#'oh the game that started out as a fangame and no one involved had any real experience making something like this?'

[sir-adamus]

so much of the hatred rwby gets seems to be rooted in people being offended that what started as an amateur production, started so amateur

like, there was a tiny budget, all the voice acting was done with people with little to no experience, the animation was jank, the episodes were short and the pacing was all over the place with some questionable writing decisions, and it was very clear they were having to learn while doing and improving as they went along

instead of meeting the crew where they were at and respecting the ambition, people got mad that it wasn't a highly polished professional production with 25 minute episodes and nitpicked every little thing about it for ten years

[danganronpafan777]

danganmon reading update also how thy day going!

Not too bad!! I’ve been busy with a Wattpad story, and a TON of irl stuff, but I just finished Chapter 2!

Here’s some notes/reactions while I was reading it/watching Blaze’s playthrough

SPOILERS

Danganmon Chapter 2 from someone who knows nothing about Pokémon:

I’m curious to see what Faust looks like without the mask as much as everyone, but ngl it kinda rubbed me the wrong way that they were pushing him so hard when it’s clearly a sore subject

HE LOOKS SO FREAKING CUTE THO

Sam: “…I think it looks nice too, maybe in this case “cute” would be the right word”

Ayooo

Last chapter, I wasn’t sure whether I should ship them or see it as a sibling relationship, but I’m leaning towards shipping

Faust keeping the mask on because he wants to be taken seriously is honestly a pretty valid reason (it’s a nice twist instead of a scar or trauma)

Maya is growing on me ngl

She reminds me of a more socially awkward Rei

Flidgey being amazing as always 

Cyrillo and Wimessir give that “We will be adored” energy 

Kami deadass asking Cyrillo why he’s tall- 

This premotive game sounds like a fun concept! I feel like Sam is gonna let Faust win

Fry seems like such a cutie that it makes me scared

So Kami and Fry don’t actually have to face off against each other? I’m assuming all the funhouses are different, so theirs is just not competitive?

BRO LAVA??

They’re literally exchanging their fav flowers while trying to escape from lava 😭 I honestly like this duo and I’m scared Fry might die

Sam really disappeared faster than my will to live 

Okay Zoro definitely giving blackened energy

Zoro and Roxanne got some sibling energy tho

I want to hug Faust so bad 

Maya and Flidgey friendship is unexpected but not unwelcome in the slightest (I actually love this dynamic)

Flidgey: A ghostly guy and a ghostly girl… lemme guess, some guy tried to suck you up with his vacuum? 

I love her sm

Stella and Cyrus being bullied by a robotic Gordon Ramsay for burning bread is def my favorite fun room 

Voodoo doll motive :0

Apollo probably got Maya, I’m calling it now

I’m getting some death flags from Lillie and Juno…

At least one of the melons is probably poisoned

Glad Sam apologized and everything worked out. Genuine apologies and communication is rarer than it should be in dangan/fangans

I’m officially on board with Sam x Faust and Maya x Flidgey 

If any of them die I’m rioting man

(Flidgey raised some death flags and if she goes then I’m quitting this fangame I swear /hj)

…FUCK

*end credits*

(I swear that wasn’t planned)

A trade between dolls?  Apollo is probably involved, but it’d be a cool twist if Flidgey was the one who swapped

I’m never forgiving whoever the hell killed Flidgey tho 

Okay now Apollo starting to piss me off (Still like his character tho)

CALLING HER FRIDGEY BRO THE DISRESPECT

(I hate how it made me laugh)

Wimessir is my top suspect tho, she’s just acting a bit sus

I KNEW IT

WTF APOLLO YOU BITCH

Okay I forgive Wim but Apollo you’re dead to me

Oh god, using Cyrillo against her is a whole new level of screwed up

KICK HIS ASS CYRILLO

Sapphire tucking in Juno’s doll makes me feel a lil better tho

CYRUS MY MAN

Out of all the antags in dangan, Apollo is the first to just be badshit insane, and like a genuine pychopath

(Well, his backstory does sound screwed up from what little we’ve seen of it)

The bags under Cyrillo’s eyes makes me sad :(

I actually loved this chapter tho, the funhouse games and the bonding between the characters is such a good buildup

9/10

The investigations are a bit short and Wimmessir’s guilt came a bit out of nowhere (In terms of evidence. I had suspicions from her behavior, but Apollo’s accusation and the purple hair was a bit abrupt) It felt like everyone turned against her rather quickly, and not much could really prove her involvement, but her execution was well done

This was great, but I kept thinking of the ways a reader would fit into the story which really shows the type of person I am (I write too many x readers lmao)

[acaciapines]

SO DELTARUNE CHAPTER 2 HUH

spoilers under the cut but oh my god guys oh my god what a good game this chapter was so worth the wait and i liked it even more than the first one. everyone should play this video game i think.

anyways with that out of the way onto the theorizing

RALSEI WHAT ON KRIS’S PERSON MAKES YOU APPEAR.

like. look. i love ralsei. i Do Not Think he is a bad guy in any possible way. i feel so strongly that all these kids are friends and love each other and no matter what happens in the rest of the game that is where things will end up. but ralsei can’t be the same type of darkener as lancer bc ralsei DIDNT turn to stone. and like. hmm.

a lot of times ralsei was just--ignored by the non kris and susie people. like noelle, i think she maybe acknowledges him a few times? and berdly like....not at all? and queen even less so! which makes me think...this dark world was very much built from noelle’s mind, i think, bc i think the way queen treats her is parallel to how her mom treats her, which i assume we’ll get into more later on, and like--ralsei is not native to this dark world. lancer and rouxls were there bc they tagged along in kris’s inventory....but ralsei didnt. ralsei just kinda...appeared on his own, for some reason, and was fine the entire time....even if he really was only acknowledged by his own friends. which makes sense! this dark world is noelle’s problems, she doesn’t need ralsei to deal with them.

i think the darkeners are in some way....toys? as in....they’re here for the lightners entertainment/betterment, which ralsei pretty much outright says to queen that one time, paraphrasing based on my memories but something like “why are you hurting [noelle, kris, susie, etc], they’re the lightners! you’re supposed to want to make them happy!” and i think this is FASCINATING with regards to the role the player plays in the game--we, the player, control kris. kris is our vessel to experience the game by. in a similar way, the darkeners are there to better the lighteners that visit them. to make them happy. so what...makes them people, i guess, if there’s someone controlling the strings?

ralsei is there for kris, i think, and i think kris has something on their person that becomes him, but i dont think they know it. probably something of asriel’s, bc, like, cmon. and ralsei...knows this. he knows this is his purpose. why he was created, you might say.

so...what do we, as in, the game and its players, do with any of this? at the end of the chapter kris creates a dark fountain in the middle of their house. ralsei explicitly states that the dark fountains will lead to chaos, that they shouldn’t be opened. but like. of course kris wants to have the dark world forever and always. they’re a lonely kid and one of their best friends lives there.

i think deltarune is about...the ethics of playing a video game, not in the same way undertale is, but in a similar way. undertale was about...choices. i think the player matters in that game, but--not in the same way it does in deltarune. undertale was a game that involved the player, deltarune is a game that’s ABOUT the player, yknow? or, like, the player is a major role in what’s going on.

i dont know what’s going to happen next. apparently theres seven chapters total, which, holy shit. thats a lot of time for things to keep happening, to learn more about the dark worlds, about kris, about ralsei. i know how i would answer these questions--this game gave me so fucking much to work with for my daemon au twine fangame and im so so excited to keep writing that--but i cannot wait to see how the game itself deals with these questions.

and onto the lighter stuff:

the kris&susie and kris&ralsei friendship moments. they got me so hard. these kids are just friends...theyre just friends! they love each other! also susie&lancer THEYER FRIENDS.......

NOELLE AND SUSIE OH MY GOD they were so cute together ndfkgdfg i died the entire ferris wheel conversation. noelle shaking berdly at the end when he revealed he ALSO had a crush on susie. everything about that brought me so much joy.

i loved queen as the antagonist she was so fun. her dialogue is just. i love that.

EVERY TIME KRIS WAS THEY/THEMED I WAS SO HAPPY......they’ve always been canon nonbinary but i love to see it hammered home like YES kris is nonbinary here are their friends and mom using they/them pronouns for them. kris nonbinary :)

anyways. deltarune fucking good. god. cannot wait for the next chapter to come out and to finally get to start just throwing my money toby fox’s way for this game i cannot believe these first two chapters are free.

[rpgmgames]

February’s Featured Game: Returning Nightmares

DEVELOPER(S): Saturn ENGINE: RPGMaker 2003 GENRE: YNFG, Exploration, Adventure WARNINGS: Blood, Gore, Swearing, Suicide SUMMARY: Returning Nightmares is an exploration adventure-horror game being developed in RPG Maker 2003, inspired by Yume Nikki and it's multiple fan-made homages (but with dialogue & easier to navigate maps). You play as Akira, a young man locked up in his own bedroom, exploring his dreams to remember the events that lead him to where he is now. But some things are better left alone…

Play the demo here!

Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! Hi, I'm Saturn and I like videya game. I've been into Yume Nikki since about... 2010? And RPG Maker in general since 2011. I've been cateloguing resources and reblogging RPG Maker projects on Pinkuboa for 6 & 1/2 years now (7 in June) and I run Dream Diary Jam, a game jam for making Yume Nikki Fangames. I also love pixel art, writing, and cooking, but the last one I can't make into a game (yet).

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Saturn: I was originally trying to make like a little intro to Yume Nikki project that people could peak into and copy for Dream Diary Jam & future use. However, it ended up taking a life of it's own as something I could goof off in and enjoy without thinking about it. The eventing I did for it could be better optimized, so I wouldn't use it as an example anymore (but don't mind at all if people look & learn from it!). It's basically about me thinking back on my edgy years and my years of looking at other's OCs and celebrating how goofy and fun the stories could be. A lot of the game is me asking "What would someone who watched a lot of anime and listened to MCR do?" There's an appeal to cool edgy stuff I think we forget about when we look back on our edgelord years. Sure, you may not have been the best writer and some of the stuff is over the top, but it was enjoyable to make and some of the characters still appeal to you for basic emotional reasons (good design, relatable story, fun power trip, you just like their hair, etc.) I hope the game is enjoyable to people whether or not they laugh at it or honestly have a good time with it. Both ways are valid - enjoyment is enjoyment!

How long did you work on your project? *Saturn: Oh gosh...I believe I started at the very end of 2017, like a week before the new year. Then I worked on it for like 2 months, took a break, then picked it up and went hard in September 2018 again.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Saturn: You bet buddy: -Yume Nikki -.flow -Ignite -The Looking Glass -Fleshchild -Yume Nisshi -Akuma (Yume Nikki Fangame) -Answered Prayers -Ultra Violet -Cheesy internet OCs I read as a kid -Cheesy modern horror movies -Cheesy Creepypastas ...and probably other stuff but I can't think of it right now.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Saturn: Sometimes I make a world without thinking about it all the way through and I don't know what to do it with or what to fill it with. That's why you can find a map of an Ouija board in the map files with some events and such that you can't access elsewhere. It's driving me mad still. >:T

Did any aspects of your project change over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Saturn: It went from a side project to my current project, a project I wanted to use to help others but ended up teaching myself. I know better ways of eventing now and have an idea of how to make maps and tiles better and faster.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Saturn: I prefer working alone on this game. Had it been something that I started with someone else, I'd like it with them. I do crowdsource ideas though: I'll ask discord randomly, "Hey, what should I put next in Returning Nightmares" or "Hey, what else should I put in this world?" Big shout out to Dream Diary Development & Pixel Horror for their help!!

What was the best part of developing the game? *Saturn: Seeing the worlds come together. Once a world has music in it and all the bits and pieces properly moving and intractable, it's immensely satisfying. I'd say finishing an event and having it work properly is second. Eventing is fun!

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Saturn: I find myself playing with the engine and seeing what I can do with it myself.

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Saturn: I don't relate to anyone in particular because they're all kinda hollow. However, I like the hidden wizard the best since he was a D&D character I never got to use, so I have a whole backstory and personality for him!

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Saturn: I wish I planned better & fixed a few bugs for the first release. At least there's nothing game breaking: you can't get a few menus if you don't have enough money, but that's it.

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Saturn: Leave as is. This one is mostly to get me comfortable with the idea of releasing a larger game. Akira doesn't have any great stories in him, he's just him. Most of the games I got ideas for are one off since I like one off stuff. Makes everything feel complete.

With your current project, what do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Saturn: I look for people's reactions to it. There's, there's a particular place in the game that's in the shape of a 10 year old webcomic meme that I had people @ me in chats and ask if it was a reference to, while I giggled like a fool. Games like most media can be an interaction between player & creator, and that's one of the fun parts of it all.

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Saturn: God I don't know if I'll break the game or make it boring in any particular way. That's my top concern.

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Saturn: Learning how to make a game is like learning how to read or how to do math: you won't be able to read To Kill a Mockingbird right away, nor will you be doing advanced algebra. It took a lot of time for you to be able to do either. Give yourself a break when you learn how to make a game as well: you won't learn how to make a big one in a month! Feel free to screw up. Someone says "Don't do that, it'll be too big"? Do it anyway: you'll either fail and learn a lesson, or you'll succeed and then look back and say, "Oh crap, I could of done that better now that I learned everything new." Either way, you got more practice to make another game, but better. "But I screwed up...." - see paragraph 1 on this question for the answer to that. Cut yourself some slack and remember you're doing this because you want to enjoy making a game! I found the best way I learned is by looking into other games (thanks Bleet & Jojogape for being cool with people looking at their games). I suggest finding the best way you learn as well, whether it's written tutorials, asking people, looking at other people's games, video tutorials, or just messing with the engine yourself. Lastly, I found the best way to take pressure off myself when making a game (as someone who loves perfection) was to make a few goofy joke games first. If they were bad, that was fine: they were supposed to be funny bad! It's like releasing steam by making MS Paint drawings, it makes you laugh and feel less nervous.

Question from last month's featured dev @leirin: What's something you really hope to see an RPG Maker game achieve in the future? * *Saturn: I want to see more games do something with the picture system in RPG Maker 2003. Like, I've seen games play with the new picture system, but not release and it's really burning my britches because it's such a great cosmetic game changer hnnnngh. Otherwise, I'm not sure. RPG Maker is a limited engine specialized for RPGs. I like watching fellow developers Cachi, Hogwash-dev, Rindre, and a few other people see how far they can push the system, but I don't have a particular "I want to see this" from something. I kinda like RPG Maker for it's limits, but I also like seeing what I wasn't expecting from it!

We mods would like to thank Saturn for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Returning Nightmares if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum

[outofoxygen]

An Critical Analysis of HOME

“I’m mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.” -Space Funeral; derived from Network

HOME is an OFF fangame made by Felix, may his soul rest in peace. His work is one of the most well-known OFF fangames, and is generally one of the most well-loved. I don’t like it, at all. So I shall eviscerate it. (Oh, and I spelt CONFINIUM wrong.)

Part One: Characters

The first character I shall start with is the Judge. Now, the Judge is one of the most well-loved characters in OFF, for good reason. He is witty, intelligent, enigmatic, mysterious, and knowledgeable. He’s altogether one of the best characters in OFF. However, he makes for a poor protagonist. How?                   Well, the main the problem with having the Judge as a protagonist is that one of his main attractive features is his enigmatic and mysterious behaviors, which are enabled mainly by his knowledge and intelligence. Whilst you can write the Judge as a intelligent protagonist, the main problem with making him a protagonist or even mainly playable is this: You remove his mystery and enigma.                                                                                                                    A protagonist, by nature, reveals their thoughts and knowledge to the observer, and even more so in games. The Judge is a mystery because he has knowledge that you don’t, and a whole story to him you don’t know. He’s altogether mysterious because he’s opaque, whilst Felix made him transparent with HOME. This kills his allure as a character. At least he’s still somewhat verbose.

Another major point is that he’s not that good in combat. The Judge is lacking in competence power, with only physical and special (or magical) attacks; yes, you can argue this allows him to engage both physical and spiritual enemies, it limits his ability to the party damage-dealer, when there are some characters better at doing immense damage per turn.

I shall now go to Alain. Alain is probably one of the better-written characters in HOME, and he generally conveys the idea of an churlish, starved cat. He is practical and has the ability to keep himself rather calm, but he also lacks strong morals and clearly doesn’t concern himself too hard with his fellowship’s opinions or worries. However, his backstory is painfully edgy, and his meeting and dialogue seem to convey an general ‘grimdark’ feel for him, though he thankfully drops this motif later on.

I can sing the praises of Alain’s potency in combat any day. He is, luckily enough, one of the most powerful characters you can obtain, rivaled only by Valerie, The Batter, and Alpha. He possesses one of the greatest utility competences imaginable in the form of Leeching Palpate, which allows him to continue absorbing health from the opponent whilst his party dies around him, along with the only Neutral attack in the game, thus ensuring that Shredding Palpate (which reduces enemy resistance to Claw attacks) is effective against mostly any opponent, except those already resistant to Claw (which their resistance will get degraded anyways).Thus, he is possibly the most versatile fighter in the game.

Valerie. He is mostly notable as The Judge’s brother, who dies in-game due to Japhet. In HOME, you can save him... after Japhet gets to his 2nd phase. At least it’s not the phase where Valerie is completely gutted, but I’d like to know something. Can anyone explain how he’s supposed to be alive after having his throat and innards mangled by a bird? Also, Mortis Ghost stated that Valerie was shy and soft-spoken, whilst in HOME, he keeps talking. Talking and talking and talking.

Oh boy. Valerie’s combat prowess. Aside from a death rate rivaling Epsilon, he’s obviously a glass cannon. He has one of the best potentials for damage, practically converting him into a nuclear warhead just through spamming a Break, then using the correlating Aneurysm to lash at the opponent with immense power, rendering them lying bloody and brainless on the ground.

On to Jozlyn! Now then, let me immediately ruin all potential to beat around this bush: Jozlyn is an annoying idiotic mess that makes me want to strangle her and myself. She is basically what happens when you grab an funnel and force the whole ‘LOLrandom!’ archetype and a stock ‘girl’ personality into a cat. She is the token female character of the cast, which OFF didn’t require or use. Not only that, but her ‘quirk’ of constantly adding ‘:3′ to every single damn line that the world had the misfortune of existing is disgusting and disturbing, at the very least.

Jozlyn might be forgivable if she is at least usable in combat. Maybe she can one-shot something? Is she an massively useful quasi-enemy targeting character, like Epsilon? No. No to both of these hopeful dreams. I almost gag thinking of having to use her in combat. Her main skills makes it evident that Felix couldn’t even THINK of making her slightly strong. Whilst Epsilon had rather weak multi-target attacks, not only could he not run his mouth 24/7, but also he had the advantage of something called ‘buffs’. Jozlyn just stole Omega’s ability to use curing competences and ran off.

The Batter. I’d imagine everyone who has played OFF has a strong opinion of him. Is he a mass murderer? Is he just someone trying to end an broken world before it can get worse? Is he a child murderer? Well, ignoring these questions, you can say something: He’s a stoic, dedicated, pious man, who is short-sighted, doesn’t care about the means, and is too blinded by his goal of perfect purity to care about the harm he causes. Of course, his personality is wiped in HOME. How, you might ask. Well, consider the following:                                        Given that we’re playing from the Judge’s point of view, he’s the enemy. However, it seems that Felix ignored that he has a personality, he’s got goals, and he’s not just some thoughtless mass-murderer. He is at the very least morally ambiguous, yes, but just having him be the dedicated typical evil archetype dilutes the narrative of OFF heavily.

Now, you might wonder, how can you state the mechanics and ability of an enemy as I have with the playable characters? What, are you going to say he’s too easy or strong or something? Well, the Batter is playable in the later part of Zone 2 leading up to the boss fight, and OH YESSSSS. He’s immensely strong, tears down enemies quickly, and comes with Alpha, who has the ability to endlessly heal your party. The downside is they’re AI controlled, but still, he’s not awful, he’s a LIVING GOD. Now then, time to move on from characters.

Part Two: Themes and Genres

HOME has some pretty obvious themes and genres, like OFF. They’re both quirky, surrealist role-playing games that have dark themes, like death. OFF pulls this off (haha) well, and OFF is, in my opinion, able to prime itself off of dark humor. Whilst yes, you can disagree with me on this, in my eyes, it is consistent of dark humor: it subverts some of the darker parts with comedy, such as Enoch is an absolutely detestable, merciless, and evil potential-metaphor-for-capitalist-businessmen, but he has an hilariously small face and an very notable way of speaking that highlights some of the humorous prospects of him.

Dedan is able to abuse his Zone’s denizens/elsen, but he is not only rather hilarious to read the lines of, but his incessant swearing and vibrant expressions of speech give him an obvious personality, and adds some comedy to him. As such, I rest my case that OFF involves dark humor heavily.

Now then, I don’t think HOME is good at this at all. The first thing I don’t like is that most of both Dedan and Enoch’s lines are torn right out of OFF, and it’s very heavily notable. I didn’t like the fact that Dedan and Enoch just use butchered versions of their canon implementations, and it’s absolutely awful.

HOME is even worse at adding in black comedy, with its general tendency to seem pretentious (with the whole forcing-you-to-walk-through-purified-zones and having The Witness, or Edna, try to tearjerk you for things the Batter did, not you), and even worse, it takes itself too seriously. It’s annoyingly haughty, and it tries to leave an impact it can’t. What’s even worse in my eyes is the fact that it has to include an credit song that’s supposed to be sad, just because one was in OFF.

OFF made it so I can’t listen to Judy Garland without bursting into tears, but HOME didn’t have that impact. Another, more severe problem, is that in the true ending of the game, the world gets fixed again, and everything’s happy. That’s too sappy, it’s not the dark game I came for. OFF seems to be able to point out the fact that if we don’t stop a destructive force, then it will ruin everything to the point where we can’t repair it. HOME undermines this with the whole damn happy ending sludge that tosses away one of the most profound parts of OFF. 

Yes, it’s nice to have hope, it’s nice to have games that end with hopeful endings. I know that barely anyone can handle continual barrages of hopelessness, sadness, and misery, but it’s OFF! We’re talking about one of the more dark indie games you can find out there! We are not talking about some damned happy-go-lucky good funtime game. We’re talking about Unproductive FunTime’s greatest, most recognized work, not some damn stupid romp-in-the-fields-of-happiness-and-sunshine by an AAA developer!

Part Three: Plot

HOME has a simple plot: basically, it’s OFF but you’re the Judge. You’re not purifying anything, just wandering around casually and killing spectres, ghouls, and burnts. You fight the Guardians, then wander into the purified zones, before entering an semi-trippy area, before reaching towards the end. So... what’s wrong with HOME? Well, guess what! It tries too hard!

HOME added an Fourth Zone. Whilst this is no problem normally, (in fact, the fangame CONTINUUM does this rather well with 3 zones! And yes, I just gave a shout-out to CONTINUUM.) HOME makes Zone 4 (or Bordeaux) grimdark and edgy to the point it makes Alain’s semi-edgy appearance in the beginning look happy-go-lucky. It’s a GRIM SAD WORLD that has elsen committing suicide left-and-right, gun-elsen, and, worst of all, an wannabe guilt-tripper true guardian who is rather annoying, and lacks an personality. Or a reason to be, just like Bordeaux.

Then, afterwards, HOME basically takes a fat ol’ hit, and announces: “Dude, like, what if you had to wander about those purified zones? That’s, like, deep, man.” So that’s what it does. Yep, you have to stroll through those zones you didn’t purify, fighting transparent shades of guardians. Yay. Whilst grinding through actually good-looking plague doctors. Yay.

Finally, skipping to the end, HOME gives you the Judge either interrupting the Batter at the switch-point, or him about to slaughter Hugo. Of course, you get either to the bad end or the good end, respectively, so it depends whether you get the ‘hooray yay happy’ ending or the OFF-style ending. So, you don’t really get the choice of siding with the Judge or not.

Part 4: Supporting Cast, and Main Enemies

For any OFF fan, Zacharie is one of the most notable supporting characters, given his mercantilism and natural charisma. HOME adds a new merchant. Oh boy. They keep Zacharie, and the new merchant, Viola, isn’t purely awful.

Now then, on to my FAVORITE part. The notable bosses. Dedan is still an loudmouth that has a tendency to hit elsen, whilst Japhet is rather new. Japhet is now, instead of being an mainly tragic character, just an insane evil douche who wants to kill Valerie. Oh no. Enoch, my favorite OFF character, is luckily untainted by any filth, due to his small screentime.

The Queen still uses the monologue style that was interesting and new in OFF, but predictable in HOME. She still has original and new dialogue, but instead of fighting someone who destroyed her world, she’s just angsty about the fact that the Judge kinda softened in up for the Batter accidentally. At the very least, the Queen has interesting dialogue at the end, now. You even get a choice at the end of it, and that’s beautiful.

Sadly, I don’t think there’s really any opponents left, but there also isn’t really any supporting cast. So I’ve got to wonder: What else do I have to list for this short section? Nothing. So, on we go.

Part 5: HOME’s Basic Enemies, and Combat

HOME, for the most part, uses OFF’s combat system due to having the same engine. HOME, however, has different enemies and competences, obviously striking something new (just like how CONFINIUM has new competences, that are also good!) and original. The enemies are interesting to observe, and truly help to build a feel for the game. They have interesting-sounding and looking competences, and they have great designs, as mentioned.

HOME is not only superb at this, but even excels to a point it should be looked at for an idea of how to make competences for OFF fangames, and for looking at good designs for monsters that fit in with OFF’s aesthetic and feel. Given that I’ve spent quite a bit insulting HOME, I can still announce that it gets OFF’s enemy and competence feel right.

Part 6: Did Felix get OFF’s Feel Right?

Hell yeah. HOME does feel like an OFF fangame, and it does things that are unique and interesting, like any good OFF fangame. HOME conveys OFF’s feel with the ability Felix had to not only draw OFF’s style of art, but he sometimes even nails the quirky writing that OFF had. The music of HOME fits in remarkably with the game, and it sounds like Alias teamed up with someone else to produce music for the game.

HOME also has the good luck to have been made by someone so creative, as Felix was truly able to design new areas. The maps for Zone 4 fit in well with the areas Felix made, and so do the new book pictures. HOME just has an excellent feel, and I can see Mortis Ghost actually announcing it as the spiritual successor to OFF. There are, of course, other fangames that are also equally beautiful and appreciable, such as CONFINIUM, which I wholeheartedly recommend, and even plan on analyzing later; DOLL, which, despite its anime-style and strange characters, is appreciable; Continue Stop Rise is enjoyable, and is fun to play; and Play Ball is a humorous game intended as a joke game, but it isn’t finished, like CONFINIUM.

But, Felix had a good sense of feel and lore for OFF, and applied this to HOME. However, I do believe it’s time I head to the conclusion, no?

Part 7: The Conclusion.

HOME is an enjoyable fangame. The characters (especially Jozlyn) are not the best (except Alain), and the plot has an ending that tosses OFF’s main point out, but it’s playable, and Felix definitively knew how to write rather well. He was able to write excellent lore and establish an nearly perfect feel for his game. HOME has unique monster designs, and nice competences. You can enjoy the game, and you could potentially cry at some of the turns in the plot.

It’s a lovable fangame, and it seems to actually strike its way out well in the general nice lineup of fangames, especially given its general acclaim in the fandom. HOME could’ve done quite a lot better, and some of its characters and themes were poor, but it was never truly awful. I’ve seen worse games, you’ve probably seen worse games. It deserves its place among the lineup of good OFF fangames, and I must say that you should play it if you haven’t.

Either way, HOME is still good, and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to play an OFF fangame. CONFINIUM, in my eyes, is a good fangame for an OFF fan who loves the style of OFF’s storytelling a darker themes, but HOME is more suitable for a general audience.

All in all, my verdict on it is that HOME is good, and I’d recommend playing it. It’s beautiful with its general feel that truly rivals OFF, and it’s got select dialogue that’s excellent.

[tumblunni]

Random more ideas for my Pokemon Cosmos fangame that will probably never happen because I am awful at creating things, but its fun to imagine as a distant dream to cheer me up on sad days~! And cos I talked with @summon-daze and she gave me really great suggestions! (if I missed anything you said yesterday, message me and I’ll add it here! I want everyone to hear your Fab Thoughts!)

* Maractus: sinnoh form! Its just a poor pokemon that deserved better. Giving it some sort of visual and mechanical revamp would help it step out from under cacturne’s shadow. My idea was maybe a different type of cactus, or a related plant. Like perhaps an aloe vera form that has healing moves!

* Pokemon contests replaced with EVIL MINIGAMES Like, how the Pokeathelon stats were all coloured the same as contest stats and stuff. Do a thing like that but more streamlined! Just have this one set of out-of-battle stats and use them for multiple different minigames! And since the protagonist is an evil team grunt, you coud have stuff like stealth, lockpicking, hacking, etc! Use a koffing as a smokescreen to swipe some cash!

* A possible other idea, or possibly both? Maybe THE PLAYER could have contest stats instead! Like the social stats in persona games, but for fun they could be the same interface as pokemon contests. Daze gave me some really cool suggestions like how ‘cuteness’ could mean how good you are at hiding your true intentions when the police interrogate you. I was thinking coolness could equal charisma/good at talking/whatever, so cuteness could be ‘innocence’. And like, if you just have it on its own then it might mean you actually are more of a good guy villain. But if you max out both cuteness and toughness then you become a super scary evil boss who can intimidate their minions but also manipulate people with false goodness.

* Following pokemon, but more! The cute idea of seeing other trainers having following pokemon in cutscnes sometimes, and stuff. I always really love seeing pokemon just living life around the world map, it always adds so much more worldbuilding! I loved the ride pokemon and the machamp delivery service and the various farming ranch places in different games. But what if you could just see more random lil animations of mons hanging out as npcs? Have some wild murkrow fluttering around on alleyway rooftops when it becomes nighttime. Have your rival character appear training their pokemon randomly on routes sometimes, like an actual overworld animation of it, not just battling them. Bits of supplementary visual storytelling! And I figured maybe the evil admins could have their own unique rooms, like in ORAS. But cos you’re playing as one of the team, you get to actually see them hanging around the room and stuff. See them playing with their mons while off duty! Who would have a pet bed? Who would just let their giant skuntank sleep on the foot of their own bed? Who would buy a bazillion squeaky toys? Who would spend all their time grooming thier mons for a secret Contest career on weekends? So many potential ideas! Hell, maybe just have some random events like sometimes if you open a certain cupboard a pokemon will jump out before you actually get to look in it. Tiny ghost friend is sleepe on de paperwork~ Oh, and it could be cool if following pokemon still happened even when you have a double battle partner! You get to see their pokemon too, followinmg after yours! Oh, and maybe depending on what pokemon you have, there’s a small chance of some secret animations? i was thinking maybe Cheryl’s chansey would carry small pokemon on her head.

* OH AND YEAH. Bigger role for the stat trainers! I was so happy Daze helped me figure this out, cos this totally solves so many problems I had with the early game plot and tutorial gameplay and stuff. The ‘stat trainer’ group that were sidequests in original sinnoh and partners in the battle frontier- here they could be like the supporting social links! A problem I had was that of course you cant just immediately be best friends with all the evil admins as soon as you join the team. So I was thinking I’d have to make up a bunch of new characters to carry the plot early on, but repurposing the stat trainers for this purpose would be awesome! They could be your set of ordinary friends you have while off-duty, and doing their friend routes helps train your social stats that you need to use to unlock the admin friend routes. So theyd actually literally be stat trainers!

* I’m not sure which social stats I should give to each of them though? I’m wondering at the moment about whether cheryl or mira should be ‘cuteness’. I mean, they’re both cute but who has it as more of a defining character trait? Honestly you could say either of them could work as toughness too, since cheryl is braving a haunted forest alone and mira is kicking ass in a big scary optional doom dungeon even though she’s like six years old! I can imagine mira’s route could more easily train toughness in the PLAYER though. Like, you’re inspired by seeing her being so brave and mature for her age, and you wanna try and look like a tough responsible older sibling figure to her. And hmm, cheryl’s personality was the most vague of them all, she could probably also symbolise beauty/elegance/composure if you wanna interpret it that way. Or she could be smartness, cos I dunno maybe if we looked for a reason why she was in that haunted dungeon in the first place, maybe she could be like a detective? That would be really neat if she still kept her personality and all, a very shy and humble detective that’s like ‘oh i’m not so great’ *is being great right now* Or maybe she’s not really a detective by career, but she could be like a paranormal investigator fan, or maybe she has a secret backstory that led to some reason she needs to find something in that forest, or maybe she’s not local to sinnoh and thats why she got lost, or maybe she was kidnapped by a villain and escaped but was stuck in the forest, or... well, cheryl’s vagueness has a lot of potential! Oh and Riley could also work as either smartness or beauty or coolness or... man all these undeveloped charries are just REALLY POTENTIAL in all five fundemental awesomenesses! It could work any way!

* Maybe they could have more inter-relating plots with gym leaders and other big plot figures? like how Buck is Flint’s brother. And there’s a small mention of Marley knowing Oak from kanto. I was thinking maybe cheryl and gardenia might know each other? or maybe cheryl could be related to a different grass type gym leader from another region. She just REALLY looks like she should be a grass type, but she’s all about the chanseys instead, lol! maybe she’s the black sheep of an all grass types family, and journeyed to sinnoh to start her own journey instead. So she could be like a sweet shy spoiled posh girl who maybe doesnt know entirely what she’s doing, and got wrapped up in [some sort of excuse for the forest sidequest] cos she was a little naive. But then when you team up with her you find out she’s actuallly a total badass stone wall strategist, and her relative inexperience at social situations doesnt mean she’s not a battle expert! And then maybe you could keep in touch with her while she lives at a hotel in one of the cities, and her continuing sidequests could involve you giving her tours of sinnoh and helping her send postcards back to her family. And.. like.. trying to hide the fact that she keeps getting into super dangerous situations, lol. Dear mom and dad I am completely fine and didnt beat up a bunch of villains with my bare knuckles this morning, here is my friend who absolutely didnt rescue me from forest ghosts. Oh, and maybe she could become friends with Fantina, because they could both relate to being from different regions. And fantina is just a very nice jolly person who probably does a bunch of community outreach programs in her neighbourhood and picks up litter in the hammiest way possible. i just imagine she tries to act like a mentor to anyone who even crosses her line of sight! lol, maybe her and crasher wake could even be rivals because of it? i imagine her teasing wake for getting a new student while wake is all like ‘gahhh please take this barry away, i keep telling him no’

* oh, and barry would be the unofficial sixth stat trainer. He’d still have a role in the plot as a friendly rival even though this is a perspective flip AU. I was thinking he doesnt know you’re actually one of the bad guys, so you end up being friends, and then when he finds out he tries to oppose team galactic in much the same way but now with an added plot of him believing there’s some good in you and trying to convince you to switch sides.