Rejuvenation Metagame

[cyberfox096]

I can't help but feel that Pokemon Rejuvenation is more of a visual novel or metagame involving Pokemon than an attempt at being a canon pokemon game. Pokemon Uranium tried to use more mainstream mechanics and create fakemon to make it seem like Nintendo had made it. It would make sense since Reborn is more of a battle Sim like Pokemon Colosseum, since there is a darker story and an intense focus on strategies with limited pokemon and no legendaries. However, Rejuvenation seems to focus more on the interaction and story building rather than battling or original content. I noticed that another hallmark of visual novels is that you need to play through multiple times each update to see all of the endings, and most players have backups of certain events such as Castle Zygra or the Doomed Timeline choice. Also, if rejuv is updated in nearly any location, it will break due to the heavy plot reliance. I still believe that Pokemon (PK essentials) is a good medium for developing a gpPokemon game with minimal overhead, but I feel that this game is more than a Pokemon game. audience, but in the future I would love to see its story or mechanics ported to a non-Pokemon RPG or visual novel simply because it is too good and complex of a plot to be restricted to Pokemon, which can have its challenges in reaching a wider audience. I'm sorry if this is too much, but I would love to see more games like Rejuv, and I am considering writing some sort of fictional work based on the plot, character arcehetypes and tropes of this game in the near future.

[Syn Moon]

The idea of turning Pokemon Rejuvenation into a full-fledged original IP has actually been brought up in Jan's tumblr before and Jan did consider it before  (though it's in a pretty old ask).
At first I was wary of that idea, since pokemon was the reason I played Rejuvenation in first place (not that I don't love it's story and characters, mind you! Just that they were a pleasant bonus for me rather than the reason to start the game for me) and I loved the aevian forms, pokemon battles, having a pokemon team and more there, so I didn't like the idea of it being a original IP.

But after reading that post, I can say I've warmed up to the idea of turning Rejuvenation into a original rpg, I wouldn't actually mind that.

[Dawn Oceana]

This used to bother me much more, but ever since 13.5, the stuff that doesn't feel like Pokemon has surpassed all the supposed-to-be-canonically-pokemon stuff that Nintendo has been putting out, so I'm content to see it as its own thing now.

 

When I first started (with v13), there was a degree to which it bothered me, but by the time we get to things like

Spoiler

Erin confessing suicidality

then no matter how you feel about the game, you're probably past the "this doesn't feel like Pokemon" or "lmfao why is this in Pokemon" stuff, and just judging it on its own merits (that moment definitely succeeded for the record). 13.5 is just better than SV and Sw/Sh honestly. 

 

Quote

focus more on the interaction and story building rather than battling or original content. 

This is fine with me! It's my only actual interest! I can genuinely take or leave Pokemon mechanics at this point, the canon pokemon games and my continuous failure to advance in Pokemon Showdown have sapped my interest in that style of gameplay quite a bit, but it feels a little bit more fun in Rejuvenation (13.5). Honestly if you're not prepared to press A to get dialogue and get excited for next dialogue you probably just won't have interest in Rejuvenation. I judged the game for that a lot more in the past, but then the dialogue simply got much better overall, and the A pressing got much less, so now it's okay.

 

Visual novel is kind of unfair though. The hallmark of visual novels is that the gameplay is just you press A to get dialogue, and nothing else. Sometimes you might get a little small extra. You press A a lot in Pokemon Rejuvenation, but not that much, and again, 13.5.

 

The concept of some sort of Aeviumverse that's freed from the strictures of Nintendo IP and able to be like, sold on Steam or whatever would a) require consulting with a really good IP lawyer to shore things up so Nintendo can't accuse you of using Pokemon to promote an original product and get you that way, and b) be reasonably based. But uh, point a there is a pretty big obstacle. According to the former Pokemon Company top lawyer, one of the only things that made them come down on fangames while he was working there (so it won't explain things like Flora Sky) was the perception that the Pokemon IP was being used to make money - and he used a Kickstarter as an example. No way that Pokemon Company wouldn't see completing an entire Pokemon game, and then saying "Now here's just the non Pokemon bits" as being "using Pokemon IP to make money". It doesn't meant they'd come down on it, nor does it mean they'd succeed, but it does mean you'd want to get the professional opinion of an actual IP lawyer for how best to defend against it,

 

...I did say that I was fine with things not feeling like pokemon or being about battling, but actually the amount of "The battle didn't matter" in the story actually definitely bothers me so I guess in that respect I don't like it, but that's a totally separate issue.

Edited May 17 by Dawn Oceana

[Syn Moon]

2 hours ago, Dawn Oceana said:

This used to bother me much more, but ever since 13.5, the stuff that doesn't feel like Pokemon has surpassed all the supposed-to-be-canonically-pokemon stuff that Nintendo has been putting out, so I'm content to see it as its own thing now.

 

When I first started (with v13), there was a degree to which it bothered me, but by the time we get to things like

  Reveal hidden contents

Erin confessing suicidality

then no matter how you feel about the game, you're probably past the "this doesn't feel like Pokemon" or "lmfao why is this in Pokemon" stuff, and just judging it on its own merits (that moment definitely succeeded for the record). 13.5 is just better than SV and Sw/Sh honestly. 

About that, it actually never bothered me to begin with. When I played through Pokemon Rejuvenation, I never felt or even cared that it didn't feel like a Pokemon game, I looked for a fun and joyful experience and gameplay and kick people's ass with my favorite pokemon and Pokemon Rejuvenation delivered that for me.

[cyberfox096]

It has been done before, as Lumentale Trey is basically Pokemon Xenoverse with all Nintendo IP removed, with the characters of Xenoverse used in a fakemon setting. It is on Steam and will be brought to Switch no problem. Still, though, I would love to see Rejuv (Reborn, or any of them) become a commercial non-Nintendo game.

[Dawn Oceana]

9 hours ago, cyberfox096 said:

It has been done before, as Lumentale Trey is basically Pokemon Xenoverse with all Nintendo IP removed, with the characters of Xenoverse used in a fakemon setting. It is on Steam and will be brought to Switch no problem. Still, though, I would love to see Rejuv (Reborn, or any of them) become a commercial non-Nintendo game.

 

As far as I can tell, only small parts of Xenoverse lore are even present. I couldn't even peep the Xenoverse starters like Trishout. There's Trey of course, but this is totally different from something that's basically Rejuvenation but with Not Pokemon in it - the game is totally different and its ties to Xenoverse are much more lowkey.

 

An IP lawyer might advise that to be really safe, major stuff might need to change about how things look, about character names, etc, and that might mean that names like "Team Xen" or "Aevium" or "Melia" might have to change to get Nintendo off your back. (This is complete speculation, I'm not thinking of any specific past examples or anything, just the kinds of sacrifices that might need to be made). Xenoverse has gotten around it by focusing on a completely different section of their world to regular Xenoverse, and also looking nothing like Xenoverse. Rejuvenation would have to as well - partly because any for-sale products can't use Essentials anyway, which is part of the Essentials license.

 

Of course if it can be done, I'm showing up for it, but it sounds hard and risky.

 

[cyberfox096]

In the book I'm writing, Melia is Freya, Aevium is RNVN, and we team xen is Starkiller. The plot has been amalgamated with Reborn and WLL, and the goal of the interceptor (now Kenneth), is to open 18 vaults and reconstruct a crystal for a deity (Alastair/Adrest) to regain his humanity after dying in a Starkiller terrorist attack. The vaults are like the gyms of Reborn, and each is represented by a different character, like the sages in Zelda. The main cities are Verone city, Terreane village, Valarie resort, New Haven City and Alsa Urban. Kenneth loses a lover early on (Laura/Taelia) in the black steeple arc, while the plot of protecting Melia\Freya remains the same. Kenneth is much older than the Rejuv interceptor, and is also inspired by Venom Snake and Geralt from the Witcher. Ren and Madame X are replaced by Taen, who is the leader of Starkiller, who is a sociopath and is responsible for Laura's death. Starkiller is backed up by 3rd Heaven Inc, who are basically Cassandra and the Blakories. Starkiller is also based on the Black Foxes from Desolation. Each arc takes a year, and time travel takes decades. It deals with the idea of a flawed protagonist being forced to make difficult decisions in a It is meant to be a Non-Nintendo tribute to the Reborn cycle for a young adult audience. How would this hold up as a story? 

[cyberfox096]

Sorry. 

[The Swordsman]

I don't think that its necessarily the greater emphasis on story itself that is causing this feeling, afterall Gens 5 and 7 are similarly story and character focused but the fact that Rejuvenation unlike Reborn doesn't really try to work within in the bounds the of the Pokemon game continuity. Instead using anything from the differing Pokemon continuities and focusing more on it's own lore instead.

[dudeguyman]

Pokémon is already the biggest and most recognizable franchise on the planet. Using the Pokémon world, lore, and mythology as a substrate for your own world, lore, and mythology at this point in time can be seen as nothing different than doing the same with Tolkien's or D&D's, except that with Pokémon you risk Nintendo lawyers coming after you butt and that we're less to used to Pokémon being used in that way thanks to the risk of Nintendo coming after the author(s)'s butt.

Edited June 11 by dudeguyman