[Developing] Pokémon Apex (Alpha Available)

Pokémon Apex is a more serious and narrative-focused take on the classic formula. Apex is developed with the adult fan in mind, particularly for those who want a more challenging and story-driven experience. The game's difficulty, while not punishing, pressures the player to make conscientious choices about their playthrough. The game is packed with smaller details that reward patient players and those that enjoy taking in their environment.

Map Preview:

Story
In Pokémon Apex, you play as a high schooler in the bustling metropolis of Nascene City. You manage to struggle through the drudgery of day-to-day life by playing video games and hanging out with your best friend.

However, one day something unexpected happens. On the way to school, you somehow find yourself in a strange world inhabited by creatures called "Pokémon." It isn't long before you discover a dark cult who are hellbent on causing the destruction of both worlds! It's not your responsibility to stop them, but for some reason they just keep targeting you.

Who are they? What do they want with you? What is this strange world, and how does it relate to your world? Find out in Pokémon Apex!


Features
Pokémon Apex is a game that puts the story first. This means that not only does the protagonist have their own voice, but everything you do furthers their development and the progression of the plot. Apex aims to break free of the tired tropes of the main series Pokémon games, with many unconventional changes.
On a basic level, the gameplay is what you have come to expect from Pokémon games, however things are spiced up with stat and move rebalancing, amongst other tweaks. All fully-evolved Pokémon will have a base stat total of at least 400, and all Pokémon will be able to evolve without trading.
When completed, the game will contain 100% custom tilesets, character sprites, and music.

The Project
Pokémon Apex is created in RPG Maker XP with Pokémon Essentials. The game began development in December 2014 before going on hiatus shortly thereafter due to time constraints. However, development resumed around the end of 2015, and has been going strong ever since.
Pokémon Apex is currently in ALPHA, meaning that it is not complete, and you may find bugs, however there is currently at least 10 hours of gameplay in the latest release. Currently, I am the sole developer, however I do have a few contributors helping with music and character art. See the current list of contributors here. I am looking for contributors to help with full-screen artwork and battle backgrounds.

Progress
(May be out of date, see the blog for more)
The latest release is Alpha Build 8. This constitutes about 45% of the overall story. Build 9 is currently in development, scheduled for release in Fall 2019.

• Download and keep up with updates on the blog
• Learn more on the Wiki
• Get involved with the community and report bugs on /r/PokemonApex
• Chat with the community on our Discord server

This is one of the best fan games I've played so far.

Good scripts and tiles, awesome story, and a perfect difficulty level. I enjoyed a lot only having 3 pokemon able to use and changing them from the pc when I need other different type.

The mapping and the level designs are amazing too. The last dungeon (tower) is really well made, it looked like from a proffesional game.

Things that I didn't like very much:
?The backsprites are the ones that come with essentials, being this an alpha I'm sure this is not prioritary and you will change them but I just wanted to say that I don't like my giant pixelated ducklett.
?Looking at the quality of the rest of the game I think that the first town could use some work. It's well mapped but there's no people on the streets and it looks like a ghost city.

I'll be waiting for next updates, I'm sure this project will have a great future if you keep working on it!

digitalzone said:

This is one of the best fan games I've played so far.

Good scripts and tiles, awesome story, and a perfect difficulty level. I enjoyed a lot only having 3 pokemon able to use and changing them from the pc when I need other different type.

The mapping and the level designs are amazing too. The last dungeon (tower) is really well made, it looked like from a proffesional game.

Click to expand...

Thank you! I really appreciate it! Your words mean a lot.

Things that I didn't like very much:
?The backsprites are the ones that come with essentials, being this an alpha I'm sure this is not prioritary and you will change them but I just wanted to say that I don't like my giant pixelated ducklett.
?Looking at the quality of the rest of the game I think that the first town could use some work. It's well mapped but there's no people on the streets and it looks like a ghost city.

I'll be waiting for next updates, I'm sure this project will have a great future if you keep working on it!

Click to expand...

I totally agree. Nascene City was literally the first thing I did on this project back in 2014 before I had a solid direction in mind. It looks like crap compared to some of the newer maps, and it's slated for a total overhaul in Build 7.

I also agree that the stock back sprites for Gen V Pokemon are way too zoomed-in. I wanted to fix that for Build 5, but there were just way too many for me to address on my own. In a perfect fantasy world, I'd like to be able to go back through and do custom art for each Pokemon, but it's just not super realistic right now.

All in all, thanks for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Oh My God.. this is one of the best games i have ever played. amazing work man!

newerastar said:

Oh My God.. this is one of the best games i have ever played. amazing work man!

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Thank you so much. You're too kind :,)

when battling sayaka after leaving the cave, the game crash when you try to battle her, idk why.

had to use the previous version alpha 5 and not 5.2p for it to work.. the battle with sayaka i mean.

newerastar said:

had to use the previous version alpha 5 and not 5.2p for it to work.. the battle with sayaka i mean.

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This is a known issue and will be patched in Build 6. Please report bugs on the Subreddit since I cannot feasibly provide support here.

Build 6 is out now! Go check out the changelog here, and download the launcher if you haven't already.

I've been afraid to ask this for a while now because I remember you saying you don't give puzzle hints, but I legitimately can't figure out this: http://prnt.sc/f28rih

I'm not sure what the armor stepping on the switches does. I'm also not sure whether I'm supposed to get them to step on both switches at the same time, and if so, how I would go about doing that.

Again, I know you don't give puzzle hints, but is there any way you could give any kind of advice? I've been stuck at this since the beginning of March and I don't think I have the critical thinking/intelligence to figure it out on my own.

TISSUEPAPERGHOST said:

I've been afraid to ask this for a while now because I remember you saying you don't give puzzle hints, but I legitimately can't figure out this: http://prnt.sc/f28rih

I'm not sure what the armor stepping on the switches does. I'm also not sure whether I'm supposed to get them to step on both switches at the same time, and if so, how I would go about doing that.

Again, I know you don't give puzzle hints, but is there any way you could give any kind of advice? I've been stuck at this since the beginning of March and I don't think I have the critical thinking/intelligence to figure it out on my own.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you're on the right track. There's an extra element to this puzzle that you need in order to solve it. See if you can figure out what it is (;

Can you tell me how to download this game I can't download it from your website

Really love this game, it has great story and instead of disobedience above the lvl cap it's just impossible to cross the cap, that way we don't have to worry about using pokemon too much.
Thought I could be clever and dodge the cap by capturing a lvl40 Camerupt with an Ant Ball, but apparently you already made sure that we couldn't cheat in that way.
Also really like the fact that move move relearner can be found as soon as Acacia city, this way it's pretty easy to get one of the strongest attacks on Gyarados.
(Great riddle, actually had to read it 3x to get the answer)

Alpha Build 8 is now available! Time to rev up those Launchers! See the blog for more details.

This game is absolutly amazing, i love it, Really hope 1 day it gets finished as its defo one of my favourites and on of best out there, great work so far, thanks for this amazing game

Thanks a bunch! I'm glad you like it. Don't worry, I have every intention of finishing this game.