Regarding Intense Mode

ayo

While I can't say for certain that this is a good or bad decision, owing to the fact that I never tried Intense mode, I am glad that you've realized the impact it is having on you, and that a significant part of the fanbase enjoys it. I just hope that people understand your reasoning for doing this.

Oh well, that sucks.

Personally I agree with this decision. There is gonna be some backlash but ultimately I think this will be better for the community as a whole. 

that's really unfortunate, but understandable

:(

It’s alright. I didn’t know Intense Mode surpassed your expectations. So I respect your decision.

Pog tbh, intense mode got to the point where the difficulty was going to be much too much and if you didn't play it then people were way too elitist

I've honestly never done intense mode, so no problems here! 

honestly? this is a valid decision! when I joined the Reborn server to interact with the larger community, I was immediately turned away by the attitude I saw, which you also addressed. if you're here to tell a story, then the players should be here to listen to the story, not throw a tantrum because they can't tell people to "get good" anymore

I kinda ended up rambling, but yeah, no, I fully support this. y'all are doing amazing work and I would be heartbroken if work on the project ceased. I'm hyped for the next update, keep up the good work!! \o/

I can't imagine the kind of hellhole balancing would be for the game going forward while it's still in development when the devs have 200 other things to work on.  Especially with new moves coming up and the tweeks to field changes from v 13.

Admittingly i'm biased since I don't play intense mode, but even I was starting to think that the back and forth on the forums was getting a little out of hand with people who weren't satisfied with intense mode.

So I think it's better for the overall health of the game (and devs's sanity lol) while it's still developing to put intense on the back burner if it ever comes back at all.

Uh this is fine, In fact I think the majority of us are cool with this? Most of us are just here to enjoy the game regardless of the difficulty, Its too bad there's a few toxic people ruining it for others but it happens.

That said, If a few sweaty discord gamers get upset by this decision then I see this as an absolute win! LOL 

If our current save file is on intense, will it automatically be put on normal when updating to 13.5? Personally really enjoyed the crazy challenge but I understand its not for everyone and if you guys think its best to get rid of it for now then I'm all on board. Thanks for all the hard work you guys do to make this game truly amazing!

As an intense mode player only I completely agree with this decision even I disagree with it but I can why it needed to be done. With this I can safely say I will still play this game as everyone else should. 

I'm fine with this. I barely survived the regular game. I doubt I could survive Intense mode too. So I never cared about trying intense.

Warning! Mucho texto ahead!

I think I get it.. I also don't like the type of people that keep rubbing on people's faces that they managed to beat a difficult gym leader on Intense, no Item and Battle Style Set when someone comes here asking for help because they are having trouble to beat them but, if I gotta be honest, trashing the mode won't really fix this issue but it's your decision and I myself don't care for the mode anyway, it's just not for me, so do what you think it's best, it's your game in the end, your vision, if you are unsatisfied with it you're free to do whatever you want and if the community really cares they will support your decision like I do.

But I agree that leaving the creation of the mode for after the game is finished is a wise choice, it's better to see how the community reacts to each and every important battle in order to create a more suitable difficult mode afterwards, if a leader has a strategy that players can exploit to make it easier you can then change it on intense to make it more difficult (Like how people used to abuse the field change on Souta on v12).

As for my opinion of the current Intense Mode, I don't like it.. One thing is losing because your strategy is bad but it's a totally different thing when the enemy's Pokemons have 252EVs on every status and 2 megas (Looking at you, Saki).. Like I said, it isn't for me and I usually stay clear of the mode and play only on Normal.. 

I have a question.

how hard would it be for someone to take v13 intense mode and put it in v13.5?

I know you would have to move the Difficulty Modes script and the trainers PBS file to 13.5 and make new trainers, but would there be anything else that would need to be done?

also I totally understand your decision to do this and am totally on board if it’s better for you. Thank you for making this absolutely amazing game.

understandable one question tho when v13.5 comes out how will i change my game from intense to normal mode since im playin on intense?

I am one of the people who never really got into Intense as well - I once tried Reborn Hardcore, (and I am proud to this day that I beat Florinia's Master Mode fight), but that's as far as I wanted to go, on the "Harder than Hard" setting. Reborn and Rejuvenation are tough enough already - and that's what I think.

But regardless, if making Intense Mode is causing issues for you, then it's your choice and your decision to shut it down for your mental health. Feel free.

On 10/2/2021 at 10:00 PM, TaiFrost said:

understandable one question tho when v13.5 comes out how will i change my game from intense to normal mode since im playin on intense?

Go find Mr. Luck. He's camped out south of Grand Dream City and Honec Woods, and east of Darchlight. He's outside the tent - talk to him and he'll change the game's difficulty for you, free of charge if you're on 13.04 or beyond.

I've always been thinking it should indeed be a featured added after the game is finished, and as someone who doesn't play intense mode, or unfair mode as I call it, it's all fine by me, I know the communauty will make sure to make to mod live.
What's important is keeping the game alive and going on in the best conditions, so, do what you need to keep up the good work and finish what's already the best Pokemon experience I've ever played. Cheers !

As someone who found the experience far more enjoyable on Normal than Intense difficulty, overall, I am perfectly okay with this decision. I am sure some people will not be happy, mainly those that only care for the challenge and not for the actual story, characters etc., but I am perfectly okay with this decision.

Personally while this doesn't effect me since i just play normal, it is kinda sad to see it go, however it could potentially open more opportunities to find difficulty where you may have not found before, like a shiny nuzlocke, although it may not be the difficulty everyone looks for, it'll sure be interesting to see what this community does.

I think a better decision is keeping the intense mode but moving the current normal mode trainers' Pokemon set to intense mode, since all trainers in normal mode have already got fully EV trained Pokemon. Intense mode is unfair with illegal EV spreads, double mega-evolutions in battle, mega-evolving while holding other items, etc. And then, trainers in normal mode can have full but not fully EV invested teams so it is "reborn difficulty'. 

What do you think?

At first I was pretty upset when I read this, intense mode is complete bullshit but thats what I loved about it. But then I realized that now I wont have to reconstruct my entire team for one fight, and I can just use what I want. So I'm alright with this.

I completely understand and to be honest, it was getting to a point where it would've bad for the balance (even if the difficulty was designed to be that way towards the late game). Between my experience on the valor mountain on v12, I want to say chapter 12 where you had to marathon through keta, melia and melanie without a pc (to my knowledge), and saki's gym fight, it was pain even with excessive use of debug. I absolutely enjoyed the problem solving of the early game but by the late game, I was just in disbelief with the amount of bullshit being thrown at me.

Again, I completely understand and I'm fine with the removal of it.

I completely understand and support your decision Jan. Although Ive been playing on Intense all the time and am gonna miss it, I have to say even for me intense has become nightmare (seriously wtf was that Hazuki fight?) and I can imagine how much harder it is to even balance something like that. Rejuv is my fave game and I cant wait for it to finish! Anyway keep up the good work guys! I absolutely love the game and every single update!

As a player, who made 4 playthroughs on intense(item ban, battle style set), each with different mons, mostly because of challenge - that makes me sad. But i kinda saw it comming. We've came to the point, where we have too much available mons, moves, items etc. that optimalising a fun, challenging fight might become hell.
I saw that during v13. Fights where we were playing as friends and using their team (vs Angie, Lorna, Cassandra) was cool - challenging, but fun. And fights where we were fighting as ourselves (for me at least) - totally oposite. Beating Garea took me 2 weeks and i won purely by rng. Never managed to beat Saki and i lost interest into a game.

So i guess its a good choice.

2 hours ago, Anstane said:

As someone who found the experience far more enjoyable on Normal than Intense difficulty, overall, I am perfectly okay with this decision. I am sure some people will not be happy, mainly those that only care for the challenge and not for the actual story, characters etc., but I am perfectly okay with this decision.

You beat me to it, I think the same! I started playing V13 on Intense but I switched to Normal at the Giratina fight in chapter 4 because it just got too difficult for it to be fun for me. The challenge of a difficult battle feels rewarding to beat up to a point, but the intense mode battles were getting past that point in difficulty for me. I am also playing mainly for the enjoyment of the story rather than for difficulty. I tried out Intense mode just to see what it was like (2 previous playthroughs on Normal pre-V13), but I decided it wasn't for me. I am on Chapter 8 now and am satisfied with the level of difficulty on Normal mode.

1 hour ago, EyesOnKindred said:

I think a better decision is keeping the intense mode but moving the current normal mode trainers' Pokemon set to intense mode, since all trainers in normal mode have already got fully EV trained Pokemon. Intense mode is unfair with illegal EV spreads, double mega-evolutions in battle, mega-evolving while holding other items, etc. And then, trainers in normal mode can have full but not fully EV invested teams so it is "reborn difficulty'. 

 

 

What do you think?

I don't really understand. This might just be me gaining experience on battle strategy and the like (I played Reborn first), but I think Reborn difficulty is equivalent to or slightly above the current Rejuvenation Normal mode, but you seem to imply that Normal mode Rejuv is harder than Reborn, which is not my experience.

1 hour ago, BJ7171 said:

At first I was pretty upset when I read this, intense mode is complete bullshit but thats what I loved about it. But then I realized that now I wont have to reconstruct my entire team for one fight, and I can just use what I want. So I'm alright with this.

Yeah, I am playing with the same team or sometimes switching out one of my Pokémon, but not more than that. The battles are satisfyingly challenging on Normal but still manageable. I stopped playing on Intense mode and switched to Normal in chapter 4 because the difficulty was getting to the point you mentioned that I would have had to train multiple new Pokémon for each major fight, which hurts the fun factor for me.

Overall, I would just like to tell Jan&co that we are the community, and we will continue to support you as long as you continue to support us with enjoyable releases of your games.

Best Wishes,

Shadow Angel

I really loved the challenge of the game when I first played it on normal difficulty, which in my eyes was the adequate level of difficulty. However after replaying this amazing game over and over you become used to it so I challenged myself with Intense mode and then Intense mode set/no items. I can appreciate the balancing issues and time spent on ensuring these harder modes are actually possible and lets be honest, they are just there to induce pain! In short, the intense mode challenge is only ever there for those who have experienced the game on normal anyway, so I don't see this being an issue! 

Fully respect your decision to work on normal and easy modes as the game will still be challenging regardless and the last thing anyone wants is for you to not enjoy making the game. Keep up the amazing work <3  

7 hours ago, TaiFrost said:

understandable one question tho when v13.5 comes out how will i change my game from intense to normal mode since im playin on intense?

Hi so from what I've heard, intense players will get an option on whether they want to play normal/casual when they boot up their save.
 

4 hours ago, EyesOnKindred said:

I think a better decision is keeping the intense mode but moving the current normal mode trainers' Pokemon set to intense mode, since all trainers in normal mode have already got fully EV trained Pokemon. Intense mode is unfair with illegal EV spreads, double mega-evolutions in battle, mega-evolving while holding other items, etc. And then, trainers in normal mode can have full but not fully EV invested teams so it is "reborn difficulty'. 

 

 

What do you think?

The thing is that post Samson/Charlotte every main trainer has fully EV invested teams. Honestly, the elitism will still exist with this method. Jan isn't removing intense mode because it's too difficult, Jan is removing it because of the constant elitism on the discord from some (not all) intense players and people bitching whenever it gets the slightest nerf for balancing reasons.
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As a side note, I've noticed that there's many people sticking around praying for Az to do an intense mode mod (seen this on the discord more than on the forums). This happening is pretty unlikely since Az has university and Rejuv on the go so won't have time to create any such mod.

I think it's a good move.
First needs to come the base game with all it's balance and tweaks, and then, once everything is on the table, we can expect to up the difficulty of the game.
Most of all, if you can't have fun with the game you are making, then something is wrong!

      This might be more of a rant about the community than Jan's decision but whatever, as most of the discussion both here and on the Discord were just people saying "OK" and ":(", so I thought it was a good thing to explain what I see of the situation not just as a whole but even beyond it.

      People should stop glorifying this was good thing. Nobody won this day, from the people that loved the mode to Jan feeling forced to choose this decision or even the mods that had to explain the situation over and over, there was not a single good thing to come out of this announcement.

     Although this is not saying there were any good options (with Jan definitely looking like he had to choose something to sacrifice), for example, if Intense mode had been kept, the toxicity of people complaining about it thinking it was somehow Jan's fault and the pressure Azery would be through, specially since he had already decided to axe a lot of future things from the now gone next Intense battles due to this bad behaviour.

     Which, speaking of Azery, how does he feel about all of this? Intense mode was like his "baby" and it was definitely responsible for the big A.I revamp and hours of hours of his life working with it, this honestly looks awful, and while he accepted the decision, did he agree with it? (2 different things)

     And about Intense, it has already been discussed the question about Elitism, but what else did it bring? Intense definitely attracted a lot of people and honestly was very interesting, including me (which might make me stop playing this game but it's irrelevant to the discussion), although as said before, the limitations meant things like Azery resorting to Saki having 2 megas with items, even though it was by far the funniest V13 fight to me, I can see why people hated the Intense version of it. And another thing that Intense did was show a new "genre" of way to play Pokemon battles and the birth of "hardcore" mods such as the currently being revamped Memeborn made by Azery himself, so yeah, while Intense isn't available, it's definitely not gone as far as its impact goes.

     Which leads me to the other topic, about modding. While there is definitely the potential for good mods there is also the fact others won't be as good, in which I won't enter in details, everyone has different abilities and experiences, but there also would be a pressure of the community to create Intense 2.0, which is a bit of an uncomfortable topic as a friend of Moto and he somewhat felt weird with "having to have the Intense baton passed upon him", even though it obviously won't be the case, Moto's mod is his mod and Intense is Intense.

     Anyway that leads to the last part, the community. The Rejuvenation Community is infamously toxic and while the Intense Elitism definitely was a part of it, it extends much more than that (with even an example in this exact thread, although I won't specify it is easy to see) from people that despise characters and want the entire planet to know to the Moderators themselves, being overcharged with the situation, accidentally making the situation even worse and resulting in a big mess with a lot of circlejerking. So, will removing Intense make the community better? I have no idea, I am not a fortune teller, but I assume it's just like cutting weeds on a farm, but not removing the roots and as Falirion said, using Intense as a scapegoat does not make things better regardless. Although reminder, even with all my points against it, this is Jan's decision and while I have the right to politely challenge it and show this side of the situation, he is free to keep his decision if he believes it is the right choice as I won't and can't change it.

1 hour ago, Abyssreaper99 said:

The thing is that post Samson/Charlotte every main trainer has fully EV invested teams. Honestly, the elitism will still exist with this method. Jan isn't removing intense mode because it's too difficult, Jan is removing it because of the constant elitism on the discord from some (not all) intense players and people bitching whenever it gets the slightest nerf for balancing reasons.

This method makes the game more fair, but if you say elitism then those people can still find another thing to show off with. To deal with those people the only solution is probably banning them I guess?

As someone who has played the game 3 times. First on normal, then on intensen and for V13 on intense i really adore the intense feature. The reason i first started to play was because i wanted to see how the story would play put if you made different decissions, like not freeing kreiss at the isle of angels or taking the magma stone. Replaying the game on a harder mode would be fun and it was, i also did the same when V13 came out and did another intense run, which took me over 430 in game hours and like 8 or 9 weeks irl. It was absolutely wonderfull to replay the game on intense because defeating an impossible oppponent would be fun without using an single item. It was also pretty epic to see characters using literal legendaries and stronger mons. That is what identity intense had. The opponent uses stronger,cooler and sometimes legendary mons, but i have the feeling that in V13 the idea of having strong mons was lost, because the player also had strong mons, so it was time to cheat with ev's. Cheating with ev's should never ever be brought back. I remember using my mono fire team against saki. I had the sun up and was thinking i could easilly sweep her. my Cinderace barely did one third to her metagrosse. In V13 the identity of rejuvenation kind of shifted from the pokémon fan game that was written like an anime to an even better anime with some impossible  battles and I kind of understand that u want to get rid of that impossible fight image and focus fully on the writing. And in a few years when the game is complete it might make a return. I will miss the legendary aces of the gymleaders though. R.I.P saki's genesect and souta's thunderus. But if it's going to go for good, can we than remember intense as a fun mode, which made replaying the a lot better. And like chapter 14. Death of one birth of another. WIl it be replaced with something less toxic. I think a randomizer like reborn would fill the void that intense is for a lot of players. There will be many legendaties, that will not see the light of day till V16. And a lot of memey scenarios. Imagine the fight on valor mountain but instead of menacing team you'll be fighting against some bidoofs and chikorita's. By the way if there are a lot of story components, and you could get different endings wouldn't it be much more fun for the player to experience them all and a randomizer would make them a lot easier, since they are much more easier than any other mode.

I hope the removal of intense will not be seen al a lost, but as an oppertunity for an even more awesome game, and if intense is gone, then develepement would be a bit shorter which means that we can get the continuation of the goomink quest  earlier.

I would love to see where Jan and the rest of the team will take pokémon rejuvenation in the next chapter and can't wait for the anime adaptation in 2069.

I appreciated this game having a hard mode, but having a pleasant community is definitely more important, so i'm going to support your decision! It sure is annoying how hard games are swarmed by elitists all the time.

Well that absolutely sucks.

I don't really use the Discord or engage with the community much, so I don't how bad this supposed elitism problem was; but I still feel like this comes across as punishing everyone for the actions of the few. Fan mods have always existed so not sure that's any kind of stand in.

That said, maintaining 3 difficulties being overwhelming and unfun is enough justification to reduce them. At least I have a normal mode save to continue.

This must've been a hard decision for the team to make, and harder still to announce considering the attachment so many have to the mode. I've cleared the current release on Intense myself and had a fair share of feedback I was considering giving, but ultimately I think this is probably for the best. One thing I am wondering, will there be an option in future to disable mid battle items both for yourself and the enemy trainers? This was by far my favourite mechanic from Intense and would love to see it be an option or otherwise available in 13.5

 i played intense once i think we should respect the decision .but really awaits for 13.5 dont know if its asked but should we have to delete the save file with intense or will it crash in v13.5

 im not that attached to intense because i mostly like to play normal and have fun

The V13 intense mode was a fascinating concept because with no items and set mode, it looks like as if I was playing Pokémon post-game’s Battle Tower equivalent. But I guess I’m not too sad that intense mode is removed because I have not attempted this mode, and probably won’t be ready for the foreseeable future.

Eh. No comment here because I've never attempted intense mode to begin with. Not that I will try it in the future anyway. 

3 hours ago, Ram Cxz 007 said:

 i played intense once i think we should respect the decision .but really awaits for 13.5 dont know if its asked but should we have to delete the save file with intense or will it crash in v13.5

 im not that attached to intense because i mostly like to play normal and have fun

Iirc, this question has been answered already: 

11 hours ago, Abyssreaper99 said:

Hi so from what I've heard, intense players will get an option on whether they want to play normal/casual when they boot up their save.

As an intense mode fanatic, I wholeheartedly agree with this decision.

Everything that this post has addressed is true, especially the importance of your enjoyment when developing the game. Not only that, but it's no question that intense mode will be implemented and updated by the modding community pretty consistently. The people who want a challenge mode can fine-tune their own version of it, while the developers get to shed some stress. It's a win-win for everyone.

thank arceus since i don't think i'll ever get around to an intense run anyways

I totally respect your decision.
To me rejuvenation's intense mode (especially on V13) is the most interesting difficulty level I have played so far.  It does not rely on over levelling or on busted legendaries and the game seems to carefully give us items and pokemon so that the player never become too powerful. Although terrain mechanics + seeds (and valarie's whishcash with its crest) felt a bit unfair I think they were necessary to raise the difficulty at some point.

There are almost 900 hundred pokemon that can be played with different movepools, abilities and items the pokemon game is very rich in term of possible strategies. Most of the time either the game is too easy and it is not worth it to think about a strategy either there are a few strategies that are overpowered and they are not that hard to find. While playing Rejuvenation on intense mode, I felt like I had to dig deeper than usual : using pokemon I had always overlooked, trying to get eggmoves, finding synergy with the terrain mecanic, and when the team was ready I still had to carefully plan the boss battles and perfect my strategy through several attempts.

I do not know if it was the way I should have played but I was trying my best, making full use of all the tools I was given just to be able to go further in the game and it felt so rewarding. After beating each boss you unlock a new part of the quiet cool story, and you get access to new items/pokemon (with enough exploration) which makes it all the more rewarding. I newer got this mid-game feeling when I am bored and try to rush to the end game where things are going to be interesting again. In fact, the game surprised me regularly (with boat that get teleported, time traveling, crests, aevian forms....) and I was always gathering as much tools as I could in each new zones to prepare for the next boss battle.

To sum this up, thank you for making this Intense mode until V13, it made the most entertaining pokemon experience I have had for some years now.

Hi, yes so i wanted to say that ive never played rejuvenation but i feel it is important for everyone else to know that i do not have an opinion on this matter

Thank you for coming to my ted talk

Well I already get my butt handed in normal so I never really touched nor plan to touch intense but do agree with " If Jan stops having fun, Jan stops making the game. " Andddddd ppl will just have to deal with it tbh

I agree with this decision, as a person who doesn't have much time to play in  a day, intense mode has been slowly draining , and i didn't have much fun , i even feel a bit more stressed when i'm supposed to relax and chill, i reverted my save file to normal mode as i realize i would get less time to play rejuv , i did defeat melia on ch15 and that was as far as i can get in intense mode.

I don't really have a problem for intense mode, it's just that it's a bit more time consuming to just defeat certain boss fights, but eventually it did get more and more stacked against you as you progress through the game, and it started from being a bit unfair to  even breaking the rules, such as exceeding the EV limit of 510, having two megas, said megas holding items, and even negative EVs against a Boss that utilizes Trick Room, not to mention the field as well. It does take time to think what the right strategy to defeat certain boss fights, and it does limit the teambuilding, like we need to use certain mons to defeat certain bosses, eventually part of me wanted to revert to normal mode because i wanted to use mons that i like.

That said, i actually enjoy seeing people cheese their way through intense mode though, you discover some stuff that you'd never thought could be possible.

I do wonder if there would be changes to opponent's teams in the normal mode in the future? Because i really like some of the teams that are in Intense Mode, some examples include: 

But, Regardless of what goes into Development, i will respect it. Hopefully with this change, Jan & the development team could take their time and breathe easier into developing future versions.

works for me, i'll never be a fan of hardcore challenges anyway ¯¯\_(ヅ)_/¯¯  , i like rejuvenation because of the story and mechanics, so if you wanna stop the intense mode, go ahead, the game is YOURS and you're doing a great work with it.

Me and a lot of my friends love doing things just for the pure challenge of it, like various challenge runs in dark souls and things like that, things specifically meant to just make everything harder, so when I first saw intense difficulty I was quite excited.

I beat all of v12s content on intense and hated every moment of it, but me being me and never wanting to stop a challenge half way just cause im getting my ass handed to me, I suffered through it. I have recommended this game to a ton of my friends, and told them all that intense mode just is not worth it. Early game it was fine, but late game it is just awful, it feels like it takes away your ability to use any kind of actual strategy and instead you just have to cheese every fight.

Even though I know intense isn't worth it, the fact that a option for a higher challenge is there and I'm not doing it makes it feel like its taunting me, so I glad its going to be gone, not just for myself but for any new players like me that love a challenge, and will have this game ruined for them by forcing themselves through something that is not fun, just because they can't ignore a challenge.

I feel like if intense ever comes back then you need more ways for the player get an advantage. Like making the fields more changeable and also having max ivs for ur pokemon.

Even though intense mode is leaving, will there still be an option to turn off items in battle?

It's understandable. Just take it easy, Jan

I’m gonna ask question. What’s gonna happen about the consequence of loading the game with Intense Mode in V13.5? And if that’s very bad, I believe players should change the difficulty in previous version before loading in V13.5 after the release. But everyone can take their time playing Intense Mode before that. It’s for the sake of the game you’re playing.

Completely understandable decision and while I sympathise with those who are disappointed this seems like a good choice overall. Hope everybody working on the game are doing well and I'm looking forward to what we see next!

I'll gladly trade intense mode if it means you keeping having fun making the game, because i like the challenge but what i like even more is the story and characters, and i want to see it to the end.

Well I tried intense mode for the first time this update because i wanted to see the difference for myself. i completed the play through 100%. and learned quite a bit about my battle style in the process. i can say i pulled every thing i know about pokemon and this game together and pushed through it. only two battle broke my spirit. (Angie, and geara/zetta battle) with the add challenge of completing the pokedex i found creative ways to win each gym, boss, evil team battle. 

did i enjoy my time playing. for the most part but came to know that not everyone can handle this kind battling. so i understand getting rid of it for the time being. my personal mode i enjoy is the reborn mode anyways to enjoy the story which is what you are here giving us anyways. so getting rid of the intense mode will give you more time to work on the story because now you dont have to code all that extra stuff. 

so i understand your choice and support it. with this being my favorite fan game. and ive played many pokemon fan games. Rejuvenation will always be first on my list.

It is what it is, intense mode was a fun mode for me to mess around on but for the sake of the game as a whole if it needs to be removed then I don't see an issue at all. I love rejuvenation, been following it for awhile it gets better and better with each update, lots of love and sweat put into it, I'll enjoy the game on any difficulty. :)

Haven't been here in a while, but came to drop a quote from a certain sorely-missed former president of Nintendo: "Video games are meant to be just one thing: fun.  Fun for everyone."

Sad to see how toxic things have gotten--not just in the Rejuv community, but in gaming communities as a whole.  But I'm also glad there are still fun-loving people out there, too.  Y'know...those who actually, truly understand what Iwata-san was getting at.  It's good to know your head is in the right place, Jan--and that you cared enough to speak out about this not just for your own sake, but also for your fanbase.

Intense or not, Rejuv was supposed to fun for everyone, yeah?  So thanks for bringing it all out into the open.

Hey if that eases up production, I'm all for it. Besides, the late game was getting ridiculous anyways.

Looking at it objectively, even as someone who has played the game in intense and understand the appeal, this just straight up seems like the correct decision. Ignoring toxicity and whatnot, designing entirely new teams, sets, and gimmicks for every single battle in the game before the game is even finished seems like an incredibly taxing endeavor. Note that intense mode means not only are entire new teams designed during development of new versions but also if there were ever any changes made to previous episodes, especially as big as the one we got in v13, that means you're doubling the workload on team design for those changes as well and this would continue everytime there are any changes to existing encounters. It just seems like the most efficient path is to finish the game first.

Being someone who avoids Discords on principle as I tend to be older than most of their users, I wasn't aware of that particular issue caused by Intense Mode's existence.

That said, as I've played every Pokemon game since they've started coming out (exception of SwSh), I deeply loved how Intense felt as a challenge for someone as I who doesn't enjoy PVP but still wants difficult Pokemon content. However, it's just as easy to make the game more difficult for myself by applying restrictions on my own.

As an example... If the game's too easy, it's time to try a Fairy-monotype and see if I can beat Venam with one Brionne.

Having others mod the game to continue Intense is something I agree with in any case: people are already making difficulty mods for these fangames, so why not drop something that's taking away from your team's time and pass that work onto invested users? It's an excellent idea in terms of lessening your workload and it makes perfect sense in my opinion.

Fair enough. The base game is already pretty challenging anyway. Anyone who might want more can always attempt a nuzlocke or a monotype run.

I thoroughly enjoyed rejuvenation's intense mode. Unfortunately, I did play and enjoyed rejuvenation primarily for the high difficulty. You could say I fall into the demographic that plays rejuvenation "for some ultimate challenge" XD :PPPP. 
 

Unfortunately I don't follow what happen in discord so I don't understand what has transpired that has caused such a decision, but I do think that cutting a feature of the game and then citing elitism ("git good") attitude of some people as a primary reason is not a good justification because it feels like the developer team is punishing the wider community because of some rotten apples (although I am sure you guys have a heart of gold since its also clear you care about the community)
 

However, I agree the others reason for the cut, such as speeding up development, is an excellent reason for it, and ultimately, I would rather have a finished game without intense rather than an incomplete one with intense mode, so I accept your decision. I also accept that I perhaps do not fall into the primary demographic this game was made for, and while that is a loss for me personally, it is overall great if it enhances the development of the game. Thank you for the a wonderful game

I dont know what to thing about it(And yes. I'm weakling to do Normal mod, im actually even didn't beat intense Mono Dark/ghost run yet because i was lazy. And also, im really hate Angie fight)
In one hand you have really interesting things on intense mode. such as double mega evolution on Saki. But we all forget game true purpose of Pokemon games:
Having Fun.

I must be disagreed with this, that the players are being salty with the ones that are playing on less difficulty is just not an enough reason for push away the people that likes to play in a hard difficulty, im sorry but you can't talk about "accessibility" when you are pushing away part of your public just for a group of toxic users, you will delete intense mode but you will keep the easy mode for acessibility? That just doesnt make sense, the accessibility goes for both, the ones that looks an easy challenge for enjoy the story, the ones that wants a normal challenge but not to hard and the ones that looks for a very hard challenge, this isnt accessibility, is just push away part of your public away, if you were looking for a balanced game, you will have delete easy mode too and use standard as the main gamemode.

Im a big follower of this franchise and consider it the best pokemon game ever made, but this decission is a terrible idea if we are talking about accessibility and is not gonna fix the problem, dont you think the toxic that plays on standard will also insult the ones that plays on casual?  They will keep going because they are toxic users and nothing will change it

Please reconsider what you guys are doing, because this isnt gonna make things better, the accessibility is already there and this decission is only cutting out that accessibility

Anything that promotes the completion of the game is a good thing, even if we have to lose intense. I do think waiting until the game is finished to consider intense is wise anyway

20 hours ago, Deatheye28 said:

I must be disagreed with this, that the players are being salty with the ones that are playing on less difficulty is just not an enough reason for push away the people that likes to play in a hard difficulty, im sorry but you can't talk about "accessibility" when you are pushing away part of your public just for a group of toxic users, you will delete intense mode but you will keep the easy mode for acessibility? That just doesnt make sense, the accessibility goes for both, the ones that looks an easy challenge for enjoy the story, the ones that wants a normal challenge but not to hard and the ones that looks for a very hard challenge, this isnt accessibility, is just push away part of your public away, if you were looking for a balanced game, you will have delete easy mode too and use standard as the main gamemode.

 

Im a big follower of this franchise and consider it the best pokemon game ever made, but this decission is a terrible idea if we are talking about accessibility and is not gonna fix the problem, dont you think the toxic that plays on standard will also insult the ones that plays on casual?  They will keep going because they are toxic users and nothing will change it

Please reconsider what you guys are doing, because this isnt gonna make things better, the accessibility is already there and this decission is only cutting out that accessibility

The toxicity is only a factor, not the main reason.  Go read Jan's post again.

 

Quote

If Jan stops having fun, Jan stops making the game. 

Intense was becoming a hassle to play upkeep on, time they could have/want to spend polishing other parts of the game.  It's probably easier on them to work on intense after the base game is finished if they ever pick it back up again.

 

Quote

-Intense mode will be handed over to the community to work on as a mod if they so wish.

-When the game is complete, we will consider the possibility of restoring it officially.

That's certainly disappointing, but the reasoning is understandable. Hope to see it come back eventually, and maybe for certain people to chill out next time.

Hi !

In my opinion, the Intense Mode wasn't so good. The problem of this kind of mode repose on what you need to do to make the game more difficult than the Normal Mode. Adding more EVs for example is a bit unfair for me, and the difficulty of the Normal Mode is self-sufficient (Fields, sets, EVs and IVs,...).
I understand you want to remove the Intense Mode, and I hope you keep in mind the Normal Mode is well designed (I remember when Bodyguard destroyed me with special attacks ahah).

 So take care of you first, and work on the game after having free spirit ^-^

what will happen to existing save files that are on intense mode?

I think you are underestimating a large proportion of your userbase which absolutely does not interact in discord/community/whatever. For every toxic interaction, there are dozens and dozens of invisible positive ones. I have introduced many friends to this wonderful game and they all have loved every bit of the challenge; yet they are not part of the discord, not even part of these forums even. I myself barely post here at all, only noticed this announcement like two weeks after it was posted, and am completely unaware of all the negativity mentioned in the announcement.

The loudest voices will always be the most virulent and negative ones. People who are satisfied rarely express it out of nowhere, so of course I imagine almost all the feedback you're getting is negative, and it's understandable it gets tiring. Personally, this decision deeply saddens me. Of course, I understand that you have probably already considered this angle many times already before coming to a decision, and ultimately if you are not having fun anymore due to the overwhelming negative sentiments, it is of course the correct course of action - but I wish you could see all the positivity this mode also brings to the table and why it is (in my opinion) totally worth the effort, development time, etc. Personally, I treated the past few episode releases with just as much excitement as an AAA game release or something similar, and that was due to the existence of Intense. I would never enjoy the game that much, despite its incredible qualities, if it didn't satisfy that itch.

Yes, the community will be able to recreate it, but it's not really the same thing, y'know?

That said, I am not your friend or anything, and maybe I'm completely wrong, but based on the past few posts it feels like the past year or two have been heavy on you, so please take care of yourself first and foremost :) and if that can help relieve some of the stress, then so be it.

Nicely said Jan. I can imagine how hellish it is to work on three different levels at the same time. If i were you i would stop working on easy mode too. I would create a game with the difficulty i personally liked and if people wanted something else, well the code is free... They can just take it and enhance it to whatever they want themselves as far as they pay tribute to the original creator. This game is yours and your team's only. People should be grateful and stop bitching, when you and a handful of other people spend so much time out of your living clocks (aka lives) to make them happy and all that for free. I would dare say that i would be blocking everybody bitching to me about the decisions i make. They have to understand that you are humans too, not androids working to fulfill their greedy wishes.

I always think it will be a little stressful work on 3 modes. Three times of testing battles, mechanics, balancing, etc. In the long run the joy of only create something to have fun and share with others it's lost, and become only plain work. I play because i reeeeeeeealy love the characters and the story, and the important thing is not forget that this game have a lot of work behind doing only by fans who gave us their time so we can enjoy it. The game have a lot of love in every detail, every extra mission, even the news option to choices answers it's made it to make the experience of playing it more personal, all of this it's was made of pure love for the community. Whatever decision you made will be the correct, you don't owe us anything but give us everything, and only for that you deserve to be shower of affection and gratitude.

As a fan of Intense mode, I will say that while I enjoyed the challenge, it really was to time consuming, I'd spend more time save quitting for the best IVs and working way too hard on the team for the next gym/boss battle, forgetting to let go and immerse myself in the vast and rich story and characters of pokemon rejuvenation.

Pokemon rejuvenation was meant to be played as a immersive pokemon world story experience and for the amazing side quests, not for the battles, the challenging battles are the extra icing on top of the cake.

If you   want a challenge, just do difficult nuzlocks without debug, like grass monotype etc or a half level cap.

So I support Jan's decision on scrapping intense mode. 

That said, I do hope Jan introduced some difficult puzzles into the game, like that Kakori gym puzzle was awesome. 

Really disappointed by this. I replayed the game so many times on intense and just love it. It really forces you to adapt and overcome with teams and strategies you would never consider. Game mechanics and pokemon you would never utilize. 

I don't participate in anything community related. But I'm real disappointed in the more hardcore challenge fans. Come on guys. We play on the higher difficulties to challenge ourselves. Now because of all this bull you guys have been pulling we are getting our preferred method of play pulled from development. Imagine how easy mode players would feel getting forced into a higher level of play. Now we are forced into a lower level of play because you guys couldn't just shut up and enjoy the game. Very heartbreaking. 

Hi Jan, and everyone else reading it, this is a reply from a french fan on this wonderful game. I apologize if my english seems kinda bad sometimes.

My journey with pokemon fangame started with a recommandations on YT to a pokemon remixed song made by Glitchxcity.  On the comments, I have seen many guys writting "hey i've heard it on reborn". There we go I started reborn. I finally discovered the HARDMOD of Pokemon by chosing intense mod. The concept of die and retry in a pokemon, with the nostalgia of every single pokemon generations + remixed music i used to listent again and again and again, thousand times. 

And here comes Rejuvenation, at first i was saying that reborn was better... Until I discovred Angie, to me it is one of the most iconic ennemy in the game. An OST just made for here, the first rly hard trainer i had to think about hours and hours. I have been stuck for month, and left the game 3 or 4 times. But guess what, your game is so epic and nice designed, that  Ihave and im sure other challenger player must have think about surpassing themself, and I haven't even finish the V13 YET!
 Your game Jan is a fan made, and he is impossible to glitch, as even nowadays... new pokemon diamond and pearl are full of easy glitch breaking the game. 

Well I could continue for a thousand lines more about what intense mode brought to all challenger player. I just can say THANKS YOU. You can't imagine how I enjoyed this game, I used pokemon and needed them as I would never imagine possible once in my lifen, and imagine weird strategy to beat your intense mode gym leader. ( Big up to you Crawli, I had to use 6 talonflame gale wind to beat you ahahaah).  And the better things that brough me intense mode is F-U-N. I REALLY MEAN IT !!  I usually streamed the game to a friend, and he loved to help me out to fight a strategy to beat the tough battle. We also burst out laughing by seeing illegal EV's max ( Hi Hazuki, welcome with -252 speed EV ahahah, thats so fun and I loved to have to battlle this, you had to think 15 times !). Surnamed the ennemy trainer a lot of time by " cheaaaaaaateeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer" but always with a big smile. 

I would now like to talk a bit about the community you discribed. I often needed help in this game, sometime don't understanding every single dialogue from a game might slow you a bit.

And EACH TIME, I asked for help, i always recieved what I needed, the community you create on your discord is amazing, everyone is here to help you, even continue the discussion in private message. They always answ fast, and give their time to help. I used to do it aswell as much time I could, sharing what I learnt from this hard experience to others.

Well I just hope intense mode will have an other life and this is not his extinction. I guess im talking for many players, and we beg you to ever give a better end for intense mode. I can understand that this mod can be really frustrating, but I never feel that feelings once with your game. And you can't imagine how proud your player are after beating those "cheater" we love so much.

PS : There is so many Players from the traditionnal game from the Pokemon Licence, that are disappointed from the easy mode... The message I want to underlign is, there is many player that don't even know the game I would love to join rejuvenation for his mod, more than the story the game propose I guess... (I love both, the difficulty and even the story, Playing a game in english in dream for me, I LOVE ENGLISH AHAH).

Thank you, for creating the best pokemon game. I write it from the bottom of my heart. ❤

Baleine, (thats means whale in french )

hey jan I believe you did the right thing and I am trying to create my own game as well and I understand where your coming from. I hope you enjoy making the game as much as possible because you made me want to make my own to get the same experience and I wish I could be able to talk to you and your dev team one day because you guys do such a fantastic job at making a very fun pokemon game. :)

this makes me sad :/ but i understand that this could be very time consuming, at least i can keep the old version of the game for now till someone maybe picks up and makes a new hard mod. Intense mode was really the only thing that drew me to the game , this is the first time i wrote anything in the community after playing for years so not sure about the whole toxic thing i read just now but who cares what someone on the internet writes. thanks for all the work till now tho and good luck

I just read this and wanted to leave my thoughts here:
 

Since you wanted to reintroduce Intense mode after full release and keep easy mode, a way to avoid elitism and toxicity might be to fully reframe the modes.
When starting rejuvenation right now, the question asked is:

Which difficulty mode would you like to play on?

-Casual Mode

-Normal Mode (Reborn Style)

-Intense Mode

I think it is currently common for people to feel shame surrounding the concepts of "facing a challenge" and "picking the easy way out", which might make people feel like if they don't pick intense it's "Cowardice".
It might help to not frame the modes around difficulty, but rather around what kind of experience you're trying to have.

For example:

Which mode would you like to play on?

-Story mode

-Normal Mode (Reborn Style)

-Puzzle Mode

Puzzle mode might not be the perfect name, but I think it accurately represents what people who can healthily engage with the mode enjoy about it.

Anyone who says "lmao, <insert person who is playing story/normal mode> didn't even pick puzzle mode" is a fucking clown and knows it.