>What led you to Pokemon Reborn?
I can't remember where I originally discovered it, but my recent re-discovery was pure chance. When I went off to college I left my GBA SP at my parent's house, thinking I would have no need for it. When a break came and I decided I in fact did, I was disappointed and completely unsurprised to discover that one of my (many) brothers had taken it, lost it, found it, and then completely broken it. I started looking online for alternatives, but then found the game file for Reborn sitting in an otherwise empty file folder on my hideously cluttered desktop. I downloaded the latest version and started playing and holy shit do I love this game.
>What do you think about the battle system in the game?
It's fantastic. To me, at least, it does a wonderful job of instilling that self-contradicting sense of apathetic determination into the player. The game is difficult, but not unfair (to the extent that I've seen. I haven't yet gotten to the end of the current episode). It teaches you that you will loose, but that your loss means nothing if you accept it, get up, and try again. In fact, when you get into it, it's not even super especially hard. The level caps make it so you can't have a brokenly overpowered team, and field effects, though usually niche, are a refreshing break from the honestly often repetitive gameplay of many official titles. The huge diversity of obtainable pokemon means you can build your team just about however you want, but makes you go out of your way to get them. And you want to get them. Maybe it's just my nature as a completionist, but I think there's something more to it than that. It's not just "get all the shinys", you want to go out of your way to see what potential advantage you can get. The sidequests feel more essential to the core of the game, not just some optional thing you can do for a cool item or an interesting dialogue.
>What do you think about the stories/narrative in the game?
I enjoy the story immensely. I think it benefits by being a community-driven game, and by being fan-made. The fact that it doesn't have to pander to review boards, and make sure the content is as "safe" as possible to appeal to their intended market of children, allows the game to tell a much more compelling narrative, one that resonates with me far more than anything nearly any other game has done. All the characters feel so much more real, instead of just one-faceted snippets of personality. People's problems aren't solved so easily, and their problems are engaging and familiar, things that have happened to me personally or very conceivably could happen in the future. I don't think it's edgy, I think it's realistic. (Except for the whole supernatural monsters that you carry around in your pocket and battle against your friends. Maybe not so much that part).
>In particular, what do you think about the queer characters in the game, like Cain and Adrienn?
Absolutely fantastic. One of the common things that plagues a lot of media is "token inclusion", but these characters are a lot more how real queer people are. Adrienn's non-binary-ness isn't really pivotal to the plot, it doesn't define xem. The queer characters are their own people, their orientation and identity is just a small part of who they are. Except for Cain kind of since he intentionally makes his whole vibe sex jokes (from what I have seen thus far) but even so, it feeds well into his other motivations and backstory. I really appreciate him as a character, as I do Adrienn.