Completed Pokémon Azume

ThatWelshOne_ said:

Hello there! I've just finished the main story and a bit of post-game exploration. I really enjoyed this game. You and the rest of the team should be very proud.
I don't have much in terms of feedback. Overall, I thought it was very well written. I particularly liked the ending who left that bowl of onions next to me. The mapping was good. I thought connecting everything together via the cave area was smart. Lots to see and explore, and many characters to meet. As I'm writing this, I've found (not caught, I'll get onto that) maybe half of the legends, but still missing a those that might be based on the time of day? The battles were challenging enough to keep it interesting, although I did get cleanly swept by a single Lilligant along the way.

~snip snip~

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Tomix - As I mentioned in the Overall, my too main issues were with mapping and plot. As per mapping, I think you were improving as the game went on, especially in "towns". Acuity Village is probably my favorite because I love the desert aesthetic, Valor village shows the progress through the process, and then Torpe city and the starting village are a little boring to walk around it. I think for both it's because there's just so much space to walk around without doing anything exciting and the buildings don't really flow together in an interesting way. I'd suggest more events, side quests, and taking inspiration from layouts in your own neighborhood or city. Your routes were really good though, in particular I really enjoyed going through Cogno Valley. As per plot, this is specifically talking about overall story. I think you excel at small points, because the dialogue itself was genuinely well written. However, considering the overarching storyline, why the player starts their adventure, the scope and magnitude of what's happening, and all of that combined it feels like an improv sketch. We should've probably had an introduction to Tris earlier than we did, and honestly I'm not sure if legendaries or mythicals really had to be involved to make this work, (ex: What if his soul was trapped inside an Odd Keystone?). I feel like the real story you wanted to tell was Tris's, and that would've been an interesting game. Also wanted to mention that I really love the crime mini-games
Pan - I think going forward for future games you should work more on sprite animation. I was definitely impressed when Tris crumpled to the ground like she did. I'd love to see more of that. In general I would also want to see more custom sprites and art in this game. I understand the time restriction, but besides a few characters in particular I didn't see much of what you can do. Titlescreen is overall pretty, but little details like more shading or outlining the trio would also be cool.
Papurika and AceGamerAndy: The custom art for the trainers and the tilesets look good. Would like to see more contributions in future projects and games from both of you.

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spring said:

I had this whole review document set up, but then realized it would probably just be skimmed lol. Pm me for more info on specifics if you're curious
Also, SPOILERS to people who haven't played the game yet. Please do!

~snippity snipity snip~

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Tomix9tomix said:

Wow! What a review, I've already DMed you to give you my thanks but here is a proper one! First of all, thank you for playing, it means a lot to me!

But a bigger thank you for your feedback, it is all really good feedback that I agree with. I really think the plot is one of the flaws of this game, or maybe how the plot was executed, and yeah, town/village maps are a struggle for me. I wish I could've included more side content in the towns but I guess the time limit got to me and I focused too much on making sure I had every sinnoh legendary in the game. I'm glad to hear that you liked the route maps a lot though, that means a lot to me! But yeah, amazing feedback! Thank you!

(on a side note, I really like your review/rating format :P )

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TechSkylander1518 said:

Woo, finally managed to find all the legendaries!

Spoiler: Praise

I really like the scenes with Grandpa sending the player off- I felt like there was a lot more fondness and support than there usually is in those kinds of scenes!

I appreciate the running shoes at the start! It's so simple but I always want to point it out so someday we can live in a world where everyone does it lol.

The Reverse Ball is a super fun idea, definitely the most creative use I've seen of the Jam ball! It feels like the first time a Poke Ball actually comes with risk to it, rather than just using it at the right time, so it felt very satisfying getting to use it!

The setup to getting the player's starter was really fun!

There's a lot of great little nooks to explore in the game and find rewards, I had a lot of fun going through everywhere!

I love that reward for checking back with Grandpa! I always feel bad at the thought that you could just leave your family without saying bye, and I like that it gives us a little more detail about the player's family!

Am I misremembering things or did you speed up the move learning in battle? (No more 1... 2.... poof!) If you did, that's a really nice touch I wish more games would do!

The custom tiles are all really great! I think Cogno Valley has my favorite aesthetic, especially with the cacti Pokemon hanging out!

I really love how much flavor text was put into the overworld- not even just flavor text on every object, but even naming every NPC, and creating little stories like the birthday girl having a cake in the fridge- it's a really nice touch!

That library was really sweet! And that Choose Your Own Adventure book was great, lol.

I really like Elder Arisanna's sprite!

I'm a big fan of those crossover wormholes! It's really fun to have those callbacks (and be reminded I still need to finish those games ), and your Fakemon have such fun designs, so I'm really glad they get to be in another game!

The Distortion World came out great, especially the upside down effect!

Being able to hunt down so many legendaries was a lot of fun! I think the compactness of the region and gameplay really helped combine to get this effect of feeling surrounded by legends, which I really enjoyed!

• There's kind of this fun symmetry of Shaymin and Manaphy having obstacles for each other's type- Shaymin needs Surf, Manaphy needs Cut- and Heatran rounding out the HM Legendary/Mythicals with Strength. I dunno, I liked it!
• I really liked Mesprit's dialogue as you interacted with it!
• I love how Manaphy's location referenced that little legend in the library!
• And of course, the central story was really great! I'm a big fan of stories that have high stakes but an emotional conflict at the center of them, and I think Tris' story made really great use of Giratina's established lore!

There's this thing that you do with maps that I really like, where you have these items out of reach but still visible on the main path, like placemarkers? It was so helpful when I was going back through to find all the secrets- instead of trying to remember where I saw that waterfall or boulder, I'd notice the item and realize I could make my way to it now!

Spoiler: Critique

It feels a little odd to me that the title screen still just plays a random cry. I know there's not any real cover Pokemon for the game, but the legends are definitely more relevant than the random Pokemon cries that did play for me- maybe you could set it up to just play a random legendary's cry? (I could set that up for you in a postjam update if you need help!)

As much as I loved the concept of Reverse Balls, I'd often pass up buying them in favor of Poke Balls. Reverse Balls cost more than twice as much as Poke Balls, and if I'm not mistaken, they don't have any upgraded counterparts like Great Balls and Ultra Balls. And while it is really useful if you're travelling on low health, or while fighting a high level foe, it's really hard to set up a chance to use the Reverse Ball. There's not many moves out there with recoil or anything to damage your own HP, unless I'm missing something and there's no Toxic/Flame Orb to set up any status conditions. Keeping a Pokemon low on health is really hard, too- the PMC and PC heal all Pokemon, so there's no way to keep just one Pokemon low on health. So when you become too strong for the Pokemon in a wild area to do much to you, you kind of lose the ability to use a Reverse Ball effectively, too.

That might've just been your intention, though; to have them as a new ball used less frequently rather than as a ball to outshine the Poke Ball, and I might just have been too greedy to play with my new toy, haha.

The save screen still displays badges, even though they're not relevant to the game at all. Minor detail, though, lol.

The dialogue saying "The sign reads" for every sign felt a little awkward- after all, I did just go up to read the sign, so I'd expect the text to be what the sign reads.

The Drought theme (or whatever the sneak music was) was still playing as I got my starter Pokemon from the elder, which felt a little out of place for the scene. At that point, there's no real threat to being caught, so it seems like the music should be less tense.

I loved getting Chingling from the sea, but I imagine people who picked Chingling as a starter would feel cheated to see it was available so soon.

The unreal time system was a cool feature, and using it for timed overworld encounters was really nice, but sometimes the transition between screen tones was a bit jarring at times. (I wish I remembered what time change stuck out to me- I think it was going to the daytime tone?)

Elder Ishi and Kokoro Town's elder (forgot his name) seem to be in RSE style, so they look a bit out of place with the FRLG sprites.

One boulder in Cogno Valley (by the hiker and camper) felt really at odds with the style of the map.

The Slowpoke event is super cute, but Slowpoke stayed facing away from me even as I handed it the berry, which was a little odd.

While I definitely appreciate their usefulness, the PMC and Mart in Acuity Village felt out of place with the aesthetic of the rest of the town- I think it'd be better to have stuff like vendors, a resting area, and a student with a PC, to give the functions while still looking similar and keeping to the lore that it's a remote village.

There was no puddle splash effect on the water in the legendary caves, which I know is a really minor thing, but since they were meant to recreate how they felt in Gen 4, I kind of felt their absence a little more- I liked splashing through the puddles to see the legendaries, lol.

The Uxie cutscene felt a little anticlimatic- she sort of just stays still and talks to you, like any other NPC.

I think Tris' trainer class should just be "Thief", not "The Thief", it's a little awkward.

In an odd way, it sort of felt like the lore around Shaymin made it feel more like an endangered species than like a figure of legends and myths? Like, with all the talk about the flowers being there and then being cut down, Shaymin feels more like a last of its species Pokemon than something in the category of Manaphy or Heatran. Which I don't necessarily mind- it's not like Shaymin's lore is really all that significant anyways- but it did sort of feel odd.

I was kind of confused by the Ditto trade. When I first saw it, I was excited to trade- the guy's haughtiness about appearances made me think he would trade a shiny Ditto and say it was "too gaudy" or something, so the player could Transform into shiny versions of the Pokemon they see! But then it was just a normal Ditto, which can be caught right outside the city anyways. (Is it maybe something about its IVs that's special? Or is it just a regular Ditto lol)

I think it would have been helpful to clarify that Vulpix doesn't evolve from a Fire Stone anymore- I took a Fire Stone from the guy in Tore City and realized I missed my chance to get anything else when I realized it didn't work. (Although to be fair I didn't use any evo sones)

This is probably just default essentials animations, but I noticed that battles while surfing had the water graphics play, but all other battles used typical black/Poke Ball animations that didn't reflect the environment.

I wish there was a PC in Kokoro Town, or the option to swap out party members for new Pokemon. If you pick up Manaphy before getting Waterfall, for example, it's kind of a trek to get back to a PC to put it on your team.

As much fun as I had collecting the legendaries, it felt like they lined up a little too well with some of the overworld encounter/gift Pokemon you can get at times. Like, I got Shaymin, and then I reluctantly boxed my Cherubi, because even though I wanted to keep the gift from Grandpa, Shaymin was a higher level and knew a lot of the same moves as Cherubi. Then I got Manaphy, and I boxed the Frogadier I caught early on in the game because they were both Water-types with Water Pulse, and Manaphy was a higher level. Then I got Heatran and boxed Darumaka. And later I saw Jolteon for the first time, but it went right to the box, because I already had Zeusu.

I totally get using default animations, but it felt like some default animations were missing, and that lead to almost misleading animations? For example, Ice and Electric moves both default to their punch animations, which can imply contact even for a move that doesn't make contact, like Ice Shard. And Grass defaulted to Mega Drain, so a move like Magical Leaf would look like it should heal, too. Of course, the dialogue box is there so you're not just relying on animations lol, but I did have to catch myself often.

While they obviously have important functions, it feels really strange to me lore-wise to have Looker and a standardized Pokemon Center/Mart in Valor Village, which forbids outsiders. It feels like they'd have their own counterpart to those buildings, like a little rest area or vendor like Kokoro Town has, and like Looker should have been hiding on God's Climb rather than in the village.

I noticed that the player lost the habit of commenting on things that they had at the start of the game. I totally get why, of course, adding in the player character's commentary would add more work for the time period, and it's not like Azume is really lacking by having a blank NPC, I just noticed because I remembered liking it at the start.

Kind of my fault for not playing Vanishing Point sooner, but it seems like Eyre can't learn Shadow Ball? That's also the only Ghost TM in Azume IIRC, and Eyre comes knowing Night Shade, so it's not immediately clear how to get a Ghost STAB move for Eyre. (I only found out it got Ominous Wind after levelling it up in the postgame!)

The water in the Cave of Answers didn't have any shading or anything. I get that it was supposed to be still, but I honestly thought it was like the sky or something at first with its lighter tone.

After encountering the Ultra Wormholes, the Distortion World portal is a little unimpressive by comparison. (But like... jump in and the Distortion World itself is a slam dunk so who cares lol)

I felt like Tris repeated similar lines about the parallel world a few too many times in her speech before entering the portal.

While I did definitely appreciate the reward from the Elder for checking back in with him, it wasn't really clear that was how you got Azelf- I was actually convinced I had missed it somehow before I checked to make sure the dialogue changed after beating the game, haha. Maybe some NPCs could tell the player they should check back in with the Elders and the people they met on their journey, so the player is encouraged to go there?

It felt a little easy having the Lustrous Orb in the same room as Mesprit, like a two for one deal. I don't know what I'd suggest to do instead, though... Mesprit's cutscene would lose its feeling if you made it appear in the shrine, and there's not really many locations that suit Palkia...

(Also it was a little weird having the Strength boulder blocking the orb, since you need Waterfall to get there anyways, which you get after Strength)

Anabel's AI seems a little low- I had to go a couple tries battling her, and it wasn't until the third or fourth battle that I realized Alakazam had Focus Blast, even though it'd been facing Zeusu every time. Of course, her team being so high-levelled means that you probably don't want the AI to be too high, so... I dunno.
(Also can I pretty please ask that Fissure be taken off Snorlax lol, it feels brutal to be OHKOed)

It was a little odd that I had to beat a level 40 team to catch Shimayge, which is only level 30. (Although, given how annoying Regigigas was to catch at level 35, maybe that's for the best lol)

I was surprised we never got a name for the storage PC, I thought it was gonna be you after I saw "Timmy"'s house!

Grandpa doesn't say anything new to the player in the postgame, which I thought was a shame!

Regigigas was really hard to find- the grass tiles are a clue about the location, but the entrance to Giant's Slumber just looks like a wall of rock, so I thought they were just decorative. There's no clues for it in the library, either. I only found it because I was stubborn and put the map data in a vanilla kit so I could find it lol.

Similarly, Cresslia doesn't really have any indication of its location, except for the one NPC in Valor Village that talks about a mythical Pokemon appearing at night. Cresselia only appears in the evening, though, not at night. (Also it's technically a legendary and not a mythical, which is really splitting hairs, but it might confuse someone who thought it was meant in the technical sense, because they'd think she literally meant a capital M Mythical Pokemon, and not a Legendary like Cresslia) It's also a bit frustrating getting to her, because even when you know where she spawns and when she'll appear, you can't easily change the time without knowing how the unreal time system works, so you have to just wait around a bit. Maybe there could be a bed or something that set the time to night temporarily?

Spoiler: Errors

Pokemon Gen 6+ are missing cries (including your fakemon, although IIRC they didn't have them to begin with)

Camper Aiden says "I've found so many cool Pokemon! Check them out!", but has only one in his party

A wild Chingling I caught evolved into a Chimecho with the ability Aerialate- sick, but I don't think it was intentional, since that's not how it is in canon?

The book about the Distortion World mentions the counterpart theory twice in a row.

A few Pokemon that are usually in midair have their sprites pretty low:

Spoiler

Geodude
Koffing
Haunter
Butterfree
Magnemite
Mew
Hoppip
Yanma
Mantine
Wingull
Duskull
Solrock
Lunatone
Ninjask
Mesprit
Darkrai
Munna
Carbink
Cutiefly

Some other Pokemon are off-centered from their shadow:

Spoiler

Wooper
Unown
Solosis
Morelull

Turtonator's sprite was actually elevated, weirdly.

The overworld Pokemon I encountered didn't play their cries when interacting with them.

Spoiler

Frogadier
Lilligent
Shaymin
Heatran
Amaura
Jolteon
Abomasnow
Spiritomb
Dialga
Palkia
Giratina
Shimayge

Heatran and Rhyhorn's sprite were actually a little elevated

Spiritomb's encounter used the indoor battleback and bases

Spoiler: Tile/mapping errors

Argh my tab refreshed and I lost all my screencaps so I'm just gonna try to describe the error's locations on some of these

The ledges just before the actual water are reflective, too

A bookshelf in the Acuity Village (right by the book about Aki) is missing the top:.
View attachment 3465
Grey border in the mayor's office between the different tiles stops at that left tile
View attachment 3459
(top and bottom floor)

The shadows at the exit out from Gracidia Forest are flipped upside down.
View attachment 3464
Not sure if this is just a lack of a corner piece for the tileset, but the lines on the roar feel like they should merge into a corner instead of just staying straight.
View attachment 3460
Road seems to go under the rocks to the east of the city.
View attachment 3461
Bit of reflection void at the bottom of the room where you can trade for a Ditto
View attachment 3462
Maybe it's just me, but it feels weird that the Ultra Wormhole is always on top

Think you're missing a panorama in Genro Village, there's just void past the edges.
View attachment 3463

I've had this happen all the dang time setting up water borders too, so I feel this, but just so you know, the little water effect on the player's surf base can kind of leak over to the land if they're near it.

There's one tile of black at the bottom as the player leaves the Distortion world

Lot of void in the Cave of Rituals
View attachment 3457

Arceus isn't really centered
View attachment 3458

The top of the Reverse Ball is dark, like a shadow, when it should be lighter, because of the lighting. (You probably just flipped the Poke Ball animation and forgot to consider the lighting, which is exactly what I would have done lol)

The guy who gives you Exp Share changes sprites.

Eyre doesn't disappear after being caught.

Lilligant is a little off compared to the player, its feet are a couple pixels above the player's.

After completing the Zeusu sidequest, Un can be interacted with repeatedly for infinite Big Nuggets.

A few bits of dialogue have this little indent, likely from adding a space after the name window.

Spoiler

Timmy's mom in Tore City
Looker's "despite my disguise"
The fisherman saying "There is a rumor that a rare creature"
The man saying "I love these trees, their color" in Kokoro Town
Rekool saying "I'm going to be leaving this place soon", and each new box after that
Tris saying "You saw it right?"

No SFX leaving any room in the Cave of Rituals

Spoiler: Typos

Well it is clear what you need- comma after Well
Good luck \PN, I'm not sure- comma after luck
It was a long time ago but I grew up in- comma after ago
Apparently this small shrine existed- comma after Apparently
Oh welcome \PN. - Oh, welcome, \PN
Yes, everything is understood don't worry- comma after understood
I'm sorry but you must understand- comma after sorry
But if we want to be able to get you there, You'll need- you'll shouldn't be capitalized
But at this point I believe- comma after point
Well it is time to get back- comma after Well
Well \PN, we are here- comma after Well
What are you doing here!- should end in ? or ?!
didn't expect to see me here did you?- comma after here
and meet your mysterious messenger in the Sacred Grounds- there's an extra space between "messenger" and "in"
I'm not certain but I suspect- comma after certain
Good luck \PN- comma after luck
Elder Shinzou caught you in the night but he ended up- comma after night
In that case you should take this- comma after case
Why don't you rest here for a bit before you go. - should end in ?
You're one of a kind kid- comma after kind
It is crazy how the area around here as so many different climates!- has
Some people think that it may be due to the pokemon shaping the environment! - Pokémon
I've found some cool rocks, wanna see! - should be ?
from an underground lake! How cool is that! - second ! should be ?
"As you enter the forest you notice" - comma after forest
"Suddenly you accidentally" - comma after suddenly
"Quickly she thanked the guardian" - comma after quickly
Oh it is quite funny!- comma after Oh
seems to be deticated to an author- dedicated
"It is said that many many years ago" - comma after the first many and ago
" It is said that those who hold the wing - delete the space after the "
It became famous and many travelers- comma after famous
There is a book called, "The Rituals of the Gods"- delete comma
A book here is seems to list- delete "is" (this is the case in Acuity Village, Toure City, and Valor Village)
Tell me child, why do you- comma after me
Well \PN, I have to admit- comma after Well
However you can also get to the woods- comma after However
Before you leave you should visit- comma after leave
In that case I must teach you something- comma after case
To get to Tourpe City you should go- comma after City
Otherwise you can go back - comma after Otherwise
I hope you're journey is going well- your
But now there are no flowers and Tourpe CIty- comma after flowers
Hey these are our camp grounds!- comma after Hey
he keeps to himself so I keep to myself- comma after himself
the guardian of what was one Verity Village- once
I can't help but feel like it is pointless, I can't say with certainty but it sure feels like - I'd change that first comma to a period, comma after certainty,
Its quite sad isn't it.- comma after sad, should end in ?
A special item of display called- on display, not of
Well don't worry about that- comma after Well
Now come on child.- Now, come on, child.
if that is all then you should be on your way- comma after all
I'm Fry, the mayor assistant- should be mayor's
I have a brother in Acuity Village and he told me- comma after Village
A one time fee of 500- one-time
Rocks huh? - comma after Rocks
I would love to see it properly but they keep it in a Pokeball- comma after properly, Poké Ball
Well, are you down for it.- should end in ?
Okay now that we are in here- comma after Okay
past all the guards huh?- comma after guards
Well it sucks to be you bud- comma after Well, comma after you
And you thief, don't think-comma after you
Oh please, what are you- comma after oh
take it back huh.- comma after back
nothing will get inbetween me and my love- in between is two words
unlike you I actually know a few moves- comma after you
Nice to meet you \PN- comma after you
Using the Sinnoh charm she would be able to- comma after charm
Getting there isn't exactly easy, well first of all, you'll need this. - Feels like a run-on- I'd change it to "Getting there isn't exactly easy. Well, first of all, you'll need this."
With this you'll be able to surf- comma after this
After that you need to go to - comma after that
Sadly to do this you will require- Sadly, to do this, you will require
I'm not certain but I've heard- comma after certain
You're a trainer right?- comma after trainer
It doesn't seem from this world...- "seem to be from this world"
But you're brave kid- comma after brave
how to make an entrance huh?- comma after entrance
Well you seem like a special challenger- comma after well
Well I promised you a reward- comma after well
You really went in huh?- comma after in
Bucker up land lubber- comma after up
Well that's a shipwreck- comma after Well
There is strange box on the table- "a strange box"
Despite my disguise you somehow found me- comma after disguise
I'll be off now then- comma after now
Did you know that right now, we stand underneath the center of this island. - should end in ?
how to move boulders correct?- comma after boulders
However the trick is not easy to learn- comma after however
Well luckily for you- comma after Well
You're will shall fall!- Your
It's \PN right?- comma after \PN
You have an important task \PN- comma after task
lucky to get in here outsider- comma after here
Welcome to Valor Village outsider- comma after Village
if it isn't too hard could you try to- comma after hard
to meet someone from outsider!- from outside
People will give into their desires without a second.- missing "thought"
at something call "Relic Castle Winter Jam"- called
You appear out of no where and beat me- nowhere
remember what happened last time right?- comma after time
You too came too late- first "too" should be "two"
you're coming too \PN- comma after too
It's Tris right?- comma after Tris
Actually I did have one question- comma after actually
Oh you're a bit of a - comma after Oh
Well Tris- comma after Well
No I love it! I mean just look at it all!- comma after No, comma after mean
Oh what's that?- comma after Oh
Let's take it home then! We can look at it everyday!- comma after home, every day should be two words there
You can't do that Tris!- comma after that
Of course not silly!- comma after not
I was scared- missing punctuation
You really thought i was just going to up and leave you.- i should be capitalized, should end in ?
Give me more credit than that Tris- comma after that
That sounds amazing Tris!- comma after amazing
What are you doing here Elder Shinozu?- comma after here
Sit down Tris- comma after down
Why Fin...- comma after Why
I'm coming for you Fin- comma after you
Well I'm sorry too- comma after Well
It's over now Tris- comma after now
It's you Finn! It really is isn't it!- comma after you, comma after is
I've missed you so much Finn- comma after much
Excuse me lady- comma after me
Please Finn- comma after Please
I really thought I had you Finn- comma after you
is really gone huh- comma after gone
"Here take this as a parting gift" - comma after Here
Stay safe out there kid- comma after there

I mean I felt something strange today- comma after mean
didn't go easy on me huh?- comma after me
Well I suppose you deserve some sort of reward or something yeah?- comma after Well and something
Look after it okay?- comma after it

Don't worry I'm not mad at you- comma after worry
You saw it right?- comma after it

As my thanks please take this- comma after thanks

So there was an Ultra Beast there is some strange smoky forest- "is" should be "in", comma after strange

Wait is that a Lunar Wing- comma after Wait

The Reverse Ball's description is missing an apostrophe in opponent's, and doesn't have a period at the end.

I'm sad to see you're stopping fan game development, but Azume is definitely closing out on a high note! I had a lot of fun!

Click to expand...

Spoiler

The fact that you caught every legendary is bonkers to me, like what the hell man, but thank you so much. You really seemed to have gone deep into this game, you even read the silly choose your own adventure book! I'll work through a lot of what you said and reply/comment on it, but first of all since it is kinda relevant, Regigigas being so obscure and insanely impossible to find is more just a personal preference of how I wanted to do things. In my head I like the idea of having secrets that hardly hardly anybody will be able to find, but if 1/1000 people are able to find it themselves by accident, I feel like it will feel so much more special to them, even if it is just one person. That's why there are so many just straight up hard legendaries to find. People have proved me wrong about some of them, but I expected the insanely hard ones to find to be Arceus, Eyre, Darkrai, and Regigigas. To me, those were considered my "ultra secrets". Anyway onto some of the stuff you said, I pretty much agree with all of this, this isn't supposed to be me making excuses, I just want to comment on some stuff and explain what went on behind it.

"I'm a big fan of those crossover wormholes! It's really fun to have those callbacks (and be reminded I still need to finish those games ), and your Fakemon have such fun designs, so I'm really glad they get to be in another game!"

-I'm glad you enjoyed this stuff, there was a lot of a mental mess behind this game but part of me really wanted it to be the sum of everything that came before it, the result of everything I've learnt, hence why I included these references and secrets. In hindsight it probably didn't work too well because I've seen it just confuse a lot of people who don't get it/know it, but in the end, I guess this game was made for mostly my enjoyment.

"As much as I loved the concept of Reverse Balls, I'd often pass up buying them in favor of Poke Balls. Reverse Balls cost more than twice as much as Poke Balls, and if I'm not mistaken, they don't have any upgraded counterparts like Great Balls and Ultra Balls. And while it is really useful if you're travelling on low health, or while fighting a high level foe, it's really hard to set up a chance to use the Reverse Ball. There's not many moves out there with recoil or anything to damage your own HP, unless I'm missing something and there's no Toxic/Flame Orb to set up any status conditions. Keeping a Pokemon low on health is really hard, too- the PMC and PC heal all Pokemon, so there's no way to keep just one Pokemon low on health. So when you become too strong for the Pokemon in a wild area to do much to you, you kind of lose the ability to use a Reverse Ball effectively, too."

-I explain this a bit too poorly in game, although I'd like to think I'm exempt a little from blame because it is kind of hard to blame without breaking the 4th wall. How Reverse Balls work is that they calculate whether the catch is successful or not by using your pokemon as the target pokemon. As it would seem, this means if your pokemon is lower on health, the catch rate will be higher, HOWEVER, these balls can be abused the heck out of. It also means that if your pokemon is a catapie, it will use your catapie's catchrate instead of, or example, the arceus' catchrate. Making it a pretty much instant capture for an arceus. I did this more because there are SO MANY legendaries in the game, and I think it gets to the point where catching them all by spamming pokeballs gets annoying, so these Reverse Balls make it a lot easier. Also just a common misconception with catch rate and stuff, but the Pokemon's level doesn't actually affect it. A level 1 mew and a level 100 mew have the same chance of being caught. It uses the % of hp remaining in the calcualtions, but never the level of the pokemon. I actually didn't know this either until I looked up the formulas.

"While I definitely appreciate their usefulness, the PMC and Mart in Acuity Village felt out of place with the aesthetic of the rest of the town- I think it'd be better to have stuff like vendors, a resting area, and a student with a PC, to give the functions while still looking similar and keeping to the lore that it's a remote village."

-Yeah, I feel so so about this with Acuity Village but god I really regret it for Valor Village which is supposed to just not let outsiders in at all. I think I'll comment on this later too, but it probably has to do with how drained and lazy I became as I got to the 2nd half of game dev.

"I wish there was a PC in Kokoro Town, or the option to swap out party members for new Pokemon. If you pick up Manaphy before getting Waterfall, for example, it's kind of a trek to get back to a PC to put it on your team."

-God yeah, I regret this oversight so much, I didn't even do this on purpose I just forgot to have a PC there.

"I was kind of confused by the Ditto trade. When I first saw it, I was excited to trade- the guy's haughtiness about appearances made me think he would trade a shiny Ditto and say it was "too gaudy" or something, so the player could Transform into shiny versions of the Pokemon they see! But then it was just a normal Ditto, which can be caught right outside the city anyways. (Is it maybe something about its IVs that's special? Or is it just a regular Ditto lol)"

-You're completely right, this sort of just ties into me kinda losing it at the 2nd half of the dev period, but it is just a Ditto. I wanted to include Ditto so that it could be used at a daycare to get Phione, but I also thought that Ditto's encounter was kinda in a place that not that many people would spend too much time, so I wanted it to have a trade. But then I just went and made it so that the pokemon you have to trade for ditto is also pretty hard to encounter ????? Having the Ditto be somewhat special would make it so much more interesting of an event, but yeah, it really is just a plain ditto.

"I noticed that the player lost the habit of commenting on things that they had at the start of the game. I totally get why, of course, adding in the player character's commentary would add more work for the time period, and it's not like Azume is really lacking by having a blank NPC, I just noticed because I remembered liking it at the start."

-Yeah I think this really shows how much I just lost it in the 2nd half of the dev period, I just stopped caring about making the flavour text interesting.

"Kind of my fault for not playing Vanishing Point sooner, but it seems like Eyre can't learn Shadow Ball? That's also the only Ghost TM in Azume IIRC, and Eyre comes knowing Night Shade, so it's not immediately clear how to get a Ghost STAB move for Eyre. (I only found out it got Ominous Wind after levelling it up in the postgame!)"

-Yeahhhhhhh I pulled a dummy and just straight up forgot to edit the TMs PBS, big mistake on my part.

"It felt a little easy having the Lustrous Orb in the same room as Mesprit, like a two for one deal. I don't know what I'd suggest to do instead, though... Mesprit's cutscene would lose its feeling if you made it appear in the shrine, and there's not really many locations that suit Palkia...

(Also it was a little weird having the Strength boulder blocking the orb, since you need Waterfall to get there anyways, which you get after Strength)"

-I can't believe I never noticed that the Strength boulder was pointless, that just hit me.

You also made a few comments on the unreal time system, just thought I would comment on that because god, I really handled the time system badly. The lack of an ingame clock is a big flaw, especially with something so sensitive as the Cresselia event. I also couldn't figure out how to iron out a bug where the screen tones wouldn't update consistently, you kinda mentioned noticing it, but sometimes the screentone wouldn't update, and so when it suddenly does, it looks really odd. Also there was no good way of controlling the time, talking to your grandpa and resting with him skips forward 8 hours, but there is no indication of that mechanic at all, and only having it in 1 place sucks.

I think that is all I want to directly comment on, but I love all the feedback you've given, it is all 100% valid, and thank you for putting so much thought into it. And thank you for the typo corrections and the bug catches too. It really does make me glad to hear to enjoyed the game, that you enjoyed the distortion world, the flavour text, the legendary hunting. It is all amazing to hear. Thank you so much.