Released Pokemon Kiwami

AenaonDogsky · Aug 17, 2021

An atmospheric crossover game with writing and setting potential, and a possible sub-story implementation that could get really interesting with further development.

Thoughts:

- different icon for the game.exe is a nice touch, always makes the game feel unique, also good work on the title screen

- chapter 1 new beginnings fades in way too soon, same thing with the beginning disclaimer

- transition to past scene where you get to pick your starter is very sudden

- special ability log would benefit from a big list on screen, rather than multiple small textboxes

- while most people wouldn't mind using gen 3 tiles with gen 4 characters, many other characters are using gen 3 sprites. It's generally best practice to follow a consistent art direction. There are many ready-made OW packs all over the net, and here of course

- back on the "line/application" map, there's no music

- speaking of music this game's filesize is insanely big. You should generally strive to make the game as small (in terms of filesize) as possible. Reason being, not only does it take excessive space without it serving any purpose, but it's also a pain to DL for a lot of people. If you still think it's necessary to include a lot of tracks, then use Audacity, export them in smaller bitrates, and loop them (so you can even cut half of the track that way, and have it loop appropriately while also saving on space!). Not to mention that in this version, no more than 5-6 tracks max are used, so you should remove the others. If you began making the game by aiming too high and mapping different locations and throwing a bunch of music there, then this might be a consequence of that. Also, this kind of filesize will make uploading newer versions excrutiating.

- The writing is good, there is some (necessary for jam games) exposition here and there, and perhaps the dialogue feels too writer-y at times (meaning, it sounds more like written communication than verbal, BUT, that said, this means you have good writing skills. The trick is to pay attention to everyday conversations and have those slice-of-life parts sound less write-y while big cutscenes and dramatic conversations are a-ok). Wait, this gets really better as I am progressing through the game, so consider what I said for the intro, mostly.

- I think Kumitai would definitely benefit from connected maps. At least don't have black bars around the exterior maps (so map with at least 6y and 8x filler tiles), you can still make them non-connected, but the player shouldn't be seeing black bars when walking towards a "transfer map" event

- while the mapping uses tiles in a strange way, it's kinda interesting in its own way, and I think your general mapping sense is good.

- the OW recolors are good, they need a bit more color polish I think

- "sorry you're not allowed in here, come back later" that's what a guy guarding the park said. But if I am not allowed there why should I come back later? xD

- it seems you are using a loooooot of map transfer events to cover the big-ass streets, you might have benefited from the most recent version of Essentials, where you can actually only use one event and adjust its width and height, so that it covers multiple tiles. Although your map design, if it were more compact to begin with, would have covered for that anyway (assuming you still won't go with map connections.)

- the dialogue boxes feel like they're flowing a bit too fast and "continuously" maybe use the "wait" command inbetween certain parts of changing character dialogue to make it a bit slower?

- I can see how the city layout might get confusing for a lot of players, I have good orientation when it comes to games (got that skill from finding the fastest and most efficient way to the fridge all these years) but I do think most people would get both annoyed and confused.

- oh, I see you've implemented minigames, these are fun. But should the baseball guy's sprite disappear when you activate that minigame? Also, what do you get for winning them?

- Most people wouldn't read that sign that said "you can play at the end of the hallway", and the tiles over there don't even indicate that you can transfer to a different part of the building

- "Girl 1" and "Boy 2" just don't feel like proper namebox names, either give them unique names or simply "girl"/boy. Same with Yakuza 1 and 2 later on

- Good to see that you get autohealed after every orphanage fight

- Yoshiya's OW sprite needs a bit more work

- Yoshiya's trainer sprite has improper pixel density, and needs a bit more work too

- I like the way the characters interact with each other. Sure, it's a bit dramatic as is with the series you're replicating, but it doesn't feel forced. As I said before, this means you have writing skill, just give it some more time to develop!

- both coin case guy and Yoshiya should tell you what they're giving you before they do ("here's a coin case kid, don't need it no more") etc.

- Getting back to sunflower should mention the fact that its the orphanage, people might get confused

- the man in need in the next town is too expositionary with his dialogue and the way he insta-trusts and tells the player everything (the dialogue is good, and I understand the jam limits so don't think too much about it. Just keep it in mind for future situations like this)

- I knew you were short on time, but Mushi Town's layout could be a bit better. There's far too many buildings for the typical small town. Simply compare the number of buildings to that of the official small town maps.

- Why would a gym leader instantly bring a college kid with him on a raid? He should at least show some hesitance. Perhaps have an (unofficial) battle just so that the leader can shut up the over-confident youth only to be surprised by this particular MCs strengths, and then reconsider a bit?

- I followed my heart and chose oshawott, was not disappointed, drizzle water gun and razor shell, and fury cutter just swept everything lol!

- if there's a healing machine right before the boss, and inside the yakuza hideout, wouldn't that mean they could heal their mons whenever they wanted and simply overwhelm you? lol

- should you be able to go to the gym straight away before giving the Lunatone back to its owner? or is this automatic?

- just how many staravia does she have? LOL I kinda laughed because this is what should realistically happen with newbie trainers! Also it's a bug gym so seems like she made the right choice

- gym leader speech feels rushed, but it's understandable given the jam deadline

- I think a shedinja is too much for a first gym fight, players shouldn't be expected to seek out a mon with a super-effective move

- It'd be fun if gang battles were raid battles, there's a plugin for the newest version of essentials for that

- Better start with a clean version of Essentials with all the demo maps and stuff removed (careful about what you remove though) and keep the demo maps on a separate project. That way you'll have a clean installation. Keep the PBS files though, you might break some stuff if you aren't careful.

- waiting for the credits to finish rolling just to access free roam is a bit slow, could you increase their speed? (you can do so in the credit script)

- what is going on with free roam events? the amon guy is just a random 100 level trainer?

Bugs:

- Essentials apostrophe problem (or is it font related?), also other symbols including some commas (perhaps try standard latin/US keyboard layout?)

- Lab doesn't have music (can be a design choice)

- yuki simply goes POOF instead of moving away from the camera and going poof properly

- dewott is flying (improper positioning)

- no victory music

- consider replacing blank tiles with fully-black tiles (or at least RGB 1, 1, 1 in case you have transparency probles with your tileset) since Maruno introduced a change after either 17 or 18 which made blank tiles have reflections.

- walking sprite of main character when moving left or right has transparent pixels in his hair. Also he gets MORE hair during one frame and then loses it the next. Wish this could happen IRL

- Haruka is facing away from the player when Kiryu is sitting on the table chatting with you

- when nurse joy heals your mons, and after she thanks you, she turns her back on you LOL, I mean that's some good quality service

- some Maharaja's NPCs have no dialogue, one of them might be related to the "counter" tile not being set to "counter" in the properties

- you can walk on certain doors that dont have transfer events e.g. Nakamichi alley

- the map transfer event that gets you to the batting center makes you face the "up" direction instead of right

- the batting center event transfer to outside is positioned on the entrance, rather than behind the entrance (since it's a player touch event, it's designed to work by being set on the black inaccessible tile, rather than the "mat" tile)

- Kamumitai train station is inaccessible, yet there's no indication, the player simply bumps at the end of the map

- you can walk on angelo stone

- tenkaichi alley transfers to orphanage also have the same improper player facing direction post-transfer bug

- supporo alley sign/board has no text

- shichifuku street southwestern part has no dialogue indicating you cant go further south or west

- raticate floats, and so does eevee's backsprite

- yuki appearing post-yoshiya battle proceeds to insta-transport near the MC as if she were a dimension-bending quantum physics controlling manchester fan

- riolu floats too

- goodbye scene (before you pack your things) BGM lingers even after it ends

- player character doesnt look towards Saren when they talk the second time in the orphanage

- flying bidoof

- connected tree tiles should not be "cut" from each other

- black borders everywhere on the route map too

- floating starly

- Mushi Town black bars everywhere too

- you can walk on top of the mushi western checkpoint

- Hotaru's dialogue and prompts are a bit jumbled, nameboxes pop up when they shouldn't and parenthesis sentences show up consecutively

- flying zangoose

- Ikoda disappears without actually going off screen

- the various gangsters insta-appear too

- gangster battles keep happening if you pass by their sight range again!

- floating espeon

- trying to leave the yakuza building from the direction the 3 yakuza aren't guarding, doesn't show any indiciation, player simply bumps

- empty box before fighting the three yakuza

- no machine healing indication when healing (tho I kinda prefer it that way, but it's not conventional)

- the now defeated thug (right before the boss) moves with you as he stays at the edge of the screen (set his control switch to A, and a make a new, blank, through event page with A ON)

- transfer back to town after you defeat the boss is sudden, like some of the previous transfers

- tree tile problems in Mushi

- most of the leader's mons are floating

- gym leader defeat event doesnt automatically activate

- makoto faces the wrong direction when transferred outside post-win

- gang goes poof when defeated in checkpoint

- same with Yuuki next map, back in the big city

Vision Feedback:

- Your disclaimer about the language made me prepare for angsty and edgy dialogue, which wasn't the case! The writing is way better than what I was readying myself for. That said, and because you have the necessary writing skills to develop this further, I would advise you to avoid using any kind of swearing. This will force you to think around insults, and up your language skills, and would also befit the pokemon side of the game more. Also mentions of actual violence are scarce in pokemon games (bar Gen 5's direct attack towards the player on part of Ghetsis). I believe that you have what it takes to strike a good balance and marry the two worlds together without one taking precedence over the other. Take the main game's language, and expressions of "violence" in corresponding situations as a reference, and try to adjust your world to that. While gambling was a thing in the JP versions of the earlier games, it's not a thing now, but you can still include it in if you are being careful about it (at least include a message that it's really bad, preferably integrated into the story, there are minors playing these games too...). As I said, you can do this.

- Subjective: I think it would be better both for you as a creator, and for the game's overall structure, to make a pokemon-inspired version of the Yakuza in a lore-friendly way, that could fit in with the Pokemon world. Team Rocket is supposed to be the Yakuza of the pokemon world, but that doesn't mean you cant come up with a different organization. Aiming to be as original as you can is a great way to sharpen your story and writing skills, despite the fact that this is clearly a Pokemon x Yakuza series game. This is of course subjective opinion, but just think of the possibilities of a well-handled, original yakuza-like gang in a setting of your own!

- There's a lot of resource packs here that include gen 4 style tilesets, which seems to be the overall style you're aiming for, and many from this game jam too. So post-game jam, you should use these tilesets to create a style-coherent city. Since the city itself is central to the game, you need to give this as much attention as you can.

- Take your time to flesh out the dialogue so that it flows a bit steadier, since you won't be limited by the jam's necessary time constraints.

- The pinnacle of good storytelling and writing in a crossover of this context, especially within an already-established world such as Pokemon, is a subtle expression that doesn't overly rely on presenting the one's themes over the other's. In this case, you don't need to adress alcohol and other issues in the matter the Yakuza series does, as it gets too far away from Pokemon. But you can still show these themes in a manner that can be understood by older audiences, without being overtly expressed. I'm confident you can do this, so after the well-deserved game jam break, take a moment to consider what's the best way to tackle this!

Strong Suite: Writing, Atmosphere, Character Interactions

Feel: 90s gangs, dramatic, other franchise-related

Released Pokemon Kiwami

AenaonDogsky

Arbiter of Doggos