Completed Pokemon Recruitment

bombastik18 · Feb 22, 2023

As a dev I wanted to remind you all to save frequently! Also I wanted to attach a list of encounters in our game and add one more thing, since it might not be obvious to a non-developer:

the little flashes scattered everywhere on the ground are hidden items (like in SwSh)."

Cadeorade5 · Mar 5, 2023

Hey there! I've been playing your game and I've wanted to report a few bugs so far.

Staraptor's Back Sprite is too large. I think it's about twice the size it should be.
The game crashes for me when I try to load a save before the first trainer. However, I was playing beyond him and then I lost and went back to the first checkpoint. When I try to load after resetting, that's when the game crashes, and I get this error.
Voltseon's Pause Menu doesn't work. I think this is because you encrypted the graphics file so there is no graphics folder, while it is trying to read images within the graphics folder.

Thank you!

Mega Greninja · Mar 5, 2023

Cadeorade5 said:
Hey there! I've been playing your game and I've wanted to report a few bugs so far.

Staraptor's Back Sprite is too large. I think it's about twice the size it should be.

The game crashes for me when I try to load a save before the first trainer. However, I was playing beyond him and then I lost and went back to the first checkpoint. When I try to load after resetting, that's when the game crashes, and I get this error. View attachment 16261

Voltseon's Pause Menu doesn't work. I think this is because you encrypted the graphics file so there is no graphics folder, while it is trying to read images within the graphics folder.

Thank you!

Thank you for taking the time to review! We'll definitely have a look and see what can be done!

Mega Greninja · Mar 6, 2023

Version 1.0.1 up!
-fixed the VPM issue
more updates pending!

AenaonDogsky · Mar 10, 2023

Here’s my review of Recruitment! Good job on your first game!

Recruitment tells the story of a new recruit’s trial of initiation into the ranks of Team Galactic. The game is the perfect length for an experience of this sort. The quality of the writing is generally good, with some parts feeling better executed than others. The premise and setting of the game are refreshing to see.

Cyrus’ dialogue for the most part is believable, but sometimes his mannerisms don’t match his vanilla presentation. Most characters are done well, although it feels like there wasn’t enough time to flush out their backstories (given the nature of the jam, this isn’t a criticism by all means). Galactic's opening recruitment speech is very well portrayed, in a faithful to cult-like wording and expressions, manner. Enemy trainers are given Pokemon teams that match their characters and styles, which is a very nice detail.

There wasn’t any opening or prologue scene or gameplay segment that would give us a reason to feel the injustice caused to our player character. The motivations of this future member are given in a two-textbox exposition at the very end of the game. One such prologue segment, and some more time to familiarize ourselves with the characters participating in the trial would, be the best addition to this game.

The game’s strongest hand is the visuals. The spritework, consisting of modified vanilla sprites, is really great. Color choice almost always matches the general visuals of the game. The UI is inviting and sleek, and the presentation of the game feels very clean and professional. There’s a lot of great little details like custom trainer balls, and tiny portraits for every character. Mapping is very tight and compact, and your exploration doesn’t feel hindered by the obstacles that can be eventually overcome with item HMs. Transitions in some scenes like the initial letter scene are excellent. Tileset choices are a big plus, the game being colorful and a treat to go through, for the most part.

Cutscene flow is also of very good quality, with audio pauses where it matters, and visual accompaniment.

The gameplay offers a great selection of mons, and gives you access to all learnable moves, including egg moves, from the start. A lot of thought went into available mons, and their abilities etc compliment the choices well. The game has a lot of QoL features, whose implementation might feel a bit sudden, as you don't have to work to obtain them. That said, all the QoL features make the game almost devoid of grinding, which is an excellent thing, and generally assist with many playstyles. Battles aren’t too hard, but they aren’t easy either. Personally I found them balanced. It's very thoughtful of the devs to have made the game in such a way that it never feels like a drag, so kudos!

Overall, it’s a very sold, visually polished entry, that spares you the grinding. The writing adds to the experience, even though a little more time spent to reduce exposition and flesh out setting and characters, would be recommended.

- like that there's difficulty selection

- nice that the encounter rate isnt high - except for the tedious cave

- Tentacruel learned Surf but it asked me for a new badge... sad

- havent tested it, but what happens if you lose to a wild mon on either modes?

- nice, many hidden items

- you sure Dimitri is a youngster? xD he should be a rich guy

- Make the textbox less transparent, it might make it difficult to read for many people

- initial hideout map is a bit empty and large

- Better give all those starting items in the itemballs in a "silent" manner, it's possible to do with a script command. It feels very obtrusive having to listen and wait for the “item get” prompt 5 times in a row, in every map. Just give em silently and use one textbox.

- Mason feels kind of abrupt, both his "surprised to see me here", even if its implied he knew us, and the fast "get mons and lets battle". He should say something like "You! I saw you among the recruits! I am sorry, but I can't let you win!" Or something to show that Cyrus has pitched recruits against each other. Better yet, time to flesh out any backstory in a prologue, or other segment.

- I feel like you are showering the player with so many items it will make getting through the game trivial, and it feels too forced. However, this is subjective. Max Revives did help a lot, though. It feels like you can rework this in a way that feels less in-your-face and more organically implemented

- Mason telling you to have at least three pokemon felt forced

- It's nice that mason has random leading mons ,but you could make it so he checks the type of your first mon and sends one that beats it, if it exists

- It's better for Mason to say what he has to say upon loss automatically, rather than have no dialogue right after. Likewise with Aaron.

- perhaps add healing after every battle instead of going to your bag pc to heal mons. That process was a bit time-consuming for me.

- Some of the QoL features arent communicated that they exist e.g. bag PC

- wisps should have brighter and shinier sprite, you cant see them well. That said, I got 8 because I was too scared to backtrack through the cave – the encounters were exhausting

- the ledges that you can jump from should have a different texture to them, to indicate their behavior. That was unexpected since only small ledges do that in Pokemon games

- some rare candies would be good to bring up wild mons to bigger levels

- I guess some people might be caught off-guard if they are playing on hard mode, and they get jumped at various points by those trainers that appear out of nowhere

- more max repels for the cave, getting through it is insufferable

- keystone rock is way difficult to tell from the rest of the tileset

- "underpaid" isn't the best argument for Cyrus, not to mention this isn't his vanilla justification

- the fast transition to credits scene could be better

- Player name isnt shown in message box. It says “Player”

- Forest maps show as "Forest 1.1" etc, both in the map box and when saving - better name them to something more organic

- Sometimes it is possible to run away from Mason and go to the lake on the right - dunno if the same for other areas

- It is likely you can skip Eloise

- multiple tile errors and map edges in last map, playable after credits

- "I know all about you research" < should be yours

Mega Greninja · Mar 10, 2023

AenaonDogsky said:
Here’s my review of Recruitment! Good job on your first game!

Recruitment tells the story of a new recruit’s trial of initiation into the ranks of Team Galactic. The game is the perfect length for an experience of this sort. The quality of the writing is generally good, with some parts feeling better executed than others. The premise and setting of the game are refreshing to see.

Cyrus’ dialogue for the most part is believable, but sometimes his mannerisms don’t match his vanilla presentation. Most characters are done well, although it feels like there wasn’t enough time to flush out their backstories (given the nature of the jam, this isn’t a criticism by all means). Galactic's opening recruitment speech is very well portrayed, in a faithful to cult-like wording and expressions, manner. Enemy trainers are given Pokemon teams that match their characters and styles, which is a very nice detail.

There wasn’t any opening or prologue scene or gameplay segment that would give us a reason to feel the injustice caused to our player character. The motivations of this future member are given in a two-textbox exposition at the very end of the game. One such prologue segment, and some more time to familiarize ourselves with the characters participating in the trial would, be the best addition to this game.

The game’s strongest hand is the visuals. The spritework, consisting of modified vanilla sprites, is really great. Color choice almost always matches the general visuals of the game. The UI is inviting and sleek, and the presentation of the game feels very clean and professional. There’s a lot of great little details like custom trainer balls, and tiny portraits for every character. Mapping is very tight and compact, and your exploration doesn’t feel hindered by the obstacles that can be eventually overcome with item HMs. Transitions in some scenes like the initial letter scene are excellent. Tileset choices are a big plus, the game being colorful and a treat to go through, for the most part.

Cutscene flow is also of very good quality, with audio pauses where it matters, and visual accompaniment.

The gameplay offers a great selection of mons, and gives you access to all learnable moves, including egg moves, from the start. A lot of thought went into available mons, and their abilities etc compliment the choices well. The game has a lot of QoL features, whose implementation might feel a bit sudden, as you don't have to work to obtain them. That said, all the QoL features make the game almost devoid of grinding, which is an excellent thing, and generally assist with many playstyles. Battles aren’t too hard, but they aren’t easy either. Personally I found them balanced. It's very thoughtful of the devs to have made the game in such a way that it never feels like a drag, so kudos!

Overall, it’s a very sold, visually polished entry, that spares you the grinding. The writing adds to the experience, even though a little more time spent to reduce exposition and flesh out setting and characters, would be recommended.

- like that there's difficulty selection

- nice that the encounter rate isnt high - except for the tedious cave

- Tentacruel learned Surf but it asked me for a new badge... sad

- havent tested it, but what happens if you lose to a wild mon on either modes?

- nice, many hidden items

- you sure Dimitri is a youngster? xD he should be a rich guy

- Make the textbox less transparent, it might make it difficult to read for many people

- initial hideout map is a bit empty and large

- Better give all those starting items in the itemballs in a "silent" manner, it's possible to do with a script command. It feels very obtrusive having to listen and wait for the “item get” prompt 5 times in a row, in every map. Just give em silently and use one textbox.

- Mason feels kind of abrupt, both his "surprised to see me here", even if its implied he knew us, and the fast "get mons and lets battle". He should say something like "You! I saw you among the recruits! I am sorry, but I can't let you win!" Or something to show that Cyrus has pitched recruits against each other. Better yet, time to flesh out any backstory in a prologue, or other segment.

- I feel like you are showering the player with so many items it will make getting through the game trivial, and it feels too forced. However, this is subjective. Max Revives did help a lot, though. It feels like you can rework this in a way that feels less in-your-face and more organically implemented

- Mason telling you to have at least three pokemon felt forced

- It's nice that mason has random leading mons ,but you could make it so he checks the type of your first mon and sends one that beats it, if it exists

- It's better for Mason to say what he has to say upon loss automatically, rather than have no dialogue right after. Likewise with Aaron.

- perhaps add healing after every battle instead of going to your bag pc to heal mons. That process was a bit time-consuming for me.

- Some of the QoL features arent communicated that they exist e.g. bag PC

- wisps should have brighter and shinier sprite, you cant see them well. That said, I got 8 because I was too scared to backtrack through the cave – the encounters were exhausting

- the ledges that you can jump from should have a different texture to them, to indicate you can use them to jump. That was unexpected since only small ledges do that in Pokemon games

- some rare candies would be good to bring up wild mons to bigger levels

- I guess some people might be caught off-guard if they are playing on hard mode, and they get jumped at various points by those trainers that appear out of nowhere

- more max repels for the cave, getting through it is insufferable

- keystone rock is way difficult to tell from the other tileset

- "underpaid" isn't the best argument for Cyrus, not to mention this isn't his vanilla justification

- the fast transition to credits scene could be better

- Player name isnt shown in message box. It says “Player”

- Forest maps show as "Forest 1.1" etc, both in the map box and when saving - better name them to something more organic

- Sometimes it is possible to run away from Mason and go to the lake on the right - dunno if the same for other areas

- It is likely you can skip Eloise

- multiple tile errors and map edges in last map, playable after credits

- "I know all about you research" < should be yours

Thank you for the in depth and constructive review! I'm very glad you enjoyed our game. We'll take our time and try and improve on some of your suggestions!

Mega Greninja · Mar 12, 2023

Version 1.1 is up!
-Fixed Typos
-Player's portrait now displays their given name
-Program issues fixed

Cadeorade5 · Mar 19, 2023

Hey there! I played your game, and I made a video about it here! I'll go over a few things here, but the video will be more detailed.

Overall, I think this is a really solid game. You guys did a great job and I really enjoyed the gameplay loop and the ability to customize your Pokémon. I felt like I was in survival mode but still had enough comfortability to get through the trainers. For the story, I wish that you would've explored Saturn's character throughout the game a little more. I think it would have allowed for more pay off in the end and made the journey more satisfying. But I was pleased with how polished the game was despite a few nitpicks that I personally had.

Great job!

Tomix9tomix · Apr 7, 2023

Hello! Just finished playing the game!
Some thoughts:

This game felt very well done, I enjoyed it a lot! I liked the game being framed in a narrative of team Galactic's origin story, it was a really fun story, and I love seeing the return of characters like Saturn and Cyrus. And touching on that a bit, I like how connected to both Platinum and PLA this game felt. The distortion world music, having collectable wisps, letting you relearn moves from your party menu. It all felt really good.

The game felt really well balanced and put together, I think the difficulty was perfect. I always struggle with these more battle focused games, but I never felt like giving up, it always felt possible. And I really appreciated all the accessible features for building a team, it really encouraged me to find pokemon I liked and buff them up.

Only point of critism I have is that it felt a bit weird not having healing spots, or not healing you after trainer battles or at checkpoints. But then the game also just floods you with healing items so that you can heal whenever you want. It felt a bit weird, but it is a very small thing.

Nice and fun game, perfect length, it was a good time!

Aurora · May 3, 2023

Hey.I hope u make a female protagonist option too, bc I want to play it.

Mega Greninja · May 3, 2023

Aurora said:
Hey.I hope u make a female protagonist option too, bc I want to play it.

Hey Aurora! Unfortunately I don't think that there will be a femal protagonist option in this project, bacause the idea is that we see commander Saturn's backstory before he was Saturn.

Geoswag · May 9, 2023

What resource did you use to make the character head sprites appear above the text when that character is speaking? Or did you make it yourselves?

Mega Greninja · May 9, 2023

Geoswag said:
What resource did you use to make the character head sprites appear above the text when that character is speaking? Or did you make it yourselves?

The character head sprites were made by @bombastik18

Geoswag · May 9, 2023

Mega Greninja said:
The character head sprites were made by @bombastik18

Sorry, I mean like the player portrait in this image:

Mega Greninja · May 9, 2023

Geoswag said:
Sorry, I mean like the player portrait in this image:

Yeah, I understand. Bombastik made those.

Geoswag · May 9, 2023

Mega Greninja said:
Yeah, I understand. Bombastik made those.

Okay, thank you

Karthik_ · May 10, 2023

Geoswag said:
Sorry, I mean like the player portrait in this image:

We used this Resource:
Resource link, Resource 2
And then we customized the width and height and add a Sprite, download our Resource pack and see how we are used in pictures folder
Resource pack link on top of the page!

Geoswag · May 10, 2023

Karthik_ said:
We used this Resource:
Resource link, Resource 2
And then we customized the width and height and add a Sprite, download our Resource pack and see how we are used in pictures folder
Resource pack link on top of the page!

Ahh I see now, thank you!

ORAORAORA · Jun 22, 2024

Ummm...how excatly one plays the game? the download was just a rar file incompatible with a 3ds emulator

Completed Pokemon Recruitment

Senior Youngster

Attachments

Content Creator

Professional Amateur Creator

Professional Amateur Creator

Arbiter of Doggos

Attachments

Professional Amateur Creator

Professional Amateur Creator

Content Creator

The beetle is waking up

Trainer

Professional Amateur Creator

Novice

Professional Amateur Creator

Novice

Professional Amateur Creator

Novice

Elite 4

Novice

Rookie