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Completed Littleroot Researchers

This project is complete. Any future revisions will be bug fixes or small updates.
Project Status
Completed
Project Version
1.10
spHeRAe.png


------Plot-----
Seven years after "Pokémon: Alpha Sapphire" events, Professor Birch recruited three new research assistants!
You will complete tasks, interact with nature, catch Pokémon, and make new friends!
However, during your adventure...you find something rare in Petalburg Woods...

Game length: 5 hours split into 6 mini-episodes


-----Screenshots-----
qyuzKM0.png


-----Game Features-----
Revisit Hoenn with gen 4 graphics + fogs!
Choose your starter! Torchic, Mudkip, Treecko, Swablu, Electrike.
Mega evolution
Increased EXP gains and fast levelling
Day-night overworld encounters
Slakoth feeding


-----Team-----
@KennyCatches - Creator

GAME DOWNLOAD v1.10

- Version 1.0 10/08/21 (Episode 5 is broken): Release!

- Version 1.1 12/08/21:
Fixed a bug in Petalburg woods for episode 5 where the player cannot progress.
Fixed a bug where one particular stair soft locks you in Granite Cave.

- Version 1.2 12/08/21:
Fixed a bug to prevent a player from leaving the lab when they're not supposed to.
Fixed a map connection.

- Version 1.3 14/08/21 (Episode 5 is broken):
Reduced some lag in Petalburg Woods.
A certain cutscene now erases properly after a switch.
Fixed a Pelipper encounter on Mt. Pyre.
You can now go back to a certain island after visiting it.
Slakoth's heart emote during petting should erase properly now.
Fixed a map connection.

- Version 1.4 15/08/21 (Episode 5 is broken):

Fixed some tile and passability errors.
Fixed some typos.
Events above water should have reflections now.
Fixed running animation positions.
Two events should show up after a certain cutscene, not before.
Fixed the Slakoth softlock issue in Petalburg Woods.
Reduced the number of overworld encounters to reduce lag.

- Version 1.5 16/08/21:
Actually fixed the Petalburg Woods issue in Episode 5 this time.

Fixed some typos.

-
Version 1.6 17/08/21:
Tall grass now have bush tags!
Fixed a map connection.
Lowered player portrait in trainer card.
Lowered Mega Lopunny's sprite.
Fixed typos, tiles and passability errors.

-
Version 1.7 18/08/21:
Fixed important typos in episode five.

-
Version 1.8 10/09/21:
Raised some trainer levels by one or two.
A certain map should have a fog now.
Fixed an error for the female protagonist character sprite.
Ava's trainer back sprite now has the right hat.
The bridges now work properly.
Fixed typos.

-
Version 1.9 02/10/21:
The game notifies the player that final evolutions are at level 32, not 30.
Fixed wording issues.
Minor balance changes on Mt. Pyre.
Small bugfixes.

-
Version 1.10 01/06/23:
Added reborn battle animations
Updated Trevor's OW sprite
Fixed Lilycove softlock
Fixed Tropius error

[DISCORD SERVER]


-----YouTube/Twitch Playthroughs!-----



[/MEDIA]




Resource Pack: https://eeveeexpo.com/resources/773/
Made Using: RPG Maker XP and Pokémon Essentials v19.1


-----Credits-----
Please let me know if I missed anyone!
==Team==
KennyCatches: Creator

==Autotiles==
PurpleZaffre

==Epic Adventures Tileset + More: Outdoor + Indoor==
Alistair
Alucus
Bakura155
Bati'
Blue Beedrill
BoOmxBiG
Chimcharsfireworkd
CNickC/CNC
CrimsonTakai
Cuddlesthefatcat
Dewitty
EpicDay
Fused
Gigatom
Heavy-Metal-Lover
Hek-el-grande
Kage-No-Sensei
Kizemaru_Kurunosuke
Kyledove
LaPampa
LotusKing
New-titeuf
Novus
Pokemon_Diamond
PrinceLegendario
Reck
Red-Gyrados
REMY35
Saurav
SL249
Spaceemotion
SirMalo
Stefpoke
sylver1984
ThatsSoWitty
TheEnglishKiwi
Thegreatblaid
ThePokemonChronicles
TwentyOne
UltimoSpriter
Warpras
WesleyFG
Yoh
Nuri Yuri
07harris/Paranoid
19dante91
27alexmad27
Flurimons
Alucus
Kyle Dove
Dewitty
CNC
KennyCatches

==Gen 4 Style Interior Tileset==
Akizakura16
KennyCatches

==Museum Tileset==
princess-phoenix
Diegotoon20
Kyogre statue by Kyledove

==Character Sprites==
PurpleZaffre
DiegoWT
Poltergeist
bushbugger
IceJKai
KennyCatches

==Trainer Sprites==
Poltergeist
Neo-Spriteman
VanillaSunshine
PurpleZaffre & Maicerochico
AtomicReactor
Mr. Gela
Kyogre Murial by vinmoawalt

==Mega Evolution Sprites==
Gnomowladny
TheCynicalPoet
Prodigal96

==Game Logo==
Pixel Art Maker

==Titles==
KennyCatches
Font by Font Meme

==Pictures==
KennyCatches

==Items==
KennyCatches

==Fogs==
KennyCatches
THANK YOU ELLE FOR THE AMAZING FOG TUTORIAL

==Music and Audio==
KennyCatches
Zame
Pokestir
Gaming Sound FX
Gaming Musik
PocketMonstersMusic
Chris Lambert

FULL YOUTUBE PLAYLIST:



==Plugins and Scripts==
"Location Signposts with Background Image" v.1.1 by:
LostSoulsDev / carmaniac
PurpleZaffre
Golisopod User

"Overworld Shadows EX" v.1.0.0 by:
Golisopod User
Wolf PP
Marin

"Luka's Scripting Utilities" v.3.2.2 by:
Luka S.J.

"Modular Menu" v.1.5 by:
Luka S.J.

"Simple Exit Arrows" v.1.0 by:
Tustin2121

"Name Windows" v.1 by:
Mr. Gela
mej71
Vendily
theo#7722

==Special Thanks==
Thundaga for Pokémon Essentials tutorials!
Relic Castle Community
Myself for wasting my entire July 2021

"Pokémon Essentials" was created by:
Flameguru
Poccil (Peter O.)
Maruno

With contributions from:
AvatarMonkeyKirby
Marin
Boushy
MiDas Mike
Brother1440
Near Fantastica
FL.
PinkMan
Genzai Kawakami
Popper
Golisopod User
Rataime
help-14
Savordez
IceGod64
SoundSpawn
Jacob O. Wobbrock
the__end
KitsuneKouta
Venom12
Lisa Anthony
Wachunga
Luka S.J
and everyone else who helped out

"mkxp-z" by:
Roza
Based on MKXP by Ancurio et al.

"RPG Maker XP" by:
Enterbrain

Pokémon is owned by:
The Pokémon Company
Nintendo
Affiliated with Game Freak

This is a non-profit fan-made game.
No copyright infringements intended.
Please support the official games!


-----Thoughts-----
This is my second Pokémon fangame, and I am very happy with it. Compared to "The Rising Sun" (my first game, also set in Hoenn), Littleroot Researchers has better graphics, story, characterization and gameplay. I spent way too much time on this game, and I'm pretty burnt out. However, I really pushed myself this time to create something special. I created fogs for the first time and also two music pieces for the game (Intro + Petalburg Woods).
I hope you enjoy it! No more four-hour jam games from me, and definitely no more Hoenn games. 😅

 
Last edited:

Astefia

Cooltrainer
Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2021
Posts
193
1628806738076.png
Why would you say that and then not allow me to just use these blocks on my Pokemon? Now I have to track back to the PC. Through all of the lag. Ouch. Seriously, I would haveprefered no grass animation in Petalburg to this amount of LAG. Please, please add an option to turn off grass animation and the option to use this blocks instead of giving them to hold.
 

Astefia

Cooltrainer
Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2021
Posts
193
Personally I would have raised the trainer-side Pokemon sprites a bit. My Altaria looks like just a neck with a head (covered by a textbox).
 

King_Waluigi

The King of Waaahh!
Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2021
Posts
353
Yooo! Just finished the game, and it was really, REALLY good! Great job, @KennyCatches !
Here's all of my feedback about the game!
Pros:
  • I really enjoyed the story! Hoenn is such a great region, and I was filled with nostalgia! The episodes were really well put together, each being a good hour long! Not too long, not too short! Great job!
  • Do we need to talk about Petalburg Woods? I mean... That song... OHMYGOSH! It was so beautiful, so ambient! Fantastic job on that track!
  • The leveling in the game was really balanced! It felt really natural!
  • The rivals, Birch, and
    Hoopa
    were really well written! I loved the bit of satire here and there!
  • The maps were REALLY well done!
Cons:
  • The Gen 3 indoor tilesets are a little off in comparison to the rest of the game. Some indoor tiles were Gen 4, while others were Gen 3.
  • It was a little annoying having to go through Route 101 over, and over, and over, AND OVER again lolololol! I don't know what to fix about that, but man... It got annoying lol!
  • There was a bug involving Tropius? Idk, but Tropius couldn't touch me.
    Littleroot Researchers 8_13_2021 9_45_28 AM.png
  • When you do the Pokemon Amie thing with Slakoth, it leaves the heart up until you finish the Amie with Shroomish.
    Littleroot Researchers 8_12_2021 1_12_44 PM.png
That's it! Really, GG! I enjoyed it a lot! Good luck with any other projects you may work on!
 

Astefia

Cooltrainer
Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2021
Posts
193
The very start of the Episode 5.
The portal is still here, why can't I go back to the island?
It's right there!
Stings even more, because I just CRIT OHKO a shiny Feebas in there and I now want to get any Feebas, just any, but can't go.
 

Astefia

Cooltrainer
Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2021
Posts
193
1628878054463.png
Walking along this cliff makes Ava just glitch-skid along, always in the same spot as me.
 

Astefia

Cooltrainer
Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2021
Posts
193
1628879393666.png
Why am I in a single battle in a team-up segment?
It's
Mt.Pyre, near the Grunts, static Pelipper encounter.
 

Astefia

Cooltrainer
Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2021
Posts
193
Did you really need to block off
The Poke Center in Lilycove?!
This segment is already tough, why make it annoying to heal as well? That's the only reason why I don't want to even try to finish this game today.
If only I could buy Revives....
 
Last edited:
Yooo! Just finished the game, and it was really, REALLY good! Great job, @KennyCatches !
Here's all of my feedback about the game!
Pros:
  • I really enjoyed the story! Hoenn is such a great region, and I was filled with nostalgia! The episodes were really well put together, each being a good hour long! Not too long, not too short! Great job!
  • Do we need to talk about Petalburg Woods? I mean... That song... OHMYGOSH! It was so beautiful, so ambient! Fantastic job on that track!
  • The leveling in the game was really balanced! It felt really natural!
  • The rivals, Birch, and
    Hoopa
    were really well written! I loved the bit of satire here and there!
  • The maps were REALLY well done!
Cons:
  • The Gen 3 indoor tilesets are a little off in comparison to the rest of the game. Some indoor tiles were Gen 4, while others were Gen 3.
  • It was a little annoying having to go through Route 101 over, and over, and over, AND OVER again lolololol! I don't know what to fix about that, but man... It got annoying lol!
  • There was a bug involving Tropius? Idk, but Tropius couldn't touch me.
  • When you do the Pokemon Amie thing with Slakoth, it leaves the heart up until you finish the Amie with Shroomish.
That's it! Really, GG! I enjoyed it a lot! Good luck with any other projects you may work on!
Ahhhh thank you so much for the detailed response! Really glad you enjoyed it 😊
 
Did you really need to block off
The Poke Center in Lilycove?!
This segment is already tough, why make it annoying to heal as well? That's the only reason why I don't want to even try to finish this game today.
If only I could buy Revives....
Thanks for the bug reports but...can you please write these in one comment? It's not necessary to write 5 in a span of 2 hours, it's clogging up the thread 😓
 

Armin

☆★★☆
Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2020
Posts
138
Hi there! I completed your game, and I thought I'd share my experiences here!

My experiences
It's such a cute and fun game! I had such a great time playing it! You injected so much life and color into some of these early game "beginner" routes that are often overlooked, and it's such a treat seeing them mapped in your style. Having to go through them multiple times didn't bother me at all, because of how often you changed them up, be it by varying the trainers and encounters there, or by making use of the day/night cycle to create different atmospheres. (And it's really clever too, because it saves up so much jam time as compared to making entirely new maps!) But what I especially love is the attention you paid to the little things - the way Zigzagoon moves in a zigzag manner while Slakoth moves so slowly, the new lamps in Granite Cave lighting up the place after 7 years (it's about damn time), the way Hoopa gradually calls the researchers by their names instead of nicknames - and the way you deliberately took time off from the "main" story to showcase and let the player get to know these adorable Hoenn Pokémon (and how it's used as a contrast to the methods Team Aqua employs in their "research"). To me, these are details that really demonstrate the sheer amount of thought and care you placed into this making this game.

Also, that Lotad water walking scene is the best thing ever. I bet Jesus is gnashing his teeth in envy right now. Thank you, Lotad!

Team.png

My team, should you need it for research purposes

My favorite character is definitely Hoopa. I love how you wrote him. Every time he appears, I have a huge grin on my face. I think you pretty much nailed his characterization as a cocky prankster with a heart of gold, and I love love love his interactions and banter with Birch. In terms of assistant researcher development, perhaps it's the lack of time since this is a jam and all, but Ava definitely got the better end of the stick. I really wish the player could spend more time with Trevor and partner up with him too. Maybe a nice little revenge arc for him during the segment where the player enters the Aqua Base, where he sort of tries to make up for his mistakes. (I'm glad you still gave the boy his MVP moments during the final Hoopa fight, though!)

P.S. - the opening notes of the Petalburg Woods theme sounds so similar to a song called "Temple of Time", to the point where I thought that you were using that song for the map at first. I'm curious to know if it's an inspiration, or a coincidence?

Some errors and nitpicks
- Tile errors for the wall and gravestone
tile error.png
tile error2.png

- No reflections for events other than the player
vampires.png

- I couldn't click on the bottle fragment. Had to download a previous version (and I couldn't click on it either), but somehow, I managed to make the event trigger (I don't know what I did, though)
cannot click.png

- A very specific incident, where the Breeder Ella in Petalburg woods spotted me the same time an overworld wild Pokémon did, and after battling the wild Pokémon (whose event triggered first), Breeder Ella's event didn't automatically trigger. Upon going up and talking to her, she battled me in a double battle (i.e. 2 copies of the same Trainer. Those two Shroomish in the picture are the same.)
Weird glitch ella.png

- This is probably a personal nitpick, but I'm pretty sure the plural of Zigzagoon (and all Pokémon) is Zigzagoon instead of Zigzagoons, like deer and furniture, so I was kind of ticked off every time something like that appears... but not too much, I assure you 😅

Thank you so much for making this game and providing us with these hours of enjoyment (4h 25min for me); you certainly did a fantastic job you can be proud of! It's extremely impressive, the fact that you managed to create a project of this scale on your own within this short timeframe, but at the same time, I fear for your sanity. Go take a break, you deserve one!
 
Hi there! I completed your game, and I thought I'd share my experiences here!

My experiences
It's such a cute and fun game! I had such a great time playing it! You injected so much life and color into some of these early game "beginner" routes that are often overlooked, and it's such a treat seeing them mapped in your style. Having to go through them multiple times didn't bother me at all, because of how often you changed them up, be it by varying the trainers and encounters there, or by making use of the day/night cycle to create different atmospheres. (And it's really clever too, because it saves up so much jam time as compared to making entirely new maps!) But what I especially love is the attention you paid to the little things - the way Zigzagoon moves in a zigzag manner while Slakoth moves so slowly, the new lamps in Granite Cave lighting up the place after 7 years (it's about damn time), the way Hoopa gradually calls the researchers by their names instead of nicknames - and the way you deliberately took time off from the "main" story to showcase and let the player get to know these adorable Hoenn Pokémon (and how it's used as a contrast to the methods Team Aqua employs in their "research"). To me, these are details that really demonstrate the sheer amount of thought and care you placed into this making this game.

Also, that Lotad water walking scene is the best thing ever. I bet Jesus is gnashing his teeth in envy right now. Thank you, Lotad!

View attachment 6230
My team, should you need it for research purposes

My favorite character is definitely Hoopa. I love how you wrote him. Every time he appears, I have a huge grin on my face. I think you pretty much nailed his characterization as a cocky prankster with a heart of gold, and I love love love his interactions and banter with Birch. In terms of assistant researcher development, perhaps it's the lack of time since this is a jam and all, but Ava definitely got the better end of the stick. I really wish the player could spend more time with Trevor and partner up with him too. Maybe a nice little revenge arc for him during the segment where the player enters the Aqua Base, where he sort of tries to make up for his mistakes. (I'm glad you still gave the boy his MVP moments during the final Hoopa fight, though!)

P.S. - the opening notes of the Petalburg Woods theme sounds so similar to a song called "Temple of Time", to the point where I thought that you were using that song for the map at first. I'm curious to know if it's an inspiration, or a coincidence?

Some errors and nitpicks
- Tile errors for the wall and gravestone
View attachment 6226 View attachment 6227
- No reflections for events other than the player
View attachment 6229
- I couldn't click on the bottle fragment. Had to download a previous version (and I couldn't click on it either), but somehow, I managed to make the event trigger (I don't know what I did, though)
View attachment 6228
- A very specific incident, where the Breeder Ella in Petalburg woods spotted me the same time an overworld wild Pokémon did, and after battling the wild Pokémon (whose event triggered first), Breeder Ella's event didn't automatically trigger. Upon going up and talking to her, she battled me in a double battle (i.e. 2 copies of the same Trainer. Those two Shroomish in the picture are the same.)
View attachment 6225
- This is probably a personal nitpick, but I'm pretty sure the plural of Zigzagoon (and all Pokémon) is Zigzagoon instead of Zigzagoons, like deer and furniture, so I was kind of ticked off every time something like that appears... but not too much, I assure you 😅

Thank you so much for making this game and providing us with these hours of enjoyment (4h 25min for me); you certainly did a fantastic job you can be proud of! It's extremely impressive, the fact that you managed to create a project of this scale on your own within this short timeframe, but at the same time, I fear for your sanity. Go take a break, you deserve one!
Hey Armin! Thanks so much for playing! 😊

  • I'm so happy that you noticed the small details of the game! It makes putting these details so worth it!
  • Hoopa is also my favourite character 😁, he was such a fun character to write, and I'm so glad you liked the dialogue because I don't think I'm a very good writer!
  • Giving Ava more screen time was definitely intentional, because she required more character development than Trevor. I did actually plan something in the hideout with Trevor, but yeah, I ran out of time haha.
  • You're absolutely right about the Petalburg Woods music! I joinked the chords from "The Temple of Time" because I'm bad at composing 😅. I absolutely love the Maplestory soundtrack!
  • Thank you for the bug reports! ~

Thank you again for playing and writing such a lengthy review! I'm still sane...I think😅
 
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