Just a reminder that providing specifics on, sharing links to, or naming websites where ROMs can be accessed is against the rules. If your post has any of this information it will be removed.
Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.
Hi again, so - I've beaten the game as far as it goes so far, and I've got quite a lot to say. I'm gonna split this into genuine criticisms, praise, bug reports and suggestions, for your own benefit. If you're already aware of any of these problems, please excuse me.
PRAISES:
Spoiler:
As I've previously said, to call this game beautiful would be an understatement. The vibrant colours, the smooth yet not unrealistic art, the only thing I don't really like is some of the characters' eyes, I've always felt that in this particular style they're better just being black. Besides that, there wasn't a moment in this game where I didn't find myself smiling at how gorgeous even the smallest of details looked.
I'm not sure where this game lies on the complication scale in terms of file capacity, but besides one particular route, this is one of the most buttery-smooth games I've ever played via RPG Maker! Despite the lack of a speed-up key, this made the game a joy to play consistently, and even the battles weren't particularly slow.
The changes made to movesets is greatly appreciated, as are the various other touches made to improve each Pokémon - it gives this game a little bit more personality on top of everything else.
I'm not entirely sure why Team Rocket was replaced with Team Astra, but these guys have a lot more personality than just stealing Pokémon for money, and that is a very welcome change, especially with the relevance and presence of legendary Pokémon throughout the story this time around!
Various routes have been changed to have better designs/layouts, in some places longer, some places smaller, and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that, though the empty rooms in Mt. Moon did still confuse me. Maybe there's something I'm missing and my memory is poor. Still, I love the new layouts to pretty much everything!
The new rivals have their own distinct personalities and there's so much going on in each location, even when nothing important is happening, you've really managed to make this world feel lived in. I genuinely love talking to all of the NPCs and seeing what they have to say. ESPECIALLY the gym leaders!
The gift Pokémon and general random gifts are always appreciated! Exploration is heavily rewarded in this game and I absolutely love that.
As for side quests, so far, everything looks intriguing, and I would love to see many more in the future.
CRITCISMS:
Spoiler:
As much as I enjoy the redesigns of pretty much everything, I can't help but find the Pokémon Centres and Pokémarts to be a little jarring, now that the only notable difference between them and other buildings is really the colours, there isn't even a little logo on the side, so if possible, adding a little more detail to those would be cool.
One of my biggest criticisms is that a lot of the indoor areas are so compact that it honestly feels rather claustrophobic at times. I know it's not drastically less than how they are in the official games, but in some locations it feels like I barely have any space to explore.
Sora is cool, but she randomly showed up at the Nugget Bridge and then disappeared again, despite clearly going in the same direction I was meant to go, so I'm not sure what's happening with her, but it's kinda hard to keep her in mind when she's barely shown up at all so far.
A little more direction in particular places (such as the Meltan Quest like I already said) would be appreciated.
BUGS AND FAULTS:
Spoiler:
Collision on certain objects is very wonky. I can't walk up to fridges, or alongside beds. Not sure if that was done on purpose. In the Green Roof House in Pewter City, you can walk right onto the sink as well.
As soon as I get my starter, I can walk down from Pallet Town into the section break thing, and even go further down into Route 21(?). On top of that, a random NPC gifts me all three starters from the new region with no further explanation or importance. I'm not sure why these starters are already in here when we barely even know anything about them, but regardless, perhaps this area should be blocked off until the later game..? I can't see any reason why it'd be open, especially considering that we can't get Pokémon strong enough to face encounters on that route as of yet.
Defeating Team Astra Grunts in Diglett Cave resets the music back to the overworld route track rather than the cave track that played beforehand.
Despite the rest of the game being perfectly smooth, walking around on Route 4 has MAJOR lag for no apparent reason, and it immediately goes away as soon as I move into Cerulean.
Acquiring the berries from the Old Man in Cerulean City crashes the game after the Petaya Berries are given.
And the worst bug of all (I hope it's a bug, because if not, it's a very bad feature), is that after beating the water gym I get completely soft-locked in an infinite loop of the "Thank you for playing" speech that just continues after a few seconds or after I press any button. I can't pause, move, or anything, only hit enter to progress the text each time. It won't even let me save my game.
The rest of these faults are grammar mistakes. This isn't every single mistake in the game, just the ones I noticed and had enough time to process before writing down. A lot of the mistakes I don't point out here can be found in Mt. Moon, Route 25 and the lighthouse.
- The first trainer in Route 2 has a spelling error in their text, "i'm" rather than "I'm".
- Xander, the gym leader, says "The names Xander" rather than "The name's Xander".
- Two Astra Grunts say "Your a long way from a Pokémon Center!", rather than "You're".
- The Astra Grunts you face in a double battle in Route 2 both say the same line.
- Andy calls the grunts "wierdos" outside Mt. Moon, rather than "weirdos".
- There are some spacing errors in Looker's dialogue upon arriving at Cerulean.
- One of the trainers in the water gym say "Don0t" instead of "Don't".
The following NPCs all finish sentences in their text without a period:
> (IN THE PEWTER CITY MUSEUM) The boyfriend, the kid who complains about the teacher talking too much, and the blonde guy near the top right corner.
> Brock, "Welcome Trainer".
> The cop initially blocking Mt. Moon, "Maybe come back later".
> The yellow guy outside the Mt. Moon Fossil Lab.
> The biker by the daycare.
SUGGESTIONS:
Spoiler:
To reiterate my suggestion regarding the Meltan Quest, I think that, if we're going by the Pokémon GO Mechanics, after acquiring 400 candies from 40 total Meltan encounters, an NPC or a building should open up where-in you can trade in all 400 candies for a special item, which can then be given to a Meltan to evolve it into Melmetal. Having 40 copies of the same mythical Pokémon would be ridiculous, but this side quest would certainly be worth it. The candies should be given out for defeating or catching each Meltan, and if there will be one that respawns eventually, then there's no reason not to remove the item drops from running away from the encounters.
I'm not sure what your intentions are for making overworld encounters drop so many items and EXP candies, but at the very least, I strongly suggest you stop the encounters from dropping said items after fleeing from those fights, because otherwise people can pretty much infinitely grind candies and various other items without putting any effort in. Tedious, sure, but it could potentially break the game.
On the topic of side quests, I feel like one per city/town would be cool, maybe, or maybe a little more than that if you can. It depends on what you can do, really, but if I understand what you've already said correctly, then you like the idea of including more side quests, so I feel like having at least one per major location would be good enough as a goal. Perhaps for Viridian City, there could be a side quest involving the Trainer School, for example?
A speed-up key would be cool. The game is more than smooth enough, so it doesn't necessarily NEED it, but at least giving the player the ability to make things faster for the slower points, especially during battles, is always a positive.
It'd be nice to see the female character get an upgraded look to blend with the surroundings, alongside the male character. She feels kind-of out of place and shoved aside.
Overall, I've had a blast playing this and I can't wait to see what's next. This feels like a breath of fresh air in the metaphorical sub-genre of Kanto Remakes/Rehashes/etc., and I wish you the best of luck with this game's development going forward. If you'd like any suggestions on various novel things such as side quests, I'd be happy to help! That being said, I hope my criticisms help even a little, I apologise if I come off as harsh. Have a great day.
Not a fan of forced double battles, and the first gym leader using Snorlax and Jigglypuff is a bit insane. I tried to find a mankey but theres no spot on route 23 for them to spawn
I will take on board that not everyone will want a double battle for Gym one, I found it helped to take on the strong combo of lax and Jigglypuff. It also was my way of encouraging the player to actually capture an extra Pokemon or two.
I actually may consider giving all gyms the option of a double or single battle. This could potentially make things interesting.
I don't know what people would think about that?
Hi again, so - I've beaten the game as far as it goes so far, and I've got quite a lot to say. I'm gonna split this into genuine criticisms, praise, bug reports and suggestions, for your own benefit. If you're already aware of any of these problems, please excuse me.
PRAISES:
Spoiler:
As I've previously said, to call this game beautiful would be an understatement. The vibrant colours, the smooth yet not unrealistic art, the only thing I don't really like is some of the characters' eyes, I've always felt that in this particular style they're better just being black. Besides that, there wasn't a moment in this game where I didn't find myself smiling at how gorgeous even the smallest of details looked.
I'm not sure where this game lies on the complication scale in terms of file capacity, but besides one particular route, this is one of the most buttery-smooth games I've ever played via RPG Maker! Despite the lack of a speed-up key, this made the game a joy to play consistently, and even the battles weren't particularly slow.
The changes made to movesets is greatly appreciated, as are the various other touches made to improve each Pokémon - it gives this game a little bit more personality on top of everything else.
I'm not entirely sure why Team Rocket was replaced with Team Astra, but these guys have a lot more personality than just stealing Pokémon for money, and that is a very welcome change, especially with the relevance and presence of legendary Pokémon throughout the story this time around!
Various routes have been changed to have better designs/layouts, in some places longer, some places smaller, and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that, though the empty rooms in Mt. Moon did still confuse me. Maybe there's something I'm missing and my memory is poor. Still, I love the new layouts to pretty much everything!
The new rivals have their own distinct personalities and there's so much going on in each location, even when nothing important is happening, you've really managed to make this world feel lived in. I genuinely love talking to all of the NPCs and seeing what they have to say. ESPECIALLY the gym leaders!
The gift Pokémon and general random gifts are always appreciated! Exploration is heavily rewarded in this game and I absolutely love that.
As for side quests, so far, everything looks intriguing, and I would love to see many more in the future.
CRITCISMS:
Spoiler:
As much as I enjoy the redesigns of pretty much everything, I can't help but find the Pokémon Centres and Pokémarts to be a little jarring, now that the only notable difference between them and other buildings is really the colours, there isn't even a little logo on the side, so if possible, adding a little more detail to those would be cool.
One of my biggest criticisms is that a lot of the indoor areas are so compact that it honestly feels rather claustrophobic at times. I know it's not drastically less than how they are in the official games, but in some locations it feels like I barely have any space to explore.
Sora is cool, but she randomly showed up at the Nugget Bridge and then disappeared again, despite clearly going in the same direction I was meant to go, so I'm not sure what's happening with her, but it's kinda hard to keep her in mind when she's barely shown up at all so far.
A little more direction in particular places (such as the Meltan Quest like I already said) would be appreciated.
BUGS AND FAULTS:
Spoiler:
Collision on certain objects is very wonky. I can't walk up to fridges, or alongside beds. Not sure if that was done on purpose. In the Green Roof House in Pewter City, you can walk right onto the sink as well.
As soon as I get my starter, I can walk down from Pallet Town into the section break thing, and even go further down into Route 21(?). On top of that, a random NPC gifts me all three starters from the new region with no further explanation or importance. I'm not sure why these starters are already in here when we barely even know anything about them, but regardless, perhaps this area should be blocked off until the later game..? I can't see any reason why it'd be open, especially considering that we can't get Pokémon strong enough to face encounters on that route as of yet.
Defeating Team Astra Grunts in Diglett Cave resets the music back to the overworld route track rather than the cave track that played beforehand.
Despite the rest of the game being perfectly smooth, walking around on Route 4 has MAJOR lag for no apparent reason, and it immediately goes away as soon as I move into Cerulean.
Acquiring the berries from the Old Man in Cerulean City crashes the game after the Petaya Berries are given.
And the worst bug of all (I hope it's a bug, because if not, it's a very bad feature), is that after beating the water gym I get completely soft-locked in an infinite loop of the "Thank you for playing" speech that just continues after a few seconds or after I press any button. I can't pause, move, or anything, only hit enter to progress the text each time. It won't even let me save my game.
The rest of these faults are grammar mistakes. This isn't every single mistake in the game, just the ones I noticed and had enough time to process before writing down. A lot of the mistakes I don't point out here can be found in Mt. Moon, Route 25 and the lighthouse.
- The first trainer in Route 2 has a spelling error in their text, "i'm" rather than "I'm".
- Xander, the gym leader, says "The names Xander" rather than "The name's Xander".
- Two Astra Grunts say "Your a long way from a Pokémon Center!", rather than "You're".
- The Astra Grunts you face in a double battle in Route 2 both say the same line.
- Andy calls the grunts "wierdos" outside Mt. Moon, rather than "weirdos".
- There are some spacing errors in Looker's dialogue upon arriving at Cerulean.
- One of the trainers in the water gym say "Don0t" instead of "Don't".
The following NPCs all finish sentences in their text without a period:
> (IN THE PEWTER CITY MUSEUM) The boyfriend, the kid who complains about the teacher talking too much, and the blonde guy near the top right corner.
> Brock, "Welcome Trainer".
> The cop initially blocking Mt. Moon, "Maybe come back later".
> The yellow guy outside the Mt. Moon Fossil Lab.
> The biker by the daycare.
SUGGESTIONS:
Spoiler:
To reiterate my suggestion regarding the Meltan Quest, I think that, if we're going by the Pokémon GO Mechanics, after acquiring 400 candies from 40 total Meltan encounters, an NPC or a building should open up where-in you can trade in all 400 candies for a special item, which can then be given to a Meltan to evolve it into Melmetal. Having 40 copies of the same mythical Pokémon would be ridiculous, but this side quest would certainly be worth it. The candies should be given out for defeating or catching each Meltan, and if there will be one that respawns eventually, then there's no reason not to remove the item drops from running away from the encounters.
I'm not sure what your intentions are for making overworld encounters drop so many items and EXP candies, but at the very least, I strongly suggest you stop the encounters from dropping said items after fleeing from those fights, because otherwise people can pretty much infinitely grind candies and various other items without putting any effort in. Tedious, sure, but it could potentially break the game.
On the topic of side quests, I feel like one per city/town would be cool, maybe, or maybe a little more than that if you can. It depends on what you can do, really, but if I understand what you've already said correctly, then you like the idea of including more side quests, so I feel like having at least one per major location would be good enough as a goal. Perhaps for Viridian City, there could be a side quest involving the Trainer School, for example?
A speed-up key would be cool. The game is more than smooth enough, so it doesn't necessarily NEED it, but at least giving the player the ability to make things faster for the slower points, especially during battles, is always a positive.
It'd be nice to see the female character get an upgraded look to blend with the surroundings, alongside the male character. She feels kind-of out of place and shoved aside.
Overall, I've had a blast playing this and I can't wait to see what's next. This feels like a breath of fresh air in the metaphorical sub-genre of Kanto Remakes/Rehashes/etc., and I wish you the best of luck with this game's development going forward. If you'd like any suggestions on various novel things such as side quests, I'd be happy to help! That being said, I hope my criticisms help even a little, I apologise if I come off as harsh. Have a great day.
Thank you for the praise, it always helps with productivity.
- I'll take another look at the Centres and Marts. They were supposed to have a sign next to them but I removed them for mapping reasons.
- As the game itself is set to be much bigger outdoorwise I did look for ways to make interiors smaller to just help time wise. but I can look at more tiles for this later.
- Sora is set to be more of an informant character just to highlight certain items/abilities/combos etc... I agree her story through the game needs a little more developing.
- I'm thinking of reworking the Meltan quest now but it will take a while to get it sorted. I'll keep it as it is for now so it is still in the game to be caught.
- The tiles need checking over for movement but thats what playtesting is for so I appreciate you pointing these out.
- The Gen 9 starters was just an easter egg but I can form some kind of event around it. I'll also have to input some kind of Light Ball like item for them to make up for them not actually having evolutions yet.
- The Exp Candies are very game breaking but I am hoping people only use them if needed. It was done to reduce grinding and to help quickly fill the Pokedex because I know people like to do that.
I've made a note of the bugs and will get to work on that for V2.
Thanks for being so specific it makes fixes much easier to sort considering I don't actually have playtesters.
Pokemon Astra Adventures V1.2 is now available to download.
V1.2 Updates and Fixes:
- Demo now ends at Gym 5
- Chansey in the Pokemon Centers no longer crash the game
- Pokemon cries are now heard when static/wild encounters are interacted with
- In-game trades now work as expected.
- Mega stones are no longer obtained prior to obtaining the mega ring
- Gym 1 is now an optional Double/single battle
- Cerulean City Berry Man glitch no longer freezes the game
- Majority of TMs are now in the game - Weather and Terrain TMs still to be included
Still need to fix a few of the text issues but that will come with time and play testing.
Thanks for everyone who has given me feedback so far. I'm looking at ways of improving this project as much as I can.
I have been asked for a speed up button and new character sprites;
- For a speed up, I don't actually know how to do it but if someone wants to find a tutorial or something please do send it my way.
- For the character sprites I don't consider myself good enough at pixel art to make a well designed character but if anyone would like to put something together and send it my way please feel free.
I will take on board that not everyone will want a double battle for Gym one, I found it helped to take on the strong combo of lax and Jigglypuff. It also was my way of encouraging the player to actually capture an extra Pokemon or two.
I actually may consider giving all gyms the option of a double or single battle. This could potentially make things interesting.
I don't know what people would think about that?
I apologize for that, I get the reasoning and after I finally found Mankey (the game said it was on route 23 but it was a rare encounter on 22 where it should be canonically, a small text detail worth changing up) and won in the gym. Though I admit the option to choose single or doubles would be a cool one, it'd give everyone the challenge they would like.
I also should have mentioned this the other day but in Mt. Moon, the fist scientist trainer I encountered crashed my game when his magnemite used Sonic Boom. I forgot to get the crash report, I'll grab it asap so you can look at it.
I apologize for that, I get the reasoning and after I finally found Mankey (the game said it was on route 23 but it was a rare encounter on 22 where it should be canonically, a small text detail worth changing up) and won in the gym. Though I admit the option to choose single or doubles would be a cool one, it'd give everyone the challenge they would like.
I also should have mentioned this the other day but in Mt. Moon, the fist scientist trainer I encountered crashed my game when his magnemite used Sonic Boom. I forgot to get the crash report, I'll grab it asap so you can look at it.
Oh! I'll have to get that bit fixed! I'm pretty bad when it comes to text errors. my bad.
I'll take a look at the sonicboom thing. I had a problem with this in previous fan games. I'm still unsure why this happens
oh of course, I try to replicate it and it fails to cooperate. Even tried to do with Sonic Boom too and nothing. I feel like I lied about it now. If it happens again I'll run it by you properly right now it doesnt seem to be repeatable. I think it may have been a problem with essentials not keeping up if anything.
sorry for the double post but this is actually important enough to warrant; got a bug with dragon rage again, but this isnt a stacking error like before but specifically one on Meltan.
So the new demo ends after the thunder badge, but I can still go on towards Diglett Cave and Route 11. Is this supposed to happen?
I've been kinda nervous to go any further than what the story implies, to be honest, as I don't want to break anything or potentially miss something in a future update, but I'm not sure how far exactly I'll be able to go in each demo.
So the new demo ends after the thunder badge, but I can still go on towards Diglett Cave and Route 11. Is this supposed to happen?
I've been kinda nervous to go any further than what the story implies, to be honest, as I don't want to break anything or potentially miss something in a future update, but I'm not sure how far exactly I'll be able to go in each demo.
Yeah that's fine.
I've blocked the player off from progressing onto route 9 and that's the only way to actually get any further into the game.
Feel free to explore. Even if you find a way though nothing will break the game. It's basically finished, I'm just releasing it in chucks to pick up any errors a long the way.
Literally to make it easy on myself for repairs.
sorry for the double post but this is actually important enough to warrant; got a bug with dragon rage again, but this isnt a stacking error like before but specifically one on Meltan.
I'll get a post sorted when I'm home.
I've not messed with the move codes so it's a mistake in essentials.
I'll just replace the moves in the game or just change the effect if I need to.
I like seeing Dragon Rage as a TM though, but I suppose until whatever is wrong with the attack it'd be good to replace it until it is fixed I suppose.
I like seeing Dragon Rage as a TM though, but I suppose until whatever is wrong with the attack it'd be good to replace it until it is fixed I suppose.
a real shame still, as I was looking forward to a defensive Arcanine which uses physical attacks, with Dragon Rage as a surprise attack for physical walls.
Pokemon Astra Adventures 2 - Kanto Campaign is now available.
Players can now full access the complete Kanto Story!
Fixes from V1.2
- SonicBoom and Dragon Rage have had their effects changed to now work like Night Shade.
- Various Text issues (This is on going but if you can report any problems that will really help)
Will Johto ever be available? It's on the town map, so I'm confused as to whether that's planned or not.
Also, I was working on another small list of bugs that I found, but I'm not sure what's changed in the new update since I've been very busy and need to catch up. Should I still post the bugs I found even if some are fixed?
