Dausk

You could also toss Lavender, Huey, Reina, and to an extent Venam (after her battle, not sure why we needed her as a rival), into the unneeded character's list. The problem that becomes apparent beginning with our arrival to GDC is that we have so many characters spewing padded remarks all the time. I thought the early game did a good job of balancing gameplay with dialogue, but it becomes a major issue the further one progresses. For instance, the V13 content was very enjoyable, but it felt a lot longer than it needed to be (mainly because of Kanon and the other aforementioned characters). For example, imagine how insufferable and confusing it would be if Narcissa's side quest was somehow included in the main story; that's how I feel about Kanon and the other characters's inclusion. Narcissa's sidequest works because it doesn't interrupt the pacing of the main story, and that's what I think a lot of the Kanon stuff should have been relegated to. 2. I concur. One huge problem (as I've mentioned many times before) is the story and gameplay dissonance. For example, the other characters not helping you battle Zetta in Valor Shore; Narcissa not intially helping you with Giratina or Eli and Sharon; and Erick, Adam, Aelita, and Delpha not helping you battle Clear in V13 (Why where they even there if they're not going to do anything?). 3. I also love the mapping and art, but I think having too much of it like you suggest would be too distracting and immersion-breaking (the full screen-sized portraits are already pushing it imo). 4. Not sure how to feel about this one. Intense is meant to be nothing but brutal, and I'm not sure how the devs would be able to keep this up throughout the whole game without pulling some crazy stuff (although, if they can within the game's boundaries that would be preferable). I think the other difficulty options are fine as of the current patch, the entire point of having the casual difficulty is to be inclusive to those not willing to spend time on competitive sets. That said, an easy mode might be a good idea for the game's final version. I agree that a more dynamic field system would be appreciated.

My theory is that Maria reincarnates Vivian-style after dying/being sacrificed, resulting in Marianette and later Melia. If this holds true, then Melia/Melanie may "count" as the same individual because they are the same iteration of the reincarnation. Or pehaps the same would hold true if Melia came in contact with previous iterations like Maria or Marianette.

If you have the patience, you could also try getting a spoink in the casino.

I apologize for being vague. I was referring to Variya (didn't remember her name, had to look it up). She's the woman who appears alongside Adrest in the flashbacks, and who made the NPC MC the Interceptor. She also appeared before Melia activated her archetype powers in the ruined timeline, and behind the MC during the puppet master fight. The journal in the Den of Souls (which was presumably written around her time) states that Pokemon had become extinct (or something like that). That sounds like a problem that could only be fixed with a reset.

QUICK! Delete the post before the devs see it! Otherwise, they'll make it unobtainable until post-game!

I recall that. I was simply wondering how the entire scene played out with Ana as the playable character. The whole thing about how the reset works is rather vague (ie, What is the "initial point" from where the world restarts). That said, I think the reset of the world predates the game's time by a huge margin, so I don't believe the MC was involved at all. If I had to guess, it would be that Garufan lady who keeps popping up briefly every once in a while.

I do agree that it's annoying that rift pokemon render paralysis useless (aside from the speed drop). Everything else is classic RNG stuff, and is not worth complaining about imo. Good luck with your nuzlocke.

The entire situation was extremely confusing. To my understanding, the MC is a combination of the Interceptor (the player), Adrest (perhaps the "being from another world" since the world had to be reset for him to emerge), and the souls of all the available MC's (with the chosen character being the dominant one). Considering Ana is playable with the correct code, I wonder how she fits into all this?

She supposedly wore a black dress too. I'm wondering this because whoever it was was most certainly targeting Indriad; and this is the point where he disappears in the present. There aren't too many characters that fit this description.

Alright, so I checked the sprite that exposes a part of Madame X's face in order to see if any character's skin color matched hers. The lighter pixels of her skin matches the darker parts of most white character's faces, while the darker pixels is more reminiscent of the lighter pixels of darker skinned characters, such as Nim. Consequently, there is no exact match, as her skin is darker than most white characters. but lighter than most black characters. Overall, her skin color seems to bear a closer similarity to tan characters like Amber and Deagan than the commonly proposed individuals. Ultimately, it could just be the lighting of the area making her skin appear darker or lighter than usual. TLDR: The more I inspect, the less I end up knowing.

Imagine if Madame X just turns out to be some random character we have never met before. That would be hilarious. I think the most convincing evidence for Madame X being Maria is her relationship with Nastasia. Nastasia seems to be the sole Admin capable of calming her down and has the confidence to undertake unauthorized missions. That said, she does reiterate the statement mentioned by Erin before being locked in the Unknown Dimension, which seems to have convinced many people. However, if I recall correctly, if Sakitron wins against Robo Amanda, a cutscene where a part of Madame X's mask breaks off reveals her to have light brown skin and black hair. This was in V12, so I'm not sure if that was changed. But that would definitely put a dent in the theory. If those characteristics are a constant, and assuming it's a character we've seen before, then that would narrow Madame X to Alexandra or Nymiera or a couple of others. Of course, these would have to be from an alternate timeline or previous world. Madame X being Nymiera would explain how she knows so much; however, she does mention having a mother, which Nymiera did not have. TLDR: I have no clue. There are just so many ways as to how the reveal could be explained away that it's difficult to come up with a cohesive theory. Therefore, Rorim B is Madame X.

FTFY. The last thing I want is Keta utilizing a Technician and STAB boosted Fake Out into Double Kick to pummel my entire team into the ground.

The same place as V12, unlocked after completing the last Kristiline Town help center side quest.

From what I've heard, all three move relearners instantly become egg move relearners after beating Adam. Hope it gets sorted out in a future update to make the player explicitly aware of the feature.

I believe the third one was Forewarn.

V13 managed to deliver some very interesting insight into the lore of Rejuvenation. For instance, Nancy mentions that the Nymiera in the Zeight is actually older than the real world counterpart. Of course, this is impossible if the creation story is completely accurate. This means that the Garufans must be from the world prior to the reset. Interestingly, I believe there was a piece of dialogue that highlighted the inconsistency in Garufan structures (some look futuristic, others ancient); it is possible that the futuristic ones are remnants of the prior world. while the ancient ones were created during ancient times in the current one. However, this speculation only holds true if the reset somehow left the structures untouched, or if the reset is not as literal as it was made out to be. Another intriguing lore drop were the effects of the Archetype on the subjects. The game implies that the Archetype instigated the creation of legendary pokemon, perhaps as a side effect of Genesys Syndrome. We are aware that Griselda somehow turned into Giratina, and that Tiempa and Spacea were not born with their powers. In all likelihood, they are heading towards the same fate as Griselda. This leads me to question whether Nymieria and Indriad were exposed to the Archetype in a similar manner. I don't doubt that Indriad somehow turned himself into the infamous Yveltal that frequently shows up. It simply seems too much of a coincidence that his "powered up" form bears a striking similarity to Yveltal's color scheme, and the fact that Indriad is nowhere to be found in neither the present nor the bad future. There is also the fact that Yveltal shows up after Melanie calls for her father. Of course, Yveltal could just be Indriad's pokemon; but come on, this is Rejuvenation, you have to take an opposite Occam's razor approach when theorizing about this game. Also, the Yveltal has always felt out place and it has to fit in somehow. Lastly, I want to theorize about Nim. When Nim initially appeared, she mentioned Hazuki, Anju, and the MC. Nim doesn't know Anju or Hazuki, and because of Hazuki's fate, is incapable of doing so in the future. There is also the fact that she mentions hearing Nymiera to Melia (similarly to the Aelita and Vivian situation). Because of this, I am inclined to believe Nim is some sort of reincarnation of Nymiera (Yes, even with the Nymiera ghost running around). Evidently, Indriad must have done something during their final confrontation. We know that Hazuki was knocked unconscious and consequently managed to escape. Anju was captured by Indriad. Nymiera's fate has not been explicitly stated, but I'm guessing Nim is the end result. Considering the MC's inclusion in Nim's statement, it is likely that the MC will revisit the time period through another time crystal in a future chapter, and see the circumstances that led to Nim's creation. The Nymiera ghost poses a hole in the theory, but let's consider the following: magic somehow made it work (like with how Angie and Geara had Indriad's essence).

I don't think early ev training is necessary for normal or casual playthroughs. That said, it was a nice feature to have, and intense difficulty would be painful to go through without it. My main concern is that there is no indicator as to when they become available, which can screw over new players.

Yeah, I was just stating that I'm skeptical of the idea of Indriad fusing with Anju to form Angie because Geara shared the same aura simultaneously. Do we know who burned down the Wispy Tower?

That's what I originally thought, but didn't Geara emanate the same aura as Angie at one point?

Alright, so what's up with Indriad? Like, where the heck is he? Every time we've seen him has been in the past. What happened to him after Wispy Tower? Did he turn into Madame X's Yveltal or something? His "powered up" color scheme looks rather similar.

I can understand pushing a pokemon to later in the game, especially if it is over represented in player's teams, which Rockruff most certainly is. I'm just not a fan of some of the other balance decisions taken in this version. The "omniscient" AI, trainers using pokemon above the level cap, and the movement of EV cards and EXP All (especially with how new players are now susceptible to wasting their AP before knowing they become available) all detract from the enjoyment in my opinion.

@Magus543 Just curious, are you planning on covering the balance changes in future parts of your review. Those represented some of the most questionable changes/additions in this version, in my opinion. I am interested in hearing your's and other's thoughts on them.

I think the idea was that at this point, the maids had formed their own personalities the same way Kanon did. Nymiera mentioned that the longer maids remain alive, the more human-like they become. I thought it paralleled with Kanon's situation quite well. Overall good review.

So I didn't struggle with Saki as much as others on this forum. But man, fuck that Geara battle.

Alright, let me play devil's advocate here: During the Blacksteeple Arc, Neved mentions that Team Xen benefits regardless of the prisoners' fates. This implies that there is more to their objective than just capturing Melia, they need some resource from the mines and need people to die. This is likely the purposed behind the Xenpurgis. If all they needed was Melia, then they would have never handed her over to Jenner in the first place. The deathwings are being used to gather people for this purpose, and if Melia was the sole missing piece, Madame X would have likely pursued her herself instead of relying on the admins she blatantly considers to be incompetent. Madame X also influenced Kanon to oppose Indriad, who blatantly wants to ruin the world. Of course, the game is still rather vague on how Clear's and Kieran's goals align with Team Xen's, and what "resetting the world" actually means. I don't think every character needs to have some super unique motivation for them to be solid. Their personality plays a much larger role into how the players view them than their motivation. Also, I think the whole concept of a "group" or "team" structure necessitates the members be subjugated to similar circumstances. I'm not sure enough can be derived from the Anju scene to conclude whether she recognized us or not; I might be misremembering though. The game has explicitly stated that destiny exists; there are also certain actions that display the message stating that the future has been changed (such as cutting the tree and picking up the weird diary). From this, we can assume that the other events were fated to occur, and only these are actual deviations originating from the MC's role of interceptor. Remember that the MC devotes a substantial amount of time solely following the other characters around, who cannot alter fate themselves. Parallel universes could mix with fatalism if they originate from actions performed by the Interceptor. Cutting the cherry blossom tree and grabbing the weird diary caused a deviation in the timeline. Clear and Kieran could be from one of these. That said, this is merely a conjecture, meaning Rejuvenation could still implement it in a completely different manner. You have a point here, Melia is not particularly interesting. I can't seem to recall any moment where it became apparent she developed from her struggles (I may be being stupid though). That said, neither the Elric Brothers nor Bianca and Cheren are particularly memorable in my opinion. Their motivations may be more unique, but their personalities and demeanor are not. I guess it is a matter of preference. I concur, it would have been preferable if Rejuvenation did something like Desolation, where most characters fulfill multiple roles in the story. On the positive side, they make the world feel larger and more lively; however, it would have been much better if they had minimal screen time in the main story, and develop them through sidequests (like how Karen and Karrina used to be, and how Dylan and Ana currently are). I disagree. The characteristics you listed apply to many, many villains in all types of media, not just to those within this game. I think the game does a good job at distinguishing the Team Xen admins from each other. Angie is absurdly psychopathic, no other villain is similar enough to be distracting in my opinion. I can see the similarities between Melanie and Indriad, but since they're presumably related, it makes sense. I think this also applies to Cassandra and Flora, but I think it fits rather well with Flora's initial noble goals and how trying to enact them corrupted her into being as bad as Cassandra. Fair. Overall, I feel that your criticisms hold much validity, but are quite exaggerated from my perspective. I simply don't think that most of these concerns are what end up breaking the story. I believe these can be thoroughly fixed provided that Jan puts extra effort into the story. The game just needs to cut and add a couple of lines in the right places, it is not necessarily at a point of no return. Conversely, feel free to save this post to laugh at if V14 makes my justifications obsolete.