Yeshua_Kristos

You're doing good, Deso crew

holy crap your work is a GODSEND, you know that?

Man, you're really going out of your way to ensure Reborn is reborn, huh? Thank you. ^_^ Addendum: I was thinking earlier that speedrunners might object to the loss of a dedicated X items pocket...but then I realized they could just put the X items in Favorites AND add in everything else they frequently use, so it all works out!

I don't know enough about programming to ask a good question, have a kudos in the comments instead (:reach:)

oh my lord, a Reborn dev's response (or should I say, "res-puns") to me has been immortalized But seriously, Eevee looks really cool. Now you’re giving all fangame devs and modders an Eevoboost. Thanks for this!

Reborn is gonna be reborn again (AceGiggle) But seriously, good work, new devs!

normalize "not having my shit together" being a valid reason for taking a break! Under a system that only values people for "productivity" and "quotas," breaks are an act of defiance. <3

Good luck, dev team! I'm glad I tried this game, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll cook. ^_^

(bulbadorable)

Remember: in Anna's asylum, you get to see Nostra saying, "This outcome is unforeseeable" repeatedly. So Taka's death must have been one of those unpredictable results. Don't feel bad that you don't know--Nostra didn't know, either.

No music track provided this time unlike last blog, 0/10 But seriously, these look neat. (bulbadorable)

mushroom. (thanks for your message, Mr. Postman!)

10/10, would play music while reading devblogs again

So, you’re done with Reborn and want to replay it. Want to get better at playing Pokémon in general? Maybe you want to roleplay as a Reborn character, a canon series character, or one of your OC’s. Perhaps you want to see one of the game’s other endings, but don’t want to just do another regular playthrough. Or you are—for whatever reason—striving for the dubious honor of being called crazy by Ame herself. In any case, welcome to the world of Reborn challenge running! Ever since I began hanging out with the runners of this game, I’ve wanted to write an article about our runs. They’ve been very kind and welcoming to me, so this is my small way of paying it forward: by telling you, dear readers, about different ways you can improve your skills at running Reborn. Here we go! 1. Have fun! This won’t necessarily improve your skills at the game per se, but it will improve your mentality when you go into this game. Challenge runs are meant to be fun! Whether you’re nuzlocking or speedrunning or roleplaying or doing some kind of mono, these are always supposed to be fun, and there is no wrong or right way to run. A common line runners say is “Your run, your rules.” Who cares about what other people think if you’re not doing a run the “right” way? The only right way to play Reborn is to do whatever is most fun for YOU. If one of your rules is too stressful for you, change the rule and keep going! If you’re not having fun with a run, take a break! Play a different game, make yourself a nice cold drink, rant about your frustrations to a friend or to God, go to sleep—then either go back to your run, or ditch it entirely and do something else. A significant reason why I got into running Reborn is because I saw how much fun everybody was having. Yes, it is awesome that my friends have limit tested this game by blowing it away with only Vivillon, or beating it up with unevolved Fairies, or even pelting it with Sunkern. And don’t get me started on Skies and Terra, the only people who have cleared postgame under hardcore nuzlocke rules. Twice. But the important thing is that they are having FUN doing it, and chuckling at Ame’s befuddlement. And speaking of having fun… 2. Keep things fun for everybody! Pokémon is primarily a single-player game, but if you’ve spent any amount of time in a Pokémon community before coming to Reborn, you know that it takes a village to reach a championship—a village full of people cheering you on. So be kind to the residents of that village! Remember that what is fun for you may not always be fun for others. When a newbie asks you for advice, give them that advice and don’t look down on them for being inexperienced. When a veteran offers you advice, accept that advice graciously, or turn it down respectfully if you think the advice doesn’t fit your situation. When you are having a hard time in your run, let your feelings out if you must—but not to the point of making people uncomfortable. When someone is making you uncomfortable and unwelcome while you’re running, don’t hesitate to block them, even report them if you must. That way, you make them stop and you keep the community peaceful for everybody’s sake. Then we can all have fun beating Pyrous Garchomp’s ass again. 3. Use passwords and QOL features. Passwords were added to Reborn for a reason! This game is hard, yes, but it is no longer tedious. Level grinding is easy. EV training is easy. Finding Pokémon for your team is easy. Heck, due to story changes, getting to the next gym has become easier, too! Passwords are in this game and they are here for you to use, so take advantage of them. 4. Maximize your resources. One of Reborn’s avenues for skill expression is testing how well you can use what the game gives you, especially in the earlygame. “Aw, Taunt/Torment/Psych Up? What am I supposed to do with these???” “Man, the mons in Peridot Alley are so lame, and the mons in Seacrest’s garden aren’t much better!” But all these “lame” moves and mons are there for a reason: for you to use. (In fact, somebody’s already beaten the entire game—postgame included—with just mons available in Chapter 1. How’s that for “lame” mons?) For example, if you’re running mono-Bug and you’re fighting a double battle, you can have Crustle use Shell Smash, then have Vivillon use Psych Up to copy Crustle’s boosts. Another example: don’t want Radomus to get up Trick Room turn one? Use Taunt on Malamar and Fake Out on Reuniclus. Problem solved, now the momentum is on your side. Make the most of your earlygame resources, and you’ll learn to maximize what you get in lategame/postgame. 5. Look things up/ask for help. Is there something you don’t know or are unsure about? Go to Serebii and look up movepools. Is it something specific to Reborn? Then go to the guides channel on Reborn’s Discord server; it’s there for a reason. Guides not enough? Then go to the Challenge Run Discussion thread; this is not the first run any of us has done, and we’ll be glad to share our knowledge and experience with you. (Most of the time. XD) Part of getting better at anything is knowing what you don’t know, and then getting to know it. So never hesitate to look something up or ask others for help. 6. Get familiar with how AI works. Reborn’s AI is a hydra that seemingly makes the worst decisions at the worst possible times, especially in partner battles—but it does have consistent behaviors, and it pays to keep track of them. A non-exhaustive list: -AI acts according to what mon is currently out on the field. -AI will usually go for the most consistent killing move, unless your mon’s HP is low enough that any move will kill it—then, it will pick its attack randomly. -AI will take more aggressive actions when it sees you only have one mon left/you only brought one mon/your current mon’s level is significantly lower than the AI’s. -AI will take note of what mons and moves you have revealed in battle thus far, and decide its actions accordingly—for example, Heather’s Gengar is less likely to use Thunder if you have shown Heather that you have a Ground-type in the back. -AI will not try to use setup moves if it thinks it isn’t safe to do so, such as when it sees you can score a kill on it. -AI will heavily favor switching out if it’s been drastically debuffed, particularly in offenses or speed. -If items are on for the AI, it won’t use items on the same mon more than twice in a battle. Why does it pay to learn how the AI works, see how its behavior changes/doesn’t change between resets, even look at the battle log if you can? Because when you know what it will do, you can plan and implement better strategies and tactics. For example, if you can get Terra’s Lycanroc to always use Swords Dance during the finale gauntlet, you can punish her for it by bringing Spectral Thief Marshadow and soloing her with it. But an even better reason to learn how the AI works is coming up right… 7. Try pivoting. …now! If you don’t know what pivoting is, it’s when you switch one mon in to bait a move, then switch in another mon that can take that move. For a basic example, let’s say you have Skarmory and Toxapex facing down a Camerupt. Pex can switch into Flamethrowers baited by Skarm, and Skarm can switch into Earth Powers baited by Pex. (As smart as Reborn’s AI can be at times, it will never try to predict switches. If it uses Flamethrower on Skarm as Pex switches out, that just means Pex had low enough HP that any move could kill it, and Camerupt decided to use Flamethrower at random.) More broadly, pivoting is the art and science of switching teammates in while taking little to no damage in the process. Switching in Clear Smog Amoonguss right as Xerneas uses Geomancy; using Ally Switch or slow U-turn to get in Dragonite with its Multiscale intact; switching in Heliolisk and Lucario right as Blake uses an Ultra Potion on his Walrein… When you’ve learned how Reborn’s AI works, you can apply that knowledge by making aggressive decisions to punish your opponents, and pivoting is certainly an aggressive strategy. Do note, however, that pivoting is generally more useful when you’re playing on Set mode (when you don’t get the option to switch out after killing an opponent’s mon) than when you’re playing on Switch mode (when you DO get that option). But it’s still a useful skill to hone—especially given how many double battles there are in this game, and how doubles fights do NOT prompt you to switch out even if Switch mode is on. 8. Think! You’d be surprised by how much people take thinking for granted—both in real life and in challenge running. But the best runners don’t just stop thinking about the game when the game is over. The best runners are good thinkers—after fights, we talk about what happened with each other, make a writeup about the battle, pinpoint where RNG was in our favor, and so on. Before fights, we use damage calculators, write down flowcharts, and prepare movesets and EV spreads. Heck, before we even start a run, we think about what mons we’re allowed to catch, what our matchups against bosses will look like, and if clearing everything up to the postgame is feasible. Think about what goes right or wrong in your run. Won a fight cleanly? Great! Think about how you were able to maximize your team’s strong points. Won the fight narrowly? Think about how you managed to eke out a win and what you could’ve done to make the victory cleaner. Losing the same fight repeatedly? Think about what you could change in terms of your mons and your strategy. Don’t think TOO hard, though! 9. Don’t overthink things. Yes, even the most experienced runners think a little too much—game knowledge can fail you like that. But sometimes, the simplest play is the best play! Sure, coming up with a flashy strategy can help you stretch your teambuilding muscles, but there’s no need to create complicated plans if the simplest plan will be just as effective. Yes, Charlotte will go down to Wide Guard spam and Shell Smash Rock Slide Crustle. Yes, you can sweep Luna at the Glass Gauntlet with one mon, freeing up your other five team slots for the first and third fights. Yes, you can sweep Anomaly Manaphy with Thunder. Think hard, but not too hard. Sometimes, the answer to your latest problem is simpler than you think. 10. RNG is a double-edged sword. Reborn is a tough game with many opportunities for skill expression…but it is still a Pokémon game. Thus, it is full of RNG. Blizzard double freeze. Icy Wind double miss. Three crits in a row without any crit modifiers. Two turns of full paralysis. One turn sleep. High rolls and low rolls, especially in the Circus. All these have happened to us, in our favor or otherwise. But as some people like to say, luck is a skill. More accurately, luck management is a skill. You can’t ever avoid RNG entirely, so the best thing you can do is create strategies that minimize the impact of unfavorable RNG, while also leaving room for good RNG. Part of doing that is ensuring you can end fights in as few turns as possible. The longer a battle goes on, the more likely it is you’ll get screwed by a crit or a side effect—that’s just how probability works. Expect the worst, hope for the best! Always keep RNG in mind, especially when you’re nuzlocking. Can’t exactly F12 your way out of unlucky crits in a nuzlocke! (You could, actually, but then the Nuzlocke Validation Council would come hunting for your head.) 11. Practice makes perfect! My father has always said there are only three ways to get better at anything. First, you practice. Second, you practice. Finally, you practice. It applies to everything, especially challenge running. “But nobody’s perfect, so what’s the point of practicing?” Self-improvement, if nothing else. Yes, nobody is perfect—but the process of striving for perfection in Reborn grants you a deeper understanding of Pokémon. It allows you to bond with and befriend veteran runners and new players alike. And it lets you grow into the pro gamer your younger self would have loved to watch. In short: git gud. Gitting gud is excellent for your health. ^_^ And that’s eleven ways you can get better at challenge running Reborn. Good luck and have fun out there--and I'll meet ya in the Hall of Fame.

lu, you've been forgetting to update this post to say applications are now closed SMH my head /lh

Yes indeed. He'd have been too much of a brat to go out of his way for the cops, for one thing.

For clarification: in the info doc, you say "At least one piece must go over Pokémon." Do you mean "must go over the Pokémon franchise and fan works," or "Pokémon--as in, the creatures--themselves?" Thanks!

Aw, so I can't submit my Sirius/Office crackship tales? Sadge! But seriously, this looks very fun. :D Edit: Will contributors be allowed to publish their work separately (like on AO3, DeviantArt, etc.) and say "Hey, if you want to see more works, check out the zine!" Or will you want our submissions to be zine-only?

About nine years ago, my college classmates and I had a free period where we were supposed to gather data for our news articles. Instead, we hid in an empty classroom and played Ib. The game was terrifying, it was gorgeous, it was funny—it was also my first exposure to the world of RPG Maker. Three years after that, I saw one of my friends playing romhacks. He offered to pass me copies of them, but I turned him down. An attitude I carried at that time—and still carry to this day, albeit reduced—was, “Why play romhacks at all? They’re basically just the vanilla games with a coat of ‘difficult’ paint. I want to play something original.” Then, while browsing TV Tropes, I saw repeated references to a game called Pokémon Reborn—references to how it depicted mons as superweapons and instruments of murder. (Which is basically part of the reason fearmongering churches preach against canon Pokémon, ha! This just occurred to me.) I peeked at the game’s page on the site, and this line caught my eye: “Interestingly enough, Pokémon Reborn is not a ROM hack, but an RPG Maker game.” Now that certainly sounded interesting! However, I had no time to indulge my curiosity before I fell into a depressive spiral, my brother got horribly ill, and I had to pull out of school for a year. My brother did get better—physically, at least. As for me…well, I’m not sure I ever got out of that spiral. But that’s a story for another day… Once my life got back to relative normalcy, I decided to learn more about Reborn while writing my autobiography for one of my classes and playing my first nuzlockes. (That biography got me an A+, btw. And I won my nuzlockes.) I watched Lord Wallace’s videos. I watched boss battle compilations. I read past dev blogs. Finally, I took the plunge, made an account on the forums, and downloaded the game for myself! …whereupon my playthrough fizzled out in Tanzan Base. Yeah, well—between how slowly the game ran, the killer combo of hard bosses and tedious EV & level grinding, and IRL commitments creeping up on me, I got tired of playing the game myself. I settled for keeping up with the dev blogs and chuckling at Ame’s Twitter posts. Then the pandemic happened, and I had a lot more free time on my hands. Even still, I settled for playing more nuzlockes and keeping a close eye on the dev blog. “Why should I touch the game in its incomplete state when it’s close to being finished? Eventually?” Then “eventually” turned into “soon.” Then “soon” became “in April 2022.” Finally, the game’s community beta started. By that time, I had become active on the Discord server, so after a few technical hiccups, I started my own thread and played a fresh run. It’s been a year since then. In that time, I’ve cleared both postgame routes, completed the Reborn prompt list, and launched a crackship involving a psychotic jeweler and his office. To celebrate, I want to talk about all the things I love about Reborn. (Disclaimer: I HIGHLY recommend you clear the game, postgame included, before you read further. Or at least watch someone else’s playthrough.) COMMUNITY I lurked on Smogon before, even making an account—but I only posted once before I swore off becoming active there. They cultivate a LOT of elitism there, not to mention all the dirty laundry they have. Now, Reborn was also a competitive battling site before it was a game. And yes, there are a few elitist people around. Emphasis on few. The community overall has been welcoming as HECK. Call it the logical consequence of Ame creating a safe space for all sexualities and genders to congregate, call it the tough bosses and puzzles of Reborn beating the elitism out of people—people make you feel welcome here. They answer your questions. They say “good morning!” They cheer you up when you’re struggling. Whether you’re a writer/artist, a challenge runner, or just a blorbo who likes to say “hi ily uwu” to people, there’s always space at the table that is the Reborn community. …Unless you make people uncomfortable. Or harass them. Or make them feel bad for losing repeatedly. Or lob unfounded accusations. Then you find out the hard way why people around here can afford to be nice. To create a safe space, one must come down hard on unsafe elements. Anyway! This community has been very welcoming to me, and to many others. It’s the one Pokémon fan community where I feel like I can be honest and vulnerable. So I’ve been doing my best to pay it forward. I hope I’ve been succeeding! HUMOR Reborn is not primarily a comedy game. It has a reputation for being “Edgy” (derogatory). That said, it has both a silly sense of humor, and a dark sense of humor—things that appeal to me, a Filipino guy who inherited a strong sense of black comedy from his dad. Reborn’s dark humor lies primarily in the ways characters die. There’s Corey, who jumped off the same bridge his spouse used to jump off of for kicks. There’s Dr. Connal, who got told “You might feel a little shock…” right before Lin—one of the very children he used to say that to constantly—shoved him into the PULSE Mime’s machine. And there’s Sirius, who got pushed into lava by the daughter of the couple whose house he burned down. And of course, there’s my favorite moment of dark humor in this game: right after MC and Ame survive the train bombing at the start of this whole adventure, the game introduces Julia—a woman who loves to blow up things for fun. And she also insists she didn’t blow up the train! (She really didn’t, but STILL!) Of course, the game has moments of conventional silliness and levity. How else can you describe Ame saying “Watch out, or you’ll get wasted!” as she advises you how to fight Aya? Or the fact that—just like in canon Pokémon—every gym leader’s name is a pun on their type specialization? Or the chase scene at the end of the Hoopa quest? Pretty much every scene child Lin and Terra are in? That chase scene, by the way, made me laugh non-stop for 30 seconds the first time I watched it. Reborn is not primarily a comedy game, but it has a great sense of humor. Even its violent & dramatic moments are funny when you look at them a certain way. NONVERBAL STORYTELLING One of the things I love about canon Pokémon games—especially the original Red and Blue—is how they use the environment to tell a story. The dialogue and plot are simple enough for young kids to understand. However, analyzing the environment of the game is like seeing a story within a story. Why is the population mostly composed of (pre)teens, young adults, and seniors? Why are there so many graves in Pokémon Tower? Why isn’t there much forest cover across the region? These are intriguing questions about Kanto, but the dialog itself doesn’t touch upon them much, if at all—you’d need to be aware of the game’s contemporary socio-political background to grasp the significance of these elements. Reborn takes this strength of canon and improves upon it by weaving its environments, plot, and dialog together. We’re told that many people either fled the region or were killed in Meteor’s attacks, and we see it in how small the city’s population is relative to its size. We’re informed that Meteor crippled Reborn’s economy, and we see the effects of that in how many homeless people and petty criminals roam the streets. We’re told that Reborn used to look very beautiful. We see just how beautiful once we can fly back to the city after defeating Ciel. Additionally, looking at the progress of the restoration speaks to just how good Adrienn is as a community organizer. Reborn has a lot of dialog, but it knows when to let its setting speak for itself. AESTHETICS This is a huge part of why the environmental storytelling is on point. The music, the art, the move animations, the character sprites, the sound effects…they are SO GOOD! And they all work together in tandem to set the mood for areas, scenarios, and battles. When this game wants to frighten or unnerve you—like it does in Shade's gym and during the early Anna route—it succeeds. When it wants you to stop and marvel at how gorgeous a new location is—like in Aegir Cave or Amaria's and Titania's gyms—it succeeds. When it wants you to catch your breath after a tense moment—like when you first reach Belrose Manse after fleeing Yureyu—it succeeds. It's all thanks to how the dialogue, plot, sound design, and graphics work together to tell the story of Reborn. SPACE FOR HEADCANON This game relays a lot of information about its characters, both verbally and non-verbally. We know that Cain and Aya do not have a good relationship with their parents. We know that Ace and Ciel are cousins. We know that Sirius and Radomus used to be friends. However, we don't know literally EVERYTHING about these characters— just enough that we have guidance to fill in the blanks as we please. What was Arclight's life like before he became a DJ? What was Adrienn's life like before xe fell into the Citae Astrae? What was Victoria's life like before she entered Apophyll Academy? A good example of the game providing fuel for headcanon is how I came up with the idea to ship Sirius with his office in Meteor's Yureyu base. He seems awful proud of it when you encounter him there—and then when it blows up and you meet him at Belrose later, he seems angrier about its destruction than about the deaths of grunts on his watch. Thus, Sirius/Office was born. But there's more—I fleshed this out further when I thought about canon elements of Sirius' backstory. He really didn't take Radomus' betrayal well, if he's willing to badmouth him right in front of his daughter's face. And he had to have been exposed to the energies of the four keys when he crafted them into jewelry. So, pain of betrayal plus exposure to the energy of the four keys equals an insane man—one insane enough to use violent means to get the four keys back AND hear his living spaces, his office included, talking to him. Thus was Sirius adopted as my poor little meow meow—and thus did my friend Torre start to become sad every time poor Paul failed The Floor is Lava in Victory Road. There are enough throwaway lines and background details in this game that even the most esoteric headcanons have basis in reality. And even for characters that don't interact at all, we have a solid grasp on how they'd interact because of how fleshed out they are as individuals. ^_^ AUTHENTICITY By now, it should be common knowledge that the Reborn League characters were just that—characters, played by Ame, her friends, and her site staff. So no checking public records for news of psychiatrists arrested for illegal ECT practice, please! However, just because they weren't actual people does not mean they are not authentic. We've all seen—or even lived as—some of these people in our lives. Depressed people who nontheless get up and fight every day. People who have so much hatred in their hearts that their love is stunted or even choked out entirely. Abuse survivors who try to break the cycle and succeed—or fail miserably. People who have every reason to go apeshit—yet stand up and choose love anyway. Ame's willingness to publicly talk about the things she's experienced that inspired this story—on Tumblr, in Twitch streams, in what she says in the dev room—drives home how authentic the story is. She's clearly had a colorful life, and she drew from it to craft this tale beautifully. POWER OF FANWORKS There's a reason I've long admired fan creators of all kinds—especially Pokemon fan creators—whether they make games, fics, art, whatever. Not having a profit motive, not subject to executives’ whims, not overseen by editors and/or a Standards and Practices board—fan works have a TON of freedom. Even works like Star Trek or Avatar: The Last Airbender had execs and stockholders telling them what they could and couldn't do. Yes, many times, this sheer freedom results in absolutely crappy drivel that makes one question how much of a "fan" the creator actually is. But there are golden moments where a fanwork takes full advantage of its freedom to openly, unsubtly, and beautifully tackle subjects canon can't/won't touch. Subjects like the bad and good sides of religion. The different facets of depression. The sobering reality of institutionalized bigotry. The difficulty of breaking through generational trauma. The plight of the urban poor. How a body would look when it's fried by a million volts—thanks Pulse Mime (derogatory)! With no oversight but that of their Patrons and each other, the dev team are free to tackle multiple grisly topics head on—and do it maturely and wisely. SKILL EXPRESSION People will never stop saying, "This game is hard!" But for those of us who have gotten good, we can appreciate how Reborn is made by competitive players, for competitive players. Part of what makes the game fun is how it asks you: how well can you make use of the resources available to you? And it doesn't just ask you this in earlygame, where you only have a limited selection of items and mons—it also asks you this in lategame and postgame, where you have so many options, you might get crippled by choice paralysis! XD Thankfully, the game is also flexible enough that even when you're deliberately limiting your mon selection, you can clear maingame AND postgame—with set mode and no item use, to boot. Of course, I'm sure the devs never accounted for the mad people who tried—and succeeded—at clearing the entire game with only Vivillon, or with baby Fairies, or under hardcore nuzlocke rules with zero deaths, but hey! That just speaks to how flexible this game truly is. Those runners are still insane, though. <3 The best part of Reborn's difficulty? While bosses are hard, training is easy! Gone are the days when one had to grind from one to ninety to take on the Glass Gauntlet—now you can just feed your mons candy and vitamins, then go ham. Runs of all kinds become much less tedious because of this, allowing us to express our skills freely. ^_^ POINTS OF IMPROVEMENT Much as I love Reborn, I recognize that it isn't a perfect game. And I wouldn't want to be disingenuous by saying Reborn is flawless when it's not—that would be dishonest and disrespectful. So, here's what I think could be improved about the game, if ever it gets another update. 1. It's fun to watch the Nightclub fill up more and more as postgame progresses, but fewer people comment on returning characters than I was expecting. For just ONE example: it's nice Aya is happy about Cain returning, but what do Shelly and Heather have to say? Hardy? Victoria? Radomus? Noel? Luna? Ciel, Samson, and Terra? Surely, having shared quite a bit of screentime with Cain in maingame, they'd have something to say about his rescue… 2. With a cast this big, juggling screentime for everybody is hard. But, there are moments when it becomes obvious who got the short end of the stick—especially in postgame. Much as I love them, do Terra, Victoria, Taka, the Sorority, etc. really need more screentime over Heather, Blake, Ciel, and Samson? Much as it's fun to see Rejuvenation and Desolation get shouted out, do we need to spend time with these two ASSHOLES (derogatory) instead of, say, helping Heather cope with her grief over Corey? 3. Partners are wimpy as heck! Why are Florinia and Julia so low-leveled during the Fiore gauntlet? Why does Reborn Taka only have IV's of ten on his mons? Whose idea was it to give Hardy's Nihilego physical Attack EV's??? (Note: does not apply to Pavilion partners. They're good.) 4. When puzzles are hits, they're hits. But when they miss, they really miss—and many of the puzzles that miss are the ones you can't skip without the NG++ mod! Minecarts and color mixing, my beloathed… 5. Laura's full-body sprite hits the uncanny valley for me. Her eyes creep me out, truly! A shame, too—her VS portrait and her overworld sprite are cute as heck. 6. Lin's antics can get ludicrously grating. Sure, it's intentional. Sure, I know kids in real life who are like her. That doesn't mean I don't want to ground her ass when I find her—she is my adopted daughter, after all. This sheer nosiness and noisiness is part of why I like Anna route more—her relative silence puts in perspective how lonely the New World is. CONCLUSION Reborn very good. And so is Ame, for bringing all of us together to create this beautiful community. Thanks Ame. <3

Hiya Vulnona! I've been on the Discord server lately, so it's nice to see you again. ^_^ My interpretation of the choices is that the six things you do that give Anna and Shade relationship points are the opposite of what Fern did in the previous timeline where he was the hero. Granted, even if you get no points with Anna/Shade at all, you're still able to succeed where Fern failed. But we also need to keep in mind that events escalated a LOT faster in Fern's timeline--Ame died in the train bombing, for one thing. The choices that get you points may be the opposite of what Fern did, but it was the other differences of that timeline--Ame dying early, Florinia joining Meteor, Shade being stuck in a female body, etc.--that snowballed into Fern's failure.

For singles: Prankster Meowstic-M with dual screens, Yawn, and Ally Switch is basically the BEST supporter for setup sweepers like Blaziken, Diggersby, Vivillon, etc. For doubles/tag battles: Trick Room solves almost everything. Especially when you get to postgame.

Aw, they look adorable! (Or should that be "Au?" No? Okay, I'll see myself out...)

looks at the names of the two routes A Mass Effect reference? In this day and age? It's more likely than you think. ^_^

"i think it's also pretty obvious that the third image with me crashing against the screen also won't be in the game so don't even worry about it." And then it gets used for your inevitable appearance in this game's dev room. *giggle*