[Completed] Pokémon Retired Champion - A strategy-based Pokémon fangame (v1.0.6)

StCooler · Sep 19, 2022

SYNOPSIS

Einra, like most adventurers, roamed the lands and seas with a singular focus of becoming the very best. Faithful Gym Leaders, Elite four, Champion, Team Generic Evil, all presented values and ambitions, but none presented a challenge.

Uninterested in any further adventures, Einra one day found an abandoned amusement park, and with the help of his longtime friends, restored it to what is now a well-known Castle of Challenges. Parkgoers come for the thrill of building a team of Pokémons from roster and challenging one another.

Einra and his friends fight fulfilling battles nearly every day, and nearly every day was contently peaceful... that is until... odd-coloured Pokémons are found at the amusement park.

CONTENT

Around 10-15 hours of gameplay.
A character-driven story. Enjoy a new formula of Pokémon fangames that doesn't mimic the formula of official games (e.g. no badges, no gyms, no Elite 4).
All Pokémons* from Gen 1 to 8, including the new content from Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Around 130 new Pokémon forms, ~40 new moves, ~30 new abilities, ~40 new items.
Some Pokémons have been re-balanced (detailed list in the manual).
Mega-Evolutions, Z-moves and Dynamax are all available.
New battle mechanic: Assistance. Let a Pokémon from your team help another one in battle!
New battle mechanic: Battle Royale. Challenge up to 5 other trainers at the same time and try to be the last one standing!
New battle mechanic: Move Seeds. Directly set up a Pokémon on switching in!
More chaotic multi battle! Try your best at 4v4, 5v5, and 6v6!
A high focus on strategic battles: enjoy multiple tiers**, battle formats and rulesets!
Enter challenging battles in which you cannot be overpowered, good luck and have fun on your plays of strategies!
No catching, no farming. Instead, enjoy a Pokémon Showdown-like menu to strategically build synergic teams!
Don't know how to build a team? Try the random team generator!
If the battles are too hard for you, the difficulty will adapt to your win rate.
Most of the time, you can focus on fighting and move the story when you decide.

* YES I use a plural form for "Pokémon". I know it's a trademark, but I need to have a plural to avoid ambiguity.
** The abovementioned tiers are NOT Smogon-like tiers.

DOWNLOAD

To make it easier on you and me, I have split the main files and the audio, just in case I have to make script / content update, so you don't have to download 1.4 GB every time.
You need to download both files:

►GAME (v1.0.6)◄
►AUDIO (v1.0)◄

Installation :

If you need to update (not a first download), just download the Game part. The Audio part will likely remain unchanged unless specified otherwise.
Unzip the "Pokémon Retired Champion" directory.
Put the "Audio" folder at the same location as the "Data", "Graphics" and "Fonts" folders, as well as the "Game.exe" file.

SCREENSHOTS

Spoiler:

CHANGELOGS

2022-11-06: V1.0.6: solved an error loading the "friend" at the start of the game (depending on your choice of region of origin).
2022-10-18: V1.0.5: solved the error giving a wrong team to an NPC in Chapter 4 + solved an error thrown by the boss battle of Chapter 7 + the panel now proposes weird rules more often + Foxy now proposes chained Battle Royales + White Herb now works properly upon Intimidate + held items remain at the end of battle.
2022-09-29: V1.0.4: solved an issue with Battle Royale not clearing stored teams at the end of the battle.
2022-09-28: V1.0.3: solved a crash with the team builder when making the first team. (Bug introduced in patch 1.0.2 lol)
2022-09-25: V1.0.2: solved the issue causing the Team Builder to freeze when you delete the last team + solved the crash when trying to change the species of the Pokémon in the Team Builder for themed tiers / base stat tiers.
2022-09-22: V1.0.1: solved game-breaking issue with Draft Mode, split the big ZIP file into two parts: Game + Audio.
2022-09-19: V1.0: first release.

KNOWN ISSUES

In some non-European versions of Windows, the game won't launch at all. If that happens, try to replace the "é" with "e" in the names of the folder, the EXE, the INI. Also, open Game.ini AND Pokémon Retired Champion.ini (with Notepad) and inside, replace the "é" with "e".
The volume of some soundtracks is irregular.
Some sets designed by the AI are weird.
The battle AI is basically that of Pokémon Essentials, so it is somewhat passive and doesn't switch much.

I HAVE FOUND A BUG! WHAT DO I DO?

Even though this game is final, and I had three beta-testers on it, there still may be bugs.
Post here any error message. If the error mentions "traceback.log", please copy / paste the content of this file in your post.

NEXT UPDATE

Once the content of Pokémon Scarlet/Violet is available for Pokémon Essentials, I plan to add it to the game, including Terastal.
I also plan to add more tiers with different concepts, but for now I'm not sure how to make them with my current code (Stabmons, Category Swap...).
Foxy should propose Battle Royales. Maybe a tournament too?

CREDITS

Spoiler:

dylancd · Sep 20, 2022

wow this looks amazing! Is there like a simulator in the game where I can just do random battles vs trainers with the new battle mechanics? like the battle royale.
I love this game already..

StCooler · Sep 20, 2022

dylancd said:
wow this looks amazing! Is there like a simulator in the game where I can just do random battles vs trainers with the new battle mechanics? like the battle royale.
I love this game already..

Hey, thank you for your interest :)
Once you unlock Battle Royales, they will always appear at the panel, so you can chain Battle Royales without moving the story.

islamso · Sep 20, 2022

are there badges in this game and if yes how many badges in this version

StCooler · Sep 20, 2022

islamso said:
are there badges in this game and if yes how many badges in this version

Hey, that's a good question!
No, there are no badges here. I have tried to use a different formula than the usual "starter / new region / badges / Team Evil / Elite 4 / legendary" formula.
I've updated the original post to include this feature.

dylancd · Sep 20, 2022

Thank you so much for this game! Played hours last night and just started back up today. Always wanted some sort of battle frontier or similar in a pokemon fan game, this is so much more better and in depth than I could ever imagine. I just need to get used to the back sprites, haven't played too many games in this style :)... so much fun tho!

Little confused,

Spoiler:

says I have a client at the beach for the 1v1 format, but ive talked to everyone in the beach! my team seems to be the correct format too FE ... Any help?

StCooler · Sep 21, 2022

dylancd said:
Thank you so much for this game! Played hours last night and just started back up today. Always wanted some sort of battle frontier or similar in a pokemon fan game, this is so much more better and in depth than I could ever imagine. I just need to get used to the back sprites, haven't played too many games in this style :)... so much fun tho!

Thank you :)
What back sprites are you refering to?

dylancd said:
Little confused,

Spoiler:

oak arrived and said he hopes the ceo comes,

says I have a client at the beach for the 1v1 format, but ive talked to everyone in the beach! my team seems to be the correct format too FE ... Any help?

Ah, you missed "it"... Didn't you notice "something" unusual at some stadium at the beach? ^^

dylancd · Sep 21, 2022

Im so confused lol. Im gonna not play so late next time, completely forget what oak even told me...

I went to the beach, saw everyone battling.. talked to them all and nothing. Circle with nobody trying to battle me in it as well. I went to some corners and coundnt find a secret opening, and tried to check the house. Im so confused lol

StCooler · Sep 21, 2022

dylancd said:
Im so confused lol. Im gonna not play so late next time, completely forget what oak even told me...

I went to the beach, saw everyone battling.. talked to them all and nothing. Circle with nobody trying to battle me in it as well. I went to some corners and coundnt find a secret opening, and tried to check the house. Im so confused lol

Spoiler!

Spoiler:

dylancd · Sep 21, 2022

Thank you! I can't believe i didnt do that lol.. thought I did but thats just my luck! Love this game sooo much. the 6 pokemon battles are crazy! Love how the teams are always randomly generated based on what you choose. Great job!

I see "control team gen" in the options, curious what this exactly does?

EDIT: Also looks like draft mode is bugged? When a mon faints it asks me to send one out in the 6 vs 6 format NE. i think im stuck unless im able to change the format? No option to cancel or anything, hm... tried to reset this a few times earlier today and nothing works. Enter doesnt seem to work on the "Cancel". I tried to click on my mons that are already in thinking its a weird glitch or something, still doesnt work.

StCooler · Sep 22, 2022

dylancd said:
Thank you! I can't believe i didnt do that lol.. thought I did but thats just my luck! Love this game sooo much. the 6 pokemon battles are crazy! Love how the teams are always randomly generated based on what you choose. Great job!

☺️

dylancd said:
I see "control team gen" in the options, curious what this exactly does?

For certain tiers, it allows you to choose whether to use a strong team or a weak team. I should have disabled it XD

dylancd said:
EDIT: Also looks like draft mode is bugged? When a mon faints it asks me to send one out in the 6 vs 6 format NE. i think im stuck unless im able to change the format? No option to cancel or anything, hm... tried to reset this a few times earlier today and nothing works. Enter doesnt seem to work on the "Cancel". I tried to click on my mons that are already in thinking its a weird glitch or something, still doesnt work.

I could replicate, sorry about that. Yes it's a bug. It looks like Draft Mode generates more than 6 Pokémons.
Sorry about that, I didn't see this while beta-testing. I'll come back with a fix.

EDIT: Here's a fix. I'll update the game too, but it takes hours to upload 1.5 GB lol.

dylancd · Sep 22, 2022

ah thank you for the fast resolution! Looks like im able to continue now. Can't wait for battle royale mode :)

Draft mode is pretty fun on a side note, never played it before with pokemon but its a great idea. so much fun

kerbyyy · Sep 24, 2022

I love the idea! I've always wanted to play a fangame with a different formula. I never liked grinding, it's too much time-consuming and I just want to enjoy the battle and the plot simultaneously, and this game gives me all of that. I'm not a game developer, but I have some issues with it, especially with the writing of the dialogues. I can see what you're going for in the plot, but the way you wrote the characters is too bland like they don't have any personality.

For example, if you just show me the script of the dialogue and don't tell me whose character is it I wouldn't be able to tell what character said that. All of them are too similar. Each character should have their unique quirks and personality so it's easier to differentiate them from other characters, if you make them too similar to each other then it will just make all of them easily forgettable. I mean I've been playing this game for almost a week (I think) and I still can't say what's the difference between that character to that other character other than their sprites, I can't even remember their names. Another example is when Einra and his friends have a meeting, when Einra asked them if they agree with what he said all of his friends just say "Yes", like add some diversity there are tons of other options for what the other characters can say like "Yeah", "Let's go for it!", "Sure, I'm fine with it." or something like that just to not make it repetitive.

In short, write better characters. Make them different from each other so they aren't boring to interact with. The only remotely interesting character here is Dialga. Having an interesting set of characters would make this plot work even better, I promise you.

For the technical side of stuff, it would be nice to add a fast-forward button as well. Also, let the players change the name of the character since it basically represents us the player, Einra defeated every evil team in each region which is basically us, but this is all up to you. I know this is a bit long, but I hope this helps.

digass · Sep 24, 2022

I cant play the game, I click in the Game RGSS player, and nothing happens.

StCooler · Sep 24, 2022

dylancd said:
ah thank you for the fast resolution! Looks like im able to continue now. Can't wait for battle royale mode :)

☺️

dylancd said:
Draft mode is pretty fun on a side note, never played it before with pokemon but its a great idea. so much fun

Thank you :)
The idea is not from me though, it's an adaptation of the draft part of League of Legends :)

kerbyyy said:
I love the idea! I've always wanted to play a fangame with a different formula. I never liked grinding, it's too much time-consuming and I just want to enjoy the battle and the plot simultaneously, and this game gives me all of that. I'm not a game developer, but I have some issues with it, especially with the writing of the dialogues. I can see what you're going for in the plot, but the way you wrote the characters is too bland like they don't have any personality.

For example, if you just show me the script of the dialogue and don't tell me whose character is it I wouldn't be able to tell what character said that. All of them are too similar. Each character should have their unique quirks and personality so it's easier to differentiate them from other characters, if you make them too similar to each other then it will just make all of them easily forgettable. I mean I've been playing this game for almost a week (I think) and I still can't say what's the difference between that character to that other character other than their sprites, I can't even remember their names. Another example is when Einra and his friends have a meeting, when Einra asked them if they agree with what he said all of his friends just say "Yes", like add some diversity there are tons of other options for what the other characters can say like "Yeah", "Let's go for it!", "Sure, I'm fine with it." or something like that just to not make it repetitive.

In short, write better characters. Make them different from each other so they aren't boring to interact with. The only remotely interesting character here is Dialga. Having an interesting set of characters would make this plot work even better, I promise you.

Thanks for playing :)
About the characters, I see what you mean. Unfortunately I'm not a good writer, and I thought giving them have different backgrounds and different tastes would be enough for them to be different, but I see what you mean, they still "behave" similarly.
I hope it doesn't repel you though!

kerbyyy said:
For the technical side of stuff, it would be nice to add a fast-forward button as well.

I thought the fast-forward button was unnecessary, because in my game, every battle matters. There are no random trainers with 3 under-evolved Pokémons, no grinding and no wild encounters to interrupt you all the time. I found the running animation was fast enough and I wanted my game to be "chill".
I'm keeping this in mind though, I'll see if this request comes again.

kerbyyy said:
Also, let the players change the name of the character since it basically represents us the player, Einra defeated every evil team in each region which is basically us, but this is all up to you. I know this is a bit long, but I hope this helps.

As for the protagonist, I don't know where you are in the story, but I thought it would be great to let the player have some distance with Einra, because he is not the usual Pokémon game character.
Besides, Einra talks, and you'll notice that in videogames, when you can design your own character (Skyrim, Dark Souls, Sword Art Online...), that character almost never talks; on the contrary, when the character talks, it's a character, and not "you in the game" (there are exceptions of course).

digass said:
I cant play the game, I click in the Game RGSS player, and nothing happens.

What do you call "the Game RGSS player"? Is it "Pokémon Retired Champion.exe"?

kerbyyy · Sep 24, 2022

StCooler said:
Thanks for playing :)
About the characters, I see what you mean. Unfortunately I'm not a good writer, and I thought giving them have different backgrounds and different tastes would be enough for them to be different, but I see what you mean, they still "behave" similarly.
I hope it doesn't repel you though!

That's totally understandable and I'm sorry if my approach was a bit extreme a while ago, I didn't mean to offend you or anything. ^_^
Regarding the plot of the story I'm loving your idea of what the story is, the only weak point is the characters themselves. Other than that I totally enjoy your game to the point I even studied team building. 💀 I'll be looking forward to updates of this game, this has TONS of potential. I hope this didn't discourage you or anything, you're talented and have a long way to go.

StCooler said:
I thought the fast-forward button was unnecessary, because in my game, every battle matters. There are no random trainers with 3 under-evolved Pokémons, no grinding and no wild encounters to interrupt you all the time. I found the running animation was fast enough and I wanted my game to be "chill".
I'm keeping this in mind though, I'll see if this request comes again.

I think I agree with you on this one, I just got too used to games with fast-forward buttons. Having this kind of pace in a game is kinda new to me but I'm starting to appreciate the vibe it gives, it helps me focus on strategizing since my opponents are using equally good teams.

StCooler said:
As for the protagonist, I don't know where you are in the story, but I thought it would be great to let the player have some distance with Einra, because he is not the usual Pokémon game character.
Besides, Einra talks, and you'll notice that in videogames, when you can design your own character (Skyrim, Dark Souls, Sword Art Online...), that character almost never talks; on the contrary, when the character talks, it's a character, and not "you in the game" (there are exceptions of course).

I see, I think I understand what you're going for here. I agree with you on this one, I think this also helps the game to distinguish itself from other fangames. I hope you continue updating this, I'm really excited about where this is going.

dylancd · Sep 24, 2022

Hey im on chapter 6 now, such a great game!

Spoiler:

StCooler · Sep 24, 2022

kerbyyy said:
That's totally understandable and I'm sorry if my approach was a bit extreme a while ago, I didn't mean to offend you or anything. ^_^
Regarding the plot of the story I'm loving your idea of what the story is, the only weak point is the characters themselves. Other than that I totally enjoy your game to the point I even studied team building. 💀 I'll be looking forward to updates of this game, this has TONS of potential. I hope this didn't discourage you or anything, you're talented and have a long way to go.

Thanks :)
Don't worry, I wasn't offended or anything, I agree with you :)

kerbyyy said:
I think I agree with you on this one, I just got too used to games with fast-forward buttons. Having this kind of pace in a game is kinda new to me but I'm starting to appreciate the vibe it gives, it helps me focus on strategizing since my opponents are using equally good teams.

👌

kerbyyy said:
I see, I think I understand what you're going for here. I agree with you on this one, I think this also helps the game to distinguish itself from other fangames. I hope you continue updating this, I'm really excited about where this is going.

👌

dylancd said:
Hey im on chapter 6 now, such a great game!

Spoiler:

i was playing last night and it seemed like that move quilava uses, I believe lava plume? is beyond op. I was one shotting every mon in battle royale at once lol, unless its meant to be this way? Would love if the nurse who does the battle sim would give us options for the other modes like battle royale and draft. Also a side note, not sure if its in the game, but I really hope endgame wise im able to just run around and do whatever battles I want in whatever format once ive completed the game. Beyond having a blast with the game

Spoiler:

Also note that you can chain the requests without mving the story, most of the time :)

dylancd · Sep 24, 2022

so i finished the game, so much fun!

Spoiler:

StCooler · Sep 24, 2022

dylancd said:
so i finished the game, so much fun!

Spoiler:

I really loved the end game battle! The whole game in general is fun picking the categories of matches you want to make. The game was surprisingly not too hard! I was playing casually but it was even easy for me to learn. Cant wait to see what the end game has and any updates you add. Like I mentioned before would love more options for the battle sim, like battle royale and draft if draft is even possible. Thank you so much again tho, ive always wanted a "sim" like this. Its perfect.

Congratulations :)
And thank you for your kind words :)
How long did you play it?

Spoiler:

dylancd said:
Spoiler:

EDIT: doing a custom one, battle royale, draft mode, babies 3v3 and when i go there it doesnt do any draft, just uses whatever mons i have. same thing with FE same options

Spoiler:

dylancd said:
Spoiler:

also im trying to delete a bunch of teams I saved, when I get to like the 8th or 9th or even maybe before that on deleting teams, it freezes the game every time :(

Spoiler:

[Completed] Pokémon Retired Champion - A strategy-based Pokémon fangame (v1.0.6)

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StCooler

Mayst thou thy peace discover.

dylancd

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Mayst thou thy peace discover.

islamso

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Mayst thou thy peace discover.

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Mayst thou thy peace discover.

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