Pokemon Erebus

[Chesu]

Foreword

Pokemon Erebus (working title) is a fan game currently in the planning stages, to be developed on an as-of-yet undetermined platform. I hope to start development early next year, but will wait (if necessary) until I've planned out everything that I feel is needed before I bring on additional support.


Plot and Setting

In the southern seas, you will often hear a cautionary tale... Half a century ago, a border dispute between two islands in the Mokuzu chain was on the verge of erupting into war. Just as tensions reached the boiling point, disaster struck; through an unknown agent, a gigantic chasm ripped open on the southern island, spewing poisonous gas across the land in an event that would come to be known as The Unfal. Some said it was an offensive launched by the north, others said it was a southern weapons test gone awry. The official explanation is that it was an unfortunate natural disaster. Whatever the case may be, the destruction of five major cities and deaths of thousands opened the peoples' eyes to the futility of war.

Today, peace has at long last settled across the Mokuzu Islands. Too sick to make the trip himself, your grandfather has asked that you travel to his birthplace, the once-disputed Rettou Territory, to see how the land, people, and Pokemon have healed. After arriving in the town of Port St. Petre, the first step on your journey is the famed Crawford Academy, home of the Rettou Pokemon Trainer Licensing Exam.

The Rettou Territory, in all of its half-finished glory! Locations are as follows.

Spoiler:

1. Port St. Petre - This port city is home to the X-Stream Speed Bike Shop, the luxury sleeper ferry S.S. Fortuna, and the world-famous SeaFresh Market. When you arrive, the circus is in town!

2. The Crawford Academy - All young trainers must pass an exam and become fully licensed here before they will be allowed to take on gyms or use Pokemon Centers. Registered trainers can also use the academy's state of the art breeding facility. This is where you will receive your first Pokemon, and learn about new features unique to Erebus. You will also meet Ringo, Al, and Ikari here (see Characters section below).

3. Cruxington - This small town provides lodging for anyone conducting long-term studies at the academy. This is where you meet Raimi and have your first encounter with Team Malice. To the south is Tenebrous Cave, an area too dark to enter without HM01, Flash.

4. Anfang Village - Home of Anfang Gym and the Shade Badge, this village prides itself on its clay buildings, which have remained intact for the last nine hundred years. Here, you're introduced to the Cydril Syndicate, the organization that controls all Pokemon Centers and PokeMarts.

5. Frigid Cave - Due to the land to the east being permeated with toxic gas, you must travel through this cave to continue your journey. They say that the cave is so deep, at the bottom water will freeze as soon as it hits the air. You had better find some protective eye wear!

6. Houka City - The gym leader in this cheerful little city would normally be happy to let you have a crack at winning his Web Badge, but it seems that he's gone to run an errand in a neighboring town. Even worse, the city is being attacked by a huge swarm of Bug Pokemon! Could Team Malice have anything to do with this?

7. Houka Forest - A gigantic maze of trees, rotting logs, and underground tunnels, this area is ruled by the fearsome Queen Waspain, a vicious Pokemon that came to power through the sheer number of her offspring.

8. Tenderbud Town - A small botanical research outpost, this is Al and Ringo's hometown.

9. Ruins of Dodge - While it was mostly spared from the effects of The Unfal, this ghost town was abandoned out of fear of the deadly fumes to the east.

10. Unfal Chasm - Also known as The Earth Scar, this monstrous tear in the land is surrounded by poisonous fields. A monorail system extends across it, but has been worn and weathered to the point that it may be safer to try crossing the chasm on your own.

11. The Badlands - As the winds in the southern seas tend to blow to the east, this area has become blanketed with a thick miasma, forcing anyone wishing to travel through the area to venture into the Steelix Tunnel.

12. Brick City - Once a center of music, art, and culture, Brick City has become a shell of its former self due to the lack of tourism. While the museum with its incredible exhibits and the gym with its Venom Badge still stand tall, the people are no longer quite so proud.

13. Faust Island - Located on the Poison Sea, this island holds Section B, an abandoned military base that an unknown organization seems to be using for some kind of shady research.

14. Alora Island - Perched in the center of Lake Vasquez, this man-made island is home to the famous Royal Carlton Resort. If you can overcome the island's dual-type gym, you will be rewarded with the Sleet Badge.

15. Coville - As if the Coville Game Center and RA\decal Bike Park aren't enough fun, the circus you first encountered in Port St. Petre has moved into town, and now you actually have time to enjoy it! If you need a break, you can always hit up the gym for the Soar Badge.

16. Starlite City - With a larger population that the rest of the Rettou Territory combined, Starlite City holds the headquarters for Cydril Enterprises, Cydril Heavy Industries, Cydril International, and all other Cydril Syndicate ventures. This ultra-high-tech city is so big that even residents are bound to get lost from time to time,and an Onix once rampaged for almost a week before it was noticed.

17. Wisteria City - Built on the fringe of a Pokemon sanctuary, this city holds the Jussieu Institute, the goal of all Pokemon researchers. The Wisteria Gym's Seed Badge is widely considered to have the same value as a degree in Pokemon Studies, as the gym leader has optimized their team to the point of perfection.

18. Shobu City - Notorious for attracting gangs of ruthless thugs, Shobu City is regarded as the single most dangerous place in northern Rettou. They say that the only thing keeping it from falling into total anarchy is Lewis, the gym leader known as the former Heavyweight champion of the world, whose Muscle Badge brings in challengers from all corners of the globe.

19. Grandole City - Home to the Elite Four, only those who have collected all eight Rettou gym badges and overcome Victory Road will be granted access. If you were paying attention, you may have noticed that only seven gyms are listed above (I can dream, can't I?); though it isn't hard to figure out, the location of the eight gym will, for now, remain a secret.

Characters
(Note: This section is from the protagonist's perspective. I don't know why, I just felt like it.)

Spoiler:

Name: Rhys / Liz
Age: 12
Bio: That's me! I've always wanted to enter the
Johto League, but Dad forbade it for some reason.
Since Grandpa sent me here to Rettou, though, I
finally have a chance to become a Pokemon Trainer!

Name: Sylvester
Age: 65
Bio: My grandfather, former leader of Violet Gym
and undefeated champion of the Mokuzu Classic
tournament. Grandpa used to come to the Rettou
Territory every few years to try and find out the truth
about what happened here when he was a kid, but
he's been unable to do it lately due to illness.

Name: Pico
Age: Don't ask... NEVER ask...
Bio: Pico is a talking Chatot, and Grandpa's
best friend. He sent her with me to... well,
keep me out of trouble, I guess. She's kind
of brash, and a loud-mouth, but it's better
than traveling alone, right? ...Right?

Name: Professor Hawthorn
Age: 39 (For your own safety, don't press this point)
Bio: I only met her twice, so I don't know
much about the good professor, but she carries
this incredible presence... I was so nervous that
I could hardly stand being in the same room as
her! She has something like five Ph.D.'s, so must
be pretty highly esteemed by her colleagues.

Name: Ringo
Age: 11
Bio: How can you not love this girl? She's
so sweet and kind-hearted! She was born in
Tenderbud Town, a little outpost in some forest
where they study plants. She apparently decided
to become a trainer to meet her brother, who left
home to be a trainer a few years ago.

Name: Alice
Age: 10
Bio: What's with this kid?! Even though we
just met, she insults and orders me around
every time I see her! She's from the same town
as Ringo, and seems to think there's some kind
of rivalry between the two of them.

Name: Ikari
Age: ~12
Bio: Here's another annoying guy. First he
tries to keep me from passing the license test,
now he's attacking me every time we meet! Rettou
has some great scenery, and I'm having a blast,
but sometimes I wonder about the people...

Name: Raimi
Age: ~20
Bio: Raimi is a strange, unusual, and overall
weird person. He claims to be just a normal guy,
but he keeps popping up everywhere I go, and has
the bizarre habit of saying, speaking, and proclaiming
everything three times. Maybe he's just showing off
his new pocket thesaurus?

Name: Team Malice
Bio: This group, claiming to be a terrorist organization,
gained fame after stealing a tanker truck and saturating
Houka Forest with Repel, causing swarms of bug Pokemon
to attack the nearby routes and towns. It seems more like
a prank than a truly malicious act, but I'm not really sure.
Are these guys dangerous, or are they just comic relief?

Name: The Cydril Syndicate
Bio: The largest corporation in the southern seas,
Cydril run all of the Pokemon Centers and PokeMarts
in the area, as well as controlling the trade routes. To
me, they seem incredibly shady, and every executive
I've met was suspicious. Rumor has it that they're
working on a way to detoxify the area around the
Unfal Chasm, but is it for the benefit of the
people, or their own agenda?

Features

Partners: Throughout the course of the game you will have the opportunity to join forces with a variety of different people and Pokemon, from Pico the talking Chatot and the Defeated Pichu to Judd the meek swordsman and Wade the spunky mechanic. Some Partners, such as Clesta, play an important part in the game's storyline. You can take only two Partners with you at a time, but if you help them accomplish their goals, they might repay you with unique items or services.

Partial Partner List: Pico, Defeated Pichu, Miracle Daiba, Blue-Eyed Butterfree, Unbalanced Marchare, Heartbroken Clesta, Judd Gorski, Jennifer Wade, Gregory Kinkaid, Erin Edge, Laramie Swift

Dungeons: Several parts of the Rettou Territory will be depicted as traditional RPG dungeons, comlete with traps, puzzles, treasures, and bosses.

Partial Dungeon List: Houka Forest, Steelix Tunnel, Routes 813-814, Starlite City, Unfal Chasm

Lume Vitamins: With the Lume Press item, you will be able to pulverize evolution stones into Lumes, vitamins that can make Pokemon of the same type evolve instantly.

New Moves: Erebus will feature several original Pokemon moves, including three new HMs: Glean, Drain, and Detox.

Time Travel: At certain points throughout the game you will be able to use the power of Clesta, the mysterious Heartbreak Pokemon, to travel back in time fifty-two years. Whether you can discover the truth behind The Unfal or not relies entirely on your own ingenuity.

Training Halls: With Clesta's power, you will have the chance to challenge the Rettou League's precursor, the four great Mokuzu Training Halls: four gyms so powerful that their types have been banned from use by modern gym leaders.


Explaining Partners

Spoiler:

The Partner system basically provides you with a little help in the puzzle-solving department, as well as some side questing. I'll be using some select chunks of Erebus' tutorial to help explain.

Yes, the Partner menu is terrible... It's a placeholder, the final version will have detailed bios of your partners and more information on what their skills can do. Rhys' sprite is also a placeholder. Anyway, as you can see, the Pichu is defeated by a Flying-type Pokemon... quite humiliating, since Pichu has the type advantage. To help Pichu, you must make it stronger so that it can get revenge. Most Partners will have more complicated goals, but again, this is from the tutorial area. Most Partners will also have a useful skill, but Pichu... Well, doesn't.

Now HERE's an example of a Pokemon with a useful skill. The object of this tutorial area is to use a Practice Ball to catch a wild Pokemon, show it to a clerk, then show the item you get from him to Professor Hawthorn as part of your licensing exam. Some kid with black hair blocked the path to the clerk with rocks, but that Onix took care of them.

To convince you that he really is a trainer, the clerk gives the Pichu a Yellow Lume, causing it to evolve. It now has the skill Super-Charge, which can charge up batteries, restart engines, or short out smaller electrical devices. I'm just now realizing that I should have implemented some way to control when the animation starts, or just have used static images... Sorry about that!

Just past the clerk's desk you come across an electrical barrier. Like the rocks before, it was set up by Ikari, your rival, to weed out weak trainers. Every puzzle will have several interactions; for example, say you came across a broken monorail that spans a chasm you need to cross. If you had Pikachu, you could try charging up the monorail's generator... If you had Wade the mechanic, you could try having her fix it... If you have Pico, you could try soaring across. Not all partners would be beneficial, though. A swordsman may try cutting the control panel and electrocuting himself, while a superhero might give an impassioned speech. If you don't have a Partner that can help, you can select the "try it yourself" option, and face a puzzle or minigame. Since you can only take two Partners with you at a time, and each Partner can have only two skills, you'll have to decide which skills available to you will be the most useful. Some skills will allow you to do things such as heal your team, sneak past opponents undetected, and make it easier to catch Pokemon.

PokeDex

(Note: Part of the fun of playing Pokemon games is
seeing how the Pokemon will evolve, so when I start
uploading sprites, I'll only be sharing the base forms.)

Spoiler:

(Original concepts shown in green, unnamed concepts shown in italics)

1. Minkin (Grass) - A weasel with a small pumpkin on the end of its tail
2. Gourdine (Grass)
3. Musquash (Grass/Dark)
4. Pupyre (Fire) - A short-nosed puppy with a flame atop its head
5. Jackindle (Fire)
6. Scaldingo (Fire)
7. Oceltot (Water) - A round-eared cat with two hose-like tails
8. Dripocel (Water/Steel)
9. Dripard (Water/Steel)
10. Grubino (Bug) - A large grub with two pointed claws
11. Pupant (Bug) - An immobile, colorless pupa
12. Waspain (Bug/Flying) - A large, winged wasp
13. Genicapi (Normal) - A guinea pig
14. Genibaras (Normal) - A capybara
15. Fleegle (Normal/Flying) - A blue bird with pointed feathers and red facial markings
16. Kouren (Normal/Flying) - A brown bird with blue antennae-like feathers, a pink tail, and red facial markings.
17.
18.
19. Onix
20. Steelix
21. Dimmol (Ground) - A small mole
22. Glumol (Ground/Dark) - A star-nosed mole with long claws
23. Locust? (Bug/Grass) - A locust with wheat-shaped antennae and leaf-like wings
24. Pichu
25. Pikachu
26. Raichu
27. Karakasa? (Ghost) - A possessed umbrella
28. Potripus (Water) - A small octopus extending a few arms from the vase it's in
29. Kroctopus (Water/Fighting) - A large octopus with vases on the ends of its arms
30. Veraloe (Grass) - An aloe vera plant
31. Yucavae (Grass/Poison) - A blooming agave plant
32. Bonsly
33. Sudowoodo
34. Cafickle (Normal) - A baby cow
35. Tauros
36. Miltank
37. Daiba (Poison) - A small snake with poison-indicating markings
38. Daithon (Poison/Dark) - A large snake with poison-indicating markings
39. Wynaut
40. Wobbuffet
41. Ditto
42. Tsurigu (Water/Psychic) - A strange creature with short fur, flippers, large ears, and no mouth
43.
44.
45.
46. Polrsa (Ice)
47. Arctyrant (Ice/Dark)
48. Chompaw (Water) - A parrotfish
49. Crunchaw (Water/Rock) - A parrotfish with coral-like growths
50. Ponyta
51. Rapidash
52. Mule (Fire/Ice)
53. Donkey (Ice)
54. Caterpie
55. Metapod
56. Butterfree
57.
58.
59.
60. Zucatan (Flying/Electric) - A bird with a large beak, curled feathers, and antennae
61. Tadupa (Normal) - A four-legged tadpole
62. Upaqua (Water/Ghost) - A wet axolotl
63. Uparid (Ground/Ghost) - A dry frilled lizard
64. Cleffa
65. Clefairy
66. Clefable
67. Qwilfish
68. Barbloat (Water/Poison) - Qwilfish Evolution
69. Wimpike (Water) - A long-bodied fish with jutting teeth
70. Tiamoor (Water/Dragon) - A mysterious long-bodied dragon
71. Eevee
72. Vaporeon
73. Jolteon
74. Flareon
75. Espeon
76. Umbreon
77. Leafeon
78. Glaceon
79. ??? (Electric)
80. Anteater (Electric)
81. Bipedal Anteater (Electric)
82. Wooper
83. Quagsire
84. Toxen (Poison) - An ox with boney ridges
85. Poxen (Poison/Steel) - An ox with steel plates and a scorpion tail
86. Griffody - (Normal/Flying) - A crazy goat-griffin
87. Buizel
88. Floatzel
89. Pudu (Ground/Rock) - A tiny deer
90. Musk Deer (Ground/Fire) - A deer with long fangs and antlers
91. Koala (Normal)
92. Fox-tailed Koala (Fighting)
93. Fox-tailed Gorilla (Fighting)
94.
95.
96. Mawile
97. Bombardier Beetle (Bug/Fire)
98. Misdreavus
99. Mismagius
100. Squiddle (Water) - A cuttlefish
101. Squidink (Water) - A squid with ink pistols
102. Kalamarine (Water/Ice) - A squid with large cannons
103.
104. Sandshrew
105. Sandslash
106. Rock with lichen (Rock/Grass; both parts have faces)
107. Lichen-covered rock (Rock/Grass)
108. Zubat
109. Golbat
110. Crobat
111. Kilnary (Fire) - A small fiery bird
112. Furnary (Flying/Fire) - A large fiery bird
113. Heracross
114.
115.
116. Dimen (Normal) - A brown and gray fox cub
117. Dumbra (Normal/Dark) - A black and gray fox
118. Brusk (Dark/Psychic) - A black fox with sharp features and claws
119. Bront (Dark/Ghost) - A black fox with blunt features and large tusks
120. Snorunt
121. Glalie
122. Froslass
123. Geode (Rock)
124. Crystal (Rock/Psychic)
125. Chatot
126. Marchare (Normal/Fighting) - A rabbit with long ears and tail
127. Jackalope (Fighting) - A rabbit with long ears and tail, conical teeth and horns
128. Bellsprout
129. Weepinbell
130. Victreebel
131.
132.
133.
134. Cosmite (Rock) - A comet leaving a long tail
135. Lunatone
136. Solrock
137. Hummingbird (Grass/Flying; fossil)
138. Sabre-toothed Cat (Ice/Normal; fossil)
139. Sabre-toothed Cat (Ice/Rock fossil)
140. Mammoth (Ice/Ground; fossil)
141. Mammoth (Ice/Steel; fossil)
142. Wobigon (Dragon) - A small unbalanced bipedal dragon with no arms and a large head
143. Bluryu (Dragon/Flying) - A wyvern, with wings but no arms
144. Indigon (Dragon/Flying) - A large dragon with arms and wings, but no legs
145. Cobaltile (Dragon/Ground) - A horned bipedal dragon
146. ??? (Dragon/Ground) - A quadrupedal dragon
147. Quetzailes (Psychic/Flying)
148. Hanumailes (Fighting/Flying)
149. Kheprailes (Bug/Flying)
150. Clesta (Psychic/Dark)

 

[Miralci]

Looks very nice and original! Good luck with it!

 

[~JV~]

Well, it's really cool to see you attempting on game development. It looks like you took a long time organising your ideas and all. Thats your first step and you did it really well =], now good luck on progressing with it.

 

[ScizorZ]

Wow this game is so cool. I really like the partner idea it's like the Pokemon Ranger games which in the rest really sucked. But this game is bound to be awesome! So your using RSE tiles for this? Or are those just for beta? Your really good at spriting you should try to make custom tiles!

 

[Chesu]

I'll be using both RSE and FR/LG tiles, along with custom tiles in the same style. The customs will probably be limited to things not found in the original tilesets, like Anfang's clay buildings, weathered and destroyed old west-looking things for Dodge, and all of the circus stuff. So, don't expect to see custom trees and rocks on every route. I will, for the most part, be mapping in a similar style to what you see in FR/LG. Here's the little forest clearing behind Crawford Academy that is used in the licensing exam. It's populated entirely by Fleegle (how Pichu and Kouren got in there is a mystery), a bird Pokemon that will always try to run from battle, so no matter how many you run into you'll still be in top form for your rival battle.

Spoiler:

I just realized that I forgot to add information on Team Malice and Cydril to the first post, so I'll go do that now...

 

[PokemonOI]

This is looking good so far, I will be watching this closely

 

[Trigger]

Nice ideas, I'll be watching this.

 

[Blazers]

Haha Chesu with a game? Oh jesus it has to be good!!
Finally we'll get to see your awesome spriting ability in a game.
I'm am so totally pulling for you and the game.
Good luck man!

 

[Vigilante]

Wow, this looks great. I usually just tl;dr the posts like that, but yours kept me reading. The partner thing seems really interesting, and the fact that you could try it yourself. Once I see a support banner, I'm definitely putting it in my sig. I know that I wouldn't be much help, but you can always ask for a hand if you need one ;).

 

[The Smell]

Great storyline, great map, great ideas! The partner system looks helpful and original. :) I can't wait to see this in action, good luck!

 

[Chesu]

I'm currently spriting the major recurring characters (Professor Hawthorn, Ringo, Alice, Ikari, and Raimi), as well as the protagonists, Rhys and Liz. Well, I'm actually spriting Ringo and Alice at the moment, and doing conceptual designs on the others. With around one and a half sprites done between the two I'm working on, I'm 21% done with spriting major characters.

Neither sprite is finished, but it probably looks like Alice is more than half done to you. I don't consider her to be near completion, though... Between her facial expression and pose, she turned out looking more like an evil genius than a fiendish brat. What comes to mind with this kind of character is a spoiled princess in a frilly pink dress, but Ringo's wearing a dress, and Professor Hawthorn will have a skirt... Any suggestions? Oh, and the things under them are the the final four Rettou gym badges: Soar Badge, Seed Badge (considering making it Sprout Badge), Muscle Badge, and Quarry Badge. Their designs are subject to change.

It's basically just FR/LG's item menu in different colors and with different bags (male bag shown) right now, but I'll probably change the layout eventually. You get the bike before your first Pokemon, and yes, it will propel itself when the motor is switched on.

 

[The Smell]

I love the bag and the badges. I think the trainer on the left looks odd, but the right one looks quite impressive. :) The bike seems like a cool idea!

 

[Chesu]

I've started work on Route 811, which connects Port St. Petre, Lake Vasquez, and Cruxington... Not that you really know or care what those places are. Anyway, it's about half done, and I just wanted to share the south-western portion, which contains Crawford Academy.

It may undergo some slight revisions in the future, but for now I'm happy with it.

 

[Chesu]

After a little experimentation, I think I've decided on the development platform. While RMXP is a popular choice, I'm having a lot of trouble getting used to it. So, I think I'll be developing from the ground up with Game Maker, which I've been using for over six years. It's a lot more effort and number-crunching than I originally planned, but I'm familiar with the GML scripting language, and it's intuitive enough that I would be able to easily create new in-game systems. For example, in about an hour I could fully program a home field advantage system, that would power up water moves while in a water environment, or ground, rock and dark moves while in a cave. This is at the cost of some systems that I would really rather not make, but nobody cares about EVs and IVs in a fan game, right?

 

[Chesu]

Screenshots!

Screenshots! Specifically, FR/LG-style battle screenshots. I'll probably change the look of the battle menus and such, but I haven't found anything that I think looks good yet.

Spoiler:

Okay, so most of the sprites aren't quite done... However! All but one of the sprites were made completely, one hundred percent from scratch by me, based on my original designs. The only one that isn't completely original is the Cooltrainer, which some of you may recognize as Kelly from Pokemon Dissension.

 

[Chesu]

The starters are finished! I probably seem kind of ADD with these updates, but that's just because I work on something else when I run into a wall. I wanted to overhaul the battle display, but none of the ideas I had were that great... So, I decided to finish the sprites in the screenshots. Before that I wanted to complete the base forms of the starters, which I did today. Introducing Minkin, Pupyre, and Oceltot!

...Actually, I think I'll save that for when I get a Game Showcase thread.

 

[Vigilante]

My Comments: (unorganized, they are)

Nice updates. I would've posted in here a lot more, but I forgot about it with all my schoolwork.

You should make a supporty thing. I would make one, but my graphic skills are bad.

Of course, I could try I guess.

The sprites look fantastic so that is nice. I love the bag and badges. You also seem dedicated, so that is good.
The map with crawford academy looks nice, it seems slightly bare though.

:), Well, I'll be waiting for more.

 

[Andinator]

i would join your efforts, but your better than me so oh well

 

[Chesu]

I don't really have anything more to show at the moment, since I'm currently brushing up on my coding skills. Thanks for the kind words, though!

 

[Andinator]

oh i know what i could do!! I'm not a bad eventer! some custom events i have made include a post office system, where you can get mail and boxes with letters or items