A basic but effective roguelite, that trades the depth and gameplay variety of Emerald Rogue for the QOL of Pokemon Essentials. It is sadly buggy and unfinished; I freaked the game out by tricking a Choice Scarf onto Ferrothorn and PP stalling it. It caused a debug flood every turn, which means the developer probably never coded such an interaction. While I don't blame them for not knowing every nuance of competitive Pokemon, these sorts of fangames are always implicitly relying on such mechanics. You give me a Choice Band and Switcheroo in a game where the difficulty is this high, it's the natural next step.
I also find the balancing a little too on the punishing side, even for normal mode. Healing is very scarce and healing items are prohibitively expensive. In a game like Pokemon, switching is core to manuevering to your win condition- it is thus inevitable to rack up a ton of residual damage. In the context of a ten-floor roguelite involving competitive Pokemon mechanics, this gets pretty difficult. The AI is still quite stupid, but the game splashes just enough random coverage moves, held items and abilities to make it very challenging. Stuff like running into a Mega Gardevoir with Hidden Power Fighting.
The developer seems to have abandoned Battle Woods, which to me is kind of a disappointment. Emerald Rogue is undoubtedly the gold standard for roguelikes based off the main series gameplay (Mystery Dungeon, of course, remains the best crossover between Pokemon and Rogue) but the problem is... it's based on Pokemon Emerald. The battle animations are painfully slow, and having to use a fast forward macro in between actions is very cumbersome. In this regard, I feel Pokemon Essentials titles are far superior to their progenitors. The option to disable animations, among other QOL, vastly improves the formula. Things like ability capsules, EV and IV displays, and much more robust menus really improve the experience. On the other hand, there is just enough changed and things implemented from later generations that I'm not exactly sure what to expect. There aren't many resources on the internet regarding things like movesets and such, so it is very much a coin flip when it comes to match start. A bad lead matchup can mean losing 3+ Pokemon, and in Battle Woods any Pokemon that are fainted are removed at the end of the battle.
The non-battle rooms are well-designed enough, though a bit boring. Move relearners, egg moves, TM shop, a lottery, etc. It works well enough, but it lacks the unique and varied maps offered by Emerald Rogue. You are ensured a new Pokemon, as well as a teamwide heal, at fixed intervals; so you never really feel like you are totally screwed over when it comes to traversal.
The game has a total of 4 stages with something like 11 rooms each. If you play quickly, a run will last an hour to two hours and that's a decent session. Don't feel like I want to sit here obsessively playing again and again, such as I did with Slay the Spire, but only because I am so used to Pokemon. Just battling is great and all, and I love the aspect of building your team composition on the fly thanks to the roguelite mechanics, but its still just Pokemon battling. I have spent hundreds if not thousands hours doing it; in main series games, romhacks, fangames and Pokemon Showdown. So while the roguelite offers a fresh spin on the formula, there's nothing fantastic here. It lacks any story, it uses boring characters from the anime and generation 1 games, and it doesn't particularly innovate on the battling itself.
Overall, the game is a solid effort that would have greatly benefited from further active development. The balancing issues and bugs hold it back from being truly great, and that will remain the case for as long as it is abandoned. It is fun enough to give it a couple runs and try to hunt some achievements, but I don't see it being anything worth heavy time investment.
I also find the balancing a little too on the punishing side, even for normal mode. Healing is very scarce and healing items are prohibitively expensive. In a game like Pokemon, switching is core to manuevering to your win condition- it is thus inevitable to rack up a ton of residual damage. In the context of a ten-floor roguelite involving competitive Pokemon mechanics, this gets pretty difficult. The AI is still quite stupid, but the game splashes just enough random coverage moves, held items and abilities to make it very challenging. Stuff like running into a Mega Gardevoir with Hidden Power Fighting.
The developer seems to have abandoned Battle Woods, which to me is kind of a disappointment. Emerald Rogue is undoubtedly the gold standard for roguelikes based off the main series gameplay (Mystery Dungeon, of course, remains the best crossover between Pokemon and Rogue) but the problem is... it's based on Pokemon Emerald. The battle animations are painfully slow, and having to use a fast forward macro in between actions is very cumbersome. In this regard, I feel Pokemon Essentials titles are far superior to their progenitors. The option to disable animations, among other QOL, vastly improves the formula. Things like ability capsules, EV and IV displays, and much more robust menus really improve the experience. On the other hand, there is just enough changed and things implemented from later generations that I'm not exactly sure what to expect. There aren't many resources on the internet regarding things like movesets and such, so it is very much a coin flip when it comes to match start. A bad lead matchup can mean losing 3+ Pokemon, and in Battle Woods any Pokemon that are fainted are removed at the end of the battle.
The non-battle rooms are well-designed enough, though a bit boring. Move relearners, egg moves, TM shop, a lottery, etc. It works well enough, but it lacks the unique and varied maps offered by Emerald Rogue. You are ensured a new Pokemon, as well as a teamwide heal, at fixed intervals; so you never really feel like you are totally screwed over when it comes to traversal.
The game has a total of 4 stages with something like 11 rooms each. If you play quickly, a run will last an hour to two hours and that's a decent session. Don't feel like I want to sit here obsessively playing again and again, such as I did with Slay the Spire, but only because I am so used to Pokemon. Just battling is great and all, and I love the aspect of building your team composition on the fly thanks to the roguelite mechanics, but its still just Pokemon battling. I have spent hundreds if not thousands hours doing it; in main series games, romhacks, fangames and Pokemon Showdown. So while the roguelite offers a fresh spin on the formula, there's nothing fantastic here. It lacks any story, it uses boring characters from the anime and generation 1 games, and it doesn't particularly innovate on the battling itself.
Overall, the game is a solid effort that would have greatly benefited from further active development. The balancing issues and bugs hold it back from being truly great, and that will remain the case for as long as it is abandoned. It is fun enough to give it a couple runs and try to hunt some achievements, but I don't see it being anything worth heavy time investment.