Pokemon Truth

[ElectricPopTart18]

So a few years ago, when the original runs of Twitch Plays Pokémon Red and Crystal were current happenings, I started a hack with a few people based around the deep lore of the playthroughs. We worked on a lot of the beginning stages, but unfortunately as time went on real life hit everyone (myself included), and progress stalled. However, the motivation for one day making this hack a reality never left me. I finally started working on the hack again recently, and I'm really excited about it :-)

I was originally refraining from posting about it until a later date because I wanted to make sure I had some nice tangible things to show people regarding progress, but with the anniversary of Twitch Plays Pokemon Red being February 12 (today), I felt it only made sense to bring it up now lol. (Happy TPP anniversary!)

Below is an overview of the hack. My goal with it is to create something that TPP fans from everywhere could sincerely enjoy and reminisce over, incorporating numerous aspects of the lore from TPP Red and Crystal into an engaging, coherent storyline while also referencing fun meta aspects that made TPP what it is :-)

Pokémon Truth​

Story Overview:

The region, Divina, is divided into several cities defined by unique religious factions that trace their roots back to the old days of Red and A.J. and their remarkable journeys. The factions have long been fiercely at odds with each other and are untrustworthy of outsiders, and thus Pokémon journeys have long been discouraged due to the danger. But after a lot of convincing of his.her mother, the player, as well as their best friend (your rival), venture out of the safety of their town to go on their own Pokémon journeys and follow their dreams to become Masters. Along the way, they encounter all sorts of fascinating cities and personalities, as well as thwart the decidedly evil plans of the Destructionists involving PC's. They also learn a lot about Red and A.J.'s journeys and differing perspectives on the truth surrounding them, and how these perspectives shape the world they live in. Ultimately, the real-life human player is left to decide what they believe is the truth.

Major Locations in Order:

• Imparshal Town (Player's hometown) -- An atheistic town impartial to any religion. The townspeople greatly admire Brian the Pidgeot (and others) for their great success despite their ordinary character.
• Swirl City -- An anarchistic city of "reformed" Helixists. The people praise Helix and Abba/Bird Jesus, reject Dome, and encourage anarchy and chaos, but they are also Flareon apologists and place no blame on him. They reject Zapdos as the False Prophet who caused Bloody Sunday, and uniquely they also place no blame on Lazorgator and his fellow friends' quest to slay Helix as they believe it was part of Helix's grand plan to start a new era.
• Chaosia -- An anarchistic city of "traditional" Helixists. The people are similar to above but believe Flareon to be the False Prophet, and they praise Zapdos as an archangel. They reject Lazorgator.
• Duality Cavern -- A fire and ice cave
• Nutrel Town -- A town of Old Amber Balancers. The people preach neutrality as well as the need for both order and chaos for the world to be balanced properly.
• Orderia -- A democratic city of "traditional" Domists. The people praise Dome, reject Helix, encourage democracy, order, and control, and praise Zapdos. They also praise Flareon as a false prophet sent by Dome to combat Helix. They support Lazorgator and friends.
• Willpower Desert -- Details currently unknown
• Mound Town -- A democratic town of "reformed" Domists. The people are similar to above but they don't believe Flareon was any sort of false prophet, and they reject Zapdos an agent of the Helix who caused Bloody Sunday.
• Marsh of Reflection -- Somewhere within this area is the Fallen Friends Regional Cemetery, which contains tombstones, memorials, and shrines for peoples' Pokemon that were released (meaning "killed" in this game's story) or passed on, including Red's and A.J.'s released Pokémon. Wild Ghosts of these Pokémon of Red's and A.J.'s will be encountered and battled (i.e. Abby, Digrat, The Admiral, Prince Omelette)
• Twitch City -- A science-oriented city of Twitchists. The people worship the Voices as something originating from somewhere not having anything to do with Helix, Dome, or Old Amber. They believe the Voices are a result of something either natural or technological that has yet to be understood. They often let things take their course rather than seek direct guidance from above, but they are curious about how this world works.
• Riot Cave -- Details currently unknown
• Rougen City -- A city of Redists. The people believe Helix and the rest of Red's team are indeed gods/exalted Pokemon, but they mainly praise Red himself, believing his control and direction of them is proof that he had greater power over them.
• Anne Island -- An interesting island town of Ticketists. The people view Red's constant consultation of the S.S. Ticket as proof that the ticket is the one true deity that guided him.
• National Park -- Details currently unknown
• Downeyfield -- A town of Anthropocentrists. The people believe the "Helix deities" exist, but they worship A.J. himself as a more powerful, risen god as he was able to slay Helix with his team. They thus believe passionately in human ability to the point that they are egotistical and think humans deserve much more than they seem to get.
• Mountain of Masters -- Area that ultimately leads to the Elite Four, among other things.

(Non-Spoilery) Story Plot Points

1. The Destructionists are essentially a terroristic cult/faction that worships the PC as a dark god, as well as Flareon, believing him to be a powerful dark angel. They praise Bloody Sunday, and they make blood sacrifices to the PC among other things to please their god. They are a recurring threat in the story that even the player may learn from the hard way.
2. Over the course of the game, your rival becomes less and less friendly. The rival will innocently choose the opposite of whatever the player chooses in the beginning, and this plus his growing opposition to the player during the game symbolizes the fracturing in the region. After the Elite Four and the Champion, one of the biggest challenges for the player could be their former friend.
3. Most cities contain (among other things) both a gym and a unique church or temple dedicated to their respective deity. Gyms function almost the same way they usually do, except leaders don't follow a single type theme as a way to increase the challenge. Those in the gyms focus much less on religious things and more on Pokémon battling. The churches/temples also represent secondary battle spots for the player in each city. Pokémon used by Priests/Priestesses here will be loosely themed according to their corresponding ideals.
4. There will be 6 places in the game that are specially dedicated to each of Red's Pokémon (as the Divinians really revere what those Pokémon accomplished). "Leaders" of each of these places, after they are battled, will give you unique TMs relating to the corresponding Pokemon as prizes (i.e. Sky Attack for Abba). These 6 locations are the Church of Helix, Temple of aaabaaajss, AIIIIIIRRR Arena, AATTVVV Bike Shop, AAAAAAAAAA Film Studios, and Temple of AA-j.
5. The story will be designed such that you (the real-life human playing the game) can "choose" which religion (or lack thereof) you agree with the most by the end of the game. In other words, rather than making out the in-game player to be distinctly associated with any one faction in the story, it's up to you as the audience to decide what you feel you believe. In order to make this possible, I'm trying to arrange dialogue such that you can never get any clues as to what the in-game player you control believes.

This is just a small portion of the story! There are tons of characters and events that all help weave into (what I believe to be) a very interesting tale with several great plot twists.

Intended Features:

1. Fairy Type, Physical/Special/Status split, updated list of Pokémon, moves, items, and abilities -- I'm using MrDollSteak's Decapitalization and Attack Rombase to help toward this end lol
2. No trade evolutions
3. Brand new towns and region
4. Custom graphics and sprites
5. Gyms don't specialize in one type
6. Puzzles
7. Tons of references, Easter eggs, and witty dialogue!

Unfortunately I don't have much of the actual hack started yet as I'm still learning/practicing how to script and do other things (I'm fairly inexperienced), hence why I didn't originally want to post about the hack yet. But hey, Anniversary! :-P I want to try to do as much of this hack myself as possible so as to minimize the potential workload on others, but I know I will certainly need help eventually; my spriting abilities aren't strong and neither is my programming skill. So if you're interested in joining to help with this project in some way, feel free to let me know (besides me appreciating it, Twitch Plays Pokémon is something that an absolute ton of people enjoyed, after all, so I'd love to give people a chance to participate in this if they wish!), but I'm not necessarily expecting people to volunteer yet.

Anyway, I think that's it for now! If I get updates, I will post them here. I hope you all like this idea!