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Completed Pokémon Suit & Tie

This project is complete. Any future revisions will be bug fixes or small updates.
Project Status
Discontinued

Title Screen 2.png


Screenshots

Shadow Pidgeotto.png
Rocket Intro.png
Bill battle.png
Poke snack.png
Proton Event.png
Oak Battle.png

Features

As you can probably tell by the title screen, you will start off the game with an Eevee
Complete a 3 Chapter Story that breaks past 2 hours in length

Explore Kanto, 16 years before the events of FRLG
Shadow Pokémon make a return
FRLG/RSE styled UI and Sound

Made Using

Pokémon Essentials v18
RPG Maker XP

Photoshop
Audacity


Team

Lead Developer:
Vxpor (Me)
With the help of: lichenprincess

Notes:

This is the first project I have actually released to the public and I feel like those who will play it will have a blast! I am super excited to finally show off this project. The main focus of this game was to cut out plot holes and that is exactly what I aimed to do. Bringing back Shadow Pokémon was a must for me as well, as I loved both of the Pokémon Gamecube games and wanted to bring people a similar experience, just in a different form. If you play my game and have any questions, please feel free to reach out and I will gladly be willing to help you out.

Now that this project is complete, I will be transitioning back to my main, larger project by the name of
Pokémon Tabula Rasa. If you are interested in checking out my other work, then please check out that project of mine, as we are working diligently to make it one of the best fangames out there. If you don't want to, that's cool too ;)
Downloads
Game Download (v2.1) | Resource Pack

Patches


Credits

A game by Vxpor

With the Help of:
lichenprincess

Winter Jam 2 Graphics
Relic Castle Staff

GBA-Style Pokémon Sprites
Spriters-Resource

FRLG/RSE Menu Elements
Spriters-Resource

Roaming Icons
Grand Emperor of Zelron & WolfPP

Roaming Icon Script
FL

Seagallop (boat "cutscene") & Password in Events
Mr. Gela

Wall Clock Script & Graphics
FL; adapted to v18 by Ardicoozer

Wall Clock Tile
Spriters-Resource

Stat Down/Up Animation
KleinStudio, bo4p5687, & LDEJRuff

DS Evolution Scene
KleinStudio

Intro Background
Colormush on Tumblr

Pokemon Gender Symbol
Pokémon Splice

Bill Trainer Sprite
Bulbapedia (Fame Checker)

Battle Animations
- The Pokemon Reborn team -
Amethyst, Jan, Inuki, Smeargletail, Mde, Koyo, Pokemon Mystery Universe, & eslug

Archer, Proton, Petrel, & Ariana Overworld Sprites
Aveontrainer

Archer, Proton, & Ariana Trainer Sprites
Pokemonrater

Plugins by Luka S.J
Luka's Scripting Utilities
Modular Title Screen

Plugins by Marin
Marin's Scripting Utilities
Marin's Footprints

Some Awesome Essentials Tutorials
Thundaga on YouTube/Twitch

Simple Quest System + UI 1.01
Mej71; Updated for v18 by derFischae

Battle Introductions
bo4p5687 & Richard PT

FRLG Summary Screen and Party Screen
Seyuna

Simple Exit Arrows
Tustin2121

Mid Battle Dialogue/Scripted Battles
Golisopod User & Luka SJ

Following Pokemon EX
Golisopod User, Help-14, zingzags, Rayd12smitty, mej71, Help-14, PurpleZaffre, & Akizakura16

Overworld/Following Pokemon Sprites
Generation 8 Project for v18

Essentials Text Skip Tutorial
Amethyst & Kurotsune

Kanto Region Map & Boat Tileset
JohtoBlaziken's Bootleg Pokémon FireRed

RGSS FmodEx extension
FIRELIGHT TECHNOLOGIES PTY LTD., Enterbrain, Nuri Yuri, & GiraPrimal

Implementing missing sound effects
DerxwnaKapsyla

Shadow Type Icon
Pokemon Essentials v17.2

Misc. Cutscene Sound Effects
Toby Fox

Undertale Save Text Box
Spriters Resource & Toby Fox

Fast Talking Phone Voice
Baby Lamb Creations on YouTube

BW 'Shout' Sound Effect
Boonzeet's Message Effect Script

Trainer Intro: Looping BGM instead of ME
Boonzeet

Battle! Bede & Avery Remixes (Wes Battle)
Zame

Wes Sprites
DARKSHADE, Kagex

Battle Revolution Announcer Voice Lines
Spriters-Resource

Car Start/Departure Sound Effect
BigSoundBank.com

Record Scratch Sound Effect
freesound.org

Vs. Alder GBA Remix
Kumquat

RPG Maker XP
Enterbrain

"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
help-14 Rataime
IceGod64 SoundSpawn
Jacob O. Wobbrock the__end
KitsuneKouta Venom12
Lisa Anthony Wachunga
Luka S.J
and everyone else who helped out

(And if there are any credits I missed, please let me know!)

Winter Jam 2 Graphic Usage

Pokeball:
After talking with the Silph Co president, you will get your starter inside an upside-down green Poké Ball named the Silph Ball

Suit Trainer:
In this game, the trainer wearing a suit will actually be the character you play as. During the intro sequence, you will pick from one of the three trainer outfits. These have been slightly edited to make the hair and eye colors match. (You can change your suit, but only after you beat the game)

Letter with Note:
Found in the back of the player's truck after beating the two team rocket grunts at the beginning of the game. You will get this again, but with text on it after talking to Bill on Route 25. After all of that, you will obtain the final version with the decrypted text inside Lavender Town's Pokémon Tower.

Leaf:
In one of three pots in a secret room on the S.S. Libra. Because it is tracked with a variable, it will be in the last pot interacted with out of the three. To get to the Celebi room, you have to interact with all of the other bookshelves on the S.S. Libra. On the last bookshelf that is interacted with, you will get a message telling you to take a book out. Once this is done, go to the second floor of the S.S. Libra and enter the room farthest to the left. Once you interact with this bookshelf, it will ask you if you want to move it aside. Once done, the secret room of Celebi is revealed. (NOTE: One of the bookshelves that need to be interacted with is on the 3rd floor of the S.S. Libra. To complete the event, DO NOT TALK TO THE CAPTAIN THAT IS BLOCKING THE STAIRS. If you talk to the captain, you will not be able to go back down to access the secret room because it will roll the credits.)

Reach Out Here
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to reach out at the outlets below:
Email: shatteredn3xus@gmail.com
Discord: N3xus_#5810

Discord Server
 
Last edited:

xylophonemaster

Rookie
Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2021
Posts
1
nice I'm adding it to my wheel for my youtube channel
- Giratina Musics (Master of Souls) -
yt channel: Giratina Playz (the one with 6 subs at the time of posting it)
 

Vxpor

Elite Trainer
Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2020
Posts
58
UPDATE:
Quick Patch 1.0.1 has been released! This patch fixes two bugs. Those two being the adjusting of Pokémon's level in battle and Pokémon over a certain level not obeying the trainer.

To update to this version, download the patch and move the "Data" folder into the game's directory and overwrite any of the files that are asked to be overwritten.
 

Aryesh

¯\_(ツ)_/– •Peter
Member
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Posts
26
If it is 16 yrs old then prof. Oak should be a bit young. 😂😂
 

Vxpor

Elite Trainer
Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2020
Posts
58
If it is 16 yrs old then prof. Oak should be a bit young. 😂😂
That was the plan originally. I had planned on having younger versions of Oak and Giovanni, but due to time constraints and lack of a larger team, we couldn't, but aside from that, I totally agree
 

doof

banished doof
Member
Heya, I've really been enjoying the game so far, but when I get to this point, the cutscene freezes.
It's in Bill's House the first time you go there, the grunt walks in, turns to the left, and then nothing else happens.

Suit&Tie_Softlock.png
 

Vxpor

Elite Trainer
Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2020
Posts
58
Heya, I've really been enjoying the game so far, but when I get to this point, the cutscene freezes.
It's in Bill's House the first time you go there, the grunt walks in, turns to the left, and then nothing else happens.

View attachment 3070
Hey there, sorry for the long wait. The new update 1.5.5 should fix this issue. The problem was a simple collision issue that I missed while bug testing. Thanks for pointing this out!
 
Hey, I've been playing the game! Here are some of the bugs I've found so far. (Also, adding pbs to the patch isn't going to do anything to alter the game for the player. It's the data files that actually store that info when you recompile.)

1. Your.
2. I got this error when trying to change costumes.
3. When I selected red, I got black. When I selected black, nothing changed.
4. Blank NPC.
5. Sole.
6. Priority.
7. Passage.
8. Passage.
9. Blank NPC.
10. Visible void.
11. Visible void.
12. Text gets cut off.
13. I actually have a full party of shadow Pokémon.
14. All the sentences in this conversation lack capitalization at the beginning.
15. This Slowpoke isn't using the shadow graphic.
16. Both NPCs are blank.
17. Your.
18. The game freezes as we set sail. This is where I've stopped for now.

1.
Txuhj2Z.png

2.
KAosFx1.png

3.
1p9CrLi.png

4.
v3RQNww.png

5.
HcPaBcG.png

6.
vXWDHg4.png

7.
rzy0fNk.png

8.
gp96zkF.png

9.
EtYinkg.png

10.
uNEf3Cp.png

11.
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12.
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13.
agLZYNE.png

14.
6RjofK1.png

15.
PN9p6pg.png

16.
i95if5b.png

17.
BTkbSVH.png

18.
VcZsvpQ.png
 

Vxpor

Elite Trainer
Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2020
Posts
58
Hey, I've been playing the game! Here are some of the bugs I've found so far. (Also, adding pbs to the patch isn't going to do anything to alter the game for the player. It's the data files that actually store that info when you recompile.)

1. Your.
2. I got this error when trying to change costumes.
3. When I selected red, I got black. When I selected black, nothing changed.
4. Blank NPC.
5. Sole.
6. Priority.
7. Passage.
8. Passage.
9. Blank NPC.
10. Visible void.
11. Visible void.
12. Text gets cut off.
13. I actually have a full party of shadow Pokémon.
14. All the sentences in this conversation lack capitalization at the beginning.
15. This Slowpoke isn't using the shadow graphic.
16. Both NPCs are blank.
17. Your.
18. The game freezes as we set sail. This is where I've stopped for now.

1.
Txuhj2Z.png

2.
KAosFx1.png

3.
1p9CrLi.png

4.
v3RQNww.png

5.
HcPaBcG.png

6.
vXWDHg4.png

7.
rzy0fNk.png

8.
gp96zkF.png

9.
EtYinkg.png

10.
uNEf3Cp.png

11.
vT13VPC.png

12.
6ZaQETK.png

13.
agLZYNE.png

14.
6RjofK1.png

15.
PN9p6pg.png

16.
i95if5b.png

17.
BTkbSVH.png

18.
VcZsvpQ.png
Hey there Ekat, glad you have been playing the game so far and I hope you have somewhat enjoyed your experience so far. Thanks for the tip on the PBS and .dat files. I haven't publicly released a game until this one and didn't actually know that about patches, which is definitely good to know for the future. Showing off the bugs you've found with details is awesome and I will be looking into the ones you have shown. A patch for all of this should be out in the next day or so :)
 

ThatWelshOne_

Champion
Member
Hey there! I just finished your game. Odd I didn't get softlocked at the boat scene like Ekat did. Anyway, I enjoyed the experience. Here are my thoughts:

1. Eevee is my favourite Pokémon.
2. I enjoyed the inclusion of Shadow Pokémon. You don't see that much in fangames.
3. I really liked how you went all out with the Gen 3 aesthetic, battle UI and all.
4. The flavour text you added everywhere really brought particular environments to life.
5. The use of camera panning, pauses in dialogue and sound effects (I loved the Animal Crossing-esque chitter) were used well.
6. The gameplay was challenging at times, although I have mixed feelings on this.

1. I'm not entirely sure what the story was, but that could just be me. Like, why did the player go work for Silph Co. to then be poached by Professor Oak and forced to abandon his life?
2. I think there were too many trainers and the levels of trainer Pokémon were a little all over the place, especially on the approach to Cerulean Cape.
3. There were several instances where I felt like the dialogue was too informal. For example, the old lady in Pokémon Tower saying something like "Let me take a look at that real quick".
4. The battle in Bill's house was pretty difficult for reasons I won't spoil. Maybe look at the balance of this fight? I can definitely imagine some people getting softlocked by this battle.
5. I'll point out some specific examples of this one in the bugs section, but there were issues with grammar at times.

Ekat has already pointed out some of these, but I'm too lazy to cross-compare, so I'll just include everything I saw.

1. Remember.
2. Clipboard clipping through the table.
3. Number of packages, not amount.
4. I lost to the second grunt, so it doesn't make sense for the Dojo dude to say I took out both grunts. Also, extraordinary.
5. Intention.
6. Snagging.
7. Its.
8. Have.
9. "...so I destroyed the all blueprints..." doesn't make sense.
10. Default end speech for this trainer and the Fisherman has the default battle start about comfy shorts.
11. This cutscene is bugged if the player whites out. Luckily, the event can still play out.
12. Eevee.
13. Most of the trainers on this route have no dialogue after defeating them.
14. No cry.
15. No BGM set, so this route has Lavender Town music.
16. BGM doesn't restore after the interaction with the old lady.
17. Who's and he calls me "PN" in the previous line (should be \PN).
18. Enemy status icon is misaligned.
19. No shadow sprite for Slowpoke.
20. Void on the right during this cutscene.
21. Your.

A few other things I noticed but didn't get screenshots for:
BGM doesn't restart after the conversation with Koichi at the truck.
The trainer intro music still plays after the battle with the fourth Dojo trainer.
In the battle in Bill's house, when you defeat the grunt, she says something like "Your truck is stupid anyway", which I guess is what she would say if you beat her at the truck.
BGM doesn't restore after the cutscene with the shadow figure in Silph Co.
There was an issue with unusually long pauses between certain sound effects, e.g. picking up an item, and the BGM restoring. I can't remember if it was like this in FRLG. Maybe it was.

I don't think the bookcase puzzle to unlock Celebi's room works? Unless it needs to be done in a certain order.

1.
ss1.png


2.
ss2.png


3.
ss3.png


4.
ss4.png


5.
ss5.png


6.
ss6.png


7.
ss7.png


8.
ss8.png


9.
ss9.png


10.
ss10.png


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ss11.png


12.
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15.
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16.
ss18.png


17.
ss19.png


18.
ss20.png


19.
ss21.png


20.
ss22.png


21.
ss23.png

Overall, I enjoyed this entry a lot! I look forward to how you continue to develop the story that was teased at the end of the game, either in future updates to this game or as a sequel in the next Game Jam. 😀
 
Last edited:

Vxpor

Elite Trainer
Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2020
Posts
58
Hey there! I just finished your game. Odd I didn't get softlocked at the boat scene like Ekat did. Anyway, I enjoyed the experience. Here are my thoughts:

1. Eevee is my favourite Pokémon.
2. I enjoyed the inclusion of Shadow Pokémon. You don't see that much in fangames.
3. I really liked how you went all out with the Gen 3 aesthetic, battle UI and all.
4. The flavour text you added everywhere really brought particular environments to life.
5. The use of camera panning, pauses in dialogue and sound effects (I loved the Animal Crossing-esque chitter) were used well.
6. The gameplay was challenging at times, although I have mixed feelings on this.

1. I'm not entirely sure what the story was, but that could just be me. Like, why did the player go work for Silph Co. to then be poached by Professor Oak and forced to abandon his life?
2. I think there were too many trainers and the levels of trainer Pokémon were a little all over the place, especially on the approach to Cerulean Cape.
3. There were several instances where I felt like the dialogue was too informal. For example, the old lady in Pokémon Tower saying something like "Let me take a look at that real quick".
4. The battle in Bill's house was pretty difficult for reasons I won't spoil. Maybe look at the balance of this fight? I can definitely imagine some people getting softlocked by this battle.
5. I'll point out some specific examples of this one in the bugs section, but there were issues with grammar at times.

Ekat has already pointed out some of these, but I'm too lazy to cross-compare, so I'll just include everything I saw.

1. Remember.
2. Clipboard clipping through the table.
3. Number of packages, not amount.
4. I lost to the second grunt, so it doesn't make sense for the Dojo dude to say I took out both grunts. Also, extraordinary.
5. Intention.
6. Snagging.
7. Its.
8. Have.
9. "...so I destroyed the all blueprints..." doesn't make sense.
10. Default end speech for this trainer and the Fisherman has the default battle start about comfy shorts.
11. This cutscene is bugged if the player whites out. Luckily, the event can still play out.
12. Eevee.
13. Most of the trainers on this route have no dialogue after defeating them.
14. No cry.
15. No BGM set, so this route has Lavender Town music.
16. BGM doesn't restore after the interaction with the old lady.
17. Who's and he calls me "PN" in the previous line (should be \PN).
18. Enemy status icon is misaligned.
19. No shadow sprite for Slowpoke.
20. Void on the right during this cutscene.
21. Your.

A few other things I noticed but didn't get screenshots for:
BGM doesn't restart after the conversation with Koichi at the truck.
The trainer intro music still plays after the battle with the fourth Dojo trainer.
In the battle in Bill's house, when you defeat the grunt, she says something like "Your truck is stupid anyway", which I guess is what she would say if you beat her at the truck.
BGM doesn't restore after the cutscene with the shadow figure in Silph Co.
There was an issue with unusually long pauses between certain sound effects, e.g. picking up an item, and the BGM restoring. I can't remember if it was like this in FRLG. Maybe it was.

I don't think the bookcase puzzle to unlock Celebi's room works? Unless it needs to be done in a certain order.

1.View attachment 3189

2.View attachment 3167

3.View attachment 3168

4. View attachment 3169

5. View attachment 3170

6.View attachment 3171

7.View attachment 3172

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21.View attachment 3188

Overall, I enjoyed this entry a lot! I look forward to how you continue to develop the story that was teased at the end of the game, either in future updates to this game or as a sequel in the next Game Jam. 😀
Hey, I'm glad you enjoyed your experience and I wish I could have made it better in the time I had for the Jam. Like I said in previous messages, this was my first publicly released game and it was definitely a good benchmark for projects to come. In the spoilers below, I will be talking about a couple of points that people may not have gotten through context clues in the story:

It may have been difficult for people to remember, or if they haven't even played the game at all, but the end of the game flows right into the beginning of Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness. One of my goals for this game was to fill in the gap between the two games (Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness).

My plan for what happens after the game was for the player to eventually land in Orre after the S.S. Libra was stolen by Shadow Lugia. After landing in Orre and coming off of the wreckage of the S.S. Libra, the protagonist would leave there for the Pokémon Lab and eventually become Professor Krane (The professor from Pokémon XD).

For stuff like dialogue being informal and other small details like that, it is sort of meant to be informal at times because I want the player to feel like these conversations that the characters have are sort of real in a way. This was intentional so character interactions seemed not "as scripted" at times.

Most of my attention to detail I included was derived from games like Undertale. This game in particular really broke the barrier for games being strictly formal a lot of the time. I also love doing a lot of flavor text because I feel people nowadays don't really explore areas and objects as they used to.

My goal for most of my games, including this one, is to be different, and that's what I tried to provide here in Suit & Tie. Even though this game is set in Kanto, which has been the case for many Pokémon games over the years, I wanted to make it feel like it was a totally new experience.

Other than that, stuff like balancing issues was prevalent and I can take the blame for that. A lot of the balancing was last minute and I even had to push out patches for some of it on day 1. I love getting constructive criticism and that is what you and Ekat did perfectly and I respect that a lot.

Overall, this was a great benchmark as well as a great learning experience for me as a developer. I may decide to expand upon the story in the next Game Jam, but who knows.

Besides all of that, most of, if not all of the bugs you mentioned should be fixed in the upcoming 2.0 Update titled "Overhaul" which should be coming out in the next day or so.
 

ThatWelshOne_

Champion
Member
Thank you for addressing some of the points I mentioned in my feedback. Looking back, I was a little harsh in my critiques - I'll put that down to writing my feedback late at night! I'll respond to the rest of your reply in a spoiler so as to not reveal anything about the game.

It hadn't registered in my mind that the boat was bound for Orre. I always confuse this with Sinnoh for some reason, which is why I was lost. It makes much more sense now, including the ending cutscene.

The dialogue thing is a style choice. You do what you think makes sense. However, I feel like certain characters should be identified by how they speak, whether it's in a strong southern US dialect or whatever. Having all NPCs talk in a similar way means any one NPC is difficult to distinguish from another.

I think I missed a lot of subtleties in your game, something for which I'll end up playing back through, including some side quests I didn't finish, like the key in the sink in the beginning house. I'll also check out the post-game content at some point. I'm not sure how much there is, whether it's the rest of the region or just one more city, but there are some things I definitely want to see.

Anyway, I'll end this review of a review there. Looking forward to what's next as I put earlier.
 

luxdiablo

Berserk Inferno
Moderator
Joined
Jun 21, 2019
Posts
309
Hi! I got around to playing your game, and I wanted to drop my thoughts:

I think the gameplay was honestly really neat. I love how you hit it home with the Gen 3 aesthetic, from the music to the UI, to the battles, everything felt super FRLG to me, which was perfect. A lot of games use the Gen 3 OW style with a more 'modern' UI, which feels out of place, so I really loved that you took the time to make everything FRLG-based. The one thing I'd comment on is how slow the whole thing feels. For starters, the fact that you can't run indoors is kinda annoying at times. Additionally, when trainers slide into battle, that whole thing is EXCRUCIATING. Another thing is that the level balance feels kinda off in my opinion. I noticed it mainly at Nugget Bridge, with the severe amount of trainers, and there wasn't really a place to train. I think it might be worth revising some of the levels of your trainers. Another thing I enjoyed was the details. I specifically thought the little Animal Crossing voices during phone calls was neat. I liked the text effects at first, but it got to a point where it felt almost overdone.

I commented on this earlier, but I loved the FRLG look all around. There's not much to say, considering you used base Essentials graphics for the overworlds. I've never played FRLG or RBY myself, so I have no idea if the maps are original or faithful to the games, but if they are original, I'd recommend condensing them, or maybe filling them out a bit. A lot of the time, the maps felt very square and open, which is never good. I'd also recommend adding more NPCs who can do more things. Maybe a move tutor, or a groomer, or something like that would be neat. Also, I say this to everyone, but I highly recommend adding the Overworld Shadows script to your game, it works wonders. The shadow animation was also really neat, for when Shadow Pokemon appear in battle.

I think you had a very interesting take with Shadow Pokemon here. I like how the story felt like a sort of prequel to the Orre region games, in a sense. That was really neat. I enjoyed the characters, like the President, Marina, the Cleanser, etc., etc. I also liked the fact that you gave the option to 'join' Team Rocket, which impacted the Mid-Battle Dialogue. The one thing I'd say could be better is the inclusion of Professor Oak. That whole bit felt a little rushed and confusing, so I wasn't fully immersed. However, other scenes, like the bit with the President getting kidnapped, were really good. Also, it wasn't fully clear that I had the ability to catch Shadow Pokemon, so I ran through a good portion of the game with only my Eevee.

  • The MEs in your game have a LONG pause after they play. Like, for example, when healing a Pokemon, there's no music for a good 2 seconds.
  • The blackouts and waits in events are a bit too long, making the game move a lot slower.
  • I'd recommend adding some sort of alternative to the Light Flute, so it's possible to purify Shadow Pokemon easily. With the amount of content in your game, it's near impossible to reduce a Heart Gauge.
  • I would've liked to have access to all of the Eeveelutions, and I don't know why we could only receive Espeon.

- After losing to Giovanni, you can see all of the characters just kinda standing there.

1617209690284.png

Overall, this was a very solid entry, and I had a fun time playing it! Good job.
 

Vxpor

Elite Trainer
Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2020
Posts
58
Hi! I got around to playing your game, and I wanted to drop my thoughts:

I think the gameplay was honestly really neat. I love how you hit it home with the Gen 3 aesthetic, from the music to the UI, to the battles, everything felt super FRLG to me, which was perfect. A lot of games use the Gen 3 OW style with a more 'modern' UI, which feels out of place, so I really loved that you took the time to make everything FRLG-based. The one thing I'd comment on is how slow the whole thing feels. For starters, the fact that you can't run indoors is kinda annoying at times. Additionally, when trainers slide into battle, that whole thing is EXCRUCIATING. Another thing is that the level balance feels kinda off in my opinion. I noticed it mainly at Nugget Bridge, with the severe amount of trainers, and there wasn't really a place to train. I think it might be worth revising some of the levels of your trainers. Another thing I enjoyed was the details. I specifically thought the little Animal Crossing voices during phone calls was neat. I liked the text effects at first, but it got to a point where it felt almost overdone.

I commented on this earlier, but I loved the FRLG look all around. There's not much to say, considering you used base Essentials graphics for the overworlds. I've never played FRLG or RBY myself, so I have no idea if the maps are original or faithful to the games, but if they are original, I'd recommend condensing them, or maybe filling them out a bit. A lot of the time, the maps felt very square and open, which is never good. I'd also recommend adding more NPCs who can do more things. Maybe a move tutor, or a groomer, or something like that would be neat. Also, I say this to everyone, but I highly recommend adding the Overworld Shadows script to your game, it works wonders. The shadow animation was also really neat, for when Shadow Pokemon appear in battle.

I think you had a very interesting take with Shadow Pokemon here. I like how the story felt like a sort of prequel to the Orre region games, in a sense. That was really neat. I enjoyed the characters, like the President, Marina, the Cleanser, etc., etc. I also liked the fact that you gave the option to 'join' Team Rocket, which impacted the Mid-Battle Dialogue. The one thing I'd say could be better is the inclusion of Professor Oak. That whole bit felt a little rushed and confusing, so I wasn't fully immersed. However, other scenes, like the bit with the President getting kidnapped, were really good. Also, it wasn't fully clear that I had the ability to catch Shadow Pokemon, so I ran through a good portion of the game with only my Eevee.

  • The MEs in your game have a LONG pause after they play. Like, for example, when healing a Pokemon, there's no music for a good 2 seconds.
  • The blackouts and waits in events are a bit too long, making the game move a lot slower.
  • I'd recommend adding some sort of alternative to the Light Flute, so it's possible to purify Shadow Pokemon easily. With the amount of content in your game, it's near impossible to reduce a Heart Gauge.
  • I would've liked to have access to all of the Eeveelutions, and I don't know why we could only receive Espeon.

- After losing to Giovanni, you can see all of the characters just kinda standing there.

View attachment 3285

Overall, this was a very solid entry, and I had a fun time playing it! Good job.
Hey, I hope you had fun playing my Jam entry, besides the bugs of course. I wanted to comment on a couple of things you mentioned below:

Because it's a Jam entry, I wanted the pacing to feel kind of slow, but not too slow to the point where it's excruciating to play. I also agree that the Professor Oak bit was a bit rushed, but that's because I was a little rushed making the game as well. I'm not sure if you were able to make it to the post-game because of the bug you encountered, but if you were and did in fact get past the credits, there was a little more of Professor Oak that I included.

I am really happy that you, as well as many others, have noticed the little secrets and flavor text I added around. I love adding these because I feel as if most players nowadays don't explore enough and this, in a way, entices the player to explore and interact with everything.

For stuff like the battle intros, not being able to run in houses, and UI choices, this is because FRLG did these, and I wanted to replicate it almost exactly. As you said, you never actually played those two games, FRLG and RBY, but I wanted to make this game feel as Gen 3 as possible. For example, in FRLG, you are not allowed to run inside most buildings. I checked and made sure in most of the special buildings too to make sure it was as perfect as it could be. UI was a little difficult because I am not yet the greatest at Ruby scripting, but it was definitely fun to do.

Battle intros are the same way. They are slow in those games, and people use speedup switches in those games mainly for that reason alone. I was planning on adding a speedup switch to this game as well but decided against it. I maybe would have had a change of heart if I knew how to convert to MKXP.

For the maps, since the game does take place 16 years before FRLG, I wanted to have the buildings be under construction, like having scaffolding, exposed support beams, etc., but couldn't because of my team size. For map size, that's just how maps were back in the day. Everything was remade pixel for pixel from the original games, with some changes like removing some buildings, shifting sand around, adding more trees, etc. This was only to show the age that the game is taking place in (16 Years Prior to FRLG).

I can understand how you didn't like that the player doesn't get a choice when evolving their Eevee, but this was actually decided at the very beginning of the game. The intro "dream" sequence that is derived from the Mystery Dungeon series sets a variable depending on what you chose in the intro. This variable ultimately decides what Eeveelution you get and what Shadow Kanto starter you can catch when fighting the Rocket Five (Blazer, Drencher, and Sapler=Would have their individual Kanto starter typing depending on what personality was chosen for you).

I totally didn't even think about the player losing to Giovanni at the end. I will push out a fix for this as soon as possible. For the MEs being too long of pauses, I can also look into that as well.

All in all, I hope you had fun playing what you could since the bug stopped you early. I will be pushing that patch to fix that so then you can play through the very end if you wanted to do so. Other than that, I really appreciate you taking the time to play the game and the praise that you did send over🙂
 

luxdiablo

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Hey, I hope you had fun playing my Jam entry, besides the bugs of course. I wanted to comment on a couple of things you mentioned below:

Because it's a Jam entry, I wanted the pacing to feel kind of slow, but not too slow to the point where it's excruciating to play. I also agree that the Professor Oak bit was a bit rushed, but that's because I was a little rushed making the game as well. I'm not sure if you were able to make it to the post-game because of the bug you encountered, but if you were and did in fact get past the credits, there was a little more of Professor Oak that I included.

I am really happy that you, as well as many others, have noticed the little secrets and flavor text I added around. I love adding these because I feel as if most players nowadays don't explore enough and this, in a way, entices the player to explore and interact with everything.

For stuff like the battle intros, not being able to run in houses, and UI choices, this is because FRLG did these, and I wanted to replicate it almost exactly. As you said, you never actually played those two games, FRLG and RBY, but I wanted to make this game feel as Gen 3 as possible. For example, in FRLG, you are not allowed to run inside most buildings. I checked and made sure in most of the special buildings too to make sure it was as perfect as it could be. UI was a little difficult because I am not yet the greatest at Ruby scripting, but it was definitely fun to do.

Battle intros are the same way. They are slow in those games, and people use speedup switches in those games mainly for that reason alone. I was planning on adding a speedup switch to this game as well but decided against it. I maybe would have had a change of heart if I knew how to convert to MKXP.

For the maps, since the game does take place 16 years before FRLG, I wanted to have the buildings be under construction, like having scaffolding, exposed support beams, etc., but couldn't because of my team size. For map size, that's just how maps were back in the day. Everything was remade pixel for pixel from the original games, with some changes like removing some buildings, shifting sand around, adding more trees, etc. This was only to show the age that the game is taking place in (16 Years Prior to FRLG).

I can understand how you didn't like that the player doesn't get a choice when evolving their Eevee, but this was actually decided at the very beginning of the game. The intro "dream" sequence that is derived from the Mystery Dungeon series sets a variable depending on what you chose in the intro. This variable ultimately decides what Eeveelution you get and what Shadow Kanto starter you can catch when fighting the Rocket Five (Blazer, Drencher, and Sapler=Would have their individual Kanto starter typing depending on what personality was chosen for you).

I totally didn't even think about the player losing to Giovanni at the end. I will push out a fix for this as soon as possible. For the MEs being too long of pauses, I can also look into that as well.

All in all, I hope you had fun playing what you could since the bug stopped you early. I will be pushing that patch to fix that so then you can play through the very end if you wanted to do so. Other than that, I really appreciate you taking the time to play the game and the praise that you did send over🙂
LOL the bug didn't really stop me from playing, it was just funny and I thought I'd let you know. I did manage to finish the game in its entirety though!
 
Ok, so I figured out what the deal with the ship freezing on me was. The boss was saved in a weird position after the cutscene, so he wasn't able to complete his move route. Just leaving the map and coming back was able to fix things, so I could continue. Since then, others have posted, and I think they've basically covered all of my positives/criticisms with the game. Based on your responses in the thread, and some of what the others have said, I'll give a few quick notes.

Positives
  • I also loved the flavour text in the game. Not enough people remember to include the little details like that. It was fun to poke around and see what the player would say about different objects.
  • Like the others have already said, you nailed the gen 3 aesthetic. I have to give props for that as well.
  • I liked the Mystery Dungeon quiz at the beginning of the game, too. The fact that it changes some of the Pokémon selection in the world was a really cool idea.
  • The backstory between Bill and the Silph Co. president was cool to see. I know the president gets referred to as the "old man." Is he literally Bill's old man, or was that just a throwaway remark?

Feedback
  • I think if you were going for a "Kanto revisited" feeling, you should have done more to change the overworld and NPCs. It doesn't make much sense for the maps to be exact clones of FRLG when this is set 16 years in the past. Even with the assets available in default Essentials, you could have done more to swap things around. (Tiny trees, missing buildings, some cities might not be as heavily developed, etc.)
  • Like Lux said, if you added more content to the world, I think you really could have driven home the idea that this was Kanto in the past. There were a handful of quests, which I have to give kudos for. But, much of the world felt empty to me. There wasn't much incentive to explore because of it.
  • I also take issue with the pacing, but not just with the point Lux brought up. I don't think I completed one actual job while working for Silph Co., and yet the MC still gets treated like a great employee. Oak also seems to think the MC has great potential as a professor, despite having literally no background history with Pokémon.
  • From a balancing perspective, I felt like shadow Pokémon were a bit too overpowered. Even when I had shadow mons 10 levels below the opponent, they were still OHKOing. Purification was broken for me when I played, but there was really no incentive for me to use it. At the same time, I know that's how shadow Pokémon are meant to work (to be stronger than regular Pokémon). But, I feel like how they work or the selection of shadow mons could be tweaked.

Overall, I had fun playing the game. Good job with this!
 
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