fangame Pokemon Deviation / Kanto Rebornification Project (WIP)

[PixelMods]

MattDank and I are planning on soon starting development of a Pokemon Fangame titled Pokemon Deviation, though we're also calling it the Kanto Rebornification Project. It's a, well, Rebornification of the Kanto Pokemon games. The game will be set in the same universe as Pokemon Reborn, and is intended to have a Reborn/Rejuvenation/Desolation-like feel, story, characterization, and with mechanics taken from those games.

 

Unless someone is aware of some other RPG Maker Fangame we could get Kanto maps from, we plan on using JohtoBlaziken's Map Pack as a base. Or, more specifically, a version that bigjra has been working on in an unrelated Reborn-like Kanto fangame. While our fangames plan to go in very different directions, we both need to adapt the Map Pack to work properly with Reborn's cosebase, so their version should be closer to what we need. While it has all of Kanto, it lacks the Sevii Islands, which kinda sucks since we plan to use those in the fangame.

 

If you want to help, or you just want to see/discuss progress or give suggestions, you can join the game's Discord here: https://discord.gg/xQm7wJhy9a

 

Notes on what we're planning so far

1. We'll start by getting the Kanto game/map pack to work on Reborn's codebase. If the canon story is implemented on whatever map pack we use, we'll get that working for the first version of the release.
   1. We'll also add field effects to most areas, and to gym battles.
   2. We'll increase the difficulty, making it so you'll be at the level cap by the Elite 4
   3. We'll make non-Kanto Pokemon obtainable, though likely not all 1000+ in the first version.
   4. We hope to get an Enby player character for this, and if we don't get a black male/female/enby sprite I'll resprite what we do have to work as the black male/black female/black enby sprites. (To clarify, like the other Reborn-verse games, pronouns and avatar are seperate, I'm just referring to what gender they're designed for)
2. We plan to eventually make all Pokemon obtainable
3. We plan to eventually have a badge for all Types
   1. Either the 8 normal gym leaders + 8 nomadic gym leaders, or somewhere around there given there are a few places to fit additional gyms, or 16 normal gym leaders with some of them on the Sevii islands, or some badges not being from gym leaders but unofficial badges from beating boss Pokemon or gauntlets of trainers. We're leaning toward 8 normal gym leaders + 8 nomadic gym leaders though
4. We plan to have an Indigo Conference/Indigo Plateau, before the Elite 4
5. Additional rivals
   1. I thinking I want Sabrina and Janine as rivals for the player, maybe Gary/Blue/Green Oak too, Maybe Red, Leaf, and Yellow if we get other sprites to use for the player character.
6. Story
   1. Extra focus on Mewtwo
   2. Extra focus on Team Rocket
   3. Set both before and after the Pokemon Reborn postgame. Spoilers if you never got to Pokemon Reborn's postgame Linn's reality merges with Pokearth. In this story, this would have retroactive consequences, and would be what causes the Deviation from the original, canon Fire Red/Leaf Green storyline.
   4. There will also be ultra wormholes, probably caused by Mewtwo messing with what was mentioned in the previous point.
   5. Giratina will get involved, as will the distortion world, caused by the weakening fabric of reality caused by the previous two points.
   6. Some sort of story involving Professor Oak and Agatha
   7. All gym leaders will play a major part in the story, at least for a single arc (for those with actual gyms, this would likely be in the city their gym is located)
   8. Side quests. Lots of side quests.
   9. Mewtwo will be created by Blaine and Mr./Dr. Fuji, Professor Oak and Giovanni will not be involved in the creation, or in the discovery of Mew. Giovanni will only discover Mewtwo after the fact.
   10. Elio/Selene's mom may have some part in the story, though I haven't decided how significant. I initially wanted to have young Elio/Selene show up, but they're way too young to even be conceived during Fire Red/Leaf Green. If she has a major role in the story, she'll have a Mega Meowth (explained in Gimmicks), and at least one Meowth Crest (Also explained in Gimmicks)
7. Gimmicks
   1. Mega Evolution
   2. Z-Moves
   3. Pokemon with Gigantimax will instead have Mega Evolutions that look like their Gigantimax form (this is how it works in Pokemon Reborn/Rejuv/Deso)
   4. Crests from Pokemon Rejuvenation, which are held items that work kind of like the Thick Club for Marowak, the Light Ball for Pikachu, the Stick/Leek for Farfetch'd, the Lucky Punch for Chansey, etc. Basically a held item that gives a buff to a specific species of Pokemon. Mostly meant to make unviable Pokemon viable in late game. They won't be called Crests in Pokemon Deviation, as that's against the usage permission for Rejuvenation Assets, 
   5. Cursed Arcana, only usable in certain locations, and can be used by the opponent as well. Can only be used once, at the start of battle, by either the player or opponent, with the opponent taking priority. Causes a random effect based on tarot cards. When an opponent uses it, or at least an important opponent, the effect either won't actually be random, or won't be entirely random.
   6. Fields from Pokemon Reborn. These are kind of like Terrains from Pokemon Gen 7 and beyond, but there are many more of them, do a wider variety of things, and battles can start on them without being created by an ability.
8. Other
   1. Challenge Trainers based on those from Pokemon Let's Go, which will likely be around the level of strength as the chapter's gym leader, and give a reward for beating them. First time would likely be a useful item, like a Choice Item, non-story Key Items like the Item Finder, Flame Orb, TM, etc. This will also be scaled based on story progression, so the first challenge trainer might just give a Type Plate. Also, they will be able to be rebattled, but will give progressively worse rewards. Like Choice Scarf -> 30 Dusk Balls -> 10 Ultra Balls.
      1. While when they're first fightable their Pokemon will be at about the level cap, once you reach a higher level cap, their Pokemon will be set to 5 levels below that level cap, so they shouldn't ever be a breeze (except for those with such a low initial level cap that they're using first/second stage Pokemon)
      2. They should give a decent monetary reward compared to other trainers
   2. Bottle Caps, Ability Capsules, Nature Mints, and an easy way to EV train will all be available fairly early on.
   3. Some method of lowering IVs for if you want a Trick Room Pokemon, or a low Attack stat for a Power Split Pokemon, etc.

Edited 22 hours ago by PixelMods
Noted that Crests won't be called Crests in Pokemon Deviation because that's against usage permission for Rejuvenation Assets

[Dawn Oceana]

Are you sure it's best to use the FRLG Kanto maps? With as kneedeep as I've been in Rejuvenation maps, modifying them is so much more painful compared to just starting a new map from scratch, and I wonder how something like this would work without more unique, expansive environments than what Kanto has to offer - and the visual style of Rejuv/Reborn as well.

 

I would've had a much easier time of where I'm at right now if I'd just done Sheridan from scratch instead of trying to preserve parts of it - if you want to modify Kanto to fit this style, then I feel like you'll end up wanting to make some way bigger changes to the maps.

[PixelMods]

14 minutes ago, Dawn Oceana said:

Are you sure it's best to use the FRLG Kanto maps? With as kneedeep as I've been in Rejuvenation maps, modifying them is so much more painful compared to just starting a new map from scratch, and I wonder how something like this would work without more unique, expansive environments than what Kanto has to offer - and the visual style of Rejuv/Reborn as well.

 

I would've had a much easier time of where I'm at right now if I'd just done Sheridan from scratch instead of trying to preserve parts of it - if you want to modify Kanto to fit this style, then I feel like you'll end up wanting to make some way bigger changes to the maps.

It hadn't even occurred to me that it might be easier to start from scratch.

After thinking about it though, I think it would be best, at least for the initial version (v1) of the game, which is only gonna be Fire Red/Leaf Green with Reborn/Rejuv mechanics, to use the map pack as a base. Hopefully by the time we start v2 we'll have other people who've joined our team that can help with map making, since neither MattDank or I are experience enough with map making to make anything remotely as nice as the maps from Reborn, Rejuvenation, or Desolation, even if we use their tilesets.

I have also looked into getting permission to use the maps of the Kanto Re-Creation Project instead, though the creator has yet to respond to my email. It has a much nicer design than base Kanto and would probably be a much better starting point.