[Released] Postscriptum

[looneyman1]

sad thing is I already reached the end of the demo, so thers not really anything for me to do now.

 

[AenaonDusky]

sad thing is I already reached the end of the demo, so thers not really anything for me to do now.

No problem friend, I would encourage you to update nevertheless, it might be needed
in case a patch (and not an entire update) gets released. I'm sorry for that.


EDIT:
Everyone, in case you come across a bug regarding... the appearance of "permanent" people in the port, download the newer version, then interact with the red sign outside the Thirsty Bidoof, and they'll be gone.
I know this is the worst kind of patching, but right now this is what can be done for current savefiles; the newest version which is now up won't suffer from this after a new game.

 

[looneyman1]

Anyway I cant believe I failed to mention this before but I like the buff you gave to Delibird to make it a suitable starter pokemon. Giving it Technician is a great improvement, though I do sort of pine for Hustle's enhanced base power all the same since that worked off Delibird's attack stat specifically, but I'm sure giving it access to swords dance if thats ever planned can make up for that easy. However I do like the idea of Delibird being a spikes magnet to then shut entry hazards down with rapid spin. Still it would be nice to see swords dance as an option, it would help with driving the Meta Cult insane with an OP Delibird lol.

On that matter I think giving Present a buff might also help as well I think to add to the hilarity of like-let's say-a salamence being one-shot by a Present attack. I have a funny story that helps go with that too. Back during the 2nd and 3rd gen game era I was playing through Crystal and I was clearing out Team Rocket at the slowpoke well, and the grunt in charge of the operation took all of my team down except for the togepi I got from Elm's assistant. Here was my issue at the time; the level 14 koffing was at full health and it swept my team and Togepi had just learned Metronome. I used Metronome hoping for like Sacred Fire or Psychic to one shot koffing. Instead I got Present and I feared the worst, considering Present has a 1 in 4 chance of doing no damage at all (the koffing was full health so healing it would do nothing) and its other damage outcomes are randomly between 40-120. Well, present became the 120 damage varient, scoring a critical hit, and KO'd Koffing in one hit.

Given this story it would be hilarious to see Delibird in this game get a upgraded version of present to do the same thing, it would be epic.

 

[AenaonDusky]

Anyway I cant believe I failed to mention this before but I like the buff you gave to Delibird to make it a suitable starter pokemon. Giving it Technician is a great improvement, though I do sort of pine for Hustle's enhanced base power all the same since that worked off Delibird's attack stat specifically, but I'm sure giving it access to swords dance if thats ever planned can make up for that easy. However I do like the idea of Delibird being a spikes magnet to then shut entry hazards down with rapid spin. Still it would be nice to see swords dance as an option, it would help with driving the Meta Cult insane with an OP Delibird lol.

On that matter I think giving Present a buff might also help as well I think to add to the hilarity of like-let's say-a salamence being one-shot by a Present attack. I have a funny story that helps go with that too. Back during the 2nd and 3rd gen game era I was playing through Crystal and I was clearing out Team Rocket at the slowpoke well, and the grunt in charge of the operation took all of my team down except for the togepi I got from Elm's assistant. Here was my issue at the time; the level 14 koffing was at full health and it swept my team and Togepi had just learned Metronome. I used Metronome hoping for like Sacred Fire or Psychic to one shot koffing. Instead I got Present and I feared the worst, considering Present has a 1 in 4 chance of doing no damage at all (the koffing was full health so healing it would do nothing) and its other damage outcomes are randomly between 40-120. Well, present became the 120 damage varient, scoring a critical hit, and KO'd Koffing in one hit.

Given this story it would be hilarious to see Delibird in this game get a upgraded version of present to do the same thing, it would be epic.

Hahaha! That was indeed hilarious! And these are the memories we wish to evoke, too! Even though the Present idea is really nice, the problem is that
we don't have the resources to pour on that, too. Aside from redirecting our time to scripting
the effects of the move (even if that is not that hard to do, actually) we'd need to extensively test
the implications of that and how some teams will be balanced or not - as well as what enemies the
player will have to face. This is nice, so we'll try to implement it after we're done with ep3.

Spoiler:

If you want to see what we had in plan for delibird, consider checking the PBS file...You might find some things interesting

 

[looneyman1]

cool, I didnt think it would be possible immediately anyway but I'm glad I touched on it. It is after all a Delibird's specialty move.

 

[AenaonDusky]

cool, I didnt think it would be possible immediately anyway but I'm glad I touched on it. It is after all a Delibird's specialty move.

Of course! Thank you for the idea! We'll have it in after 4th (let's hope not after the 5th...)
because there's a huge amount of stuff to do right now ;)

Yeah that kind of specialty move should be boosted by gamefreak, I mean come on!
Poor Dely....

EDIT: Game updated, lots of tile fixes, some additions, quality of life update.

 

[looneyman1]

while the new version lacks a continuation I downloaded it anyway as a means to sort of ease into the next major content update just in case.

 

[shinymissingno]

So... I started playing this game today... and I'm totally lost. I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. I managed to randomly find the right building in Artemisia or however it's spelt,, now I gotta go to route 0, but I've got no idea where that is.
I'm also supposed to go see this cap guy and when the only clue is 'south artemisia' which is literally the entire town, it gets a bit frustrating charging all over town talking to literally every single person, PRAYING they're the right one. Just a TAD more direction would be lovely, if that's alright. All of my progress thus far has been made through sheer random luck.
That said, it does look nice. I'm sure I'd be having fun if I hadn't spent the last hour looking for whoever this 'cap' guy is.

EDIT; You know what, nevermind. If I have to spend over an hour and a half (at least - I might've been at this more than two hours now, I lost track) struggling and failing to even find out where I'm supposed to be going, I know for a fact I'm not going to enjoy the rest of this game. I hope the game does well, and that development is smooth. But right now I feel like breaking something, and that's never a good sign, so... yeah.

 

[PhantomBima]

So... I started playing this game today... and I'm totally lost. I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. I managed to randomly find the right building in Artemisia or however it's spelt,, now I gotta go to route 0, but I've got no idea where that is.
I'm also supposed to go see this cap guy and when the only clue is 'south artemisia' which is literally the entire town, it gets a bit frustrating charging all over town talking to literally every single person, PRAYING they're the right one. Just a TAD more direction would be lovely, if that's alright. All of my progress thus far has been made through sheer random luck.
That said, it does look nice. I'm sure I'd be having fun if I hadn't spent the last hour looking for whoever this 'cap' guy is.

EDIT; You know what, nevermind. If I have to spend over an hour and a half (at least - I might've been at this more than two hours now, I lost track) struggling and failing to even find out where I'm supposed to be going, I know for a fact I'm not going to enjoy the rest of this game. I hope the game does well, and that development is smooth. But right now I feel like breaking something, and that's never a good sign, so... yeah.

The start of the game is designed so you feel lost so it's intentional. That's how you immerse with the main character since the main character is intended to feel lost in such city. This is the sign that the game will have the potential to create immersion so hope you enjoy the future release~

 

[AenaonDusky]

while the new version lacks a continuation I downloaded it anyway as a means to sort of ease into the next major content update just in case.

Hey looney, thanks for updating, there's gonna be a couple more updates before the
next ep is released, probably three. But I think those won't be mandatory from this point on. I'll make sure to notify in case they are mandatory for whatever reason.

So... I started playing this game today... and I'm totally lost. I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. I managed to randomly find the right building in Artemisia or however it's spelt,, now I gotta go to route 0, but I've got no idea where that is.
I'm also supposed to go see this cap guy and when the only clue is 'south artemisia' which is literally the entire town, it gets a bit frustrating charging all over town talking to literally every single person, PRAYING they're the right one. Just a TAD more direction would be lovely, if that's alright. All of my progress thus far has been made through sheer random luck.
That said, it does look nice. I'm sure I'd be having fun if I hadn't spent the last hour looking for whoever this 'cap' guy is.
EDIT; You know what, nevermind. If I have to spend over an hour and a half (at least - I might've been at this more than two hours now, I lost track) struggling and failing to even find out where I'm supposed to be going, I know for a fact I'm not going to enjoy the rest of this game. I hope the game does well, and that development is smooth. But right now I feel like breaking something, and that's never a good sign, so... yeah.

Shinymissigno, first of all thank you for investing your time in the game. I understand your frustration, and this is exactly how the main character feels. For him, this is the first time he ever sees such a city for himself, also has to find a job in it, also has to carry on successfully, also has to understand what the heck is going on with him and everything else. Why was this deliberately designed situation presented like that? It could have been way better designed. To which I totally agree. But this game is a bit... different. As Phantom said,
this is the way immersion is handled.

That being said, a person such as him won't be given any directions. Because 1) he cannot pay attention easily, 2) he is too confused in his current state. However, Flint did state that a) you have to receive your Courier Id from the counter in the Branch entrance, b) you have to talk to the boss once more. Once those two requirements are met, you can go north.
That part is called Western Artemisia. From there, you just head westwards. After that, talk to the man standing outside a certain University, go back to the Branch where you will be given a mission, and go back to the University. I know it sounds super-frustrating, because it is, that is the job of the MC, and that is also the way he views it.

After that point, there will be another confusing sequence of having to speak to 4 characters in order. That will open a path to another area. After which you will be able to progress towards South Artemisia, where Cap is located. But even then.... why would you do the bidding of a shady guy in the bar? You've got a job to do, you know.

After reading all this, you can decide for sure if you wish to play the game or not.
It's a game that sets the bar so low, it doesn't know what to do with it!
It practically begs you to stop playing it...

 

[shinymissingno]

Reading those replies has led me to believe that my frustration was due to two things - one; I thought the exit from the first part of the city was at the spot the cops say 'citizens aren't allowed' and refuse you passage, and two, judging from that little bit of guidance you gave me, I can't even access Cap until I do that letter mission. I thought that the cop would move after I found Cap, or something. Whoops... Time to try again, now that I've slept my frustration away.

 

[AenaonDusky]

Reading those replies has led me to believe that my frustration was due to two things - one; I thought the exit from the first part of the city was at the spot the cops say 'citizens aren't allowed' and refuse you passage, and two, judging from that little bit of guidance you gave me, I can't even access Cap until I do that letter mission. I thought that the cop would move after I found Cap, or something. Whoops... Time to try again, now that I've slept my frustration away.

We're really sorry about this. When approaching this game try thinking from the POV of the MC,
it might help with a lot of things. Just note that in the same way you decide to give it another go,
in the same exact way does the MC decide to tackle his very own hardships.
It's kinda reflective of the kind of patience and will to move forward one might display.
It is beyond unorthodox, but, please tackle the game with the lowest of expectations in the world.
That way, you'll understand the MCs POV even better.

 

[Hawkeye17]

Okay i have completed the University quest and the five Trainer quest what should I do next.
P.S where is this cap to whom i have to give the drink.
Thanks in advance.

 

[AenaonDusky]

Okay i have completed the University quest and the five Trainer quest what should I do next.
P.S where is this cap to whom i have to give the drink.
Thanks in advance.

Hello, and thank you for playing.

In the City Market, you need to talk to 3 specific persons. After that, talking to a 4th one, will
let you go to a certain place. After everything that happens there, you're good to go to the place
where Cap is, mainly South Artemisia. (The city Market is considered SouthEastern)

You may now witness the beauty that is Cap's Really Artistic Paradigm of map-drawing.
Check OP.

Spoiler:

You have to talk to four specific NPCs in this order:

- A man near the encampment in the southeast area, talking about having a ticket to freedom.
To the southeasternmost side of the city, he wears green, is a homeless guy.

- A man to the northeast near the encampment there, talking about telling a password of sorts to a police officer. He is located close to the worker's quarters, south from it, close to elevated
ground.

- The police officer directly north of the previous person. Almost close to the checkpoint from City Market to Western Artemisia.

- Someone in the apartment directly to the left of that same checkpoint that leads to western Artemesia. This person is located in the bottom left room.

EDIT: New version out, mostly tile fixes.

 

[Hawkeye17]

Hello, and thank you for playing.

In the City Market, you need to talk to 3 specific persons. After that, talking to a 4th one, will
let you go to a certain place. After everything that happens there, you're good to go to the place
where Cap is, mainly South Artemisia. (The city Market is considered SouthEastern)

You may now witness the beauty that is Cap's Really Artistic Paradigm of map-drawing.
Check OP.

Spoiler:

You have to talk to four specific NPCs in this order:

- A man near the encampment in the southeast area, talking about having a ticket to freedom.
To the southeasternmost side of the city, he wears green, is a homeless guy.

- A man to the northeast near the encampment there, talking about telling a password of sorts to a police officer. He is located close to the worker's quarters, south from it, close to elevated
ground.

- The police officer directly north of the previous person. Almost close to the checkpoint from City Market to Western Artemisia.

- Someone in the apartment directly to the left of that same checkpoint that leads to western Artemesia. This person is located in the bottom left room.

EDIT: New version out, mostly tile fixes.

Thanks brother will try. By the way i love the game especially the setting of the city and the amount of NPC. GREAT WORK👍

 

[AenaonDusky]

Thanks brother will try. By the way i love the game especially the setting of the city and the amount of NPC. GREAT WORK👍

Thank you for your kind words. There's still a HUGE amount of things to fix! We're getting there, though!
Just don't expect too much from this game... it's really, really strange. ;)

 

[shinymissingno]

Alright, so.
After finally figuring out what I was supposed to be doing, (thank you for the nudge btw) I've been making nice progress; I'm all the way to the southeast part of the city, even. The first time you enter the city, it's kind of nuts confusing, and I guess from a story standpoint that actually makes a lot of sense - the character has never been there before, and clearly the citizens don't care much, combined with the MC's insinuated lack of paying attention (even if he tries to) it's no wonder we don't get much to go on in terms of locations.
I do have some questions though - one; is it actually possible to get the Thief TM from that one apartment guy who supposedly has it, or is that just teasing? Two, is the 'sad pidgey' on route 0 just there for flavor, or is there a purpose? Third; does your starter evolve through some special means (specific location, hold item, stone, friendship, hell - scripted game event) or is it just levels?
And finally, is your money count supposed to stay at zero even after you're told to have gotten money? Because technically right now I should have 3 pokedollars, yet my card still sits at zero.

Also - I'm sure I've seen tons of spriting errors in terms of where you can walk (collision detection, I think) but it's not bothersome. I'd list them but then this post would go on for ages, and visually they can't really be noticed until you walk into them. I think it's just the way you seem to have coded collision detection most of the time, though.
I've also seen some typos here and there. The one I actively recall right now is that the pokemon healer lady in the courier center calls it a 'healing conrer'. Correct letters, wrong positions. Not gonna lie though in that I've done that myself when writing things; fingers moving too fast to put the letters in the right place.

That said, Once you get past your own frustration at how different this fangame is compared to the normal, it's quite fun. Definitely not for people who like it easy though, hoo boy. You DEFINITELY need to go into this ready to strategise. Either that or sit your butt in the University for days on end until you're massively overleveled - I'm sure at least one person has the patience to wait until their mons are all maxed out. Sorry for the longish post, though.After getting so angry my first time in I feel obligated to give it a sort of re-review. Not used to games like this one, whoops.

 

[AenaonDusky]

Alright, so.
After finally figuring out what I was supposed to be doing, (thank you for the nudge btw) I've been making nice progress; I'm all the way to the southeast part of the city, even. The first time you enter the city, it's kind of nuts confusing, and I guess from a story standpoint that actually makes a lot of sense - the character has never been there before, and clearly the citizens don't care much, combined with the MC's insinuated lack of paying attention (even if he tries to) it's no wonder we don't get much to go on in terms of locations.
I do have some questions though - one; is it actually possible to get the Thief TM from that one apartment guy who supposedly has it, or is that just teasing? Two, is the 'sad pidgey' on route 0 just there for flavor, or is there a purpose? Third; does your starter evolve through some special means (specific location, hold item, stone, friendship, hell - scripted game event) or is it just levels?
And finally, is your money count supposed to stay at zero even after you're told to have gotten money? Because technically right now I should have 3 pokedollars, yet my card still sits at zero.

Also - I'm sure I've seen tons of spriting errors in terms of where you can walk (collision detection, I think) but it's not bothersome. I'd list them but then this post would go on for ages, and visually they can't really be noticed until you walk into them. I think it's just the way you seem to have coded collision detection most of the time, though.
I've also seen some typos here and there. The one I actively recall right now is that the pokemon healer lady in the courier center calls it a 'healing conrer'. Correct letters, wrong positions. Not gonna lie though in that I've done that myself when writing things; fingers moving too fast to put the letters in the right place.

That said, Once you get past your own frustration at how different this fangame is compared to the normal, it's quite fun. Definitely not for people who like it easy though, hoo boy. You DEFINITELY need to go into this ready to strategise. Either that or sit your butt in the University for days on end until you're massively overleveled - I'm sure at least one person has the patience to wait until their mons are all maxed out. Sorry for the longish post, though.After getting so angry my first time in I feel obligated to give it a sort of re-review. Not used to games like this one, whoops.

Thank you immensely for your feedback.

First of all, all the typos and tile errors are constantly being fixed, so don't worry about reporting those.
In the newer version, those you mentioned here have been already fixed. There's still a TON, and we're
really sorry about that.

Your first priority is doing your job, right? You shouldn't worry about random TMs,
items, or even Pokemon... *cough*. All of these, in case they are not right now, will be made
available - but you still shouldn't worry about them. That's the only thing I'm allowed to say.

I like your choice of words: strategize, yes. This is not simulating a competitive environment where
you've got a set of a-priori choices, team builds etc. You have to make do with what your have,
use your limitations to fight, and emerge victorious through different approaches.
This is not gonna be the case throughout, though, you'll see.

Of course, they were never going to reward you with real money. You just fell for it.
Mortimer - has fake money. Your boss keeps the money for himself. You're left with nothing, congrats.
One of the reasons for the inexistence of a level cap, is exactly this. If you're the kind of player who wishes to grind like there is no tomorrow, you will be (somewhat) rewarded but at the cost of investing time you don't need to in the game. Do you like doing such a thing? It is but a game, after all.

Don't worry about the starter. Keep on moving.
Feel free to share your thoughts again!
The bigger picture is easier to grasp after you're done with the entire demo, though.
Anyway, it's your choice - play the entirety first or report your thoughts during progress. Thank you for investing your time into the game.

 

[shinymissingno]

Heyyy it's me again. Sorry for posting so much. Just wanted to say that I reached the end of the demo, and I'm excited to play the next one, once it's done. This games starts a bit slow, but once it starts going, whoa. This is one heck of a story you've got going on in the background. NGL I was genuinely upset when it told me I'd hit the end of the demo. Everything was starting to get super interesting, and when I got back into Artemisia, MAN.

Spoiler:

Also, I believe Goodra was referenced in the town you have to go to in order to get to Johto, I was wondering if he's something you can actually catch/find. Plus a few other secret-looking areas that I never managed to reach, all over the place. The ruins in R1, a house in R0 on top of a rock, a Gulpin in South Artemisia, lots of neat things I never found my way to, if it's possible at all.

That said, despite initial frustrations, I truly am glad I gave this game a second go. It's different, and a bit merciless at the start since most other games are pretty linear in terms of navigation, and you're sort of railroaded into what pokemon you can have (although you've done a fantastic job making sure the pokemon you CAN get are varying in types; good job~) - but once the story starts kicking in, it's definitely worth sticking around for. I'd love to pick this game back up again once it's done~

That end-of-demo cliffhanger though, UGH. SO CRUEL. I love it though~

 

[AenaonDusky]

Heyyy it's me again. Sorry for posting so much. Just wanted to say that I reached the end of the demo, and I'm excited to play the next one, once it's done. This games starts a bit slow, but once it starts going, whoa. This is one heck of a story you've got going on in the background. NGL I was genuinely upset when it told me I'd hit the end of the demo. Everything was starting to get super interesting, and when I got back into Artemisia, MAN.

Spoiler:

Also, I believe Goodra was referenced in the town you have to go to in order to get to Johto, I was wondering if he's something you can actually catch/find. Plus a few other secret-looking areas that I never managed to reach, all over the place. The ruins in R1, a house in R0 on top of a rock, a Gulpin in South Artemisia, lots of neat things I never found my way to, if it's possible at all.

That said, despite initial frustrations, I truly am glad I gave this game a second go. It's different, and a bit merciless at the start since most other games are pretty linear in terms of navigation, and you're sort of railroaded into what pokemon you can have (although you've done a fantastic job making sure the pokemon you CAN get are varying in types; good job~) - but once the story starts kicking in, it's definitely worth sticking around for. I'd love to pick this game back up again once it's done~

That end-of-demo cliffhanger though, UGH. SO CRUEL. I love it though~

Hey, no need to apologize at all! Glad that you played the game and put all this thought and time on it!
We're the ones that thank you, and apologize for the design choices - but I'm sure by now you can sympathize with us :D

Spoiler:

Now that you're done, we can discuss some other deliberate choices too - I'm sure you can now understand why exactly it demands that much investment first; because, as in real life, good things come when one persists. And this is a major hurdle for the MC. This might be the first ever decision he took in his life. This actually comprises an aspect of the game that is kinda spoilery to discuss right now, but I'm sure you're getting the gist of it.

Also,

Spoiler:

Even the emptiness of the Routes, has a reason. Even the linearity of the City (begins semi-open, is clearly linear as you progress) symbolizes both the player's and the MCs familiarization with the
place.

Spoiler:

The things that you probably missed are not that miss-able. They were to be implemented once, but we thought that they would better serve as distractions, rather than genuine rewards. Because... you've got a job to do, sheesh!

By the end of the week we'll probably have a discord set up, in case you're interested.
Also, this is not gonna be huge in terms of episode count: 6 Max, and we're aiming to hit
the ultimate deadline (all episodes) by mid-summer. If all goes well, releases will be monthly.

Thanks for playing and blessings to you.

EDIT: Wanna play a game? Can you find some thematic symbolisms? for instance:

Spoiler:

Your starter is an Ice type. The second type you naturally get evolves into a fire type, right after the MC finds a reason to push forward.
Sylvia fights you with a Pokemon that only knows flatter and attract... While you answer with an Ice type, thematically. How cold of you, huh?
Can you find other such things? You don't even KNOW what is coming...