#Derxwna Writes Things

[derxwnakapsyla]

Derxwna Analyzes: Pokemon Reborn

If you're familiar with my blog, you may remember that six years ago, I posted an analysis on the concept of "Edge" in Video Games, specifically Pokemon games, as inspired by the fangame Pokemon Reborn. In that analysis, I stated that Fangames should be allowed to broach darker topics, more serious ones, because they don't need to be marketable to children and families as a whole. To that notion, I still mostly agree, however, there are things I would like to adjust in wording. That is something I'll be attempting to do in this essay of sorts. This essay however is more focused on Pokemon Reborn as a whole, as I'd like to give my full, unfiltered thoughts about it. On occasion, I will be covering the general concept of "dark", "edge", "grit", and "cringe" in Fangames and Media. Do note, going beyond this point will provide significant spoilers for Reborn up to and including E19 content. If you have yet to finish the game, and would like to remain unspoiled, I would not suggest reading this essay.

Trigger Warnings for the following content: Death, Suicide, Gore, Child Abuse, Implied CSA

With that said, let's kick it off proper.

--- Pokemon Reborn: What is it? --- Pokemon Reborn, probably one of the more well known fangames in the Pokemon Fangame Scene for a variety of reasons, released it's final story update to its community on the 18th of April, 2022, 10 years after its first release back in 2012 on the same day. 19 episodes worth of content spanning over 100 hours, easily. With gyms spanning every type, field effects that range from simple (Glitch Field is literally just Gen 1+) to the utterly deranged (Ame I swear to god the Flower Garden field is miserable but I love the complexity of it fuck you and god bless your patience), custom shiny pallets for every single Pokemon, and a plot that you could literally cut deli meats on, Reborn has gained quite the following and acclaim for its features and its story. At the same time, it has also received some harsh, considerably valid, criticisms that I genuinely can't dispute. It is very much the definition of "You can't please everyone", and "You may not be the target audience".

For the unaware, Reborn's plot is about a starting-out trainer traveling to the Reborn Region to challenge its newly rebuilt League. As they're boarding the train, the conductor at the station informs them that the region is basically a "dump", which isn't too far off the mark. On the train, the player gets introduced to the "Professor" of the region, Ame (who is the developer self insert, but she plays extremely minimal impact on the story). As Ame and the Player are finalizing registration, the player gets a very quick introduction to what kind of game this will be, as the train they're on crashes into its station, with the only survivors being Ame and the MC themselves. Reborn City, upon inspection, is quite literally a decrepit city that is being racked by water pollution, earthquakes, gangs and thieves, and is all around a miserable place to be. Not too long into the game, the player encounters Team Meteor, the group responsible for most of Reborn City's current miserable state, utilizing technology called PULSE Machines to mutate Pokemon and cause them to wreak havoc on the city, such as a Tangrowth that is causing vines and other foliage to erupt through the pavement. Their goal is to destroy the "taint" that is Reborn City, and to create a new world in the process- a better world.

As the player progresses further, it becomes more and more apparent that the game relies heavily on darker tones of storytelling- if it wasn't obvious in the intro with the player and Ame being the only survivors of the train crash, there is constant references to people dying as a result of Team Meteor's actions, or of some other actions. This really makes itself apparent after the player deals with Rhodocrine Jungle, where it's revealed that one of the Team Meteor agents, Borealis, is one of the former Gym Leaders, Corey. With his identity exposed and being cornered, he retreats to his former gym, where he battles the player. After losing, he makes for the nearby Beryl Bridge, where after releasing all of his Pokemon, he falls off Beryl Bridge, committing suicide. This is one of the defining moments that most people think about when Reborn is brought up- people die, not just random npcs, but actual people with names and faces, and in very... specific ways. Suicide. Bisection. Decapitation. It gets bloody and gorey.

All in all, Reborn isn't one to shy away from darker topics. One may argue whether or not it did them correctly, or whether or not it was necessary, but regardless of that they were still there. It is argued considerably so, especially since, at the time, it was believed that most of the people in the game were based off of real, living people- dead or alive. This made it very... morally and ethically dubious about this game's "plot". However, a lot of these "events", and the legacy of this game, can all be traced back to its real origins.

Pokemon Reborn started out not as a fangame, but as a Pokemon Netplay Battle Server. A small scale one at that, where initially, Amethyst decided to run a "challenge circuit" for her friends irl, and in the process she created gym leaders for every type and built teams for them. At the time, she was effectively roleplaying as all of the Gym Leaders for that league, as she states in her developer room dialogue. Eventually some random strangers came into the server, and started believing the gym leaders were actual people. From there, it sort of became a "if you know, you know" sort of deal- kind of like wrestling. It's fake, and most people know it, but it's not about whether it was real, it was about having fun, and letting others have fun in the process. Ultimately though, this meant that none of the events- Corey's suicide, Kiki's death, the existence of Connal's orphanage that also doubled as an Electroconvulsive Therapy Center- none of it was real. The people never existed. The events, the people, they primarily stemmed from what would become Amethyst and her fellow admins creating lore within their server, sometimes unintentionally so, sometimes by necessity for their own sake. But that being said, events that happened within the roleplaying of the server got translated into the game, which means that most arguments about the "morality" and the "ethical" state of the game start to go up in smoke with that.

--- Pokemon Reborn: The Dark and the Gritty --- There are quite a few notable events that happen within the game that people like to point out when the game is brought up. The two big ones are Corey's suicide, and Kiki's death at the hands of Solaris', head of Team Meteor, Garchomp, as well as the death of her Medicham in the same scene by being thrown into a volcano. The existence of Sigmund Connal, the Electroconvulsive Therapist who also runs an orphanage and basically "treats" his wards with ECT is another thing people like to bring up as well. All of the blood, all of the gore, some of the implied sexual undertones here and there, it leaves a certain taste in people's mouths. You're either okay with it, or it really bothers you.

That being said, there is... some things that I personally find very hard to stomach. One of the bigger ones involves the scene involving the Dragon Gym Leader, Sapphira Belrose, and Sigmund Connal, her former guardian. In one of the patient logs in the orphanage, it's noted that Sapphira has constant delusions, especially of people in power/male authority figures, going so far as to make up events that didn't happen. During a scene in Calcenon City, just before the raid on Labradora, there is a scene with her and her sister, Laura, where she starts to recount an event that happened to her at the hands of Connal. Further in the game, when you're battling her at her gym, she mentions more about this event, but never goes into explicit detail about it. From the dialogue alone (and after asking Ame for clarification), the scene is intended to be interpreted as Sapphira as a CSA (child sexual assault) survivor who has been traumatized by Connal while he was in in a drunken state. This scene, in my opinion, feels... a bit much. This might be my own personal opinions on the subject, though at the same time, the event isn't being portrayed positively, and I can't imagine that anybody is suddenly rooting for Connal to become a good guy. It portrays him in an even worse light than he already is. With scenes like this, one has to ask the personal question: "Is this scene bad, or do I just have a personal problem with it" (Though sometimes, it could be both).

Ultimately, this is what a lot of the game comes down to- asking that very question. A lot of people will rightfully argue that it's the former. It's not my position to say whether they are right or not, just to acknowledge that their beliefs and perceptions are entirely unique and valid. However, I would find someone who thinks the scene glorifies the event, or any event like it, to be very odd, and potentially worrisome- I’m sure they exist, but I’d like to remain blissfully unaware. In my eyes, Reborn is a game that, while it showcases a lot of dark events, it doesn't normally go out of its way to glorify them, or make it seem right. Sure, sometimes in the heat of the moment, it showcases a normally bad action in a good light (Sapphira being introduced to the player by coming on screen after murdering like, a dozen Team Meteor Grunts, or Titania ripping through Team Meteor Grunts with her Aegislash), but these moments are usually fairly sparse- if I'm remembering right, at least.

As I mentioned in my previous essay, I believe that fangames should be allowed to touch on subjects that would never be covered in official Pokemon games. They don't need to,  but the option shouldn't be shunned. Whether or not a person believes that the subject material is portrayed correctly- portrayed appropriately, that's a very difficult thing to answer or judge. I can't speak for everyone, and I know my personal thoughts are my own, but I believe that at times there's lots of the elements within the story that feel like accurate, if unfortunate portrayal. Amaria's depression and co-dependency disorder is something that resonated a bit too strongly with me, even though I'd like to believe I'm not that bad... anymore. Granted on that note, I should clarify that I didn't do the other route where apparently Amaria goes nuclear because Titania does xyz. It doesn't mean I like them though. As I mentioned above, I really dislike the segment with Sapphira and Connal. But that's very much a personal thing, and I don't believe it's a story failing. A scene that makes you think about it critically is- well, it's not always a sign of good writing, but it's certainly a sign that it was enough to make you, the reader/player, think. If it was just thrown in for shock value, just for the sake of grit and edge, as opposed to story cohesion, it'd be really easy to just shrug it off, because there'd usually- not always, but usually- be no real thought behind it to begin with. Your own mileage may vary on this though, and that's just how it'll be.

--- Pokemon Reborn: Flower Gardens are not Peaceful here --- What, you didn't think I'd only be talking about "OW TEH EDJE", did you? That's only one facet of Reborn, and for people who don't care about story it's entirely irrelevant. The other well known thing about Reborn is how brutally difficult it is. At the very start of the game you're told several things. In a non-specific order, you're informed of the following: Gym Leaders use six Pokemon, and have pretty specialized teams, and that there's a soft level cap that, if you cross, your Pokemon will have a chance to disobey you, even if you caught them yourself. It also isn't long before you're introduced to the other massive quirk of the game: Field Effects, which make the terrains introduced in Generation Six look like the cotton gin. These hyper specialized fields have interactions with battles as a whole- on the Pokemon, on their moves, on their abilities, sometimes even the overworld. Every Gym Leader battles on a field effect that benefits them strongly, and combined with the two aforementioned other facts, it makes each gym battle a very daunting clash. You either need to figure out how to strategize around breaking the field, or potentially using it to your advantage, as its effects can benefit you as well and turn the battle in your favor. Something else you would expect, important trainers have competent AI, and are also EV and IV Trained, a very marked difference from official Pokemon games. Sure, it's not IMPOSSIBLE to beat the game without efficient stats, but it definitely makes the game more tolerable if you do so. But are all of these bad things?

Some think the Field Effects are aggressively stupid, and at times they really can be. Let me just post two examples of field effects. First example is the Desert Field, primarily featured in Tourmaline Desert. https://i.imgur.com/c3dcsHZ.png https://i.imgur.com/GJv7khi.png Pretty simple, wouldn't you agree? A good majority are like this. Some are a bit more elaborate, a bit more involved. And then we have the field that Ame herself said "please set this field on fire" in her dev blog post about it - The Flower Garden, featured exclusively in the Elite Four battle against Bennet and Laura. https://i.imgur.com/sFSySSZ.png https://i.imgur.com/bxhdUPd.png https://i.imgur.com/mMpC5pe.png https://i.imgur.com/JeVWSnM.png https://i.imgur.com/v5leLla.png How anybody is able to memorize all of these, I couldn't tell you. Sure most of the effects are just scaling versions of previous stages, but I have dumb bitch disease and forget things fast! As Ame said, just set fire to it (but not with Flamethrower, because that doesn't count as a move that can remove it!!!!) and scatter its ashes. One thing I will give this field, and all 36 other fields in the game, is that they're really fascinating on a conceptual level, with a lot of thought put into their interactions. It is a remarkable addition to the Fangame scene, and until Reborn it was never done to such an extent.

And then we have a feature that comes later in the game. Team Meteor's PULSE Project culminates in a product called PULSE-2, which amplifies the potential of Pokemon to the absolute pinnacle without mutating them. Mechanically, this means that after a certain point, all of their Pokemon have 252 EVs in every single stat, thoroughly breaking the 510 EV cap on Pokemon. This comes around the time the player and opposing trainers are around Level 90~100, where there isn't much left to do for numbers to change. As a result those fights become a fair bit harder, and things that would become a clean victory make a very drastic turn otherwise. This, however, is just a cherry on top of the cake that is already full of pain.

Another thing to bring up is the distribution of certain resources: namely, TMs and Pokemon. The funniest example is the way Magikarp is kept from the player for like, 3/4ths of the game through a long, drawn out sidequest that starts not long after you get your starter. A series of mishaps and shenanigans keeps the Magikarp you end up spending 1000 PokeBucks on at the start of the game isn't obtainable until you reach Tourmaline Desert, which is like, badge 14 of 18. Gyarados is good, but is it _that_ good? This is a common thing in the game, where certain Pokemon are locked behind sidequests or certain areas, or just really late into the game. Items are similar, but none more so egregious than TMs. It isn't until around the second half of the game that you really start getting access to the gnarly TMs. But until then, it's a bunch of lower power/utility TMs which you're expected to strategize with, which it is very possible to do. Some really good TMs are, understandably so, locked behind expansive sidequests or areas that require some hefty finagling to get through. Fortunately, there's nothing locked behind postgame (except for Legendary Pokemon and their relevant items), so that means you can build your ideal team, sans legendaries, by the time you reach the Elite 4.

Then there's also the fact that there's 18 uniquely designed gyms, with each needing to be beaten to clear the game still. Every single one of them is based on most of the leaders from the Online League. The gyms themselves are already difficult endeavors, but you suddenly go from 4 badges being the halfway point, to 9 badges being the halfway point- and you can see it reflected in the game. I believe when I got access to Agate Circus to begin the second arc of the game, I was already clocking in around 60 hours. The game is long.  Long and really hard (Terra don't interact). All of these factors coalesce into one grand epic, narratively and mechanically. It can be a very daunting experience, especially for someone who's used to only spending 20 hours on a Pokemon game- for both its maingame and its postgame. At my time of writing, I'm not even done with Postgame, and I'm clocking in at 130 hours. That's over six times longer than a normal Pokemon game! Fortunately, the game does make the process of grinding much easier, through the use of grind trainers in the Grand Hall (and Agate Circus) that give you EXP Candies, which allow you to blast prospective party members into the level cap extremely fast. This is also useful for a sidequest in which you have to fill out your Pokedex to get certain rewards (such as the Ice Beam TM........).

The concept of the level cap is also its own can of worms. The idea of a level cap in a Pokemon game isn't exactly an uncommon one, but a lot of people have felt it weird whenever it gets introduced. Regardless of opinion, it can definitely be felt a lot, especially in certain battles. As you can't grind levels to overpower certain enemies, you have to resort to strategizing with moves and Pokemon. However, sometimes this can lead to unfortunate circumstances. One of these unfortunate circumstances is the Gauntlet in the bunker near Calcenon City where you have to fight Cain and Shelly in a double battle, then you have to fight Luna, then Radomus and Serra in a double battle, all back to back. Sure, you get healed (to an extent), but good LORD if you don't have hard cap enabled, it is very easy to get over the level cap and have your Pokemon not obey you anymore. In cases like this, it can be quite annoying to keep on the level cap, and the further you get into the game then the more you'll run into this issue. It becomes necessary to have a hundred common candies on hand to keep their levels in check.

There's definitely more that I didn't cover in regards to mechanics and balancing, but these examples showcase that the game has a lot of avenues of difficulty that some people may or may not enjoy. The game takes great strives to keep each experience unique and diverse, with its field effects and challenging AI, trying to make players think outside of the box and use things they wouldn't normally use, or do things they wouldn't normally do. None of this even goes into the myriad of puzzles of all kinds of difficulty (For the love of god why does the Magic Number puzzle exist aaaaaaaAAAAAA, and don't get me started on the fact that Victory Road could be its entire own game lol).

--- Pokemon Reborn: Scattered Thoughts on Murky Waves --- The difficulty, the story. Those two things make up the crux of Reborn, and the crux of what I wanted to talk about. However, that isn't all, and there's miscellaneous things I'd like to bring up that don't really fit anywhere else. So, in this rapid fire segment of topics, lets start with my personal big favorite: the introduction of the password system, and all of the QoL that comes with it.

At the start of the game, you are given the option to input passwords that control like, so many facets of the game, ranging from difficulty, quality of life, to... uhh... [reads smudged writing on hands]... no fonts? Weird flex, but okay. I won't go into all of the types of passwords here, but just the concept of having passwords that allow you to disable the soft exp cap and make it a hard exp cap is really nice. The ability to make it so the grind trainers just freely give you the candy without needing to battle them further cuts down on grinding. The password to remove EVs and IVs from trainers pokemons makes it more in-line with vanilla Pokemon. The password to make it so every trainer is literally PULSE-2'd is, well. If you're insane enough to do that, god speed. A nuzlocke password, a type inverter password, a monotype password for every type, a password to give yourself more cash after every battle. The system is robust and, honestly, I love it. The passwords aren't some like super secret thing that’s hush hush and if you want to find them you have to crack the game open and find them yourselves. No, they're freely given out in-game from certain npcs, and you can activate them whenever you want at a PC (provided you have a data chip). This system is honestly what I'd want my own password system to be like.

This next thing kinda ties back into the story, but it's only really relevant because I played earlier versions of Reborn; Around e17~e19, Amethyst begun to rewrite the earlier portions of the game to make things more consistent and flow better, instead of just making things just feel like they happen for the sake of happening. You get introduced to Corey much, much earlier, as a person helping the police giving aid to people in the city, and it's made more clear much earlier on that he works for Team Meteor not completely out of choice. From a narrative perspective, they also made it so Corey and Kiki were retired, so when you fight them, it isn't under the pretense of getting a badge that you won't get due to plot events. Lin is also introduced like, really goddamn early on as well, as compared to like, what, around Tanzan Mountain? It's showcased immediately that she's a goddamn anomaly of some fucking sort, and she just starts skyrocketing through the ranks of Team Meteor, eventually becoming the leader of it. Overall, the changes made to stuff Pre-Route 1 make a lot of things flow and feel a lot smoother.

The in-game Field Notes app is pretty nice, and did come in clutch for me quite often... However the fact that you can't access it in battle makes it difficult to call reference to what field effects do if you forget, and since they're no longer documented on the website (at least, not that I could find, but I suppose I didn't search enough), felt kinda restraining. Several times I found myself needing to restart a battle just to rehash what a certain field effect did in regards to a Pokemon or Move that was in play at the time. I know I keep coming back to it, but battling Laura and Bennet for the first time was terrifying because I didn't have a move that could nuke the field, and we couldn't reference what all the field did on demand to see how much trouble I was in, lol. Still though, having an in-game resource like that is really handy.

All the shinies. Every single one. They're so good, and I love all of the work put into them. Even if the shiny rate means you run into one every -2 encounters and will scream because it's just a gauntlet of shiny after shiny. Shinypocalypse is real and it is your friend. Be afraid, but welcome it wholeheartedly.

ame thank you for not forcing us to read titania's diary, i know that was done in like e16 but thank u i cry every time i remember being forced to read it to progress that scene. it's okay, i didn't read it, amaria did, she just read it out loud. i'm absolved of guilt, right? right. it's fine. i am free of sin.

--- Pokemon Reborn: The End Result of an Individual's Ramblings --- So, where does this all lead to? Honestly, I still liked the game. It has a lot of things I don't like, and at times the story and writing can be considered "cringe", but like... that's not inherently a bad thing. And like... who cares? People engage with "cringe" content all the time- so long as it isn't hurting anyone, and I guess thanks to recent realizations, it's not walking over real peoples suffering, I just... don't see an issue with it. Sure, one could argue that the inclusion of these events that happened in the Online League's RP setting, then passing it off as events that "actually happened", all under the guise of like "If you know, you know. If you don't, enjoy the show!" is really bad, but... I don't know, perhaps I see it differently here. I see a lot of things differently- it's gotten me into hot water at times because I try to not accuse someone of outright malice.

The difficulty wasn't necessarily what interested me about the game at first- it was its visual aesthetic, I'm not ashamed to admit that. Once I started playing I just... I dunno, I felt engaged by the story in a way I felt normal Pokemon hadn't been able to for a long time. Then the difficulty started kicking in and I just started... going with the flow, y'know? I learned how to get better (perhaps not good, because I still struggle with memorizing even the vanilla type chart, lol), and watching my progress felt really rewarding.

Reborn isn't my most favorite Pokemon game, or even my most favorite fangame, but it's definitely up there for a lot of reasons. I wholeheartedly enjoy the game. I enjoyed the time I spent with the community. It's inspired me, it's driven me, it's sparked things in me that I thought didn't exist at times. I try not to get bothered whenever people (reasonably so) harp on the game, but it... it's really difficult, because unless I'm in the Discord server for the game itself, nobody around me even remotely likes the game. They take any opportunity to rail on the game any time it's brought up. And again, I get it. I get it! The game isn't the best. The story is dark and cringey. It's not for everyone. But... it's for me. I tend to hold my tongue any time it gets brought up because I don't want to give the wrong impression, or cause a scene because I let my own dumb emotions get the better of me, haha. Streaming Episode 19 from start to finish was a kind of stressful experience, because I knew a lot of things that were coming. Any death I knew that was coming. Any absurd boss fight that I knew was ahead. Stuff I knew would cause a stir, I dreaded it. And for the most part, yeah, I was right to dread it. But there were a few people who were watching that, despite them saying the game was cringe, genuinely enjoyed watching it, and found it fascinating, and some even found it interesting enough to pick it up and play it! I binged it as hard as I did because I had some of an audience that seemed to really enjoy it- one of these people was my roommate who just even offered straight up to handle doing some stuff in game for me while I was at work.

--- Closing Thoughts in the New World --- I'm not a fool to think that just because these things happened that the collective opinion of the game can be changed, nor do I strive to change the opinion of the game. The point of this essay was never to change people's mindsets. It was to just get my thoughts onto paper. I have a lot of thoughts about Reborn, thoughts I tend to keep to myself, because aside from like one friend who I talk within in private about the game on occasion, I don't have a place I feel comfortable talking about the game in. And I mean, I guess that's fair, given everything I've said about the game.

But still, despite all that, Reborn is special to me. So, thank you Amethyst for making this game. I know it may have started off as a delayed April Fools joke of sorts, and it may have grown far beyond what you ever imagined, beyond the small project for the community it was made for, but, if not for that, I don't think I would have had some of my favorite memories of playing a Pokemon fangame- of playing a Pokemon game as a whole. I wish you the best in your future projects, and I hope to see Starlight Divide shine even brighter than Reborn does.

And for the love of god, PLEASE rest more. As a fellow developer, I know how vital rest is, and how easy it is to slip into habits of overworking on passion projects.

--- A Grand Hall of Special Notes --- I would seriously like to thank Ame and the development team for having as much representation as they have in the game. Race, Gender, Sexuality, Physical and Mental Impairments, r/niceguys- These people exist, and they're normal people. They do the same things everyone else does, and should just blend into the game. In some ways, Reborn has helped me to realize a few things about my own identity, but that's not really relevant right now. I just really want to thank Ame for taking the time to do this. It means a lot to me on a personal level.

And finally, I would like to give a special thanks to Reborn for reintroducing me to an old, old friend of mine from school. We weren't super close, and as a result once I changed schools we fell out of contact. Our paths diverged greatly; he went on to become a person who enjoyed competitive Pokemon, I went on to enjoy Glitchology. Despite that, ten years later, this one fangame that he helped make managed to reconnect our paths, with both of us as better, wiser people. I don't know if he'll read this, but if he does, I just want to say this: We made it this far, let's keep doing the best we can for another 10 years. And don't worry, your secrets remain safe with me chief.

Until we next meet again, this is DerxwnaKapsyla, signing out. Hopefully to finish the postgame, and possibly update this post with more thoughts, lol.

[abyssialrelativity]

List of things that I plan to write about on this blog in the coming future:

Mechanics of the Abyss

Omniversal Classification Hierarchy

The Existential Archetypes

Chronicles of the Abyss Dwellers

Potentially rewriting Derxwna’s

Finishing Kalypsa’s

Drafting R.K.’s and Krail’s

[derxwnakapsyla]

“So who the fuck -is- Kal”

An excellent question, nobody in particular! She’s a fledgling OC of mine that has barely any details worked out in regards to her yet. 

That’s my problem with making OCs, I can get a framework, but I can never grasp anything else. Details, personality, motives and drive, passions, stuff like that is hard for me to visualize properly, and thus put down onto paper.

The only real details I have are that she’s the clone of a certain Abyss Scientist, created to learn more about the Abyss and the Omniverse for her creators, as their initial plans to study said scientist’s mind failed when he was freed from captivity. Not long after, she escaped from captivity as well, destroyed the lab that she was birthed into, and decided to wander the Omniverse as much as she could. Though she was created with the ability to change her appearance to blend in better with the surroundings she was part of, she eventually settled on one specific form that suited how she visualized herself, and seldom changes forms outside of that. Also, if it wasn’t extremely obvious from my last set of posts, Kalypsa is 100% thirsty Pansexual.

Again I really don’t have a lot for her, and she’s stuck in a perpetual planning stage, just like anything else in regards to writings. There’s a lot of stuff I feel could be revised better, but... eugh.

[derxwnakapsyla]

Had an overwhelming burst of inspiration and just wrote up the dialogue segments for the Abandoned Shrine in Demo 7 and the scene right at the end of Faith & Prayer Version’s main game. Spoilers below:

Yukari: You wanted into my realm? Well here you are. You will never be able to return home - indulge yourself in Gensokyo's baptism for the rest of your days.

Fun inspiration!

[derxwnakapsyla]

Concept Drabble: Renko and Maribel in the Faith & Prayer Universe

In Touhoumon Faith & Prayer Version, there are two interesting trainers to take note of across the game. One of them is a Chaneler/Medium in Lavender Tower, near the very top. The other is Gym Leader Sabrina. Both of them say some interesting lines. The Chaneler, in this case, says that the layer reminds them of an Old Time Sage, from over a hundred years ago, back before/during The Conflict. Sabrina mentions that the player has a deep seated and sleeping power, ancestral in concept. Given what Maribel is slowly becoming able to do, as of the Music CDs, this makes sense... for her only. What about Renko? Well, I've got my own musing for that. I'll readmore it though.

Pre-1885: A conflict between Monsters and Humans breaks out, Pokemon are caught in the middle fighting on and against both sides.

1885: The conflict comes to an end when two sages - on both sides of the warring parties - come to an agreement on how to cease the fighting. The Sage of Monsters would cooperate with the Sage of Humans to create a barrier which separated the two realms permanently. There were unsubstantiated rumors that this agreement was made in haste due to the evolution of technology in what is now known as the Outside World, but there has been no proof to back up said claims.

c. 1920: Conflicts are rising again for the first time in 40 years, and humans ed up going to war against themselves over an unconfirmed reason. There are rumors that this war was caused by lingering Monsters still in the outside world, but those remain unsubstantiated. In the crossfire of this war, many documentations from Pre-1900s is lost, including most documentations about the Separation of the Realms. This war is fought using newly crafted weapons, as well as Pokemon being used as tools of warfare once again. The war ended roughly 20 years later, and the end result caused the Tohjo Continent to bifurcate itself into two different regions - Kanto and Johto. This remained so until the late 1900s and early 2000s.

1980s-2000s: Kanto, willing to take the first step in fixing relations between itself and Johto, set up an Organized Pokemon Challenge System, which later became known as the Pokemon League Challenge, where trainers across the Tohjo continent could come challenge representatives of local towns for a chance to compete in the, then called, Indigo League. A few protests broke out in both regions over this concept, and in Kanto some turned to violent force - The Kanto Military, which consisted of the War Hero To Be, Lt. Surge, was called in to put down the threat. This conflict lasted 5 years. The Indigo League was formally founded in the 1990s, and invited trainers from across Tohjo to compete in it.

201x: With all said and done, relations are still shaky between Kanto and Johto. People were crossing borders into and out of the two regions again, and things were slowly, but surely, recovering. It was around this time that the Soon-To-Be Superstar Trainer, Red from Pallet Town, roise from humble beginings to become the Champion of the Indigo League. This era became known as an era of prosperity.

~202x: 9 years have passed since the Rise of Red, and the Tohjo continent is slowly reintrigrating itself into the world. As fate would have it, around this time the Pokemon World would face a new crisis, one that affected several parts of the world - The Puppet Invasion. Hysteria breaks out across Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn for the first half of the next two year span. Pokemon, however, take it the hardest. On a deep, instinctual level, Pokemon could feel the energy vibes given off by their new neighboors, and knew they were related to the Monsters that had caused the world to go into war close to a century and a half ago.Trying to avoid another conflict of untold magnitude, they went into hiding. This contributed to the wide spread panic that eventually subsided itno acceptance when humanity realized the Puppets were almost exactly like a new breed of Pokemon.

~202x: 2 years after the Puppet Invasion, the world is stil adpating to these new creatures that inhabit their realm. It is around this time that the stars of this particular story, Renko Usami and Maribel Hearn, wind up in the Pokemon World and go on their journey for the "Sealed Realm".

How the hell does any of this have to do with those lines mentioned above? Since we now know the backstory of the Faith & Prayer universe, I can now explain things in a bit more detail. This doesn't so much contain spoilers for any significant part of the game, so feel free to dive ahead.

After the events of Faith & Prayer Version, when R.K. is defeated in the Abyss by Renko or Maribel, they receive the Reality Alteration Device (RAD) from R.K. (Which, in game, enables the Debug Mode - it's the last event in the game). Curious to study it's workings, Renko and Maribel fiddle with it constantly. Eventually, Maribel's growing power over the manipulation of the Boundry of Here and There, and the science behind the RAD intermingle, and it inadvertently sends both Renko and Maribel back to Pre-1885 Tohjo Continent, roughly the late 1700s.

During this era, Maribel and Renko realized they were trapped close to 200 years in the past with no way back, and devoted what time they had to figuring out their powers better. Over time, Maribel became a Transcended Human with a significant control over her abilities of the manipulation of boundaries. Renko, on the other hand, managed to reverse engineer the RAD, and used its logic to do something similar herself - she gained the ability to hover, as well as to disassociate herself from reality in a transcendent state. 

Eventually, Renko married into a clan of priests and priestesses that answered to the local gods. This clan was known as the Hakurei Clan. Her offspring would have similar abiltiies to herself, along with those passed down by those of the Hakurei Clan Bloodline.

After Renko's departure from the world, Maribel distanced herself from humanity for a long period of time, with no record of her reappearing for another few decades. When she returned, it was under the guise of Yukari Yakumo. There were rumors and theories that Maribel- now Yukari, had traveled even further back in time, close to a thousand years ago (these rumors coming from Yukari herself), but there was no direct way to verify those claims. Upon her return, she took to watching over the Hakurei Clan, as it was the last trace of Renko that existed in the world.

When the conflict between Youkai and Humans broke out Pre-1885, Yukari had engaged in negotiations with several prominent humans of the era, along with the current head of the Hakurei Shrine at the time. An agreement was forged that Yukari and the Hakurei Sage would seal off the land of youkai, Gensokyo, from the human realm, with a member of the Hakurei Clan residing inside Gensokyo to help maintain it from the inside. Utilizing the Power of the Hakurei, the RAD (which was redeveloped into the Hakurei Yinyang Orb before Renko's passing, with Yukari's help), the Sages of Youkai and Humans created a border between the two realms that sealed them off forever - The Great Hakurei Barrier. And with the Power of the Hakurei now locked inside Gensokyo, eventually, the Hakurei Clan of the outside world slowly fell apart and intermingled into modern society. Most of the former Hakurei Clan members and descendants eventually became mediums and chanellers at the Lavender Tower.

To make this long story short, this game runs the theory that Maribel becomes Yukari, after several hundred years of developing her power, and that Renko is the direct ancestor to Reimu Hakurei, and is the one responsible for the Hakurei Clan's ability to inherently fly (despite being normal humans), as well as to disassociate themselves from reality when need be. Renko's direct descendants are also the ones who train at Lavender Tower.

Also nobody can stop me from saying Nue was the one who was responsible for the conflict that broke out between Kanto and Johto in the 1920s.

[derxwnakapsyla]

An observation I've made through experience

In my 10 years of writing, I can say from personal experience that when people use the word "Somehow" in an explination or a backstory, it's usually a replacement word for a deeper meaning. There's a set of reasons that tend to ring true almost every time that this is the case.

A person has not planned out the detail yet, and is using the word somehow as a replacement until they can explain it. 

The writer may see the detail is irrelevant to the overall story and just uses the word to not require an explination. This sometimes is the actual case, and having a writer describe it would add nothing to the overall exposition.

The writer uses the word in place of a foreign description to them, such as the science behind actual real world concepts, ranging from rocket science and theoretical physics all the way down to tying ones shoelaces and everything in between that can have a description of events that the writer themselves would not know how to explain.

Other times, a writer uses it to explain a detail that is explainable, but is very lengthy to do, and the writer does not see or feel the need to explain it, or wants to leave it up to the imagination of the reader.

A person does not want to discuss or explain this detail in elaboration. This one tends to be more common, in my opinion, and there's a variety of reasons why this one happens.

The detail is lengthy to explain, and while it would have been relevant, the writer does not feel up to including it into the exposition. "Somehow" is used as a filler word to prevent the increased length of an exposition, even if it leaves the excerpt a bit lacking.

The detail is deemed Not Safe for a Workplace Environment (Adult themes, extreme violence, etc), and to include it may be unnessecarily needed. Sometimes a person goes into detail about this after the fact for the sake of clarification.

The detail is one that the writer is not proud of, for a reason known only to them, and they are ashamed to some degree as a result of it. An incompletely composed detail, a not safe detail, there's quite a few reasons why a person could feel the feeling of shame when writing out information, and they just prevent going into detail by using the word "Somehow" as escapeism.

If I had to pick which one I thought was most common, it would probably be the one where the writer feels shame over the detail, followed up by the foreign definition example. It's mostly in part due to human beings being human beings, and as such worrying that their own work isn't good enough to please people. It's my belief that this occasionally turns into the phenomena we have called "Writers Block", where a person becomes unable to write - with the most common reason for that being a burnout of creative output as well as the feeling of inadiquacy (Not just to a singular individual, but a collective of writers as a whole, and even oneself).

In my own experience, to break the curse of the word "Somehow", a person should only do one thing - write it out anyway. A writer should be prepared to go into detail to the very end about anything which may be important or incontravertable to the exposition. You want to leave as little holes as you can sitting in your piece of writing, whatever medium it may be. Unless the detail literally bears no contextual meaning to where it is used (As explained in second example), or it is character using the word in dialogue, or is the example explained in the third example, a writer should attept to subvert the use of the word "Somehow" whenever possible. It more often than not makes the writing flourish, and the writer gains more experience in writing as a result - a person never stops gaining experience in what they do, writing is no different.

I think that's about all I can say just prior to turning this post into a "Why a writer should write everything", and as such would turn into "Why a writer should feel good about themselves and their writing", and that was not the intent of this post. As such, I will cut the post off here, as I do not feel like expanding the length of the post, nor do I feel that the detail is particularly relevant, as it does not add to the message I was trying to convey - that, of course, being my observations on the use of the word "Somehow".

[abyssialrelativity]

Record Log: R.K.'s Journal ~ Entry 259

Subject: Interferential Distortion of the Pocket Monster multiverse

As chronicled many times in previous entries, i have been traveling across the various regions in the Pocket Monsters multiverse. In doing this, I have amassed a large collection of Pokemon (All currently residing in the Abyss for safe-keeping under Derxwna's watchful eye). This included obtaining Pokemon from the Location of Distortion Region - Derxwna's theory was not wrong, that Region is where the Distortion and obstruction is coming from. I was able to obtain the Pokemon at a point in time before the Distortion became so thick.

While in an earlier point, I was able to confirm if this was the Location of Distortion through Derxwna's second theory: If a Pokemon was to faint in battle, it would, for some odd reason, cease to exist. This didn't happen in any of the other regions except this one, so this, fortunately enough, means both his hunches were correct. Derxwna and I decided that, should a Pokemon cease existing, he would send me another one from the stockpiles. I had initially wanted to select what I would take with me, but he decided to make a game of it and randomly give me a Pokemon at random, unbiased - I'll have to take extra care not to exhaust the Abyss's stockpiles. He did also tell me that he wouldn't send me any Pokemon that were too unruly for me to handle at points, and ensured no Pokemon considered "Legendary" would enter my hands unless he felt I was "worthy" of handling them. I don't know where he gets off deciding these inane ideas of his, but I've given up trying to contest them.

At this point in time, i am currently in the Location of Distortion's region. It's been impossible for me to directly pinpoint the cause, but I know that it is somewhere in this region, the region of Kalos. As per my duties as an Overseer of the Omniverse and a Guardian of Omiversal Stability, this anomaly cannot remained unchecked. As with previous entries, I will use this journal to document my findings and my theories.

- R.K.

[derxwnakapsyla]

Thanks to that little tidbit of Trivia that didyouknowtouhou posted, about how Reimu doesn't have as much knowledge as a Shrine Maiden should have, I can push forward my ideas about Reimu, the Hakurei Border, and it's effect on the Hakurei and Yakumo in the War of the Rice universe. Details under the cut.

After the Canonical Campaign, it's slated that there were 3 Years between the End of the War and the Evacuation of Gensokyo. The first of the major disasters didn't come until about 7 to 11 months after the war. In the first few months preceding the War, Gensokyo seemed to feel normal to the general populace (Except to Ayame Hakurei, who was in tune with the Border as she should have been; Yukari should have been in tune with the border, but the effects of the War were scrambling her perception.). However, this was very far from the case. Gensokyo was slowly cracking apart, small oddities began to happen: Elongated and Misplaced Seasons, Magic occasionally being stronger than the intended user casting it, sometimes even weaker. During the time before the first major disaster and after the end of the War, Ayame and Yukari were really the only ones who could feel the Border "Crying Out in Pain" as they put it. Reimu however, due to not being In Tune with the Border because of lack of training, could not feel anything out of the ordinary.

When the First Major Disaster happened, Gensokyo was well aware of it. Rather, a few days before it was when it happened. In the near dead of night, all of Gensokyo was woken up by what sounded like the howl of a tormented beast. The truth was not too much further from that - Yukari had let out a howl that resonated across Gensokyo unintentionally. It was loud enough to wake the dead and return them to the world of living. She managed to make her way to the Hakurei Shrine thanks to the assistance of Ran, where she was then taken in by Reimu to keep an eye on her while Ran went to go seek Eirin's assistance. At the time, though, Yukari wasn't the only one suffering. Ayame Hakurei, stationed at her home in Kamijou Village, was dealing with a migraine that was borderline deadly, exactly the same as Yukari's current situation. Their situation lasted for a few days beyond a week, and while Eirin only knew about Yukari's situation, she couldn't place a cause to it - until Yukari managed to fill her in, in one of her waking lulls - The Collapse of the Hakurei Barrier, The End of Gensokyo.

Yukari described what was happening to Gensokyo and happening to herself (and by extension, Ayame) as tied to the same cause, The Hakurei Border had become so weak that it couldn't sustain itself, and was slowly collapsing in on itself. Magic was going out of sync with the realm, creating turbulence which was ripping it apart. Yukari said that those who were In Tune with the Border could feel it, hear it screaming - the howl made that night was a result of Yukari being jolted by the sounds of what she described as "Claws on a Chalkboard" amplified by a good 10 decibels. Reimu stated that she had a minor headache, but nothing as bad as what Yukari was going through. That was also easily explainable - Reimu was not as In Tune with the Border as a Hakurei Miko should have been, which in the end for her was a saving grace (and an "inconvenience", as she became Yukari's personal assistant while she was indisposed.)

This series of events would continue over the next year and a half. Yukari would recover, be fine for a few weeks, a month at best and a few days at worst, but then be indisposed again due to pain. She eventually forced herself to deal with it and enact the plan to evacuate Gensokyo - not before she managed to drag herself and Reimu to deal with the reason behind Gensokyo's destruction, the War of the Rice, and the person who started it: Kanako Yasaka.

[derxwnakapsyla]

I can't really work on War of the Rice in my current... position (That would be siting on the floor in an uncomfortable position, looking up at the computer - some level of comfort is required for work or else nothing gets done). However, I have been feeling like writing some Side Stories (If that's what they're called) of accounts Before, During, and After the War of the Rice. 

Most of these Side Stories that I had planned (Almost all of them) take place around the Battle of Kamijou Village, in the Hakurei Liberation Army campaign. One takes place years before the War begins, about 3 years before the events of Highly Responsive to Prayers, even. Another takes place after the Conquest of Kamijou Village, in the Lunar Defense Corps campaign. The last one I can remember takes place after the events of War, directly detailing the events which transpired in the 3 years between the end of the War of the Rice and the Evacuation to the Outside World.

I may decide to jot them down at some point - fleshing out background information to paint a more clearer picture would help the player to learn more about this particular incarnation of Gensokyo.

[abyssialrelativity]

Dialogue Log - Preface to the Wonderlocke

"The Distortion over that particular universe hasn't dissipated yet."

"So I've noticed. I wonder what could be causing it?"

"We may have a chance to find out. I think I've isolated the cause of the distortion to a specific Timeline."

"You've... isolated it? I didn't think that was possible."

"Not so much isolation as, I've narrowed down the options, and I believe I've hit the center of it. But..."

"And here it comes. What do you need me to do? Step in and take a look?"

"Not just yet. I want you to go to the other regions, collect as much as you can. If this Timeline really is the one that is causing the distortion, if things drop, then they will likely die."

"...Dying? From combat? In that particular universe? You're not serious, right?"

"A theory, nothing more nothing less. It wouldn't hurt to be on the safe side, though."

"I suppose it couldn't hurt. Just collect whatever I can however I can?"

"Exactly. I'll keep them here in the Abyss while you go out and resolve whatever is causing the distortion."

"Do you have an idea of where the Distortion's Point of Origin is?"

"Looking at other branching timelines, I'd have to place the Point of Origin at a region called Kalos. That will be where you head for."

"Kalos, alright then. I'll head out to the other regions and start collecting now."

[abyssialrelativity]

Aftermath of the War of the Rice - Musings of a Remorseful God

Warning: The following contains spoilers for.... Okay maybe it doesn't contain spoilers for the War of the Rice. But it does contain future ideas for after the War of the Rice.

Also, this may be a bit out of character for the character this is being written for. But it is supposed to be the character feeling remorseful, which I don't think they are in series canon.

Gensokyo is crumbling to pieces. Left and right, visible representations of the cracks in the Hakurei Border are everpresent. The realm once called paradise to many is now wrecked by constant storms, streaks of lightning scorching the ground in its path of destruction. For the past 3 years the situation has gotten increasingly worse; at first it started small, seasons going longer than they should, once even a case of double winter in a year - people theorized they were simple incidents, but whenever the Hakurei maiden went out to put a stop to them there was nobody to stop, there was no incident to resolve. After a while, more signs of the destruction were made present. Across random intervals, the outside world and Gensokyo would seem to... merge, to some degree. As if the border between the here and there was being distorted. It was at this point that people realized exactly what was happening - Gensokyo was destabilizing. The worsening signs of destruction didn't come until a few months ago, when seemingly random natural disasters became not so random. The worst one was the fire that hit the Forest of Magic. It had no apparent cause, nobody started the fire. The only conclusion reached was that Gensokyo was going out of sync with itself. Magic was leaking into itself, causing a volatile chain reaction that resulted in spontaneous combustion. Violent thunderstorms, intense fires, earthquakes which shook the land, none of it was done by any one person.

... That's what I wanted to believe, at least. That Gensokyo was destabilizing of its own accord, and that it wasn't anybody's doing. But everyone knows that that's not true. The cause for the start of the destruction of Gensokyo was none other than what we have come to refer to now as "The War of the Rice". A war fought by many people, all for various reasons. For greed, for the advancement of society, for protecting everyone, for their own good, everyone in that war had their own ideals, clashing. During that time, nobody thought that the effects of the war would cause Gensokyo to shatter... maybe Reimu did, that's probably why she was fighting. She most likely fought to protect her home, the home of countless others that lived not just in villages or forests, but the entirety of Gensokyo. I was so foolish not to see it before, not to believe it before.

To say the War of the Rice is everyone's fault is a grievous and grossly inaccurate claim. The blame of it falls on one person, and one person alone. That person, so caught up in trying to advance life for everyone all in the hopes of surviving just a bit longer. That person was warned so many times beforehand, informed that trying to modernize Gensokyo would be a bad idea. They never listened. Their pride, their greed, their ego all got in the way of it. They tuned out the complaints that everyone had. So long as they were getting faith, they believed what they were doing was right. They could not have been more wrong. /I/ could not have been more wrong. It was by my hand that the seeds of Gensokyo's destruction were planted. Even after the Hermit warned me, after the Shrine Maiden brought my entire plans to a crashing halt, I still believed everything I did was right... right up until the signs of the end were upon us all. When it became obvious that what was going on was my fault, Yukari and Reimu both showed up on my doorstep. The conversation that was had that night was... anything but friendly. But they had a point, and I knew they were right by then.

About a month and a half ago, a plan was put forth to try and get Gensokyo repaired, and keep its inhabitants safe. Yukari may look to be a slouch, but when a serious situation arises, she's among the first to take charge. Especially considering the situation in question was the preservation of Gensokyo and its inhabitants. Yukari and Reimu, as well as a few other people of high notability within Gensokyo, myself included, attended a meeting about what was to be done about Gensokyo. The conclusion they reached was a two-fold plan. The first step was to evacuate as many of Gensokyo's inhabitants as they could to the outside world starting the following month. Everything before that point would be preparing - mostly supplies, spreading the news to every corner of Gensokyo that it could reach. The second step would be divided among Yukari and Reimu. Yukari was to stay behind in Gensokyo, trying to patch up holes and find a new anchor point from which to stitch the barrier back together, while Reimu was to do the same from the Outside at points that Yukari designated. According to them, the areas where the two realms merged would be the best places to start patching and looking for, as they put it, "Critical Transcendental Points".

It's just a few days before the plans to evacuate Gensokyo are underway. Suwako and Myself are to ensure that all of Youkai Mountain gets out safely. Yukari hasn't made any trips outside the barrier since the plans were made, to conserve her energy and export a large sum through the realms. However because of this, she can't tell us whats waiting on the outside. We have no idea what to expect, residents are bringing along remnant War tech that wasn't destroyed after the Second Invasion of the Lunar Capital, blueprints to ensure that they survive if they need to protect themselves. All this unease, all this paranoia and concern that everybody has, the blame all falls squarely on my shoulders. I could never ask for, nor could I ever expect, forgiveness on any scale. For my followers, they look to me for support and guidance. So all I can do at this point is try and lead them down a better path in this trying time. Whatever lies outside these walls of our home, I shall try my hardest to do what I can to ensure the safety of my followers and the entirety of Gensokyo's inhabitants as a whole.

- Yasaka Kanako