The Radiant Aeon
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Pokemon Reborn Development Blog
Pokemon Rejuvenation Development Blog
Posts posted by The Radiant Aeon
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13 minutes ago, Ice Cream Sand Witch said:
Team Crescent isn't meant to be a ripoff of Madara. This has come up several times in the thread and Caz has said he doesn't like Naruto. IIRC it was inspired more by Inception.
That would be more plausible if that is the case, although it very uncanny how similar Team Crescent and Madara's ultimate goals are down to the end game "world peace." Now that I know its not the case, and more like Inception, I feel a little bit better about Team Crescent, though they are still highly generic. Still ant to know more about Black Foxes I mean come on why the suspense for them but not for Crescent.
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Seeing as 4.0 is about to drop in the next month or so, I think it is about time I provide my opinion of this game because I have stuff to praise it for and a lot more to criticize. Mind you this is gonna be a long post due to the many issues I have for this game. Thus, I'm breaking this up into parts, just so I don't take the whole damn page. I'll try to keep this as unbiased as possible, but there were a lot of things that annoyed me in this game that needs to be addressed, because Desolation has a lot of promise.
Positives (Stand-out features)
SpoilerProbably the core feature this game that truly made me want to enjoy playing it: Choice-based dialogue and relationships. Something rarely done in Pokemon fan games are "choose your own adventure" styles where certain choices and relationships may affect future dialogue. It heavily reminds me of games made by Bethesda, BioWare, and ALL of the visual novels, as well as what I wanted Fates to be. I know Reborn has this as well (ie. Shelly sub-plot) but Desolation adds to this with character affinity, primarily with Ava and Scarlet. It made me actually consider dialogue choice, seeing as certain choices may have repercussions on the future plot. Because this game is in its early stages, there isn't much but dialogue changes, but further down the line this will most certainly be the reason why people would want to have multiple playthroughs of this game. Please tread carefully with this mechanic and don't fuck this one up; this could very well be your Delta Pokemon, your Uranium type, or whatever the fuck Phoenix Rising is going to do.
Additionally, some features in this game, though some are blatantly copy-pasta from Rejuvenation/Reborn, are, in my opinion, one of its best features. Mainly I'm speaking of ranger quests, which are all addictive. Beyond the multiple rewards that make this game more tolerable to play, the side quests are all really good, minus a few dungeon crawling ones. In fact, in some ways, the ranger quests sub plot is actually more enjoyable than the main plot (which I'll elaborate on more later). There is also the Jinx warps, which are more convenient than the bus and trucks in Insurgence and Rejuvenation respectively. Friend Coin rewards are usually top notch, and there isn't any restrictive quantity unless carelessly spent on dumb shit. Lastly, there are event Pokemon that were located in interesting locations and were worth the effort and added lore (Frosslass, Gastly, and Aipom are three examples that come to mind as of typing this).
tl;dr: Excellent defining mechanic that may make-or-break your game, excellent side content, convenient tools, moderate interest in Event Pokemons.
I don't think I need to elaborate further, considering most of the stuff I've mentioned are things people might have praised about before. However, know that these features were truly some of the most fun I've had in any fan game that I have played. Unfortunately, this is where I take the kiddy-gloves off.
Negatives (A fuck ton)
SpoilerHonestly this is gonna take a long time to write, so I'll take this from the beginning. As in the beginning of the game. Because it sucks massive gonads. I understand this game is in dedication to Reborn and Rejuvenation, and that is completely fine in my opinion. But when the opening sequence is practically the same shit as Rejuvenation's but ten-time worse, we have an issue. Both intros have the same sort of vibe; a sort of pleasant beginning, turning bad as the player progresses through the story. Difference here and there is both Rejuvenation's freshness and establishment of a tense atmosphere; here, it sucks. No, I'm not adding some euphemism for this segment, it just sucks. Not only is the basic premise a total rehash of Rejuvenation, but the elements of suspicion that occurs whenever the player explores the boat (the Xen grunt, the talk between your mom and Crescent, ect.) is replaced by backroom
drugdeals and an obvious bomb threat, followed by edge, edge, and more edge. I reiterate a previous point I've made that this is still in early development, but I swear if the opening of this game is reworked soon, people will get disinterested in the story. This isn't even the complete beginning of the game and I see so many problems.The next thing are the dungeons, and oh lord were these a problem. Again, I'll start from the beginning. The first dungeon, the jungle, is total garbage. I mean, this comes straight after the dull intro, so it is only compounded in dullness with this as the "tutorial" section. Yes, the many starter selections was fine. No, everything else about the jungle is terrible, from the plot to the general exploration. This jungle (don't remember its name, nor do I care to) has shades of release Terajuma. Release Terajuma was total laggy, annoying bullshit. And even then, this place manages to do that while being LINEAR. Also, the tribe and Shiv's brother plot points are all so random that I could hardly care about what Shiv did to the hypnotic fuck. Instead of "I feel sorry for these poor people" "who is this Shiv guy and why is he locked up" or "I need to stop these people or else they''ll kill my friends" like I believe is the intent, I thought "what sort of lame backstory do you have to end up like this" "who the hell is this jackass with a damn annoying Aipom" "why am I already level 15" "god I hate this dungeon" "who left this Croagunk here" and "cool story but I want to progress through this slow ass dungeon." And we never hear of what happened here again. And our reward for completing this long ass, slow ass, dungeon? A boss fight that I swear required an hour of grinding a fucking moody Bidoof to a Bibarel just to cheese my way through. Conner's boss fight is a seriously bad one for any blind playthrough, especially the FIRST GYM LEADER and I was almost about the delete this game from just this. Call me a whiny ass, but that shit is unfair.
Next is Route 1 and Carotos rip off, which are both pretty terrible too. Route 1 not so much as it had some room for breathing, but the backtracking for sidequests and repels because damn Route 1 was a big turn off. Then we enter Carotos rip off which I will refer to as such because it is, again, a rehash of early versions of Carotos in Rejuvenation made worse because of the length, backtracking, and money burnt on repels (which also require backtracking). Current Carotos is fine as is because the simplicity of the dungeon yet retains the creative puzzle aspects of the early versions of the dungeon. The bootleg version of this is going from point A to point B with massive detours in the middle. And again, the rewards we earn for crawling our way through this forsaken dungeon is learning more about the oh so dull and generic Team Crescent and EDGE.
No comment on Weeping Hills because honesty that place was lit. If anything, it only confirms that Team Crescent is just a cult of overly idealistic dickwads which I'll go in more depth later.
Now, in the last few issues I've had, I could fit all of my grievances into a paragraph. I plan to keep it this way too. Honestly though, if I was just talking about Silver Rise, I can write a fucking book about bad level design and use it as my primary example, and still won't elaborate on how shit this dungeon is. Silver Rise comes after a high point in the game, because prior to this dungeon, the game held a constant pace of progress similar to most RPGs after moving beyond the beginning of the game. Then story bullshit happens, with a totally unexpected, completely sad, and emotionally charged betrayal (I'll go into more depth as to why Scarlet's betrayal is garbage later) and boring banter by Solaris 2.0. Then Tristan happens, which his gameplay inclusion is both a story plothole and overall hindrance in general due to lolBoomburst. not only that, but Silver Rise is a two prong dungeon of evil, with one being and annoying search quest for crystal bridges, the other a maze. Because the game is still early as I've mentioned, lag is inevitable. But not only does the first section lag, but it is LONG. Length isn't much of an issue normally in Pokemon games, due to repels. without repels, Pokemon games become that much more annoying. Naturally having repels would lessen the burden of length within this dungeon if it wasn't ofr Desolation's unusual level progression. By the time the player beats hot caramel queen ranger gym leader, they're probably level 35 at max. Pokemon found in Silver Rise are 39 max. In other words, until you reach level 40, repels are USELESS. "But they are just random encounters, no issue there" right? Then we remember Tristan (lol) and his level 45 Exploud with BOOMBURST. Meaning, unless the opposing team has Pokemon that resist normal attacks or you have resists of your own, Tristan WILL KILL YOUR TEAM. This will result in net loss in net loss of experience for your team, further leveling to 40 harder than it needs to be. You will spend HOURS on just the first segment of Silver Rise, not even mentioning the ice bridge puzzles which are essentially Luna's Ionia Valley but worse. And of course, our reward is a nonlinear maze with high-level Pokemon trainers and a healing machine three long rooms with similarly high level wild encounters in between. Really I only recommend making a complete overhaul of the first segment of Silver Rise, or at least expect an overhaul in 4.0 because any notion of replayability is squashed by Silver Rise's terrible design. Isay it is comparable to Majora's Masks's Great Bay, due to annoying talk-quests, Metal Gear Gerudo Fortress, and lolGreat Bay Temple on top of being boring as fuck in general. Silver Rise is not just a major cockblock of the coveted sense of progress the game attained post-Carotos rip off, but is a standout brick wall that halted any sort of interest for this game. You know things are bad when Voltorb Flip is more interesting than your dungeon.
Even though Silver Rise is bar none the worst part of the game so far, Blackview City is probably the worst big city between Reborn, Rejuvenation, and Desolation. Reborn City in its first several episodes was notorious for its insane lag and lack of lighting, courtesy of early development. Of course, Ame rectified these issues, and Reborn as a whole serves a fun, eccentric hub with many features to enjoy. Similarly, Gearen shares a lot perks Reborn has, while also being easier to explore due the symmetry and easily identifiable landmarks. Blackview has almost none of those things and can be considered a dungeon in itself. Even with the colored triangles, if you don't remember how to get from point A to point B, you're fucked. Again, like Silver Rise, Blackview comes after a grace period where the game started to the player back into a decent pace of challenge and leisure without hindering progress sans Tristan's battle. The incomprehensible layout of Blackview is enough of a flaw, but the unclear objectives to progress the story collaborate with the horrible design of the city in a way that creates headaches. No other example fits this better than locating the Teal Panther base, which is probably the dumbest fucking thing I've seen in a Pokemon fan game. In a city filled with trash, grayscale, and cracks, finding a SPECIFIC CRACK IN THE WALL is probably the worst design decision possible, and only the most observant person in the world would notice something like that. That's not even mentioning the reward for completing the Teal Panther base, which I could give less fucks about for, again, reasons I'll talk about when I get to the story. Oh, and the electric leader was a bitch.
As far as the general issues I have, the most reoccuring one is the one problem that should never be a problem in an adventure/RPG game: Progress cockblocks. Four of the five segments of this game that I ranted about shared this trait. All of these are the biggest parts of Desolation. The slowness of these areas truly drag what promise this game had through the mud, or at least for myself, because I would rather drink bleach than endure three to four hours of Silver Rise. In addition to this, level progression is so off in this game its almost insane. As mentioned in Silver Rise, levels of wild Pokemon are on par or sometimes higher than the expected level of the player. The jungle section was especially bewildering as well, due to the sudden increases of level from area to area (Lotads that were level 4 along the beach were level 9 in the main jungle, and further encounters were level 12.) Trainers aren't as critical due to usefulness of having good sources of EXP. Perhaps balance out the levels of wild encounters, if only to make repels have a purpose.
Story-wise, this game can be described in one word: Edge. Like, if we take Reborn, Rejuvenation, and Desolation and scale them in terms of edge, Rejuvenation would be razor blade edge, Reborn would be playing Reaper with Linkin Park edge, and Desolation is COMPLETELY FILLED MY HEART WITH DARKNESS NOTHING BUT DARKNESS edge. Seriously, dial back the edge, this game is entirely edge. Shiv's backstory for starters; I feel like this is every sibling quarrel in every JRPG in existence. Speaking of generic, both the Black Foxes and Team Crescent just...exist. Granted, we don't know much of the Foxes aside from being another crazy cult, but Crescent is the epitome of edge. Ultimate goal is to awaken Darkrai Perfection and make everyone live blissfully forever? Not only is this another rip off, this time of Madara Uchiha of all villains, but it was just dropped in there. Just like that. Team Crescent's main goal; answered at a drop of a hat. Returning to the Weeping Hills, when Nova questioned me on which side I would give the big dumb rock to, I didn't side with Nova for any reason at all except "God your plan is so dumb GTFO." Oh theen there is Solaris 2.0 which I will refer to as such because he is such a Solaris clone. I mean, ruthless admin that tries to kill people for no fucking reason beyond LOL I'M EVIL (And yes I also think Solaris is a dumb character himself considering how unnecessarily ruthless he is, incredible blandness as a character, yet is a total bitch when it comes to Lin.)
And finally Scarlet, which I will make a separate point about because she serves no purpose except for TEH FEELS. Seriously, she gets no development as a character outside small talk that reveals nothing about her a person or a hint of depression that could lead to her betrayal or even a backstory, making her betrayal feel out of place and fall flat in terms of emotional impact (In addition to a big plothole ie. When the fuck did she contact Team Crescent or know about them in the first place?). Speaking of falling flat, her death is completely unnecessary and in a twisted way hilarious. Sad monologue of how her life is depressing and shit then committing suicide is just underwhelming. Call me a dick, but when Scarlet died, if she actually is actually going to stay dead in the first place, I just didn't care. Scarlet had little time to develop as a character, and the development she did get was rushed and sloppy. The way Scarlet was written does not reflect the original intent of the character; her death scene was more like the petulant whining of a total dumbass than it was a heartfelt loss of a dear friend like it was meant to be simply because of the sloppiness of the writing. If Ava or Conner died instead of Scarlet, you would bet your ass I would be heartbroken because I came to like those characters and how they were handled. Scarlet just died for the sake of dying. A recent example of a poorly written character betraying what they were meant to be is Xander in FE Fates. Xander was advertised to be this honorable knight that serves his country with loyalty, while simultaneously being a caring brother figure with unmatched charisma and a duty to protect innocent people. Not once before Fates's release did I associate those genuine qualities as presented in translated supports and by raving fangirls to be in reality Garon's side bitch and a complete coward. Ryoma shares the same contradictory character, but only Xander comes close to being as poorly written as Scarlet. Both characters do not represent their roles in the story because of poor writting, and their deaths are equally as dumb due to their illogical rational. Again, I apologize immensely for any Scarlet fans for extreme criticism of her as a character, but she is one character that I cannot forgive, most especially because how she was initially presented was perfectly fine and was likable, if a little too perfect. Her betrayal represents the biggest blemish of this game's story (conveniently happens prior to the game's worst gameplay blemish), and needs to be rectified in the later part of the story to make me remotely care about her death. Like, add a backstory or something that would make me love her because I really want to love this character but its so damn hard not to laugh at how dumb she is.
In conclusion, despite the game's numerous features, these faults standout as they repeal the one thing I found to be the major niche of this game; replayability. The long dungeons are too much of a hassle to experience again just to piss off Scarlet and see if she decides to stop being a pansy and not kill herself. Which is a damn shame because if the gameplay hinders the overall game so much that the development of story is also affected, then that is a good sign that the game is very clunky in its development. While I don't expect the story to be retconed, I certainly wish the dungeons can be reworked to be more enjoyable. If that is achieved, whether in 4.0 or not, the value of replaying this game from the ground up only increases.
too fucking long; why would you read: Dungeons are long and annoying rather than difficult, overuse of awkward progression of Pokemon levels makes everything overlevel, main story is shallow, main antagonists would appreciate further development, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD FIX SCARLET'S WRITING
Honestly I may come off as a presumptuous douche, but these are my thoughts for the current state of Desolation. While I don't hate it (I love it more than 90% of Pokemon fan games out there) it has some massive issues that straight up sacrifice the positives of the game. As mentioned numerous times in this post, Desolation is still in early development, so I don't expect my issues for staying too long. In fact, I am very eager for 4.0 just to see if Caz and whoever is helping him improves the overall quality of the game, because it certainly as the potential to sit with games like Rejuvenation.
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Pikachu Mishima confirmed...I mean he has EWGF.
Also, looking at the size of the select screen, there is possibly enough space for 20 characters + random. Though I wonder if they could fit in scrolling on the select screen. That being said, there are 6 generations of pokemon and over 700 to choose from. We already know 6 characters being Lucario, Gardevoir, Machamp, Suicune, Pikachu, and Blaziken. 5 out of those 6 are fan favorites, 1 of those is quadrupedal, 3 lacking mega evolutions, and one not officially shown in game play footage. So that begs the question; who the fuck can be in this game? Because Harada has history of being random as fuck, we can expect to see the craziest additions to the game. And if smash 4 amiibos are compatible with this game IF it gets a console release, and it most likely will, we can definitely expect Charizard, Greninja, and Mewtwo.
Another minor detail that I like are trainer characters as sort of the player avatars. Considering Namco/Bandai's history of customization, we can expect multiple trainer avatars being unlockable. And because I say so, Heihachi has a slight possibility of being in the game as a trainer, stage cameo or, because it's motherfucking Heihachi, a playable character (unlikely but I CAN DREAM.)
Edit: I also love some of the videos I've seen with the stream chat flying across the screen ie. CHROM CONFIRMED
Edit 2: Wait...
Her Ultimate reminded me of Megaman's Final Smash in Smash Bros and Dormamu's Level 3 in the Marvel Vs. Capcom games.
DID SOMEBODY JUST SAY DORMMAMU?!...Damn gonna play as Gardevoir
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I'm just using it as an excuse to not shave
Unfortunately I have to shave occasionally or else I get demerits. And I don't need some baggage on me when inspection is coming close.
Edit: On a side note, here is me with a tie....coming soon.
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tfw I could probably cosplay as lil mac quite successfully.
Lil Mac? More like Big Mac, old man. OOOOOO
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Won my JROTC competition. A picture of me, my captain, and one of my teammates.
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It was pretty damn difficult to find this photo, but after my derp moments, I bring you...
Snowcones!!
And for the tasteful, here is my friend taking a picture of us walking home from the gym.
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Mael you scare the fuck out of me.
You are right to be scared, Temp. No one can handle the manly musk.
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Businesswoman Amethyst. How quaint.
Edit: Or saleswoman amethyst? Hmm...either way we all get ripped off.
Edit2: Ahem, this is a nice new (and annoying) little field thing. Again. Well it makes things interesting.
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Went to Play Nintendo today in Houston. Took some pics with the props. Large posts so I'll keep the pics in spoilers.
First off the picture of some of the areas
Now for the things that matter in this thread.
BANANAS (and derp smile)
Honestly I shoulda hugged it like Mario
Unfortunately I wasn't sent 7 years to the future.
Perhaps I can hatch this egg one day. (Also, if this is the actual size of a Yoshi egg, then DAYUM)
So you wanna see my pokeball, eh?
Fun fact: I actually I screamed like a little girl when I first saw the Pikachu costume.
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We're back. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Not sure if you are an inconvenience in generalAhem...Well that is good news. Even though we see problems every month,
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tfw someone I genuinely care about and not some random person I hang out with begins to act in a way that they aren't as close as I believed, or rather wished to believe. I mean, if you have something to tell me, I always have a free ear. We're like brothers, you and me.
And no I will not give out my ears on the market you bastards.
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nawwh. encourage him. y'all need a bit of kawaii desu love in your lives
here's an experiment in actually not straightening my hair for once, and papers reflecting entirely too much light
incidentally those papers happen to be the layout sketches for e13 areas, so i thank them for censoring themselves.
If you weren't so scary, I'd say you are cute in that pic girl.
Edit: Also, we need to have a system..like
Love
Encouragement
World
Drive
L.E.W.D. Shall be our future
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I don't know what sorta shit you guys wanna touch, but I don't mind touching em myself.
Also, Silver wear a shirt.
And finally
Damn that's hideous =P
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No, topless is better <3
If it involves you, I wouldn't mind
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I see that, DD, and I raise you this.
http://37.media.tumblr.com/c7dbc0d5474f6afd3e39b63042c541d8/tumblr_n6s0ppVmD11t4979lo1_400.png
WEAR A DAMN SHIRT
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Perfect timing. I'll need something to keep me busy at California.
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(22:20:03) Lunatic Aeon: Reevee x Hilda?
(22:20:07) Tempest: TempxReevee
(22:20:07) *** Cubone smacks Fezzdog ***
(22:20:09) Lunatic Aeon: Huh...
(22:20:10) Lunatic Aeon: hot
(22:20:10) Tempest: It's canon
(22:20:14) Ruby Alice: Temp x Fezz
(22:20:14) Fezzdoge: alright, not gonna lie, I do love muhself some steak -
I'll leave this here
(21:41:27) ~~~ the monkey appeared as a nameless character in Star Trek. ~~~ -
So...can I eat gators tonight?
Also, I support those ideas and blahblahblah
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So I noticed that Litwick is available, ye? Well there IS the soul candle item, but it is only usable on the pumpkins of the cemetery. Has anyone found it yet?
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(23:39:08) ~~~ Death, Pony Rider's soul was eaten by Death. ~~~
I repeat...HOW?!
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(12:02:27) Karpy: I want another Poké Floats stage
(12:02:31) Lunatic Aeon: NO
(12:02:33) Hukuna: oh wait forget to chaeck for Aromatherpy give me a sec.
(12:02:36) Lunatic Aeon: NO MORE CASUALS SHIT
(12:02:44) ~~~ Lunatic Aeon EXPLODED!!! ~~~That was a random /d that worked out for me...again.
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*cough*
May I ask "Dafuq brothah?"
Pokemon Desolation Episode 5
in Fan-game Exposé
Posted
Thanks for that. That definitely piqued interest for Black Foxes; just the right amount of cryptic with enough info to understand the general goal. Most certainly would side with Foxes over Crescent.
oh and the part where her "powerful Umbreon" beat the police? lel I suspect foul play
No problems, just wanted to speak my mind on the game. In fact your clarifications did clear up some of my issues. And if all of these are intentional, then please, continue because it really intrigues me (still don't like Scarlett though :0). And a lot of this comes from memory, so things like Baron which I may or may not have noticed might have been skipped over entire (again not willing to play version 3 again; Silver Rise was too traumatic). Though I do recall repeating my understanding of this game being very early in development. Then again what do I know I'm suffering from cranknstein and caffeine from hours past and am only comforting my poor self with internet rants and haagan dazs
Also I'm sure you can admit the rejuv and naruto situations are pretty freaking hilarious. irony i guess