triplebassist

Very happy to see the comment about Ace. That dispels the little bit of nerves I had about their inclusion. Gonna start from the beginning right away so I can see how they're integrated into the early game

I think I mentioned earlier that a lot of them come out of nowhere, which increases the frustration, but I wanted to take a quick look at the numbers for the first few chapters. While I'm pretty sure they're the same at this point I'll use Badges as the cut off instead of chapters just to be safe with the level cap. Badge 1: Garbador, Venam Badge 2: Melia, Zetta, Rift Gyrados, Rift Galvantula, Nim, Keta, Madelis/Shadow Mewtwo, Spirit Keta Badge 3: Amanda, Marianette Badge 4: Aelita, Giritina, Gaera, Ren, Narcissa Badge 5: Nim, Emma, Madelis/Nastasia, Valarie Badge 6: Gaera, Zetta, Crawli You can see here why I'm not sure I like the new level cap for Venam at 18. After they redid the order of the Team Xen attack on Goldenwood (the right choice), you've got this huge load of fights with no increase in level cap. But in general the early game at least feels ok in terms of how many fights they throw at you per cap increase. The issue I can see right off the bat is that they all have a variety of styles and type preferences that could force an unprepared player to train up another team member or two, but I don't remember that being a huge issue, at least at this point in the game.

One interesting difference with Reborn is that it's more than happy to let you use a bunch of broken Seeds right along with the bosses. You can by unlimited numbers of them for 3000P starting when your level cap is 35. The game seems to be perfectly happy to let you respond to a battle that's giving you trouble by rolling in with 6 seeds and using their brokenness in your favor. It's expensive, sure, but it's presented as a viable option. That's not really the case in Rejuv, and I think it's another way in which Reborn is able to use the field effects with just a bit more nuance as a fact of the battle that can be beneficial or harmful to both sides rather than another obstacle for the player to overcome.

If you don't mind me asking, do you have any ideas as to what the problem was in the alpha and beta feedback? Was it something as simple as having playtesters who were too experienced with the game (and so more able to handle extra difficulty than a normal player), or do you think there was something else going on under the hood that needs to be considered?

I understand that intense is going to be hard but it does seem like the chapter 15 fights have progressed past hard and ended up somewhere else. I think there's an issue if the AI gets to break the rules set out by the main games. Some (# of megas, megas holding items besides their stones, >510 EVs) have already happened, and I think that's a bad precedent, even if the goal is to be challenging. Challenging should not mean the AI gets to play with fundamentally different restrictions than we do

This has to be the biggest thing. Most of the other complaints are more visible, but I think this is the real issue under the hood. It's really, really hard to strategize properly against an opponent who is always aware of your abilities, your held items, your moves, and when you switch out. I know that the player can achieve this via meta knowledge or using a guide, but it feels like this change makes those more necessary and compounds any existing balance issues

Ditto is found as a rare encounter in one of the Rift Dens once you beat Amber. It's an absolute pain in the ass to find and I'd recommend either debugging it into your party or saving right before you drop a fragment in the den.

Grinding is tedium, not difficulty. The argument as it stands is that: if you're going to require well-optimized movesets with perfect or near perfect IV bred Pokemon who are EV trained and have beneficial as opposed to neutral natures in order to win, then you should make it relatively simple for the player to acquire those things. If you want players to constantly be adding and rotating Pokemon to their teams, then you should make it relatively simple for them to train them up to the levels of the rest of your team. Requiring those things without providing the means to get them easily doesn't make the game harder, it only makes it take more time to beat and forces players to spend time on unproductive things

Note that Jynx is likely to use Fake Out on Pyukumuku to prevent it from happening turn 1 and then use Cold Truth turn 2 to restore the ice after the field is melted. You'll have to outspeed it with something strong enough to make it faint before that can happen

On Route 3, there's an Entrance to the Mirage Woods in the far north-western corner. There's a statue of a Kingdra there which is missing one of its wings. If you find the wing in Phasial Cave and beat the Kingdra, you're given the chance to cause a battle with 3 Zubats and a Crobat. One of the Zubats joins you after you win

I had no problem using Flying types. Xatu, Talonflame, and Crobat took care of him easily. Xatu was more of a sec, but Brave Bird and Acrobatics were plenty to shred that team down to its last mon and a half

I haven't found the Gym Leaders to be too bad (on normal) but the story fights where you're just randomly thrown into a 6v6 with someone who's got a team designed for the field they're on and using items you don't have access to is just rough.

Yes they do! If a parent holds a power item, the IV corresponding to that item is guaranteed to be inherited (unless both parents do, in which case it's random which one is). I find them most useful at the beginning of the breeding process when I only have 1 perfect IV to give to the baby, because I can force it

The difficulty is about what you should expect going forward. My personal thought is that right now normal mode is consistently just a little bit too hard (it feels like every major fight I'm almost able to win, but have to adjust my team a bit, which I don't mind for Gym Leaders and clearly telegraphed bosses but is a bit annoying when a random 6v6 pops out of nowhere), but not outrageously so. I remember Cacturne with Sucker Punch being a big friend in Wispy Tower. It can break Giratina's shields by itself. I belive mine got 3 hits off, which made finishing the job a cakewalk. I think my team for Gaera was Cacturne Hariyama Quilava Weezing Simipour Xatu And I don't remember it being that rough once I got the order down. This fight didn't feel too bad to me

If somebody is going that far, then I don't see what the problem is. Rejuv is a completely single-player game without any kind of online function, so they're not hurting anyone, and if they're going to the point of messing around in system settings for revival herbs, I'm going to guess they need them

I had success with Typhlosion and Talonflame using Flame Charge because of the Ghost-type damage it does on the field. Cinderace should be able to learn the TM. At that point, only Chandelure is a problem, and I used Simipour to deal with that

Flash no longer turns Haunted Field into Blessed Field, just removes it for 2 turns. That changes a lot of the Goldenleaf stuff

Dusknoir only spawns when you walk over certain tiles, so there are places where you can stop and save if you want to have to do the labyrinth over less

I swept her with the Lunatone in the Amethyst Depths hitting with Hypnosis and getting 3 Cosmic powers (which are boosted in the field) off before using Psychic to one-hit everything she had. I did heal once (I allow myself as many heals as the Leader gets, usually), but even if I hadn't I'd have been 5 v 2 against a weakened Delcatty and Drampa