'Just remember all the good that Reborn does.'
And I'm talking to myself at night
Because I can't forfeit
Back and forth through my team
Behind a cheesy strat'
And the teardrops coming from my eyes
Say dont you fuckin' stop
Because I can't forfeit
Back and forth through my team
Behind a cheesy strat'
And the teardrops coming from my eyes
Say dont you fuckin' stop
Don't want to hear about it
Every single one's got a puzzle to solve
Everyone knows about it
From the Queen of Reborn to the hounds of Lin
Every single one's got a puzzle to solve
Everyone knows about it
From the Queen of Reborn to the hounds of Lin
And if I catch her coming back my way
I'm gonna throw it at you
And that ain't what you want to read
But that's what I'll do
And the feeling coming from my guts
Say fucking pull through
I'm gonna throw it at you
And that ain't what you want to read
But that's what I'll do
And the feeling coming from my guts
Say fucking pull through
I'm going to Amaria
Far from this fornever aftermore
I'm gonna drown the gym
Make the blood drip out of every ball
And I'm bleeding, and I'm losing, and I'm raging
Right before the lords more like ladysFar from this fornever aftermore
I'm gonna drown the gym
Make the blood drip out of every ball
And I'm bleeding, and I'm losing, and I'm raging
All the words are gonna bleed from me
And I will lose no more
And the voices coming from my head
Say freakin' stop to roar
Say freakin' stop to roar
15 badges. 2 to go. And probably another fight against Lin's immortal ass. Then Reborn is down. No problem! It only cost me 100 hours of playing time and +- 50 hours of walkthrough work ... in the end I might be around 200 hours. Wow. 200 hours for a Pokemon fan game. HOW THE DARKRAI DID THAT HAPPEN?!
Right now, by which I mean the last few weeks, I'm really pushing through Reborn. Thanks to the quarantine. And because I want to finish it. Rejuvenation doesn't play itself, now does it?
The last third of the game demands all my strength. The gym leaders are relentless, the puzzles exhausting, the topics covered, as you will read in the next report, highly triggering. Since I have promised not to discuss the balancing again, I will leave it at saying Adrienn was really trying and Titania was the living hell on earth and really brought me to the edge of my possibilities with my available mon and strategies. The difficulty for both was almost entirely rooted in the fairy tale battlefield, which effectively destroyed Adrienne's and even more effectively Titania's weaknesses. I simply didn’t know how to approach them, so it worked with Adrienn barely with some, and with Titania only with thick cheese fondue. But I survived and here we are. Those battles weren’t really what frustrated and angered me, maybe they never were. This role falls to the puzzles and lack of comfort.
I was encouraged to pay more attention to the argumentative nature and coherence in my articles, and that is exactly what I want to try this time. In addition, lately I've always started with the negative aspects, this time I’ll do it the other way around, because that's how my emotional state is right now too - more positive than negative. Barely.
For a better overview and navigation, this time the article is split into the following sections:
- Reborn City - Aha, that's why the game is called Reborn!
- Puzzles and game comfort - thoughts
- PRO, CONTRA & NEUTRAL impressions
So everyone can skip the section that they may not even want to read.
I hope that proves to be helpful. Now let's go.
I hope that proves to be helpful. Now let's go.
Reborn City - Aha, that's why the game is called Reborn!
I address the obvious first: After I beat Ciel in the Agate Circus and got Flying, I can finally return to Reborn City - the dark, corrupt big city hole that initially brings the grim atmosphere to the player. I ended up on Route 1 and ran back. A dramaturgical decision for which I was rewarded. Adrienn, this wonderful, hyperactive person has actually revived the whole damned city. It's a festival, yes!
Renewals or renovations in video games are always an intriguing, effective trick to achieve an impressive experience of progress - whether it is your own base that can be expanded, a village full of life that is slowly growing or just a destroyed city, that awakens to new life - before and after moments in games are almost always fun, and this effect increases the greater the contrast. In Reborn’s case, it's a damn big contrast - Amethyst, the main creator, throws us in the beginning in this dreary, black post-apocalyptic city where everything seems to go down the drain and leaves it in our perception for a very long time as the state of the region. Then we are led away from the city for a huge portion of the game and later come back to a new city, where Amethyst fully rewards the player for his perseverance and endurance in the grim Reborn atmosphere. An honestly very well-done twist.
I am absolutely thrilled with New Reborn. The city has been redesigned fantastically, looks much nicer and more joyful in almost every section than before, the remix themes of the old pieces of music are refined because they carry this atmosphere of resurrection to something better within them, all these small, scattered quests for helping people or saving Pokemon, the secrets, the surfer areas that are now accessible, the new shops, the fact that our protagonist is now a nationally known hero, the fact that almost EVERY NPC in town has a new dialogue. All of this is of a pleasing high quality and this whole remade city shows in its details how much time, work and commitment Amethyst put into the consistency of Pokemon Reborn. The world of the creator and her team really shines here.
10/10, worth the wait.
That was the one big, inspiring point that I wanted to address in coherent text form and not in the form of spontaneous thoughts. Good stuff! I don't really want to go negative again, but that’s part of the job too.
Puzzles and game comfort - thoughts
The final boss of this section of the game were not the battles, no, maybe the battles were never the final boss. But rather the circumstances which surround them. And the puzzles. The arceusdamned puzzles.
There was a recent moment before the gym fight against Titania when you were forced to face another gimmick fight against a single, very powerful Pokemon. The circumstances of this fight broke me and prompted me to write a rage post in the community. Anyone reading this up to date should know that, but let's include it for the record anyway.
Well, we can easily agree that this is an irrational and painfully sarcastic rage that is the internet equivalent of a monkey throwing its excrements around. The frustration behind it though comes from actual game design weaknesses , at least in my opinion.
What makes a game difficult and challenging? Without wishing to go too far, in Pokemon Reborn it’s the extremely demanding and strategically complex battles as well as the complex riddles and puzzles. The balancing of both matters is a matter of taste, and I think my opinion regarding that is well known. It is undeniable though that these gameplay elements make Reborn hellish hard.
That’s how it's supposed to be, and that's a good thing. But what about the circumstances and the playing comfort around it? Is the lack of any comfort really making a game more difficult? Or does it just make a game more exhausting?
In the Devon Corp building, which is the last Team Meteor base I've walked through, we have to walk through three huge puzzle rooms, which with a bit of clumsiness and bad luck permanently damage your team and which are really passably complex. Apart from how much time was sunk here before I organized a little help to accelerate the last room, this gameplay doesn't care about the dramaturgy. Between two cage battles with Victoria and DJ Arclight, these puzzles may still be acceptable. But then we literally come out of the room where Champion Ame just got beheaded, and we get to delve into another puzzle. Because that is exactly what we feel like doing at this right moment.
My point here is something else. The cage battles take place between these puzzle rooms and you get damage to your Pokemon team from time to time from the electronic floor plates. Every time you have to go back between the battles and in front of the boss ZEL, because there is only healing and a PC at the bottom, you have to go back through the complete three puzzle rooms and then cross them again, slightly less tedious using shortcuts, but you have to work through them again. If you press the wrong plate once, you can turn around immediately, because you can't compete against ZEL damaged and potions are getting rare.
Every time we have to pass Victoria, who is still under electrocution torture. The sight warms every heart.
Let’s go back and remember Luna’s gym, which is hidden deep within a mountain range that we first had to cross completely. There is no PC here. If it turns out that the team you have is not suitable against Luna, you have to walk all the way back through the mountain and Route 1 to change it. Aaaand back to Luna. Every time.
The Reshiram situation before Titania. After you have come a long way up to Titania's fairytale castle, get no healing, fight through some trainer knights, cross the castle, a tower, a mountain path and a cave, you eventually have to face an extremely strong and extensively boosted Reshiram. If you lose, or if your team turns out to be unsuitable, you have to walk once or twice all the way from / to the last PC in the train desert back, through the train path, through the meadow plain, through Titania's castle, through the tower the cave.
I think the point is clear.
Why? Why force this this exhausting lack of comfort on the player who already really has more than enough other worries in Reborn? Do these unnecessary walks make the game more challenging? Are they fun? Is it gameplay-wise valuable to have to solve several puzzles over and over again? I don't think lack of comfort improves this game in any way. It doesn't make Reborn more difficult, it only makes it more frustrating. And all of this would be really easy to prevent: Place a PC before the big battles. Don't force the player to backtrack all the time. Many of the relentless fights I've complained about in the past only get so nerve-wracking because they involve walking paths and other troubles every time you start again.
A counter argument, at least for the throwback after defeat, is that you can save and reload before the battle. Of course we all do. But we do it because we know what will happen if we don't. Then the lacking game design strikes and throws us back. We want to avoid that. It is not a valid argument that the player can bypass the rules of the world using the save function. He does, of course, but as a creator, I should never argue that this is the best option for my game - breaking the rules. Just because I can avoid your poor game design to a certain point, it doesn't get less bad.
A long section of text, but that's why it's marked.
I hope that I have been able to substantiate my point of view
with examples and arguments. In my opinion, Reborn suffers
more from it’s jigsaw puzzles and it’s unpolished lack of
comfort than from anything else. But I heard that this is a
point for the upcoming and final episode 19. That makes me
happy to hear.
I hope that I have been able to substantiate my point of view
with examples and arguments. In my opinion, Reborn suffers
more from it’s jigsaw puzzles and it’s unpolished lack of
comfort than from anything else. But I heard that this is a
point for the upcoming and final episode 19. That makes me
happy to hear.
+ I got it, Amethyst: Ciel and Samson have sex. A lot. Their dialogues are still funny.
+ Arceus bless Ciel for giving me one of her battle tickets directly and not sending me to the other end of Reborn to save her best friend's grandmother's sick favorite pokemon ...
+ - Just to keep that in mind: Ciel has mega-evolution, ultra-potions and the field advantage in her gym fight. I have none of that.
+ I can FLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
+ Victoria is not in Apophyll, but I found the TVquest. Funny.
+ - The Amaria report on TV increases the anticipation of having to fight her soon ........
+ I don't know what the point was in helping Aya's mother with the TV but hey, funny.
+ The gang is still in Calcenon City. I immediately repaired the stairs. A good deed a day ... I will probably only find the twins with Amaria's badge, climbing the mountain.
+ Reborn City, a City Reborn
+ - SOOO UHM ... ARE WE GONNA TELL AME ABOUT BENETT AND LAURA, I MEAN ...? NO? Okay cool, sure, of course not.
+ - The woman in Lapis with the sick man has a potential cure in mind but doesn't tell me about it. Too bad.
+ - I don't understand the collectable applications in Reborn. Maybe later?
+ I love everything about the mafia granny with the stolen Pokemon in Lapis, from the fact that two quests overlap here through the golden dialogues up to the bike ticket. And then the quuest continues at the black market. Honor to Amethyst.
+ BIKE. With great music.
+ Lapis and the water garden are beautiful! I will NOT pick those berries!
+ Thanks for the hint with the corrupt Pokeball, Community. Very sweet Ralts quest.
+ Poor lesbian girl in Flobots gym. :(
+ theheee, I found the diving water directly under the lighthouse. Cool Secret!
+ Terra's parents are one of those subtle storytelling moments that I really appreciate. "That girl" probably refers to Lin?
+ - Was there someone in Corey's gym? Was that Corey? The Fuck?
+ The scene at the cemetery with Simon is touching. While I still don't feel sorry for Tara because she died as a terrorist, I can at least feel empathy with him.
+ I really appreciate the Simon Quest. When he mentioned the lake I flew there immediately and of course you can dive for the bodies! This is a quest design as detailed as you would never find it in the official games. So great! At first I was skeptical about fishing, but I only needed three attempts. That is completely fine. So Simon was in love with his ... sister... who is ... now dead ? The boy has a couple of tough therapy hours ahead of him.
+- Of course Serra is gone. :/+ I flew back to the Meteor / Lake / Steelix cave and found one of Luna’s crystals by accident. That is an insane eye for details from Amethyst. The Terra sign scares me, but I'll try to solve the puzzle. With about ten attempts I was through the stone puzzle. So far so good. The second one was harder. I have the key to Shades gym now, nice sidequest! The gym is scary as always. Shade will become relevant again, no doubt about it.
- As much as I'm excited about the gang storming the Meteor building with Champion Ame ... freakin’ Lin is in there, we supposedly can't take any chances BUT WE STORM THIS FORTRESS WITH FIVE PEOPLE?? Why not ... 200? Why doesn't Ame summon a few gym leaders with her authority? That seems quite suicidal to me and I'm sure we'll pay the price for it. (Edit: Yep, sure did!) Of course then there would be no 'tension' ...
+ - WHAT THE CHEESECHAD? I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE VICTORIA BEHINDFUUUUUU
- I can’t listen to the meteors "Have we stalled you enough, we are so bored because that's all part of the plan anyways" anymore, just because they know we won't kill them. TITANIAAAAAAAAAA
- Of course, the Champion-DJ-combo messes it up right away. Rule of not being with the protagonist.
+ So I can just walk over the Devon Puzzle. Then I'll do just that. This is fair.
+ Victoria be like "FUCK YOU MISTRESS, THANKS FOR MAKING ME CROSS ALL THE ACTIVE PLATES!!!"
+ - After Victoria is gone and my potions get fewer, MAYBE I should start to solve the puzzles. They’re not even difficult, I was just lazy.
- The good, old 'Fight each other to death', Lin always had grade A+* back in the big bad villain school. And of course I can't really lose, but are caught in a time loop. Smooth.
+ - Victoria was not an easy fight, but she’s also not a fan of processed cheese.
- WHY CAN'T I SAVE VICTORIA FROM THE CAGE? WHY CAN'T MY MAGICAL SUPERPOWER MONSTERS DESTROY THIS CAGE ?!
- DJ ARCLIGHT ACTS AS IF I HADN'T TOLD THOSE FOOLS TO NOT STORM AN ENEMY BUILDING WITH FIVE MAN. FUUUUUUUUUUUCK. Now he gets a beating!
+ - Arclight was one of the toughest in the game.
- I just asked my grandmother what she thought of Lin. Granny: '2stereotypical4me.'
+ - Champion Ame being beheaded should obviously be a big fucking deal, but ... really isn't? Ame calls herself champion, but has done nothing of significance in the entire game so far. Nor was she a character to build a relationship with. I don’t associate anything with her expect how useless she is. Who cares? Her death didn't change anything. It was just a plot tool to show how powerful and evil Lin-chan is. Classic trope.
+ ooooooooooooohh ZEL. A letter for every personality. I'm a little slow. Of course I came to destroy. And will be destroyed accordingly.
- Zel first try: Alakazam destroys every mon of my team in one fell swoop... Fucking ZEL. One body, three assholes.
+ - Of course I like the dialogue with Adrienn and Victoria, but was it worth all the battles and puzzles? Not really.
+ - I don't buy that Adrienn wasn't tortured out of luck. Is Adrienn part of Meteor?
- NATURALLY WE LET ZEL GO. WHY WOULD WE NOT?
+ The volunteer-quest from Adrienn is a nice change, but I’ll look for a guide. Otherwise it's too risky. My beetle brain would never find them all. Eventually I found all 15, but still received items other than those specified in the guide. Well, no matter.
+ Compliments for the lack of other trainers in Adrienn's gym. Straight to the point.
+ - It's funny how Reborn opens the borders to tourists again, even though the whole country is currently ruled by fucking terrorists. Hey, how about a vacation in Syria?
- The game crashed in the fight against Desert Taka for the first time since the beginning and I didn't save after Adrienn. Imagine exuberant, tearful frustration and inner shouting at this point. Defeating Adrienn a second time was more stressful than the first time. UGHHHHH
+ - Taka was easily defeatable. I allowed him to come with me. But only because Reddit advised me to do so. Otherwise the little oedipus-shit would have gone home.
+ - Big plus for Takas dialogues about the other characters. They give him depth, they give them depth. However, it would have been better if the dialogues were chronological and not random. So I had to talk to him forever and probably still haven't seen everything.
+ - Taka: "Wheren’t you and Fern friends?"
TITANIAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
+ - What does TAKA have to do with Luna? Please don't be in love with her too. "So, do you just pick up any old junk you find? I guess that's why I'm here too, haha." Taka's dialogues make me almost no longer fervently hate him. Almost.
+ - Wow, the desert is HUUUUUUUGE. Fortunately, I packed enough vermin repel. ... the desert is almost TOO huge though. And laggy.
HA HA HA for the troll-aron in the upper left. Very funny Amethyst. Almost destroyed my entire team until it got confused and killed itself on my last mon. Phew.
+ - I have no idea whether there is a particular pattern in the Sugiline Cave ... probably? Since this is probably optional, I will do it later.
+ - Are these empty pokeballs in front of the wall Coreys?
- Forced HM use at the stones aka "If you don't have a HM slave with you you can walk all the way back to Reborn you worthless piece of-"
- The trainpuzzle is really okay for thirty minutes.
After an hour, however, it isn’t. It’s not enough that you have to smash stones, you have to run around the whole thing again and again and again. Then you reach the next area, you think you made it and IT STILL GOES ON. There is no fun in that. This game has the worst puzzles I've ever seen.
- As an European, I feel personally insulted by EUROPE. And of course Reborn city never notices the disappearance of hundreds of trains.
+ -What a looooooong, dramatic way to get to Titania's castle ...
+ Gardevoir interview: Oh Julia, never change.
+ The fact that Titania regularly helps the desert rednecks shows again that she is best gurl.
+ Holy ARCEUS, Titania has a castle on a rainbow island in the sky. How can you NOT fall in love with her? The music with the incorporated hyperbeam sound also knows how to please.
- I just do a few uninspired knight fights before Lin-chan automatically gets me.
+ Of course I trust Titania. Do I trust her with defending her fucking fantasy sky castle against a few thugs? Haha no. But do I trust her to kick some asses? Gurl yeah.
+ - Oooh, what a twist. I'm not really sad that Taka was murdered, so I didn't have to bother. But anyway ... how?? Was Lin hypnotizing him? What about his voice, didn't Titania recognize it?
- LIN IS NOT DEAD !!! WHY CAN'T I THROW HER INTO THE LAVAGAAAAAAAHHHHHH
+ Titania's gym is wonderful, everything I always wanted in a Pokemon game and should be the champions room. Great. Including shortcut back.
- Suuuuuuuurprise, Lin is not dead yet, she is an immortal evil Entity. What for a cooool Antagonist!
- Since we are a silent protagonist, we cannot defend ourselves against Titania's doubts and cannot undermine Lin's little trick. Lin takes advantage of this limitation of the third wall, which is an absolute no-go.
Battle Stadium / Cheesecake-factory:
(recordings of the relevant fights)
Please click here and watch the recordings in the same section of the german article as uploading them takes a tremendous amount of time)
Titania fail: (I forgot to record the victory against Titania because I didn't think it would work. The video I uploaded instead shows how broken the game is when you don't have fast Pokemon.)
These articles escalate more and more ... good thing I’m done soon, otherwise I would probably write an entire book. The next article won't take long since I've already kept playing, and, interestingly enough, will probably be mostly emotional. It could also be the second last regular walkthrough part.
Time to stay excited. I love you Reddit! You too, Mr. DeLeTe ThiS !! <3
- Yoraiko
Bonus-Screenshots:
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