Commander

I...don't know if it's me getting lazier or better or the AI just working in my favor for this but I got testing done a lot faster than anticipated. Everything fit my minimum criteria so I guess I may as well give you the demo now to keep you tied over for E18's release. I also learned why Swellow is available so late. Still not gonna axe it because it doesn't snap everything into a million pieces. Anyways only minor edits outside of the battles but everything goes up to Aya. Enjoy. Download Link Edit: I still am considering the super boss but...I have an idea on how voting for it is going to go.

@Savo You, good sire, earned my monthly like for doing that. That got one real good laugh out of me.

(Deep breath) A whole new WAAAAARRRD! A new craptastic point of town No one will tell us no Or where the fuck to go Or say that we're always raging

Internal - People who worked on the game (and I think some mods) Alpha - Patreon and Mods (Pretty much the new Beta Phase) Beta - Former Ace Members Community - Anyone with an account Official - Download Page The exceptions to the ace members seems to be very selective I'm sure only people who have been very active and helpful on top of being here for over a year can even qualify. Basically you'd have to be a really good candidate for finding glitches and giving feedback on top of being trustworthy to even be considered. There's really no point on giving someone early access if they aren't even going to say anything about it or give any feedback. While Ace Members weren't forced to say anything, we do kind of have an obligation to report stuff and give feedback which many have. Believe me, you guys get the much, much better version with the community release and it is well worth the wait as sometimes teams get changed and are made harder and there's very, very few crash glitches (I've had error messages pop up at least once in the last few episodes) and was locked out of stuff also due to glitches such as Goomy.

Who is feeding this information to you. Alpha took 3 weeks and I think the beta took two and a half. I don't know the total run time but it was like two months. There was two months of pretty much silence on the episode. It was a very, very abnormal amount of time to fix the critical ai issues that kept popping up. As for how testing goes, supervised testing has the least amount of people and internal is not that many as well. Less people means less time to worry about it. When it reaches Alpha testing, it'll most likely be a two week process. One week for everyone to play and report feedback and glitches and one for fixing them on top of additional glitches being reported. Two weeks is super short for a time period so it might be slightly longer. Beta period likely will be shorter than the alpha period since it theoretically should have less glitches to find and report but you never know. Maybe a week and a half if we're lucky. We won't have a good estimate for the community release until the game hits the alpha stage. I'd expect Mid August to be the earliest though. Episode releases have almost always taken nearly a month to reach the public stage and we now have an extra phase to QAing. I don't keep track of everything regarding timeframes with episodes but we are definitely not getting the episode release in July.

As the saying goes, any exposure is good exposure and people will be roughly as interested in the game no matter how the person handles it. You can't control how someone is going to act when playing a game, but you can control yourself. If we keep representing ourselves more as a kind and mature community along with accepting reasons and fact some people my just really hate the game, then we will grow. There's a lot of fun and nice people so it's best to try and be as welcoming as possible. I get that they are frustrated because this game was built and became famous for being frustratingly hard. That's why that old thread which I think is called "So you want to play reborn" is so true and why we love it. I think one of the best things to look at is Shofu's Phoenix Rising run. Fans were supportive of him and noticed how he was acting and honestly not really enjoying the game. They called him out on it and it likely helped improve his commentating. Don't be afraid to call someone out. Hell, I'm not afraid of a little criticism since it's just part of the process of improving. So if you think they aren't handling something professionally or maturely, just let them know but handle it maturely and not like "OMG! You guys are so awful saying dese characters are bad" which...brings me to my next point. It's actually comments like this that are going to drive people away. You choose to ignore an opinion simply because it is different than yours which can make you look stuck up. I'm sure someone will throw this back at me and call me a hypocrite, but it wouldn't be my first dance. I can definitely agree to a point that the overall cast could be considered very weak do to its diluted design. In fact, that's part of my negative aspect of the game which I will talk about in that review I've said I'd do for Reborn once the game is completed. Hate to be that guy, but just suck it up. Been on the forums for five years and this kind of talk isn't anything new. People said Corey's suicide was weak and stupid on top of characters being bad even back then. And Abyss, please don't take this personal at all because you are far from the only one. Hell, I consider myself part of the problem a lot. But if you guys really think they might enjoy a normal run more, be vocal about it, but please be supportive of their decision if they decide to keep nuzlocking the game. I've learned that with enough patience, the good will triumph the bad comments on youtube. Numbers help as well and there's like 15 of you watching and supporting this thing (not me though). Comments could be something like: "Hey, I've really been enjoying your guys's run so far, but I notice you guys seem really frustrated with the nuzlocke. Reborn is plenty difficult with all kinds of surprises and I think it would much more fun to watch as a normal playthrough instead of a nuzlocke. I've had plenty of rage inducing experiences myself and it's always fun to watch how other people take it on. Regardless though, I'm still going to watch and support you guys as it's been quite a ride." I've talked about this before (maybe you were the same guy) but yes it is a problem more likely due to the fact field effects were added around the halfway point of the game's creation. It's pretty hard to completely change everything to design it around a concept made halfway through, but there is stuff I agree that could be done. Making a miniboss foe on the field is a good way to do this as it shows you what this field is capable of and can help prepare for it if you aren't ready. This is called Show, Don't Tell which Reborn simply tells you what the field effects do. One of my favorite example of Show, Don't Tell is Legend of Zelda Wind Waker. The later games do get a little hand holdy when acquiring a new dungeon item but lets actually look at Wind Waker's first dungeon and the grappling hook IF no dialogue was shown. So when you walk up to the miniboss area to acquire this item, the stairs behind you completely crumble so there's no going back the way you came in. It seems impossible to escape but you got this new item so there has to be a way. You likely noticed this random platform that seems to do nothing but it's the only thing you can really check out. When you look around, you notice this weird looking branch thing that is very different from everything else. Since you don't know what it does nor what the grappling hook does, maybe the two go together. When you do that, it works and you manage to escape the area. A lot of the puzzles are super basic when getting a new item on purpose. It teaches you what it does for a basic understanding for when puzzles get harder. Imagine if the developers made it so that you had to hook onto the branch, climb up onto the top, then roll jump to get onto a platform as your first experience. It'd be terrible and frustrating. The easiest way to show, don't tell field effects is simply make the gym trainers a bit harder and put up an actual fight and le gasp...use strats. You know a cool way to teach how seeds work; Give the player a telluric seed (or whatever one gives the effect) and throw them into a boss fight with a Pokemon that one shots the players with explosion in which they only have a starter. Only way to beat the boss is to equip the seed to the Pokemon to avoid damage. And now you taught a player how to abuse a field effect to their advantage. There's so many ways you can show it other than a hard boss kicking their ass so they have to spend hours grinding since the developer didn't prepare them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I tend to avoid this thread and respond to posts a few days old but I feel it would be a good idea to at least address some things going on. Like Tacos, I want to see the community grow as well and I feel like the most important aspect is for it to feel welcoming to new people. I just want to say that one of the biggest member jumps for this site was from a man raging while playing the game filled with youtube comments hating on it which to our surprise we learned that he really liked it. Yes, Shofu got frustrated at the game a lot. The biggest jump was from a 9gag post of all things. That actually crashed the site from traffic. Ah the power of memes. And now I go back to my cave and be a grouchy old man.

I guess I can kind of explain what was going on: -Reborn was being created and planned well before Gen VI was even announced or confirmed. In fact season 1 was before PO even localized the Gen V Pokemon Names -After Season 2 is when the idea came about and was much lesser quality and focus as it is now -Season 3 added a two new Gym Leaders to fill a new type and Mr. ProbablyInALotOfLegalTroubleButWhoKnowsWhatHappened Based on how I look at it, Adrienn's parts kind of were shoehorned in and my guess is that we were going to skip Reborn City and fight Titania. Simply put the plot was edited so that they were included into the plot. The planning of this likely was happening at the same time fairy type was announced which was around Episode 9's development time roughly. Wow, it's scary to think that was 5 years ago.

The reason Eve is number one is because she's the one who made the pulse Pokemon and we don't know how many people were killed by them other than two off the top of my head being the one police officer and the other being the Fairy Gym leader. Titania gets half a point for Lin as while she didn't kill her, she did try to murder Lin. It's clear who the true top murderer is though.

So long time no talk and before anyone asks: no, Redux is not getting another release yet and no, it's not dead. I just wanted to give you guys a slight update since I do work on it from time to time but nowhere near as much as I used to. Now this may shock you but I actually planned to schedule a release some time in August/September. To my surprise cutting back on a lot of the game's content made this much easier to manage the boatload of fights needed to be created or tweaked. That kind of brings me up to what Redux E18 and E19 will be like. You'll notice that a lot of features will be gone for both of these versions. If it doesn't affect the main story (bar a couple of little quests and tweaks), it's going to disappear such as HCHQ, etc. Before anyone gets upset, I have plans to bring everything back in one final version which will be up for open modding. All of the unfinished features and ideas will be there and all the old event changes and even the old CoM with adjusted levels. Even though I am leaving these parts of the game unfinished, there's no point in me just letting them rot away and maybe someone would get their interest piqued and continue the modding of Redux once I'm finished. Maybe not. So there are 5 releases to my plan. E17 was August/September, Roughly 3 releases for E18, one release in E19 for a finished product, and then an open mod with all the old features. And you are probably wondering the obvious question of "Why don't I just transfer the stuff for each episode like I did before?" That's because it takes a month to do that. I have to transfer all the stuff which can take over two weeks, test everything which takes a couple days, then fix whatever decided to break, and then update all the mapping events and variable names. I have to do the same exact thing twice so it's just best to work on the meat of the game which Reborn will likely be nearly finished when I'm done with that. But here is what's staying: -Level Limiter (the game is based around this) -No Items -Alternate and Mastery Fights -Spinda, Tailow, and Lucky Egg So here's the good news: I got done with the designing phase of this segment a lot faster than I thought. All the battles have been edited and all I have to do is simply test and fix stuff...which still takes a long time. Being ahead of schedule means I know I can get this done in August. With the release of E18 happening so soon, I'm going to give you guys two options: Option 1: Release the segment as soon as it's finished Option 2: Hold off on the release and combine it with the next segment Now if you guys go for option 2, I'll make it worth the wait since that's extra time I don't have to spend getting a release done and receiving feedback or fixing stuff. Let's see...what's something within reason. How about I make a superboss version of whatever character you guys want. I'll make a poll but whatever is the most popular vote will be implemented. I'm willing to do any Reborn character including the Redux ones or even the oddballs like Cradbury. Unlike Master Fights, Superbosses don't have any restrictions so I will go ham on it. There is one other surprise I might consider doing but that isn't Redux related and not anything really big. But of course I should at least give you a general idea of what the episode is like. Most of the non leader fights were barely touched so they likely will feel similar to the Hardcore variants if not the same. Certain fights got completely revamped such as Cal. And all the gym leaders have 1 fight that is pretty much the same but the other was completely revamped. I'd say about 7 fights will feel completely fresh and new while the others kind of feel the same. The previous version only had the Master fights with light edits making the total only 2. E1 & 2 combined had I'd say 4. The next segment would have about 10 fights that fit that category so it's going to take a while.

@Paperblade Ah scripted battles. People still have a misunderstanding of them to this date and age as it's not a simple "Protag loses the battle" scenario like it was back in the 90s. There's like a bundle of ways to properly implement them but I say use these three rules when dealing with their designs: 1. While it is an effective tool showing how the big bad is much stronger than you, it should focus more on character building someone (or some people) from the losing side and building off of that. This is why it's recommended to do this only in the early parts of the game 2. Keep the draws/loses to roughly a count of three. Players not being able to celebrate their victories hurt morality. Defeating boss =/= winning but achieving their object does 3. True impossible battle with combat should be short and quick, but beatable impossible battles should feel lopsided but still fairly reasonable to beat (ie bosses don't one shot you) The really cool thing about these bosses as it lets you break the rules of difficulty to bring a challenge for those who are better at the game without punishing everyone. * So this episode was going to be out a lot earlier but my AC unit went out so I had to move my laptop to the second floor to even work. While technically I could have still done certain things I've been getting stockpiled with schoolwork. Sometimes I spend 8 hours a day on one single class because of the workload. Anyways, I'm gonna try and get something done tonight. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Episode 4 Mansion When I have I last Updated So I actually have thought about something for a long while now and it's actually whether I've been two harsh on what I was saying when it comes to RPGmaker XP and its limited use. I had a trip down memory lane regarding an old game (well it's mostly a visual novel with some RPG elements to it) I played when regarding this subject. So compared to a triple AAA game budgets many low budget or even no budget studios can have problems like inconsistent visuals or even a lackluster soundtrack. Gameplay could also be shallow. You don't have much to work with so what do you do? Visual Novel styles tend to be the go to way as it can save a lot of money. Now let's take a trip back in time to 2012 and 2013. Most of you know a whole lot of history of this being one of the weakest times for jRPGs considering the face of it was FFXIII. People even said the genre was dying which I don't think it was dying but it was not the best time. The big thing was that jRPG stories were just getting weaker and weaker and imo more focused on being a big game with great gameplay over having a fantastic story. I also want to note Xenoblade Chronicles came to the US at this point and I loved that game to death. I actually stumbled upon a video on Screw Attack (back when it had a website) which talked about a game and they mentioned that the story was really good and I thought "there's no way this could have a good plot" and I played it expecting to hate it...which was my first mistake. Once you enter the abyss, you see things you wish never existed. There's a reason I'm not telling you the title of it and those who played it probably know I'm talking about that game. Guy who fan translated it did such an awesome job. As for my thoughts on this game, I ended up really enjoying it after getting past the first segment, but reflecting back on it that likely because of how it surprisingly was immersive and had a really likable cast. I know people praise Xenoblade for its plot but I'd probably say I enjoyed this games plot...even though it probably has traumatized me for the rest of my life. And...I'm also waiting for the sequel to be done and fan-translated before trying it out. My point of bringing up this game which some of you may never look at me the same for (if you really want to know the title I'll PM it to you but it is very NSFW) is that even with some of the most basic tools and heavy limitations, you can bring games that cost millions with some of the best devs to shame with the right skills and crafting. For that reason, I'll probably keep doing what I'm doing and rant usually about story because honestly it's the thing I enjoy most in games. Some people enjoy gameplay and care little for story and that's fine. Thinking on that game makes me think back on immersion so maybe I'll do a COGA on that since it's such an ignored subject. But hell no to talking about the game though the plot honestly is pretty safe to talk about. I guess Persona 3 is my backup plan. That's a...oh I'm supposed to do a run. Hi, I'm a forgetful rambler. (I didn't even notice those dead flowers first time looking at this place nice touch) Honestly, I wish I examined and studied this place a little more because it looks surprisingly good for what it is. Not really a rejuv thing but one thing I do feel Gen 3 style has that a lot of golden age jRPGs don't is a blocky texture feel. It's still there but Gen 3 style feels like pure square blocks and even Gen IV shares a little bit in that problem. Chrono Trigger and Breath of Fire III I think (never played BoF but it's on my maybe get to eventually list) kind of are good examples. I think it was the limitations of the handhelds that kept them like that as I remember Golden sun feeling a little blocky as well but not as bad. Not really a Jan thing but something that's always been on my mind. I think it has more to do with edges and corners over anything. (What the inside of me feels like...) (I think I made an innuendo by complete accident in the previous caption) (I don't think Gelica really cares. She's tired of dealing with Keta's shenanigans) (Thank you captain obvious) Remember how I said Show, Don't Tell and even made a COGA about it. The funny thing is that Jan was showing us that something bad happened, then took all that away by straight up telling us. There was no need for Keta to say that nor make a huge emphasis on it. Since we already have the example in game form, let's see if ole Commander can do it in writing form instead. Been a while since I've done this: As Kenneth walked into this elegant home, a slight chill caught his attention. "Odd," he said as he gazed at the once perfect paradise. Death must have come here earlier as the rusty roses were the only ones to greet their new guest. His prey was none other than man as he left a crimson stain to mark his victory. Kenneth, having nowhere else to go, ignored this warning and stepped onto the cracked floor. He felt a slight tug on his arm. "Don't worry about it. Whatever happened must've happened years ago." He looked back at the crimson stain which was anything but crimson. "That blood is all dried up. Still feel bad for the guy....to lose that much blood." Kenneth was always ready for a good mystery, but now was not the time to dwell on them. His partner seemed to accept his answer and freed her grip. "Atta girl! I promise it'll only be for tonight. Just...try not to get eaten by the Glubbernaught." Kenneth couldn't help be get a good laugh out of seeing the almighty warrior pitifully concealing herself in a tiny rose bush. "C'mon, you scaredy Purrloin. We have work to do." The Lucario emerged from her protection barrier keeping a close eye on anything and everything. One could never be too cautious when dealing with such a demon. I'd probably spend 10 minutes straight up editing that since I already see five problems. Bad writing aside, I never had to explicitly write "Something terrible happened" because you know somebody was probably murdered a long time ago in this place. The reader knows that but they don't know how Kenneth and Gelica perceive it. That's what you should spend the dialogue doing instead of telling the player/reader the obvious. Unless it's for humor or satire like: Person A: I get the feeling this is going to be really dangerous. Person B: Oh please, I see toxic geyser and man eating squirrels all the time. Though...oh no...I sense something dangerous approaching Person A: Really, where? Person B: Oh nevermind, it's just you. (I'm pretty eh with satirical humor) (I feel like feeling feels that feel feely) (Oh no obvious foreshadowing is not obvious) In case you are wondering, I am making fun of an overused cliche and this is one of those that is a bad cliche. Basically when people "foreshadow" they feel the need to heavily broadcast it and even overstate it if it's going to be happening soon. I know this is super cliche but the best way to explain how to do foreshadowing is the "dark clouds are approaching" method. You give the feeling that something is going to happen, but you can't exactly predict it. (This place is bad. Let's go deeper. Makes sense) (How can you not be happy with a woman that loo...) I'm not sure if I'm imagining it but looking at the pic it kind of looks like the mother is giving off a false smile. Could be the tired me but that'd be interesting in terms of details and given what I know about the game. Not really a spoiler given we know something happens to her within the first 5 minutes. (1,000 words of a moment) (I wonder if that piano still works) Fun fact: I actually used to know how to play piano. I kind of stopped as my mind has this weird thing where I can really only move one or the other when I have to think about what I'm doing. It's a really weird thing as I technically am able to multitask but not very well. (Seems like it's a wee bit out of tune) One of my favorite little things in RPGs that I adore is when you walk up to a piano and interact with it to play a song. Honestly I love the sound of the piano and it's one of my favorite instruments to listen to. I'd have to give the violin the gold medal though because so many of my favorite tracks use violin. (And we're off) I'm looking at the rock on the right. You guys notice that too, right? (I found the mapping error) (It's a big white sanctuary. Not really anything special) (Commander is gonna snap in 3...2...1...) This is the terrible thing about breaking down stuff and digesting it slowly. Normal people wouldn't notice this but when you read every dialogue nearly line for line, you will notice things. It's actually a true fact that people usually don't remember what most characters say, but remember the contents of the dialogue. Think about the Gettysburg Address. So a lot of things that feel good in my head like this part probably aren't as well crafted sadly. Instead of riding the foreshadow train something like "I feel like my soul needs to cleansed now" would do the same exact job. Now I get to talk about dialogue which is one of my favorite subjects. You can divide dialogue and say how to write it in so many ways, but we'll keep it simple by creating 3 groups of dialogue: dialogue that is important, dialogue that is transitional, and dialogue that holds no value. Dialogue that is important simply means the story could not be told or executed without it. Think of someone getting ready for a confession then saying "I love you." Kind of hard to make a confession without it. Transitional dialogue doesn't hold any specific value but it helps move the plot along. Let's say a scene is playing out and a big argument is about to break loose. One of the people could make a rude, but humorous remark that grabs their attention. The dialogue alone serves no real purpose other than a shift which you need quite a lot of those otherwise you'd be stuck with some pretty long conversations. Now we get to dialogue that holds no value aka Blacksteeple Prison. The best way to identify this is if you remove the segment or line of dialogue, does the scene still make sense. If this sounds familiar, you probably learned it in a technical class. If you have some of this there's no sin as some is good, but having too much simply drags a plot along and is more or less boring. I think the most common is repeat of old information. The best way to understand is to simply give an example: Example A: Ross: Oh Juliet, how long I awaited this day D.Man: Hey Charles, do you think he's gonna propose C.Man: Totally. The boy has been trying for years Ross: Would you please accept this ring and be forever my bride Juliet: Oh Ross! Of course I will. Example B: Ross: Oh Juliet, how long I awaited this day. Would you please accept this ring and be forever my bride? Juliet: Oh Ross! Of course I will. Now if what the Man people were saying was important you could easily show that in different ways but it does depend on the medium. If it's a novel you could write "his tired knee got down once more for a chance of true happiness" or some mumbo jumbo but in a game you make want to show animations or graphics or simply leave that fact out or have Ross say it later. Simplicity is such an important and useful tool especially when dealing with complex stories. It gives more emphasis when needed. And the case and point is: (Would work just fine starting right here) (JAN! You are killing me) This is a pet peeve but it always irritates me when people make what should be a subtle reference not so subtle. This is exactly what happened in the mansion part and the game just obnoxiously wants to remind you it happened. I can think of two things that would better fit this. One of these days I won't go on a rant. One of these days. (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!) I'm not gonna say it. I'm just not gonna say it. This is gonna be a long episode. (As a womanizer would say, "I don't think sleeping next to a giant whole is a good idea") (Better be careful. You might lose your legs doing that) (Maybe we should sleep outside instead) ([Inhales] It's for [Insert major spoiler for Trails in the Sky]) (Maybe they're secretly a crime fighter of the night) OH MY GOD INDY IS BATMAN! He even has a costume. I swear I don't do this on purpose. I'm just imagine him saying "I'm Indy!" now. The Arc Knight rises. Okay, I'm done. Or would it be Indman...that sounds racist. (Buy the next pack of DLC to find out!) (Gee...I never would have guessed from all the dialogue beforehand) (Even the game acknowledges it) (And cue the thing we've been waiting for and totally was not over foreshadowed) (Oh look...it's a girl that reminds me of a girl that I despise) (Gelica basically said "Screw it! I'm out!") (And he didn't notice the machine is suddenly fixed) (Eh, the game I mentioned before is creepier) (Oh lady trapped in a crystal/prison. Haven't seen that before) (More importantly, who am I?) ([Deep Breath] PERSONA! [Shoots self]) (That is supposed to be a crystal floating in mid air. Maybe I've seen too much FFBE) (Fall and die? World will end due to the crystals losing power? Actually be evil and trying to take over the world and were sealed away to prevent that?) (Oh...lame) (Looks like fall came early) (And like any cliche anime protagonist...he survived an impossible fall) It actually makes a little sense that he'd survive this due to...reasons but we can't talk about those right now. (Must be otherwise you'd be dead) (Fantasy and Realty aren't very different from each other) I designed a character around that concept and I must say it was a very interesting philosophy to go into and start questioning what is fake and what is real and the concept of reality. It's mind boggling...literally. (How can I breathe without you) I don't know I was just thinking about the song (Oh purple hair. Guess that means she's evil) (Miss Aevium has to keep his reputation up for the candidacy) (I told you she was evil) (It's a Pokemon...it can't talk...even though it just did) (Good luck without Gelica by your side) And so we get to an epic battle between.... (Oh you better not do what I think you are about to do) Yeah I almost won this fight with just Lucario. I'm not against hard first fights but this Beheeyem needs its attack power toned down a little bit so it doesn't two shot most people's Lucarios. The "there's another Pokemon" excuse doesn't work because the plot doesn't even lead or even hint to do that. You'd maybe find it by off chance. I don't mind early game battles that are a little difficult but I know the rule of thumb is only having to use 1 to 2 items max to win. But after 5 attempts and no luck we...try to find a more efficient solution: (Good because Gelica left me) Yep, Gelica is no longer in our party as you can see since she's no longer following us. But truth be told there's a glitch that if you go up the elevator to Keith's place, the follower Pokemon is turned off without being turned back on. And it turned this into what has to be one of the funniest conversations to even think about. (I'm a hobo. Rockin' that hobo life until I become Pres or PoA) (I need to have that evil scheming time like the cliche villain I am. Please ignore the stache) (Gelica left me so I got a new friend, Crow. Crow would never leave me and he's a total bro) (Nobody knows I've been fired...despite openly being kicked out of the office and openly saying I'm unemployed both earlier and right now) (Eh, I needed a new friend anyways) (Crow, I don't need your sass right now) (I see two scyther over there. They only need one to get the job done) (Crow, why do you gotta be so mean? Even Gelica is not that mean) (Greedy son of a...) (I'll take the CEO job. That way I gotta do nothing but boss people around) (I want the laziest one possible) (Well...they never got me one) (And so much for my backup plan. Crow, looks like we need to pray to RNGeebus) (Crow, you're so mean. I don't like you anymore) (Didn't I meet someone who lost their ID earlier?) (That dirty bandit) (A job and the will to live) (sounds like we're in the same boat...You could say that I'm you pier) (I'm too tired for puns about Unions. It's because they never work) (Oh how convenient) (That'd be very convenient) (How convenient) (What convenience) (And we conveniently found it) (And it conveniently solves the problem) (That seems like too much work) (That's very convenient that an ID lost for a long period of time wasn't found by someone and the guy who should check it doesn't) (Can't complain about convenience) (And we're getting the Commander abridged version) Scyther - Cut trees Muk - Clean Sewage Donphan - Slay Gods And here's what all three look like and some thoughts: Scizor is an excellent Pokemon no matter what way you look at it, but Scyther is kind of a fast glass canon who can hit hard but dies rather easily. Some people will say he's really good but I personally don't think it's all award winning other than its big feature is having cut which would be helpful if we need it. Definitely a good choice for a glass cannon but we kind of already have Lucario for that job. Probably the best of the three and will make a certain fight pitifully easy. Donphan is probably the worst of the three options. It's level up pool is okay but it really only learns EQ in I want to say the 50s. What you see here is basically its final movepool and while Bulldoze will be helpful now, it'll likely just be filling up a spot later on since you do get another ground type later. I decided to go with Muk as it has a rather solid movepool and is a rather tanky mon. Donphan is rather tanky in the Def stat and can survive a hit with sturdy but Muk is a special wall who can take as much if not more punishment. I would've preferred Shadow Sneak but protect is such a useful move especially when you have limited options since you can stall. I also would have preferred Poison Touch but Sticky hold lets him keep his Black Sludge if that's even available. Glubbanaught officially joins as our second party member. And now back to our main program. (Something tells me I'm gonna regret this) (I told you he can tank) (Glubbanaught did all that damage by himself when he needed to only do chip damage) (My revenge with Crow has been completed...or is that Gelica...I don't know) (Not the Behees) (That took way too much time to finish) (Okay, now I know I'm dreaming, but at least I have you, Glubba...oh he's fainted) (Pretty sure this is the graveyard connected to Amethyst Cave) (And she's still evil. Telling you she's evil) (Oh hey Glubbanaught, I'm glad you made it back to the side of the living) (Pretty sure meeting a girl in a dream is a cliche as well) (Cue the Chrono Cross theme) (Making babies?) (Well I have nothing better to do) (Getting real tired of this dialogue emphasis) I don't like when dialogue emphasizes stuff. It's distracting and usually brings more harm than good. Honestly, it's kind of an insult to your intelligence as it assumes you can't properly read which is sad but true. Many gamers don't bother reading the dialogue text boxes and get made or frustrated when they can't find their way. So I understand why people do it, but that's really just sad. Sad that people only care about one aspect over a full experience even if you hate the story. I really disliked SAO Re: Hallow Fragment, but I didn't skip any of the dialogue (I only played a couple hours of it). It didn't kill me. Then again, I do like visual novels so I'm probably weird and not in the norm. (I noticed Jan is a fan of...) (3 chapters in and you are already cheating on your girl...well soon to be girl...you get the idea) (She's wearing a different outfit. Pretty sure she was wearing uhhh whatever Aelita wears) (I'm pretty sure I al...you're not a ghost, are you? I hate ghosts) (Oh good more baggage. Just like any good Pokemon game) (Spooky) (Something tells me this ties in to the V10 sections) Since I'm part of the forums, it is near impossible to avoid spoilers on Rejuv. I basically have a rough idea of the plot. Some I brought on myself but most I just accidentally saw in Discord. I know vaguely what happens but I don't have the full grasp since I never cared too deeply either way. Meanwhile I have been avoiding Trails spoilers like the plague and XB2 spoilers. Still pretty spoiler free on both. (Maybe I shouldn't. I don't know if your evil or not) (I guess we know what this game is about now. Finding...we'll call her Violet) (At least it's not in Commander's. Last person he tried finding and saving died) (Something tells me he'll fail and be a depressed old man who'd betray his village. Just a whim) (Gelica! You came back. Crow, begone! Your services are no longer needed) (Gotta lay low on...when did I get a Muk?) (Everything I know is a lie. Guess I really did visit the afterlife and come back) (I might actually be an angel) (ONE MONTH! That's insane) (Silly me, Pokemon are dumb animals that can't communicate) Not actually true. Animals can communicate what they want pretty well so for a person and Pokemon to understand each other is actually not as out there as it might think. If my one dog wants something, she'll push my hand away to get my attention. Most of what they understand is sounds though and not words obviously since we communicate two different ways. It might seem weird that people talk to their pets but it makes more sense when you have one. That's kind of what Keta is doing so it's pretty accurate. Even if one of his Lucario is imaginary (That reminds me of a funny teasing story) So when I was like a 4 or 5 year old, my sister managed to put a whoopie cushion under our dog right before she sat down. That was the fastest I've ever seen that dog run and she was not happy the rest of the day. Teasing animals is fun. Mean, but kind of fun since they think it's a game sometimes. (Ah the good old death glare. I got that all the time fron the one dog we had that hated me) (Spoiler Alert: You should) (We were doing so good) I don't like the piece of dialogue reading it a second time over. It just feels unnecessary and kind of out of place. Hell, I figured he would have forgotten the scary stuff and be super keen on the girl. (Finally almost done with this part) (The sun is rising for me) (Guess we are sleeping like a hobo tonight) And just for people who want nice and pleasant dreams: (She looks way too happy) I'm assuming she's wearing a mask. I also have a pretty good idea who this person is linked to due to another spoiler. That moment is pretty much ruined for me. Let's be honest, most of the big things in Rejuv have been ruined for me but at least I can be prepared for screenshots. And with that I sleep. Next part will be the last part before jumping back to Rejuv for a while.

It could simply be random stuff that needs to be checked to make sure it doesn't crash or to just double check or it could be simple stuff like a random event NPC or dialogue change. Could even just be a graphics edit.

Uhhhh....that's not a term and if it was she is doing that as she has been delivering and giving access to an unfinished game for many years. I know the game is the game known for being the unfinished one but at least they are adding and polishing it as many games before don't even get that luxury such as Xenogears. Games do get rushed or budget cuts and it can hurt them so badly. It's really hard to tell but often times you can see stuff in games and it puzzle you why it's even there. It's usually do to this. Like in FFXV Ame has gone back and added stuff to previous areas though not much story wise actually. Just small things an added sidequests. Taka will disappear even if you shift from the Reshiram to the Zekrom path by not taking him with you. Ame says that he probably died of dehydration. He is alive in the Zekrom path and still with Meteor if you fought him. I think he may even make an appearance in this episode. Hard to tell because there's so many other unresolved story branches which we are very likely to see play out. Tell that to Ame Gonna end this on the most important note. Ame works hard to build these episodes so please be patient while you wait for it and please don't pester any of the devs nor the alpha/beta testers about it. It's hard to keep spoilers from slipping and especially for two months straight. I'm not saying it will take that long but the almighty coding deities may place a curse on Marcello in which he can only program things to work after 3 attempts and singing Despacito but only with Wahs. But for those super anxious, testing has always taken over a month so it's best to let that sink in now while we wait.

After being here for a very long time, I've learned to be very, very patient with Reborn episodes. E16 had that long delay due to health problems, E17 had AI bugs like crazy, and everything after Episode XIII had really long developing times. Ame is probably ahead of Marc so there's nothing that really can be done if Marc has exams or is too busy on a certain week to finish. (Please don't rush, Marc). It'll happen eventually. On the scale Ame works at, she works surprisingly fast...especially considering what the desert looks like. As for Lin, I'm not really sure if we'll see her, but we'll certainly being a few faces we haven't seen in a while. I have an idea what half the episode will be like, but I just can't predict what way the other half will go.

While that would be cool I really doubt it. Marc actually tried getting doubles online to work for E16 but it didn't end so well and he's got a butt load of AI problems to deal with so I don't think he'd tackle another huge project on top of that. I feel like E18 is just going to mostly enhance what is already there instead of trying to add new features. We are nearing the game's completion.

I was going to make the short joke fish did but he beat me to it so I made a longer comment I mean ambiguous suggestions/complaints are a dime a dozen. You are saying to Jan to put in more quests because they are fun. Pretty sure every player would love a set of those every segment but sometimes there's reasons not to. I'd love seeing more of them in the game, but I don't mind long segments without them. Maybe V11 will be plot heavy and have a big twist or battle to get excited about but if Jan puts forth more time into side quests due to fan complaints, maybe it'll end up being a big letdown or feel rushed or confusing.

Uhhh....what? I know there was this choice thing in V10 but it sounds like the issue is that it's based around a poor buildup with an unclear what to do or even make sense with creates dissonance between players and the PC. I've seen quite a handful of people complain that the choices didn't really make as much sense, but it's not my territory to talk about as it'd be hypocritical of me say it's one way or the other as of right now. Not actually a fan of story branches especially long extended ones because it requires replaying the game to experience both, but that's just tastes. There is one thing I can answer. You're asking Jan to change the story...didn't we have this convo...hell if I remember who is who...which isn't something you can just randomly do to please a couple people. You can alter and flesh it out more but that's more to help sort confusion or better flow and not really going to change people's overall opinion's on something. In other words, the story is going to stay the same and there's not much anyone can do about it. Didn't Jan say Grand Dream City was the last segment of help quests he'd do? I personally don't think Jan needs to do anything more than what he wants to do as Rejuv is a pretty long game full of a lot of content. A lot more than people should even ask or demand from a free game tbh. If you want games which have amazing sidequest content then you don't have to look too deep because many great RPGs do them well. Tales of Series is full of little bits and pieces of content from skits to titles, Trails of Series has job quests (similar to Rejuv), FFV and VI, Majora's Mask (one of my absolute favorite games due to the side quest system), and Xenoblade X. Pretty sure we could go on a year talk about games with great side quest systems. Jan will do what Jan wants. Maybe next episode will be loaded with sidequests or maybe it'll have a heavier focus on the main plot without much else to go out of the way for. I'd be fine for both. Oh, this is a post where I won't trigger someone finally. I better change that. I actually really don't care for team anti-assist and find them more annoying than funny. I've only seen them on the island part but I think that's enough to get a good idea on them.

Actually, that didn't really take all that much time. I think Gen VI took longer to do all that snazzy stuff but it's hard to remember as the game wasn't being followed as closely compared to now (it was the 10.5 release. That reminds me....I need to work on Redux...a little bit.

Time taken per episode is not amounted to a certain amount. If Ame theoretically only focused on making new areas of the game without focus of adding new additional features, we would have probably have had the full game out by now. AI took a very long time for E17 due to the heavy amount of glitches that needed fixed. From the sound of thing, it'll likely be a bit more smooth sailing for E19 as a lot of Ame's big to dos are to dones. So how long does old Commander think it'll be. From the sound of it there's just a pile of stuff that needs to be done without being able to really name it all. Maybe some feature fixes or redesigns or dialogue changes. We'll just say it'll all be nice and wrapped up in a month. It could be two but it doesn't look like it. After the sidequest the bulk of the episode is completely done and more or less ready to be played. Testing I don't think will take two months this time. That is by far the outlier when it comes to testing due to how unplayable the game was. Like there's slight annoying hindrances and then there's "you'd need debug mode to do this or it'll softlock the game" kind of glitches. I don't think we'll hit that extreme again (and I know people were getting very impatient to the point we had to explain the situation) but it is possible we'll go around this merry-go-round again. Being theoretical that Marcello knew the major problems with the AI, it shouldn't take that long and my guess is a month and a half (3 weeks for each phase). tl;dr: it could be 2 months at the earliest or 6 months at the worst. In other words, some time this year. So if someone asks when E17 will come, just say "some time this year."

@N1Dude and @Archeric First off, there used to be a paypal option to donate for the site but has been taken down a long time ago. The best way to fund Reborn is to support her patreon page which I believe is currently the only method. Secondly, asking for money on a fan-game is illegal no matter what way you want to spin it. I'm not afraid to say it because Ame clearly knows the rules around it as do many of us. I'll leave my personal opinions on the subject out for the time being. I just ask that you to not pressure fan-game makers to go this route. Beyond that, I don't want to swing people's opinions one way or another on the subject.

BS clause is a scapegoat clause made to counter rare scenarios that happen almost never. I've only used it once mostly because I had a 4 hour grinding session and would have had to go through an 8 hour grinding session since I lost 4 mons in a single turn due to sever bad luck (damn you Dakim and your 4 crits). Personally, I'd count the impossible battles as deaths since they still fainted, but it's a non standard clause so no matter what it's a lose-lose situation. I'm pretty sure if they wipe early they might end up just turning this into a normal run instead of cancelling it altogether. I'm not actually following it at all but I do find all the comments and how into it you guys are amusing. Nothing that happened here surprised me at all though. Reborn is not a grind friendly game and they will be spending a lot of off camera hours grinding which adds to fatigue and...you then have bad luck or a mon surprising them with strong it is knocks out a critical Pokemon adding to more grinding and fatigue. That's kind of where the issue is with Reborn's difficulty and not the actual game itself in terms of a nuzlocke. Reborn isn't as hard as people make it out to be.

Well there's a few things that have to be in consideration as when you have 5 people that's 5 things that need to be edited together which even having a co-host is actually not that easy to do as it's then 3 things of sound you have to worry about. I'd imagine that they do the recordings in bulk since they can't all meet up and do this very easily (my guess is a 5-8 hour session even) and then take time to decide if a certain point is good enough before making a closing message before continuing. It'd make more sense this way as there's going to be so much grinding needed to make sure levels are up to date and all the mons are decent levels. The other thing is that the bigger you get the more artificial you become bar a very, very small handful of big youtubers who actually manage to keep things a bit more personal. You've got hundreds of comments daily and it's near impossible to reply to many of them or even read them all. I actually think it's also smarter to go about it this way since fans...kind of end up spoiling some of the fun in video games. When you tell someone the answer or what to expect, it dampens the impact and overall impression of the game. It's like telling them an impossible battle is coming up. It's no longer exciting and a freak out because who expects a Garchomp to come in and cream you in a Pokemon game. I mean I do it with the run but I actually do like knowing what is a bit ahead so I can prepare and cover it over enjoyment in Rejuv. If it was about enjoyment or experience, I'd do the entire playthrough before uploading it as editing takes way longer (especially if you're me and screw up a lot).

Just do not be like me and forget to record the replay like I did and you'll be fine.