Completed Pokémon Gratia

manta · Feb 20, 2020

Nuc helped make this game? Pretty BASED if I do say so myself

Tomix9tomix · Feb 20, 2020

Mantager said:
Nuc helped make this game? Pretty BASED if I do say so myself

Had to get the old master back in action for a little help ;)

Ekat · Feb 20, 2020

Hey, I've been playing the game, and I seem to be softlocked.

Going down that ladder sends you to d a r k n e s s. I can't seem to open the menu, and I know that I can't move because there's no collision noise. There's also the fact that you can surf on the ground because the water tile is beneath it.

Other than that, I've been having fun! Here's what the squad looks like so far.

Tomix9tomix · Feb 21, 2020

Ekat said:
Hey, I've been playing the game, and I seem to be softlocked.

Going down that ladder sends you to d a r k n e s s. I can't seem to open the menu, and I know that I can't move because there's no collision noise. There's also the fact that you can surf on the ground because the water tile is beneath it.

Other than that, I've been having fun! Here's what the squad looks like so far.

Wow, thank you for catching that, I've now updated the game a little bit and it works as it should've. I recommend anyone playing to update too although refusing to won't mean you can't beat the game since it is a side area.

So yes v1.1 is out, just click the game download link in the main post.

Ekat · Feb 21, 2020

Just beat the game!

My favourite areas had to be the route around Pyreshore and the hometown. There was something about the tiles that I just found cozy and enjoyable. I really appreciate that the maps, while big, never really gave me the sense that I was lost. There were plenty of branching paths and areas to explore, but I didn't really come across a moment in the game where I was like, "I have no idea where I need to go."

When it comes to the art, I really liked the custom overworlds, the female protag in particular. Her design and thought it was super cute, what with the hat and all! Out of curiosity, is the female protag the previous year's bearer if you pick the boy?

If I were to give a couple suggestions, I would say that you should find some music to replace the two default Essentials songs you used for battle themes. Hearing those little midis when you're in a serious fight is kind of silly. I also wish you had done more to change up the tileset for the grasslands, like you did with Pyreshore and the hometown, to make it stand out a bit more. I also felt like the encounter rate was a touch high in caves, but once I got repels, it wasn't a problem as much.

Other than that, I had a blast playing the game! Ordinary battles weren't too tricky, and the boss fights were just the right amount of challenging for a casual player. I also appreciate that you had so much extra content for the player to do. From the legendary to the little sidequests, it helps make the island feel more alive. Even giving NPCs names (rather than just calling them "man" or "woman) was a neat touch. Especially when NPCs had connected names.

There's also another aspect I enjoyed, which I don't normally comment on when it comes to fangames. I found the story engaging. I like how there are little tidbits about the ceremony spread across the world. Burma's thoughts in particular about the ceremony were interesting to me, as well. I liked her little arc and the conclusion that she came to.

My final team!

Good job with your jam entry!

Elle · Feb 21, 2020

Yay, beta Pokemon!!

Tomix9tomix · Feb 22, 2020

Ekat said:
Just beat the game!

My favourite areas had to be the route around Pyreshore and the hometown. There was something about the tiles that I just found cozy and enjoyable. I really appreciate that the maps, while big, never really gave me the sense that I was lost. There were plenty of branching paths and areas to explore, but I didn't really come across a moment in the game where I was like, "I have no idea where I need to go."

When it comes to the art, I really liked the custom overworlds, the female protag in particular. Her design and thought it was super cute, what with the hat and all! Out of curiosity, is the female protag the previous year's bearer if you pick the boy?

If I were to give a couple suggestions, I would say that you should find some music to replace the two default Essentials songs you used for battle themes. Hearing those little midis when you're in a serious fight is kind of silly. I also wish you had done more to change up the tileset for the grasslands, like you did with Pyreshore and the hometown, to make it stand out a bit more. I also felt like the encounter rate was a touch high in caves, but once I got repels, it wasn't a problem as much.

Other than that, I had a blast playing the game! Ordinary battles weren't too tricky, and the boss fights were just the right amount of challenging for a casual player. I also appreciate that you had so much extra content for the player to do. From the legendary to the little sidequests, it helps make the island feel more alive. Even giving NPCs names (rather than just calling them "man" or "woman) was a neat touch. Especially when NPCs had connected names.

There's also another aspect I enjoyed, which I don't normally comment on when it comes to fangames. I found the story engaging. I like how there are little tidbits about the ceremony spread across the world. Burma's thoughts in particular about the ceremony were interesting to me, as well. I liked her little arc and the conclusion that she came to.

My final team!

Good job with your jam entry!

thank you so much for the feedback, im glad you enjoyed it.

Yeah later into development i realised that i screwed up with designing the game with how many caves there were in the middle around the 2nd guardian. You have to go through Mt. Mosco, then you do crescent cave, go through mt mosco again, do the power plant where encounters work like a cave, and back through mt mosco and then finally you have rock smash to short cut it. I thought the back tracking aspect of it would be cool but i think i really needed less cave areas. I purposely tried putting lots of max repels around after realising that. And i completely agree with all your other criticisms as well. If i ever work on an expanded/refined version ill try to fix those up

I wanted all the guardians to have a decent presence in the story of the game and their own characters and beliefs, although you might notice that Volma ended up stuck with the belief of "I don't really care" which is probably pretty eh on my part.

And yes! The previous bearer is always the opposite gender of you! Quite a few conditional branches there haha.

I really am glad you enjoyed it, realised i didn't make it very clear in game but there are rematches for each of the guardians after you finish the game. Gives the oppurtunity to get the other betamon in case you missed your chance. Anyway, once again thank you so much for playing, it does mean a lot to me.

Aki · Feb 22, 2020

I'm so glad you got to participate in another jam because this game is really good! It's definitely my fave so far but there's been a bunch more games submitted to the jam now so I guess we'll see how long that lasts :3c

I'd recommend this game to anyone who likes that good mini-region feel with a variety of places to explore as you progress through the story at your own pace. The game's well polished and there's secrets if you take the time to look for them, I know I haven't even found them all yet...

Okay gonna spoiler because I wanna talk about that endgame. But quick notes before I get rambling and forget:
>Is there a DawnStone, please add one if not, I wanted a Froslass so much.
>I wanna feed the Slowpoke let me give him berries
>I wanna hug every Snover
>In the Factory you don't actually need the last Rubber Band before the boss, because of the wall's passability the path isn't actually blocked
>I found 4 legends +the Betamons
>Is Zeusu's quest the only time dependent event? I completely understood what the game wanted and what the reward would be but ended up doing that quest only at the very last minute because I needed to change my clock to make it happen.

I like the story. Similarly to Journey, it's a pretty simple setup that takes the player on a fun adventure but drops a heavy perspective changer at the end; good stuff. I think though that worked well for Journey, because the ending here is a choice, this game's story could use a little more buildup. I like the twists but for something as important as a child disappearing and being assumed dead (literally gasped out loud when I read that bit for the first time) I think there should have been a few more characters affected and acknowledging the danger of the ceremony.

>The first hint of anything being off that I saw was a mention from the second Guardian, and that was a pretty vague line alluding that the ceremony went bad last year. I'm fine with how this played out but it is a solid 2/3s into the game already and seems a bit late to only just start planting seeds of the final reveals/confrontations.
>Kadin's actions make for a good dramatic ending but...the motivation seems weak when I stop and think about it. If his only goal is to stop Pine/The ceremony then he really waited too long to do it. Showing up at the mountaintop was never going to save another kid from suffering the same way he did; Kadin could have intervened at literally any earlier point in the ceremony or even just come back into the public with his story in the year since he was bearer, but yeah then we wouldn't get the big emotional clash here at the end.
>People had to have noticed that a kid disappeared. But there's no character showing a hint of concern for the player's safety or acting like the route could be dangerous at all.

Tomix9tomix · Feb 29, 2020

Aki said:
~Snip snip~

AHHHH Sorry it took me so long to get around to replying!
Yeah you defs found some stuff that needs to be fixed, the rubber band skip, I just straight up forget that Snover needs a dawn stone. Zeusu's quest being the only time dependent one is more a flaw of me being lazy/uncreative. I originally planned for a day time quest but I couldn't think of a new unique small side quest, in hind sight maybe I should've just copied the format from the Zeusu quest of battling a Poke that only appears at a certain time of day.

Yeah seeing as you've played all my games you've probably seen that I fail to set up a "plot twist" well, I tried to do it a bit better this year. I think in terms of alluding to the future reveals I did better than journey? Maybe? I found it a bit hard because knowing the full story in my head as I made the game I would often think that I gave too much away. Like when I wrote Agris' dialogue about "Something special happening this year", I thought when the player found out that something happened to the bearer last year, they would think for sure that the bearer is actually alive, but yeah that's just me knowing too much and not being able to judge it properly.

Not me making an excuse but a tiny tiny tiny detail in Snowcrown Village. There is an old couple, one of them mentions that they enjoy being with their wife but they do miss other company. And if you look at the shelf they have a picture of them with a grand child. Again, really minuscule hint so I'm not trying to excuse anything, just wanted to share. When you beat the game Kadin actually moves back in with them :P.

I guess the only other real hint, and this one is actually somewhat big, but you have to search for it, if you go deep into Mt. Mosco before beating the game you find Kadin preparing. The dialogue of the small event wasn't great but I was kinda rushing. And just to share another fun tidbit, if you beat the game and fail to catch lugia, you can go to where you would find Kadin in the cave and fight lugia again.

Unto the next story point, Kadin's actions. Now if I have to try and explain it out of the game, it obviously means I did a bad job getting it across, so not trying to excuse myself, just figured I may as well explain what was in my head, even if that is different than what ended up being in the game. For me, Kadin's actions are fueled by emotions, his goal is revenge, he experienced "hell" for a week, so he wants to ruin what Pine valued over him. The problem is that it is very easy for Kadin to pretend that he is acting rationally, he tries to take a moral high ground by framing that the issue is that Pine values the tradition over life. In reality that isn't Kadin's problem, Kadin's problem is that Pine valued the tradition over THEM. It is a personal vendetta. They didn't really care about stopping the ceremony, or saving more kids, they cared about punishing and shaming Pine but hide behind a false goal of saving the future.

Now probably why this becomes a bit blurred and not so clear in the game. While Kadin is fighting purely based on emotions, Agris is fighting rationally with logic. He listened to Kadin's story and found rationality in his goal, Agris saw Kadin as someone acting to save children of the future and wanted to help. That is what Agris believed he was following. But as it was Kadin's story he did not interfere, only followed and supported.

Hopefully that makes some sense? But yeah I can't even begin to try and excuse myself about leading up to the reveal that a child was assumed dead, that was too much and too sudden. [\SPOILER]

Yin · Sep 7, 2022

Amazing game!

Completed Pokémon Gratia

manta

★★★★★

Tomix9tomix

The beetle is waking up

Ekat

That One Guy's GF

Tomix9tomix

The beetle is waking up

Ekat

That One Guy's GF

Elle

Maker of Many and Finisher of Few

Tomix9tomix

The beetle is waking up

Aki

Ace trainer

Tomix9tomix

The beetle is waking up

Yin

Queen of out-dated memes