Dylanrockin

Well, I may have the option to give it back, since... I also felt like I really didn't earn it, in the first place. Also, hi, it's been a couple days. That's good. Anyways, new map, new stuff, new events, blablablabla. This be the Shadowed Forest, also known as a forest that bears many secrets. What kind of secrets? That's for you to uncover in the near future

It is more of an inconvenience than unfortunate, I would say. For as long as I've lived, I've had to pay debts upwards to 4 times the amount that I owe her. And the people that I owed it to weren't nearly as forgiving. Otherwise known as college tuition's. It's more of a minor set-back, but no matter, there are many ways around situations like this. Where's the excitement in life, if there isn't any dire consequences, and challenges to overcome? The only thing that I will be worrying about is paying my spriter, who has been patient up to this point, with me continuing my education further. Progress with sprites and artwork will be a tad slower, but it's nothing that can't be easily mended.

tl;dr ramblings At the moment, I owe my spriter several hundred dollars for the sprites that they make. But, those aren't the big problems that I have on my plate, at the moment. With the amount that I've commissioned in the past, paying those things off is a cake walk. No, what I'm talking about is a 4600 dollar debt that I owe to my aunt. Remember how I previously stated that she got me a car for free? Well, apparently at the last minute she said: Oh yeah, now I'm gonna have you start paying me back. And I hear you asking me "Why do you owe so much?" Because, she had me believe that she would purchase for me any car that I wanted, for me maintaining my high GPA in college for so long, without having to pay her back. But, at the last minute she mentioned to me that I had to start paying her back for buying me the car that I use to get to school, and my real life job. So, now every paycheck that I earn, about 70% of what I make will now go towards paying off the debt that I owe her, which is... I apologize for my language, bullshit. It was unexpected, and honestly, I wish I could rewind time and not agree to such a stupid offer. That said, it is only 70%, and the remaining 30 will be put towards my game. That said, for as long as I've lived; I've dug myself out of bigger holes than this. Holes that were twice as big as this one, and were not nearly as forgiving. Compared to the kind of debt that I've been in, paying this off is as easy as taking a crap. ---------------------------------------------------------------- That said, debt or no debt - work will be getting done with my game. 4600 dollars is nothing in comparison to the amount of money that I've had looming over my head, in the past. What's more, I've got nothing to lose.

So, here is a little update: As I mentioned the other day, I foreshadowed that there would be more dynamic animations for the characters during cutscenes, so that way they can display more emotion, rather than just awkwardly turning them. So, in this video, which is Vice vs. Alain #2, Vivian shakes her head, and you might say "Wait, is that it? Just that?" But, you'd be surprised. I have animations for each and every character to display several different kinds of expressions. There. are. many expressions XD This is just a snippit of what will be coming in the cutscenes. However, that said, I will have to redo EVERY cutscene's move routes in the game, to accommodate these new changes. I know it will take more time than necessary, but, trust me, it's worth it ;D Anywho, here is the video: Also, the Movies option has now been added to the Load Screen, after you've finished the events in the City of the Timeless, and unlocked Hiro and Allan as playable characters:

Yeah, which is why Verdant is just a form that changes Eevee to it's alternate colored variant. The cloaked characters will be revealed, possibly in about 2-3 days or so. Also, I've been super busy irl, and I have been procrastinating the crap out of uploading that one video that I promised. But, I plan on doing another video for the upcoming costumes, later this week as well

That is true, but I try to make the game as different as possible, without treading into moemon or fakemon territory. But especially moemon and gijinka territory, since this transformation is nowhere close to being either of them. Also, as a side note there will be a showcase of 5 "new" characters, possibly, within the next couple days. However, these ones are special, in that, their faces are hidden and will not be revealed, until you all play the game. No spoilers here, as their designs are intentionally meant to be hiding their faces. That said, 3 out of the 5 are already known characters, and 1 of the remaining 2 is completely new, and the other one has already been revealed. Their facial features and regular clothes are hidden and wear special masks to hide their faces, while wearing special garbs.

Yup, but there are people who expect my game to be traditional, since almost all Pokemon fan-games follow a non-abstract, story progression formula. So, to a lot of people, this kind of thing is extremely foreign to them, and is really weird. Which... is good XD I'm taking Pokemon's fantasy elements to it's extreme. But, yes there are a lot of rules in my world, especially when it delves into the more mystical side of everything. You, unfortunately, did not get to that point in the story, but in the late future you will

Also, Ninetales' human form without a tail, since they can control whether or not their tails can be visible or not.

Indeed, there be some... very unique things to be coming out of it, and I will be showing them off, in the near future ;D Also, update, here is a "new" character. I say new, because this character is already established within the game since the beginning. However, this is what I was foreshadowing for the past... week or two. This is Ninetales in her "Herald's Disguise," which is basically the a Pokemon/Human gaining the ability to transform into a Pokemon/Human, as a means of disguising oneself. You might've remembered this with Velvet Rose the Witch who had a tail as well. inb4 people make furry comments or something incredibly disgusting. This does not equal humans having any relation to Pokemon. This is literally the same thing as if Zorua were to use it's Illusion ability. In fact, it IS the exact same thing. However, Pokemon when transformed cannot use their abilities as a human, and vice versa. In relation to the story, the Herald's Disguise was a way for the Planet Herald to be ensured safety, as a means of disguising oneself as a Pokemon. However, very, VERY certain Pokemon who have drank the "Water of the Outer Heavens" or "Ultra Celestial Water" can gain this ability as well. But, the transformation is limited to the body mass of the human, so you cannot become a Weedle or something completely silly like that. It has to be equal to the size of the humans form in mass. This is a very strange thing for a lot of people, but... that's just the weirdness of J-RPG's I suppose Especially Tales games. I mean, have you even played Zestiria?! That shiz is weird af!

May or may not take a picture of said car, but that's if anyone cares to see it

Symphonia does get the special treatment, indeed. But, it's more like the Aselia Tales games that get the special treatment, rather. Aselia games = Phantasia, Symphonia, Narikiri Dungeon 1-3 and Summoner's Lineage. But, here's a small update for today. New sprites have been added into the game, which will help make cutscenes a lot more dynamic and interesting to watch, since... well... tomorrow I will be showing off a video of what I mean, but it's only done once in the scene. It's to help give the characters more emotion and allows them to express themselves without having to awkwardly turn the characters for dramatic effect or whatever. Tomorrow is going to show off what I mean. However, today I planned on uploading it, but I ended up having to be with my Aunt the past 2 days, and got myself a new car at a dealership. So, that's cool Now I have a new car that doesn't suck a**. So, because of that, I've been a little bit preoccupied and haven't done diddly-squat with my game, for those past 2 days. However, I swear, I am almost done with the Arc that I am on, all these scenes are nothing but cutscenes. However, I did have one or 2 sections of actual character controlled gameplay, so that way you can have a break to save or do other things, etc. Also, I will be showing off the Tales costumes sometime this week or next week, whichever comes fastest. But, I have also started working on several new maps, in the process. Mainly maps for the 2nd continent, but tomorrow I plan on getting a lot of work done. Hopefully.

One last thing I wanted to mention for this week, is that I will be including a new unlockable set of costumes for the 6 main characters. And those 6 costumes that you can unlock are actually costumes of characters from the Tales series. In order, these are what the characters will be representing from the Tales series: Vice Braving - Lloyd Irving: Tales of Symphonia Marissa Brennan - Colette Brunel: Tales of Symphonia Vivian Vance - Suzu Fujibayashi: Tales of Phantasia (I know some people want her ancestor: Sheena Fujibayashi, but, I feel that there is enough Symphonia representatives already. Plus Suzu is cool af. Not as cool as Sheena, but still cool.) Allan Monochroma - Yuri Lowell: Tales of Vesperia Krista Harper - Elize Lutus: Tales of Xillia Hiro Monochroma - Pascal: Tales of Graces I may or may not include more Tales costumes, but I feel that this first set is good for now These costumes will be worked on, around next month or the month after.

Well, it's a good thing that I haven't even started on it yet, since I am still looking for feedback on this stuff.

Indeed, I may also include a new set of Pokemon abilities that do the same thing as Pixilate and whatnot, except that each type has it's own version of it. But, there are also item versions that a Pokemon can hold in order to create "Altered Techniques" as I explained above. The Pokemon abilities will do the same thing, as well, of course ;D

Well, lucky for you, I too don't really care much for new types, which is why I don't ever plan on including them, ever ;D But these new moves can be used by opponents as well, and not just you, so there is some balance there, among other things.

True that, I thought the old design was boring and dull. A: I've played almost all of them, including the spin-offs, and PSP games. To give you the full list of Tales Games that I've played, here you go: Tales of Phantasia - SNES/PS1 version Tales of Eternia Tales of Destiny 1 and 2 Tales of Symphonia - Gamecube, PS2, and the PS3 version. Yes, I own all 3 versions of Symphonia. Tales of Innoncence Tales of Hearts - DS and Vita Tales of the World Radiant Mythology 1,2 and 3. 3 is the best IMO, because you can customize all the characters from every Tales game, up to that point in the series, as well as play with all of them. There is a lot of post-game content, and there are even titles to be unlocked for every character, which was not present in the previous 2 games. Tales of VS. - Really meh Smash Bros clone for the PSP Tales of the Abyss - PS2 and 3DS version Tales of Xillia 1 and 2 Tales of Fandom 1 and 2 - these games are weird, and a translation for them is very necessary Tales of Graces f Tales of Zestiria Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave - Dynasty Warriors clone, but strangely addicting and fun. Tales of Vesperia - 360 and PS3 version. PS3 version is way better because there is a lot more optional content, and Yuri is 1000x more OP. You can solo the entire game on Unknown difficulty with Yuri. It is so awesome. Tales of Legendia Tales of the World - Reve Unitia. I literally just got this game for my Japanese 3DS, and I have not yet played it. I have seen footage of it though, and thus I am an "expert" XD So, that about sums up all the Tales games that I've played. Let it be known that I am a freaking Tales dork XD I am super looking forward to Tales of Berseria. And my favorite Tales game is obviously Symphonia, if the title of my game's name didn't already give it away. As sad as it is for me to say: I've played more Tales than I have Pokemon. If you were to see all the save files that I have on my Gamecube for Tales of Symphonia, you'd be quite surprised with how much I played it. It's actually better than those In-fact, I plan on making a whole new amount of changes to those abilities as well. But, the difference here is that: The moves get a name change, and get an extra added effect, on top of becoming whichever type item you're holding/ability.

But at the same time, there are those who critique every little thing that has no feeling of "Pokemon," and will then say that I'm doing it wrong. Being different, apparently, to some critics is a bad thing, and that I need to "stick to the norm," as they say. But, I try to implement my maps, in my own original style, as opposed to traditional Pokemon, since... I find it a bit boring, when it's traditional Not that what they say is wrong, or anything, but at the same time, I prefer to try something different. Also, I wanted to announce some new sprite changes, to all the characters. Well... it's more like, cutscene exclusive sprite changes, but, in the coming weeks/month, there will be something... interesting to look forward to, in regards to them. And, I wanted to make mention to the, in the works, new battle mechanics that I will be implementing, at some point. Possibly after I finish the Character Abilities, definitely after the Ability Matrix is completed. But, this new battle mechanic will allow for Normal type moves to become... decently viable, by allowing for certain, special items to alter how those normal type moves work. So, if you were to have your Pokemon hold a Dark Type variant of this item, then (certain) normal type moves will have altered variants, which gain new effects, on top of their usual effect, and will become Dark Type. This will apply for any of the types, as well. I don't know how people will receive this, since it's only for Normal Type moves that can be turned into altered forms, but I actually like the sound of it, because that's what Tales of Vesperia did with it's skill system. Example from Vesperia: Yuri's Divine Wolf with the Wind attribute, will change Divine Wolf into Divine Wolf: Gale. At least this way it will make Normal Type moves viable, and actually useful XD However, this is all in theory, as I have not done much for it yet, aside from one move. But, I may end up working on this, sometime in the future, around the time that I finish all the abilities and the ability matrix.

Yup, I was half expecting that XD

Soooooo, here goes another session of "What I changed and how it used to look." Yesterday I worked on remodeling the Brennan Estate, once again. This time, it was the indoor area of the Estate, and now... it looks way better. Before: Ugly, ugly, and more ugly. After: The stairs were changed and the layout is different. Now it's no longer stupid-ugly symmetrical with silly design choices thrown in. I also threw in a balcony for Helena's room, which, I think look spectacular, I don't about you. And, I completed another map, which connects to a new forest area of the game, on the 2nd continent, as well as one of the game's many Sanctuaries.