sir Pearl. We have many ravishing pools of water we still have yet to cross. We also shall do it in a stylish manner no other trainer has before. I don't see any of you riding a fabulous pink Gastrodon. Y'all are about the generic fish thing or Lapras. It even has animations. (And here we have the most broken Pokemon in essentials) Zoroark is one of the wonkiest Pokemon in existence so if you end up in a situation where something is reading a Pokemon off your name (like Walter for me) then you know its Zoroark. That's often why, myself included set it to always be the lead Pokemon. It acts up otherwise due to poor scripting. (...You aren't Saki?) (...You are standing in a cave doing nothing...by yourself. Who's the fool now?) (Okay that DEFINITELY wasn't in the original) Pretty sure this door is to represent legendaries which is meh. I liked the idea in Reborn as it was more of a treasure hunt since they were out of the way. And sadly I know about Kyogre the whale and sorry if I spoiled it for you. I just don't want people hyping up this thing or be like "Oh, you'll be excited for what's coming up" and I guess I should tell you everything that I know happens in this game or what I've kind of come up with: (If she's dead, does that mean I don't have to get all 18 badges?) (Why did she...also how did she open those doors?) (Please don't be) (...How are you not able to handle these?) (...Sharpedo are like some of the most harmless Pokemon in the game. Just punch one and it dies) (...You have a freaking Togekiss. Get your ass off of it and do it yourself with a Dazzling Gleam) (One montage of fighting later where I notice a squirtle and am upset I missed it due to a cutscene) Also skipped some segment of dialogue by instinct since I was playing a different game for fun...hey, sometimes NPC dialogue gets a little boring. (...Nope, I have no idea who that character is...thought she said Amber) (Why would you go...nevermind I do that all the time) So for those who played Xenoblade X, how many of you ran up to what looked like a monument in the water found in the jungle area out of curiosity and got their ass beat to death? (Wait...she opened the door...well we know this person is important now) (Wailmers, man. Those things are dan...what is this whale thing you speak of) So something that really makes Pokemon terminology confusing is that animals don't exist but they do. You can hear people say Fish...I think but it just all leads to one big confusion as dogs don't exist but creatures that are like dogs do. It's like calling a Humpback whale a Wailord-like creature. It's a nightmare to both explain and see because while it may seem dumb to make a fuss over it, having contradictory terminology just makes it hard to use a proper vocabulary. (...Saki, I think you need to lay off the cocaine for a while) (Hey, is that sensei spot still open in Kakori Village. I'd like to fill it out) (I'd be more pissed over anything for leaving me for a month all alone) or was it two? (The sad thing is if we didn't need to go this way we never would have found Saki and left her for dead) (They missed you so much that they forgot your existence) I'm...just gonna cut most of this dialogue since it's just...recapping info all again. I really miss when the player was wondering around by themselves. (It's funny how you think you have a choice. There's no saying no to Melia) (...You barely did jack on the island. The only thing you've accomplished so far is building a laser and distracting a guard...well that's more then the average person so...I guess I can't use that) (That...really doesn't help this game's plot at all. Probably made it worse) (It's...been 3 months maybe. This run has only been going on for a year) It's been a year and I've kind of started running out of things to say...sorry. I know the quality kind of went downhill since Blacksteeple but there's only so much I can do with 1,000s of pics of slog parts and the fact that I can only cut so much as I do have to cover a good chunk. Irony is that I'm pretty sure most of these were inserted. This whole Saki thing was added as I'm pretty sure she was still with us in the original and the trio stayed behind on the ship while Melia, Aelita, and the player went on ahead. Maybe a little different but there was no dialogue in the cave (just a Scolipede fight and scene later). I get catchup and rescue scenes but we have done this what feels like every other scene and those that don't focus on Melia. Do you see why people kind of hate Melia? It's gotten to the point where the player really is nothing more than a secondary character. The plot would be the same even without them since the start of Terajuma. Let that sink in for a moment as that's how insignificant they are. (I dunno. It's been a pretty long time) (Motherf...) Skipping the rest of this scene. I am done. I'll let you know anything important that you missed. ...Literally nothing happens. Just Saki humor which I am not in the mood to deal with. (Two great water types in a single frame. Such a legend) I totally would use a Blastoise as I love that Pokemon and it's really underrated, but it's a little bit too risky given how difficulty is handled in this game so into the dumpster it goes. At least in Reborn is has a very, very good use in the upcoming battle against Serra...Angie not so much. (...Looks like Gen IV met a downgrade) (...For once, we agree on something. Can't be worse than prison though) You know what, I'm just going to only show dialogue that I find interesting from now on. So time for the Angi...I'm kidding that would be kind of cruel. We're just cutting the fluff that isn't even worth bothering with anymore since we know what I'm going to say and I really don't want to reread it. Probably going to cut this segment down a chapter though so...victory? (...Oh no) (.......Honestly, that is a pretty good one. You get a 1 star from me) I kind of see where Braixen gets it from. Would have been cool if they acknowledged it or showed it better. So Braixen is a Pokemon that ends up imitating that who they are around. There are people like that and I can say that even I end up doing that a little bit. Would be hilarious if Braixen was quieter or lazy spending so much time with Adam, but I don't think we get to see that. (Didn't we all? We don't even have her badge yet) (Wow, these people are really mean) (When you feel bad for Saki, you know shit has hit the fan) After that show I need some relaxation... (This...did not help much...also my coat is now drenched) I never really ever liked hot tubs and I have no idea why since I like hot showers. Just a weird fact you guys probably didn't want to know. (Tesla, that's her name I totally didn't forget about) Anyways, the only place we don't want to go is North so we'll do anything but that. Adventure Rule #9: Thou must first go in ye direction opposite of where they need to (Meh seems like a mash of Stark Island) (I prefer the cave myself. Could make for a great secret lair) (...I miss Adam) (...Great...more Team Xen. Can we go one episode without them?) Not sure if Maria counts considering what Indy's outfit looked like (If I had the power, I'd shove you in the ocean and warn the others, but silent protagonists can't do that) (Oh boy, this. I've opened a can of worms) (I'm going to regret entering this) So Pokemon Xenogene is on hiatus but at this point it's kind of like Desolation where I just don't think it's going to happen. If those two really do happen, great as I'd love to be proven wrong but honestly I think Xenogene kind of got forgotten about despite being something people were super excited about. Desolation is starting to reach there and is only alive due to the huge following. Redux is pretty much dead until I get a release out. It's kind of sad but over time games just get forgotten about. I mean how many of you know about the Mystical Ninja series. Yeah, that was one I loved as a kid but you rarely see anyone ever talk about it. Mana series is another good example...though it was revived due to a remake most people hated (and for good reason). It's scary to think Reborn will hit that point and it's basically what Ame's income is coming from. Speaking of Reborn, most of the reason I'm still around isn't because of that game, but Starlight Divide. I'm really curious how Ame's original product will look (as if it weren't obvious, I'm kind of meh on Pokemon in general...which most RPG players kind of are). (Hooray for the Red wannabes) So one thing I hate in a game is just random "..." lines. It's basically why even put an NPC there in the first place. Most NPCs you talk to once then forget about unless they are a major one. I don't know if he gets dialogue later but there's like two or three that do this. Really makes you question it. This isn't the only time I've seen it which is why it irritates me so much. (Hi, I would like to order the best option for stress relief) (...Angie, please leave me alone) (I'd say more annoyed than scared. Damn posters) (What's our motto? NEVER GIVE UP!) ...And so many of you that reference when over your head. It's one of the Tales victory quote staples in the series. Favorite version is Asbel's. Anyways, moving on. (At least your more productive than those rangers) (Girl2...I'll trade Melia for her. Though I feel bad for whoever named her) (Wait what? Blizzards on a tropical island...give me a moment. Nope, we're not in DK Country) (I don't remember her, but who knows. Pretty sure this is all new too) (Have you tried brute force? I hear it's very effective) (...Huh. That reminds me of something...something back in Akuwa...don't tell me...) (Heh. No customers means no money so...) (Nice cover-up. this woman knows how to run a business) (Welcome strange lady who apparently now thinks she knows me very well after two encoutners) (...Thank you. The first person I meet who is actually happy to see me. Well besides Novae but I try to not think about her. #BringBaedriennBack) (Where do I even begin? I've been sent into the past, thrown in jail, and now stuck on an island with a bunch of idiots, incompetent rangers, and some crazy ice lady. Also some crazy people tried to kill me. Other than that, I've been doing just fine) (...I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not but...considering I'm aiming to be the Pokemon Champion it's probably an insult) (Oh look someone I don't want to see right now. Go away and let me the protagonist) (What is this god you speak of?) (...Never heard of her) (Is her inner fangirl about to come out or something) (You're kidding me. Literally every bloody person on this island news you name. Even the Vileplume know your name) (Also probably because she's aware of all the gym...wait if she's the normal gym leader...who even is participating in this league besides me...and Aelita?) (Dammit. Now we're going to have to listen to her. Why'd you have to bring that up?) (You see? This is what I have to be dealing with. Wouldn't even let me be leader despite being the only one competent enough to get stuff done) (Too bloody late now. Pretty sure everyone knows our exact location...given her screw-up.) (She can. And she makes the worst one.) Seriously, she let our mother die and really tossed it aside like she had no blame on it, let Nim be captured along with carelessly letting us get sucked up alone in a dangerous dimension, basically let Zetta play her, made a permanent enemy out of Ren, and worst of all, acts like she didn't screw up at all. (...If I was taking a vacation, it'd be anywhere this posse isn't. Crossbell sounds nice about now) (Pretty sure Valarie was relaxing on the beach and Saki was peeping. Very serious business indeed) (Oh Melia, I found the gym. You're welcome) (I'll take the bad news first) (...Let me guess: she's dead) (Shit. I was just kidding. I don't wish that on anyone) (Probably buried under Angie's Blizzard) (Oh. Nevermind then. I'll go get her.) (...That's a good idea) (What image are we at? 124. Oh heavens no she's not going to be that easy to challenge. We've got another 900 or so pics to go) (...Tesla if you're doing this for me, thank you) (Melia listening to someone...that's a first) (She's taking a train to sleepy time junction) (Melia and Relax. I'd say never.) (...This girl can't be worse then Melia so sure) (Feel free to use handcuffs) (This woman. She is my savior. Ridding me of all my problems) (Hahahaha! Wouldn't surprise me if she ran to me halfway through to get all the credit) (Now where have I seen a ginger haired girl in...oh god no. This is a mistake) Remember my analysis of Melia. Yeah...the game treats it like you're supposed to have a very good understanding of it, but it just comes out as weak...because nobody was there to challenge or question her decisions which would have made this a much stronger scene and Melia a much better character. Melia to me is mostly wasted potential which is sad because there was potential unlike a lot of these characters. Anyways let's go find Amber but first.. (I feel mildly uncomfortable...remind me to never step foot in here again) And now let's go talk to the BEST character in the game: (Hi.) (A Cold Steel 3 localization announcement, a Nintendo Switch, Redux to magically be done, and Budew memes to just vanish from existence) I really have hated Budew anything for the past 4 years. It was funny for a month but you can imagine after this long...it just gets tiring very quickly. Of course I feel that way about a lot of memes (including one that I just removed from my head I hated that much) so don't take much offence to that. (I am this close to knocking you out and dragging your ass back to the resort) (Want to test that. If I win, I get a badge.) (Guess what? I'm not poor either and I have the rock god on my side. Who do you think it gonna win?) (Hell no) (You've insulted me by opening your mouth) (Why isn't there a third option) For a game well known for it's funny second option, I find this highly disappointing. I'm like positive this got changed so this is so disappointing there's no "I'm not sorry" option. One of the few saving graces in the story to make it fun and enjoyable to go back and look at. (I know you're an annoying damn teen. Who the heck hired you as a gym leader? Are they like that desperate for a fire leader? I...probably could do a better job than you could at it) (...Just knock her out and we'd be done. Just knock her out and we'd be...) (Dammit she turned around) (Or we could do it here. Rules don't say we're required to fight in a gym.) (...If I murder her, take a piece of medal, hide the body, and say that she disappeared, does that still count as me earning a gym badge?) (If that's true, time to die, bitch) Also seriously, there's are like the lamest choices I've seen in the game and it's just disappointing and a missed opportunity because Amber is a great character to get into a heated argument because you probably hate her a little bit. Will finish this thought in a moment. (...When I was 7, my favorite CD was Shania Twain...I totally just didn't admit that) (...It seems we share a common enemy. I shall call a truce, for now) (I...yeah that sounds like something Veronica would do) (That definitely is something Veronica would do) (...Let me see if I still have that B/W2 soundtrack. Would that suffice?) (Great since I'm a silent protagonist, the only thing I can do is visit another character I hate) (Are we really doing this?) So Amber is that character that would be fine...but there's just no reason for her to exist between Saki and Venam. She's just a teenage brat, and I mean literally the stereotypical teenage brat which Saki and Venam both kind of fill. She does it better than both of them and would take her over either of them any day, but I just don't see the point. It's not a good trope to have let alone 3 and all you are going to do is simply annoy the players. She's not a long term characters which those who fit that fold can end up great characters like Junpei from Persona 3, Jusis from Cold Steel...wait those are guys...uhh...I guess Rin from Fate since all I can think about are Tsunderes. I'm missing out on Crossbell time by doing this. I really would like some appreciation for holding off on something I've waited a year and a half to do just to make an update. (We're really doing this.) (Why am I doing this? I hate you) (...I'm really just going to leave right now...also this is worse than the original but that's nothing new) I know about the whole ridiculous her swimming across the ocean, but I found that to be so stupid it's great. There's nothing wrong with being a bit over the top and I think Jan having second thoughts removing all of that kind of made this segment pretty hallow. A hallow game is worse than a bad game because it means you take no experience out of it. Even SAO Lost Song which is one of the worst RPGs I've ever tried to play, I found more memorable than this now. I really think that sums up why I just can't really get much out of the game in these segments. I'm just not feeling it. I just took a look back at Reborn and even in one single segment I was able to output that abomination...which I don't think I could do the same for Rejuv. It's just sad since up to Narcissa I've really felt the spirit of the game and it had good synergy despite my rantings. I'll be brutally honest that even though I rant and probably hated on the pre-Blacksteeple parts of the game, I feel like I was way more passionate about it then I am now. That Venam reaction at the end was literal rage. I did not get any angrier at the game then at that moment because I was into it. I don't want you to think how good or bad it was but I was invested. Blacksteeple I was partially invested and it wasn't until the group talks that investment vanished. Like there's a lot I liked venturing back to in Blacksteeple and if it weren't for the sheer amount of filler dialogue I probably would absolutely loved it and talking about it both the good and the bloody awful. Original Terajuma I was fatigued from all the Valarie attempts (damn Lanturn), but honestly it was everything else that pushed me forward and if my game save wasn't literally unplayable I would've continued. Angie gave me hell and I was just done, but I was willing to give it another shot. Jan's a big boy and he can take it, but this is honestly mediocrity. I think the moment you step on to Terajuma is mediocre and what I would call unacceptable. I would blame myself and my fatigue, but you have to remember I took a 3 month break on top of working on WLL. I badly wanted to come back on work on this game and the next segment because WLL made me even more invested in Rejuv. And no, old Terajuma is not like this saintly good segment and has its own beats of issues, but I care more about something I saw not giving a crap what like 2 and a half years ago and was so done then what we have now. If you think I'm sitting on a high horse shitting on Rejuv because I can, I will bluntly way that the previous chapter isn't supposed to exist. It was probably one of the best experiences I had with Rejuv so much I decided to start taking screenshots of random things and forgot for other things. I didn't even think about that until now like I am very bummed out I couldn't figure out a convenient way to get a magnet to finish that one quest or the orphanage quest couldn't continue. I wish I took way more pictures as well as that's the part of Rejuv that I want to spend 5-8 hours on certain days working on chapters. I say this to make a point: Jan is way better than this and shouldn't accept with just that. Blacksteeple may have been a long stretch due to how it went but playing it and writing it were two different stories. Terajuma both of them matched up. This honestly in some senses feels half assed and in return if feels like my recent chapters have been half asses (and I'm not talking about the captions because that's a different story) and that's why I think I considered dropping it as it was like "what else do I really have to say." So I'd be frustrated with battles and frustrated with coming up with new things instead of sounding like a broken record. If this continues on and on, I might have to...but it didn't. That's the thing. I'll probably be able to explain that in a few chapters. And just for one more realization: For the amount of work put in, I pretty much get what most people would consider is nothing in return. Yes, I'm happy and thankful to the people who read and comment, but do you honestly think I'm playing this game and writing out a run because I like getting a few comments and rep points? Well yes, but I could do that in more effective and less time consuming ways. There's just something about this game that I like now and I don't know what it is and it's enough to spend 100s of hours working on it. (Just imagine if every chapter took 3 hours to make at least...ps it's way more). (I mean I probably would have been one of the ones who was fixing so...thank you?) (Believe me, I won't tell Melia anything I don't have to) I'm getting sick of Melia bashing. I would bash Amber, but...you'll see. (Gib doggars) (...Smart player. You concealed her name) (Too bad it did nothing) (...oh boy, I already know this isn't going to end well) (You could say...I have a gut feeling this isn't going to work out...oh no, I'm worse than Saki) (Joy. More people problems. And they wonder why I'm an introvert) (Joy. I'm getting dragged in to teenage drama) (Huh. That reminds me I should check on Adam) (OH HI VALARIE WHERE DID YOU COME FROM!) Sprites moving across different maps. Gotta love them and gotta hate them when you forget to get rid of the one in the old location (It's a pond. I wonder if it has any Magikarp) (Who the hello are you?) (Don't mind me. I'm just looking for Sharpedo teeth) (Yeah. Yeah. Just kiss already and make up) (There ain't anything hot about her) (I wish to be no part in this childish war) Which reminds me: You're just so annoying God you're so annoying Acting high and mighty like you're the queen Did I ever talk about my vocaloid phase? Man, that was such a good time. Irony is my favorite song (though I'm not 100% sure if it's vocaloid). Just checked, it is. (This is one of those things I wish didn't have to happen but does because of the characters) (You about done. We are trying to save a hostage from being killed, you know) (Do I really have to drag Melia here just to stop this? Please say no) These stairs are surprisingly comfy) (............really.......) (..................I'm starting to see why Amber hates Venam. I'll hold her if you want to punch her in the gut...what do you mean you don't want my help?) (You better stop before I punch YOU in the gut) (How is she playing that thing?) (Yep. I'm pretty sure she stole it now) (You know what if we're going to suffer through this I may as well post the full song) (What's up?) (...You brought this upon yourself) (Finally. I'll help bury the body when you're done) (I am the machine) (Well that's one way to bury the body) (How...does that even work? You know what, not even gonna question. Logic is not this game's specialty) (Great. Tell me you got a badge off her. That'd make me almost like you as a character if you did) (I don't see no badge) (She's dead, Vem) (I said she's dead, Vem) (Go ahead. That's two women I hate out of my life) (Yes, a very good idea) (Shit. Well if I die that'll make this game much shorter so here goes nothing) (No, she has a strong case of talkitus. Only a fist full of rage can cure it) (Amber, I am so sorry you had to deal with her for lord knows how many years) (I'm feeling bad for Amber. Look what you're making me do, game) (I hear people with tiny brains our self conscious about these kinds of things) (Thank you. If you did that 20 minutes ago, we wouldn't be here, but you don't care about that, do you?) (At least you learned one damn thing since Melia died) (Oh great they're back at it again. What a joy to watch) (Oh they're done. Thank the Uxie I'm free) (Probably where we'll find Uxie in the postgame...kind of like where Suicune statue is located) (It's a Ux..oh right Gen III. No wonder why they don't recognize it) (Name one person who uses Uxie. Azelf at least gets use) (Given I'm the only one here who can use Surf, you may want to break it up or I'm leaving both of you on the island) (That's it, I'm telling Tesla you both died from an accident) (Oh. Another poster. I always like some good propaganda in the morning) (Are we really...nope, nope. I'm done. We're just gonna skip it and avoid the blood pressure increase) Jesus what is this: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn? (Yes please. Now grab onto Sir Pearl as we venture out of...wherever we are. I don't remember. Who are you guys again?) (Remind me to steal that CD and give it to Amber so I don't have to deal with hearing that song ever again) And so we do what we had to which was drag Amber's butt all the way back. We also just had to get Venam involved as well and we all know how much I like her. Teenage brats I tell you. (Excuse me while I go dunk my head in some hot water while a creepy guy in a speedo stands right behind me) (Yep, it's the official bring back every character I hate segment to make them relevant. We just need Crescent for maximum annoyance) (By the way, I met your dad. Why did he get kicked out of the city?) (I'd probably still have called her Veronica just because) (Okay, can we please just move Venam from the area as it isn't helping my situation at all) (...This is probably what Charlotte would've turned out if she still had a mother) (*ahem* We didn't start the fire) (Normally, I don't take sides, but Amber kind of has a point. I think she has a right to hate Venam for setting a building on fire and blaming it on her) (...why do people like Venam again? She is literally the second worst person even betraying one of her besties...inb4 it wasn't her) (Quick, tie her down before she escapes) (Dammit why can't anyone here what I'm saying) (Also please don't make too much noise. I can only handle one of you people at a time and there's 3 in this room) (What pic are we at...245...nope, we still got at least 400 more before a battle) (I'm not sure if I should let her go or strangle Venam...maybe I should do both) (Please don't. You have made my life more complicated then it already has been.) Okay so I really don't care for any of this because nothing comes out of it. Amber is honestly not that bad of a character and is just a spoiled brat. At least she has a reason to be pissed off. All this time she's been trapped here all because Venam wasn't willing to fess up to something which even after all of that pretty much isn't willing to admit it either. Now let's imagine if Melia burned down your house and you saw it happen, but everyone blamed you and shunned you not believing a damn word you said. She lied and now you pretty much are very miserable due to it. I can see why Amber is so pissed at Venam. If it were all a fabrication from Amber, then we should have known from Venam, but this is just ridiculous trying to understand so we have to assume Venam is at fault because let's be honest her character is just so aggravating. Venam is just a scumbag and learned nothing. Sure it was funny the first time with the berry but she really has degraded worse and worse. She nearly killed her friends and not learned her lesson. Now she's stealing money from people. And it's all perfectly okay (and you wonder why her friends left her). What is up with Rejuv and not wanting character growth? (Something tells me there's a lot more to the story as why she spoiled her...also where's the father) (Challenge accepted. I'm the master of annoying people to get what I want) (Go away, Saki) (We can leave you here if you want. Not like you are relevant since I have your badge) (I already know how this is gonna end. And man, her room is so clean) (If I had the option, I really would have punched you in the face by now. Damn RPG linear mechanics) (Give me your badge and you'll never have to see me again) (Venam, I need you to say absolutely nothing at all) (You just stole money from people. Also how the heck can you take challengers if you're all the way out here?) (If I had the power to refuse challengers, I probably would use it too. Fighting all those annoying idiots would get annoying) (I...are you actually behaving? What did you do to Venam?) (I'm a silent protagonist. Bothering people is the only thing I can do) (I agree. Angie really is getting on my nerves. Well not as much as the rangers...thankfully most of them are dead) (If it involves fighting me in a gym battle, sure) (I agree. Let's have one of the highlights be a crazy gym battle to hype up the mood) (I uhh...that's probably not a good idea. You do realize half this island's terrible police force is gone, right?) (The woman turned a city into an ice tundra. This is a bad idea.) (This is a very bad idea) (Maybe she actually had the heart to give back the CD after all this time) (...You are the worst liar) (Thank you for behaving. Nobody died. See, this is why you should behave more often) (...Don't encourage her) (...that son of a bitch) Really? Did she really just steal one of Amber's Pokemon? I actually thought she was doing something nice and was going to actually give her praise but then you realize that'd be not like Venam and then I might actually like her so now...we're stuck with this...though that scene honestly was pretty good. I'm guessing Jan just doesn't understand how to deal with big groups because the 1-on-1 writing is usually fine. (oh dear god, please don't tell me...) (This is why I only want sons if I ever have kids) (Don't mind me, I'm just gonna pretend to be invisible) (At least unlike Veronica, you have good comebacks.) (...also when did I suddenly gain a harem? I didn't ask for this) Or maybe it's Melia's. Don't really care. I want men and I want them now. (Grow a spine, woman) (You see Venam, this is how the world views you. Take a minute and reflect on it.) (YOU'RE THE DAMN WOMAN OF THIS HOUSE. It's your job to get this under control) (I'm pretty sure if you're getting into an argument, Saki is gonna win. The woman can make a laser out of a satellite. By the ways, what did happen to that anyways?) (They don't, but I do.) (.......Alright which one of you was dumb enough to keep scissors within her reach?) (.............Oh dear god.) (Why? Just...why?) (Remind me to never, ever talk to these people again.) (She deserved that. Also, let it sink in that Saki is the best character here.) (She tried to murder her so I think that's fair) (I'm...kind of inclined to agree. I'll help fill out the restraining order) (Am I the only one who saw Amber nearly lose her head? That's acting immature? I don't want to know these people's version of crazy is) (See Venam, this is a day in my life. I have to deal with this and not be able to say one damn word) (...thank you lady fate for granting my one wish. I needed this, but I had no idea it come in the form of a spoiled brat) (Dammit, Venam. You were doing so well) (...Amber, I will be your wingman, but unfortunately, I'm no longer given that choice) I probably would have selected Amber if given a choice here, but nope another cool thing about this episode was axed where you got to choose best girl. I just cannot comprehend how one of the better segments in Version 7 became what I feel is one of the worst (if we treat version areas like episodes). I don't like referencing the old material so heavily but it's just so...different. By the way the conversation is fine and what I expect from Jan, but man, I almost want to try and find a V7 download now. (Yep, she's the tsundere of the group. Give her time and she'll grow on us) (...Can I please just stand up for Amber? I know she's being a jerk, but she's being ganged up on by everyone) (So when can I reclaim my role because Melia sure is doing a fine job screwing it up) (And this is where the problem lies. Nobody explained that our friend is about to be killed and we need a plan to save her. Gee, I wonder if an Elite 8 member could help us save her) (...there's a time to be formal and a time not to be. This is a time not to be) (That...was easy. I don't blame her. I never want to see any of these people again either) (...If it's murder Saki, I will gladly comply. Just meet me out the back so we can get...wait a minute, Saki's a bloody gym leader. Why are we even arguing this) (Shrug okay. Just let me access my PC and...) (Buy some items...and...) (I'll gladly beat up Saki in front of you. That would solve all my issues) (Okay. It's all for a piece of medal) (No, no, please let me do this. I need a good stress relief. I'll take them both on by myself. Reborn taught me many things for 6 v 12) (Okay, now let's just get it over with) (Yes, this is about as close to punching you as I can get so I'll take it) (Let's go. I am gonna take you down. Me vs two people I hate. This is the perfect stage. If only Adam and Ren were here) (...............................Do you realize everything wrong with what you just said?) I just love how this makes the strength quest in Reborn look rational. We have two gym leaders at our disposal and our only solution for the badge problem is not fighting them, but having to fight some random girl giving us hell just so that I can assist in Melia's rescue mission. That's it. That's literally it. We can't challenge Saki nor Adam because that'd make too much sense. You can argue that they are too high leveled, but that doesn't mean they can use a weaker team or hold back even. The whole point is to help the player and assist them as best they can, not about being fair in the league. This always irritated me and I'm surprised Amber didn't make a comment on it. (Deal.) (...Can I take Valarie instead? Or the hiker outside? Please, someone save me so I don't have to deal with her stealing my win. Just let me have this, please) (Dammit Amber. I thought we were on the same side. Why do you betray me?) Honestly, I probably wouldn't have picked Melia if I had the option. I get why it was changed, but I'm not happy about it. I just hate how all the characters cockstroke Melia and the one character who didn't gets treated like an awful person. Amber really is the only person I can stand in this room which is really saying something. (...Sigh...let's just get this over with) (I'm just gonna bring my lowest leveled mons) (Because I need to release some stress) (Sadly, I wish I could join you, but I have to deal with Melia and her solutions. One day. Just for one day I'd like my role back) (Get out of here) (Please do. I mean please do. There is nothing more in this world I could ask for) (Yes, Valarie. Help her give in.) (Dammit. And worst of all there ain't even a romance option for dealing with all this second fiddle) (I just want this unsatisfying win to be over with now) (Whatever relaxation she went through is gone, I could tell you that when Melia went back to demand mode) I know what you're thinking and I know a lot of people dislike Amber from what memory serves, but I honestly think she would be the best addition for the group and this isn't because I like her. Goodness no she's honestly pretty annoying but she has great chemistry with the cast so it's interesting to explore. She is the only one so far to even acknowledge Melia's superiority attitude and that alone really just displayed what all the character's are like. She's the character Melia needs to display actual growth and make into a fleshed out character. It's already helped out Venam a little bit though we don't know much of what's going on with her. I honestly think that should have been the focus of the plot and we fight Amber this episode after exploring so much of that backstory, but that sadly isn't how the game works. (...You have no room to talk. Of all the people in the group, you're the one that strokes Melia's balls the most) (You say it's childish yet you want to beat me) (Spoiler alert: I could've beaten both with full teams by myself) (...I probably am going to) (Don't worry. I blame Melia for not being able to stay in one place while I settle this mess) (...I don't think she's talking about the battle) (I want to talk about Tesla for a minute) If you've forgotten the plot, I do think after this chapter you should go back and read those old lines of hers as it's actually a pretty interesting dynamic between her and the player and kind of better explains why she does what she does. Of course I'll go into it, but hey at least she got better characterization in the update. (Melia, you couldn't disappoint me more than you already have) And time for our 30 lines of dialogue before a battle just because reasons... (Can I trade sides and team up with Saki?) (Don't care. Battle) (...This is why I'm glad I'm out of high school. Don't have to deal with this. Like oh my god Amber over there is totes lame and she can't even hold her guitar properly) (Save this kissing for later. This is a manly sport so let's act like men) (...I can't disagree with that) (This is just sad. Maybe Amber was trying to teach them a lesson all along...nah, that's not Amber like) (So basically have their pokemon faint in 5 seconds. Great to know) (Thank you, Amber. Please join our group so we can be productive) (...More like a huge handicap) (Yeah...I'd be surprised if any of my Pokemon are above 45 considering we fought like one trainer) (And the firesweep train is a rolling) (And rolling) (And that damn snorlax screwed everything up) (And we won) (Thank god that snorlax is dead) (This would be so much easier if I did it myself) (Uhh how many Pokemon did I lose...I don't even think I used Loewe) (And I had a handicap) (She looks so happy to lose) (Because you fought with steel types against a man with two OP fire types) (...You're one to talk. Thanks for letting half my Pokemon die due to bad decisions) (...It did nothing) No seriously, all I did was take out Saki then take out Venam. Really easy fight with my only hinderance being Melia. Honestly, I think I would have felt better and made the battle more interesting if I was fighting by myself. All Melia did was some chip damage then get in the way especially with that Snorlax which did like no damage and since it was tanky all the Pokemon always gunned for me. Really hate how arrogant Melia is. (Please don't be coaching two gym leaders on how to do their job. Besides, Venam has pretty good coordination. She helped me out of a jam with that Galvantula) (Don't tell me we're going to do this again) (I would more call it me yelling at Melia wishing I was alone) (It was an unsatisfactory victory but a win is a win and I get exp...oh wait Melia stole that from me. I got money. Money is nice and doesn't annoy me) (Wait image are we at...359...nope. We aren't facing her yet. Still way too early) (I will take that. Gives me a break from all of this episode progress) (She listened to my idea. See, I know how to get things out of people) (I get it. I like it. I'll go for it. Now let's go get some fliers) (Yet we have time for a battle, sail all the way to a random island back on the mainland, relax at a resort, and have a battle which I'm required to win and you're saying we can't just do one party. Besides, we still need that TM so it's not like we don't have something else that takes priority. I like this idea) (You are the bloody master of wasting time. If I have to go through one more pointless meeting...) (You guys really are lame. I want to do one fun thing and I've already accepted Nim is dead. Let me at least have this.) (It's funny because it's true this time) (I'm surrounded by idiots not aware of how to get a bratty teenager to do what you want. Force is never the answer) (If anyone asks, it's all Melia's fault) (Where's that spine? For a woman so high you'd think she'd be fierce or strict) (It uhhh...kind of is. That girl needs some discipline) (Says the woman who gets kicked out on a daily basis and possibly had something to do with her dad being banished) (Oh well. At least I get to be the star of the party. That's one high school dream I never achieved) (...I'm pretty sure Geara and Zetta are just working on their numbers...by that I mean their songs. They are still a band...we should have a battle of the bands.) (If it's free stuff, I'll take it) (I've always wanted to stay in the luxury life) (Yes, that will be necessary) (...Please tell me I don't have to share this room with any of them. Two I hate and one I'm terrified will kill me) (Wait...I get my own Villa, sweet) (I just got an upgrade. Sweet! I could get used to this kind of treatment) (Or is this a different kind of invi...I'm not ready for this) (Yes, go. Get out of my life. Now!) (This is about to get sexual, awkward, or sexually awkward) (Yeah, yeah we all know you think you're a queen) (I'm scared, confused, and excited all at the same time) Well that was...a chapter. Is this going to be like a thing where I end up liking characters most people hate, but yeah, I really do like the addition of Amber so I guess I take back the whole not understanding why she was added. I just think the whole Venam argument is just a little...we all know I have a bias against Venam so let's just leave it at that. I really like Tesla and Amber and how they are handled in their scenes honestly feels like a huge step up from the huge back step that was Crawli's segment. I just wish there was much more dedicated to them compared to what we get...unless there's more in post Angie which I don't think there is. Melia is a terrible leader yet she's treated like a great one which is why I joined #TeamAmber (which side are you on?)

I think I have a solution that will make both sides happy in which I'm going to call the roulette clause: Pokemon Faints (Didn't wipe): For every fainted Pokemon, the player flips a random number generator (or coin) and if it's a 1 (Heads) the pokemon lives and if its 2 (tails) the pokemon is considered dead and removed Team Wipes: Once the battle is conquered, the player uses an RNG (or dice) the number of times they wiped and whatever number they roll is a Pokemon that is removed from there team. So a 1 would remove the first Pokemon in the slot and so on. Now I'll let them decide if 3 wipes means they lose 3 Pokemon or they could get lucky and roll the same number 3 times only losing one. The rest of the clauses I feel should be kept the same, but this is to help the solution of them wiping and losing everything (or just Twit) from having to regrind all these Pokemon up just to lose them all again. Obviously they would still keep that variety and want to keep playing like it's a nuzlocke, but with half the grinding and complaining.

So since Reborn take centuries to update, it appears that a common problem has been that people have forgotten the plot. I shall forgive your lack of photographic memory or "I have a life" excuses and provide you the most accurate representation of what happens in Reborn: Episode I: You Probably Picked Up this Game Mistaking it for Dark Souls The game starts off with a black screen as all great movies games do. The game belittles you for trying to play this game saying it's probably too hard, but you aren't a baby so it ain't too hard for you. You're then asked generic customization questions where you pick out you gender and character though you can look like a male but be female...and let's you not even not be a gender at all. Just like the rest of the game, you probably have no idea what you want to be. Once you make the decision, you get on a train where you meet this white haired girl, Ame, who has made many questionable decisions such as building a Pokemon League on top of sacred grounds expecting no repercussions. She welcomes you, then tackles you out the window, then a train explodes killing everyone on-board. A lot of people die in this game. Continuing on, your woken up by Ame in a city that makes Raccoon City look like a vacation resort. This is Reborn City: your eternal damnation. You meet this girl named Julia who is blamed for blowing up the train because that's what all adults who still think they are in high school do, but she says no. Also, she's a gym leader. After some talking you finally get to walk around. With all these cutscenes, you'd think this is actually a movie and not a game. And for the one time in the game, you won't be lost and have no idea where to go. It's just a straight line into the Grand Hall. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to have a bunch of areas to explore and collect stuff. It's like the game is trying to add fun, additional content but that means work. After somehow getting lost on the simplest path in the game, you'll meet Victoria, the game's first mobile roadblock. She's some unimportant stuff as you follow her inside the Grand Hall with includes some random humping moments. Get your character under control, players. After more boring exchanges, you get to pick a starter. If you are expecting a simple 3 choices, you are in for the greatest challenge between choosing from all 15 18 21 starters. Or you could just pick Torchic if you're a pussy. If you were a real man, you'd pick the weakest starter of all: Chikorita. Once you make a choice more difficult then choosing a degree, you'll go back downstairs where you greeted by a cute girl. Well she's cute until you realize she's actually a guy named Cain. After a few battles, you learn that whoever destroyed the train station is now captured. Then you're given a bunch of stuff you probably have forgotten about and sent off. The game then cuts to a clipscene of downstairs where we see the little terrorist. The interrogation is going pretty poorly as the terrorist didn't talk, but he didn't realize that Mael was told he was no longer allowed to bring alcohol to work and wasn't going to be taking anyone's sh*t. That poor terrorist's hand were never the same after that. The world is finally opened up to you, or at least what feels like the whole game if you've only been playing those official games. Too bad there's not much to explore as you're options are finding and catching sh*tty Pokemon or battling trainers for a sh*tty amount of cash. At least you can beat that sh*thead Eric who blocks you from the bridge. Also make sure to mug his 40 bucks. After running around for what feels like hours, you'll finally come across the gym ready for your shiny new badge. Except the gym is locked. Unlike everywhere else, you won't be able to even earn a badge from a leader until you become their f*ckboi. Now all you have left is to run around like the hobo you are until you finally find some green haired guy standing in front of a factory like the jack*ss he is. You beat his ass and he mentions something about going to the wrong factory. Now you'd think the next step would be going to that one factory you passed, but that'd be too convenient. You have to walk all the way back to the gym to activate another cutscene. Turns out this whole time that she was just jacking off to who knows what behind locked doors...also it was Julia. You then meet two green haired girls bullying a green haired boy just because they can. Girls are evil...and psycho. Actually, pretty much everyone who isn't Fern or Hardy is a bit messed up in the head. I mean hey, just because you're a shithead doesn't mean you are mentally unstable. Anyways, we get stuck with second fiddle as we explore this place infested with terrorists. We then meet up with the group and come across every RPG protagonist's greatest nemesis: a locked door with no keyhole. Fern's robotic sister, Flobot says she can hack it, but everyone else knows she's completely worthless so we go with the crazy one's plan to blow the door up. And so we find some bombs, but the bag guys are tired of us loitering so instead they just let us in. Now we meet the boss...I mean one of the higher ups of Team Meteor, Sirius, who is anything but that. Behold the most generic character in the game you probably will forget about because all he does is try to kill people. You beat his goons up and runs away like a coward little puppy because yet if you add a guy who's team almost got swept by an Elekid and Magby and the scrub that did, it's too much to handle. I mean all the last guy ever did was have Budew use growth. Oh, so scary. So the crazy one decides to blow the place up and you now probably missed out on a free rare candy and ability capsule because the game likes to screw you. Anyways, you get an obligatory tutorial on field effects, a mechanic that no one but the fandom likes. And now you have a menu to view field effects...except you have to go around and find them now. Or you can download the field effect text file I made and avoid that altogether because by the time you get info on a field, it'll be worthless to you. This is totally not a shameless plugin. Finally after all that suffering, you can enter the gym to fight Julia...except you have to go through a puzzle so easy that a blindfolded monkey with no arms could do it. I hope you've been studying up on your Professor Layton skills because after this you're going to need them. So after failing an impossible to fail puzzle, you get to fight Julia. She probably beat your ass just like the little f*ckboi you are. And now you're probably b*tching about having no idea what the field effect is doing and that your one Pokemon is now disobeying you because you thought skipping the text was a great idea. You're probably over the level cap and now have to buy common candies to level down your Combusken. Or you can just auto-win by spamming Dragon Rage from Charmeleon. Whatever you do including maybe actually training a team, you became victorious and the prize for your newly colored ass is a piece of metal and a sh*tty TM. We're off to a great start but our adventure is far from over. So I was planning to summarize it in a single paragraph, but unfortunately I had forgotten that this is an RPG and you need to explain a lot compared to other game such as: LoZ Wind Waker: You sail places LoZ Skyward Sword: You fly places LoZ Breath of the Wild: You climb places I'll now be breaking my summaries up with one episode per post. In the meantime, like, comment, and subscribe to my content and also support my Patreon Page @ http://www.parteon.com/PokemonRebornIs4Loss I worked really hard on it.

First off, I actually do not really disagree with anything Shofu said and can see his point. Part of his rants are things I felt similar to how Rejuv went. If you guys really want me to break it down I can but he's been playing this game for as long as I have which is longer than most of this community. Some of it also is frustration and you have to understand he had to reedit the video to add that voiceover. Yeah I'll admit I have a similar situation and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it. There is one thing that he said that I feel was out of line which was "the only reason I'm playing this game is because of the fans." It contradicts the start of his episode 15 segment which confuses me. He doesn't feel as miserable as Rising Pheonix and if you really are playing a game just for the views or money...that is kind of sad. I'll admit playing Rejuv is pretty draining on me especially these segments I worked on but the only reason I continue is that I ironically enjoy the log parts. If he really hates it that much he should hiatus it for a while or just stop imo. There's other projects that could need more attention. Hell,maybe throw something his way to relieve his stress that's not Pokemon. Sometimes you've got to play other things before jumping back. Now this is just an ugly argument on both sides as both put in a lot of work and both honestly at least deserve the respect for putting in the work. I'd rather not have this thread locked or removed but try to remember to be respectful to others including those not members of this site. They can easily read these messages as well. I'll go and read the comments but I doubt I'll find anything as bad as you claim it to be. Mother of Arceus...people are actually nicer and supporting game more compared to before. Oh how will I be able to handle people being nice. Seriously, his comment section is a lot better than it was. Get over it every time someone posts something negative. Hell, I'm proud less than half are like that. Edit: I realized you were talking about a different video mid way through but my points still kind of stand. Yes I was reading comments on the void episode.

I know that Colosseum plays some influence into the game but...now I'm kind of curious (mostly because I don't remember). Hey @Amethyst did you ever play Paper Mario TTYD even?

There has been only one gym leader fight in all of my playthroughs for the first time fighting a gym leader that didn't take me like at least 4 attempts (even now as the creator of the unofficial hard mode of Reborn) and that is the one everyone struggled with which is Charlotte. I can't remember if I beat Shade the first time I fought him or not but it was very close. I can also tell you that I was A LOT worse at Pokemon 5 years ago and most RPGs compared to how I am now. It's really just experience which over time you gain more and more and it takes less effort to figure stuff out. I can't tell you what to do, but I can at least give suggestions of what not to do. Clearly you are the superior player given your prior knowledge to the game and the fact you probably have more experience. Don't ever show him up or really brag about how easy a leader is. I know it's really hard to not gloat at your achievements but sometimes it just adds frustration to the other person hitting walls again and again. Maybe share experiences from your first playthrough where you got absolutely slaughtered. If he really is just not liking the game, maybe try to find a different interest. Tales of Games are really fun to get into with a friend because they can hop right in and join the fray if you're together. It might seem weird saying for a guy who designs difficulty in Pokemon to say quit, but I really get it. It's part of the reason I don't play much Pokemon because the games do get grindy due to their unfortunate nature and design. If you get stuck, it can be more than just a simple grind for 20 minutes as it can even take 3-4 hours just to progress through one fight. It adds up and you are just miserable. There's plenty of other games you and your friend can bond over and both get a lot of enjoyment out of. So if this doesn't work out, try something else.

Honestly if it's the drop through a hole puzzle with the shifts...I really liked that puzzle. It's not that difficult but given my brain is able to comprehend uhhh...I think it's called geometric motion (whatever the term is being able to use my brain to mentally shift stuff) so maybe that's why I didn't mind it. Speaking of that, no matter what way I tilt my head everything I see is always the same as standing up so I can easily read a sign while upside down since it looks the same. Also lets me read things upside down which pissed my second grade teacher off during reading time. And I even read the thing with zero problem and she told me to flip it back. I was a special kind of child. So I decided to continue on to Angie (which went surprisingly fast) and if things were going to be a repeat of Crawli, I was going to drop...it didn't so we'll keep going and hopefully by the 60s everything will kind of settle out. Thanks for your thoughts. Also I have a love-hate relationship with Rejuv. There's like glimpses of hope for the game which just gets bogged down by things that shouldn't be there, but it is what it is. I think the hardest part of giving feedback and criticism is not forcing your ideas or thoughts onto the dev or writer. It's the difference between the "Needs" and "Shoulds" for example: -You need to keep you characters consistent -You should flesh your characters out more I'm not even perfect at it as I've probably made some of my own "Shoulds" sound more like needs as in my style and preference they are needs. It's also the very gray line that separates me from the haters since I try to approach this with reason and understanding. Like hell I could have pointed out even more things or every little thing but there gets to a point where it's more annoying than helpful. Also because some things are to the point where I feel everyone probably gets it. Anyways, don't worry as we'll at least do Angie which afterwards I have a vague idea of what's going to happen but it is uncharted territory in many areas like NPCs and sidequests. Also, Angie hates me. No, I mean she literally hates me and has found new ways to bring suffering upon me (though some I really brought upon myself). What did I ever do to her anyways to deserve this? Honestly, I usually don't mind a story even if it's really bad. I've played through stuff like Neptunia, FFVIII, Star Ocean, and a bit of Riviera: The Promised Land. I just knew that if every fight was just going to be so ridiculously tough that I have to prep and completely swap my team every time then this game would just end up a pure chore to play. I hate the new Madame X Yveltal change, Valarie's Qwilfish probably would've pushed me over the edge (seriously, we're locked into a single area so I'd rather her be too easy or a joke then even considered anything too hard), but seeing both Crawli and Valarie be in these footsteps is a bad sign. You see my team, I'm pretty sure I could destroy Shelly 3 times in a row with only three of those Pokemon at half their level. Maybe a stretch but with that much advantage it should have been a cakewalk. In reality, Crawli probably could effortlessly destroy my entire team if it weren't for the AI exploiting. Thankfully, it's just an outlier kind of like Serra and Aya in Reborn (hence why those two recieved nerfs...then Serra got buffed). And huh. I know Madelis was there but I didn't know about Nastasia. I try to avoid spoilers but it's kind of impossible. Oh well (also skim Derog's run usually only looking at his reactions) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 42 Orphans, Chests, and WHY IS THE SURF ENCOUNTER RATE SO HIGH! *Ahem* I lost my composure there. Yes, we're at least going to Angie so don't worry about that. Might be a little while since I want to make some progress with Redux which hopefully will get done before an E19 announcement. QAing a game takes up a lot of time. Only have 100 events left to edit or something. Never build a hub area. It's a lot of work and very time consuming. Anyways, now we have what is probably going to either be the most boring or most interesting chapter of this segment: doing stuff that I can't rant about as much but will try to anyways. Oh I should say something when I joke about stuff moving slow and all that I know it takes a lot of time to make these and sometimes I take long breaks. I'm just one of those people who would laugh at himself for saying even the cringiest of things which considering I make up words all the time. You probably wonder what honestly goes through my brain...but I pretty much right the first thing that comes to my mind in most captions. Though I do refrain when I think something might be too inappropriate. Yes, I have censors and control. Though my grip on that is about the same as gripping a water wiggler (or snake...it has a few names). (So here's what my plans were before the Crawli struggle) I'm not sure who I'm going to use but I can tell you that Ratigan (Raticate), Lifesupport (Buizel), Boomdock (Electrode), Sirius (Seviper), Dewey (Phione), Electabuzz, and Vivillion all are probably getting cut. Loewe (Samurott), Agate (Arcanine), Walter (Lycanroc), Gaius (Leavanny), Pancha (Pangoro), Joker (Mr. Mime), Jesus! (Donphan), Auto (Magneton) are all safe Ones on the possible ax are Unfortunat (Qaugsire...he does have one job coming up), Albedo (Zangoose), Wisp Bone (Marowak), Reini (Masquerain), and Yanma is just unknown. Might bring it in but I might not. I'd love to use Electivire but that's not really an option unless I hack it in which I'll let you guys decide on yay or nay there. (I find this error hilarious) There's a really easy condition branch to fix that. So the first stop I go to is Akuwa town where I explore and surf around...and my god can we please turn down the encounter rate because I sure do love getting an encounter every 3 tiles, don't you? Anyways our first discovery is this: (Who the hell lives on a snowy island right off the land?) (I should have said "I can't read!" but I really did read the sign) (...I forget what it said. Something about do not enter) (See, isn't reading a good thing. I guess I am smartz) (See, I'm a good boy) (See, and people thought I never read anything. I just haven't read physical books in a while) (If some old lady tells me not to go into the forest, I'm totally going to listen to her. Who knows what's in there) (I will with a nice cup of pudding. Mmm...pudding) (I...literally just got lost. I didn't even know there were rare Pokemon) (...I was looking for an Oshawott...though it'd be here) (I mean if I see one I like I'm not going to turn it down) ([Flips hair] the cold never bothered me anyways) (They probably got sick of the wild encounters...freaking Seels. Someone needs to send them all to a club or something) (Oh good, flashbacks) (................................................................................................I know two people with that power. Both of them want to kill me) (She's in a freezer. Or was from what I remember) (Hmmm...needs some heads or stones on those pillars but it is nice) (...That's why I'm playing the game. For the lore...and to rant on the lore) (There's a powerful weapon hidden underneath the shrine?) (...I hope it's a Vulpix. I really want one of those. He shall lead us to victory) (...Oh boy. Now I'm interested) (...Hmmm...I'm interested now. Let us hunt for this Emperor and bring him into the crew) (...Whelp I'm outta here then) (Or that. Yeah, I like this old lady. She should join the Adam family) (Hmmm...hopefully I'll remember this when I can catch him) I think you need 10 badges iirc. I only have 6 at this point so it'll be a while. (Maybe it's a Suicune. That's one of my favorite legends) (So get stronger or some hard to find item, got it) (Or the pendant I got from my one "friend" could open it for us. Let's see what we got) (...well that's a little bit of a letdown. Oh well free Piplup this early is not a bad thing) If I didn't have Loewe, I'd probably use it. I really haven't used Piplup so it'd be a good little distraction. There was other stuff but nothing really worth mentioning. I'm not sure when I did all the caves but I eventually did do them all...including the pain in the butt one. But for now we jump back to something I forgot about: (I missed some dialogue and I have no idea what she said before. Maybe something about following your dreams. Or was it beams?) (...Oh I wish. Oh how I wish that was true.) So funny story. My older sister is a teacher and she has a kindergarten job. Normally, you have some problem child who might throw a fit or act out but there's ways to get them under control. There is this one kid who looks like the size of a large 3rd grader and probably weighs 50-60 (maybe even 80) pounds and at first I thought my sister was exaggerating the story (she is a little dramatic), but when I saw the pic of the kid that even intimated me a little bit. So this kid is chemically imbalanced and very little will set him of and he will throw stuff and destroy anything in his path including a rocking chair, the board, and even a toy kitchen. Also will beat up other kids but its never gotten into sever injuries so far. Even better is that the committee in charge of handling problem children said to just let him destroy all the stuff and he is not allowed to be punished at all. So what happened a couple days ago is that he picked up some scissors and was about to attack my mother (she's a helper at the school) and all the kids are diving under their desks in fear. My sister left some scissors unattended for a second which he was able to grab but thankfully he snapped out of it and set the scissors down before anything really, really bad happened. Yesterday it was apparently worse as the kid apparently called the police 3 times and I believe he actually punched this big policeman in the leg and wasn't afraid of him at all. Finally some of the higher ups stepped in and are taking some action so hopefully it'll get better, but I can only imagine what is going through all these kids' minds in which some even go over to grab their stuff to protect it from getting destroyed and one kid who is a problem child did whatever means necessary to prevent him from throwing a tantrum by giving up what was his favorite crayon (he always took it from other kids) and watched it get broken. I'm just thankful it didn't hit the extreme of getting in the news or national news even. I hope it doesn't. (See story above on my thoughts) (Did I mention parents of other classes are starting to take action in fear of their kids' safety?) (The school system is messed up?) (Eh. My childhood was kind of weird. Not depressing, but not the best it could be) So going upstairs and going back down you get this scene: (Yes, I did) (...That's a lie and we both know it) (She's definitely not okay) And now I jumped around once more thinking I was done since the place was getting renovated iirc. So I go and find a treasure chest and get...this: (That's not ominous at all...maybe I should have done the other chest first...mmm...chests) (I think I know what's behind Blacksteeple now) (...Give me a minute let me think about this before saying anything) (Okay now I'm not really sure what's going on...or do I?) (Nope, not sure if I do since the other one only had one knight) (...Okay, I'll take a free item) I...don't remember what it was. I really should have taken better pics. Probably wasn't anything special anyways. Let's just look at the other one before I say anything. (Yeah, yeah just give me the lore) (Money? Power? And badass swordsmen? (Let me guess: they all died) (Time travel is going to be deeply involved in this game, isn't it? Lovely. That'll be a fun topic) (Tiempa and Spacia or whatever their names are. Either they are those or relatives) (Where's the men in the family?) (Yep. Melia probably is a relative of the Grieswald or whatever the name is. She's too important to not be) (That was until the Mirage nation attacked) (And with order chaos shall always be born from it) (Were they ever? Only perfect thing is that coat. No coat shall ever reach such perfection) And that's it. Basically it ties in with the story with Blacksteeple about the knight who served the queen and died trying to protect it. Obviously, Madame X probably relates to it and is after Melia since she probably has descendant blood or basically is Maria...to break the barrier and access the throne...or something. I mean it's not bad but I'd rather have the whole thing in a book rather than have this vague trying to figure it out since I doubt the whole plot is going to be spoiled over it. I'm sorry to say but fantastic lore will not save a terrible story. I'm not saying the story is terrible but simply that no matter how good or bad the lore is, it can't save poor display or execution of events. An excellent story and save a weak world or loose lore though. If a story is good, people will want to dive in and learn more about it like the world of Zumeria which ho boy you are in for a ride if you dive into that one. The Xenoverse (Xenosaga/Xenogears) is also a pretty complex one but once you get the idea you get to see a pretty neat timeline. Dark Souls is a pretty famed one for its lore as well. Star Ocean is a pretty good example where the lore didn't save the games from getting mixed reception because the story is...something. It's hard to find examples as a well built story usually has good lore behind it. You'd have to dive into some lesser known RPGs like uhhh Tactics Ogre maybe? That's homework for anyone interested. Now let's move on to.... (Oh hell no. Nope, let's leave. Get me out of here) (You tried to kill me) (Just push her down the stairs. It'll be that easy. Just do it.) (That's...a terrible idea considering what it unleashed. Why was a dragon princess warrior of another dimension down there anyways? I think something about wanting a new world) (For once, I agree with the crazy woman) (I guess it'd add move places to dig grave...though don't bury me there...ever) If I died in the game, I'd want to be buried right in the middle of Goldenwood with the words "I'm finally free of my damnation" (............) (.............Go on) (.............A step? You made what's considered a terrorist group of a town) (...that's not childish thinking, it's extremist thinking) (One should reach understanding of loss, not pain nor anger through following ones steps) (You tried to kill me. You were no better than those who burned this place...probably for good reason) (You tried to kill me) (I don't think anyone else tried to actually kill someone over a misunderstanding) (You tried to murder a little girl. I think you disrespect more than the deceased) (...Do you have any understanding what you just did?) (...Well at least you learned something. Just don't murder...anyone) (YOU TRIED TO KILL ME! You should think about your actions before that of others for the love of the chicken gods) (...If I had the option to murder her, I probably would right now) (This better be an electrizer) (...At least it wasn't revives...that'd be insult to injury) (You think random junk makes up for throwing me in a jail cell. No, no it doesn't) (..............................It's ethers. Nobody uses them) (...If I ever see you again, you will know the true power of the swordmaster) While I'm glad that was added into the game and it's acknowledgement of Saria's mistakes, I still hate her. She did try to kill not only Mosely but the player as well. I get that it's similar to an idea of a witch hunt but this isn't the middle ages where that would play more of a role but the modern ages. We talked about this in the goldenwood segment so we'll leave it at that. Also I'm indifferent to the change of all the areas and the addition of Wispy Ruins. Anyways, we get to see the second best sidequest...for a terrible mon: (Who the heck are you?) (...) (Why am I so weak hearted?) (..........Please tell me it's not towards me) (The fandom isn't ever going to let me live this down, are they?) My heart will always be with you Wall Senpai, but it is time to move on...but certainly not with this thing. Let's see my options are Crawli's Aunt, Narcissa, or Adam. What? The man has a rock hard bod. That's as close as I'll ever get to replacing Wall Senpai. I guess Valarie if I have to choose a woman close to my age. She complains, but at least she isn't going to drive me to the grave. (Go get 'em you dog. Wait, are you actually a dog? If not, I apologize) (Sorry, I don't have any Ice Cream and I don't want to give up my blue moon one) (...This is surprisingly fun. I could do this for a full chapter) (But I have to go do other things) (...You are way too understanding...) (If only the others understood me like you. Us silent types have to stick together) (See, you do understand me. Not even Adam understands me this way) (Yeah...it is fun) (I really have to go...) Maybe one more time... (...Now I feel bad for leaving) (Wait...I know I was needing to do something important. Something with children involved...meh Espurr is much more important) (...Must leave. Must leave. Must leave) >1 hour later (Okay someone needs to do something about this relationship as neither of us are accomplishing anything when we're like this) (...I really should just capture you) (Oh hi uhh...Frediwinkle. I forgot you were here) (...Did I just find a new best friend. Neat.) (Team up and save the world like bros do?) (Sure if it lets me leave this place) (....Well that solves all our problems. Welcome aboard...to the box) (I'm a terrible trainer. Just ask all 50 of my Pokemon chilling in the box) (I said okay. Now get into my ball...that almost can out sexual) (Well that was easy. Enjoy your new life in a box) Well that was fun. Now there's nothing else that can sur... (This is new) (Oh a Sawk. I need a new one for my feet) (I really should work on getting that ditto.) (that's nice. Now let me through) (Don't mind me. I'm just gonna pass on by) (That's nice. Now let me through) (Game awareness all Pokemon look alike) (Sure if it mean I can go on by) (Uhh hi, do you know which way is the daycare? I need to make sure I didn't leave anything there) (Also I had something to do with children...I'm not in a cult, am I? I don't think I am) (Oh no you didn't. I don't know what's going on but now it's on) (Bitch, I will take you down right now) (Heh. This will be a piece of cake.) It was. (And that's why you don't call me trash. Now gimmie my Pokemon and let me be on my way) (Good. Now gimmie) (...I don't know what attributes getting slaughtered means but okay. I just want through) (Aren't they in the wild somewhere as well. Dunno but don't care) (And because you do, I'll ruin your dreams) (Sucks to be you) (Dammit, at least give me a choice. I wanted Sawk) (This is a terrible day. I changed my mind, take them both) (...Really? We're really doing this. Sigh...it's never easy, is it?) (May as well catch it. Could be useful for...something. Maybe a good benchwarmer) (Well that was a waste of time) Yeah I caught it, but I doubt there's anything here that'd interest me... (Well hello there, beautiful. I guess today really is a good day for me) I totally didn't expect to find a Heracross this early. And yes, I did catch it. Doubt I'm going to use it but who knows. I like Heracross and rarely use it. So next up is Goldenwood which shouldn't have anything interesting but...apparently it does now: (...Yes, yes I do. It's adventurer rule number 5) For those who don't know the adventurer rules (...even if I'm probably making some of them up): 1. Thou shalt only leaveth thy hometown only if thou isth on a journey to save a maiden 2. Thou shalt talketh to every NPC thy eyes cometh cross 3. Thou shalt enter the inn to rest even if thou has taketh no damage 4. Thou shalt buyeth and keepeth one of every item, weapon, and armor 5. Thou shalt enter every building thy can enter 6. Thou shalt examineth everything for thy loot for the taking 7. When thou is struggling to defeat thy enemy, thou shall vanquish all other monster in thy area to gain strength (I see thy understand adventurer rule 5 as well) (Then lock your doors. It's as simple as that) (...Oh don't remind me of that b..) (You're daughter is a very sweet and nice girl. Please don't call the cops) (Wait...her name is Veronica Vasile. Should I start calling her Vivi, Viva, Vevi, or my favorite: VV) (Since I don't want to go to jail...I'll play along) (Yeah, totally didn't sneak off onto an island or anything for cash...totally) (And I also signed into slavery...I'm go...is that a Sphinx! Gimmie!) (Okay. Where is your lab?) (Nope, just got here) (...What if someone snuck on the train? Wouldn't that make all of this counterproductive?) (Yet you are letting a random trainer waltz in...can I see you house as well? Now I'm curious) (Wait a minute, are Veronica's parent's divorced? I should have asked that) (Hmm...not bad. A little small, but not bad.) (Isn't that in Kanto? Oh wait Johto, my bad.) (Don't remind me of that. Ze memories zar painful) (...I was there) (...We already know this, but okay?) (...I guess a researcher would be curious about that) (That...was probably my fault) (Oh yeah, I was wondering about that. Looked like something good was behind it) (Yep, I remember now. Mosely was...some help there) (He knows the hidden 8th adventurer rule) 8. If there is an area thou cannot access yet, thy contents shall be highly valuable (You need me to do your dirty work and find it. I was going there anyways so win-win?) Skipping that dialogue because there's not point in reading it. (Yeah, just leave it to me) (That...probably will help me out a lot. Thanks for the key) (Back to adventure) I kind of like this event and I don't know why. Nothing really springs out, but it is kind of unique in its own way. (Hmm...tempted to catch one of those) And now back to helping Venam's dad's quest: (...wut?) (Oh. A puzzle. Fun.) (This shouldn't take long) (It didn't) (Sigh...I never can do my job quietly, can I?) (...No...a Mankey did it) (Why is it that anyone outside of Melia's group acknowledges my talents? Maybe I should just leave them all behind to die...Nim is an acceptable loss) (Uhhh...she hasn't changed a bit for better or worse) (...Well that explains a lot) Yeah. He probably got a divorce. (...Excuse me for a minute while a punch you in the face) No, it is not okay to leave your child behind without any regrets. No wonder why Venam is kind of screwed up...still don't feel bad for her since she nearly got me killed...I'm starting to think I have a poor choice in friends. (Yes, hopefully a new TM that I can use) (That's not a TM) (Well there's some books) (Hmmm....something tells me we shouldn't touch it) (It's gotta be Darkrai. Bad idea, bro) (It's never that easy, is it?) (Joy. All that work for nothing) (...Oh more joy. I've got more work) (Quick Mandman, to the V cave...I immediately regret typing that. It's a good thing I have no dignity left) (Don't tell me I have to...oh quick travel. Nice!) (So we give up?) (Basically he's saying it be damaged hard, bro) (It's just a Pokemon. One dies in a bit of lava every game) (...I really am your slave now, aren't I?) (You're conning me into making your life less miserable...should've known better) (Only if it conveniently works out for me) (So we need a checklist) (So far so good) (...that's all I use so that's taken care of) (So it's basically like Shedinja. That's easy) (...I think I have one of those...I forget where I found it) (Definitely don't have that.) (Sigh...all hope is lost then) (Do I have one of those?) (I guess that could work, but where the hell am I going to find a magnet) (I just need the bloody magnet) So we're sadly halting that quest for now since I have no solution to our magnet problem. I don't know if it's found on the ground somewhere or not but I'm not hunting wild nosepass. It's stuff like that why I don't have the old rod...which I forgot to do. I'm so great at showing off sidequests. Who knows what else I forgot. (I'm only showing this off for one reason) While I'm not going to show the Ditto quest, it apparently got changed and reset so now I have Ditto which oddly I didn't have before. Also got another Solrock which you have to capture now. Funny enough in like V7 I think you could completely miss it if you talked to the NPC and it disappeared then. (And...we are doing all that work for nothing apparently) Just wanted to show off this humorous glitch considering there's a huge plot segment revolved around it. (Oh good ice puzzles) (...Oh you've got to be kidding me) So I got Lapras but I can't finish the Poliwag quest just yet. Sucks when you have all but one but we'll get him eventually and finish all the rest of them after Amber. Now for one last thing: (She knows what's going on) (I guess...) (They're dead to me) (...Didn't we just have a chapter with this basically on it) By blood they can be directly called mother and father if they gave birth to you, but usually it's for someone who raised you as well as something like father-figure. Anyways, I find it ironic that the side content is more focused and well written over the main path. Like if the main story was written more along these lines there'd be less issues and less ranting from me. I get the experience part but then you get to stuff like Terajuma in which we see it all go backwards. I've played this part before and it was better back then. Issues? Hell yeah, but less issues over now. Oh yeah there was a cool segment where there basically were rocks falling down at you while charging that got axed. Like I'm just shocked how it went from good to bad when the only issue was the puzzles. I get the puzzle changes because they needed to be dumbed down (though I am the one person who now kind of misses the old painful jungle as it felt like a jungle). Oh well, I think we all kind of got the picture at this point. Who would have guessed I was out of the frying pan and into the fire. (...At least she didn't die to a lunatic terrorist with OP powers only saved by a girl who doesn't even acknowledge she has some blame) (............) (Pretty sure one of these kids probably just got lost and their parent is looking for them. Surely all of them aren't orphans in the wild) That sounds like it'd make an interesting documentary. (I...can't remember which one is which) (Uhhh...you're a terrible mother if you let considering how well you handled just one kid who almost died) (Uhh...no thanks. I think the solo train is the best life for me) (What is up with this whole mother thing) I think it's insult to injury since the whole mother death was executed badly. Not the scene itself, but the followup as it's like it never happened. The aftermath or continuation is way more important than the idea itself. Also, I do recall some things such as a future chandelure event since well it's impossible not to get spoiled for the entire Rejuv plot when you hang around the chat and forums. Kind of have the general idea of Angie and Amber segments and know most of the uhhh...Flora, Eric, Puppets, and Shota segments as well. I know you guys want me to act surprised but to do that I have to basically islolate myself and never talk to anyone since it well...there was a time where spoilers were sprayed like no tomorrow. Just want to say that when you expect a reaction from me and don't get one. Probably a good thing seeing my reaction to some stuff. Also Maman passed out but since my reflexes are that of an armless sloth, I missed it. Bloody FN key. Least my screen doesn't dim anymore when I screw up. (She's alive so probably) (You passed out and I had to carry you up here. I really am an errand boy) (Wonder how many a bartender witnesses daily) (You did hit your head on that small child. The kid's okay. His head is made of boulders) (Wait, it's happened before. How much have you been drinking?) (No wonder why Mosely is a thief. Girl would starve if she relied on her mom to feed her) (...I ain't got enough cash to afford my own medical bills so don't ask me) (How old is Mosely again. Basically the one in charge...Mosely in charge...that's a scary thought) (We all gotta go sometime, kid. Unfortunately certain people don't know how to stay dead.) (No worry. People passing out in front of me is a common occurence. If it's not that it's getting captured, threatened, or outright dying. I am one messed up child.) (...There are so many questions on why you think you're able to take and build an orphanage but...) (Really? We're really going to add more people to the death count. Oh but Melia is excused from death sure.) (You destined to get yourself killed faster) (...You're really going to get back up and do it again...some people) And that's all the sidequest pics I took. Honestly I just saw "wow, we really don't have much for this chapter" and kind of was going to slap this on for the Crawli fight to make it longer. There's really not much to talk about outside of well it at least being interesting and not dragging on. Seriously, these sidequests are how most scenes should play out. That's the price to pay for making a game with a silent protagonist in it. Though sigh...I guess I have to discuss more about silent protagonists: The really weird thing about Terajuma is that the main focus is being fought with giving the PC something to do versus plot functionality. Melia isn't hogging the main character role and it's more like screentime is being swallowed up to get everyone to say something to the point the PC kind of just fades into the background due to not being able to speak. This unfortunately adds the need for Melia to say even more lines to drive the Player's actions and renew their goal which is saving Nim...even though they can already head up to save Nim. The plot then tries to cover up the questionable actions of the characters by giving them more dialogue to explain it. And the player has zero say in what the group does...so Melia has to take action again and drive the plot. It's a circle which honestly has one very simple answer: accept the plot point is silly or contradictory and move on. It's like messing up a line in a song. If you mess up, you continue the song regardless and let the rest play out. Sure people will notice, but if you freeze up or retry it's going to just be more apparent and probably end up in a worse mess than it should. I get changes need to happen, but flow should always be the focus. Now let's talk about something that's rare: the player character not being the focus of the story or more specifically a silent protagonist. I've played a few games where they share the role with others (Xenoblade X and Golden Sun), but the only game I can think of where they aren't very involved is FE7. FE7 is actually a pretty good demonstration of how to pull this off effectively (though the story quality is another debate entirely) but I can't pull up any turn based ones off the top of my head. Deuteragonist personally is the best role to play for the mess we're in but there needs to be a balance and the big issue with Melia is that she kind of just told us everything we needed to do and had to follow her around. This goes back into letting the player feel like they are in control and the moment you take that away you pretty much are on the verge of losing most of your players or potential players to say the least. Maybe I'll make a COGA expanding more on the balance of characters since I think that's a topic a lot of Rejuv fans might want to see after my rants. Also while I may forget what I've said from time to time (hell there's probably going to be a 1,000 thoughts if I ever get to the end) most of the core ones I say don't change. My personal opinions may change over time, but most basic elements of effective story-telling are constant throughout history. Also here's my box of what my main team for Angie was going to be and everyone else is level 50 from Audino trainers: (Honestly, I think it may be too easy to grind since this took me an hour to do) Anyways, I'm going to go back to play some more Cold Steel while I wait for this 50 GB application to finish downloading which I need for school which is why I kind of decided to output this chapter. See ya eventually and also...I swear Derog and I don't coordinate when to upload chapters. It really is usually just pure coincidence.

Uh to answer all of that: I'm sorry I place more faith in people's competence then what is displayed. I'm actually what most people would consider pretty bad at video games compared to most people I know which is saying something. So if I can figure it out and do it while the average person can't...that's like really, really sad. Also, I walked straight into that one. Maybe I should head to the backstreet to meet the boys instead. For Volcarona, it's more of a mental factor then an actual difficulty. How about I put it a different way: let's say you're fighting an RPG where you meet a boss that is a huge dragon. You'd expect for it to be a long and hard fight, but in reality it dies in a hit or two as it has the same stats as a normal random weak enemy. That's exactly the mentality that kind of goes on with Volcarona. While it's not super powerful, it has been treated as such and often treated like a Pseudo in Gen V. Also having a mary sue is not okay. The reason the term came up is because people really dislike those characters and traits. They aren't well done and often give off a mediocre impression to the point it can ruin a game. Yeah, a story can ruin the game. It's just the fact that a character can be redeemed if a writer puts forth the effort and learns how to counter the mary sue traits to make the character more enjoyable to see or be displayed. And also, this segment is worse than Blacksteeple. Less annoying to comment on, but everything is just so weak. This analysis is just based on my knowledge and trying to fill gaps that the dev probably won't answer or flesh out well. I'm mostly saying Melia could have been easily redeemed and even an interesting character with great payoff but oh boy post Crawli is going to be fun from what I've seen (sorry I like Derog's run so I spoil myself). As for sidequests, I will have a chapter covering a bunch of them post Crawli. And...I get to show you a book called Carnelia...mostly because I don't have a good save on hand for Gambler Jack or the Doll Knights. I...thought you added something in an edit but maybe that was the bridge scene in an older comment. Memory is foggy so it was probably that. So something I don't talk enough about is that most people don't care about story or character depth and really only like characters based on their looks and face value. Ren really doesn't have any of those as he looks so plain and without studying his character all he simply grinds down to is a whiny teenager who defected to the other side for some reason. And honestly I feel Ren SHOULD be the weakest character in this cast but he's not. If I had all the time in the world I probably could do a full rewrite of the plot to better balance it or at least fix some of these messes. Most of it isn't even hard fixes...just so many simple things that should have been avoided in the first place. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 41: This has been buggin' me for a while (And we take a short break cleaning shop) If a game offers me an exploit to make my life easier, I was going to take it, like I said. Besides, I had to go back and heal in case of a surprise fight...which turns out there was a heal right by anyways. Don't you love it when you backtrack for nothing. (What kind of computer terminal is that?) (...Missed opportunity for a witty line) ...Seriously, could have said anything witty or amusing but we just gotta keep Team Xen as plain as possible. Oh yeah, who knows what way my mood will swing by the end of this. (So, you're throwing a temper tantrum? ...Don't do this to me game. Please don't do this to me) (You know I would like having a hover chair like that. Make me look 20% cooler) (If only that green stuff under had animations but tis the world of budgeting) (...At least he knows his place) (Ren probably realized he was nothing more than a goon at this point) (Yes and like 3 other people are the only ones who believed that) (Okay, time out) What did they mean by quite some time? Is it implied they knew she was alive before Blacksteeple or is this simply the discussion about knowing due to that reveal. I know it's probably the latter, but the former choice honestly would be more interesting as if she knew, why didn't she tell Madame X? I said Nastasia pretty much gives off the leader vibes and would probably be a better character if Madame X didn't exist but that's a behemoth I don't feel like tackling today. Well I'll at least tackle one subject: what even is the point of introducing Xen this early? We've had all this time seeing Xen so you'd think we'd know quite a bit about them and their purpose, but not really. Someone here want to tell me all the backstories and drives for Xen to do what they do? What about how they create all those Deoxys? Or how about the point of creating Dimension Pokemon or collecting souls? Or the whole Shadow Pokemon mechanic? I hate throwing Reborn at you, but it's one of the few games a majority of readers here played: do you want to know when you find out Team Meteor's goal? First episode to get an idea and the fourth episode for their primary goal. Most antagonist groups are very established within their first appearance and you have a deep understanding of why you have to stop them. Xen is so vague that thinking back I'm not even sure why they appear so much. When your goal is killing people for the sake of killing people it kind of gets old fast. (It's because you're a goon. You only follow orders, not ask questions) (...I'll just let Not Kamina answer) (Sigh...if only you had a personality and character. I might have actually liked talking about you) (Madelis has some crazy design fetishes. Can she make anything practical?) (...couldn't you just call Lovrina? I mean she did do a good job of finishing Ein's work...even if Ein was cooler) (You and everyone else, Ren.) (He's actually aware...) You know thinking on that, why aren't we allowed to snatch other Pokemon from them? I mean in Orre it made sense as the focus was to capture only Pokemon with tainted hearts as they were dangerous but here they are just kind of random. I mean we all remember that Makuhita attacking the player after all so as a means of saving the region he did something illegal for everyone's safety. He did steal Pokemon from normal folks as well. I know it's just a mechanic that really shouldn't be there at this point but oh well. (Hooray for pointless explanations to justify a pointless mechanic) (Let me guess: you only want their energy or something) (Would be really cool if Pokemon these guys used before became sha...oh wait) Another issue with adding Shadow Pokemon is the fact that you can't have them in doubles...for some reason. I know there's probably an easy fix but I really liked the idea of using one Pokemon's turn to throw a Poke Ball and the other one to take an action or heal. Someone should really work on adding or...oh wait Essentials is gone. Games aren't going to die out completely but the rate fan-games are being made should go down. I'm not going to really say much on takedowns other than there's logic behind both sides doing what they do and it's two wrongs and both are immoral. (What's up with this lost, sassy child?) (Really should make a better security system. This makes Sirius look more competent) (...Pretty sure Ren is a hobo) (There wasn't much to begin with...what even was the point of this place again?) (You don't say) (If we don't talk for 20 minutes or let me rant it all up for hours) (...Could have been executed better but okay) An issue here is that basically all of this is never mentioned again and it really should. Melia is the leader after all and...eh, let's just get to the fight and finish this. (........You don't say) (Let's face it: a turtle could escape from these idiots) (She's at this perfect angle. If I have SEC use a Flamethrower, it'd be a 2-for-1) (He's not wearing his serious suit. Must not be a serious issue) Remember the time characters remained consistent...I don't either. Then again, what kind of character was Nastasia even established to be? That'll at least be something interesting to talk about. (...how has Crawli not found out about this place? It had to be here for months) (.........If you have no deed, it's allowed or what the street folks call "I don't see your name on it") (I think it's an improvement. Less boring copy and paste cave scenes) (These guys make me look like I progress fast. Which means that turtle is probably in South America) (Or in the words of our street friends: "Fuck off") (This is what happens when you put two monotonous characters in an argument) (How I feel about this plot at times) First off, there's no point in having us here the whole conversation and I'd rather have jumped in mid conversation. Also there were so many great ways to play out the scene and I really don't see how you could just end up like this: Crawli: You have no right to build on my property. Nastasia: So that's what they meant by a crazy green hermit. Run along, pest. I have places to be. Crawli: Not a chance. I'm going to make you pay for ruining my place. Nastasia: Just one time I'd like for an idiot to not get in the way of my plans. (Turns to see the other group) Oh look, all the sources of my pain and suffering are here. Ren, do whatever you want with them while I take care of this business. Not my best dialogue but you get the idea. I always imagine Nastasia basically being done with this whole thing after people have gotten in the way numerous times ruining her plans. She even has to do Madelis's work to boot so I'd figure she'd be very annoyed by now. (...Don't tempt me to drop this run) (I really should have done a cliche line counter. Wonder how big it would be by now) (If I offer Melia as a sacrifice, can I go home? I just want the badge) (Do you really want me to answer that? I didn't think so) (Battle time! At least it isn't Gunk Shot Gren Ren) (...It's a good thing I taught Joker Signal Beam) (Of course it's Sashed. Why wouldn't it be?) (...Hooray for Scrappy making this a joke) (Hooray for no Will-O-Wisp) (Hooray for Bullet Punch finishing it off) (And Albedo probably died) (Now he died) (Damn healing items. Wish there was a no items mod) Oh if you're wondering how to make a no items mod, the easiest way would probably be to set the conditions for AI to use items to 0 when decision making then to use the normal can't use items code I made which is like 3 lines. Really simple to make though what I did was just use a difficulty mode and copy paste the trainers but without items. Might work on changing that to reduce the trainer text size and edits. (And here's where things go from good to horrible) (This damn bird won't die) (Like at all) (Unless you Jesus cheese it) (take one guess at what happened) (I love this Pokemon) (And Dewey actually gets to do something...and its only accomplishment in life) (Dewey the MVP) Not much to talk about in this fight since it's a rival fight. It's just decent which is how I like my miniboss fights. No reason to make every fight super gimmicky or hard. Does its job just fine though there's nothing really to talk about since it's the same old strat. (Cocky much?) (And this is where Rejuv's core problem is) The game has a lot of those mocking people for being weak moments. If it's not Melia it's Madelis here or Geara or someone else. It gets tiring. Nastasia never game me the impression she was that cocky or arrogant so this feels jarring and out of place...then again that's this chapter as a whole. (Natowl would probably be a better Fire gym leader then the current one) Yes, I am actually aware you used to team up with Crawli and got to fight her, but I never actually...I just watched it and oh dear god. Let's just not talk about that...ever. I mean yes, Jan has improved over time but he's trying to write something in a style that just doesn't work well with a silent protagonist as the drive. But...it's...don't watch that video of the original fight. (Didn't you get you ass owned by my mom earlier?) (Says the woman who got her ass handed to her by a pink haired underling) (Looks like he's going to get training...that was awful) (Bye. We won't miss you if you never appear again) (Yes, yes I do. Just like that turtle who is the richest reptile in all of Brazil) (Why the hell would you not try to capture her right now? She was your primary target) (I...am I the only competent one around here?) (I only have Dewey left and given these two, we're doomed) (I am surprised she is just letting us walk away so freely) (I think she likes us) ...I don't understand the logic here. First they try to kill us multiple times and capture us, but now they just let us walk away. You know what, I'm kind of done there. It'd make sense if it was a bluff as Madelis could have been really weakened but it was never explained just like so many things. At least this isn't a mess compared to everything else but bloody hell. (Should've challenged her to an inverse battle) (I'm stronger than Crawli so...I don't know...though the team I had was weaker) (No shit. You both did literally nothing but let turtles escape life sentences.) (............................) Why the bloody hell would you just agree with what she said given that if she could destroy us all that easy why didn't she eliminate the problem that even her boss thought was a serious issue? It probably has to do with the prophecy and wants to keep us alive but there is absolutely no indication at all. Hell, she could have been feeling merciful and let Ren's friends escape just to make him feel a bit better. But nope, we just got a Mwahahaha moment and she walks off. And you have the audacity to just simply agree with what she says instead of thinking it through a bit more. That also doesn't make us feel any better but that we're all pretty much shit and worthless now and only got lucky to make it this far and alive. Sigh... Days I've been rant free: 0 (I don't even think we see Madelis at any point in the story beyond this. At least I don't remember any discussion on her) (I don't. Can I just kill Melia here and now? It'd solve so many problems) Skipping the rest of this because...I'm tired of dealing with it ...It was mostly about him seeing this place and entering it...not much to talk about. (Is this my eternal punishment for being an ass to people?) (...........................................................hold it in. Just hold it in) (If you were saying these things in real life, I would be strangling you and I am a pacifist) (Excuse me while I accept that invite from our Brazilian reptile) So basically this was just a copy and paste of the lesson Aelita gave her and nobody calls her out on this. Something interesting about a leader in a group is that there's usually almost always someone who challenges them or feels they are a better fit. That's not always the case but all groups help establish why one person is the leader. Being the leader in a group that goes into danger or one that is going through many hardships often will lead to that leader going "Why me?" One of my favorites and pretty much the fan favorite of the Trails series is Estelle Bright who looks like anything but a leader. She's loud, obnoxious, and rushes in before thinking about what she's doing. Reason why she's the leader is that she's the moral compass that keeps everyone together and takes charge. By the way, I didn't like Estelle in the first Sky game, but damn her growth in SC really, really changed my mind on her. Kloe is the best though. Skipping that dialogue since it's just filling Crawli in...I'm going to probably start doing this more since there's not much to say. TO THE GYM! (I heard that Sammy is such a cutie. You should totes ask him out. He don't need that Rachel bitch in his life) I'm usually not very good with stereotypes or flamboyant/over the top character tropes, but I try my best. You know for the next chapter, I may just rewrite there quotes in this style since I'm running out of things to say...if we ever get there... (You mean the one guy who got wrapped up in all of this even if he doesn't want to be) (So be incompetent at my job and get paid for it? Sign me up baby) (Or for that damn piece of metal to get that free meal out of the only woman in this game I really like) (Oh boy, it's Sarge) (There ain't anything holly about that) (...At least the woman in charge is competent) (Yes, yes you do apparently) Not sure if person on the left or right is the guy (Normally I'd through a rebuttal, but...I am a terrible trainer) (At least someone appreciates me. Maybe I should become a ranger. Seems like a better life then the Melia squad) (Apparently?) (I'm sensitive about my back, lady. You hurt my feels) I do have terrible posture so... (...This has been the most interesting segment in like the last 15 chapters) (Of course it's never that easy. At least I'll get experience out of it) (...I hate you too, Bill. Hope your GF over there finds out about your affair) (...I'll be back soon. I need to look for a nice dating spot to make a certain Bill as miserable as possible for this) (It's all about the front and not the junk) (Still better then listening to Melia. I also need to blow off some steam so this works out) (I've met him like uhh 1...2...3...4...5 times already. I even have matching shades) (Would you care to join us, Bill? I'd gladly have you solve the puzzle while I watch) (Do it! Do it! Do it! You won't!) (We're doing work. Let's get started already) (I should have picked the first choice XD) I chose the second since I wasn't in a sassy move. I assume she says the same thing regardless though. (Fine...) (Guess it's time to be productive for once) (I like Holly. She accomplished more than most people in this game have) (So stand around and do nothing? Unless they want to try and deal with the crazy ice lady) (Not like I have anything better to do) (Wow, I'll take that as a compliment) (Hooray for work) (I like puzzles so this shouldn't be an issue) (Considering how much I played Zelda, this is basically what I do half the time I game) (...Also not like I don't search every corner anyways) (Like Loewe is just Samurott without his awesome name) (...She's talking about the Ariados on the right, isn't she?) (...not like I have to play Bayablade with them or anything) (...I have a feeling everyone in this world is incompetent) (Very incompetent) (Oh...that's probably why they got stuck) (Hello there, friend. Would you help a brother out?) (THAT IS NOT HELPING A BROTHER OUT!) (Oh. I never did mention this new member) So I purified and trained Masquerain up. Any Pokemon with Intimidate is automatically a good Pokemon. Just saying. Also caught that Pinsir just out of curiosity if I could. I looked at it and...it's just not really good enough to use in Rejuv due to how the game is designed. I would love using the normal one but you really can't which kind of sucks. (Yes, it was pretty easy) (...I deserved that remark) (...Probably deserved that one too) (So basically all rangers?) (All I see is mud and logs...there's nothing buggy about it) (...Now I'm thinking about the Lost Woods) So there's this thing going around called the Ocarina of Time Randomizer where every chest contains something random. Seems pretty cool tbh and I might try it out for myself even though I haven't played enough of OoT or 100% it. Think I got 18 hearts of the 20 though. Loved Attacking Toucan's reaction to all his bad items and Bluepies. (You fail and you should feel bad) (Probably should get my boots out for this) (Yeah, yeah, leave the map and everything will reset) (Except you and the trainers needing to be fought) (Basically the not screw yourself over option) (...oh...I thought it was a one way passage) (...And I screwed up...I think) Pretty easy puzzle but I did mess up once since I didn't realize I needed to move a certain log first. No idea how people struggled on this...unless it was different in V9. (...which I've been doing) (You really like putting a guy down, don't you. I deserve it though) (...And my spirits have been restored. Let's do this) (...We better do this because I can only do five) (Oh joy more log puzzles. My favorite) (Well that was easy) (Oh hell no. I am not becoming dinner today...fine. Here lies the end of da Mander) (Or not. I have no words to describe how illogical that was) (.......Who the heck are you?) (Are you that one girl I rescued from the cave in FRLG?) (How the hell did you change clothes so quickly? Wish I could change mine that fast) (Yes. Very. Like how?) (And you did a horrible job. Couldn't even take care of a lousy Carnivine) (...Too soon, Jan. Too soon) (Let me guess: you're Crawli's mother) (Close enough) (At least he wasn't raised by Aunt Betty) (Something tells me he went down the line to become a terrorist) (...Or that. Wait...does that mean I was adopted...he lied to me) (Oh hey character awareness. You're doing better than 80% of the cast) (...Then hop aboard the screw Melia train...something tells me that's going to be misinterpreted and I'll be going to jail) (Congratulations, you've now become more generic. Good for you) (No, no she hasn't) I guess being left on an island alone does stuff to you. (Wonder if you can catch Pokemon in that water) (...I've got nothing) (Thank you Aelita for being able to do what most characters would be doing right now if they weren't silent) (Yes, yes we did. And we made good time as well. 20 pics or something) (Onward, we shall get our easy badge easily) (If I have to battle you, I'm gonna cry blood) (Oh....this better not be a mating ritual) (So are you married or single because normally I'm not all for MILFs but...) (...Shit. I knew it was too easy) (...I could) (I'd be willing to do both) (Don't worry, you get used to it after making 5) (...Dammit not another one of those) (.........I take that back. I want nothing to do with you) (...Shit. We're fighting a lot of trainers, aren't we?) (Can I please be one? I want to get paid for saving people) (We're not going to have to kill each other, are we? I mean Reborn does need it's food supply but...) (Well I'm a dead man if it's hand-to-hand combat) (Oh. Guess we're both dying) (There's going to be an invisible staircase, isn't there?) (...Well it'll at least get me out of this run) (I have a gate feeling about this) (No, but I don't have a choice, do I?) (...And family is nothing but trouble) (What about for 30 minutes?) (...that's why half of you are dead, isn't it?) (Eh. There's worse ways to die) (Just let me jump already!) (FOR WALL SENPAIIIIII!!!!!) (And die just as quickly) (Shit, I'm alive. Pretend you didn't hear that, Aelita) (Remind me to ask Holly how many people died trying this) Seriously, they couldn't put a lake or water underneath just in case. And no, spiderwebs aren't that strong in real life but it did make for a cool dungeon in OoT. (Dorcas trusted others. Look what happened to him) (Yeah. Let's just get to the gym battle already) (...I swear this game knows what I'm about to say half the time) (Yes, yes he should) Honestly, I really liked this segment and it brings back vibes of what I want to see from Rejuv. There's no danger or threat or even a sense to rush and nobody to really get on my nerves. There was even a puzzle to distract me from complaining or ranting. It's rare for me to prefer the not as serious stuff but something about it here it's done just right. Even Anti-Assist as much as I hate them are better than the main story which is kind of sad. Xen is just not that interesting and neither is the vague prophecy that is never really explained or even talked about. (...Oh god. I'm having final boss vibes from this) (Guess we're gonna fight Crawli. Good thing I brought my OP team to smoke him) (With love? Stars? A giant key that a bunch of hands are trying to take from us?) (Or that) (Sigh...guess I gotta do this alone) (Me since I'm the protagonist obviously) (It does give me sludge bomb later) (Couldn't you do that already with your fists?) (...Couldn't you get uhhh...1...2...3...4...5...6 badges from this island? You only need five to sure. Well 7 if you count Saki) (Oh hey a good possible future Pokemon candidate) (That was surprisingly fast paced. Why couldn't everything else feel this fun to write?) (Meh. This is tame compared to what Ame throws at us daily) (Awww...he does care) (Wait that wasn't serious. And I had a hard time back then) (Meh. Probably will be just as easy) (Shit. He's Shademan. That explains everything. Bringing help to one poor orphan at a time...what do you mean that's not a ranger's job?) (Considering who your father is, he probably stopped looking after 5 minutes) (...I don't need your backstory, boy) (...Dammit I wish my mother was alive. I don't want anything to do with half these nutjobs) (...They don't. Do you see all the horror movies with them in it) (And cue the battle in 3...2...1) And this time I have it in Video Format: I decided to include the outtakes since nobody likes seeing only perfect runs and sometimes likes to see struggle. You may think "3 tries. You must've thought the fight was too easy." It's actually the opposite. I thought this fight was way too hard and when I saw the PBS data I was even more surprised it went that far. I want you to remember that we're at level 45 where teams are just starting to get established and people are settling in for certain Pokemon. The lead here is fine but it's beyond that where the issue goes. This fight is stacked in Crawli's favor. He loses 1 weakness, has a sticky web that can't be blocked or reflected back, and perfect Pokemon. Yes, all of his Pokemon have pretty much perfect movesets and stats. It was just absolute pure luck that I won this fight due to a single exploit (which I thought that Galvantula was Choice Specs seeing how much damage it did). What the bloody hell was the test group thinking to say that this was okay or passable. So you're probably thinking "Oh he's being so whiny and calling it too hard but he makes a hard mode hack for a Pokemon game. What a hypocrite." Here's the thing: I spend 100s upon 100s of hours doing that. I don't want to be doing that when playing other games which is why I picked the normal mode since it should be a good balance of difficulty which I pretty much could pick up any team and still have it be manageable. Do you see that team? That is 6 mons that should all pretty much destroy him but honestly if the AI was better it'd be an easy win for him. He would destroy me that easily on normal mode. We're not talking intense mode where I think a fight like this would be perfect, this is normal mode. I'd rather be playing a SMT game over dealing with this kind of balance because this is a little extreme even for me for what I considered a Hardcore fight (almost Master fight levels). And with that V9 was something I was willing to suffer through the stuff I disliked to talk about the good, but V10 we're back to the reason I quit in the first place. I'll take more about that later. I don't want a single fight to ruin what honestly wasn't too bad of a segment despite the character personality shifts and other weird things. (...And I went back and you need Rock Climb for it...lovely) (...Maybe it isn't in the swamp) (The Yanma is the most interesting thing of this whole thing) (Oh teleporting propaganda posters how I missed thee) (I would make a religious joke here, but this is a christian server) (How does she send those out?) (And you've been unable to fix it, apparently) (It's okay. I do it all the time) (I'm outta here. At least I got the shiny badge) (The battle, great. My mood, horrible) (Only because of AI exploits) (Hope you have better luck then I do) (...You are the first person who's said that. Thank you. Truly, thank you for understanding) (Why not try fighting Valarie afterwards? That's 2 badges out of the way then) (Eh, Hawlucha will probably sweep) (Yes, now can I go?) (Where's Adam? I'll take him on right now and get that badge) (Or we can do it the hard way. Seriously, we have a gym leader right here. Let me fight and get creamed at least before trying that option) (...Couldn't we then just go...oh right we need the TM. Guess that makes sense) (Well that's the end. Seriously, we did a segment in a month. Aren't you proud?) (And this is what my team looked like after the battle if you were wondering) I'm honestly at a loss on what to tell you guys. There's a number of things I could do to make this more enjoyable for me but if it weren't for the run, I'd honestly probably abandon Rejuv again right at this point ironically because we just went straight back to why I quit in the first place. It's just going to keep repeating itself and I'll have to rely on actually using strong Pokemon to win over being able to be a little gimmicky or creative. Maybe it's just me, but V9 I didn't feel overwhelmed bar Maria's Bewear but Valarie and Crawli gave me that feeling. And this pattern is going to repeat. Overwhelmed doesn't mean anything that kicks my butt...it simply means I just don't feel competent enough to even have a chance to win. Only time I felt that in Reborn was the Glass Gauntlet which to be fair was mostly my fault for all my severely underleveled and kind of meh team made for singles mostly. I like writing the run and rants can range from me having a little fun or just blowing out some stress, but I really don't want to have to deal with these fights where I don't have an adequate team so I have to spend an hour training a bunch of new ones just to barely win on normal mode when I just want to try to pass through as streamlined as possible. I'm going to leave this open for at least a month, but I still want to do a run. If you guys really want me to continue through Rejuvenation I'll try to find solutions to make battles more tolerable for me (easy mode is not a solution), but I'm willing to open up to instead doing other games or hacks. It could be Desolation, SPEE, or even stuff like livestreaming games or even a written log of something like uhh...Dragon Quest 8. Obviously, I'll have to look into the game before deciding but I just want to hear thoughts.

I have no words...you just...how? Like how did you think sending a dragon type against a bulky ice type was a good idea. Well RIP all those who fell in the battle. Probably could have ended so, so much worse.

If it were just you, that'd be one thing, but I feel like people are hopping onto this and getting onto this scene's case when in all honesty, it's such a minor issue. Actually it is pretty important and significant but the story is so vague it's hard to understand it. I'll at least say the plot could easily do without it but I guess I'd prefer it be kept in no matter how pointless it seems. It has to do with the few but tainting contradictions in Melia's character. I mean if I really wanted to, I could probably tear through any challenge and make it a joke despite all my complaining and struggle. I try to pick a more streamlined thought process as nobody likes to constantly grind to beat a boss. Most players just pick up a team of 6 (maybe 8 if they're into it) and want to run on through. And yeah I'm well aware of Will-O-Wisp since I'm usually a more defensive player. Intimidate would pretty much shut down this group as well. If a quest is available, I will do all means to complete it as early as possible if it is realistically possible. Side quests often are made to help strengthen and prep you for the main story often giving nice items and materials. More importantly they help flesh and make exploring the land worth it more as you are doing two things at once. Why explore something twice when you can do it all at once? Always going to do it ASAP and still will whenever possible. Anti-Assist is one of those ideas that I question why, but hey we got past the worst segment now. And while it may seem idiotic, rarely do Pokemon learn coverage moves naturally which is often something that even the best slip up. I mean Ame thought Excadrill learned Stone Edge. I don't ask you to learn the Orbal table in trails (such as making Silver Thorn) so hey, I'll sometimes not realize stuff. I think Silver Thorn is 4 mirrage and 2 fire quartz. The whole Conk thing is a whatever as I have a belief to err on the too easy side in the early game then too hard. Not everyone playing the game is a Pokemon expert and you should help build them. Intense mode you can go more all out. As for Zetta, that was a mess but I guess I could do a rewrite: Zetta: So you all finally came. I wondered how long you'd keep your ole friend, Zetta hangin' Melia: Who'd ever want to be friends with a creep like you? Zetta: Ouch! Stuff like that hurts my nonexistent heart. Valerie: Honestly, you two are acting like such children. What do you want? Zetta: Nothing much. Just a little family bonding time. Melia: If the professor wants to talk, forget it. Only family I need is right behind me. Zetta: You don't get it, do you? After all this, you still remain our naive little princess. Melia: I know all about you and Team Xen's plans. Zetta: Oh really! I know something you don't though. I'm willing to tell you if you beat me in a battle. (group turns towards each other for a chat) Valerie: This is obviously a trap, but I suppose we don't have any other leads so we may as well see where this leads us. If anything happens, we'll step in. (turns back to Zetta) Melia: Fine. I accept your challenge. Zetta: Not you, [Player]! The damn kid is the reason I was trapped in that dimension so consider this payback. Adam: Man, what did you do, [Player] to get so many people out to get you? Braixen: How about you zip those lips and watch [Player] beat him? Adam: Fine. Zetta: Don't get so cocky. I'm much stronger than that pathetic excuse for a dimension Pokemon. (Battle) Zetta: Figures. I'd love to stay and chat, but it looks like my time up. (Gets poofed away) Melia: Damn. We can't let him get away. (Everyone leaves) Aelita: Hello? Did you guys forget I can't use Surf. Sigh...go on without me, [Player]. Hopefully, someone will come back to get me later. (At lava pit) Braixen: Well this is a hot mess. Valarie: Not the time, Braixen. Zetta: There's never a bad time to joke around. Though this does put a halt to our negotiations. The boss man wanted you to meet us at the peak. Melia: So why don't you take us there? Zetta: Too much work. Besides, you guys got bigger problems. Melia: Explain. Zetta: That'd ruin the fun, but since you did win the game I guess I have no choice. I am a man of my word. It was silly of you to bring all your big guns here. Nobody is left to take care of your precious little base. Melia: I don't get it. Braixen: Me neither. Zetta: I forgot who I'm dealing with. For all the nincompoops here, we're attacking your ship on the shore as we speak. I wonder how many they killed by now. 5? 10? Maybe all of them. Valarie: Dammit. So you were stalling us. Zetta: And doing a fantastic job. Now you better hurry along to save little Timmy. Valarie: I hate it, but he's right. We've got to back there pronto. (Everyone but Melia and Player vanish) Melia: I swear. We will be back and we will stop you. Zetta: It's because of this 'we' that so many people are getting hurt. If you really cared about them, you'd leave them out of this. Melia:... Zetta: No reaction. Whatever. I got places to be and people to burn. (Zetta Leaves) Melia: Let's just go help the others. *** I'm aware of some of the future plot points but not all of it. I'm not super satisfied with it, but hey, this is just demonstration stuff. If I was doing it for an official thing or really cared super deeply I'd reread and run an edit (and I'd need to know all the plot points). Also got an impression Zetta was the chill one of Xen. So now we have Forbidden Love, The Edge of France, Chilletta, Sad Madelis, and Nastmina. I'm not sure if that's better or worse than the original Xen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 40: Melia-go-round This is going to be a long talking one. Oh boy, we're at one of those chapter. So let's get started: (This office is starting to...hold on I'm dying) So for some reason whenever I was typing the clear editor kept coming in and out constantly. Whenever you post and image from a different site it comes out so those people probably know what I'm talking about. That was a funny little distraction. Hopefully, no more will pop up. (I passed my one test I was studying for) Oh yeah, that's why this part of the run came out so late. I was working on school stuff and cramming. Well not really cramming. Creating Hardcore/Redux does have its own benefits and perks. (Aelita is probably sick of these meetings. We've been here for 8 days) (The run is canceled?) ...I'm kidding. I may be slow but I probably won't cancel the run...despite my annoyances. I mean I still have 6 gym leaders after Crawli if I remember right so we still have a long ways to go. Halfway there though. Halfway there. Even though my goal is to pass Derog so I can read his run worry free (Does that mean we'll send rangers instead?) (Or we could I don't know send them back home) (I VOLUNTEER!) (I mean it's not like you're usefu...) (PLEASE LET ME STAY!) (At least he acknowledges his irrelevancy) (We need the tank though. Someone has to protect the healer) (Standing there and doing nothing is cool. Less annoying) (Leave me behind with my rock. It's all cool) (When you realize there are 4 gym leaders in this room and I only have one of their badges) (Dammit, now I have to do work) (So the only two people I like are leaving me. When did this become a soap opera) (So we lost our brains and our brawn...we're screwed) (I could go on a rant on this, but this is one battle I'll refrain) (Hooray for not all characters talking. It makes things go faster) (Uhhh buy the Item in the AP shot?) (Or fly across it. Or just ride a Pokemon with fire typing) (Hooray for conve...when will characters ever face the right way) (I got nothing to joke about this. Lava surfing would be cool other than the whole dying part) Someone find me a pic of a guy doing a drift on lava. There has to be something out there that did it. (Good thing there's 3 gym leaders on the island who could give it to us) (Or maybe just let us borrow yours for 5 minutes) (Or give us a Pokemon with it?) (Probably because there's no lava anywhere for like years) (Or that. Should've called it Death Mountain for the Zelda Reference) (Aelita really wants to leave) (This is the Strength TM all over again, isn't it? I'll go get the beers) (Yeah! We get to visit a new place) (Of course. It's Akuwa...this game really likes recycling plot points, doesn't it?) (I wonder what kind of books Crawli reads) The moment you realize that was a stupid caption... (Of course you don't. I'm guessing you have to give a chicken to a guy in the forest to get a hatchet so that you can find a giant to make a sword by giving him eye contacts kind of tedious) (Rawr! So demanding) (I probably will end up finishing this a day after this cap) (This is about as awkward as high school where I had to stand behind my group of friends since I got tired of dodging everything) (Warp pads are pretty useless imo since Terajuma is really small) (Because fast travel doesn't exist) I really don't think it'd be too hard to implement fast travel. The scripting part might be tedious, but being able to warp from town to town would be so helpful. Yeah, yeah I know fly does that but nobody gives fly early anymore. Reborn at least had a legit good reason not to. (One of these days I'm just going to make a chapter of me doing rewrites of the entire dialogue of that chapter) Well I liked Adam's slight development but that was more or less uneventful. Not bad. Not good. What a lot of this is. (...Well this is also new. Why is Jan dialing back all the fun crazy stuff?) So for those new here, the original of this scene took place quite a long while after this event and had said character swim across the whole ocean in rage. We actually do stop in Gearen City first but I can't remember everything. Most of what we're seeing is just added on dialogue. While I thought the swimming thing was silly, it was ridiculous enough for a laugh. I'd rather go back to that then whatever we have now and I thought that needed to be badly fixed which is saying something. (I prefer the English version myself) So for those who haven't played Rejuv and for some reason are first experiencing it in this run, the song that's being played is called Doggars where it reads off all the letters then yells Doggars which is the song that one poison gym leader in B2/W2 song. I forget her name. The Japanese version used Koffing's original name (for the song) while the English version used Pokemon. I'm really surprised the original wasn't the English version. Also they should bring that back in Gen VIII but I'm probably done being a Pokemon fan by that time so I won't know. I have 5 series with top priority, 8 which are on my watch and buy list, and 20 series I still need to try out a few games in. Pokemon is just one that doesn't interest me as much. Anyways, we're getting onto a tangent and would be on a long one if I talked about any of those on the list. Another series I still haven't played a game in is Suikoden. Skipping the rest since it's meh dialogue. So many near pointless scenes in this segment and yet people say the bridge scene is the worst. (Screw you, let me sleep) (At least let me find my bottom half. Being part ghost is hard) Good advice for RMXP devs: make the sheet its own separate tile so that you can set it as always on top so you don't get this situation. It's a tad bit tedious but it'll look much nice. Either that or have the character on top of the bed. This just looks awkward but could make for a nice ghost visual effect. (Maybe because I had to stay awake for a week straight afterwards) I love how nonsensical this is. All my Pokemon do the work and I'm exhausted. Jan really has to lay off on that anime binging or whatever he's taken his inspirations from. (I couldn't screw it up any more than I have even if I tried) (Great until you showed up) (More explanations. I preferred it back when gym leaders told me this stuff after I got their badge) Glorifying HM importance in the plot really hurts it imo. We've gone through two of many conversations on this thing and it's far, far from over. I may flack on the whole Strength HM quest, but it was pretty brief in which Victoria says Cain is going after Kiki for it then we follow shortly after for the same reason. Doesn't get mentioned again until after beating her. That's it. It's mentioned twice if I remember right. I get why it has to be done here but it's whatever. As long as this is the end of Magma Drift discussion I'm fine. (This couldn't be explained before because...) (Everyone here is a nincompoop) (The badge that teach it is now gone?) (And we have two here in this village. That's an easy solution) (Maybe if I became a gym leader all our problems would be solved then. I'll gladly replace the steel one) (Given everyone's typing and choices, I'd say an issue for all of us) (And here we have it) And there's the irony there. The solution to all the issues is that game logic clashes with story logic. Flying over the small pit is very doable but there's actually a bigger issue with an active volcano. Heat and CO2. Both of those will kill you off very quickly if the lava doesn't. I'm no expert on it but flying over lava is risky yet it never gets mentioned. In fact, it makes you wonder why a whole army doesn't fly over the peak. It makes no sense and just gets ignored entirely. There's so many easy solutions to explain this. It's dangerous and risky without being able to traverse across lava so this should be a last resort and since their target is Melia, they likely aren't going to do something to Nim so it's better to plan then to rush in. Her backup plan would be to have a number of them fly in. Basically, they need time to prep so the Player working on getting the TM isn't a bad idea while on the way. Not that complicated to fix. (How about you give me the sixth then? I mean Maria's badge is probably different then yours) (Yes, and we have three gym leaders. Just let me challenge Adam and we'll be done and over) (Of course it's never that easy) (Well it's a bug leader. This will be an easy badge) So I know people said the V6 version of Crawli was way too easy, but that actually was my favorite bug leader battle that I faced. Yes, I liked that one more than both variations of Shelly. Difficulty was just right for the time even if I was like the only one who really struggled. Really nailed the gimmicks to make the fight interesting at least for weaker teams like mine was. (I feel less safe when I'm with you and Aelita. My chance of death drastically increases) (Teenagers with their damn music. Some of us are trying to sleep) (Okay this element is getting to be quite annoying) Remember how I said it feels like the dev thinks we're idiots? It's the use of being unnaturally specific so that players have no way of getting lost. So many times the game just flat out tells you what to do or need to do instead of being a little vague. Like how the bloody heck would Melia know it was next door and not two doors down. I could see the arguments someone could figure it out, but hey (I liked the original version so much better) In the original Melia decided to go and meet said person next door which kind of made more sense as Melia longed to see an old friend. I'll let all these scenes play out but then I'll jump back into this. It's fun because I get to play and show off one of my favorite games to explain it. (It's gotta be my 3rd least favorite character in the game.) Aelita, you moved up 3rd to 4th least favorite. Keep going and I might end up saying you're meh. (Yeah. No. We're leaving) So fun little glitch is that the song plays while you're outside in the hall the first but then stops. I'm not sure if it's possible but it'd be cool to make the song louder the closer you are to the door. Yes, I know it's possible, but I don't know how much work is needed as changing the volume might restart the song. Anyways, let's meet a new team member: (I was thinking about cars when naming it) (You know, Magneton kind of looks like a chemical symbol) And here's someone everyone forgot: (It's been a long time, old friend. Welcome back) And we're still not done as we have another temporary member as well: (Do you know Dewey?) Agate, Auto, and Dewey were all trained up for use later on since Exp is a lot easier to gain. I'm mostly using Magneton since I don't want to use Electrode or Raichu leaving my options limited. (Probably in braille) With that little distraction out of the way, let's get this over with. I don't want to but will. (K-I-L-L-M-E) (Knowing the plot, I'm pretty sure that's a legal disc) (...........Yeah...........I didn't miss this) As much as I hate Melia, she at least has some redeeming qualities. Venam doesn't...Please don't make me relive that. (I am an agent of chaos though) (Sigh....somebody just kidnap me here and now) (I know. It's a tragedy she lived) (She's the main character. She's the only safe from death) (Can't say the same for me) (Can I leave now? Please?) (I will get into explaining that later as well) (Funny enough, she still pretty much is. Like how did she develop...if you know what I mean) (No, I really don't think you would) This is another contradiction in Melia's character, but it's more of a lie and I really hope it is purposely supposed to be a lie. Believe me, this is the one thing (Well that was about as climatic as the Zetta fight here) (Somehow. She somehow remained the same. I don't know how) (Maybe being booted through the roof gave her enough brain damage) (Irl: since version 4 came out. In-game: 4 or so months) (I wouldn't say recently...I mean honestly who though Melia was dead.) If you somehow thought Melia was dead, you really need to play more stuff because that is the biggest pitfall most people fall into. Fake early game deaths are so common it's not even funny. I have my own rule of thumb: If a character is stated dead, they either are dead, or reappear rather quickly. There can be rulebreakers and should be rulebreakers but with this idea down it grounds the concept of death and keeps the impact it had. I mentioned before you need to establish ground rules in your world and not deviate from them. Rejuv did and now we have this beautiful mess. (Does that clock say 4 O'Clock? Never noticed that until now) (Why do people like Venam again?) I get the whole teenage rebellion design but it just never did it for me. I mean Venam cranks it up to an 11 which a lot of characters who have a quirk exaggerated it to the point it becomes the character themselves. Name one characteristic or thing Venam did that didn't involve her being a spoiled teenager. The game also treats it like it's completely okay. Seriously, how do...I'm not going into Venam as Venam is an awful character that just frustrates me. I would defend Aelita or Melia before Venam. Yes, Melia. The more I look at her character the worse she gets. And she's one of the main characters. Bleh, moving on. Please move on. (Remember about the time we were in a rush because Xen was threatening to kill our friend if we don't hurry? Yeah, me neither) (I'm done. I'm not screencapping this shit. Instead you'll get emoticons and faces. That way we all can be happy) (-_-) ( X.X) (>.<) (How does someone mistake a whiny teenager for a man?) ($_$) ( ) () () () () () () () () () () () ( + ) () () () () ( + ) () () () () () Sorry if they're small. I don't really want to change the font size for every single one. Anyways, I get to log on to steam and play an old favorite of mine. It's such a good source material for explaining stuff. And...it's actually hard to find good NPC dialogue from the first game but here's just some examples: Skies FC (contains spoilers) Cold Steel I (Pretty much spoiler free): I wanted to bring the first one up as an example of NPCs changing dialogue to react to something instead of not caring. In fact, every place you visit in the Kiseki series has NPCs who usually end up acting more like characters than party members do in some RPGs. And it's done in very little dialogue. The best part is despite not seeing most of the chapter you can probably piece together what happened in the first one which is why I said spoiler. Cold Steel is a little bit more on what I was saying. You never have to talk to a single one of these characters yet they get introduced and you get to know them and their traits rather quickly to follow their storylines. Some of them are rather interesting as you dive into their daily lives. This actually is pretty much the minimum I expect from the main cast of Rejuv since we're with them a long time. So what's the difference here? First off, I just spend like 20 pics going through and making emoticons for captions on a rather pointless conversation. With an 8th of that time, I've shown information and personalities from multiple characters who do the same thing Venam and Melia did just there. If someone suggests to you to add more dialogue to solve a solution, then they probably don't know what they are advising you. Adding more dialogue should only be done to expand and explain something very unclear but needed. It's better to leave that as optional then. It's probably more important to rewrite dialogue to shorten its length. I cannot emphasize that enough and while I do ramble and repeat in the run, this is just more of me displaying unfiltered thoughts. There's so much content in Terajuma where I go "Why is this even here?" which in a way makes it worse than Blacksteeple. And I doubt the issue is going to go away soon. (It's raining, there's a Phione, and there's a man trying to bride a tree. Life is weird, man) (That guy really wants in that tree's wood) (...........I'm like the driest and cringiest pun maker on Reborn and that's even one I'd never use) "And that is not the only bug I spotted. It seems my old rival has come to ruin my catch. Come, grasshopper. I must spread your blood on the dance floor." .....Actually, that would be in-character for Rorim to fight us without thinking or listening. (Reminds me of Henry writing) So one of my specialties and probably one a few old RP players will remember me for is what I call jerk writing. This is for characters who try to find ways to irritate or annoy other characters just to get under their skin and often think of themselves as the superior. Pretty easy one to learn and master, but hard to work with without having skills with multiple characters. Don't let me RP a character for too long or I might start acting like them more or picking up habits. Anyways, it pretty much just takes practices until you get a character down though some characters I just cannot write for the life of me such as Florinia. Robotic speak with high level vocabulary is just something I'll never be able to do. (Wait, did I really just sum this up in one line? Huh. That was unintentional) (...And we're about to get a joke singles fight in 3...) (2...) (That's not singles) So...being a ding-dong I didn't take that many pictures as I thought this fight was going to be a joke. Yeah, he has a Volcarona which was Crawli's ace. Rorim is what I treat as a regular trainer battle and for some reason he had one of the best bugs (close to being the best) in the game and we're not even in the 50s. It's like Luna with T-tar. Even if it's not tough, it's a mental freakout which you brain reacts accordingly. I didn't have my normal team since I thought this would be easy...then I just brought back Walter and it was. (Yes, I lost the first time) (Even then Volc does okay damage. Joker is kind of frail) (And for some reason Ludicolo doesn't have Swift Swim...I think) (I don't think I need to explain this) I appreciate the idea but...I honestly have nothing to say about this fight. It's a cool idea but you pretty much are either over-prepared since Rock Type obliterates any of his main threats or under-prepared as one QD from Volc pretty much can make it an auto lose due to dancer. There really isn't a middle ground where you can say "Oh wow, that was a really good an intense fight" which is fine. That's more of a fault in the overall Pokemon battle system then a battle design fault. It happens. But I'm sad to say that the shadow sudowoodo is no more and there's no way of catching that Shadow. Not unless we had the power to travel back in time...I wonder... (Joker is surprisingly tanky) (So is Auto) (And the whole reason we did this) (And yes, I think that is a really cool design and why I fought him again) (Albedo is still relevant as well) Yep, I went back to V9 just to get a single Pokemon. I have no shame...even if I lost all those achievements now. Yep, they reset. (At least he isn't as tedious to find now) I'll admit it was a nice change to put him back in Terajuma instead of him appearing here then teleporting back to Goldenwood without explanation. Really though, the old location didn't bother me at all and wasn't that tedious. Moving on though: (Dad, you need to lay off those grudges) (As long as it's under 5k Poke, I'm okay with that) (Remember the good old days where if we say a gym, we ran in and got a badge? Now you have to go out of your way to find them and drag their ass back for the medal. You should get a badge just for doing that alone) Skipping the dialogue since it's more of the same: (Oh hey, new area unlocked) (...It wouldn't be called a secret if it were easy to find) (I couldn't even if I tried) (In other words....wait for it....bug off!) And after working my ass off in the cold hard rain, I return to this: (I could imagine the player having a "are you kidding me" face on them. I would be pissed off too) (I'm going back to emoticons again: ) () () () () () () () () (Remember when Valarie was relevant? Neither do I) I love how the game is written to forcifully include so many characters then they all just disappear. Pretty much for a long while. Great writing. Couldn't have done it better myself. (And we're back to contradictions in Melia...I love those) More on that later. You'll have fun rereading these sections to really understand it better. (Select choice: Let her join Don't let her join >Let her join, but leave Melia behind ) (Gee. I wonder if there is something else really important we should also do while we're at it. Not like we don't have 100 hungry mouths to feed or anything) (We could bloody drop them off at Sheridan if we're in that much of a hurry) (You probably shouldn't be yelling the secret we're trying to hide from everyone right by the rangers) (...So much of this dialogue wouldn't be here if the player could talk) (It's...pretty much Gearen City but less exciting) Okay, I think we've finally hit my breaking point on this subject. So here's a serious thing: do you want me to completely remove any scenes where it's more or less a complete repeat of the dialogue because as much fun as it is to make captions while annoyed, I think it's just wasting everyone's time at this point. It's not like I could say anything that hasn't been said, it takes time to write and post it, and we're seeing it so much. Basically all I'd do is skip 10-20 pics and just give a note what it was about before moving on. I'd like to hear thoughts as it's about the same time to include as it is to read and skip them, but it'd only be for scenes not contributing to anything. (I'm the new captain of this ship. Captain Black Mander of the 8 leaves, 1 shore) (Yes, and you will take me there now) (...Are we really skipping Gearen City? That's new) (...We could have just skipped all that dialogue and got to here...lovely) So just a little note is that you can talk to Augustus here and now regain access to Gearen City and all the previous areas. You really only have to fight Zetta and Rorrim to regain access which is nice. It means only Valarie is a big mess now. (Will I ever get out of this damn rain? My coat and perfected locks will never be the same after this) (At least there's not snow on the ground and I'm freezing my ass off or burning to death in the jungle) (So you finally noticed your own stench. Took long enough) (.......What's the worse that could happen? Get dirt on your boots? Actually, that sounds like torture) (And by cautious go every way that looks dangerous) (Oh hey, it's a Slug. I shall name you Sir Pearl of the Northern Marsh) (You must flee this land, Sir Pearl. I sense my inner demons about to be freed) (Hold up. How the...) No matter how you put it, this doesn't make any sense as there's no way the impact of the explosion would launch machines this far out. If it was that impacting then the whole volcano would have erupted and it would have been bye-bye Sheridan. Also RIP all those Pokemon in the place then...that's kind of morbid. We had to have slaughtered at least 30 of them. Are we sure we're the good guys? Skipping dialogue because screw this scene: (Sums up pretty much what she was saying) (I guess that too) (...I totally would be okay if she never showed up again. Crescent Machina is liked by nobody) (......................I'm not even going to try to comprehend this) (.....I swear whoever is writing this is just trying to think of all the lines that probably sound cool with little thought. They aren't Brits.) I have nothing against Brits. I just think that phrase is weird coming out of Melia which kind of came out of nowhere. .........Also as a little note: For now, we must leave my trusty steed behind. He is too precious to be tainted with such sinful displays. (FINALLY! Do you know how long I've been waiting for this?) (Also, who would have guessed Ren would be good at business of all things) (...Pretty sure after everything that happened, nobody would be in a good mood) (LMAO! Never change, Ren. Never change. Doesn't even realize there's intruders) (Hi. I know this is awkward, but please come back. I need an intelligent person to talk to. One that acknowledges my presence) (He's not good at this whole evil thing, I see.) (I'd say more like sold his soul, but whatever) (That's about the reaction I'd expect from him) (...Welcome to the real world where truths are all but lies) (When you realize you have the shortest hair in the group) (Well said, Aelita. Well said) (I'm just trying to hold it in right now) (Aren't you being a little hypocritical there, Melia?) (I'm pretty much the only one who didn't think that) (And Ren just got his first rejection) (Why don't you have Mr. Biceps on the left and Freddy Vigor on the right assist you?) (Don't worry, Ren. You can take her. She's a pushover) (...Ren, I can assist you if you want. We are dealing with a Togekiss with unlimited power so you may need help) (Seems like Ren has finally started to become a man, but sadly that day is still far away) (Oh look, the game autosaved...how convenient) So about that autosave...I'm not really a fan of it. Sure it'd save you a lot of progress, but then there's the issue if a player wants to backtrack and now can't due to that. I know the whole multiple saves thing but it's just a little note. I'm not really sure how it works either. (So are we just going to leave these totally not stolen from another game Vigoroth alone?) (A little?) (I'm gonna go with the left...I think that's Elekid) As a side note: Right is better as Magmar is so much better than Electabuzz. No idea why the Magmarizer and Electirizer are so damn late. I may mod one in if people really want to see me use Electivire since it technically is legal. Also, that is the scene I was waiting for and I'll get into it in a minute but I want to clear everything else out of the way first such as this: (Yeah, I'm not sure if I'll use him or not. Electabuzz is kind of worthless though...or mine is anyways) (You must be a turtle then because I was exploring the outside and running from all those Slugma and Voltorbs) (I'm going to give that a big pass) (...You are slowly warming up to me. You know what I'm in a good mood. You're now into the okay characters range. Welcome to the not terrible group) So thankfully we can also go to the East Side now (I don't think that was possible until after finishing this place in earlier versions) (I think this was the Baltoy and the other side had a Masquerain) If you were completely locked out of the other side though, I would say go for the left side no question. Masquerain is easily a better prize than Magmar. And remember it got a pretty significant buff in Gen VII making it even stronger. Another thing I did before continuing was use this little exploit in the game. So whenever you switch versions, the game resets the achievements obtained. However, I believe the points are stored elsewhere so you don't get your points wiped. So if you continuously switch between versions you could gain an infinite amount of AP to get all the rewards. Even better is that the achievements increase after a certain amount so the points gained increased to 4 > 5 > 6 and so on. I may have used that to get all the items. Technically both legal and illegal. I'm still going to use the HMs on the Pokemon out of novelty, but now I have a lazy method if needed. I may have also gotten a certain TM (cough Sludge Bomb) way earlier due to it. Now let's talk about the Ren scene: If you think I'm going to go on a rant about how bad it is, that's actually not a bad guess but completely wrong. I'm going to sound absolutely crazy, but this is by far one of the best executed scenes in the game and rather masterfully done now. There's one detail removed that was there originally, but we'll talk about that in a minute and where that plays out. This scene for this game and how it fits in the story is awful. It's really a tragedy as it's outside factors that ruin it. So if you see this as an awful scene after I explain it all, I am not going to disagree with you. For those who want to see this in a new and better light, sit back and enjoy this analysis of a mary sue: So to understand who Melia is we have to trace our steps all the way back to the very beginning. Before the incident in goldenwood. Before the player arrived. We start with a shattered mirror. It is a mirror with all the answers yet we can only see small bits. Jenner is a man who has sided with terrorist and took on the job of being a caretaker for a child which is a tool they needed. His job was simply fatten up a pig to be slaughtered. He, like most parents do, grew attached to this child to the point he felt she was his own kin. She accelerated in knowledge learning advanced engineering that many high schoolers would struggle to even understand, and became well qualified to earn a spot as a gym leader. This environment and learning gave something Team Xen didn't want: a girl who could think and act on her own and would doing so. Jenner had a change of heart in which he couldn't let his daughter be turned into the tool that he was in charge of creating. Just like Neved, he was willing to do things against his goals and morals for the sake of his daughter. He knew what was to come and as a final act, he created the snag machine as a means for Melia to protect and fight against them. That wouldn't be enough though, he likely though, so he decided it might be wise to send someone else. There were only two people who could be trusted with this: Ren and the Player. While Ren was a close friend who was responsible (unlike Venam) and would do anything to protect Melia, time was not on Jenner's hands. The player was the only one close in the room and had to be trusted. He knew Xen hadn't corrupted a foreigner and they seemed like a do gooder so he took that gamble and sent them to help Melia. It's been too long to tell if it's intentional or not, but Jenner did everything in his power to help. Up until Goldenwood, Melia would best be described as perfect. In her eyes, there was little that could make her life any better. She was off to a high ranking job, she was more intelligent than the average person, she had some really good friends, and she had powers and abilities nobody else had. While she may shrug it off, it likely made her feel good people were jealous of her and her powers such as attracting shiny Pokemon. There is nothing wrong with this, but it is set up like the player is supposed to like the and they are a great person. Even in Goldenwood, Melia was still the perfect girl being able to look at herself in the mirror and be happy. Nobody is perfect and soon Melia would learn the truth of her happiness. The girl in the mirror was nothing more than a lie. Everything about her was a lie and everything she ever did was simply a lead up to be used as a tool. She looked into that mirror again and now she saw nothing more than a thing for people to use...except for the player. The player knew nothing about her so there was no way they could be using her, but tragedy struck and the two got separated. That is when the roles of Tiempa and Spacia come in and we don't know what exactly they did, but that leads us up to Blacksteeple. It's funny how a girl meant to be used as a tool became a tool of someone else. We don't know what that duo did, but they set her with a new goal and resolve in mind: stop Team Xen. While the mirror may be cracked, the girl behind it is still there. Melia succeeded in her true goal: finding out the truth. Nothing else mattered. The people there were just people, but their souls would help Team Xen so she needed them out of there to stop them. Losing one soul was a minor issue, but hardly mattered since so many others were saved. Her focus on finding out about the tower was much more important and her getting all the info possible was what she called a success. There was no failure in losing a single life. She didn't even know the woman. Just notice how she reacts about the death compared to the others. Everyone else is trying to support and push the player forward to help overcome this loss. This accomplishment really stroked her ego of being superior to everyone else. The fact that she stopped Madame X gave her the belief she was rightfully fit to order others without question. She also managed to trick and fool the best of Xen letting her to believe she's better than Xen and they are simply easy to pick off fools. She was already better than everyone else if not faultless. She didn't need anyone else either which is why she was going to continue her journey alone, but fate would not have that as we hit Terajuma. With Saki missing, Melia took responsibility and lead the group to look for her. We can assume the reason Valarie didn't take the lead roll was simply not to get into conflict with Melia over decisions made. This leads into the return of Team Xen members Geara, Zetta, and Jenner. Melia can't help but show disgusts towers her father since all he did was prep her to be used as a tool. She lashes out of anger and frustration for perhaps being stripped of her perfect life and happiness. The shattered mirror is a void that cannot be filled and anything that reminds of her of that is a frustration. She's not even able to listen to reason and it blinds her. So much that she ends up making a mistake: getting careless and letting Nim get captured. This is the first time she questions her superiority and her power. She failed which leads to that bridge scene. This is the first failure she had and the first thing she feels accountable. Aelita jumps in and tells her to get over it because they can all fix this together. This is where Melia becomes a bit more trusting and letting others join in and help her. Unfortunately, that ended up being a mistake. Being stronger than Zetta made her cocky thinking of him as being nothing more than a mere weak grunt. That's something Zetta tries to comment on saying she's blind to the truth and that they are bigger and stronger than she thinks Team Xen is. This was all simply a means to get her to break down and surrender seeing as the more they wait, the more people are going to get hurt. This puts Melia in a tight spot which she only has one choice: keep everyone but the player out of this mess. She realizes she needs help but people are going to get hurt which is why she's pushing for the player to get Lava Drift. These doubts make her start being a bit more careful. It does leave us with the contradiction with little explanation. She acts with a sense of duty, but also act like a careless girl around Venam. I mean she is still a little girl and sometimes people break out of the mature role when close to someone else. So we'll simply keep that as the explanation for now. Pretty much Melia is a broken little girl who was desperate to find a purpose after being found out she was a tool. The role given to her is to use her powers and greatness to stop Xen maybe even giving her an impression she was a goddess or chosen one. Her failings do help ground her a little bit more, but the mold is still there which is where we get to Ren. We don't know exactly why Ren joined Team Xen's side, but I don't think it's because of the Player. I hope not. Ren really didn't have anything left so Crescent perhaps approached him and he asked a certain question: "How do you revive the dead?" Perhaps Crescent didn't know the exact answer, but she could have told them if it were possible then Team Xen would likely find a way given the importance of Melia. So perhaps he joined Xen as a means to bring back the dead. You would be surprised at the extremes one would go to bring back the dead. Some are willing to turn into a monster themselves to do so. Oh? You didn't know Ren was in love with Melia? It's not a surprising fact and he likely took the death way harder then Venam. Now I can explain the Ren scene. Ren is simply following orders when he discovers a truth: Melia is alive. He is in disbelief and perhaps angry towards Nastasia. While what he was doing was wrong, he wanted to explain to Melia he was doing it for her. Melia would not have it. She simply has a belief that she is above others and even if someone else was doing what she did, they are in the wrong and are evil. We don't know Ren's reasons, but we do know Melia viewed him as being the same as Xen: a murdering terrorist wanting to use her as a tool. Reason and logic aren't going to reach her and she demands Ren fight so he understands that. This ultimately throws Ren from a shaky middle ground into Team Xen's hands. With Melia hating him, he finally has nothing left. All he can really do is follow orders because if he ignores them, he's as good as dead given our heroes aren't going to help him. We do have an issue with the explanation and thus the contradiction: we never see Melia demonstrate superiority directly and often dialogue is directed at her either being nice or giving orders. Everyone in the group is her friend. That leads to a whole bunch of issues if this true. Then if it's not, then try to explain her being a hypocrite to Ren. She's smart enough to realize the truths yet she doesn't. This should have been the focus of this arc but nope, we gotta have everyone talk about random pointless stuff and everyone has to get along. Now imagine the jungle exploration, but with Adam or Braixen with a little back talk on Melia's attitude. It would at least give insight that she's not exactly the best person in the crowd to be with. So let's answer an age old question: Is Melia a Mary Sue? Yes. However, this recent segment is what we call the deconstruction of a Mary Sue. So what this does is simply take a character which fits the Mary Sue archetype and ends up changing them and molding them into a different character usually as a means to ground them. If done right, this can turn an awful character into an amazing one. It honestly would have turned Melia into a very interesting nature, but the writer's were too worried she'd be unlikable so she keeps her same Sue traits as before acting leaving us with a character with a lot of faults but nobody accepting them as faults leaving us back where we started. I would really need to reanalyze all of the dialogue again, but this just gives you an idea of what the episode could have been about instead of: Melia: We're going to do this Aelita: Yeah, let's do that Valarie: I'm going with you Braixen: Me too Adam: I'm a rock Crawli: (After this meeting, I'm getting far away from all these idiots as possible) I know it's a little short, but I'm going to end the episode here since that's a lot to digest. And no, I still don't like Melia, but at least she's a hell of a lot more interesting to study than like...most of the cast. Also somehow gave myself more appreciation for Ren. Now I shall ride Sir Pearl into the sunset.

The error message is that you have the settings set to read a certain file and that file is not anywhere to be found. I think it's the No TM mod. You also need the debug application or RMXP to add in custom Pokemon.

It's...not that exciting of a fact and more of a coincidence since Orre is based off of Arizona (Phenac City is based off of Phoenix City's name). Nothing based on California or anything.

COGA: On Immersion: The Great Debacle of Protagonists Sorry for the clickbait title there, but I didn't want to cram the real title into well the forum posts. I want to address the can of worms in the room beforehand that people have strong opinions on both the generic protagonist and the silent protagonist, but we're not actually here so much to talk about the subjective point of view but on an objective point of view when it comes to the two types. If you spent enough time around me, you will learn that I am not a very big fan of silent protagonists, but whenever a debate happens I have heard the term that silent protags are very immersive. This may come to you as a surprise, but even when I was starting out as a novice writer and learning the ways of the craft, I never actually heard the term before. Well I have, but it was generally used so rarely I never even gave it much thought. I've seen it many times when talking about games though and subconsciously created a definition in my head. One thing I usually ask in my head when I see a new word is "What is..." because sometimes people bend and manipulate a word to their own fit. I make up words, terms, and definitions all the time. There's always ideas in my head and sometimes there's no specific standard to explain them. But that word remained unchallenged or questioned in my head...until now. What is immersion? I'm going to start with my own interpretation of the word before diving into my findings. Immersion to me is when I feel a connection to a character in which I not only understand what the character is going through but may even react the same way they do. When they become broken and hollow at some point, I feel the same. If the become angry, I become as well. Now I want to take your own definition of the term and put it in your pocket for the time being. This is one of the few times I'm going to say it might be better to have the wrong idea about it or be wrong. With this general idea in hand, I began trying to find a base definition for the writing element of immersion. You'd think it'd take me seconds to find what I was looking for, but somehow it took I'd say roughly 20 minutes to find what I was looking for. Funny how the most important aspect of writing couldn't be found within seconds. So the definition I found was "the mental state in which the reader no longer recognizes the writer's presence and creates the story themselves." If that definition made you go "What?", you were in the same boat I was. I really feel like I'm an idiot as I did writing as a hobby for about 4 years straight and I had to watch the equivalence of "Immersion for Dummies" to understand it. The video I watched did it with characters but I'm not mainstream so we're doing it the weird way. Let's take the simple idea of a hotdog on a plate. What do you think about? Some of you might think it sound kind of "Bleh" while others think it sounds delicious. And then there are some of you who like me who thought about a wiener dog standing on a plate. But you can't really say a hotdog is all that interesting. Now let's say it's rested in a bun and covered with some slow cooked chili and some cheddar cheese topped with a line of both ketchup and mustard with a hint of relish. Some of you might be thinking that hot dog is real good right now. What if I said the meat itself was a nice moss green and snot bubbles emerging from it. If you are disgusted from that image that popped in your head, that's immersion. You've probably done it before when reading a book but it's basically when a reader creates a mental image in their head about what's going on and vividly see it. A writer cannot paint everything in an image in words so they do their best to help guide an image similar to their's. This images help convey emotion or investment into a story and often times it's done without really thinking about it similar to blinking. That terminology doesn't really work here simply because of the title. This is a gaming article and a book certainly isn't a game. But the other fact is that you have images displayed in front of you already which the reader doesn't need to use their imagination to create. Supposedly games are immersive so this definition doesn't fit. I did some more digging and found out the supposed most important element to a game: the world. Toby Gard, a video game designer for the Laura Croft series, talked about how players have a set of standards on how a world will look and even a simple mistake such as an 80s car found in a 70s era game would break that idea and the immersion a player would have. The environment is such an important factor as little details such as the music and the graphics can enthrall our mind. Something about going down a long dark corridor with the screeches of a violin would creep me the heck out. Malchous Forest (one that connects to Jasper Ward) is a good example as it's set up to be a mysterious jungle with an ominous presence. You don't feel safe in that forest. I do sadly think the Pokemon element really breaks any immersion just based on how people are approaching it. We're not here to talk about the music, graphics, or even gameplay. We are talking about characters which are a part of the world which you could argue that, but that is not our focus. We are looking for what gamers call immersion and how it links to protagonists. We have all these elements that can create immersion, but we need a definition that can fit for any element or criteria. Immersion is a state of mind, not the feeling itself. We need to know what causes someone to reflect themselves into a character such as silent protagonists. It might not actually be the term immersion but the idea of a concept called spatial presence. It basically is a state in which the consumer has a sensation that media they are experiencing gives off a sensation as if it were real. Or if you are a dummy like me, it means you feel like you are there. Going off of my original definition, I feel like I was closer to this idea over immersion. The two are similar so it is easy to see why one would catch on and gain a broader definition. For that sake of simplicity, we are going to use the concept of spatial presence from now on. So do silent protagonists help convey spatial presence? If it were a simple answer, it would be yes, but then I wouldn't be making an article on it. The reason this concept works as a brilliant enjoyable element and is also one of the most damaging things to a game is because of how complex the human mind is. It's fascinating that creatures who found ways to explore objects found many, many light years away can also think jumping into a pool of lava to warm up is a good idea. People vary in both creativity and tastes. Some people simply accept that a silent protag is a cardboard cutout and simply don't find the entire story any good. As without emotional investment, a plot will feel bland and boring to the point you do not care about it. So as for why and how people invest into a silent protag I'm going to call the sandbox theorem. So what is the sandbox theorem? It's simply the idea that the less gaps and more complex a plot is, the less likely a player will feel emotional attachment. I want you to take a moment to think about Vero, the white male protagonist of Reborn, and tell me everything you know about him. Now tell me everything you know about Red from the RBY Pokemon games. What if I told you that Vero has more personality and characteristics than Red. Vero's sprite design is more expressive given a few clues on what he's like. Red has 0 characteristics. Nothing. He's often portrayed as a badass and there's so many comics and pics about him. He's one of the most loved silent protags even. You could try throwing an infinite number of factors in to try and examine this but Red is a better silent protagonist than Vero. It all has to do with how barebone and generic Gen I's plot is. There's all this big empty space for the plot and the players often can fill it in to whatever they please. If a gym leader is destroying them, they can be an asshole in their eyes. The protag could also be this cool awesome dude or some idiot who charges into doors. I feel the tool of reflecting yourself into a silent protagonist is best in an empty plot. It's just like a sandbox where one without anything in it means you can build anything within your capablities. Imagine trying to build a sand castle in a sandbox full of buckets, balls, that crying kid everyone hates, and a layer of rocks. I've built and designed plots from my nuzlocke experiences since well I ended up giving the Pokemon personalities and had to spend a lot of time. DQ IX I had a lot of humorous moments from my party such as when my priest (healer) was the only one alive against a tough boss. Since he managed to kill him, I always pictured him tripping and knocking the boss off the cliff since he never attacks normally. I also pictured the other three playing a card game every time the protag left them. So don't really feel bad if you think silent protags are awful because honestly, it all grinds down to how your brain functions. We talked about one side of the scale with silent protags but now let's get to everyone's favorite: the boring main likable protagonist. One of the most common trends in RPGs is that the main character is pretty much just some really nice guy which is usually kind of dull and boring. Before writing this, I would say that this is a terrible idea, but what if I told you that it's actually a work of genius when done correctly. Yes, a type of character everyone hates is pure brilliant when examining spatial presence. Why? It's simply because they are a boring character that you don't really care all that much about. That's not exactly true, but rarely are they going to be your favorite character or the one you talk about. In fact, you might not always notice their presence even if they are in every scene. It's hard to explain about something you never realize you don't realize. We have to examine a jarring protagonist first to understand this concept. Luke from Tales of the Abyss is a fantastic example. Most people who start up the game pretty much dislike Luke and it is very distracting. You really want to punch him in the face. This detracts from the concept of spatial presence simply because you are mad and irritated by Luke and realize you are playing a game. Now let's go to Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles. The Bionis leg story segment has a focus on Reyn, Juju, and Sharla in which Reyn acts like a father figure to Juju and even scolds him after nearly getting killed. Shulk actually has quite a bit of dialogue but the only major thing that someone likely would take away is his vision about Juju and Sharla getting killed. He doesn't get in the way of these moments giving a sense of irritation when he speaks. Being forgettable at certain points isn't a bad thing. It means it's easier to step out of the limelight and very few people will notice. It's very useful for letting other characters shine and be featured. Good party chemistry is pretty important, but that's a talk for another time. Now that I really discussed all aspects, I'll pretty much grind it down: anyone who says a silent protagonist is immersive, or at least more immersive than a talking protagonist, probably has no idea what they're talking about. A talking protagonist is designed more from a visual standpoint and a silent protagonist aimed more towards a mental standpoint. Something really cool about writing is that you don't direct and order characters to do stuff. It's more along the lines of following behind them and telling others what you see. It's often the simplest things that are the most immersive. Remember the first time we rode Epona across Hyrule Field? Or how about the snow tracks from the Magitek Armor? The key to immersion is visual presentation. This is far, far beyond simply how good the graphics look. It all goes back to the world being the key to immersion. This does bring up one last thing I want to talk about: are silent and talking protagonists really that different? At first I want to say yes, but in reality the difference is in the writer's/dev's style and not the protagonist themselves. It simply means that you'll end up liking and disliking protagonists on both sides. I guess I'll end on what makes a protagonist engaging in a game. 3 words: communication and presentation. A character has to communicate with others. If you've ever had to communicate with someone who doesn't speak the same language, it can be difficult but you can get messages across through multiple means (which is why I say true silent protags are hard to write). What a character wears can tell a lot about a character and give off impressions (which helps players create a character out of them), but what they do and how they do it is equally as important. Now that got me thinking about silent protag versions of protagonists. I wonder what the equivalence for Dante from Devil May Cry would be?

The reason why Shelly is Bugsy's sister in-game is due to the whole League thing which her character is based off of. While there are other references to the Pokemon World, it is and it isn't it's own thing which is hard to explain. There's a couple contradictions which has to do with a spin-off game in which we don't know when certain events happened, but other than that it pretty much takes place in the original timeline. Simply to say that it's the one that happened in Gens I-V. We even know Reborn would technically be placed in California. Not really a spoiler but Reborn is Orre's neighboring region.

The whole cardboard box debate is a little bit of a stretch of it confirming two certain fighters. One of them holds merit while the other doesn't exactly do that. Anyways, there being two more fighters left holds a lot of ground with everything said. We're getting rather close to the Smash release date which leaves really only one more opportunity to reveal characters in which we should learn these two. If there's more then there's more but I've argued this to the point I don't care. Ultimately there's no evidence to disprove this, and more importantly, there's no evidence to prove there's more than 2 fighters left. It's just better to accept that as a truth and be surprised then to be disappointed latter for there not being more fighters.

I will never understand monotype challenges no matter how many times people explain it. I have enough struggle as is to the point its kind of funny. Most games can really only be played once before the joy gets taken out of them but sometimes there's that one game you replay and get a kick out of regardless. That's where difficulty modes really best come into play. Strangely enough the issue is actually worse than before as there's added dialogue when there shouldn't be. Oh well I think people will appreciate my thoughts on the not next but following chapter. And ho boy this is going to be a VERY long chapter given the good stopping point. Zi zall speak with ze letters that Zi want when Zi want zem. I actually didn't talk about about the Tangela and Tangrowth but those actually look so much better than the Carnivine itself so I'll give props to that. As for everyone else, it's Golden Sun all over again. ------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 39: The Quest Day Ever Yes, we are doing every single quest now and aren't stopping until we get to the end. That's a lot of pics. (Well the shows over. I locked myself out) If I didn't take forever to update, I would totally do a chapter that ends in one pic. But we be going on. (And Braixen found a new friend) (I mean the concept of talking Pokemon isn't that far-fetched) (Why couldn't everyone else keep their explanations this brief) (Was that so hard?) Seriously, this is a good example of how to handle exposition instead of whatever we've been dealing with. Why do I end up liking the characters most people hate? Melia is one of those exceptions but I don't hate her as much as the beginning because bloody hell that mess. (This is new. When did marts get fancy) Also petition to make this the mart theme song: (And time for what the bulk of this chapter is going to be) But first... (I should've taken more screenshots of this) (......I can't believe that actually worked. This is gonna be fun) (It's always the stupid random things that keep me coming back to play this game) (I could do this all day) (No really, I could do this all day) (I'm having way too much fun here. Someone should stop me) (OMG! He has a bone animation. 10/10 best event) (...Please tell me this isn't one of those weird awkward moments I have to reject) (I own two dogs. This is like a nothing) (This may end up being a very bad idea. I already neglected one growlithe and I don't need to neglect another) (Guess I don't have a choice) (Welcome aboard, Rean) So yes, this easily is my favorite thing in the game because I am a dog person. I'm actually very good with dogs to the point I actually managed to train and help control my sister's demon dog. So now I have an actual dog I have to take care of despite not asking for it. He even bloody sleeps and spends most of his time near me. Some dogs are much harder to control than others but all dogs like 3 things: discipline, attention, and food. Aelita throwing the ball was just an amazing added bonus. I didn't expect that at all. Now back to the task at hand: (Meh. Mostly just want easy access to the boat) (So I need to find sharp objects. Nice) (...wow. so edgy. His name must be Cold Steel or something) (Oh good a hunt. This will be easy). (Told ya! Easy) (..........Why is there a random Phione? Guess I better catch it...later) (And that's the last one) (Well that was really easy. Especially compared to the original. Bloody hell that was quite the trouble) (Yeah. Now make my life easier) (Please do. This is getting to be a pain) (Probably the most important quest for me to do with the best benefits) (I do miss the old shortcut. Less Pokemon to annoy you) (...this doesn't feel that rewarding) (That's better. Much better) I'm surprised such a good TM came this early. Brick Break is such a nice move to have on Pokemon especially for screens and such. I'm not complaining as I didn't expect this nice of a reward. Now we're onto...oh god (I HATE THIS QUEST AND I HATE YOU!) So spoiler as I've done this quest before. That fight took me by surprise and yeah I kind of really hate it. We'll talk about it later. (If people can reach it, is it really a secret?) (Must've joined the union. Those guys will do anything to not do anything) (Oh boy a Timburr. I've never actually used one so it'd be a fun addition) (All I need you to do is stand right here and I'll solve everything) (Thanks. That leaves basically everywhere to look) This is where I actually went to catch a Phione but took not pictures. Oh well. I had trouble finding it until it hit me to look where the bar was. (WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT STANDING IN THE SAME SPOT!) (That would be me face palming. Literally the worst thing you could say right now) (Why am I facing backwards anyways?) (I say we just let all my Pokemon rusting in the PC finish the bridge and get this quest...it's never that easy) (That's a lot of Timburr) (Couldn't you just beam it inside a Poke ball until it calms down? Guess that'd be too easy) (Of course there'd be rain for the dramatics) (........There's a lot of things wrong right now. First, who'd believe a talking Timburr. Second, how do you even know Gurdurr would even understand?) (Yeah. Totally haven't seen that before. Totally not at all. Not like Lucario could do it or anything) (...........It's a Pokemon. What the hell would it do with the money?) (Yep. Definitely a union member trying to gain recruits. I've seen this manipulation many times before) (And sign the paperwork right here) (Of course. It's Arcanine all over again. Totally didn't see that coming) (Let's just get this over with) (Well that's an awkward pic) So how this battle went was I lead with Wisp Bone and Joker in which Wispy burns that Timburr in the pick on the right while Joke KOs the other one. Then Conkeldurr comes out and I have Joker use Reflect if it lives and Wispy burns Conk though I'm not sure if that's a smart or stupid idea as I don't know its ability. I think its Sheer force though. (And now we slowly and painfully kill that Conk) (As you can see, I have a lot of underleveled Pokemon I'm raising) Loewe goes for the kill with Aqua Jet. And then I get destroyed by Timburr. Let's continue from my second attempt. (Wispy actually lived in this one) This time I tried my best to keep everyone alive since Conkeldurr is the least troublesome Pokemon on the team. (And I was careful to keep that Timburr alive this time) (Thankfully Gaius gets a huge boost in this field effect) (But pretty much my whole team dies to these Timburr. RIP Gaius) And I also failed that fight miserably. Now to I think is attempt 5: (I guess Sec was the answer after all) (Bless you SEC for saving me all this trouble) So what I did differently this time is switched out Joker I think for SEC but could've been Albedo so that I could use him later to deal with the actual threats of this fight. (And that makes this bloody beast do actual tolerable damage instead) (THANK YOU RNG! That helps me so much) (And that's the last one) (.................................................No words could describe my pain and suffering) I am like surprised Derog did not wipe out on that fight. I was VERY lucky I spent a few hours getting a thick club a Marowak to even use for this fight and the fact it has Will-o-wisp which most people probably won't have. Conk is a complete joke compared to those Timburrs. A level 75 Conkeldurr is honestly the weakest member on the team and is supposed to be the big baddie. And nobody sees this as a problem why? I'm just going to be outright in that I think this is outright an awful fight and the worst in the game. You have to deal with this bloody fight all for pretty much a pretty shitty reward if you ask me. It's not creative since it's just high level mons with pretty much the deadliest moves they could be slapped with. Stone Edge? We're dealing with level 65 Pokemon with Stone Edge. With that crit change it's a game that can make you loose multiple times with RNG being RNG. I hated this fight the first time around and now I hate it even more. I am so lucky I had A. Marowak otherwise we would be waiting a VERY long time before I even tackle this. If this was a mandatory boss fight, I'd have quit the game without A. Marowak. I'm not kidding that's how much I hate it. (...That Timburr on my right is a floating head...) (Now that Timburr is looking at me. It's making me uncomfortable) (I'm too salty from that fight to make a snarky comment) (Now two of them are looking away. I don't like this sob stuff either) (Please tell me we're not having a second fight) (Oh thank god it's over) (That's basically any job. Isn't that also what you're doing?) (I'm ready to unleash my rage on you right about now) (Conk, please murder him. It'd make all our lives better) (....Oh look it's Team Skull) (Ranting on the internet about a silly fan-game?) (I'm only in it for the goodies honestly. I don't give a crap what happens to them afterwards) (This is about as stupid as the guy who sang a rap at the church youth group I was forced to attend) Imagine hearing a guy rap "Daddy take me home" for three minutes straight. It's because of things like these I became an introvert. (I'll challenge you to a battle right here and right now. Help Center. Loewe only.) (Well at least it didn't drag on) (Finally!) So in the old version the bridge actually helped build another shortcut to traverse through the jungle if I remember right. Maybe there was an item but there wasn't anything too significant. (It better be worth it.) (...................Oh bloody hell. Now I know why he went on strike) (Conk, please murder him. I don't even need the items) (...This guy is dumber than the ra...you get the idea) (Why do I get the feeling he's going to troll us and destroy the bridge?) (That or he's screwing the guy) (Turns out the bridge is safe...not worth it though) Personally, I'm not going to use Rowlett. Next three gyms will pretty much just destroy it. (And now I have to move a rock. Lovely) (At least I'm getting good experience out of it) (Well that was easy) (....Great. Now gimmie my money) (...How did she fit...I don't actually care) (HEY VAL! DO YOU MIND HELPING ME OUT HERE!) I'm just gonna show the pics and you make up your own story of how this battle took place. (Traitor!) (Thanks for the help, Val. I couldn't have done it without you.) (Oh wait you were too busy stuck in your damn book to notice my struggles) (What a good friend you are) (What a surprise. These quests have been nothing but letdowns so far) (Because 500 Poke is so much) I really should reread Derog's reaction to these. This one was actually okay. A little stupid but that's because I pretty much dislike the entire concept of AA. There more annoying than funny which is saying something considering the main cast. Well since Tropius requires progressing the plot, we're going to fight Ad...Nova in the village and call it a chapter. (That is oddly specific) (I still miss Adrienn. She was actually fun to battle) Also turns out I can't do that sidequest yet either because it requires having access to the north. So bloody hell we have to go through more of that. I should've taken more screenshots of the Growlithe. (Let's just get this over with so I can fight the inferior Nova) (Oh great more dialogue I can't rant about because it's analysis stuff) (And people say I'm arrogant) (It's things like this that make this analysis hard) So the biggest issue with Melia in this segment is that she acknowledges the issue but then it is treated not like an issue. I know people say Trails of Cold Steel has the weakest story and characters of the series but the party banter and conflicts really help balance the cast out. I'm not going to go on a how to build a character rant though I should go on a main and support character rant. Main characters are plot centric in which the story moves where they go. We have two plot centric characters right now which are the player and Melia. That's a fancy way of describing protagonists which yes this game has two. Supporting characters are a little bit different as while they can play both long and important roles, the plot doesn't center around them. While some may argue having a likable protagonist is most important, I'd actually argue having a strong supporting is even more important. And right now we have a pretty terrible supporting cast. Her name is Aelita. And she lost all her character with basically no explanation. Can we go back to the doggy? I was happy there. (Only because a certain ranger blocks my path) (Were is Adam? I didn't see him anywhere. It's like he's not even here) (If we're going on another date, I'm gonna need 10 growlithes to calm me down) (...dammit) (At the pace we're going, it won't be quick) (Easy travel...that'd be too convenient for this game) (Told ya it'd be way too simple for that) (Course you are. And probably will until I fix the damn thing myself) (Can we leave her in the wo...damn Xen wants her so we can't. Why couldn't they want like a rock or something? At least that doesn't have a mouth) (Undine, please drown me here and now) (Yet you would to a stranger you met for like 5 minutes. Yeah, that makes total sense. How did you even remember who I was after all that time?) (...I don't think anyone can think lower of you than they already do) (Hey Carvanha, I got some nice meat for ya! What do ya mean you don't eat stale meat?) (I'm the person you spent the least time with of all the characters here given we were on a boat and I was shut up in a room trying to get over a death which you could have prevented. One picnic and you're BFFs for life apparently) (Haven't seen them in a year at least. Probably a good thing) (Yes, Veronica is uhh...same shit as ever and Ren is losing his goddamn mind) (I try not to. One reminds me what I don't like about this game and the other is what I miss) (I still have a lot of questions like why are we still out here?) (Meh. Happens more than you'd think.) (Not like I could say anything anyways) (I should have brought some snacks) (Oh boy this cliche.) If the player could actually talk, I think this is where they would have finally snapped. It'll make sense but this is kind of half-hearted as while she does care about these people, she has something more important to do. The player just lost their mom and one of their best friends has been captured which was really out of their hands given they were dealing with that Carnivine. There's a lot of reason for their to be tension but because the player is silent there can't be any tension. (...I'm the bloody leader. You're just acting like you are) There actually really isn't anyone who really stood out as the leader of the group. Honestly, I'd say Braixen is the closest despite not giving orders. I've made two characters which had to grow into the leadership role they had. Many of the others earned it. It rarely is something that just happens with a snap of a fingertip but usually you can get idea who really is in charge and giving orders. Really good way to show it off or build it up is using a mentor type character. Usually are experienced enough to help guide a leader into the right direction. (Oh joy more people) (Why am I the one looking at her?) (............Well that is true) (That's someone we haven't heard from in a while) (Can't say I disagree) (Why am I here again?) (Oh joy another cliche line) (I guess...wait Aelita can learn stuff? Maybe now she won't run off and get herself killed. That's one less problem to deal with) (Seriously can I move back a little bit this looks so weird) (Or you could just train better Pokemon. That's a better solution) (Is this where I make a joke about the power of friendship?) (This is supposed to be torture. This is rather tame honestly) (...Considering my winning streak, I think that makes us all big losers) (Because knowing someone for 20 minutes makes you friends) (.......Sigh...this is gonna be a long analysis) (Now I feel really awkward. Jan, please fix this) (No matter what way I look someone is left out) (Wait, that was it. I was expecting like an hour of dialogue) (...Like which type of hair gel we all use) (Oh wait there's more. Guess I have to try and be funny now) (You know that moment where two people are flirting with each other and you're just stuck in the middle listening. That's basically what the player is feeling here) (...I don't really agree with you there) (I do agree with you there though. Can we get Rean out of the PC and play ball with him again?) (Fine. Only because I can't finish the sidequests until then) (.........The three amigos are you, me, and Adam. Everyone else can go back to the ship and wait) This is one of those times people over-exaggerate a scene being bad. It's not bad and while I think it could use some polishing it's actually kind of a good scene. The issue has to go around with Melia's poor character development which it's really hard to understand. I mean Aelita did say "shut up and get over it" which she doesn't care if Melia screwed up because they can't change their situation. Nobody said Melia didn't do anything wrong, nor did they say she did everything right. In fact, I think Aelita was mostly just trying to help her feel better as she did get to know her a bit on the ship. It's not a pointless scene as people make it out to be imo, but that's me. Do I think Melia is a good character? Oh hell no. While I don't think any of this is necessarily bad, that is one major issue that just got skipped over. Why is Melia the leader? Valarie makes much more sense as she was the one who helped rope the getaway plan and kind of is the reason most of us were able to escape. Honestly, the plot probably would have been really good if Valarie was the leader. I would like to see this get addressed and answered in a version update as I kind of want to know why Melia is the one giving orders. For the sake of this run, we're going to assume that was addressed offscreen and everyone kind of agreed to just follow Melia since she knows the place best. (Why do Aelita and Braixen get to sit on the couch and I don't?) (But it's okay since I'm next to Adam. Adam 4 best girl) (You could say this is his serious suit) (Don't question a serious man. Seriously) (I wonder if Adam and I could sneak out without anyone noticing?) (There's terrorist on the island. Go get them) (...Actually I know there's at least one grunt plus Eli & Sharon on this place from past versions) (And they certainly act fast) (Actually, it's all Crescents fault. And I guess Narcissa is partially to blame) (Look at how serious this is. Maybe we should have brought Sirius) (Well that was easy. Now I can actually do stuff and end this segment soon) (Yes, and we'd like to take a peak...give it a moment) (Serious business is serious...I'm running out of things to say, okay? after like 2,000 this becomes difficult) (We shall pound ze Geara into smizerines) (Wish everything dialogue wise was this easy and short) (We accomplished more in Terajuma in a chapter then we did in 3 of Blacksteeple) (Someone must've had a lot of burritos) (This is why mountains can't have Mexican. Zetta, you need to leave immediately) If I was still fluent in Spanish, I would rewrite all of Zetta's lines in spa...I just realized what I brought upon myself. Challenge accepted regardless. (It's gonna get real hot real quick) (Wait what? That's...what?) (Are we just going to ignore that people can change how a mountain feels?) (It's not like they are in...Melia, I've been trying to ignore it but for God's sake look at Crawli when he speaks) (Adam, you are not helping) (Though you aren't wrong. This is the stupidest discussion we had since...the rangers) (When a mommy and daddy volcano love each other very much) (I think Crawli and I are having a serious off) (When a Pokemon has more personality than everyone else in the room) (I needed that. I really needed that) (This Pokemon is a brat and I love it.) (Oh boy more questing. My favorite) (...I've seen the part and I don't even know. Something about uhhh....acutally I don't even know. It's a weird segment) (Neither of which is likely going to happen. Guaranteed to be slow and lewd to the fullest) (Wait a minute...rocks can marry? So I broke up with wall senpai for nothing. I'm going back) (Please don't send any rangers. This is a group I'm able to tolerate so I'd rather not find another annoyance to set me off again) (Angie...ho boy, that's not gonna be a fun one to talk about) (So basically some time when I was in prison. I carried out my year sentence in full) (It wouldn't surprise me if they got lost) (So I won't have to see those guys for a while.) (So did I. Those are such boring names. Would have gone with Dumbass and Dumbass with Boobs) (I'll become a ranger. Probably has better pay then whatever I'm doing now) (And the cliche of the people we come to not being able to help us happened. Every war game is pretty much like that) (Considering one of us can't fight, one doesn't have any badges, and the last one can't lead to save a damn life, we're doomed) (Well at least there done) (DADDY! It's so good to see you) (Yep, definitely sounds like what kind of person would give birth to this monstrosity) (Wait...does that mean Crawli is my brother) I got myself into this mess, but we're too late to go back now. (Why don't you love me, dad? All I wanted was love and respect) (...Hi, I'm your long lost older brother) (That's what happens when you use a team consisting of only Lewdilolols) (So that's where I get my idiom's from. What did I get from my mom who might actually be my daughter?) (You. Me. Dance off. Right here. Right now.) (I'm not really sure. I think it's a vacation) (Oh no not rep...) (You are a man of culture, I see. No need to know what serious business is not your serious business.) (Finally someone who understands me. Wherever you're going, I'm going with you) (...And I'm neglected once again) (Ain't no one here who can beat me in a dance off) (Meh. Just a normal Thursday for me) (Wait a minute we had different mothers. That makes you my step-brother or a brother from a different mother) (Probably a good idea. Staying here would be boring considering Crawli neither dances nor helps) (We're doing this again, aren't we? Who's gonna go next. My bet is Braixen) (...That was a random guess which I somehow got right) And I think I skipped the rest. And as for leaving... (I have no idea who you are) (WILL YOU PEOPLE EVER SHUT UP! YES! I was there like 10 minutes ago) (Funny how a game that is hard to get lost always gives you directions while I game like Reborn where it's easy to get lost doesn't) (Pretty much how most people playing this felt) Again, not good, but not awful dialogue. It does its job and doesn't drag on and repeat stuff like usual. I mean we're hearing a bit too much about Angie but here it at least made sense. Yeah some things like the whole Rorim B was bad but it was brief so it's not really all that bothersome. What was that like 20 pics. Most of the ones I rant on are like 50 or more it feels like. Anyways back to what this chapter is about. And we went through all of that just to do this: (Hello inferior character who nobody likes since she replaced best girl) (I'm only doing this for the Pokemon.) (Great. This is starting to sound like a harlem game. At least give me girls I like) (Pull out your balls and let's just get this over with) I'll try to remember but I actually forget what happened here. I mean it took like a couple attempts so I'm just going to talk about each Pokemon. Toucannon really wasn't that threatening but was at least threatening enough for me to use Will-O to weaken it. Pretty much helpless outside of that. I pretty much used Gaius to take care of Tsareena since it couldn't do much against him and it was an easy switch in after Toucannon was switched out. Easy KO. (It's Walter. Do I even need to explain?) Vikavolt was more of a pain then a threat. Mostly sacked Gaius here to preserve SEC for later. Pancha actually outspeeds so Crunch is really useful here to do some damage so Loewe, Gaius, or SEC and KO. I think on attempts after I saved Pancha for the annoying thing. (This is from attempt to and beyond) Okay so Lycanroc is pretty much the only threat to deal with. So Loewe can survive a rock Slide which activates Torrent which Razor Shell can one shot and if it couldn't Aqua Jet would then KO. This is probably the only time you are going to see Loewe do something. (And this is where I lost) So I had to restratigize on how to KO this Passimian which is the only real threat for my team to deal with given the level advantage. Guessing QA team skipped over optional fights like this given the leveling and stuff. Whatever. Walter here pretty much only had to weaken Passimian a little bit with Rock Slide while it went CC heave. After enough CCs, Loewe could shut it down with Aqua Jet. And this time Lycanroc was the last Pokemon and was pretty easy to deal with. (That's because you're not Adrien. That Hawlucha man) (Certain local trainers are also much better) (Is this like the last time we meet or something?) (So will I: I don't care about anything you say) (...Okay maybe I do care. One of them gave me Gaius who is awesome) (So far I've only met two. I only like one of them) (I'm perfectly okay with that) (I won't, inferior Adrienn) (Huh. I didn't even use Walter in the victory figh...I totally forgor about Jesus) Wouldn't surprise me if I Jesus'd that fight with Endeavor. I know it didn't one shot him. And now for the last quest to end this bloody chapter. (Yeah, the one with the Tropius...I don't like this quest either) (It's a Tropius. I'd be depressed too if people ate my bananas) (Oh god not this quest. It's almost as bad as the Conk) (Time to go on an egg hunt) (He's finally gone banan...sorry I'm running out of good jokes) (And here's where the bullshit comes in) (........I THOUGHT WE WERE OVER THIS) So first, this grunt had to be here before the Xen trio arrived so that pretty much Xen had operation here regardless. Second, the overdramatic explanation has gotten old. Sure it's funny the first time but when every mission does that instead of "let's go find it" it gets annoying. Tropius staring off into the north was plenty of explanation. Then again, he probably needs to do this for most of the playerbase to understand. There'd be a bombardment of questions asking where to find the tropius egg or complaints if it wasn't flat out spoken. (Who the hell wants a Tropius egg? I don't even want one) (...If this is a reference I don't get it) (.......................................................................) (And you wonder why the Carnivine problem wasn't solved) Unfortunately to finish all the sidequests you have to actually progress the story. And we progress a lot of it so we still have a ways to go: (Well this is just lovely. If only the cabin were a little closer) (Pretty sure he was kicked out for eating too many burritos) (Seriously, how does he even stand a chance?) (Maybe we could capture him and make him hostage to trade for Nim given he can make portals and stuff) (I always picture Zetta with like a gangster voice. Like the OGs with the black suits) (I'm just here to get a tropius egg. Don't mind me.) (When Zetta is the voice of reason, you gu...Jenner has taught you well to put down the man) (Melia, stop trying to stop him from telling important exposition) (The awkward moment when the villain is the only one who laughs at your joke) (I could think of 3 better comebacks off the top of my head) "Says the guy who was locked in another dimension for a year" "If your battling skills were as good as your mouth, you might be an actual threat" "Could you and your boyfriend turn it down a notch? It's waking up all the neighbors." (...Totally not implying he's a clone of Melia. Nope!) (Not implying I know spoilers. Nope!) (I would, but then your boyfriend would be mad) (Aww that's so cute Braixen trying to act tough...and oh god where did that Primarina come from?) (Easy KO for Wisp) (I mean for Loewe. Isn't Loewe the best?) (...I guess I'll take this Shadow Pokemon. Really don't need a Chinchou. I would've preferred it stay Jumpluff personally) (That was easy) (Jesus cheese ftw) (Self explanatory) (And the battle is over pretty much) (*Ahem* Feel the sting of the swordmaster's blade. Man, I haven't said that in a while) (Well I guess he caught one in the forest...I miss being able to catch those) (No, no you did not.) (Kind of wish my lead could be sent out too...or my starter at least. Would've been a cool touch.) If you wanted to do the starter it'd be pretty easy as first you'd do a check for what starter they picked, then simply check to see if that Pokemon is in the party. If it isn't, then you'd probably just pick the lead Pokemon and use the follower script. Or just not have the Pokemon out at all then. If I could make it, anyone could. (Oh god we're doing this again. It was old the first time) (We get it? Now shut up and let the plot progress) (Thank god Adam is quiet. Us quiet bros gotta stick together) (Can we just shove him in the water?) Seriously, that'd be hilarious and accurate. I don't even care if it's Melia or Adam. Someone should do it. (...So he's not going to move out of the way by moving out of the way) (Zat ez no Giratina zat ez ze Dragon Warrior Princess Chicken from another Dimension) (Okay, now I'm getting a bit annoyed with Zetta. Geara is better) (You do that while I go egg hunting) (LMAO They forgot Aelita) (Could be worse. You could be stuck here with Saki...which everyone forgot about. Told you they would) And now back to our primary goal: (Just give me the damn egg so I can sleep) (Where the hell does Team Xen find these crazy people?) (No, I'm here for my book I loaned you) (Great. Somehow they found a way to make this more annoying. Lovely) (And repeat this for like 20 times) (Something tells me there might be something else in this cabin. Probably will forget about it before then) (Probably a research lab on the volcano activity) (Yet you would think Madame X would praise you for it. Irony?) (Remind me when you have a baby to break into your house and snatch it leaving a note that says "it's just a baby. You can make another." Yeah. Not so funny now.) (You're right. I don't.) (Give me the egg and nobody gets hurt) (Well that might be a small issue) (Crisis averted) (That was surprisingly easy) (You have two crappy Pokemon and a Staravia. It was obvious who was going to win) (Name's Commander. Also known as that guy who someone ends up stopping Team Xen because either a friend drags me in or they won't leave me alone) (But it has a nice reward) (Just give me the damn egg. I'm tired and I want to sleep) (Thank you. Now leave me in peace) (I am. I got my money) (You fucking liar. You left your post and followed me here. Is there any Ranger here competent enough to do a good job? You're making Gen I's police look productive) (Now leave me in peace...oh I think the plot is up north) (I'll pick it up later) (Sigh...guess I should do this since I'm right there.) (There are so many face palms needed for this. Adam, face palm my head because it's that dumb) (Because a volcano is such a great place for negotiations.) (And...it's to trade this annoying thing for Nim. I don't know what you're doing but if it means no evil tyranny nor end of the world, I am honestly down with it.) (How has the rain not cooled that very small pool of lava?) (Yeah because beating your ass multiple times doesn't qualify we can do it again) (I'm pretty sure we could either make the jump or have someone fly us all across one by one. This isn't rocket science) (Fair. Going into active volcanoes is dangerous. Whatever. That just gives us all the time in the world to plan and prepare.) (That...actually is kind of true) (And the repeating dialogue is back. fun.) (Just when the writing was starting to turn to okay we go back to the same song and dance) There's no point for almost all this dialogue and if there was, then just axe the previous fight. No really, there's no point for it other than an Aelita laugh. I would totally have laughed my ass off if Aelita was stuck on that island for like weeks. Also the whole lava barrier is lame. Just saying. (Oh great. You probably set the volcano to erupt or something) (So something to note is most of this dialogue was added and the story was changed) Seriously it used to just be you fight Zetta here and then he leaves. That was it. You also got a Jumpluff which was weird given Hopip were all around but whatever. Free Jumpluff. I will also talk about the other thing in a second. (He means he was distracting you) (Can we just kill off all the Xen execs besides Geara. It'd help the plot better) (We should probably coast on out of here before this ship has sailed) (And then Zetta just tells us anyways) I hate when villains tell their plans but given this group, you gotta be literal and speak slowly for them to get it. (You're telling me that like 30 trainers aren't capable of defending a boat. Am I really the only one capable of accomplishing anything?) (And I will some time later) (Meh. Being stuck here forever isn't really all that bad. When I get tired of one of you I just have to give a nudge...why didn't I threaten to kill Melia? I'm sure they may have reconsidered negotiations) (After like a year or so) (Given they waited a year doing nothing, I'm sure they gained a lot of patience) (There's like an army on that ship. If they couldn't take care of it then they're hopeless) (Fine. Only because of plot demands) (That's something we haven't seen in like forever) Also learned that I've been working on Redux/Hardcore for almost 3 years. 2 of those years pretty much went down the drain due to Gen VII updates. No wonder why I was so reluctant to work on it. (It's a deoxys attack. A sucker punch could destroy it) (Since when could...why does it have two sticks?) (Probably dead. It'd be great if they stayed that way...unlike someone) (There flowers are man eaters. Look at that rock in the right hand corner...stay away from those things) (Hell if I know either) (This is why you don't talk and battle at the same time) EXP time (Where did these even come from anyways?) (Jesus is going to get a lot of experience from this) (Finally, he gets a good move. Now I just need rock slide and we are solid.) (Use a potion. Your wounds instantly heal...unlike people) (Because you've been handling it so well before) (Whatever. Let's just get this over with and go back to questing) (Literally, that's the only one required to be fought) (Joker is pretty good against them) I taught Joker Signal Beam because Pyschic can only get us so far. (The Deoxys on the Umbrella is a nice touch) (So we all are going to team up to get surrounded. Great idea. Pure brilliant. And by brilliant that is the worst thing you can do in FE) (I sadly don't get to do this because plot...which is lame) (Diamond formation go!) I really don't like this change and well a lot of changes. For newer players, Valarie, Adam, and Braixen and I think Aelita all were very passive and stayed on this ship. Yes, they were not involved in any of this. There was actually a cool little sidequest you could do where you KO all the Deoxys that attack the ship later to get a TM from Valarie which I honestly really liked. So all of this is completely new and one of the biggest issues is how the cast just kind of completely changed personalities with no explanation. Let me just describe them: Melia: Stubborn and Rash girl who thinks before she acts Post Jail: Same except she gives orders now Aelita: Stubborn girl who thinks before she acts Post Jail: Wiser and more quiet Valarie: Cool headed and leader of the group Post Jail: Whines about the heat and doesn't want to do much Braixen: Dorky goofball but wise beyond her years Post Jail: Sassy and likes to tease the others Adam: Quiet guy who is a good listener Post Jail: Quiet guy who acts like nothing is all that important Character establishment is important and even if a character is godawful and you know it is, you have to keep it the same regardless otherwise you have this whole mess. And if you want to debate on some things, I'm the one who read and analyzed 1,000s of lines of dialogue for the sake of entertainment so hopefully I have some idea what they are like after all this time. The ship scene would have been a good transition to character changes but it was turned into an exposition dump. Now we have something messier than even the original Terajuma Jungle. (Well this is also new. Hello Angie...I mean hello spoilers) (There's an 80% chance I'm going to finish this chapter today) (Not as fun as scrambling the fairies) (Oh, that's Cera...I have no idea who that is) (We all know this is Anju from Maria's segment, right?) (...Great. More idiots following me. Just what I needed) (Nice place you got there, but would it kill you to install some better lighting?) (Is this because I meddled with the past?) (Yep. It's always the crazy ones that fall me. Always.) (What a nice...wait what! What happened to the epic boss battle and, and, the teamup with Adam to take down the master...oh wait this is Rejuv. No fun allowed) (Ah, Melia. Just the idiot I want to destroy) (...Seriously, why are we meeting Crawli again? It's not like he's going to be of any help) (You don't say. What are we going to actually do something smart like send all the people back to their homes? Nah. That's too much intelligence for one day) (Nope. You just start without me) And we did all of that just so I could finish the HC quests. Honestly that was more disappointing than bad. One of those times where I think it's just better to save this for the end to fix the problem because it's a bit easier then you'd think it'd be but requires going through the whole story. Kind of the same situation as blacksteeple in which cutting out pointless dialogue would help. Hell, maybe even cut some characters entirely because if a character can be switched out with another character and get the same result, then that character shouldn't even be there in the first place. Good rule to live by. (Do you know what I had to go through just to get to you? Just give me the damn money) (.......Great a Tropius egg. Just what I always wanted) (...They were more annoying than difficult. Each one brought their own layer of suffering) (Of course it's not going to be that easy) (Sigh...welcome to the second worst chapter of this run) (Either the player could punch this punk in the goddamn face, take the ball, or the ranger could be...oh wait ranger being helpful. What a joke.) (You are missing a few question marks there should be ?????????) (If you're the one who disguised yourself as a Rogenrola, you probably do. Like how do you do that?) (Is this supposed to be funny? It's not funny) (You never get free handouts in this game. Never) (.....It's not even that great of a Pokemon) Spoiler alert: It saves my ass later (At least we get to go through a little maze and fight a few more trainers) (And it was changed. Dammit why does everything I like get taken away) (With my hair color, I kind of blend in. Probably could have just said I was an AA) (Honestly, all I really want is that TM on the right. Give it to me and I'll be out of your way) (I think this is supposed to be like the Team Rocket for the game or something. It really is trying to be an anime) (Hi, I'm new here) (I can't tell which one of you is the boss. I'm guessing the guy on the left) (You take care of them) (I guess I'll show the battle but hell to describing it) It took me two tries because I didn't expect a 6 v 8 battle with higher leveled Pokemon and I didn't bring my good team in. More tedious and annoying than hard. I don't even remember their Pokemon even. I think the Rogenrolla quest had a harder team even. (I'll take on all 4 of you right now. Just give me a minute to heal and bring Walter) (Sadly, I know that's true.) (And we get no other reward from that guy for fulfilling his request) (Yes, now give me a prize for doing your job) (......You motherfucker) And we're over the halfway point. I don't know what to say. I really don't like Anti-Assist and I think it's one of the dumbest things in the game. Zetta was a bloody mess and actually awful in this chapter, so many characters lack development, and rangers are completely useless. I guess the only good thing that came out of it was Brick Break and Magnemite named Auto who will be joining us soon. One thing I don't get is the whole thing about everyone thinks the group is cockstrocking Melia. They really aren't. There is an issue though with these scenes and it's the payout. Simple scenes like that bridge scene may seem pointless but a good storywriter knows their importance as it's to help get to know the character. A lot of little details were thrown in there that I'll actually be using in the analysis which should be Chapter 40. Might be a while but hopefully I can clear some things up. This is going to be a bloody mess to explain. But to some up my thoughts in a single phrase: good idea for a storyline, but awful presentation.

Hi, I'm a builder of the hard mode mod of the game. I've used both revives and max revives to progress though quite a lot of the battles in the game and I'll probably do that in the future as well. There's no shame in using items at your disposal as that is what they are meant to be used for. I won't speak for others as while I have my own playstyle and ideals I really only frown upon people pushing or pressuring others to play the game a certain way or look down upon their own strats, struggles or complaints. If you are having fun with the game, what does it matter?

Considering there is only one possible per save file, you are going to have a hard time having someone hand over a Pokemon like that. It's best if you either put forth the effort of obtaining it yourself or hacking one in. Maybe someone will but I just wanted to point that little fact out that you might be waiting a long while before you get an offer.

Yes and no. If you beat the master fights you are fine as I'll have a character hand you all the missed medals in the E18 version so don't worry. Also what do you mean by breeding? I'm not aware of that error unless you are talking about other mods. Not much to talk about as September I'm taking a break from Redux which will resume back in October. We're getting there though. Poco a poco.