Pokemon Desolation Episode 5

[Sapphire Mahala]

Well that's just great i already saved in the house before i talked to ava and the game ends so yeah...

[Desaya]

Glad to see Ep. 4 is coming soon.

 

Also a quick question. Will the new changes in reputation affect the older episodes or only the choices made from now on?

[Caz]

2 hours ago, Sapphire Mahala said:

Well that's just great i already saved in the house before i talked to ava and the game ends so yeah...

Don't worry. You can save anywhere you want, just obviously not during the final cinematic where saving is impossible. When Episode 4 starts you can just return to the house to complete the sequence and initiate Episode 4.

 

2 hours ago, Desaya said:

Glad to see Ep. 4 is coming soon.

 

Also a quick question. Will the new changes in reputation affect the older episodes or only the choices made from now on?

Nope. They won't. Choices and rep in the beginning of the game will still be present, making them far more important now.

[Elios]

I am gonna ask something I already did for Rejuvenation but I know some people would want to know as well for this game, will we have a fast-foward button?

[Caz]

20 minutes ago, Elios said:

I am gonna ask something I already did for Rejuvenation but I know some people would want to know as well for this game, will we have a fast-foward button?

 

That's not something I've actually considering or even looked into. If it's simple enough to implement, when I figure it out that is, then I see no reason why not. 

[Anthony810]

Are you still looking for beta testers?

[Kim]

On 1/16/2017 at 8:54 PM, Caz said:

romance could indeed help deliver the message of Desolation

 

Romance and the message of Desolation in one sentence? This can't be good. Caz kills off your love interest, confirmed.

 

That being said, am excited to see Episode 4 come out soon.

[Caz]

19 hours ago, Anthony810 said:

Are you still looking for beta testers?

 

Yes.

 

17 hours ago, Kim said:

 

Romance and the message of Desolation in one sentence? This can't be good. Caz kills off your love interest, confirmed.

 

That being said, am excited to see Episode 4 come out soon.

 

I spent a lot of time making this decision lmao. I really believe it will work, if I play my cards right. Who knows, your guess may be right.

[Elios]

So could female protagonists have a romance with other female characters as well as guys with guys? I ask because as a gay person, I like to see that kind of things in games. It is not like I would dislike the game if not, I love games despite it, just curiosity.

[Caz]

5 minutes ago, Elios said:

So could female protagonists have a romance with other female characters as well as guys with guys? I ask because as a gay person, I like to see that kind of things in games. It is not like I would dislike the game if not, I love games despite it, just curiosity.

 

I don't want to talk to much about the romance aspect because it won't play a role yet - not for a while yet, to be honest. But I can say that there will be no barriers in that regard.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Caz

[Elios]

30 minutes ago, Caz said:

 

I don't want to talk to much about the romance aspect because it won't play a role yet - not for a while yet, to be honest. But I can say that there will be no barriers in that regard.

I understand, as I said it was just curiosity, anyways I am glad to hear it.

 

[Anthony810]

I really do NOT want to lose HER again.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

If the Black Foxes didn't use any fox Pokemon: Lack Foxes.

[HakuryuYukio]

Hey guys,

 

I'm looking for the dawn stone. Is he available ?

[Dypatome]

On 8/14/2016 at 3:50 PM, Alilatias said:

Dawn Stone is not yet available, but should be in the next release.

@HakuryuYukio

[doombotmecha]

On 1/19/2017 at 7:49 AM, Ice Cream Sand Witch said:

If the Black Foxes didn't use any fox Pokemon: Lack Foxes.

Where do they store their loot: Black Boxes

Black Foxes live in a run-down house: Shack Foxes

Unexplained Kindom Hearts crossover: Black Roxas

[Caz]

6 hours ago, doombotmecha said:

Where do they store their loot: Black Boxes

Black Foxes live in a run-down house: Shack Foxes

Unexplained Kindom Hearts crossover: Black Roxas

 

It was only a matter of time until it would come to this .-.

[The Radiant Aeon]

Seeing as 4.0 is about to drop in the next month or so, I think it is about time I provide my opinion of this game because I have stuff to praise it for and a lot more to criticize.  Mind you this is gonna be a long post due to the many issues I have for this game. Thus, I'm breaking this up into parts, just so I don't take the whole damn page. I'll try to keep this as unbiased as possible, but there were a lot of things that annoyed me in this game that needs to be addressed, because Desolation has a lot of promise.

Positives (Stand-out features)

Spoiler

Probably the core feature this game that truly made me want to enjoy playing it: Choice-based dialogue and relationships. Something rarely done in Pokemon fan games are "choose your own adventure" styles where certain choices and relationships may affect future dialogue. It heavily reminds me of games made by Bethesda, BioWare, and ALL of the visual novels, as well as what I wanted Fates to be. I know Reborn has this as well (ie. Shelly sub-plot) but Desolation adds to this with character affinity, primarily with Ava and Scarlet. It made me actually consider dialogue choice, seeing as certain choices may have repercussions on the future plot. Because this game is in its early stages, there isn't much but dialogue changes, but further down the line this will most certainly be the reason why people would want to have multiple playthroughs of this game. Please tread carefully with this mechanic and don't fuck this one up; this could very well be your Delta Pokemon, your Uranium type, or whatever the fuck Phoenix Rising is going to do.

Additionally, some features in this game, though some are blatantly copy-pasta from Rejuvenation/Reborn, are, in my opinion, one of its best features. Mainly I'm speaking of ranger quests, which are all addictive. Beyond the multiple rewards that make this game more tolerable to play, the side quests are all really good, minus a few dungeon crawling ones. In fact, in some ways, the ranger quests sub plot is actually more enjoyable than the main plot (which I'll elaborate on more later). There is also the Jinx warps, which are more convenient than the bus and trucks in Insurgence and Rejuvenation respectively. Friend Coin rewards are usually top notch, and there isn't any restrictive quantity unless carelessly spent on dumb shit. Lastly, there are event Pokemon that were located in interesting locations and were worth the effort and added lore (Frosslass, Gastly, and Aipom are three examples that come to mind as of typing this).

tl;dr: Excellent defining mechanic that may make-or-break your game, excellent side content, convenient tools, moderate interest in Event Pokemons.

I don't think I need to elaborate further, considering most of the stuff I've mentioned are things people might have praised about before. However, know that these features were truly some of the most fun I've had in any fan game that I have played. Unfortunately, this is where I take the kiddy-gloves off.

Negatives (A fuck ton)

 

Spoiler

Honestly this is gonna take a long time to write, so I'll take this from the beginning. As in the beginning of the game. Because it sucks massive gonads. I understand this game is in dedication to Reborn and Rejuvenation, and that is completely fine in my opinion. But when the opening sequence is practically the same shit as Rejuvenation's but ten-time worse, we have an issue. Both intros have the same sort of vibe; a sort of pleasant beginning, turning bad as the player progresses through the story. Difference here and there is both Rejuvenation's freshness and establishment of a tense atmosphere; here, it sucks. No, I'm not adding some euphemism for this segment, it just sucks. Not only is the basic premise a total rehash of Rejuvenation, but the elements of suspicion that occurs whenever the player explores the boat (the Xen grunt, the talk between your mom and Crescent, ect.) is replaced by backroom drug deals and an obvious bomb threat, followed by edge, edge, and more edge. I reiterate a previous point I've made that this is still in early development, but I swear if the opening of this game is reworked soon, people will get disinterested in the story. This isn't even the complete beginning of the game and I see so many problems.

The next thing are the dungeons, and oh lord were these a problem. Again, I'll start from the beginning. The first dungeon, the jungle, is total garbage. I mean, this comes straight after the dull intro, so it is only compounded in dullness with this as the "tutorial" section. Yes, the many starter selections was fine. No, everything else about the jungle is terrible, from the plot to the general exploration. This jungle (don't remember its name, nor do I care to) has shades of release Terajuma. Release Terajuma was total laggy, annoying bullshit. And even then, this place manages to do that while being LINEAR. Also, the tribe and Shiv's brother plot points are all so random that I could hardly care about what Shiv did to the hypnotic fuck. Instead of "I feel sorry for these poor people" "who is this Shiv guy and why is he locked up" or "I need to stop these people or else they''ll kill my friends" like I believe is the intent, I thought "what sort of lame backstory do you have to end up like this" "who the hell is this jackass with a damn annoying Aipom" "why am I already level 15" "god I hate this dungeon" "who left this Croagunk here" and "cool story but I want to progress through this slow ass dungeon." And we never hear of what happened here again. And our reward for completing this long ass, slow ass, dungeon? A boss fight that I swear required an hour of grinding a fucking moody Bidoof to a Bibarel just to cheese my way through. Conner's boss fight is a seriously bad one for any blind playthrough, especially the FIRST GYM LEADER and I was almost about the delete this game from just this. Call me a whiny ass, but that shit is unfair.

Next is Route 1 and Carotos rip off, which are both pretty terrible too. Route 1 not so much as it had some room for breathing, but the backtracking for sidequests and repels because damn Route 1 was a big turn off. Then we enter Carotos rip off which I will refer to as such because it is, again, a rehash of early versions of Carotos in Rejuvenation made worse because of the length, backtracking, and money burnt on repels (which also require backtracking). Current Carotos is fine as is because the simplicity of the dungeon yet retains the creative puzzle aspects of the early versions of the dungeon. The bootleg version of this is going from point A to point B with massive detours in the middle. And again, the rewards we earn for crawling our way through this forsaken dungeon is learning more about the oh so dull and generic Team Crescent and EDGE.

No comment on Weeping Hills because honesty that place was lit. If anything, it only confirms that Team Crescent is just a cult of overly idealistic dickwads which I'll go in more depth later.

Now, in the last few issues I've had, I could fit all of my grievances into a paragraph. I plan to keep it this way too. Honestly though, if I was just talking about Silver Rise, I can write a fucking book about bad level design and use it as my primary example, and still won't elaborate on how shit this dungeon is. Silver Rise comes after a high point in the game, because prior to this dungeon, the game held a constant pace of progress similar to most RPGs after moving beyond the beginning of the game. Then story bullshit happens, with a totally unexpected, completely sad, and emotionally charged betrayal (I'll go into more depth as to why Scarlet's betrayal is garbage later) and boring banter by Solaris 2.0. Then Tristan happens, which his gameplay inclusion is both a story plothole and overall hindrance in general due to lolBoomburst. not only that, but Silver Rise is a two prong dungeon of evil, with one being and annoying search quest for crystal bridges, the other a maze. Because the game is still early as I've mentioned, lag is inevitable. But not only does the first section lag, but it is LONG. Length isn't much of an issue normally in Pokemon games, due to repels. without repels, Pokemon games become that much more annoying. Naturally having repels would lessen the burden of length within this dungeon if it wasn't ofr Desolation's unusual level progression. By the time the player beats hot caramel queen ranger gym leader, they're probably level 35 at max. Pokemon found in Silver Rise are 39 max. In other words, until you reach level 40, repels are USELESS. "But they are just random encounters, no issue there" right? Then we remember Tristan (lol) and his level 45 Exploud with BOOMBURST. Meaning, unless the opposing team has Pokemon that resist normal attacks or you have resists of your own, Tristan WILL KILL YOUR TEAM. This will result in net loss in net loss of experience for your team, further leveling to 40 harder than it needs to be. You will spend HOURS on just the first segment of Silver Rise, not even mentioning the ice bridge puzzles which are essentially Luna's Ionia Valley but worse. And of course, our reward is a nonlinear maze with high-level Pokemon trainers and a healing machine three long rooms with similarly high level wild encounters in between. Really I only recommend making a complete overhaul of the first segment of Silver Rise, or at least expect an overhaul in 4.0 because any notion of replayability is squashed by Silver Rise's terrible design. Isay it is comparable to Majora's Masks's Great Bay, due to annoying talk-quests, Metal Gear Gerudo Fortress, and lolGreat Bay Temple on top of being boring as fuck in general. Silver Rise is not just a major cockblock of the coveted sense of progress the game attained post-Carotos rip off, but is a standout brick wall that halted any sort of interest for this game. You know things are bad when Voltorb Flip is more interesting than your dungeon.

Even though Silver Rise is bar none the worst part of the game so far, Blackview City is probably the worst big city between Reborn, Rejuvenation, and Desolation. Reborn City in its first several episodes was notorious for its insane lag and lack of lighting, courtesy of early development. Of course, Ame rectified these issues, and Reborn as a whole serves a fun, eccentric hub with many features to enjoy. Similarly, Gearen shares a lot perks Reborn has, while also being easier to explore due the symmetry and easily identifiable landmarks. Blackview has almost none of those things and can be considered a dungeon in itself. Even with the colored triangles, if you don't remember how to get from point A to point B, you're fucked. Again, like Silver Rise, Blackview comes after a grace period where the game started to the player back into a decent pace of challenge and leisure without hindering progress sans Tristan's battle. The incomprehensible layout of Blackview is enough of a flaw, but the unclear objectives to progress the story collaborate with the horrible design of the city in a way that creates headaches. No other example fits this better than locating the Teal Panther base, which is probably the dumbest fucking thing I've seen in a Pokemon fan game. In a city filled with trash, grayscale, and cracks, finding a SPECIFIC CRACK IN THE WALL is probably the worst design decision possible, and only the most observant person in the world would notice something like that. That's not even mentioning the reward for completing the Teal Panther base, which I could give less fucks about for, again, reasons I'll talk about when I get to the story. Oh, and the electric leader was a bitch.

As far as the general issues I have, the most reoccuring one is the one problem that should never be a problem in an adventure/RPG game: Progress cockblocks. Four of the five segments of this game that I ranted about shared this trait. All of these are the biggest parts of Desolation. The slowness of these areas truly drag what promise this game had through the mud, or at least for myself, because I would rather drink bleach than endure three to four hours of Silver Rise. In addition to this, level progression is so off in this game its almost insane. As mentioned in Silver Rise, levels of wild Pokemon are on par or sometimes higher than the expected level of the player. The jungle section was especially bewildering as well, due to the sudden increases of level from area to area (Lotads that were level 4 along the beach were level 9 in the main jungle, and further encounters were level 12.) Trainers aren't as critical due to usefulness of having good sources of EXP. Perhaps balance out the levels of wild encounters, if only to make repels have a purpose.

Story-wise, this game can be described in one word: Edge. Like, if we take Reborn, Rejuvenation, and Desolation and scale them in terms of edge, Rejuvenation would be razor blade edge, Reborn would be playing Reaper with Linkin Park edge, and Desolation is COMPLETELY FILLED MY HEART WITH DARKNESS NOTHING BUT DARKNESS edge. Seriously, dial back the edge, this game is entirely edge. Shiv's backstory for starters; I feel like this is every sibling quarrel in every JRPG in existence. Speaking of generic, both the Black Foxes and Team Crescent just...exist. Granted, we don't know much of the Foxes aside from being another crazy cult, but Crescent is the epitome of edge. Ultimate goal is to awaken Darkrai Perfection and make everyone live blissfully forever? Not only is this another rip off, this time of Madara Uchiha of all villains, but it was just dropped in there. Just like that. Team Crescent's main goal; answered at a drop of a hat. Returning to the Weeping Hills, when Nova questioned me on which side I would give the big dumb rock to, I didn't side with Nova for any reason at all except "God your plan is so dumb GTFO." Oh theen there is Solaris 2.0 which I will refer to as such because he is such a Solaris clone. I mean, ruthless admin that tries to kill people for no fucking reason beyond LOL I'M EVIL (And yes I also think Solaris is a dumb character himself considering how unnecessarily ruthless he is, incredible blandness as a character, yet is a total bitch when it comes to Lin.)

And finally Scarlet, which I will make a separate point about because she serves no purpose except for TEH FEELS. Seriously, she gets no development as a character outside small talk that reveals nothing about her a person or a hint of depression that could lead to her betrayal or even a backstory, making her betrayal feel out of place and fall flat in terms of emotional impact (In addition to a big plothole ie. When the fuck did she contact Team Crescent or know about them in the first place?). Speaking of falling flat, her death is completely unnecessary and in a twisted way hilarious. Sad monologue of how her life is depressing and shit then committing suicide is just underwhelming. Call me a dick, but when Scarlet died, if she actually is actually going to stay dead in the first place, I just didn't care. Scarlet had little time to develop as a character, and the development she did get was rushed and sloppy. The way Scarlet was written does not reflect the original intent of the character; her death scene was more like the petulant whining of a total dumbass than it was a heartfelt loss of a dear friend like it was meant to be simply because of the sloppiness of the writing. If Ava or Conner died instead of Scarlet, you would bet your ass I would be heartbroken because I came to like those characters and how they were handled. Scarlet just died for the sake of dying. A recent example of a poorly written character betraying what they were meant to be is Xander in FE Fates. Xander was advertised to be this honorable knight that serves his country with loyalty, while simultaneously being a caring brother figure with unmatched charisma and a duty to protect innocent people. Not once before Fates's release did I associate those genuine qualities as presented in translated supports and by raving fangirls to be in reality Garon's side bitch and a complete coward. Ryoma shares the same contradictory character, but only Xander comes close to being as poorly written as Scarlet. Both characters do not represent their roles in the story because of poor writting, and their deaths are equally as dumb due to their illogical rational. Again, I apologize immensely for any Scarlet fans for extreme criticism of her as a character, but she is one character that I cannot forgive, most especially because how she was initially presented was perfectly fine and was likable, if a little too perfect. Her betrayal represents the biggest blemish of this game's story (conveniently happens prior to the game's worst gameplay blemish), and needs to be rectified in the later part of the story to make me remotely care about her death. Like, add a backstory or something that would make me love her because I really want to love this character but its so damn hard not to laugh at how dumb she is.

In conclusion, despite the game's numerous features, these faults standout as they repeal the one thing I found to be the major niche of this game; replayability. The long dungeons are too much of a hassle to experience again just to piss off Scarlet and see if she decides to stop being a pansy and not kill herself. Which is a damn shame because if the gameplay hinders the overall game so much that the development of story is also affected, then that is a good sign that the game is very clunky in its development. While I don't expect the story to be retconed, I certainly wish the dungeons can be reworked to be more enjoyable. If that is achieved, whether in 4.0 or not, the value of replaying this game from the ground up only increases.

too fucking long; why would you read: Dungeons are long and annoying rather than difficult, overuse of  awkward progression of Pokemon levels makes everything overlevel, main story is shallow, main antagonists would appreciate further development, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD FIX SCARLET'S WRITING

Honestly I may come off as a presumptuous douche, but these are my thoughts for the current state of Desolation. While I don't hate it (I love it more than 90% of Pokemon fan games out there) it has some massive issues that straight up sacrifice the positives of the game. As mentioned numerous times in this post, Desolation is still in early development, so I don't expect my issues for staying too long. In fact, I am very eager for 4.0 just to see if Caz and whoever is helping him improves the overall quality of the game, because it certainly as the potential to sit with games like Rejuvenation.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

18 minutes ago, The Radiant Aeon said:

Seeing as 4.0 is about to drop in the next month or so, I think it is about time I provide my opinion of this game because I have stuff to praise it for and a lot more to criticize.  Mind you this is gonna be a long post due to the many issues I have for this game. Thus, I'm breaking this up into parts, just so I don't take the whole damn page. I'll try to keep this as unbiased as possible, but there were a lot of things that annoyed me in this game that needs to be addressed, because Desolation has a lot of promise.

Positives (Stand-out features)

  Hide contents

Probably the core feature this game that truly made me want to enjoy playing it: Choice-based dialogue and relationships. Something rarely done in Pokemon fan games are "choose your own adventure" styles where certain choices and relationships may affect future dialogue. It heavily reminds me of games made by Bethesda, BioWare, and ALL of the visual novels, as well as what I wanted Fates to be. I know Reborn has this as well (ie. Shelly sub-plot) but Desolation adds to this with character affinity, primarily with Ava and Scarlet. It made me actually consider dialogue choice, seeing as certain choices may have repercussions on the future plot. Because this game is in its early stages, there isn't much but dialogue changes, but further down the line this will most certainly be the reason why people would want to have multiple playthroughs of this game. Please tread carefully with this mechanic and don't fuck this one up; this could very well be your Delta Pokemon, your Uranium type, or whatever the fuck Phoenix Rising is going to do.

Additionally, some features in this game, though some are blatantly copy-pasta from Rejuvenation/Reborn, are, in my opinion, one of its best features. Mainly I'm speaking of ranger quests, which are all addictive. Beyond the multiple rewards that make this game more tolerable to play, the side quests are all really good, minus a few dungeon crawling ones. In fact, in some ways, the ranger quests sub plot is actually more enjoyable than the main plot (which I'll elaborate on more later). There is also the Jinx warps, which are more convenient than the bus and trucks in Insurgence and Rejuvenation respectively. Friend Coin rewards are usually top notch, and there isn't any restrictive quantity unless carelessly spent on dumb shit. Lastly, there are event Pokemon that were located in interesting locations and were worth the effort and added lore (Frosslass, Gastly, and Aipom are three examples that come to mind as of typing this).

tl;dr: Excellent defining mechanic that may make-or-break your game, excellent side content, convenient tools, moderate interest in Event Pokemons.

I don't think I need to elaborate further, considering most of the stuff I've mentioned are things people might have praised about before. However, know that these features were truly some of the most fun I've had in any fan game that I have played. Unfortunately, this is where I take the kiddy-gloves off.

Negatives (A fuck ton)

 

  Hide contents

Honestly this is gonna take a long time to write, so I'll take this from the beginning. As in the beginning of the game. Because it sucks massive gonads. I understand this game is in dedication to Reborn and Rejuvenation, and that is completely fine in my opinion. But when the opening sequence is practically the same shit as Rejuvenation's but ten-time worse, we have an issue. Both intros have the same sort of vibe; a sort of pleasant beginning, turning bad as the player progresses through the story. Difference here and there is both Rejuvenation's freshness and establishment of a tense atmosphere; here, it sucks. No, I'm not adding some euphemism for this segment, it just sucks. Not only is the basic premise a total rehash of Rejuvenation, but the elements of suspicion that occurs whenever the player explores the boat (the Xen grunt, the talk between your mom and Crescent, ect.) is replaced by backroom drug deals and an obvious bomb threat, followed by edge, edge, and more edge. I reiterate a previous point I've made that this is still in early development, but I swear if the opening of this game is reworked soon, people will get disinterested in the story. This isn't even the complete beginning of the game and I see so many problems.

The next thing are the dungeons, and oh lord were these a problem. Again, I'll start from the beginning. The first dungeon, the jungle, is total garbage. I mean, this comes straight after the dull intro, so it is only compounded in dullness with this as the "tutorial" section. Yes, the many starter selections was fine. No, everything else about the jungle is terrible, from the plot to the general exploration. This jungle (don't remember its name, nor do I care to) has shades of release Terajuma. Release Terajuma was total laggy, annoying bullshit. And even then, this place manages to do that while being LINEAR. Also, the tribe and Shiv's brother plot points are all so random that I could hardly care about what Shiv did to the hypnotic fuck. Instead of "I feel sorry for these poor people" "who is this Shiv guy and why is he locked up" or "I need to stop these people or else they''ll kill my friends" like I believe is the intent, I thought "what sort of lame backstory do you have to end up like this" "who the hell is this jackass with a damn annoying Aipom" "why am I already level 15" "god I hate this dungeon" "who left this Croagunk here" and "cool story but I want to progress through this slow ass dungeon." And we never hear of what happened here again. And our reward for completing this long ass, slow ass, dungeon? A boss fight that I swear required an hour of grinding a fucking moody Bidoof to a Bibarel just to cheese my way through. Conner's boss fight is a seriously bad one for any blind playthrough, especially the FIRST GYM LEADER and I was almost about the delete this game from just this. Call me a whiny ass, but that shit is unfair.

Next is Route 1 and Carotos rip off, which are both pretty terrible too. Route 1 not so much as it had some room for breathing, but the backtracking for sidequests and repels because damn Route 1 was a big turn off. Then we enter Carotos rip off which I will refer to as such because it is, again, a rehash of early versions of Carotos in Rejuvenation made worse because of the length, backtracking, and money burnt on repels (which also require backtracking). Current Carotos is fine as is because the simplicity of the dungeon yet retains the creative puzzle aspects of the early versions of the dungeon. The bootleg version of this is going from point A to point B with massive detours in the middle. And again, the rewards we earn for crawling our way through this forsaken dungeon is learning more about the oh so dull and generic Team Crescent and EDGE.

No comment on Weeping Hills because honesty that place was lit. If anything, it only confirms that Team Crescent is just a cult of overly idealistic dickwads which I'll go in more depth later.

Now, in the last few issues I've had, I could fit all of my grievances into a paragraph. I plan to keep it this way too. Honestly though, if I was just talking about Silver Rise, I can write a fucking book about bad level design and use it as my primary example, and still won't elaborate on how shit this dungeon is. Silver Rise comes after a high point in the game, because prior to this dungeon, the game held a constant pace of progress similar to most RPGs after moving beyond the beginning of the game. Then story bullshit happens, with a totally unexpected, completely sad, and emotionally charged betrayal (I'll go into more depth as to why Scarlet's betrayal is garbage later) and boring banter by Solaris 2.0. Then Tristan happens, which his gameplay inclusion is both a story plothole and overall hindrance in general due to lolBoomburst. not only that, but Silver Rise is a two prong dungeon of evil, with one being and annoying search quest for crystal bridges, the other a maze. Because the game is still early as I've mentioned, lag is inevitable. But not only does the first section lag, but it is LONG. Length isn't much of an issue normally in Pokemon games, due to repels. without repels, Pokemon games become that much more annoying. Naturally having repels would lessen the burden of length within this dungeon if it wasn't ofr Desolation's unusual level progression. By the time the player beats hot caramel queen ranger gym leader, they're probably level 35 at max. Pokemon found in Silver Rise are 39 max. In other words, until you reach level 40, repels are USELESS. "But they are just random encounters, no issue there" right? Then we remember Tristan (lol) and his level 45 Exploud with BOOMBURST. Meaning, unless the opposing team has Pokemon that resist normal attacks or you have resists of your own, Tristan WILL KILL YOUR TEAM. This will result in net loss in net loss of experience for your team, further leveling to 40 harder than it needs to be. You will spend HOURS on just the first segment of Silver Rise, not even mentioning the ice bridge puzzles which are essentially Luna's Ionia Valley but worse. And of course, our reward is a nonlinear maze with high-level Pokemon trainers and a healing machine three long rooms with similarly high level wild encounters in between. Really I only recommend making a complete overhaul of the first segment of Silver Rise, or at least expect an overhaul in 4.0 because any notion of replayability is squashed by Silver Rise's terrible design. Isay it is comparable to Majora's Masks's Great Bay, due to annoying talk-quests, Metal Gear Gerudo Fortress, and lolGreat Bay Temple on top of being boring as fuck in general. Silver Rise is not just a major cockblock of the coveted sense of progress the game attained post-Carotos rip off, but is a standout brick wall that halted any sort of interest for this game. You know things are bad when Voltorb Flip is more interesting than your dungeon.

Even though Silver Rise is bar none the worst part of the game so far, Blackview City is probably the worst big city between Reborn, Rejuvenation, and Desolation. Reborn City in its first several episodes was notorious for its insane lag and lack of lighting, courtesy of early development. Of course, Ame rectified these issues, and Reborn as a whole serves a fun, eccentric hub with many features to enjoy. Similarly, Gearen shares a lot perks Reborn has, while also being easier to explore due the symmetry and easily identifiable landmarks. Blackview has almost none of those things and can be considered a dungeon in itself. Even with the colored triangles, if you don't remember how to get from point A to point B, you're fucked. Again, like Silver Rise, Blackview comes after a grace period where the game started to the player back into a decent pace of challenge and leisure without hindering progress sans Tristan's battle. The incomprehensible layout of Blackview is enough of a flaw, but the unclear objectives to progress the story collaborate with the horrible design of the city in a way that creates headaches. No other example fits this better than locating the Teal Panther base, which is probably the dumbest fucking thing I've seen in a Pokemon fan game. In a city filled with trash, grayscale, and cracks, finding a SPECIFIC CRACK IN THE WALL is probably the worst design decision possible, and only the most observant person in the world would notice something like that. That's not even mentioning the reward for completing the Teal Panther base, which I could give less fucks about for, again, reasons I'll talk about when I get to the story. Oh, and the electric leader was a bitch.

As far as the general issues I have, the most reoccuring one is the one problem that should never be a problem in an adventure/RPG game: Progress cockblocks. Four of the five segments of this game that I ranted about shared this trait. All of these are the biggest parts of Desolation. The slowness of these areas truly drag what promise this game had through the mud, or at least for myself, because I would rather drink bleach than endure three to four hours of Silver Rise. In addition to this, level progression is so off in this game its almost insane. As mentioned in Silver Rise, levels of wild Pokemon are on par or sometimes higher than the expected level of the player. The jungle section was especially bewildering as well, due to the sudden increases of level from area to area (Lotads that were level 4 along the beach were level 9 in the main jungle, and further encounters were level 12.) Trainers aren't as critical due to usefulness of having good sources of EXP. Perhaps balance out the levels of wild encounters, if only to make repels have a purpose.

Story-wise, this game can be described in one word: Edge. Like, if we take Reborn, Rejuvenation, and Desolation and scale them in terms of edge, Rejuvenation would be razor blade edge, Reborn would be playing Reaper with Linkin Park edge, and Desolation is COMPLETELY FILLED MY HEART WITH DARKNESS NOTHING BUT DARKNESS edge. Seriously, dial back the edge, this game is entirely edge. Shiv's backstory for starters; I feel like this is every sibling quarrel in every JRPG in existence. Speaking of generic, both the Black Foxes and Team Crescent just...exist. Granted, we don't know much of the Foxes aside from being another crazy cult, but Crescent is the epitome of edge. Ultimate goal is to awaken Darkrai Perfection and make everyone live blissfully forever? Not only is this another rip off, this time of Madara Uchiha of all villains, but it was just dropped in there. Just like that. Team Crescent's main goal; answered at a drop of a hat. Returning to the Weeping Hills, when Nova questioned me on which side I would give the big dumb rock to, I didn't side with Nova for any reason at all except "God your plan is so dumb GTFO." Oh theen there is Solaris 2.0 which I will refer to as such because he is such a Solaris clone. I mean, ruthless admin that tries to kill people for no fucking reason beyond LOL I'M EVIL (And yes I also think Solaris is a dumb character himself considering how unnecessarily ruthless he is, incredible blandness as a character, yet is a total bitch when it comes to Lin.)

And finally Scarlet, which I will make a separate point about because she serves no purpose except for TEH FEELS. Seriously, she gets no development as a character outside small talk that reveals nothing about her a person or a hint of depression that could lead to her betrayal or even a backstory, making her betrayal feel out of place and fall flat in terms of emotional impact (In addition to a big plothole ie. When the fuck did she contact Team Crescent or know about them in the first place?). Speaking of falling flat, her death is completely unnecessary and in a twisted way hilarious. Sad monologue of how her life is depressing and shit then committing suicide is just underwhelming. Call me a dick, but when Scarlet died, if she actually is actually going to stay dead in the first place, I just didn't care. Scarlet had little time to develop as a character, and the development she did get was rushed and sloppy. The way Scarlet was written does not reflect the original intent of the character; her death scene was more like the petulant whining of a total dumbass than it was a heartfelt loss of a dear friend like it was meant to be simply because of the sloppiness of the writing. If Ava or Conner died instead of Scarlet, you would bet your ass I would be heartbroken because I came to like those characters and how they were handled. Scarlet just died for the sake of dying. A recent example of a poorly written character betraying what they were meant to be is Xander in FE Fates. Xander was advertised to be this honorable knight that serves his country with loyalty, while simultaneously being a caring brother figure with unmatched charisma and a duty to protect innocent people. Not once before Fates's release did I associate those genuine qualities as presented in translated supports and by raving fangirls to be in reality Garon's side bitch and a complete coward. Ryoma shares the same contradictory character, but only Xander comes close to being as poorly written as Scarlet. Both characters do not represent their roles in the story because of poor writting, and their deaths are equally as dumb due to their illogical rational. Again, I apologize immensely for any Scarlet fans for extreme criticism of her as a character, but she is one character that I cannot forgive, most especially because how she was initially presented was perfectly fine and was likable, if a little too perfect. Her betrayal represents the biggest blemish of this game's story (conveniently happens prior to the game's worst gameplay blemish), and needs to be rectified in the later part of the story to make me remotely care about her death. Like, add a backstory or something that would make me love her because I really want to love this character but its so damn hard not to laugh at how dumb she is.

In conclusion, despite the game's numerous features, these faults standout as they repeal the one thing I found to be the major niche of this game; replayability. The long dungeons are too much of a hassle to experience again just to piss off Scarlet and see if she decides to stop being a pansy and not kill herself. Which is a damn shame because if the gameplay hinders the overall game so much that the development of story is also affected, then that is a good sign that the game is very clunky in its development. While I don't expect the story to be retconed, I certainly wish the dungeons can be reworked to be more enjoyable. If that is achieved, whether in 4.0 or not, the value of replaying this game from the ground up only increases.

too fucking long; why would you read: Dungeons are long and annoying rather than difficult, overuse of  awkward progression of Pokemon levels makes everything overlevel, main story is shallow, main antagonists would appreciate further development, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD FIX SCARLET'S WRITING

Honestly I may come off as a presumptuous douche, but these are my thoughts for the current state of Desolation. While I don't hate it (I love it more than 90% of Pokemon fan games out there) it has some massive issues that straight up sacrifice the positives of the game. As mentioned numerous times in this post, Desolation is still in early development, so I don't expect my issues for staying too long. In fact, I am very eager for 4.0 just to see if Caz and whoever is helping him improves the overall quality of the game, because it certainly as the potential to sit with games like Rejuvenation.

Team Crescent isn't meant to be a ripoff of Madara. This has come up several times in the thread and Caz has said he doesn't like Naruto. IIRC it was inspired more by Inception.

[The Radiant Aeon]

13 minutes ago, Ice Cream Sand Witch said:

Team Crescent isn't meant to be a ripoff of Madara. This has come up several times in the thread and Caz has said he doesn't like Naruto. IIRC it was inspired more by Inception.

That would be more plausible if that is the case, although it very uncanny how similar Team Crescent and Madara's ultimate goals are down to the end game "world peace." Now that I know its not the case, and more like Inception, I feel a little bit better about Team Crescent, though they are still highly generic. Still ant to know more about Black Foxes I mean come on why the suspense for them but not for Crescent.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

8 minutes ago, The Radiant Aeon said:

That would be more plausible if that is the case, although it very uncanny how similar Team Crescent and Madara's ultimate goals are down to the end game "world peace." Now that I know its not the case, and more like Inception, I feel a little bit better about Team Crescent, though they are still highly generic. Still ant to know more about Black Foxes I mean come on why the suspense for them but not for Crescent.

[Caz]

Before you jump to criticize, I ask you realize that the game is in development. I don't have time to address every complaint, as I have an Episode to finish. A lot of your criticism is totally understandable - most importantly the Jungle in Episode 1. I would like to point out this is the first map I ever made in RPG Maker. I also agree with your Silver Rise complaint - but I have already balanced it more for Episode 4.

 

I will address as much as I can remember, it won't be in order.

 

Blackview City: All intentional. This isn't the games main city - it's meant to be cramped, awful even. This sets the tone for what the city really is - overpopulated, overrun with criminals and ultimately an unhappy experience.

 

Scarlett: All intentional, believe it or not. All I can really say is that the story is planned out entirely, Scarlett's strangeness and stereotype will make sense in time. Her betrayal is extremely convenient, and by the end of the game players will realize this is on purpose.

 

Rejuv: The funny thing here is that I havent even finished Rejuv. Oh look, Desolation has a volcano - must be a Caratos rip off right? I understand that the volcano is due for an improvement, yes, certainly. But a ripoff? No. Yeah, course. Desolation starts on a boat, yes. I never actually wanted to start it on a boat, but rather, I had to. It made sense for how the player would end up on the island. Sure, it could be a plane crash, but when I first started making my first fangame I don't think I was thinking far enough ahead for that. In the future, maybe.

 

Crescent and Black Foxes: The Black Foxes are my games "evil team" when it comes down to it. More will be revealed. That's all I need to say about them. Team Crescent however play a far broader role - they feel out of place in Desolation and its world. Trust me, it's intentional. One thing worth mentioning is the "grand plan". Firstly, most of the grunts don't care about it, they're paid. Only Baron and Nova know it, really. And if you really paid attention, it's certain that Baron doesn't even like the plan, or even care much. It's all very much Nova's plan - and the reasoning for her plan is not as cliche as what she TELLS the player. Many people have pointed out how nuts Nova is, would you really believe what she told the player?

 

NARUTO: For the last time. I used to actually like Naruto, but every time my game is compared to it I like it much less. My game is entirely inspired my Inception, my all time favorite movie. I want to break even Inceptions walls in this game. I don't give a toss about Naruto - this isn't some simple lame ass linear story. Perhaps I should just reveal the entire plot of Desolation on my thread, so this complaint ceases to exist?

 

Sorry mate. I'm not annoyed at you for the complaint, because it comes up all the time. Perhaps after Episode 4 comes out people will stop drawing the parallel. I see where it comes from, but humbly, the end product of all this is FAR more complex than that of Naruto.

 

Thanks for your feedback, however. Don't think it has gone to waste. I will certainly contemplate some of these things. Especially to do with the dungeons and replaying.

 

EDIT: Choices will become a huge part of the game - far more than just dialogue changes. Trust me. Wait till you see Episode 4 mate.

EDIT2: Also, the Vejyr mountain having no road is because Team Crescent destroyed the bridge.

 

 

Edited January 22, 2017 by Caz

[Alilatias]

Hmm, I actually agree with some of your assessments, though mostly regarding Vejyr and Silver Rise, along with Connor being a little too over the top for a first gym leader. For Vejyr and Silver Rise in particular, I was actually the one that suggested putting repel vendors in front of those places (they didn't exist prior to Episode 3 full release), and Weeping Hills used to be located in Route 1 (I suggested moving it to Route 2 for obvious pacing reasons).

 

Perhaps Vejyr would benefit from being redone. It doesn't really make sense for it to be riddled with lava jumping platform puzzles when it's supposedly supposed to be one of the main roads connecting the various areas on the island. It is also a bit over the top for an early dungeon to have what I would refer to as an 'attrition field' in general (though it is important to note that the Crescent grunts you fight are just as subject to the field's effects as you are). Well, the early game is extremely unfriendly to those who chose grass starters, the field just makes it even more so.

 

As for everything else, I found the forest section to be the most interesting beginning phase for all three fangames (the other two I refer to are Reborn and Rejuvenation, I consider Desolation on the same level as those two), although I do agree with the boat thing. That said, I don't think Desolation is really any edgier than the other two, I actually found it to be -FAR LESS- so compared to Rejuvenation (which made frequent references to non-plot essential NPCs dying for no real reason at all). The vast majority of the edginess so far in Desolation in comparison basically revolves around one of the admins of the Black Foxes and an admin of Team Crescent only, everything else that could even be remotely considered edgy was important for advancing the plot.

Edited January 22, 2017 by Alilatias

[The Radiant Aeon]

Thanks for that. That definitely piqued interest for Black Foxes; just the right amount of cryptic with enough info to understand the general goal. Most certainly would side with Foxes over Crescent.

oh and the part where her "powerful Umbreon" beat the police? lel I suspect foul play

3 minutes ago, Caz said:

Before you jump to criticize, I ask you realize that the game is in development. I don't have time to address every complaint, as I have an Episode to finish. A lot of your criticism is totally understandable - most importantly the Jungle in Episode 1. I would like to point out this is the first map I ever made in RPG Maker. I also agree with your Silver Rise complaint - but I have already balanced it more for Episode 4.

 

I will address as much as I can remember, it won't be in order.

 

Blackview City: All intentional. This isn't the games main city - it's meant to be cramped, awful even. This sets the tone for what the city really is - overpopulated, overrun with criminals and ultimately an unhappy experience.

 

Scarlett: All intentional, believe it or not. All I can really say is that the story is planned out entirely, Scarlett's strangeness and stereotype will make sense in time. Her betrayal is extremely convenient, and by the end of the game players will realize this is on purpose.

 

Rejuv: The funny thing here is that I havent even finished Rejuv. Oh look, Desolation has a volcano - must be a Caratos rip off right? Yeah, course. Desolation starts on a boat? Ripoff. I never actually wanted to start it on a boat, but rather, I had to. It made sense for how the player would end up on the island. Sure, it could be a plane crash, but when I first started making my first fangame I don't think I was thinking far enough ahead for that. In the future, maybe. But really? Flay me because I had to use a boat like Rejuv?

 

Crescent and Black Foxes: The Black Foxes are my games "evil team" when it comes down to it. That's all I need to say about them. Team Crescent however play a far broader role - they feel out of place in Desolation and its world. Trust me, it's intentional. One thing worth mentioning is the "grand plan". Firstly, most of the grunts don't care about it, they're paid. Only Baron and Nova know it, really. And if you really paid attention, it's certain that Baron doesn't even like the plan, or even care much. It's all very much Nova's plan - and the reasoning for her plan is not as cliche as what she TELLS the player.

 

NARUTO: For the last time. I used to actually like Naruto, but every time my game is compared to it I like it much less. My game is entirely inspired my Inception, my all time favorite movie. I want to break even Inceptions walls in this game. I don't give a toss about Naruto - this isn't some simple lame ass linear story. Perhaps I should just reveal the entire plot of Desolation on my thread, so this complaint ceases to exist?

 

Sorry mate. I'm not annoyed at you for the complaint, because it comes up all the time. Perhaps after Episode 4 comes out people will stop drawing the parallel. I see where it comes from, but humbly, the end product of all this is FAR more complex than that of Naruto.

 

Thanks for your feedback, however. Don't think they have gone to waste. I will certainly contemplate some of these things. Especially to do with the dungeons and replaying.

 

 

 

No problems, just wanted to speak my mind on the game. In fact your clarifications did clear up some of my issues. And if all of these are intentional, then please, continue because it really intrigues me (still don't like Scarlett though :0). And a lot of this comes from memory, so things like Baron which I may or may not have noticed might have been skipped over entire (again not willing to play version 3 again; Silver Rise was too traumatic). Though I do recall repeating my understanding of this game being very early in development. Then again what do I know I'm suffering from cranknstein and caffeine from hours past and am only comforting my poor self with internet rants and haagan dazs

Also I'm sure you can admit the rejuv and naruto situations are pretty freaking hilarious. irony i guess

[Caz]

No worries. I get where they come from it just hurts when they pop up so often rip. Scarlett is also my least favorite character, as to me, she serves to be more a tool than a character.

 

EDIT: Thanks for bringing Silver Rise to my attention more. I'll be certain to work on it.

Edited January 22, 2017 by Caz