Chains of Heaven

What led you to Pokemon Reborn? I....don't remember at all....I started playing four? five? six? years ago around Episode 15, though. What do you think about the battle system in the game? WHOOO. HOOOoooooo. ouch but in a good way. Field Effects are so creative and so much fun, and they are balanced very delicately. The ways that both NPCs and the player can take advantage of each one is really fascinating. The way they cut out the easy ways to win while still leaving lots of possibilities for the creative player is a great analogy for the rest of the game, too. What do you think about the stories/narrative in the game? Unbelievably watertight. There aren't any plot holes, and everything makes sense, and all of it is emotionally impactful. I am able to be invested in all the storylines, from the Lapis gangs to the kids from the orphanage to lovestruck Hardy and tsundere Aya. There's a diverse array of tropes represented, and they're all fleshed out and thought through. In particular, what do you think about the queer characters in the game, like Cain and Adrienn? Cain is hands-down my favorite character in the game, although not for any narrative reasons I could pin down. I do think it's delightful that he isn't afraid to make the gay innuendos, which, especially in a game that seems to be targeted towards ages 16+, makes him a feel a lot more real. Like, that's just how 18 year olds are (at least it's how me and a lot of my friends do?). He has an undeniable presence, and I think that's really important, because it means that players must acknowledge him being gay and existing as the rest of the characters do. Adrienn could have been more well-written and more fleshed out; xe feels very two-dimensional to me, and that makes me sad because having a nonbinary character that must be referred to with pronouns that aren't he/she is a powerful statement. Maybe xe even fits too well into the model of "overachieving highly functional nb person", which isn't by any means a bad thing, but I feel like it's a common trope. One might also comment about how xe's the Fairy gym leader of all things, and Fairy seems like a very feminine type, and nb identities are too often mistakenly conflated with femininity, but within the game itself Adrienn's character resists that very well. I do wish there were more nb characters, in order to represent a more diverse range (especially racially), but it isn't a glaring lack that really impacts the story and my enjoyment of it negatively. Titania and Amaria and their relationship are wonderfully written. I think how heavily their plotline ties in with the overall game plotline allows for the inner workings of the relationship to be put into the game, which shows off Ame's writing skill extremely well. Their dynamic is so very real and so very relatable, and I think their both being women definitely influences how it's received (some might call them petty for having so many issues, but it's practically life or death in the world of the game...). Obviously this was put together by someone who pays a lot of attention to the way people exist, perform, and hide themselves, which is part of what keeps me so attached to this game and the characters and story. I genuinely think, taken seriously, the way this particular narrative is portrayed within a game like Reborn has a transformative possibility to it. Perfect, 10/10. I'm still working through my thoughts on Terra, but overall it's positive. She is lots of fun! Perhaps there's something to be said about the complete destruction of expectations and norms and laws of physics she brings, along with all the innuendo? I do hope this is something that comes back up in the next Episode. Good luck on your thesis! I would love to read it someday.

ahahah I made an account to reply to this, you really summed up the reasons I love and struggle with Reborn in one post....! I started Rejuvenation recently, and it was only in experiencing another fanmade game of a similar caliber that I realize how truly amazing Reborn is. The amount of effort it must have taken to ensure cohesion in both the whole story and the characters just blows my mind. Like, the woman with that tiny patch of grass in Peridot who gets an entire lovely park after restoration? I think about that so much. What are you hoping to see from Serra in E19, or how could her arc have been better? Personally I think adding more early on to justify her semi-isolation in Spinel Town, which is pretty far from the rest of the map, would do wonders. It kinda relates to her role as the Ice leader, if she wants to be cool and closed off physically too, and it might make for an easy way to relate to even Bennett, who would also just want to get out of the house like a normal teenager (along with....everything else he has going on...). Or does it make it better for the player to have to connect the dots about Bennett's actions? And and, not to encourage snooping as a good practice or anything, but it'd be cool if there were more mementos for the player to interact with in the Voclain estate. Maybe a family photo, or an old drawing from Bennett of a cool bug.....or is it more telling that there isn't anything at all? The groundwork is all there for theorizing about her, but the game itself doesn't really invite the player to do so, and that makes a lot of difference. I think Adrienn could have been fleshed out a bit more, too. Sometimes I suspect that xyr most prominent character traits are "nonbinary" and "hard worker, doesn't sleep", which makes xem always feel a little less three dimensional than the rest of the cast. This seems like an inevitable side effect of having so many characters with beautifully done arcs, though -- it's always gonna feel uneven in the end. Maybe that "fwends" feature in E19 and postgame can compensate? UGH and difficulty spikes. I really like the challenge level of Reborn, but what messes with my head is the grinding. In Rejuvenation, there are EV training rooms that let you EV train full teams in just minutes. EVs are totally not necessary to play Reborn, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist and don't like using mons that aren't EV trained (probably because I'm not very good at pokeman ahaha), and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. If leveling new mons wasn't so tedious, I probably wouldn't be Destiny Bond cheesing through so many battles. Is "get good" enough of a solution here? Reborn definitely makes better Pokemon players out of main series casuals..... Beating Titania on the, like, fifth try with a janky weird half-sand team felt like seeing God's face though. That's a feeling you can't get anywhere else.