Commander

Uhhh....how do I put this? Unfairly difficult doesn't necessarily mean how difficult something is. Leaders could be three times as strong and it still be fair difficulty. Difficulty is determined by how well you prepare the players for the "unknown" forecasting and slowly increasing the difficulty. One of the best examples of unfair difficulty was E8 Serra since the name of the game was RNG since she used hax evading strats. There was a 70% chance the move you were going to use would hit. And she wasn't a pushover leader to begin with so not being able to hit her made her painfully frustrating. I could name other instances, but I think it's best I keep quiet for now. A lot of changes happened in Reborn for reasons. First off, you don't need to do any of that for Reborn. The game is not super brutal, but it isn't a pushover either. It's very possible to make it to the end with a team of 6 found before Shelly. It's just really hard to pull that off especially in the late game. I would argue that Reborn punishes people who try to experiment as changing team members requires grinding as there's just enough exp in the main story with doing sidequests to be at the right level to take on the leader. Though it's a little on the short side to the point your whole team will be a bit underleveled without grinding. And that's the issue. Reborn is a bit too grind happy demoting diversity. Only reason people would change their teams is A) they literally cannot beat a boss with their team (which rarely happens) or B) they find something they really like and would be willing to spend a couple hours to raise. If people think the game is too punishing with team changes making it unfairly difficult, I think that's a valid criticism. I agree with it. It doesn't make the game bad or not fit for them though. Though on the flip side, failure is your greatest teacher in this game. It's actually a reason I really dislike how punishing wiping was in the beta (I really hope you guys don't lose 30k per wipe). Which each failure you learn something new and if you apply it, you'll make more progress. Eventually, it should be enough to succeed. I use that mentality when I personally design stuff as most of the Redux players are both smarter and better battlers than I am when it comes to Pokemon. So I get what you are saying, but I don't necessarily think it's right to say if a game is made for someone or not. Sometimes we just need to let out some frustration. Believe me, I have my fair share of frustrated moments.

There was always one leader planned for E19 which we knew about since like E7 or something. Every episode would have a leader, but one episode would have two which was E17. So yeah me telling you there was one leader isn't exactly a spoiler given the information was passed out a long while back. As for my team, I actually am technically allowed to tell people that since it wouldn't really mean much, but what's the fun there before experiencing it yourselves. Besides, what is hard for one person might be really easy for another. That'd be true no matter which of the two were the leader this episode. And remember if I actually told you guys any useful information, I'd be gunned down by 5 mods and strapped into a chair forced to play a game of Ame's choosing until I acknowledge Budew is the worst Pokemon ever created. Maybe I'm guiding the discussion or perhaps diverting it instead. Nobody said I couldn't lie to the public. But lying is boring

So I guess I can at least say something about the leader since you all are worried about the leader difficulty. Titania took me 4 attempts underleveled. Amaria took me 3 attempts. The gym leader in this episode I'd say took me at least 6 attempts but it was more like 8 with a team at a proper level...even with a type advantage.

I will at least confirm that the item up there IS NOT a Pokemon. All Amoongus are reachable and killable during the E16 segment of the game. I have done it myself twice. I guess I should at least confirm something else...since this topic came up...even if it's kind of obvious

I doubt that will become a thing. The thing about mods is that they are a use at your own risk. If your game gets corrupted or you hardlock your game because of it...that's on you. I'm also pretty sure Reborn is in it's final stretch which probably will focus on making what it has be the best it is instead of trying to jam all this new stuff in at the last minute. Polishing is way more important at this point over quantity of QoL features. It's possible, but not likely. It's been stated numerous time that the game is 19 episodes long plus the postgame which will be included with E19. The story is altered by the choices you make earlier in the story such as the Maison fight in E15. We don't know how the plot will be effected by our choices in E19 and changes could happen then so restarting now might be a waste when you could wait a year for a even better experience.

For those of you debating on whether or not you should redo your saves...I'll keep giving my advice of play the new content first then go back to do a replay. It'd really suck if you missed something redoing the game again causing you to have to replay the game an additional time that could have been entirely avoided. I have only two playthroughs of one from E7 (Up through E10 Radomus) and one from E11 (current run). Once you complete the main campaign, I'd then suggest restarting to go for the extended ending in E19 once we have everything figured out (aka when the final version is released). All I can say are things of very little value sadly but there aren't very many major changes in this episode compared to E17 for previous areas. Some changes did happen though. I found a few obscure ones most people won't be able to find or tell. As for a release date: fixing all bugs =/= instant release of an episode. It will take at least a full day to have the episode uploaded and the post ready alone. Uploading stuff is a pain in the ass. I'd say Tuesday or Wednesday is a more likely time for it to come out but anything could happen. My advice is expect a date later than seems logical and you'd never be disappointed in a release earlier than that. Hopefully the episode is really clean in comparison to the Beta. Not saying the beta was bad, but it did need some polishing.

<< >> << >> 2

So before you guys star freaking out about the sudden boom in bugs, that's actually an unnatural amount of bugs for a beta test. This beta period has been absolutely insane and all the newbies are doing the lord's work finding so many bugs...and I forgot to check sprites...I'll to that later...anyways, this probably has been one of the most fun beta tests we've had in a while. There's even a meme going on but unfortunately I can't tell you guys until after the community release. It's not a spoiler in and of itself but it could spoil something not entirely related to it at all. So one thing I can reveal is one of my hilarious unexplained glitches since it is spoiler free: Sadly, I can't say much since there's this untold contract with like 1k things I can't say mostly to avoid overhyping the episode or teasing. Just think of it this way: It's 1,800 bugs less to be fixed in the final version.

If you are wondering: yes, you have limited choices to start out and if you want to swap something out you will need to do grinding but the game isn't so brutally hard it's impossible to finish underleveled. Just gotta learn to work with what you have. My current team is this: Typhlosion, Flygon, Gardevoir, Lanturn, Honchkrow, Roserade + Metagross and after completing E18, I can say that the only one who has really fallen off is Lanturn who likely will get replaced (she was an HM slave anyways...a good HM slave) and Honchkrow is mixed. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. I did pick something up from E17 that was unintentionally super helpful this episode due to it being really high leveled. Ame throws some high leveled things here and there that can be used off the bat for that gym fight to help you get through if you don't have the best team. So don't worry too much about having the best team, but also don't hold your breath planning a final team and only using that. Work towards a team throughout and change if you want to. That's my best advice. And as an FYI, my team is very, very unoptimized and most of my Pokemon have bad movesets.

To be fair, I had the same exact problem until I read the NPC dialogue. Of course this was also the time the puzzle was a little bit harder than it is now. Just like a very, very small bit easier. Also, I feel like they've gone to far into the game in that if they lose they'll continue it as a normal playthrough. Edit: In regards to Shelly, I had to look at the PBS files and she did indeed get a very, very slight nerf in stats for E18. Likely it'll just make her one shot less stuff is the only big and noticeable difference.

So bugs in the beta test be like... I don't know when the Community will be released but...it might be longer than I initially thought

I don't want to say that it's going to go one way or another, but my experience with the game was much, much smoother compared to other beta tests. I'm very confident it's going to be released in August. Even if it does take an additional month, I kind of think most people will go "it was worth the wait" this time around. I don't want to play any strings or tease as I feel it'll dampen the experience so please don't egg anything else out of me or anyone else. Actually, I guess there is one thing I can say: It might be a good idea to work on that Pokedex.

I think there are canon teams, but only certain Pokemon (I think one on each) is forced onto each team such as Vice having Eevee. Everything else is up to choice when choosing teams. At least that's what I think it is.

Forums are a lot slower compared to discord so take your time and feel free to edit you posts whenever. As for hardest leader: Original run aka pre field effects: Aya. Serra is a close second due to hax but Aya I swear was the hax queen. Imagine Sludge Wave always poisoning your Pokemon to a very slow death only halted by Super Potions. Oh and Pokemon were at the cap or overleveled usually. So it was a hard battle on top of that annoyance. I don't think anyone had an easy time with her. Current run (started from E11): I'd have to go with Terra actually. I haven't really struggled on leaders that much since I got a lot better at Pokemon due to modding and all that. Oh wait I forgot about Aya and her ace change. I'd actually go with Aya from the 10.5 change which she still had no field. That Dragalge was a pain to fight and killed me so many times. Terra was mostly the Garchomp popping out at a random time and just mercilessly killing me. I also struggled quite a bit on Noel due to that Swellow. From things I've created: Anyone who's seen that Terra fight knows it's a league of its own BS. That fight was brutal with bad AI. Now imagine it with good AI. Yikes! Pretty sure I nerfed it due to how tough it was. My Current Overall Opinion: Factoring everything in, I'd have to go with Titania. There's a lot of close seconds but they all usually have something very exploitable or a field effect that doesn't give them as much of an advantage. Titania is good. Her Scizor can sweep if you aren't prepared which I wasn't and only won by luck. Really though there's not much bad about her team and it's pretty well designed especially with the hail aspect. Never would have guessed Steel and Hail went so well together. It's actually because Titania is so good is why Amaria is so bad.

The only version I have is outdated due to the changes in the public release. I don't think Ame uploaded a variant of that yet.

Well sometimes a bug sometimes gets missed even after it's reported as it's honestly very difficult to test everything or even remember to change and fix 300 or so things. I know one bug that made it into the E16 beta was the charmander one making Charmander completely unobtainable. Another one was this weird goomy glitch that only happened to certain save files for some odd reason. Most glitches are easy fixes and can take probably half a minute. The AI likely is very stable since the base to work off of wasn't glitchy or crashed a lot once E17 community was released shaving off the bulk of time compared to last time. I do want to correct myself on something as you don't need to do anything but just play the game. It's just that when you see something odd, you should report it. If there are no bugs, that'd be amazing and nothing would need reporting (though feedback is always nice). That's very unlikely as most people usually experience at least 4 or 5 in the beta hence where the number came from. I simply said it that way because when choosing between two people who'd you pick: a guy who is going to say nothing or someone who is going to give helpful information or find mistakes and errors. E17 besides AI was pretty error free for me. I do have 5 bugs I'm going to check and see if they're fixed during the beta phase. But if I was going to take a wild guess, I'd take a shot in the dark and assume there are going to be 150-200 bugs found. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also, I cannot fathom how a single line spoken from me just simply pointing out the fact that I could quote myself from not that long ago to answer a question can be turned into me being "salty" or something. Snarky, maybe, but who honestly cares. If you guys get mad or upset over that when I wasn't even insulting anyone, I don't know what to tell you. But in all honesty if you are on the line, just fill out the application anyways. It's better to have too many than too little in a case like this. Worst case scenario is you have to wait a month week to a week and a half to play the game.

The Kiki fight is unintentionally easy for a lot of people as it actually is planned out and designed with a team that is stronger than Shade's. Biggest issue is that it's a field effect that doesn't really help the typing handle their weaknesses better and in fact boosts one of them. It's kind of like Luna's field effect which she's usually seen as rather easy bar her high levels (which she got nerfed a bit there). It's also not a level cap leader so some teams might be higher than the expected average.

While it would be possible, graphics would have to be made and every tile would have to be an event. That many events could end up making that area lag quite a bit. But there is the whole meta joke about how fields don't affect the overworld. There are fields that do affect the overworld such as the sableye event, Serra and Adrienn's gyms, and Telkinite Cave. Funny how the answer was only a few posts above the question

So I looked at the whole game searching for the warning you guys are talking about well...it's only about bright flashes. So I did some digging and looked at some other games which are similar and...none of them had warnings other than Doki Doki Literature Club. FFVI didn't have one. I'm actually personally against having a label like that on a game since it does damper the surprise and shock factor. I mean we all kind of dropped our mouths given we don't see that kind of stuff in a Pokemon game and that's what made Reborn "not like other fan-games" back in the olden days. I don't think there needs to be a trigger warning but I guess I like surprises like that. As for Absol, I've just never been a fan of that nor would I count it to mean anything other than "Oh something bad is probably going to happen." Only time I felt it was done really well was the moment after you get Surf because it's just quiet and staring. Most scenes didn't have an absol and it was just kind of added for effect iirc. Really kind of glad it was dropped in the later parts of the game. Also not surprised Ame is watching this. I do watch and keep an eye on a lot of Redux/HC talk/playthroughs so I don't see why she wouldn't. I probably would watch the videos if I was just more of a fan of any of them and the whole nuzlocke aspect. I do like watching the conversations going on in the chat as they are kind of entertaining but I couldn't even tell you what happened in the Pentop. I watched Julia fight, Florinia fight, and the suicide scene but that's about it. But power to you since a lot of you guys seem to be enjoying this series.

I've actually only beta tested Episodes 15-17 which in all honesty is the bulk of the wait time on the game. Anyways, the beta test does come with some perks such as it being much easier to avoid spoilers and the fact nobody will flat out tell you the answer (we used to be more trollish when community begged beta testers to tell them where things were) but the biggest difference is just errors. Beta usually had certain kinds of errors such as the reflect exploit which were fun to use, but there also were balance changes before it hit community. I know Ciel and Amaria got team changes going through the phases and pulse Swalot was nerfed. It's mostly small stuff, but community is a better experience than Beta in terms of the game itself. I do want to say the early access does come with a little price. If you aren't willing to give roughly a paragraph long post of feedback as well as report I'd say 10-30 bugs, I wouldn't apply to beta test. A bug is simple stuff like tile errors (aka tiles you shouldn't be able to walk on but can or tiles that you can't walk on but should), typos, crash errors, sprite errors (I'm going to check if those certain mega sprites are fixed like Mega Sceptile), and anything that doesn't look right. It's not a lot of work, but that's kind of the minimum of what Ame is looking for when accepting people. That and...people who wouldn't leak or spoil the game.

What's up peeps? So I tried doing a quick search and noticed the old favorite gym leader poll is a little outdated (and archived). So I decided to make this poll with absolutely no other intentions behind it based on all the gym leaders. The first segment is just the gym leaders at the start of the game. The second segment is all the remaining leaders who were leaders of the online league at one point or another ex. Lin was the Dragon Gym Leader of Season 1. Third Segment is just Team Meteor members so think of that one as a bonus. I also decided to allow multiple choices because sometimes people have two characters they like just as much. While I'd prefer to have set the limit to 3, there's no limit. Don't abuse it or I'll have to make a new poll. So vote away.

@Zargerth That's not an error...that's a feature. While I actually knew about that error, I decided not to touch it until E18 since we are kind of close. I really can't explain why it does that but maybe Marc fixed it in the next Episode since it has a bunch of AI fixes in it. Please report any that you see because I do want to double check in E18 before making adjustments. Well not much news to go on but Serra and Noel are more or less done before the testing phase. I did learn a new trick. Remember how I said I couldn't figure out how to make it rain in Shelly's Gym: So I have a new trick under my belt which I can manipulate the weather to my will. So yeah, Shelly will no longer have that Pelipper for Master Mode...which should scare you.