u/Froodoopy

Something that strikes me with many Pokemon fangames is how linear progression is. I noticed this when playing Pokemon Z (still haven't finished the game so maybe it opens up later, but...) where very often the format is: reach a new city --> all paths outside of the city are blocked off until you beat the gym leader --> you have one route to explore --> get to new city --> repeat. Even if there are more areas sprinkled about on the path, the game (so far) very much feels like we're walking in a line from A to B without much deviation. I find while designing my game currently I'm falling into much the same trap as well.

On the other hand, making a game too open can lead to Scarlet and Violet where the open world is really daunting and you don't know what to do, end up walking into areas you're underleveled for constantly, or entering areas you're way overleveled for. So there's a balance here that has to be struck

Pokemon Rejuvenation is an example of a fangame that doesn't feel that way, despite the story being completely linear, the game doesn't feel linear. This is down to the wealth of optional areas they have, and also just down to the dungeons they do have being really really big. But most fangames don't have the luxury of being that big, and having that many areas. Another thing is that most optional areas in this game is a loop--you enter from Route 2, you exit back out onto Route 2 in the exact same place. For example, Mirage Woods, Phasial Cave, Evergreen Island, Voidal Chasm, Forlorned Cave, Jirukala Cavern, and so on are all like this, and for many of them, you even enter and exit through the same transition point too. In Rejuvenation, this isn't really noticeable because all these locations have lots of content and their own gimmicks to them. These areas are also really big and sprawling. When you can't make areas that big and full-fledged, it ends up feeling like, say, the Route 6 cave in Pokemon Z (for the record, I think Pokemon Z is a very good game, just it has a lot of good examples for me to point to regarding this issue) where it's two rooms, one trainer battle sidequest, and then you leave through the same door you came in from.

So how can we, on a game that can't reach Rejuvenation's scale, but hovers more around the scale of a standard Pokemon game or even slightly smaller, try to make it so that the game doesn't feel so linear?

One thing I've experimented with is ensuring optional areas connect to at least two other areas, and making it so there's always more than one path forward--for example you can go through a mountain to get to the next town, or you can take the scenic route via a cave system into a swamp. The mountain has harder puzzles and stronger trainers but it's shorter, meanwhile the cave + swamp route is more leisurely but takes you longer and you can explore more.

So, few questions I want to ask:

1. Is it fine to you guys if a game feels very noticeably linear with lots of blockades that stop you from leaving the intended path?
2. How far out do you guys think we should let players leave the intended path before giving them a blockade?
3. How "developed" do you guys think side areas should be? Is a little two room cave with a few trainer battles and an item in it that you enter and exit through the same door fine? Or does it make the side areas feel underbaked?
4. How do you guys feel about giving the player multiple ways to progress to the next objective? Should we always "tell" the player there are multiple paths of progression, or is it better to just let them exist and the player will discover it on their own?

EDIT:
Some new thoughts came to mind so I'm adding it here:

If exploration is too open, a la my SV example, it will feel really daunting to explore. My current method is having "subregions" within the region, which have their own Pokedex, and you can typically explore relatively freely (certain sections are blocked off until later, typically connections to other subregions), and after finishing up the story, you'll be ushered into the next "subregion" and for a little bit not given access to previous areas until later.

This idea came to me cause Super Metroid did a similar progression of "enter new area, not allowed to leave until you find the thing you need to find in new area, you can explore old areas with your new tool now"

Adding onto this, I wanna ask one extra question:
5. How quickly do you guys think exploration should open up? How heavily should we hold the player's hand early on, and when do you guys think we should let go?

So, I have a few questions regarding Madame X's Yveltal, I feel like there's a lot of weirdness with it post-Chapter 16 so I wanted to see what your guys thoughts on it are?

Question 1: Is this the same Yveltal as the one Vitus was bonded to?
This question is probably a no-brainer but there is precedent for there being more than one of a given Legendary Pokemon:

• There is anywhere between one to three Celebis (the one that activates the Spring of Purification in Sheridan Village, Pribi from Percival's Quest, and the one in Wonder Tower. Considering the timeline shenanigans Celebi inherently brings with it however, any one of these Celebi could be one and the same, or even all three are the same Celebi).
• There is between one or two Mewtwos (the one that Madelis turned into a Shadow Pokemon, and the one Percival has. Considering timeline shenanigans though these guys may be the same Mewtwo).
• There are definitively two sets of Legendary Beasts (Melia has one set or at least a Raikou, we have the other set and we can have two Raikou on the field at the same time when fighting with her),
• There may be more than one Zekrom (NPC dialogue in Kristiline Town refers to "a Zekrom" IIRC, not just "Zekrom", so there may be more than one Zekrom, though this is the least reliable source here)

Considering how Yveltal and Xerneas are positioned in the game's world however, I think it's really unlikely the answer to this would be "No" considering what a massive can of worms that would entail. Even if the answer is "No", what difference would it make for Vitus to bond with Yveltal A or Yveltal B? So we will go forward assuming "Yes, they are the same Yveltal." I'd like you guys' thoughts and input on this.

Question 2: Why did Vitus not just merge with Madame X's Yveltal again?
This one is simple, Vitus clearly wanted to become immortal again, so why didn't he merge with Madame X's Yveltal? Assuming he could merge with Yveltal on his own, it would be as simple as ordering Madame X to enter Deux Finalis while bringing Yveltal with her.

Now, it's entirely possible Vitus can't merge with Yveltal on his own. In Renegade, seemingly, he can only merge himself with Yveltal because Maria used her Archetype powers to merge him back with it. My guess is it requires the ability to manipulate The Core's power at a certain level to merge Vitus and Yveltal together, a level that is beyond Vitus but not beyond Maria. I would assume this makes sense as it's repeatedly shown Vitus <<<<<<<<< Witch of the End Maria.

So going forward, we'll assume "Vitus didn't merge with Madame X's Yveltal because he can't do it on his own." As always, any counterarguments or input would be appreciated.

Question 3: Why does he have the Salt Yveltal?
I feel like it's a weird decision that he has the Salt Yveltal at all. It feels very odd he would entrust Yveltal to Madame X considering, well, Yveltal is literally his currently missing other half. If he cares about Meloetta enough to petrify it and lock it in a room in Deux Finalis, it feels really odd he wouldn't attempt to keep Yveltal close, especially since in the Paragon Route, as a result of him letting Yveltal be with Madame X, Yveltal gets stuffed into the Decimation Bullet, and in the Renegade Route it gets eaten-ish (probably it's the same merging process as w/ the Z-Splicers so Yveltal's actually fine here) to make Hellhound Zygarde (though whether he kept it close or not it wouldn't have changed anything there.)

Regardless it feels like an odd decision when he can simply order Madame X to enter Deux Finalis with the Yveltal and then tell her to hand it's Poke Ball to him, so... why didn't he? My guess is either Madame X can't access Deux Finalis and Vitus obviously can't leave as he'll probably instantly wither away the second he leaves that space, or Madame X was deliberately hiding Yveltal from him (reasonable for Madame X to do, as in Renegade she does state she's performing "one final act of rebellion against him" when giving the Jewel of Life away, meaning she has performed previous acts of rebellion including, perhaps, keeping Yveltal from Vitus--but this falls apart when you realize Vitus has cameras everywhere in Aevium and so it's impossible for her to have kept Yveltal from him considering he'd know at the very least when she used it vs. the gang in Blacksteeple.) Still, I like this interpretation best since it makes "Servant" Madame X a bit less one-dimensional.

I'll admit it almost feels like it would've made more sense for Salt Yveltal to be owned by Madame X and for real Yveltal to be with Vitus but there might be a lore tidbit that explains this that I'm simply not aware of. I acknowledge though I have some big gaps in my knowledge regarding Rejuvenation lore so any enlightenment would be really appreciated guys.

Rejuvenation is interesting to me because there are a lot of superpowered people in the story--anyone with an Archetype, Madame X, us the Interceptor, the Guardians of Aevium, Angie, (V14 spoilers) >!androids like Clear and Kieran, and people like Vitus, Storm-Nym, Kaina, and so on!< all have power seemingly beyond the ken of at least the Pokemon teams we can bring to bear at against them at the time we meet them.

Madame X could not be beaten by our mother's team of Level 60 Fairy-types and she (and I forgot who, but someone's Togekiss was there too and it too didn't want no smoke with Madame X) considered running away to be the better option (and in fact in V14 >!we fight her, her the person, with our Pokemon teams, and she still has enough left in the tank to fight us and Melia in hand to hand even after "losing" to our Pokemon teams!<), Angie could defeat all the Tapus on her own, and so on...

In general all the aforementioned people except us the Interceptor have all had moments where they "ignored" that they lost the Pokemon battle and proceeded to use their superpowers to duke it out with us hand-to-hand, and seemingly the Pokemon they have aren't useful enough tools to use in the fight. I say this because, generally, even people who are on the "winning side" (for example, in V14, >!Melia against Madame X when we fought her in Border World, or whoever won between us and Kaina in the last battle!<) who should still have a few healthy Pokemon left, do not use them at all when it comes time to "throw down".

There is a few instances where this doesn't happen, however--Erin and her Absol fight together a few times, which implies they are roughly equals, Crescent and Gothitelle fight together and seemingly Gothitelle constitutes the majority of Crescent's fighting power since she says that all weapons she uses are conjured by Gothitelle; in V14, during the battle between >!Vitus and Nymiera, when Nymiera is cornered, she uses her Glimmora to ward off Vitus but recalls it extremely quickly afterwards!<; in V14 also >!when fighting Kaina, Venam's Seviper is able to restrain her for a while even though Kaina is seemingly beyond at least Madame X's level and likely stronger than Storm-Nym and Vitus!<; and lastly also from V14, >!Nim's Lunatone is able to destroy Kieran in one shot.!<

The V14 examples especially make me think that even "standard" Pokemon are not irrelevant even against the highest tier of combatants in the story, but if so, why is it outside of one instance in V14 do we never see Pokemon actually "fight" in the big battles? Even Legendary Pokemon like >!Melia's Raikou!< aren't really utilized by the people that have them.

My current theory is that the Pokemon battles in game are kind of like the "appetizer". Pokemon are relevant enough where if your opponent has any Pokemon left, dealing with the Pokemon along with your opponent will simply be too much. But on the other hand, a fully trained team of six Pokemon cannot defeat most of the opponents we run into and they're too weak to even be relevant enough to use. This conclusion is kind of self contradictory and not exactly something I think should be how things go in the game called "Pokemon Rejuvenation" but it's the best I can come up with. Would love to hear other people's thoughts on how Pokemon tend to slot in in the world of Rejuvenation though.

As a quick question to you guys, if say we weren't an Interceptor and just a normal person, and us and Melia (who doesn't have the Archetype) came face-to-face with Madame X with the exact team we used to beat Madame X (6 level 100 Pokemon; Melia has her team too), and Madame X had no Pokemon with her, could we defeat her?