Released Pokemon Diadem Chapter 1: In The Rough | New Rebornlike Fangame

mikethemaster2012 · May 4, 2024

Pretty good game. Can't wait to see more from this game

GubGar · May 9, 2024

Just played through chapter one, and wanted to give my thoughts.

As a brief 'should you play' review for anyone curious: Yeah, for sure give it a try. The game is still in its fledgling stages so it's not crazy polished yet, but I ran into no bugs that I noticed, and enjoyed myself both gameplay-wise and story-wise.

For a more in-depth opinion, I wanted to say first that my favorite part of the experience was the world the game takes place in, which obviously is still the Pokemon world, but had a lot of thought put into this particular part of that world. It isn't mind-blowingly different to other Pokemon regions, but I think that's for the best. It has its own identity and more than enough cool and unique ideas to keep me engaged moving forward.

I do think there was a bit of a problem with being taken out of the flow, though. Not a major issue at all, but inside the castle, the feature of walking up to people and the game asking you if you want to start a cutscene kind of took me out of the action. Which sucks because I did really like the characterization within the cutscenes! Another thing that threw me off to a lesser degree were some of the very casual not-royal-sounding dialogue that the main character's younger sibling delivered. Minor criticisms, but something I wanted to note.

Beyond those two instances and the player having little narrative agency (which pretty much all Pokemon games have, that's totally not something to dock points over!), the writing was very strong, and I'm very interested to see how it progresses.

Sprite work looks good, especially since the project is still in its early stages. The stand out examples of quality are the statue of the founder and his team in the castle (seriously, what a cool addition!), and the regional Bidoof sprite, which looks great across the board. Interested to see how the revamped main character sprites look next chapter!

Combat was fun, far less difficult than Reborn and most games like it, but not without challenge. At least until I was near the end where I hit the level cap way earlier than I expected and was able to dominate the rest of the chapter save for the gym battle. That might have been my fault, though, it's hard to tell when levels come into play. Generally I like this level of difficulty, especially for the early game. It didn't hold my hand but didn't come out throwing elbows off-rip either, which was appreciated.

Overall, it was very fun, and I'm eagerly awaiting the next chapter!

Kingofclouds190 · May 14, 2024

what are the shiny odds???

KennyCatches · May 18, 2024

Solid demo! I enjoyed all aspects of the game, from the captivating octopath traveler music to the stunning sprite and tilework! The gameplay had a good balance; even though the first crest battle was challenging, finding a strategy was satisfying (I still can't believe Pineco was my wincon). The Bidoof line was really awesome, and I'm interested to see more regional forms. The field effects spiced up battles, even though they were pretty simple so far. I can definitely see the reborn inspiration, but this game clearly has a unique identity. My only critique is that the cave section felt a bit too long, and the encounter rates and were quite high without repels. Overall, I'm excited for future chapters and will definitely continue playing!