I need help fact checking a script for a video essay on Pokemon Reborn

[PinDaGreat]

Edit: NVM, after giving it some thought, this wouldn't make for a good video.

I'm working on a script for a video essay focusing on Pokemon Reborn, talking about the gameplay for the most part. I want to know if my information on the gameplay is outdated or not, as I haven't played the game in around 2 years, so I have no knowledge on any updates since then. I want to make sure that my criticisms are still valid before I proceed in finishing the rough draft.

Thank you for your time.

Pokemon Reborn Video.rtf

[Commander]

I'll at least clarify a couple things since the history of Reborn is rather muddy and even that I don't have the full history book on. I don't know if this is like a final essay or just like a short quick one so I'll just be brief. The game itself is based on an actual league using a battling simulator called Pokemon Online in which challengers registered 6 Pokemon to take on 18 leaders in a live Roleplay like scenario. The community built around it had so much fun and it was so memorable that the idea of creating a game based on it was something in the talks but nobody really figured it be a possibility. The current admin running the league, Amethyst, had quite a bit of experience with RPGmaker and within 3 weeks created the first episode of Reborn. Eventually, a full storyline was drafted for what would be a many, many years process to make the game what we know today. 

 

Reborn's popularity started to increase due to its ability to subvert expectations. Back in the day, fan-games were almost nonexistent and hacks were limited to what they could do. There were two fan-games that stood out: Suzerain's Pokemon Zeta & Omnicron and Amethyst's Pokemon Reborn. The two were compared so much it drove both communities insane calling it a can of worms topic. A lot of people found Pokemon games to be boring and just way too easy or simplistic. What hooked a lot of people in was all the people complaining about the difficulty. That along with mature things like suicide being in the game really shocked people. It was unheard of to do this things. These facts were lost over time or watered down which I'll get to in a moment.

 

There are two pretty iconic moments in Reborn's history past the point of the game. One happened a bit after I shortly joined. A Youtuber named Shofu created a Let's Play of this fan-game in which is many videos of him getting flustered and downright rage quitting while struggling to get through this game. This attracted a lot of people to the game which back in the day was called the "Shofu Era" which brought on a lot of key members which some of them are working on their own fan-games. The other one is when someone posted a meme on Gizmodo about making the choice for the starter, something most Rebornians felt when entering that room. This attracted so many people to play the game, the site managed to crash.

 

Now back to the game itself. You talk about the game being difficult and forcing you to make use of features such as EVs. This is actually, incorrect. Pokemon Reborn forces you to change your perception of how to play the game. It's often why the words "unfair" are used to criticize it. Most games before Reborn pretty much you could breeze through a leader pretty effortlessly taking no more than maybe 2-3 attempts. Any struggle could be easily conquered by simply leveling a single Pokemon to a really high level. In fact, the mainline games favor training one over many Pokemon creating an imbalance. Reborn is one of the first fan-games to pioneer stopping this style with it's infamous level cap system. It doesn't stop there. Many people would just pick up really strong mons to plow through. But Reborn interesting enough brought up in the story that Pokemon are scarce and that "elite" mons weren't going to be something you go out and find.

 

In other words, it felt like it was a punch in the gut. What's really funny is that the solution for everything due to a lack was a certain Pokemon named Gyarados known as the Janitor to pretty much resolve all issues and struggles. Pretty much got snapped out of existence due to that. There was a delicate balance but it worked and taught people to appreciate when good things like Shadow Ball came. In fact, this core idea promotes the whole exploration aspect early on in the game. To get anything better than just junk, you had to run around doing monotonous stuff but the reward was really rewarding. Talk with a random trainer standing on a piece of grass? You get a decent item to get a Budew. This was a learning process but people eventually adapted. In fact, Pokemon Reborn can likely be completed with 0 Exp/EV growth. It's a game that pushes you to get good and push through whatever methods you believe are needed.

 

Then we get into the second most controversial topic about Reborn: Field Effects. This is pretty much a split opinion. Some people think it's good and some people think it's bad. People like it because it's different and adds more uniqueness to the game. Some people think it's unfair and added another layer of frustration since it's always in the favor of the opponent. I actually lean more towards it being poorly done because the mechanic was meant to be something to be able to make advantage of...in the span of 5 minutes. It's a great mechanic and well done, but not so great in Reborn. That's just my opinion though.

 

Now for the most controversial topic: the story. There's barebones info on the story itself but a majority of the criticism and disdain for the fan-game comes from the story itself. Pretty much another double-edged sword. You can find valid criticisms on this beyond "Lol, so edgy". I lot of people remember it for the dark elements for both good and bad reasons and honestly kind of makes it stick out. In the end though, it really did inspire quite a number of people from many fan-games hosted on this site and I believe Suzerain's Pokemon Insurgence as well.

 

That's probably well more than whatever info you needed but I figure someone else in the future may ask to write a report and may as well have something to reference back to. I don't have a lot of my sources off-hand since this is just info I've gained over the years but if you need any direct stuff I probably can find it.