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 Pokemon Salt and Shadow is an interesting game. Originally known as "Perish Song", it got a rebranding to Salt and Shadow to be more searchable because, you know, naming your game after an iconic pokemon move might make you hard to find. It's a year or so old, but has gotten updates over time. It has a tagline of "Pokemon but Dark Souls" on it's release thread. In Salt and Shadow, the world is ending, and you obviously want to stop it from ending. This means the game has a bit more focus on resource management, and often focuses on different aspects of pokemon play from your usual fare. I don't want to go into too much detail in this intro post but it will become apparent very quickly what sort of game this is. In terms of tone, I would describe it as a bit on the darker side, but I wouldn't say it's reborn levels of edge. The game can also be a bit weird or even goofy at times. I'd probably describe it as similar to Hollow Knight in tone, maybe. I have already beaten the game 100%, so this will not be a blind playthrough. You can find the game here as well as probably a better selling pitch; if you want to play along, be my guest! https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/pok%C3%A9mon-meets-dark-souls-pok%C3%A9mon-salt-shadow.528494/ LP Mirror I'm currently mirroring this LP to the LP Beach; you can view the mirror here: https://lpbeach.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=1719 Spoiler policy: Don't spoil things the LP has not covered. You are allowed to inform me of potential wild encounters in areas though if there's a pokemon you know can be found there and want me to use! General rule of thumb is, don't be a jerk and ruin things for people who might be invested. DimiPZC fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Jul 21, 2024 |
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Jun 24, 2024 16:21
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 The game starts with the names of the developers. I have no clue if this is a full list given there's full on credits later.  Title screen features a Celebi and the Old Chateau music. Definitely sets a somber mood whenever you open up the game.  A preview of my completed save file. Yes that is a 43 hour playtime; I wouldn't say the game is long but it is meaty.  Booting up a new game starts us... underwater? (The mouse cursor will disappear in a few images, I realized I was recording it fairly quickly)   Talking to rocks gives us money and a super potion. Always keep an eye out for hidden goodies!  At the end of this watery tunnel is our choice of starter pokemon. We have the choice of the Bird of Ill Omen, the Whimpering Fairy or the Emblem of Treachery. These correspond to Murkrow, Mimikyu, and Croagunk respectively.  The game doesn't tell you which pokemon specifically it is until you pick, so here's me saving the game in order to reload whatever I pick. One thing this game has is multiple save slots, which is cool! The first 3 have stuff related to my first file, so we'll be saving to file D. Also we get some information, such as our name (The Wanderer), the area we're in (The Sunken Boundary), our current playtime, and... Days Left. We'll learn what that means in a bit.  I opted for Mimikyu just to get the intro out of the way and because Mimikyu is cool. The choice of starter doesn't really matter that much in the grand scheme of things, but if you guys would rather see croagunk or murkrow I can redo the intro off-part.  I'm not good with names, alright?   Can't get any of the other starters once we made our pick.   : There may not be enough time left to save it. Its Guardians now stand in stasis, defending the status quo. This will not be a gentle experience. The challenges ahead are unfair. Some may not even be possible. You will have little guidance and many paths. World ending? Pfft. Should be a walk in the park.  : They begin the Perish Song.I imagine this used to be a title drop before the game got renamed to Salt and Shadow.  We get asked if we want to play on hard mode.  I've played reborn and insurgence, what could go wrong?  Cool panning shot showing the lighthouse. I think this is the only time the game does this, but it's neat. I think I messed up the gif though cause it feels faster than it does in game.  : To guard the world against an ignorant and foolish ocean.Buddy I don't think a lighthouse is going to stop an entire ocean.   More goodies laying around. Checking suspicious looking objects is very worthwhile!  Heading inside, there's a few things to check out.   Aww, poor thing.  Once again, my terrible naming comes into play. Seems like a very happy place.  : Hundreds of names are scrawled down.Hundreds? Is the sign-in sheet multi-page, or is the handwriting really small?  : Two children stand beside him. There once was a third child, but someone ripped them out of the painting. : "The children refuse to listen. Their battles threaten the land and sky. I will make them listen."Definitely some lorebuilding going on here. I feel like commenting on it is not my place given I've beaten the game, but maybe ya'll are interested in figuring out stuff?  Oh okay just 40 pokeballs just casually sitting here. There's a comment about how all pokeballs act like heal balls and fully heal whatever is caught. Picking these up causes the locked door to open.  : They look burnt and stained with soot.Wow! You know if I had any awards I wouldn't treat them so poorly. If I had any. Oh who am I kidding I absolutely would just leave them to rot in storage.  Going through the now-unlocked door causes it to lock behind us (in other words, it is now the door formerly known as the "now-unlocked door"). In front of us are... a lot of bookshelves. Each half of a bookshelf has something to say, and there's 6 bookshelves for a total of 12 things that could be read. On one hand, I want to include all of it, but on the other I don't want to pad out this update with a bunch of potentially boring reading, so if you want to read what all the books have to say, click here: https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=165501.   Some monitoring equipment. Seems like it's monitoring the ocean?  : It smells like home. Anyways, there's a professor here! Lets see what his deal is.  : The cages are full...  Our first battle! He has 3 pokemon compared to our 2, so this might be a bit tricky but doabl-  Oh. They're 6 levels higher than my team.   Well this is probably going to be over very soon but I guess I might as well Astonish the ghastly and buff my teams attack...  Wait that's a KO???  Wait they're doing barely any damage to me???????  So this fight is a really good introduction to one of Salt and Shadow's main gimmicks. You'll be thrown against pokemon who are a higher level than you on paper, but in practice your own power level is probably a few levels over the actual shown level. I'm unsure if it's something weird like you having max IV/EVs and your opponents having none, but in effect it obfuscates whether or not you're on equal footing with your opponent or not.  Mimikyu's disarming voice is both super effective against the zigzagoon and attacks both pokemon at once, pretty handy!  Zubat heals a bit off leech life and then Zigzagoon uses leer. I pay no mind to it and opt to try and rush both down next turn with quick attack and disarming voice.   Unfortunately, Zubat also has quick attack and almost KO's Eve here. Thankfully Kyubey outspeeds Zigzagoon and is able to KO it before it can get an attack in.  This seems like a good time to use one of those potions I found...   Healing Eve with Kyubey's turn just on the offchance Zubat tries for another quick attack; it doesn't though, so Eve's quick attack finishes the job.  I'd be speechless too if a level 5 pokemon kicked my level 12's rear end.   The professor disappears, leaving behind a dust cloud. It's ambigious whether trainers flee or they die from fatal lose-battle-itis and crumble to dust here; we will be seeing the false professor again though, so that does sort of tip the scale in one direction.  Through the door seems to be the office.  : [...] tide is rising [...] Mother [...]Is it cursive? It's probably cursive. Stupid fancy writing.  : His eyes shine with pride as he gazes at the boy beside him.Oh hey, a healthier family dynamic than the last painting!  We'll be back here much later for this.  Through the north door is a balcony with a... purple pidgeot?  Yes please get me out of here. There's an animation of pidgeot flying away but I was too lazy to gif it.  Ranger's rest, huh? I suppose next time we explore the hub area. DimiPZC fucked around with this message at 12:40 on Jun 25, 2024 |
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Jun 24, 2024 16:21
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This is certainly an unique looking Pokemon fangame. It's excellent for having a Mimikyu starter as well, Mimikyu is everyone's friend. Looking forward to seeing how this LP goes. BraveLittleToaster fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Jun 24, 2024 |
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Jun 24, 2024 16:40
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DimiPZC posted:
A number of gif-making softwares will automatically put the gif at 60fps even in 30fps recordings, putting it through a site like ezgif or something and reducing the speed to 50% should get you the original effect. That might help.
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Jun 24, 2024 16:50
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I gotta say that given the romhacking community's standards for how dark stories should be, the "like Dark Souls" tagline makes me wary. Still, so far it didn't start with a terrorist attack, so how bad can it be? Maybe the higher levels but low stats thing is solely for the purpose of larger EXP gains?
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Jun 24, 2024 16:56
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Well this looks interesting. Great to see you back!
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Jun 24, 2024 17:23
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This looks interesting. There sure are alot of different pokemon romhacks and fangames. Also rather than commenting on whether your naming sense is good or bad, I'm more upset about the names being all-caps.
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Jun 24, 2024 19:28
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Ventadour posted:I gotta say that given the romhacking community's standards for how dark stories should be, the "like Dark Souls" tagline makes me wary. Still, so far it didn't start with a terrorist attack, so how bad can it be? I mean, as dark and depressing as Dark Souls' setting is, I'd say it's not actually that edgy. At least from what we've been shown, this looks more "dark because it's the end of the world and everyone knows it" and less "dark because OMG so edgy it cuts itself every time it moves". My curiosity is at least piqued.
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Jun 24, 2024 21:12
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So from what little information we've gotten so far, it looks like people (like you) emerging from the ocean is a regular occurrence and the people around hate that?
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Jun 24, 2024 21:43
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I'm intrigued to see where this leads.
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Jun 25, 2024 01:55
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Resized the images to cut down on page size and hopefully be a bit more mobile-friendly. Hopefully nobody minds! (If people preferred the larger screenshots I can try to accomodate) Gonna try and keep a fast update pace with this, so next update out soon.
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Jun 25, 2024 12:43
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So if the cages are filled with wet clothes and Pokemon, and the False Prof wanted to stuff us into one, but couldn't, are people emerging from the sea and becoming Pokemon, then? Thereby shedding their clothes. I wonder if that's what the countdown Days Left is for.
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Jun 25, 2024 20:15
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This does look interesting. I suppose that door also doesn't open until you get Eevee? Or does the game allow you to have a single pokemon in that double battle?
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Jun 25, 2024 20:51
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 We're treated to Temporal Spire from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon as the music for Ranger's refuge. Right away we're blocked with a forced item pickup, so I'm sure it's important.  We get the running shoes; tells us how to run or that we can toggle auto-run mode. It lets us go fast in the overworld, blah blah, basic stuff.  Wait, what? Okay so Salt and Shadow is a nonlinear game. You can go anywhere you want; provided you can beat whatever trainers are blocking your path. This means that lategame areas or item pickups are blocked by strong trainers to keep you out. But it'd be really unfair to just throw you against a really tough opponent and force a party-wipe with no warning, right? So the game's solution is that you can run from most battles in the game with few exceptions if you feel like you're going to lose the battle. Running gains you no progress at all, but it's useful if you want to re-evaluate your options. We will be making use of this very shortly.  : The weak will be weak, the strong will be strong. LP title drop! Seems like this champion is a big deal. Sharp eyed readers might have noticed this last update in fact; in a normal pokemon game beating a level 11 alone would probably level up a level 5 pokemon by one or two levels instanty, yet our levels stayed the same. There is no EXP in this game. The game does not want you to grind. Currently, our only option for getting stronger is catching higher leveled pokemon. Guess that's why all the pokeballs, huh?  : You DON'T need to damage Pokemon to catch them. I just caught a high-level Pokemon at full health! I thought I was a goner for sure, but I just threw the ball, and avoided losing my team! Damaging them or inflicting status effects helps, but even at full health, catching succeeds about 30% of the time. At least... for the species I've encountered so far. Will return to report more soon.Speaking of pokeballs, seems like they've been buffed! Given what we know about exp and some other things we'll be covering in this update, we'll be catching a lot of Pokemon, so this is a very helpful buff.  Free great ball, very nice.   Heading inside the right house, we have an old lady facing the wall and a few pokeballs on the sides.  : You must have been carried here by the Shadow Beneath the Waves. But the old beast's quest is pointless. The Legends will never return... : There are just two Crystal Beacons left. One Beacon is SOUTHEAST, in the depths of the FEVERTHORN JUNGLE. The other is WEST, at the Peak of SKYSPEAR MOUNTAIN. Both contain power, but our one-time heroes will never share it willingly. There isn't much time left. One way or another...  Okay creepy grandma. Guess we have a goal! Two crystal beacons.  The balls at the side are pokedex rewards. We won't ever actually get a pokedex, but pokemon we've caught before will have an icon next to them.   We can also check how many we have by either interacting with these or viewing our trainer card, as it helpfully points out. Our reward counts are 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, and 150. Another reason to chuck a ball at anything we haven't caught yet.   Back outside, we can find some hidden great balls on this rock, and some potions right below it.  : DO NOT READ UNAUTHORIZED MATERIAL. Have a blissful day!Definitely getting some vibes from this place.   Inside the left building we can find a PC. They can store pokemon, just like in the official games. There's one key difference though: storing a pokemon in them does not heal the pokemon.  : Its chassis bulges in rhythm to a distant heartbeat. The screen compresses space into a perfect abyss. Is it alive? Are the pokeballs its eggs? oookay then. More potions on the table. You can never have too many of those.  : They burst from the ground like weeds.Have you tried weedkiller? Whether it's a weed or a computer, I think it'll fry it regardless!   Checking the drawers up here, we find lore and a pearl. Does the book just say "The Wanderer" over and over, or were there real names at some point?   And here, we get to the main gimmick of the game: the day system. We have a limited amount of full party heals; between 12 or 13 to be exact (depending on whether you can have 0 days left or not). We can trade a day to fully heal, and if we lose in battle we're forced to take that trade. In other words: this game has a lose condition. If we run out of days, I assume it's a nonstandard game-over. I haven't actually run out of days to know for sure, however. Nothing is stopping us from savescumming if we're really in trouble, but this does mean that we have to be careful with the damage we take; we can heal with items so long as the pokemon hasn't fainted, but once it's fainted, our options are very limited for reviving it. This is yet another reason why we'll be catching a lot of pokemon; as the game's thread says, revives are limited, but the wild is an endless source of replacements. Between this and the no exp it might seem like there won't be much room to get attached to mons, but I wouldn't worry about that; the game has some tricks up it's sleeves.  Saying no here will net us this response. Using the bed is very tempting, but it's always better to push on until no hope remains for that day.  Heading up the stairs outside the house, we find even more pokeballs. We're up to 50 now; eventually we'll use one!  : If you see a real book, DO NOT PANIC.  Getting some real vibes from the champion (or whoever is leaving these behind).  Hidden Baton Pass TM in the bush. TMs are reusable here, which is nice!  : WARNING: Some of the battles ahead are impossible. There is no hidden item or cunning strategy that will change this fact. Okay but did you know that Leon's Charizard is unbeatable? Anyways yeah north of here is the champion's lair. Whenever we're strong enough, we can go up there and kick some rear end.   Of course, first you have to make it past this guy.   Needless to say we aren't beating this guy at this point. He even has intimidating gym leader music to make sure you know he's a threat. Time to make use of that running from trainer battles mechanic! There are some goodies up there to get if we can get past him, so ideally we want to beat this guy whenever we get the chance.   Energy powder and 2 potions. Energy powder is basically a super potion with a different name; I think it lowered friendship but that only realy matters if we get a friendship move (which I have not encountered at all in this game).   To the west of Journey's End is Sorrow's Path, and to the east of Ranger's Refuge is the Deepwoods.  And to the south is the Shrine of Silent Gods, which is just a continuation of the hub area. There's a hidden item in this screenshot that I remember having something good but for some reason I forgot to grab it while recording; I'll make sure to get it next time.  In the middle of the shrine are 3 statues and a cubone. : It hoped the firstborn would carry it away. Obviously, yes.  I like the last option here. It's very heartwarming. I don't know if the other 2 options do anything different, and I don't have the heart to find out.  : Slowly, haltingly, it decides to trust you. Resisting the temptation to call it Sans. I'll be honest, I didn't use it much in my playthrough. Other pokemon I had just seemed more appealing so I didn't have an opportunity to get attached, even though I'm sure Marowak is good. Maybe that'll change here?   Our first statue. The game doesn't elaborate on whether it's a sacrifice or you're doing a fusion dance to create a new mon, but effectively this is a multiple pokemon trade for one really good mon. In general, the statue mons are excellent. We don't have either a Celebi or a Mareep though.   : Activate the icon on the map to get even more information.I didn't think to show it off here, but checking the map tells you where to find the ingredient pokemon. Celebi is listed as a question mark (it's in deepwoods, to the east of here), while Mareep is in the Farmlands, which is west of here.   Pidgeotto and Xatu can be found in Skyspear Climb, also west of here.   Honchkrow and Houndoom can be found in Skyspear Summit and Skyspear Caverns respectively, both of which are... also west of here. You might also notice that Celebi is an ingredient in all 3 of these. We cannot get all 3 of these statues in one playthrough. If you guys have a preference as to which one we get based off the limited information, let me know. The levels attached don't mean that much, they're really only a sign of how early we can get them.   To the west of the shrine is the Dragon Cave.   I don't know of any good reason not to say yes here.  This is a really good find just sitting here in the open. Overheat is a 130 power move with it's only downsides being the PP cost and it lowering your special attack (forcing a switchout in most cases). There's actually a really cool quirk with TMs in this game that I'll explain when we get another TM in this update.  I also casually run into a wild level 9 dragonair.  I attempt to weaken it with mimikyu, but get thunder waved and miss a turn in return.   So rather than mess around further I just chuck one of my 50 balls at it and catch it first ball. The book wasn't lying about those buffed catch rates!  : He sacrificed the world instead.I'm beginning to think this champion guy is kinda a dick!   This guy blocks us from continuing further in this cave.  That's 33 levels of nope in a 5 level bag! I'm out of here. The encounter rate is also really high for this cave it feels like, and yet I kept only getting dragonairs despite me knowing there's non-dragonair pokemon in here.  Leaving the cave, some guy has replaced the cubone we adopted.  Hell yeah, archeology!  : well... We all have some kind of drive within us still, right? Even those Guardian types. [nod]  : pottery! And other artifacts of past civilizations, you know. Anyways, if you find any Ashen Shards around, bring them to me, will you? I'll share my findings with you in return. : According to the inscription, it was supposed to soothe wild Pokemon... or something. Yes. Give me that.  That's immediately getting registered for quick use.  This is a wild pokemon toggle! So long as this is enabled, we won't encounter wild pokemon. The game respects your time; dealing with wild pokemon spam is not what this game is about. It's even diegetic, which is a cool touch. (And no, despite it being a flute, it doesn't change the music or play annoying sounds or anything. You aren't sacrificing anything by using this).  Heading south of the shrine, we have a beach. It's dark because we're still in the shrine area and the area transition is a step or so south.  : It isn't one of the Firstborn. It's a NEW Pokemon. It's a blue wolf with a golden crown, steel in its jaws. Where did he get it? Only the Seamother can birth new Pokemon.Okay so for context, the Pokemon being talked about here is Zacian, the box art legendary of Pokemon Sword. She is one of 4 Pokemon with the dubious honor of being relegated to Anything Goes, the highest tier of ban in the Smogon Banlist; the others being Arceus temporarily in Gen 4, Mega Rayquaza, and Calyrex Shadow. Why is she banned? First of all, her speed and attack are already excellent; she has the 25th highest attack and 12th highest speed of any Pokemon in her crowned form (which only requires her to hold a specific item). That's really good, but that's not enough to get you banned. However, she also has an ability in her crowned form that increases her attack by one stage when she enters battle; this means that in practice, she doesn't have the 25th highest attack of any Pokemon, she has the highest attack of any Pokemon, and the ability to outspeed all but like 11 Pokemon total (not counting pokemon holding speed-increasing items). To add to this is an amazing type combination in fairy/steel, which offers really good type coverage and is weak to very little, on top of her having very respectable defense as well. She is a contender for possibly the strongest Pokemon out there, with her only realistic competition being Mega Rayquaza, a Legendary pokemon who can Mega Evolve without holding an item. Believe me when I say that Zacian was probably the weakest link on the champion's team. The game isn't lying when it's hyping up it's champion.  But enough about that, the champion's a ways away. We find a Fire Punch TM here, and here's where I'm going to talk about a cool thing with TMs in this game. TMs, in addition to being able to be learned by the usual pokemon, can be learned by ANY pokemon who shares the same type as the TM. Any fire type pokemon can learn Fire Punch now. This can give options to a lot of pokemon who normally don't have the movepool to back up their strengths. This means the TMs you find have a lot more mileage than they normally would!  There's also a shop down here. I opt to buy some paralyze heals and some potions for a rainy day. Money is very valuable, because potions are your main way of healing off scratch damage you normally wouldn't care about.  : permanent guard. Fire-type Pokemon are considered a dangerous threat, and catching them is forbidden. The Champion will reign forever.Oooh, I'd like me some fire types.   Unfortunately these chuckleheads are guarding the entrance.  Level 15s. I could probably take them with my new dragonair, but I opted to run to prevent the update from being bloated. So, where to now? We have a few options. We can do Deepwoods, Sorrow's Path, explore the beach more, or maybe take on the flamekeepers and get a fire type pokemon. Possible encounters: Shrine of Silent Gods: 27.5% Clefairy (Lv 3-7) 16.5% Chikorita (Lv 3-7) 16.5% Cyndaquil (Lv 3-7) 16.5% Totodile (Lv 3-7) 11% Jigglypuff (Lv 3-7) 11% Swablu (Lv 3-7) Dragon Cave: 46.2% Dragonair (Lv 5-9) 15.4% Deino (Lv 6-9) 15.4% Drakloak (Lv 8-10) 15.4% Goomy (Lv 6-9) 7.6% Pupitar (Lv 8-10) DimiPZC fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Jun 26, 2024 |
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Jun 25, 2024 20:58
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Running away from trainers is a neat mechanic.
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Jun 25, 2024 21:18
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(also should I put the updates on their own test pages to prevent page size bloat or do ya'll prefer having them on the actual thread page)
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Jun 25, 2024 21:21
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No grinding, reusable TMs, able to run from trainer battles, upped catch rates on pokeballs, no super-edgy plot... Good lord, this sounds like an actual good Pokemon fangame!
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Jun 25, 2024 21:23
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DimiPZC posted:(also should I put the updates on their own test pages to prevent page size bloat or do ya'll prefer having them on the actual thread page) On the thread page is better. Seeing the long updates is what we're here for - meanwhile, you can scroll past and easily miss an update link. Randalor posted:no super-edgy plot... [citation needed]
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Jun 25, 2024 22:29
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Quackles posted:
We haven't had any terrorist attacks, characters who swear every second word, or on-screen suicides. The setting is dark and depressing, but it hasn't been edgy (yet).
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Jun 25, 2024 22:34
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i agree with keeping the updates in the thread, these images won't be very bloaty and this is very interesting so far!
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Jun 25, 2024 22:49
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Oh I like the way this is presenting its gameplay changes. It's obviously very Dark Souls/Elden Ring inspired but it seems to be nailing it so far? Even with colorful pokemon graphics kind of tonally clashing with the existential dread being presented.
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Jun 25, 2024 23:16
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I'm not sure how I feel about the not being able to level up thing. Can you get stronger any other way? Or do you literally have to spend the whole game making new teams?
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Jun 26, 2024 00:26
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This is certainly the most unique fangame I've seen in a while. I kinda dig it.
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Jun 26, 2024 01:09
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Rabbi Raccoon posted:I'm not sure how I feel about the not being able to level up thing. Can you get stronger any other way? Or do you literally have to spend the whole game making new teams? You're going to be shuffling a lot of pokemon in and out of your party due to the limited revives, but we might be seeing ways for lower-level pokemon to stay caught up as we progress  MarquiseMindfang posted:So if the cages are filled with wet clothes and Pokemon, and the False Prof wanted to stuff us into one, but couldn't, are people emerging from the sea and becoming Pokemon, then? Thereby shedding their clothes. I wonder if that's what the countdown Days Left is for. No comment on whether this contradicts or is backed up by anything in game, but any game that pulls a Mystery Dungeon and has people turning into Pokemon is explicitly my jam. EDIT: Also, I didn't realize it until now, but someone went and made an encounter list for the entire game. I didn't feel like cracking the game open so I was probably just gonna wing it with encounters, but given that someone went and did the work for me, I see no reason not to show off the encounters available to us. So... Shrine of Silent Gods: 27.5% Clefairy (Lv 3-7) 16.5% Chikorita (Lv 3-7) 16.5% Cyndaquil (Lv 3-7) 16.5% Totodile (Lv 3-7) 11% Jigglypuff (Lv 3-7) 11% Swablu (Lv 3-7) Dragon Cave: 46.2% Dragonair (Lv 5-9) 15.4% Deino (Lv 6-9) 15.4% Drakloak (Lv 8-10) 15.4% Goomy (Lv 6-9) 7.6% Pupitar (Lv 8-10) I'll edit it into the update; if you have any pokemon you want to see let me know! DimiPZC fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Jun 26, 2024 |
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Jun 26, 2024 04:25
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Those sure are some interesting mechanics. I'm still wary of how the game will hold its tone and writing further in, but I'm definitely curious how the gameplay works long-term. I
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Jun 26, 2024 10:29
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I'm voting for Sorrow's Path, that sound like a nice place. This already looks very, very interesting. Always cool when fangames aren't afraid to build something completely new out of the bones of the original game, and all the ideas here have a lot of potential (especially getting rid of levels and grinding, i.e. the worst part about Pokémon  ).And wow, in terms of the writing this game leans hard into the Dark Souls aesthetic. I kind of really like it; it's a very unfamiliar way of depicting the Pokémon world, and up until now it seems like it's actually being used rather effectively to create a dark and ominous atmosphere without drowning everything in grimdark grime. Remains to be seen if the game can copy Dark Souls' main storytelling strength: Resisting the temptation to overexplain things, so that there's enough information to actually know where you are and what you're doing, but so many open ends and vague allusions that it always feels like there's much, much more beneath the surface. Kind of hilarious how blatant some of it gets, though. There's even a dark bird that carries you from the prison-like tutorial area to the main hub after a battle against a strong-looking, but surprisingly weak boss... DimiPZC posted:
...and two Bells of Awakening, one high up, the other deep down below: DimiPZC posted:
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Jun 26, 2024 16:26
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 When I recorded this I had no votes so I picked a low-commitment, single-update option on the offchance I got votes while recording (hey guess what happened); that's right guys we're doing the beach episode! Woot woot!  First things first, let's do a bit of cleanup on things I've missed; talking to this rock gives us the TM for Brine! It's a solid water move; 65 damage special move, and if the target is below half health the move's power doubles. Very nice.  We're going to be doing a lot of catching this update. Let's see what Shrine of Silent Gods has in store for us!       Clefairy, the three Johto starters, Jigglypuff, and Swablu! They're all fairly low level, but they're all solid mons who are a big boon early-game. Interesting almost half the encounters here are fairies (half if you count swablu cause altaria mega evolves into a fairy) and we're right outside of the dragon cave. No clue if that's smart world design (fairies keeping the dragons in the cave) or just a funny coincidence.  We got overheat last time, which is a fantastic move that could mean the difference between KOing something in one turn vs not. Apparently Cyndaquil could learn overheat via level up or TM in the base games, but even if they couldn't it doesn't matter here because it's a fire type move TM and any fire type pokemon can learn fire type TMs.  Catching all 6 of the encounters here brings us up to 10 caught pokemon; lets go get our prize!    I find the "hey, that's you!" here more cute than it has any right to be. Anyways, we got a thing called a Shred of Hope! What is it?  It's a consumable that raises your pokemon up to a specific level! These can be found every so often, and they're the main way that weaker pokemon can stay caught up in level. They also have a secondary use; they'll revive the pokemon they're used on if said pokemon is fainted. The only catch is that they have no effect on pokemon who are higher leveled than the level the shred will raise you to.   That's going straight to Kyubey; Mimikyu is a really good Pokemon.  With a new level 15 under our belt, let's get these LameKeepers out of the way.   Effortless.  Dusk stone! This can evolve Murkrow into Honchkrow, Lampent into Chandelure, or Eevee into Umbreon. I personally have my sights set on Vaporeon for Eevee due to natural bulk and just on the offchance they make it to the Champion, as I don't believe they have anything strong against water types.   : precise. It looks machine-rendered.We enter the cavern of Molten Sorrow. There's a weird diagram here that I imagine is tied to lore; I never found a way to interact with these otherwise.  Trick room TM! I imagine used in the right hands, this is a really useful TM, although I'm nowhere near competent enough at Pokemon to use it; that level of setup and team synergy is beyond me.  There's an item over to the left out of reach. We can't ever actually reach this item; it's just there to tempt us forever.  : It spontaneously combined the Withdraw and Deposit functions into a new one: "Organize Boxes". Something spooky is going on with the PCs.   Another statue! Two of these are easy; we already have Cyndaquil, and Growlithe can be found right in this very cavern.  Unfortunately, Monferno is found deep in the, well, deepwood. Unfortunate! Speaking of things that can be found in this very cavern though, lets catch some mons!       There's some very good mons to be found here; Braixen is a first-evolution starter, which is already pretty good. Charmander is found at a fixed level and comes with nasty moves right off the gate. Fletchinder evolves into Talonflame, who has a busted ability in Gale Wings. Vulpix can set up sunlight on entry, buffing fire type moves and weakening water types. Tepig is a cute pig. Fire type enjoyers are eating good tonight.  Pictured: me having a heart attack realizing I'm one failed-catch from being one-shot. Thankfully our great balls came in clutch.    But that's not all! Call now and we'll throw in Salandit, Magcargo, and Torkoal! Salandit has a unique poison-fire typing, and the one we caught is female so we can evolve her into Salazzle. Magcargo is beefy. Torkoal is even more beefy, and can also set sun when entering with drought!   Heading outside, we're blocked from entering the main beach area by a tuber. The beach uses the Undella Town theme from Black/White.   They're a pushover.  In general, trainers just say "..." after beaten. I'll make note of any exceptions (like the Flamekeepers earlier).    Trainers don't really have real names for the most part. Lost Child of Sand, Flamekeepers, Discarded...  The lass was guarding Volt Switch; another decent TM in the right hands.  I find this sign really funny, even if it wouldn't fit in your usual Pokemon game.   Flame orb and poke balls! This Flame Orb might be a chekhovs gun; I used it to cheese a normally pretty difficult battle on my first playthrough, and there's a chance I might do the same again.  Now lets enter this cave and  what the gently caress.  : Uprooting PC from location NOT ADVISED. Reality compression UNSTABLE. Do NOT REMOVE PCs from the WILD!Something really spooky is going on with the PCs.  : Someone truly believed that people can change their nature. Well duh, yeah, people can change. I'm the biggest proof of that to myself.   Hell yeah; we can use this to change a pokemon's ability to their hidden one. Unsure what to use it on though, so I guess we'll keep it in our back pocket.  Exiting takes us not back to the beach, but to the dragon cave instead, and the entrance has disappear behind us. What the gently caress was going on there?   We're on a ledge we couldn't get to before, so we can nab these now. Hey, it's our first Ashen Shard! Since we're here, might as well clean up the encounter list here.    A few cuties to be found here! Drakloak in particular will come in handy in a sec.  It took me 10 minutes to find this guy; for an almost 8% encounter rate I felt pretty unlucky finding him.  Don't mind me, just bringing you with me...  Dig TM! Not a huge fan of moves that hit on the second turn but it's cool to have anyways.  Another shred of hope; this one level 10.  It's going straight on Eevee.  Another energy powder; can never have too many healing items.  No fun allowed.  These trainers kinda have a bad vibe. They don't have real names, they say creepy or unhinged stuff... It's unsettling and I don't like it.  Yeah, no I'm not dealing with that right now.  I Jumped down the ledge, so I have to fight this guy to get back out.   Thankfully he's a chump.    Pryde comes before a fall.  : Something happened in the Deepwood. I'm certain of it.Hmm...  Don't mind me, just switching drakloak to be my second pokemon.   Can you guess what this guys deal is?    Explosions. He's running an explosion team. Sure would be a shame if both of my lead pokemon were ghost type and were immune to explosion!  PP ups are nice, but...  This is the real prize.  For once I didn't use all caps on the name. This brings us up to 24 pokemon caught too!  There's grass on the other side of this trainer. I could wait for Rock Smash, or come back stronger, but you know, I just got a shiny new level 20 forretress, I'm sure I could take this.   I'm sure nothing could go wrong.      Everything went wrong   The only survivor was SpinToWin. I spinned... but I didn't win.  How ironic that I find Sunny Day, when my team is anything but Sunny right now.  I guess meet the new team!  Our old team is gonna be out of commission for a bit. Fainted pokemon are darkened in the PC so you know they're fainted.   An Ether and the TM for Mega Punch. It's... kinda mid? 80 power normal type move is alright, but that 85% accuracy kills it. That's as accurate as Fire Blast, a move where the low accuracy is the downside to a really good 110 power move with a 30% burn chance. It gets upgraded to 96 power with the ability iron fist, but like... just use an elemental punch move? 5 less power for 100% accuracy and the ability to be supereffective.  : Only those in Queen's favor are worthy of catching these powerful pokemon.That cave will take us pretty close to one of our two objectives.    Needless to say, we aren't getting past this guard given the travesty that just happened.    I catch myself a clauncher and replace totodile with it. I also teach it Brine to replace water gun, as brine is better.  This brings us to 25 caught pokemon; we'll be turning that in before the end of the update.   I also catch a pelipper and a psyduck. I don't bother catching every single pokemon here just yet, but the encounter list for here looks like this: 15% Krabby (Lv 14-17) 15% Marill (Lv 14-17) 15% Marshtomp (Lv 14-17) 15% Psyduck (Lv 14-17) 10% Clauncher (Lv 14-17) 10% Palossand (Lv 14-17) 8% Castform (Lv 14-17) 8% Pelipper (Lv 14-17) 4% Crawdaunt (Lv 19) Few worthwhile encounters here, I might be back later.   Youngster Pyro has a level 38 Talonflame. We aren't beating him currently.  X Special Attack over here. I never really use X items, but they're really good.   Item hoarding is lame! Use it or lose it, that's what I say.  This is the non-hidden ability variant of the ability patch. It swaps between the regular abilities.   Crab rave!  Snip snip to you too.    On my way back I find this trash trainer. 4 pokemon, but they're all kinda easy.   Another Ashen shard and some money, that's pretty good.   We need 1 more shard to get anything. We hand them in sets of 3, so every 3 shards we get a goodie.  Lets see what our reward is.  I'm not sure whether to be blown away or disappointed. Next time: Sorrow's Path.
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Jun 26, 2024 19:57
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Have to say I'm pretty intrigued by this fangame. The atmosphere is quite unique, and honestly reminds me of Shin Megami Tensei a little bit.
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Jun 26, 2024 20:12
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Yaaaaaaaay Jigglypuff! Just a fun reminder about the time Wigglytuff gave zero fucks about Salamance's attacks. It makes sense that fairies would congregate outside the cave where their natural prey lives. So how do pokemon that evolve from leveling evolve? Just when you use the Hope items and it puts them over the evolution level? I also like that the game makes it easier to give out TMs to mons, makes it less punishing if you just have poo poo luck and can't find the one pokemon that can learn, say Brine.
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Jun 26, 2024 20:39
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Randalor posted:So how do pokemon that evolve from leveling evolve? Just when you use the Hope items and it puts them over the evolution level? I also like that the game makes it easier to give out TMs to mons, makes it less punishing if you just have poo poo luck and can't find the one pokemon that can learn, say Brine. If you use the hope item, they'll evolve. If you catch a pokemon over the level where they normally evolve, you get a prompt to evolve them when catching them. Barring that, there's also a key item early-ish that can be used to evolve level-up pokemon if they're over the evolving level.
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Jun 26, 2024 20:58
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I don't think my normal strategy of "All Water Pokémon All the Time Unless it's an Electric Gym or Dungeon (In Which Case Dragons)" would work here
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Jun 27, 2024 00:06
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Jeeze that was one rough encounter. I gotta say, while the writing's well enough, the pokemon aesthetics really don't gel with the atmosphere they're going for.
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Jun 27, 2024 04:16
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Next update... later today/tomorrow? (1 AM is a weird time). Was taking screenshots post-recording and felt exhausted randomly. Aso let me know if I'm posting these too frequently; I could post them less often if the frequency is annoying.
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Jun 28, 2024 06:39
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DimiPZC posted:Next update... later today/tomorrow? (1 AM is a weird time). Was taking screenshots post-recording and felt exhausted randomly. No such thing as too frequently! 
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Jun 28, 2024 09:14
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NewMars posted:Jeeze that was one rough encounter. I gotta say, while the writing's well enough, the pokemon aesthetics really don't gel with the atmosphere they're going for. Yeah, while I understand that they couldn't redraw every singkecPokemon, it's giving me a bit of a backlash to see this world of desperation and decay mixed with a super cute little tepig. Look at that good little boy, thriving in the apocalypse.
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Jun 28, 2024 12:34
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Huh. A Pokémon fangame, that's trying to be dark and edgy, but has actually put some thought into it, and seems self-aware enough regarding the inherent absurdity of applying the tone of Dark Souls to a Pokémon game to have some fun with the premise by leaning into it extremely hard. I mean, the subplot with the PCs is clearly playing with the notion of PCs being so ubiquitous and wholly uniform in function, as well as how their features updated between generations, not to mention how there are, like, normal computers all over the place, but none of them can seemingly access the functions of a PC. I'm also guessing that part of The Problem going on is that the champ's whole team is made up of extreme tryhard picks that he obtained through means that broke the world, and there's gonna be an allegory for sucking the fun out of the game by taking Smogon stuff too seriously. Why, this is so refreshing, I think I feel a song coming on! You want a half-decent fangame? You could do worse, than this Salt and Shadow The plot's dark, but not offensive Don't be afraid, to play Salt and Shadow Deep in the ocean away from the light Far away in the new game stage We're informed that the world is in a desperate plight But we picked up my son, Mimikyu A cage that spits out a free Eevee Friendly design, found in Salt and Shadow Right nearby, a mutated PC Vaguely malign, here in Salt and Shadow All we saw was the backsprite of Samuel Oak Far away in the spooky lab He was leveled up but the fight was a joke And the format here is 2v2 They say, no way There's no XP gain in this game They say, no way Grinding for levels, is lame Thirteen days 'til the ending Can't rest too much, to beat Salt and Shadow This world requires much mending Link the first flame, and win Salt and Shadow Champ writes posters saying books are a lie Far away past that fancy chap Can you freakin' believe this guy? His team wouldn't fly in OU I say, Let's Play And send that doofus far away I say, Let's Play And end his nonsense, one day Far away on Cradle Isle Time to catch another hundred and twenty-five It spends a day to get your team a revive So grab your benchwarmers and make do We have reserves, so says Salt and Shadow Looking forward, to more Salt and Shadow... (real talk, though, if you recall that other fangame's thread, I don't imagine I can reach the same level of output, just because, a good game gives me so much less material to work with)
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Jun 28, 2024 13:00
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DimiPZC posted:Next update... later today/tomorrow? (1 AM is a weird time). Was taking screenshots post-recording and felt exhausted randomly. I think the speed is fine but I did do a screenshot LP once and sometimes it's a lot of work. Don't want you to burn out. Do what works for you
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Jun 28, 2024 16:59
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Rabbi Raccoon posted:I think the speed is fine but I did do a screenshot LP once and sometimes it's a lot of work. Don't want you to burn out. Do what works for you  EclecticTastes posted:Why, this is so refreshing, I think I feel a song coming on!
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Jun 28, 2024 17:09
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EclecticTastes posted:(amazing song parody) Thank you, this is incredible. 
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Jun 28, 2024 17:15
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Dark, edgy Pokemon fangames normally get on my nerves (even if I did enjoy OFS' Uranium LP, though that was mostly for poo poo like MEGAWEAPON) but you know what, this one has me intrigued. It'll be interesting to see where this goes.
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Jun 28, 2024 20:52
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