Released Pokémon: Split

mindbender12 · Sep 25, 2022

I'm ready to write a full review of the demo. I've played up to the fourth gym (didn't finish it, as I'll explain below.) I'm not sure how honest to be, so hopefully this comes across as constructive.

I'll start with the positives:
World Design: I really like the maps, especially the dark versions. The light versions were a little bland, but the whole concept of maps being mirrors of each other made it decent. The routes were streamlined, and generally clear on which way to go. The towns were well designed and easy to navigate. The only complaint I have is that you didn't do a whole lot to utilize the mirror aspect. I would have loved for secrets to be hidden that would only be obvious if you compared cities to each other. Maybe have a hidden route in one town that would be a major road in the other. I know that would work better in a game akin to A Link Between Worlds, which this game isn't trying to be, but still utilizing a bit of that may add to the exploration of the world.

Character Designs: Not much to say here. Everyone looks good, albeit a lot of copied sprites from the main games, which isn't bad in of itself.

Music: Music was appropriate for each scene, and added to the game.

Story: Of what I saw of the story, it seems to be going in an interesting direction. Particularly interested in the rival's backstory.

Ok, on to the bad:
Pacing: After reading your comments regarding the timing of the dark side, I thought I would give it another go. However, after playing the demo, I'm only more convinced that the player travels over to the dark side way too late into the game. The dark side is far, far more interesting than its opposite. The characters are more interesting, the gym leaders are more memorable (I don't even remember the light side ones) and the rival is a 1000 times better than his counterpart, (with an actual motivation and backstory.) Honestly, if it wasn't for the game's whole concept of light/dark, I'd say ditch the light side entirely. The writing and characters are just much more compelling.

Story: While what I've seen of the story seems interesting, I feel like I haven't seen enough by this point. Perhaps there's some massive story dump following the fourth gym, but I didn't get to see that. The villains' barely appear at all, and though I have slight idea of what's going on, (something about an election or something) it isn't clear what the end goal is or how the election even works and how they intend to win. Doesn't help that the team only appeared at the start and basically disappeared until after what I presume to be following gym 4. Also doesn't help that I believe I haven't met their team leader yet, (unless they're very, very well hidden.) The opposite gender rival also rubs me the wrong way as (s)he doesn't really add anything to the story, and I have no reason to care about them, especially in light of the other rival who has the most developed character out of the whole game. One final note is that it isn't always clear where to go next. Routes often branch with no clear indication of where to go next, and towns can have 4+ exits leading in a variety of directions.

Balancing: I thought this was just an early game issue, but after playing 8ish hours, I can tell that this is continuing problem. For the most part, the game is challenging, but fair, however, any sense of reasonability goes out the window for gym leaders. Except for the 2nd Leader, all the gym leaders are ridiculously more challenging than anything proceeds or follows them. Not helping matters is that there are no Pokemon that are effective against the leader anywhere near their gym, (and no this isn't exclusive to the first gym; I had to spend an hour hunting down a physic mon on a bunch of different routes for the third gym.) And even if you bring a super effective mon against the leader, and level them 10 levels above the gym leader's mons, they can still ORKO with a not very effective move. I spent hours on the third gym, and ditched the game after wasting more time on the fourth leader. They came across as cheap, not challenging, and maybe I'm just not good at the game, but I grew to despise setting foot in a gym by the end.

Other: The gyms felt very boring. They didn't have anything besides fight two trainers and then the boss. Maybe a puzzle or something else would make them more interesting.

Final Thoughts:
Overall, I like this game's concept a lot. It's interesting, and opens up a lot of unique opportunities. I'm not 100% comfortable judging a game based on only half of the adventure, but that's just how it works. Maybe I came in with in the wrong expectations, but I just feel let down. Anyways, I look forward to seeing what you make next. I'd love to see a game with the theme and story that the dark side and dark rival, as I think that would be fantastic.

DaleFails · Oct 10, 2022

Announcement

v0.0.6 released to fix the following:

Bug fixes:
Power Plant entry getting-stuck bug fix
Fly points for Dawnridge and Duskridge fixed
Various text corrections
Various soundtrack amendments
Additional party heals added in
Various graphical fixes
Removed trade-obey levels
Multitude of other small bugs squashed

I will be resuming work on this project soon!

DaleFails · Oct 10, 2022

mindbender12 said:
I'm ready to write a full review of the demo. I've played up to the fourth gym (didn't finish it, as I'll explain below.) I'm not sure how honest to be, so hopefully this comes across as constructive.

I'll start with the positives:
World Design: I really like the maps, especially the dark versions. The light versions were a little bland, but the whole concept of maps being mirrors of each other made it decent. The routes were streamlined, and generally clear on which way to go. The towns were well designed and easy to navigate. The only complaint I have is that you didn't do a whole lot to utilize the mirror aspect. I would have loved for secrets to be hidden that would only be obvious if you compared cities to each other. Maybe have a hidden route in one town that would be a major road in the other. I know that would work better in a game akin to A Link Between Worlds, which this game isn't trying to be, but still utilizing a bit of that may add to the exploration of the world.

Character Designs: Not much to say here. Everyone looks good, albeit a lot of copied sprites from the main games, which isn't bad in of itself.

Music: Music was appropriate for each scene, and added to the game.

Story: Of what I saw of the story, it seems to be going in an interesting direction. Particularly interested in the rival's backstory.

Ok, on to the bad:
Pacing: After reading your comments regarding the timing of the dark side, I thought I would give it another go. However, after playing the demo, I'm only more convinced that the player travels over to the dark side way too late into the game. The dark side is far, far more interesting than its opposite. The characters are more interesting, the gym leaders are more memorable (I don't even remember the light side ones) and the rival is a 1000 times better than his counterpart, (with an actual motivation and backstory.) Honestly, if it wasn't for the game's whole concept of light/dark, I'd say ditch the light side entirely. The writing and characters are just much more compelling.

Story: While what I've seen of the story seems interesting, I feel like I haven't seen enough by this point. Perhaps there's some massive story dump following the fourth gym, but I didn't get to see that. The villains' barely appear at all, and though I have slight idea of what's going on, (something about an election or something) it isn't clear what the end goal is or how the election even works and how they intend to win. Doesn't help that the team only appeared at the start and basically disappeared until after what I presume to be following gym 4. Also doesn't help that I believe I haven't met their team leader yet, (unless they're very, very well hidden.) The opposite gender rival also rubs me the wrong way as (s)he doesn't really add anything to the story, and I have no reason to care about them, especially in light of the other rival who has the most developed character out of the whole game. One final note is that it isn't always clear where to go next. Routes often branch with no clear indication of where to go next, and towns can have 4+ exits leading in a variety of directions.

Balancing: I thought this was just an early game issue, but after playing 8ish hours, I can tell that this is continuing problem. For the most part, the game is challenging, but fair, however, any sense of reasonability goes out the window for gym leaders. Except for the 2nd Leader, all the gym leaders are ridiculously more challenging than anything proceeds or follows them. Not helping matters is that there are no Pokemon that are effective against the leader anywhere near their gym, (and no this isn't exclusive to the first gym; I had to spend an hour hunting down a physic mon on a bunch of different routes for the third gym.) And even if you bring a super effective mon against the leader, and level them 10 levels above the gym leader's mons, they can still ORKO with a not very effective move. I spent hours on the third gym, and ditched the game after wasting more time on the fourth leader. They came across as cheap, not challenging, and maybe I'm just not good at the game, but I grew to despise setting foot in a gym by the end.

Other: The gyms felt very boring. They didn't have anything besides fight two trainers and then the boss. Maybe a puzzle or something else would make them more interesting.

Final Thoughts:
Overall, I like this game's concept a lot. It's interesting, and opens up a lot of unique opportunities. I'm not 100% comfortable judging a game based on only half of the adventure, but that's just how it works. Maybe I came in with in the wrong expectations, but I just feel let down. Anyways, I look forward to seeing what you make next. I'd love to see a game with the theme and story that the dark side and dark rival, as I think that would be fantastic.

Hey - I really appreciate the full review, you've made some great points in there.

The Light Side of the region certainly needs more depth / writing giving to it. In fact, but now that the storyline is starting to pick up I am hoping to focus more on that now. I do plan to go back and beef up the storytelling on the Light Side in the early game to balance it out - thanks for the feedback on that!

Balancing is the other difficulty. Some playthroughs I can sweep the leaders too easily, on others I struggle (I always go for a variety of teams). I think the third and fourth gym could do with being a bit easier as they are certainly a big jump in difficulty. I certainly need to work on the balancing throughout somewhat.

May I ask, did you continue on and complete the Power Plant section of the game and then gen-2 style bonus fight at the end? I am not sure if I have pointed the player in that direction enough following the fourth gym. It is difficult to test these things when you make the game, as I obviously know where I am meant to go!

Again I really appreciate the review, and thanks for playing! Hopefully you'll try out the next big release!

mindbender12 · Oct 14, 2022

DaleFails said:
Hey - I really appreciate the full review, you've made some great points in there.

The Light Side of the region certainly needs more depth / writing giving to it. In fact, but now that the storyline is starting to pick up I am hoping to focus more on that now. I do plan to go back and beef up the storytelling on the Light Side in the early game to balance it out - thanks for the feedback on that!

Balancing is the other difficulty. Some playthroughs I can sweep the leaders too easily, on others I struggle (I always go for a variety of teams). I think the third and fourth gym could do with being a bit easier as they are certainly a big jump in difficulty. I certainly need to work on the balancing throughout somewhat.

May I ask, did you continue on and complete the Power Plant section of the game and then gen-2 style bonus fight at the end? I am not sure if I have pointed the player in that direction enough following the fourth gym. It is difficult to test these things when you make the game, as I obviously know where I am meant to go!

Again I really appreciate the review, and thanks for playing! Hopefully you'll try out the next big release!

I did reach the power plant area, and saw the bonus boss, but didn’t fight as by that point I was too frustrated to try different team comps. I actually got to both of them by looking for places to level up and just wondered in.

DaleFails · Oct 14, 2022

mindbender12 said:
I did reach the power plant area, and saw the bonus boss, but didn’t fight as by that point I was too frustrated to try different team comps. I actually got to both of them by looking for places to level up and just wondered in.

Awesome - I'm curious to know where you struggled most?

I have tested the game myself 9-10 teams all the way through and have used different teams each time. I ran actual tests, so no debug access etc. I never had to catch a specific Pokemon to deal with a specific opponent, my original party was always enough. My only frustration was the needing to re-heal, but I managed that by carrying additional meds.

I would sometimes skip gym 2 and gym 3 and return to them later on, but that is something I have made fairly clear in the game that you can do.

safr · Nov 23, 2022

I love how this fangame gives me the feeling of familiar pokemon game like fire red and hgss yet also added colorful touch of legendary romhack like pokemon gaia, light platinum and pokemon glazed (rip glazed you will be missed from pokemon forum)

I hope some poketuber will cover this in their video

DaleFails · Nov 25, 2022

safr said:
I love how this fangame gives me the feeling of familiar pokemon game like fire red and hgss yet also added colorful touch of legendary romhack like pokemon gaia, light platinum and pokemon glazed (rip glazed you will be missed from pokemon forum)

I hope some poketuber will cover this in their video

Thank you so much!

katrina48 · Nov 28, 2022

Pokemon split quick claw dosnt work at all in the cave thanks

Released Pokémon: Split

mindbender12

Novice

DaleFails

Trainer

DaleFails

Trainer

mindbender12

Novice

DaleFails

Trainer

safr

Elite Trainer

DaleFails

Trainer

katrina48

Novice