[Engine] Touhoumon 1.812x Essentials

[Derxwna Kapsyla]

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Welcome back to another round of "Derxwna Makes Games", starring your venerable host and Badman themselves, Derxwna Kapsyla! Except, today we aren't presenting just a game! No, today I bring you the revival of an old project- the Touhoumon Essentials Development Starter Kit- now being officially renamed to Touhoumon Essentials, and referred to shorthand as the DevKit! Now, what is the DevKit you might be wondering? Or what even is Touhoumon? Well, random passer-by, allow me to explain- in song! ...Okay, not really song, but I'll break down in a hopefully easy to digest manner.

Touhoumon, or Touhou Puppet Play (Touhou Ningyougeki) is a ROM hack series of Pokemon Fire Red that originated within the Japanese Touhou community, and was made by Hemoglobin A1c and their team. The games sought to combine the Touhou Project games and setting into the Pokemon franchise. There were there core generations of Touhoumon: 1.02, 1.513, and 1.812. Each of the generations has its own quirks and differences from Pokemon. The current generation, 1.812, is the one most dealt in currently, and is the generation that Touhoumon Essentials is built off of. Touhoumon 1.812 has significant differences from Pokemon (Replacement types, a brand new type interaction table, the Physical/Special Split, and some more misc changes. It's a bit too elaborate to get into here, so I shall provide a link to the English Touhoumon 1.8 wiki at the bottom of this post.

Now, as for the DevKit...

Touhoumon Essentials is a Development Kit that ports over the mechanics of the core Touhoumon 1.812 gameplay and mechanics, as well as some of the derivatives built on it (Touhoumon Purple by Agastya and Touhoumon Unnamed by DoesntKnowHowToPlay), to the RPG Maker XP Engine. Puppet versions of the Touhou characters from Touhou 01: Highly Responsive to Prayers up to Touhou 14.5: Urban Legend in Limbo are present, alongside Pokemon up to Generation IV. I'll get into my reasons why Generation 4 is the last generation present below in an FAQ, but for now let's continue. With the DevKit, you'll be able to make a Touhoumon Fangame without the need for picking up a ROM and hacking it. Provided with the DevKit is a Micro-Game that gives an example of a Touhoumon-built project to give an idea of what can be done with it. It's fairly short, and it loosely ties into my larger Touhoumon project, which'll be getting a reboot of sorts in the future as well.

Now you can't be feasibly expected to download this or even give it a cursory glance without knowing what's in it, right? Touhoumon Essentials does have its own fair share of features and quirks, and you might decide its just right for your own budding project! What's in it? Take a look!

• Pokemon up to and including the Fourth Generation (Bulbasaur and Arceus), as well as stat changes/attacks/abilities up to the Fifth Generation.
• Puppets of Touhou Characters up to and including Touhou 14.5: Urban Legend in Limbo (Reimu to Sumireko), as well as a few custom ones here and there

• (Don't ask me why Nepgear from Neptunia is here.)​

• (More MIGHT come in the future though. I'm not 100% settled on whether or not I want to add LoLK onward yet, so please don't inquire about those.)​

• Pokemon and Touhoumon are segmented off so that, while they may interact, they don't interfeer with one another. Examples of this are:

• Pokemon and Puppets have their own unique type charts - 17 in each, for a grand total of 32 types!!!! (sobbing internally)​

• Pokemon and Puppets have their own egg groups so they can breed independant of the other species. Of course, this is an easy thing to change/remove if you know what to do.​

• Pokemon and Puppets have their own gender base as well- Pokemon have Male and Female, Puppets have Yin and Yang. Functionally it means nothing! But aesthetically...!​

• Both Pokemon and Puppets have their own TMs and HMs- Pokemon have vanilla TMs and HMs, while Puppets have SCs (Skill Cards) and HCs (Hidden Cards).​

• When possible, text has been neutralized so that it refers to both Pokemon and Puppets with a neutral pronoun (usually Party Members or Partners)​

• And probably more that I've forgotten to think about!!!!​

• A system that allows you to make your own Custom Vs. Transitions utilizing Common Events! Very easy to understand and is extremely malleable!
• A Passcode System to replace Mystery Gift (as Mystery Gift is currently broken due to having no HTTPS support); Examples of how it work can be seen in Common Events.
• New Touhoumon items added to the Mining minigame! Not a whole lot, but enough to be noteworthy!!!
• Quite a few scripts provided by the community:

• NuruYuri: FModEX Script​

• KleinStudio: Map Exporter, Mosaic Transformation Fix​

• Marin: Toggleable Turbo Script​

• FL: Trainer Intro Music script​

• Vendily: Ambient Pokemon Cries script​

• Fl, derFischae, Bulbasaurlvl5: HMs as Items script​

• derFischae: Bug fixes for various 17.2 bugs​

• Marty152: Sideways Stairs script​

• AmethystRain: Skip Text script​

• Boonzeet: Efficent Water Puddles script​

• A guarantee that more things are working like they should since the last version of the DevKit released about 5 years ago
• Honestly I'm not sure what else is worth mentioning... All* the Puppets have unique cries? The AI-Exclusive Puppets now have Back Sprites and Shiny Sprites? There's a lot of little things that aren't worth mentioning on an individual basis!

If that's not enough to pique your interest, have some screenshots to go along with the features list! They show off some of the features in action!

Ah, my favorite part of the thread.................. Bugs are ever-present, and I make no assumptions that the DevKit is 100% free of them. I've done my best to squash whatever bug I could find, if I found it. If you happen to notice one, please report them to me, even if you think someone else may have reported it; worst that happens is I tell you it's been fixed or that it's already been reported! Remember: A reported bug eventually gets fixed, an unreported bug stays unnoticed forever.

Tier 3: Serious Game Breaking/Mechanic Altering Bugs
• The Keyboard Mode for naming interfaces is broken for Puppets. Will look into fixing!

Tier 2: In the process of fixing:
• I haven't given a full look-over of the Moves/Abilities to make sure everything is 100% accurate. A few numbers might be off, an effect may be wrong, but on the whole it should be correct. If you notice any wrong, please report it!

Tier 1: Almost unnoticeable:
• please pay no mind to the fact that i havent adjusted map sizes to hide the reflection of the player when you're on the southern edge of a map i'm lazy/forgetful

Tier 0: Outside my domain
• Base Essentials' has a few bugs that are still present in the DevKit. One of these bugs is the Purify Machine for Shadow Pokemon. I've reported the bugs with it, but beyond that it's outside my control.

• As a result, I have not fully neutralized the text for Shadow Pokemon yet. Please wait warmly.​

• Move animations still use the generic Type-animations as part of Essentials. Unless you want to make custom animations for each and every move, this is unlikely to be rectified. I suggest playing with animations disabled.

It's very possible I missed some bugs in this list. If you notice any I forgot, relay them to me and I'll have throw them here and try to fix them if I can!
As always, unless I specifically say otherwise on release, I suggest saving inside a house or a Pokemon Center. Changes have been, and will continue to be, made to outside maps to revise them.

This section is where you can find the current build of the DevKit, as well as any Quick Patches associated with that release. Quick Patches are little releases that fix small bugs that don't warrant a rerelease of the build. Detailed instructions on how to install Quick Patches will be provided alongside the patch itself if applicable.

Current Version: Touhoumon Essentials Version 3.0
Current Quick Patch: None

Over the years a lot of people have helped to make the DevKit be what it is now. While a master list of the credits is included with the download itself, within the spoiler below is also that same list.

Spoiler:

Graphics
• Spyro: Graphical assets for Puppets
• HemoglobinA1c: Aside from being the developer of Touhoumon, the artist of all the sprites not designated by someone else (May contain Not Safe For Work content if searched)
• Uda-shi: Developer of Gensokyo Scenario, which is where some of the tiles come from
• Stuffman: Technical and Attack Sumireko's Backsprites, Five Magic Stones sprites
• FocasLens/Fantasy Puppet Theater: Developers of Gensou Ningyou Enbu -Yume no Kakera-, and distributors of the Asset Collection pack for said game, which is where the portraits and backgrounds for the Vs. Transitions come from. (https://pastebin.com/EHK7HsXf )
• Reimufate: Chibi Sumireko and Normal Sumireko's sprites, Attack Kasen's sprites, backsprites for the AI Puppets, and the menu sprites for several Puppets.
井戸端 多治丸(イド): Sprites for several Puppets (May contain Not Safe For Work content if searched)
Audio
• Mr. Unknown: Composer for the THPP Expanded Music Table Rom Hack, artist of a track present in game

• Witch's Ball ~ Magus (Vs. Drones)​

• a-TTTempo: Doujin Musicians, artist of several of the tracks present in game

• End of Daylight (Isolated Woods)​

• Deep Mountain (Mulberry Village)​

• Other Side of the Moon (Abandoned Shrine)​

• Gensokyo Millennium (Pokemon Center)​

• Deep Mountain (Shrine of Knowledge)​

• Riverside View (Malachite Creek)​

• Starry Sky of Small Desires (Mortar Heights)​

• World's End (Illusion League)​

• Hall of Fame (Illusion League - Hall of Fame)​

• Love Colored Master Spark (Vs. Wild)​

• Doll Judgment (Vs. Trainer)​

• A Dream that is more Scarlet than Red (Continue Screen)​

• Broken Moon (Hall of Fame)​

• Wind God Girl (Bike)​

• Uda-Shi & KecleonTencho: Composer for tracks in Gensokyo Scenario, artists of several tracks present in game.

• Shanghai Alice of Meiji 17 (Trading screen)​

• Mound of Life (Title Screen)​

• Emotional Skyscraper (Vs. Derxwna)​

• brawlman9876: Tumblr User, Reinstrumentalizer of various midi tracks present in game

• Heian Alien (Vs. Nue)​

• Jesslejohn: Youtube User, Artist of a track present in the game

• Now, Until The Moment You Die/Civilization of Magic (Vs. Wild Sariel)​

• Magnius: Composer for Liquid Crystal, artist of tracks used in the game

• Ecruteak City (Ecruteak City)​

• Azalea Town (A bunch of Pokemon Essentials maps)​

• ZUN/Team Shanghai Alice: Artist for several tracks used in game

• Memory of Forgathering Dream (Oak's Speech - Touhoumon DevKit)​

• Hourai Illusion (Credits) [Midi reinstrumentalized by Derxwna]​

• Angel's Legend (Vs. Fantasy Sages) [Midi reinstrumentalized by Derxwna]​

• Magical Girls' Crusade (Vs. Renko/Maribel) [Midi reinstrumentalized by Derxwna]​

• Game Freak (Junichi Masuda, Go Ichinose, Hitomi Sato): Official Pokemon Composers

• Standard Gym Theme (Pokemon Gym)​

• Trick House (Vs. Collector)​

• Capture Fanfare​

• Surf​

• Orburgh Gate (Caves in Pokemon Essentials maps)​

• Sinnoh Route 206 theme (A bunch of Pokemon Essentials maps)​

• Mark DiAngelo: Composer of a track present ingame

• Wind (Boundary Cave)​

Scripts
• NuruYuri: FModEX Script
• KleinStudio: Map Exporter, Mosaic Transformation Fix
• Maruno: Fixes to the code to allow Common Event Vs Transitions to work
• Marin: Toggleable Turbo Script
• FL: Trainer Intro Music script
• Vendily: Ambient Pokemon Cries script
• Fl, derFischae, Bulbasaurlvl5: HMs as Items script
• derFischae: Bug fixes for various 17.2 bugs
• Marty152: Sideways Stairs script
• AmethystRain: Skip Text script
• Boonzeet: Efficent Water Puddles script
• (I can't remember who it was but I'm 90% sure it wasn't Mr. Gela): Name tags above text boxes
Special Thanks
• Maruno: Current developer of Pokemon Essentials
• Enterbrain: Developers and Copyright Holders of RPG Maker
• Game Freak: Developers of the Pokemon franchise
• ZUN/Team Shanghai Alice: Developer of the Touhou Project series of games

You have questions, no doubt. I have answers, I hope! Let's see if we can address any of those questions preemptively, shall we?

Spoiler:

Q: Why did you make this?
A: I wanted to make a Touhoumon game, so I made an engine to make a Touhoumon game!

Q: Why are there 32 types? Some of the types are the same name, can't you just combine them?
A: Theoretically I could, but I have multiple reasons why I haven't.

• First, I wanted to keep Pokemon and Touhoumon interactions as separate as possible, so we didn't have any weird, unintended interactions.​

• Touhoumon Steel is weak to way more things than Pokemon Steel, and I didn't want to introduce those weaknesses to Vanilla Pokemon types.​

• I also personally don't really like when fangames change types or type interactions because of their own personal belief that it rebalances things, so I wouldn't do that to my own project.​

• The same thing goes with moves that share names but have different types or effects. Pokemon Dream Eater requires the Pokemon to be asleep to use it and is a Psychic Type. Touhoumon Dream Eater doesn't and is also a Dark Type move.​

• You could argue that I could just rename the types and moves in that case, but I didn't want to do that. I felt it would have been equally confusing for the existing Touhoumon fans to relearn the new names for moves.​

Q: Why is there only Generation 4 Pokemon and Generation 5 Mechanics
A: Multiple reasons again.

• I wanted to keep the dex under 1000 entries, personally. (But if I add LoLK+, I'm going to end up breaking my word here lol.)​

• Generation 1.8 of Touhoumon utilized Generation 4 as a springboard for some of its moves. Decent homage, is what I figured.​

• I would have cut it off at Generation 3 to pay proper homage to the fact that there've only been Gen 3 Touhoumon games, but I didn't want to let some Gen 1-3 Pokemon lose their Gen 4 evolutions.​

• I didn't want to hyper imbalance the amount of Pokemon there were to the amount of Puppets (Though once again, if I add LoLK+...)​

Q: Do you plan to add [x] character?
A: My official stance is "We'll see". Please don't pester me about it. The primary reason I delayed on Double Dealing Character and Sumireko was because we didn't have any basis for them in existing Touhoumon games. Unnamed added DDC and took away mye xcuse there, so I figured "Screw it, I'll just make and add Sumireko because if I'm going to do this, I'll at least end at my favorite character".

• If you would like to team up with me to make new Puppets in the future, I would not be opposed to it! Contact me if you're interested!​

• Alternatively, if you would like to make your own little Side-Expansions for the DevKit (such as a proper Neptunia one, or an Azur Lane one, or a Granblue one, or even a few fan characters here and there), you have my permission to go ahead and do that as well! Have fun with the kit! I would love to see what you can create with it!​

Q: What isn't allowed to be made with this?
A: Please don't use this in any sort of monetized project. The assets provided here are free use and **NOT** comercial use. Not to mention base Essentials got hit with a DCMA takedown because it infringes on a certain company's IP.
A2: Also please don't use it for any negative purposes. I obviously can't control what you use it for, but I would really like if you didn't use the DevKit to spread or promote negativity.
A3: Please Don't Be An Asshole With The DevKit. I Will Beat You With A Net If I Catch You Being An Asshole.

Q: When can we expect another version?
A: Good question chief! It really depends on whether or not I go through with adding new Puppets or content to the base engine, or if there's any vital bugs that need fixing. Otherwise, expect this version to last for a long while. If I do put out another version, I'll be sure to mention exactly what all was changed for easy updating purposes.

• I cannot guarantee I'll update the DevKit with every version of Essentials. I'll try and aim for a V18 update when it comes out, but I make no promises.​

Q: Okay but seriously, why is Nepgear here?
A: I like to meme.

Q: Touhou fans are weird...
A: You bet your sweet donuts I sure am!!!!!!

If you wish to contact me for any reason regarding the DevKit, you're free to leave a message on this thread, shoot me a PM on here, contact me on the Discord Server, or find me on my various social media hangouts, such as my personal Tumblr account, or my personal Twitter account.

 

[Fatih120]

Hopefully there's someone else out there who makes use of this engine. Real hyped.

 

[Derxwna Kapsyla]

I would love to see people use the kit! As for myself, I'm planning on putting in some additional touches on The Mansion of Mystery by upgrading the engine it uses, as well as soft rebooting Faith & Prayer Version. There's a few other projects on the back burner, but nothing worth talking about right now tbh.

 

[Onism]

Oh this is COOL
I have version 1.0 and I was looking to get an update so I can work on my own Silly Touhoumon Games, and stumbled onto this

Is there the Slide Evolution mechanic thing? I'm just curious, doesn't change anything for me either way

 

[Derxwna Kapsyla]

Slide Evolution isn't a thing in the engine, but that's easy enough to do by editing the Pokemon.txt file. Lengthy process, but simple!

 

[Onism]

Ah, thanks for responding! Out of curiosity (because I'm a newbie to working on stuff like this, alas), how would that work? Would it just be wiring them to be allowed to evolve into each other?

 

[Derxwna Kapsyla]

In Pokemon.txt, every defined species can have the tag "Evolutions". With this tag, you can determine what a species will evolve into and how. For example, Eevee will an Evolutions tag that looks like this:

Evolutions=VAPOREON,Item,WATERSTONE,JOLTEON,Item,THUNDERSTONE,FLAREON,Item,FIRESTONE,...

For Slide Evolutions, all you would have to do for the Puppets is manually define the Evolutions tag for them, and add in their respective evolutions and methods. For example, Technical Suika's would look like this:

Evolutions=ASUIKA,Item,POWERSHARD,SUIKA,Item,(fill in whatever item you want here to slide to level-up evo)

A very simple process! But it will take a significant amount of time to do that for around ~300 Puppets.

 

[Onism]

Ah, thank you lots for explaining!

 

[UberDunsparce]

Hey there. Great job. But I wanted to ask whether is it allowed to post a free-to-use version of Pokemon Essentials on the forum?

 

[Derxwna Kapsyla]

You are certainly right that I did forget about the rules involving Essentials. I've brought it to Marin's attention to see if I need to remove the download link or not. When I get word back, I'll post an update here and take action if need be.

 

[Derxwna Kapsyla]

Hey there. Great job. But I wanted to ask whether is it allowed to post a free-to-use version of Pokemon Essentials on the forum?

After having talked it over with Marin, and Marin talking it over with the staff...

The DevKit is allowed to be on PokeComm with no alterations! Thank you for pointing this out and allowing me to clarify this, I hadn't even realized it initially so it was good to get the clarification now.

 

[#PolishPokeGamer123#]

Please, somebody help me. What needs to be done to fix the convoy belts at the gym in Mulberry Village and get to the gym leader? 😢

 

[Derxwna Kapsyla]

You can only fix it if you have RPG Maker XP installed, as "fixing" the conveyor belts requires fixing the faulty code there.