Difficulty Modes and Battle Chart

Speaking of the rainbow chart missed the Sigmund/Sirius battle in Yureyu after you beat Aya.

Cant wait to play this, there is not a single game that ive gotten this hyped about in years

I like this blitz of devblog posts. Always a good idea to keep the hype up.

So, the standard difficulty level gets split down into the lite mode and up into the dark mode, but there will be no option to play on ''regular'' difficulty level? Am I reading that right? If yes, I'm pretty much curious what is the difficulty curve and gap between all options, I pretty much liked to go through the story, but with some, let's say, obstacles along the way, which were quite satisfying to beat.

5 hours ago, andracass said:

it has been pointed out that the first aster/eclipse fight is missing aster's sprite.

would someone please grant me death.

you said it yourself, this is version 1.0. Also aster's sprite should be between Amaria and the first double battle of the experience that makes me reluctant to go through ep18 again (Cain and Shelly) for those who accepted Blake's offer

Thank you for the hard work. I would certainly appreciate myself an Intense mode, au la Rejuvenation! Post E16, Reborn feels like an Easy Mode Rejuvenation like hike. Not only the gen 7 pokemon that replaced older gen trainer spots are easier to deal with (one example is Shade 's Chandelure VS Mimikyu and another one is the very underlevelled Alolan Graveler of Julia 's), but AI enemies 99% forget about itemization (recovery items) completely, or shift pointlessly to their angry KOs.

Am certainly going to start a new E19 run when out, on the hardest difficulty. I miss the hard and satisfying wipeouts of old. The obligatory early game item hunt, if you wanted to get an edge. The soft reset till you get a decent stats pokemon. All that goodness.

Give us more punishment,  master!

Well, i guess it's time to bring to the light my masochist tendencies with Reborn Hard mode, yay...

Why is that Dittoceus shiny? Is it a change for e19?

14 minutes ago, andracass said:

why would we get rid of regular

Dunno, that's why I was surprised, I felt like the text implies that - now when I re-read the whole thing, I must have been drowsy, pulling an all nighter affected me more than I thought obviously, lol.

1 hour ago, andracass said:

i mean it'd sure be cool right

but no; when i first put it in, the transparency was messed up, and it just kinda....took on the colors of the background

i didn't feel like fixing it, so i just put in the shiny

Problem solving, something they don't teach you.

Who is they?

I dunno

but! A rainbow Arceus sounds cool. And so is this Reborn Arceus.

out of my own morbid curiosity, how would reborn dark mode stand up to mods like memeborn in regards to difficulty? also can you alternate between difficulties during a playthrough or is it set at the start of a run?

Wait, hold on a second: MEWTWO??? I dont remember fighting Mewtwo!!! When was this? WHERE WAS THIS???

*cough, cough"

Sorry i lost my cool a few moments ago, but this game is such a gem i dont want to miss a single bit of it.

So, let me rephrase myself: Before anything else: Ame and gang... WELL DONE! Your work here is a piece of art! There is a lot of expectancy but im sure ep19 will be awsome!

But now i have to ask: when did we fight Mewtwo? I dont recall that

Quote

adding in some additional bullshit when you get to the late game. 

This is honestly something that I feel like has been missing from Reborn for a while. By lategame you normally have enough tools available to work around most things that would have been a serious roadblock earlier on, like quick claw + perish song or prankster destiny bond. If this 'additional bullshit' takes steps to continue the same level of challenge that earlygame was... hooo boy this is gonna be fun.

... Are there really no major battles between Luna and Samson?

Huh.

Could've sworn there was something.

This is awesome. You guys are awesome. *Hugs* I'll keep trying at regular mode, but if it starts demanding more time than I can afford to give it, I'll switch to lite mode. I just wanna throw some kidneys at the fan. (Close your eyes Shelly. Lin's got under my skin.)

Incidentally, will it be possible to shift between modes during the game play, or will it be irrevocably set at the beginning of the game? Also, can we alter the mode in our current play throughs once updated to E19?

"Some people find it too easy"

I have mad respect for those people, but I'm also absolutely terrified of them. Not quite as much as I am of people doing Nuzlockes, but it's close. My main method of playing this game is ridiculous amounts of cotton candy but hey it works

I'm curious about Lite mode, might actually try a lite version of a Nuzlocke with that. And then probably cry a lot but it's Reborn. Thanks for all your hard work♥

Love love love the regular updates. I remember when I played reborn back in 2016; the information drought caused me to drop it till I revisited in in 2019. The story hit me like a storm: Huh?! Who's this chick with the funky hair again? And what's her deal with me?

Anyway, was wondering if you'd be adding any features to make grinding a biiiit more fun, atleast late-game. Grand hall trainers are a passable substitute, but they aren't the most efficient, as the highest yielders (Beau and Zack) require a 4-5 man team to beat. I know people have suggested the audino trainers from Rejuve, but maybe you aren't too keen on those? 

One of the most fun parts of reborn to me is the fact that, due to the pokemon limitations, you're obligated to make interesting and innovative team choices in order to outplay difficult battles and gym leaders, and thus, a static team of 6 may not always ensure you get through the game. Maybe incentivize the player to have a fluid team by making raising/EV training a bit easier? 

Just a thought. Once again, love what you're doing, ty ty ty for all the hard work and updates, and cannot wait to see what you have in store for us the next day/week/month/year etc. 

On 2/9/2020 at 8:28 PM, andracass said:

On 2/9/2020 at 10:30 AM, Thiazzi said:

I like this blitz of devblog posts. Always a good idea to keep the hype up.

i feel kinda bad about it since we're still far from a release.......................

You don't have to feel bad about it! I check this devblog every day and whenever there is an update (even if it's a small one), it makes me really happy. And sometimes it can even make my day.

Now to wonder what the "additional bullshit" might be.

Pseudo-Legendaries, perhaps?
Actual Legendary Pokemon?

Pokemon who fit the field's theme but aren't a part of that Leader's type?

More than six pokemon at once?

Stat boosts a la Totem Battles?

Weather giving additional boosts?

PULSE-2 Akin boosts for all major battles?

Pokemon who have their base stats amplified or switched around to make a puzzle boss?
So many options, so many of them horrible, so little time...

Unrelated question:

Do you have to do the legendary quests in a specific order (first Cresselia, then Regis, then Dogs, etc.) or can you do them in any order

9 hours ago, Cadmium48 said:

Unrelated question:

Do you have to do the legendary quests in a specific order (first Cresselia, then Regis, then Dogs, etc.) or can you do them in any order

Everybody knows the good stuff in Reborn, comes later than sooner... You can't seriously expect fetching mega Mewtwo or mega Rayquaza, before Dogs/Birds/Regis, for example?

Do you want me to give you the Redux doc because at this point we both kind of did the same thing? But on that subject...

Give Julia a stunfisk. That thing alone cause more hell than even a Heliolisk. Give them the true meaning of ragequiting.

12 minutes ago, Commander said:

Do you want me to give you the Redux doc because at this point we both kind of did the same thing? But on that subject...

 

Give Julia a stunfisk. That thing alone cause more hell than even a Heliolisk. Give them the true meaning of ragequiting.

I Think this is a really good idea honestly.

Hearing Redux won't get fit into hard mode because of canon teams is... rather ironic, since you devs, however otherwise amazing, did in fact change the teams for Gen 7 mons, making them overall less fun. Specifically Aster and Eclipse. I miss, dearly miss, their Elekid and Magby. That was a highlight fighting those two up until their final stages. And pretty much all of the teams of E16, frankly.

And with all the work Commander's done... not that I know anything of programming to deserve a word I type be minded for two seconds, but wouldn't that mean he's basically handing more or less completed team changes already?

And yes, a Stunfisk would be a nightmare. But I still prefer the horror of Togedemaru.

13 minutes ago, Feng Lei said:

Hearing Redux won't get fit into hard mode because of canon teams is... rather ironic, since you devs, however otherwise amazing, did in fact change the teams for Gen 7 mons, making them overall less fun. Specifically Aster and Eclipse. I miss, dearly miss, their Elekid and Magby. That was a highlight fighting those two up until their final stages. And pretty much all of the teams of E16, frankly.

 

And with all the work Commander's done... not that I know anything of programming to deserve a word I type be minded for two seconds, but wouldn't that mean he's basically handing more or less completed team changes already?

 

And yes, a Stunfisk would be a nightmare. But I still prefer the horror of Togedemaru.

I've said this before, but I honestly don't say it enough. I was really just joking given I did all this work but I have said it and I will say it again:

Pokemon Reborn is Ame's creation first and foremost and I will always respect that decision. If she asked me to stop Redux or hand over anything I did I would do so without question. Pokemon Reborn is the Reborn dev teams as it should be. They ultimately have the final say in what they do. Not that I agree with every decision, but just want to make sure people understand that.

But let's just put that all aside and say putting the normal Redux fights (aka the touch up of the normal fights) I do. Would that be the best possible decision to make? The fights are all more or less harder so on the surface it would make sense, but not everything perfectly matches. Many of the fights in Redux skew more towards the original designs than towards their current visions. That creates a clash of ideas and maybe some things could be too difficult curving the balance the wrong way. Redux is an intentionally flawed game. I try my best but some things just don't work out no matter the time and effort. It doesn't mean someone is wrong erring on the side of caution when it comes to an outside source. I know ya'll aren't happy with that answer so let me get into the other one:

I personally think not willing to change teams up since characters only have 6 mons is a stupid reason, but one I understand. It's stupid because nobody would be able to tell and it's easy to counter argue in a logic sense. They can swap mons at any time and it's hard to believe leaders only have 6 mons they use in their entirety. But in terms of making things more difficult it makes sense to keep all the mons the same. It's a time saver and you know mons are stronger since you can increase their stats and have better moves. It's a safer more logical approach to this. It's less of a risk and gives a more guarnteed challenge for those looking for it without going overboard or needing to test the hell out of it. This isn't something about being lazy, but being practical because I have plenty of stories of testing nightmares. The infamous Armadia took a day and a half of testing. It's a time commitment that not a lot of people have especially someone who worked on the stuff I don't want to.

At the end of the day, it'd be cool to see a Redux fight become an official fight. It'd also be cool if the follower mod or any of the dozen of other cool things also got into the main game. The fans of the fan creators have done work and we've crossed into territory we cannot go back on for better or worse with the modding stuff. Reborn has done a massive implementation because of this which is really all the thanks I feel any of us need.

And besides, it's not like I'm not going to end up finishing Redux after what...4 years so no matter what happens with the official one it's not like the clearly superior unofficial one isn't gonna happen...put your goddamn pitchforks away. I'm only kidding. Point is the stuff everyone enjoys will still be there and it doesn't matter if it's official or not. Just that I'm dying on the inside trying to figure out how to work with these new modes. Stop making more work for me.

I really like the philosphy behind the difficulty modes here.  Tweaking teams can lead to a whole lot of nonsense, and I feel should really be reserved for if something truly is broken and messed up.  ...I.E Serra.  You know the one.  Anyways, I actually really look forward to this, and I think it might convince some of my friends to actually get into Reborn

14 hours ago, Amethyst said:

I think there's a difference between changing teams to account for a new generation of Pokemon being available vs teams changing based on a setting in game in the same release... Heck, a better example would be teams changing between versions without a new generation. I'm not above retcons, but when leaders change teams between modes I feel like that much more transparently becomes about the gameplay rather than a selection of the leaders' choice in Pokemon. And yes, characters already use more than 6 mons througout the game as is, that's true. But given that we're not necessarily lacking options to increase the difficulty of fights without changing species, doing so and losing one the most significant, consistent aspects of the experience across playthroughs would be a needless casualty.

 

That said, I think you're also conflating issues with the gen 7 updates. While I'm sure it's not the case for everyone-- trainers needed to get gen 7 Pokemon. And the Aster and Eclipse fight, for instance, needed to be nerfed. Those things could have happened individually, but it was a necessity in both cases. Even now that fight is still a difficulty spike for average/new players. I hear you in your saying you miss that challenge though and-- great. We'll have you covered. Frankly us not using Redux seems like it should be a win for you since then you just get to pick and choose which flavor of bonus difficulty you want. 

fuckin'
MOOD

(worth it tho)

I think the inclusion of Magby and Elekid for me is not just about difficulty, but actually more about how their duo felt more... I don't know, iconic. The two Rockruffs just don't feel quite as special. . . so there's clearly some "canon" reasoning in my own thinking I guess, or nostalgia, rather.

I would rather vehemently argue Victoria receiving Emboar back though. It really, really suited her.

4 hours ago, Feng Lei said:

I think the inclusion of Magby and Elekid for me is not just about difficulty, but actually more about how their duo felt more... I don't know, iconic. The two Rockruffs just don't feel quite as special. . . so there's clearly some "canon" reasoning in my own thinking I guess, or nostalgia, rather.

 

I would rather vehemently argue Victoria receiving Emboar back though. It really, really suited her.

Or Fern's Serperior... As somebody else wrote in a thread somewhere ages ago: They were made for each other and it really did fit.

On 2/10/2020 at 4:06 PM, Outside Indoorsman said:

Now to wonder what the "additional bullshit" might be.

Pseudo-Legendaries, perhaps?
Actual Legendary Pokemon?

Pokemon who fit the field's theme but aren't a part of that Leader's type?

More than six pokemon at once?

Stat boosts a la Totem Battles?

Weather giving additional boosts?

PULSE-2 Akin boosts for all major battles?

Pokemon who have their base stats amplified or switched around to make a puzzle boss?
So many options, so many of them horrible, so little time...

I don't think they will go that route. That would just be artificial difficulty. Reborn is a game of strategy, not a game of unfair bullshit (although the Serra battle can go frick itself). You don't need an OP mon, that you can't possibly beat due to limited resources, rather than strategy,. And no, the Garchomp battle at Mt. Pyrous doesn't count, since you're not supposed to beat it. Making that kind of stuff wouldn't be healthy for the game, and it's well known "fair difficulty". 

8 hours ago, Gastronely said:

I don't think they will go that route. That would just be artificial difficulty. Reborn is a game of strategy, not a game of unfair bullshit (although the Serra battle can go frick itself). You don't need an OP mon, that you can't possibly beat due to limited resources, rather than strategy,. And no, the Garchomp battle at Mt. Pyrous doesn't count, since you're not supposed to beat it. Making that kind of stuff wouldn't be healthy for the game, and it's well known "fair difficulty". 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

But again, fuck Serra battle hacks.

Sorry, Ame ^-^

 

Serra was easy in older epsodes. She got "buffed" post 17. Still though, she is completely unimportant. Some of her pokemon like Alola Sandslash are terrible, both stats and typing wise and her ace (frosslass) plus main tricks, are niche and situational. If for example, the evasion boost doesn't keep cutting it for frossy, it isn't hard to KO with a single move. Mirror arena also, reflects back your special attacks whenever they fail, sometimes and boosts the evasion of some of your own pokemon, also. Last but not least, a well placed Earthquake/Bulldoze at the start, shatters the damn thing completely, unless you care for friendship points that is (Serra gets angry whenever you break something in there, especially so the entire field; during her's fight, not Bennett's). Keep in mind that most important battles, don't use recovery items anymore, unless extremely rarely. Serra is one of those who "quarelled with potions", as well (thank the watered down AI for that)!

As one of those people who find the current Reborn way too easy, this post gives me so much joy! Reborn is by far one of the most hooking fangames I've ever had the pleasure of playing and not finding that much enjoyment in it anymore due to the difficulty level always left a bittersweet taste in my mouth because I really, really love the game otherwise. I really look forward to yet another masochistic baby run on the new difficulty mode!

As one of the players who finds the game quite difficult naturally, I'm happy there's gonna be a few options available to soften up things. I'm a fan of challenge, but I don't like being stuck on a single battle for what can be days at a time. Sure, after the first run you can predict things, but even still it's not easy. I'm in it for the story, the fights should reflect that. The story's NOT a grindfest, and this'll help make it easier to experience said story without wasting time training.

I'm REALLY looking forward to 19. So much stuff, it's gonna revamp everything.

7 hours ago, andracass said:

who's ready for a five year testing period

Volunteer!!!

9 hours ago, andracass said:

who's ready for a five year testing period

Im so ready XD

All the comments have got me hyped sooooooo much. Also I have mad respect for those people who think the game is too easy. i also am gonna forfeit whenever i face such people.

Part of my attraction to this game is this dark engulfing storyline that swallows you up and eats you whole before you even step foot in the city, Although I get stuck on a battle for days, aka Adrienn( i know I'm a disgrace xd) and after that it just makes me leave the game and break things around my house and eventually throw the pc off my balcony.

Another question: Will this game ever have kind of a 'romantic' storyline? I know its somewhat there but I just wanted to get a confirmation on that...

Thanks once again for Creating such a BOMBTASTIC SHOWSTOPPING BTEATHTAKING BEAUTIFUL DARK AND OUT OF THIS WORLD MASTERPIEZZZ

YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST, HANDS DOWN!

ps i just rambling like andracass cuz i hungry for attention

Gimme some plzz

and that fern is very annoying pls remove him fast otherwise imma chop up all the fern-related png files and then make a soup outta my pc and feed it to terra

Can this difficulty be chnged retrospectively? As in I am doing a playthrough and think the game is too easy until the 4th gym, so I'll be able to change it to dark? ;o

E19 hype!!!!

So there will be 3 difficulty modes in the future ?

Mewtwo?

On 2/15/2020 at 10:09 PM, Kanzentai said:

Mewtwo?

Thanks @Draconis

No problem!

Will you treat us to a mini-update again, like 18.2? Containing the new difficulties? This is going to require extremely meticulous testing, unlike any other to be released content, from before... ^_^

we need reborn v2 after the last update would be sick. 

Greetings,

It's been a while since i last posted in this community but just dropped by to say the game so far was amazing.

Take your time and I will wait for the next episode to come. Keep up the great work!