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Pokémon with Plus and Minus

  • Kylaila
  • 05/31/2016 10:00 AM
  • 6211 views
Pokémon RMN version is a community project creating RMN's own Pokémon universe. Which is to say it is complete collection of from-scratch made Pokémon and trainer designs all made by people in the artstyle of the usual Pokémon game in terms of style, size and color choices.
The environment is resembling the classics most closely and there really is little more to say than "well, it's Pokémon!"


Good thing I ran out of space, I really miss the note symbol!

It's a mixture of trying to resemble the original most closely while also infusing it with a little bit of a unique style of its own. In some places this works splendidly, like the Pokémon designs (you gotta love Hypster), the inclusion of Triple Triad, your rival Kentona and a few jokes here and there.
In other places, the meditation game, the running gags, the weird comic relief girl, feel a little bit too childish to be in any way funny or interesting, but they did not appal me, either.

Pokémon has a very dry way of setting out, you select your character model by the "Are you a boy or a girl?" question, you meet the professor, you pick your starter Pokémon, pick up a couple of balls, polish them, play with them, have other Poké- ehm .. and you start your teenage Pokémon adventures. Good thing there is no school system in place.

The RMN version offers a couple of additions, and I personally loved the introduction overall and think it is a more focused and cleaner area, whereas later jokes seemed a little bit too haphazardly.
There are a few different fonts to select, and different screen sizes. Fullscreen is sadly not possible.

It does not come without any gripes though - so before anything else - before entering any map - you get the old "Are you a boy or a girl?" question. And well, I was sitting here and thinking...
"What DO I pick now?"


I'm fine with not having options. Just make the options you have options.


It's been a bit of a new thing to me, and it just makes you realize where you have those options and where you do not. It made me appreciate the ability to edit my character model (and its sex) anytime in Dragon's Dogma a lot more, for one.
So sitting there, thinking, I get a third option with a kind of nonsensical name, and I am gonna take it! Because hella yes. Except nope, the game tells you you are screwing around.

Well, fuck you, professor.
This is not the place to make jokes, do it a little later.

The second gripe is in terms of picking your models, you have a couple of premade sprites to choose from. The other reviewer would have liked to do a pick and choose system of selecting clothing, color etc. separately, but I can see how this requires a lot lot more work from the artists, and I think it offers a very neat range right now as it is. (much more than the original Pokémon games ever had)
However, the way you choose that model is by selection an attribute and only after your selection has been made you see how that actually looks like, and select a sub-type of the same costume in different color palettes and skin tones. Which means you need to redo the selection process a number of times to go through the different options available, and while you can undo your selection at the end, it still is an annoying trial and error process in getting the model you want.

So I picked a male guy in a purple fur suit, a "quirky" character, they said. I like quirky.

In the game - starting out I was talking with a friend in skype and sharing the screen - it was strangely nostalgic to start out in the samey looking room, but also discovering little bits and pieces. Oh, I love the trash can descriptions. Even with the typo. There are a lot of them, and I heard the creators are already on cleaning that up.
So there's crumpled papers of Pokémon magazines. Not tissues, of course. I wonder what kind of Pokémon those feature. It sure has been a joy to discuss that with said friend in-call.
Mispronunciation or bad hearing got us the addition of calling my Pokédex always and only Pokédicks and it just made the endeavor to get all Pokémon recorded onto my Pokédicks so much better.

Now not all of this game's humor is on the childish silly side. They are there, of course. There's a drunken sailor who will take you to another shore and destroy his boat in the process. There's the trash can descriptions and a few more drunkards about. But there's also a little more subtle goofiness all-around and almost omni-present that suits RMNs atmosphere and Kentona's guidance very well.

The professor is seemingly incompetent - you need to save his subordinate from him the first time you meet them. He then delegates his work onto the next possible kid, which happens to be you, when his arch enemy Manic crashes into his lab and stirs the usually peaceful starting point up.

It is not golden humor, but there is a constant goofy tone for a number of important characters like a later corporate president (with ankylo working from the shadows), who uses sarcasm as his bread and butter to scare and annoy as many people as possible.
On the downside, the suddenly-in-love-with-you purposefully crazy girl character is a pain in the butt and I would rather have beaten the evil robots after they had taken her away. Saving characters all day is an old trope, and doing it without any incentive or want to is not making it better. She's there, you ignore her as best as you can, and that's about it. The only good thing is that she gives you a cardgame (did I mention that this is a lovely addition?).
The one person is your hometown gushing about how you can make Pokémon games in RPG Maker these days was really not-funny to me, but I can see why people added him.

The story and style slowly becomes a little less fun, with the exception being Kentona. Oh well.


I would do anything for you so that this encounter ends

Have you ever played a Pokémon game for its story? I sure haven't, and I wouldn't recommend it. So let's talk about the actual meat of the game.

The game is coming along, and I see more and more sprites filled up in the Pokémon overview, but so far it's a fairly compact selection. For now there's "two and a half" gyms open, a couple of areas and routes, and two "hidden techniques" to find. (crushing blocks and cutting down trees) for your progression.
A great tweak is that item shops are now in the Pokécenter so you have everything important in one place (they even mention this as a "back in the old days ..!", which I found very amusing). OH YES!
You know what's also great? The spells you can teach Pokémon are reusable as well, not just the ones you need for progression. NICE! You still can't unlearn those hidden techniques later, so be sure to teach them to your unloved companions.
Getting to them can take a little bit of exploration, but maps are usually constructed in a way that you can move out to town very easily and quickly if you need to. They also open up different corners and paths on the map, so you do not need to continue one long path, but can take multiple goes to explore one corner and then the next.

There are a few tweaks listed on the page, whether skills deal physical or magical depends on the move itself, rather than just the type, and for those interested in those things, the Game Mechanics page has those tweaks covered. There's even a wiki page for evolutions and sprites! I love going over all those Pokémon.
Right now a little more than 30 Pokémon are available, there is also one instance where you can trade Pokémon with an NPC. There are a few grass-roads, a forest, a cave, and a few towns so far.

Battling trainers, collecting phone numbers etc. are all straight-forward and nice. I have not been able to acquire many phone numbers just yet though and hope there would be more in the future. Two vs two Pokémon battles are included.

You can plant, water, grow and harvest different berries to use actively or give Pokémon to hold in order to use when needed. One NPC can bake cookies with your berries, but the options are very confusing to go through and do not display the berries you actually have, but instead lists of every recipe possible regardless of whether you can make it or not. Since they have all kinds of weird names, it would be far more comfortable to bake based on the berries you actually have. Or alternatively, to have the options you are unable to make greyed/faded out.
There are also different types of cookies .. and I have seen no way of making out which is good for which, or what the differences are. A book on that somewhere would be much appreciated for those interested in researching before trying random recipes.
There are also potions and a number of good passive holding items you can acquire so far. One you get by answering a row of questions to prove your knowledge about the gameworld. You can redo this quiz anytime without penalties, so brute force is still an option if you are unsure about one or two answers.

Fishing is possible, but I have not been able to catch any fish at all with the old rod I got, despite trying any and all puddles of water I could find. I may need to retrace older places, but this has been a little bit frustrating, as the early fish Pokémon need some training anyway before you can make use of them. Not getting them at all is worse still.

Pokémon battles are very solid. There are a few Pokémon I find it hard to guess the exact types (like the black-white bunny thing, it was like dark fairy?), it doesn't help that my knowledge for double-type and newer types is a little rusty, having played 90% red/yellow, but I got by very well and it was neat to see a roster of very capable Pokémon even early on. What I thought to be this version's Rattata actually turned out to be a capable useful Pokémon.
I feel there are a lot of dual-types out there, and very few normal- or fighting-only, or other types that would see little to no use and I appreciate that.
So far every Pokémon has been fairly useful, and even while tempted to swap many of them out, I did end up liking them all a lot.
It feels like many animations are a tad shorter than usual, and I love this. I may be wrong on this one, though, was this a consideration in the making?

Also, as a note, the flashing screen when you enter a battle or trainer battle is too small in the larger window option.


Are you worried? I'm not. They even heal themselves.

The first areas are very straight-forward, and I feel they tried to do more and go beyond this later on. Music is inspired by the tunes and include many remixes of old Pokémon tunes that are very close to the original, or songs based on them while also adding a couple of entirely original creations like the standard battle theme. I liked the sound design overall, but as it follows the original very closely, little stood out. (I LOVE the gym battle themes.. ohh.. ye old pokémon).

As an later area, there is a forest maze which I found impossible to pass or get clues on, where you apparantly need to get a specific order a number of times right, 'lest you want to be returned to the previous area or the entrance. There are no visual or sound clues, and apparantly there is the entrance map and another map to get lost in.
The second map I tried all manner of combinations and ended up in the same-looking map .. which either means the directions are random and I need to have luck to get through (or missed picking up one clue or another), or that there are a number of maps after each other that look the exact same, making it nigh impossible to know which one of them you are on.
Maybe I missed something, I would very much appreciate to know what the idea behind it is! It seems vital to get there, and I want to get there, but I just couldn't seem to pull it off.

There is also a "yoga gym" in which you need to "meditate" in order to progress. By which they mean a quick-time minigame. And loving meditating and yoga both, the joke was lost on me, if there ever was one. And this minigame, despite being over in a few minutes at most, was infuriatingly annoying. I did not even have to restart it more than two or three times, but it was impressive just how annoying that was.
The problem with it is that additionally to having a very short time frame to work with, the input is delayed. Meaning that going by the visual cues you will fail . And that you cannot use the actual visual cues directly, but need to anticipate them roughly before hand to do it.
This feels then more like a rhythm game, following a basic idea of waiting time, rather than reacting to something directly. And I honestly feel that if there was a sound, or a beat that you had to repeat, it would be much more fun and much easier. (meaning you hear it once, then repeat).

Talking about sluggish input, a minor control gripe is that running and moving feels a little bit unresponsive, I am not sure why that is. That the "z" button is making you run instead of walk is also both unintuitive and impractical depending on what you use.
I use Enter as my interaction button. Guess what's not next to Enter: Z.
Z is also a problem for my keyboard as it is not an American layout. Y is located next to X, instead of Z. So I would have to manually change my layout to make use of this if I was using the spacebar or X. Shift has been the to-go-to running button, and while I would much rather be able to toggle it on and off, shift is a better choice, as it allows for more options in your control layout.

So all in all:

This is Pokémon. And this polished all-rounded impression, the great artworks, different models and pokémon rosters are all an amazing feat.
It takes a few liberties to improve and tweak gameplay (like shops and TMs), which works splendidly.
While also trying to create an atmosphere of its own, which works well in some places, but sadly falls flat over the course of the demo and does not work well in other spots and should better keep to the more subtle tone earlier.

If you like Pokémon, you will like this. I found this a little more charming than the usual Pokémon game starting out, and I hope it returns to that atmosphere. It can go either way from here, and I hope the full game makes it shine!

4/5

Posts

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Kloe
I lost my arms in a tragic chibi accident
2236
"I have not been able to acquire many phone numbers"
Kyla... I'm sorry, but maybe they just don't wanna go out with you...


But in all seriousness, this is a fun, enjoyable, well written, fair review, good job Kyla!
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
In the light of recent discussions, I'd recommend leaving this review unrated for now as well.

Other than that, I think this is a very solid, balanced and critical yet constructive examination of the demo so far. Nicely done!
Seeing how the reviewer took their review score down in light of it being a little more difficult for others to review, I would rather they just give it a score back if they would like to :)
More makerscore for people, and a little more orientation.

I am fine with either, but for now I will leave it as it is.
Corfaisus
"It's frustrating because - as much as Corf is otherwise an irredeemable person - his 2k/3 mapping is on point." ~ psy_wombats
7874
Out of fairness for the other review and the whole "no scores on demos" thing, maybe you could change your score to unrated until the game is complete?
Oh? Was it because it was a demo? The way I read it, it was because it'd likely not have that much exposure.
Oh well, on to change that then!
Kloe
I lost my arms in a tragic chibi accident
2236
(Just a note, this was 4/5 when it was rated if you are curious)
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
There is no rule against giving scores for demos. There has been discussion about tying review scores to versions of a game but I'm of the opinion that this introduces a whole host of other problems and thus it isn't likely to change.

It's fine to give a score to a demo.
author=Solitayre
There is no rule against giving scores for demos. There has been discussion about tying review scores to versions of a game but I'm of the opinion that this introduces a whole host of other problems and thus it isn't likely to change.

You also have to remember I am really really lazy
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
Thank you for the review! I'm going to see how I can tame the goofiness of this game and while Leanne is meant to weird people out, I could handle her a bit better.

For the Gamdev forest maze, you can talk to an old women all the way in Makskor Town to recieve a hint on how to find the correct path.
Basically, the best way to figure out the directions she gives you is to write it down, and hold the arrows towards a mirror or reflective surface to get the answer.


As for the controls, it's definitely designed for the "z" key being close to the "x" key, but I was aware that not everyone would want to play this way. There is an option in the menu that allows you to change your controls during the game.

author=Solitayre
There is no rule against giving scores for demos. There has been discussion about tying review scores to versions of a game but I'm of the opinion that this introduces a whole host of other problems and thus it isn't likely to change.

It's fine to give a score to a demo.

What problems would it introduce, honestly?
The keys you can use are limited, and mostly the wasd range, so not really much more accessible, last I checked.

And yay, alrighty, let's see what I can do when I get back to it.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
author=Kylaila
The keys you can use are limited, and mostly the wasd range, so not really much more accessible, last I checked.

Hmm, I'll try to see if there is anything I could change with it, since it's tied to a custom script.

I can't make guarantees, though. I'm still pretty new to RGSS. :(
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
I would probably, actually want to score this demo when I write my review, though I likely won't because it is a demo, after all. It's already a great game, and I can't see how it might improve that much further than to affect the 3.5 to 4 rating I already have planned for a review. If Ratty were to remove the issues that make it a 3.5 game, then I'd probably upgrade the score.
author=Ratty524
author=Kylaila
The keys you can use are limited, and mostly the wasd range, so not really much more accessible, last I checked.
Hmm, I'll try to see if there is anything I could change with it, since it's tied to a custom script.

I can't make guarantees, though. I'm still pretty new to RGSS. :(

Haha, yeah. It's an annoyance, so see what you can do. If not, then well, that's how it's gonna be. It's a little thing.
You can put unofficial scores in your actual reviews so that people can see what you would have scored it...
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