Things that you DONT like on Pokemon Reborn.

[Zounds]

I am really enjoying the game so far, but the lack of strong male characters is quite jarring to me. The story is full of women and girls with deep emotional story arcs, and then as far as guys go we've got Cain who's just there to lighten up the mood and remind us that he's pansexual. Judging by the way the males in this game are written I can't help but feel like the writer has some sort of resentment of guys. The few guys that are around are just kinda there or had some hand in causing trauma for a girl in the plot.

I also find it strange that this one orphanage seems to house a legion of pokemon prodigies despite the fact that there would be no way for them to actually go out, train, and become experienced enough to become leaders of the pokemon league. Seems like even the more mature and darker pokemon stories can't get away from the expectation of children accomplishing incredibly unrealistic tasks in a few months whereas adults train their whole lives only to be beaten by those children.

[Timber Dragon]

I'd argue Cain is probably one of the strongest male characters in the game. Yes, he's comic relief but he's also a generally reliable, caring, and proactive character, one who consistently tags along and helps you on your journey -- for comparison, look at Victoria and how much she impeded your progress rather than take measures to help it along.

But the orphanage thing is one of my biggest complaints with the story, too. I admit that Pokemon canon is no stranger to kids single-handedly taking down entire organizations and becoming champ in a short amount of time, but the question becomes 1) where they found the time to do that training, and 2) why so many of those orphans just happen to be children who are high-ranked gym leaders and Elite 4 (it's supposed to be inspired by the real world Reborn league, but still). It's hard to consider Noel a prodigy when his friends are only a few years older than him and managed to have attained similar or even higher status.

What also gets to me is why no one in the league noticed that Sigmund wasn't letting any of those leaders battle until the player breaks into the orphanage. I understand that maybe the powers that be are busy cleaning up the city, but gym leaders are supposed to be high-ranked VIPs in Reborn. Surely they'd have better tabs kept on them and be expected to touch base with the league from time to time. And if not, surely at least one challenger (if there are so many gym leaders in that building, they'd probably have plenty of challengers at their doorstep) would have seen Sigmund refuse them to battle and perhaps complained to someone. It just strikes me as odd how these high-profile leaders being unable to do their jobs would have gone unnoticed for so long.

[guy who doesn't post]

There's only two things that I actually really dislike about the game.

1) The laaaaag

2) I feel as though a lot of Pokemon are received at far too low of a level. I remember that I received the Cynadquill about right before around Radomus's battle. I ended up grinding for around four hours before the Typhlosion was caught up with everyone else. Mind you, it felt satisfying when it was done, but I wouldn't mind getting some of the event Pokemon at a slightly higher level.

[FrostieFoxy]

I'm sure someone has pointed it out by this point but Radomus' gym puzzle is the absolute worse to me. Thank you guys for video tutorials because i despise chess. Love the gym leader though, he's whacky i adore him

Edited June 30, 2016 by FrostieFoxy

[Doxaanima]

Mostly everyone has a problem with Route 1 but Route 2 could be removed from the game in the next episode and I wouldn't miss it. That puzzle is not as difficult but man is it tedious.

[Tartar]

I'm sure someone has pointed it out by this point but Radomus' gym puzzle is the absolute worse to me. Thank you guys for video tutorials because i despise chess. Love the gym leader though, he's whacky i adore him

I actually liked this part since the puzzles, despite being a bit simplistic were quite fun to solve. My main gripe with the puzzle were the horrendous controls. I had to get a real chessboard to solve it, since solving it by moving pieces in game was way too difficult.

[Amanojaku]

The lack of important male characters kinda irks me too. It's even more noticeable when Cain is the only one that's brought up whenever this is mentioned. Other than him, there's, like, villains who get two lines of characterization and nothing else (Solaris, Sigmund, Sirius, Taka, Corey, El), characters who are written around a single trait (Fern the jerk rival, Samson the dumb muscle, Bennett the horny teenager, Blake the jerk for the sake of being a jerk) and oddballs like Radomus and Cal who look like they're given depth, due to the fact that they're given some interesting traits, but in practice their characterization doesn't go anywhere because they're simply not onscreen enough. Cain himself isn't a good example, because he can be summed up in four words: pansexual, flirty, nice, fishnets.

[DemICE]

am i the only one who did not have any issue finding those glasses in any of my 2 runs? >.> apart from that yea, the whole puzzle if you wanna open all paths can be time consuming but i kinda liked it.

[Tartar]

am i the only one who did not have any issue finding those glasses in any of my 2 runs? >.> apart from that yea, the whole puzzle if you wanna open all paths can be time consuming but i kinda liked it.

Spending an hour on it is VERY tedious.

[Lilleen]

The lack of important male characters kinda irks me too. It's even more noticeable when Cain is the only one that's brought up whenever this is mentioned. Other than him, there's, like, villains who get two lines of characterization and nothing else (Solaris, Sigmund, Sirius, Taka, Corey, El), characters who are written around a single trait (Fern the jerk rival, Samson the dumb muscle, Bennett the horny teenager, Blake the jerk for the sake of being a jerk) and oddballs like Radomus and Cal who look like they're given depth, due to the fact that they're given some interesting traits, but in practice their characterization doesn't go anywhere because they're simply not onscreen enough. Cain himself isn't a good example, because he can be summed up in four words: pansexual, flirty, nice, fishnets.

You forgot Hardy and Zero.

Cain is more than just a flirty pansexual rival. He ran away from home because his family (at least his mother) didn't accept him for who he was. He is willing to help the MC throughout the game, like helping the orphans escape and Heather with her loss. He is also willing to try something new, like how he accepted the Oshawott he saved and later on using dark and bug types against Radomus (who he never got to battle. Poor guy). The guy freaking sacrificed himself to save the MC from El even though he knew El was in the elite four and wouldn't be able to take him down in a battle.

I completely agree with you that there isn't many strong male characters and I wish there was more. Those who are in the game arn't as weak characters as you make it out to be, though. They only suffer from not having alot of screen time, like you mentioned.

[DerogatoryTrainer]

I'd almost suggest Taka but then I remembered you don't see him at all from the Garchomp fight to the Sewers.

Which is a shame. He's a tolerable fellow.

[Lilleen]

I'd almost suggest Taka but then I remembered you don't see him at all from the Garchomp fight to the Sewers.

Which is a shame. He's a tolerable fellow.

My point exactly. Taka isn't a bad character, but he laks screen time.

But I guess with so many characters in one game, it's hard to give everyone enough screen time.

[Tartar]

I heavily dislike this game not being more about Anna. I'd really like if she got a more prominent role in the future, due to how wonderful her personality is...

[SilverJakler]

That jumping rock puzzle outside the circus area. I hate that puzzle.

Edited July 1, 2016 by SilverJakler

[JoshMck]

This is just coming from the pain the puzzle caused me. But, the WHOLE GLASSES puzzle. Well, the entire ROUTE 1 puzzle entirely. It killed me a little inside. xD And secondly the Crustle puzzle, not because it was hard, but because of how long it took. Everytime I got to extremely long puzzles it's like "taking away from the action."

But that's probably just because I'm impatient. The puzzles themselves were obviously made very well. The stickers were the death of me.

Another thing is that fucking Arceus. My god, WHYYYY? I get the idea and concept though so oh well~ I got pass everything and I'm happy.

[NaughtyNomad]

I am really enjoying the game so far, but the lack of strong male characters is quite jarring to me. The story is full of women and girls with deep emotional story arcs, and then as far as guys go we've got Cain who's just there to lighten up the mood and remind us that he's pansexual. Judging by the way the males in this game are written I can't help but feel like the writer has some sort of resentment of guys. The few guys that are around are just kinda there or had some hand in causing trauma for a girl in the plot.

Funnily enough, I thought exactly the same thing. The male characters in this game are really lacking. This is even more jarring if you play as a female character. I'm all for diversity and strong female characters, but not at the expense a realistic representation...

Cal and Taka are the only straight and half-way decent male characters you ever meet in the game. While literally ALL of the bad guys on team Meteor are males, except for (surprise) their leader, who is in fact (another) badass girl.

It's one thing to subtly push for an agenda in your writing, but when it become so blatantly obvious, it just shows your lack of writing skill in being able to write "good" male characters, or your overwhelming issues with the male gender.

And before people start saying "What about Cain? He's an awesome male character." Actually no he isn't. The way he's written is to be more comedic than anything. The type of male character a lesbian/feminazi writer who had bad experiences with men in the past would feel "safe" around. I don't even think the way they depict his sexuality is respectful to the male gay community.

Male characters are there for comedy (Radomous, Cain, Samson) or to be the bad guys (Team Meteor, Fern, Blake, the Doctor, El). To be perfectly and bluntly honest, the writing of the game screams daddy issues (Corey), male betrayal (Cal), and bad experiences with religious male leaders (El).

All that to say, I still do enjoy the game. But occasionally you do get slapped in the face with the writer's agenda. But, meh, nothing's perfect!

Edited July 2, 2016 by NaughtyNomad

[ZEL]

#RememberHardy

He's a nice character who has been getting good characterization since he was introduced, and he's the kind of guy I'd legit wanna hang out with. Wish I could rock long hair like he does, too.

...Not trying to oppose the claim that the game needs more strong male characters, because I do think that's true. But is Hardy really that forgettable to everyone else? He's on of my favourites.

On a note unrelated to all the character discussion, I actually liked the Crustle puzzle. Don't judge me.

[NaughtyNomad]

Oops I did forget Hardy. He is a pretty cool guy. Even if he does get treated a bit like an emotional fool next to Saphira's cool headed-ness.

I suppose Noel is alright too, if children count.

Edited July 2, 2016 by NaughtyNomad

[Tartar]

The thing is that the majority of the gym leaders in Reborn League (the one in real life) were female. So the game is constrained to be loosely based on the events of real life.

[Amanojaku]

While I did think of Hardy, apparently I forgot to write his name. My bad! He's on the Radomus-Cal boat of having some characterization but no screentime, in my opinion.

In fact, that's my biggest problem with Reborn, the weird character focus. Important characters that are central to the plot, like Anna and Solaris, got about two lines of characterization each so far and we're almost at the endgame. Corey faces a similar problem, given that his debut is the Wham Episode of the earlygame and he gets exactly TWO scenes before dying, one and a half if you didn't do the mystery egg event (also his death feels a lot more empty on that route). There's also Laura, who gets zero characterization other than being a complete pushover and knowing Kid Lin, despite being the strongest of the Belrose sisters.

Meanwhile, Titania, a character whose characterization is pretty much "boring Saphira" and whose influence in the plot so far rivals Arclight's, gets an entire arc dedicated to her and My Immortal-tier character praising, in and out of the game. Surely Ame knows more than I do about her, but advertising the character as an independent fairy tale princess then having her be nothing but an edgy, Chaotic Stupid version of a character whose ruthlessness was explored FAR better, while giving her more focus than most of the central characters, just doesn't feel right to me.

[Honchy]

The orphans. You basically babysit them for half the game, and you'll be babysitting them even more

[Tartar]

The orphans. You basically babysit them for half the game, and you'll be babysitting them even more

That was my favorite part of the game actually. They all have such wonderful dialogue, that I've kinda started missing them since they disappeared from the story.

[Timber Dragon]

It's not so much that I'm babysitting those orphans as it is I'm babysitting orphans who are supposed to be high-ranked gym leaders and should theoretically be able to handle themselves when random Meteor mooks come knockin'. Like seriously, Charlotte I could understand because she was so close to the entrance and probably got taken by surprise, but when those kids got ambushed in the Underground Railnet, I'm skeptical that no one but Cain thought to take out a Pokeball and defend themselves, even if the Pokemon they chose was a panicked, random decision -- anything would've been better than standing there and getting manhandled. No one even thought to run, except for Cain.

See, this is why I like Cain. Say what you will about his constant double entendres, but Cain does the most things out of any character besides the protagonist.

And hell, during the raid at Tanzan Cove, around that time Charlotte explicitly said that the player character isn't up to her rank. So why in the name of Arceus's butt did she and the others hide behind the PC? Because it was too risky to let Sigmund and his mooks catch them? Based on their rank, I figured those kids could destroy anything Sigmund could throw at them.

See, maybe I'm missing something and the circumstances are more justified than I think, but whether it's justified doesn't matter to me -- if these gym leaders are supposed to be strong, then the story is doing a pretty poor job putting them in situations that would let them demonstrate that strength.

[ZEL]

One explanation that I came up with during my first run was that perhaps due to how long Sigmund has kept the orphans away from their Pokémon and from taking on challenges, they simply are no longer used to actually being able to call upon their teams to defend them.

Since the orphans appear to not have gotten much, if any, access to their teams, they would likely lack the "fight" response to getting into danger, as they have been lacking the option for a very long time.

This does bring up the question of how the kids got so strong in the first place (in Anna and Noel's case at least) if they never got to train, but it's the closest I've come to making sense out of the lack of trying they've displayed.

Cain and the PC would be much faster to send out their Pokémon because they're so used to it.

I do assume that at least to some extent, the Belrose sisters were able to develop their skill when they still lived with their parents. Charlotte's story of how she thinks their parents died does mention how she was out in the cove with her Pokémon, and snce her mom was the Fire leader, she surely encouraged her children to develop their skills early.

With Noel and Anna we don't know how long they've been in Sigmund's care, but I'll admit I find it harder to accept their high skill level. If they had been outside and able to train, I wouldn't question it as much, considering Shelly and Heather exist in the same story. But locked-up it does make things hard to believe.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

Ame said it was a question of legality, not strength.