History VideoGame / PokemonReborn

The game is notable for having a mature story compared to the main ''Pokémon'' series, with a terrorist attack happening right in the intro. It's also [[NintendoHard mind-bendingly difficult]], at least in relation to the canon games. For example, a level cap is enforced by the badge system in a much more strict manner, in that you aren't allowed to LevelGrind past every leader or [[AntiGrinding the overlevelled team members begin to disobey you]] and every Gym Leader uses a full team of six Pokémon. Moreover, there are numerous powerful bosses, with teams and strategies straight out of the CompetitiveMultiplayer environment. Besides the standard ''Pokémon'' mechanics, battles also make use of field effects, which add another element to battles by strengthening or weakening the power and effects of certain moves based upon the battle environment.

* AuthorAvatar[=/=]CreatorCameo: Ame, who serves as the administrator for the Reborn region. The actual Amethyst (a.k.a. the game's creator) has stated that she will have no major role in the game beyond that.
** Almost all of major characters are members of the site's own Pokémon League.

* NoOntologicalInertia: Zigzagged with the creations of PULSE-empowered Pokémon. While some of them disappear immediately [[spoiler:(such as the Avalugg-generated iceberg)]], the forests created by the three PULSE Tangrowth stay where they are and have to be removed normally, and [[spoiler: the poisoned water in the lake created by the PULSE Muk takes a very long time to remove, and it's stated in Episode 16 that the lake still hasn't recovered fully even with the PULSE Swalot removed from the Water Treatment Center.]]
* [[OneManArmy One Trainer Army:]] Most of the higher ranking gym leaders tend to be able to take down several weaker trainers in a row with very little resistance.

* SolveTheSoupCans: To advance in Victory Road, [[spoiler:you must solve four increasingly difficult gem logic puzzles. You are given statements about four types of gem and their properties and you have to move sliders to the correct values in order to open the door.]]

** Defeating [[spoiler: [[HopelessBossFight Solaris]]]] at Pyrous Mountain will slightly affect [[spoiler:Meteor's raid on Fiore Mansion]], including Julia teaming up with you instead of Florinia. [[spoiler:It also has a significant impact on the post-game, as defeating Solaris is required for [[https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonReborn/comments/us4msq/crucial_choices_information_if_you_care_at_all/ Anna's route and the "Lin Reshiram Determination" route]]]].

** The first Gym Leader, Julia. She is the true introduction to how the fights in Reborn work with a full team fought on her electric terrain field. She'll use STAB and field-empowered Charge Beams to stack up Sp.Atk and sweep with any one of her Pokemon, and two of her Pokemon can [[SuicideAttack Self-Destruct]] to punish stalling. This doesn't sound ''too'' bad until you realize that the very limited selection of Pokemon encounters at this stage of the game leaves you without any access to Ground Pokemon or attacks - an Electric-type's only weakness. [[InstructiveLevelDesign This Gym teaches you to not entirely rely on type-advantages]], which is very important given that field effects (and [[LevelGrinding level cap]]) often invalidate more straightforward strategies that you would use in an official Pokemon game.

** The ''entirety'' of the [[spoiler: [[MagikarpPower Magikarp]]]] sidequest. Buy it from a salesman right after getting your first Pokémon? [[spoiler: It gets stolen immediately afterwards. Chase the thug who stole it down and bribe him to give it back to you? Surprise! The whole ordeal was a ponzi scheme that the thug and the original salesman thought up to rip off innocent Trainers. Beat them up and make them give it to you? Turns out it got stolen from them for real. Chase down the Youngster who stole it and fight him? Well, that's good and all, but he already sold it to a gang. Join the rival gang and run the first gang out of the city? They already sold it to a guy in [[WretchedHive Seventh Street]]. Buy it from the black market Pokémon dealer? It gets stolen... ''[[OverlyLongGag again]]''. Catch up to the thief and beat him in a battle? Turns out you just caught a decoy, and the real thief has already escaped the city.]] The worst part is, as of Episode 16, the sidequest isn't finished, so you never do get your [[spoiler: Magikarp]].
** [[spoiler: As of Episode 17, this sidequest is '''''finally''''' put to rest, allowing you to catch the thief and claim the Magikarp for your own ''years'' later.]]

* AntiGrinding: Similar to the main series games, Pokémon that have their levels too high will not obey you if you do not have enough gym badges. Unlike the main series however, it does not matter if they are trade or not.

* LevelLimiter: Common Candies can be used to drop a Pokémon’s level down by one, rather useful in a game where Pokémon stop listening to you after a certain level depending on the amount of badges you have.

* TriumphantReprise: All of the music have the various Wards in Reborn City have lighthearted remix used [[spoiler: after the city is renovated to its former glory]].

The game is notable for having a mature story compared to the main ''Pokémon'' series, with a terrorist attack happening right in the intro. It's also [[NintendoHard mind-bendingly difficult]], at least in relation to the canon games. For example, a level cap is enforced by the badge system in a much more strict manner, in that you aren't allowed to LevelGrind past every leader or [[AntiGrinding the overlevelled team members begin to disobey you]] and every GYM leader uses a full team of six "Pokémon". Moreover, there are numerous powerful bosses, with teams and strategies straight out of the CompetitiveMultiplayer environment. Besides the standard ''Pokémon'' mechanics, battles also make use of field effects, which add another element to battles by strengthening or weakening the power and effects of certain moves based upon the battle environment.

* BrickJoke: When first analyzing data regarding Agate, Terra calls one of the data points that Ciel notices "timmy", saying that his hobbies include "cross-stitching, motorbiking, and planting lizards in the knicker drawers of old ladies." Later on, in the glitch Opal Ward, one of the NPCs, named Timmy, mentions his missing sewing needle and how he hopes he "didn't drop it in that old lady's dresser".

* ShoutOut:
** After [[spoiler:the Grand Stairway is destroyed]] in Northern Obsidia Ward, you can find a civilian who will [[WelcometoCorneria say]] [[Manga/AttackOnTitan "On this day, humanity received a grim reminder..."]]
** One of the fishermen on Apophyll Beach, when commenting on all the Grimer in the water, mutters "[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings One grime to rule them all, and in the murkness, bind them]]".
** In Lapis Ward, there is a lady named [[TheLostLenore Lenore]] who uses a Luvdisc and a [[Literature/TheRaven Murkrow.]]
** The highest rank you (or a combatant Pokémon) can reach on High Striker? [[Anime/DragonBallZ Over 9000]], of course.
** A woman recites a modified version of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'''s opening narration in Coral Ward before the Gym Leader, [[spoiler:Adrienn]], returns. [[spoiler: This is actually a subtle hint as to why and how they disappeared, as well.]]
** You can join the [[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Magma Gang or Aqua Gang]], lead by Maxwell and Archer respectively. It's lampshaded to hell and back by both leaders.
---> This rehash of the Magma and Aqua conflict ends here!!
** On 7th Street there is a cult dedicated to [[WebVideo/TwitchPlaysPokemon The Helix Fossil]]. Additionally there is a Trainer with a Charmeleon named [[WebVideo/TwitchPlaysPokemon ABBBBBBK]].
** In Ametrine City, a guy is having a problem with his computer. Once the problem is fixed, he says it's time to [[VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends get back to solo queue.]]
** During a sidequest in Episode 16, you get [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc a crystal ball worth 100 million yen and with a 30% prediction rate.]]
** In the Onyx Arcade, the staff watching over the roulette tables paraphrase one of the songs from ''VideoGame/Persona5'', ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvfS5qNmxdw&t=31s The Whims of Fate]]''.
---> Let's spin the wheel. See where it might fall? Give into temptation!
** Ametrine Mountain plays host to Lapras on Fridays, much as Union Cave did in ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver''.
** When entering the Glass Workstation, [[spoiler:Bennett]] mentions how it's a shame there's no Sleep Clause in reality, referencing one of the [[https://www.smogon.com/xy/articles/clauses rules]] established by competitive Pokémon community [[Website/{{Smogon}} Smogon]].
** Among the many Shout-Outs given by Terra, during [[spoiler:the Labradorra Tournament]], she mimics an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyophYBP_w4&t=5s iconic scene]] from ''Film/Troll2'':
---> '''Terra''': 1'LL DELETE 1T. AND [=TH3N=] 1'M GOING TO DELETE YOU! OH MAI GAWWWWWWWWDDDDD!!!!!!!!
** There's a kid in Spinel Town staring at a train who says "[[WebAnimation/{{asdfmovie}} I like trains.]]"
** During [[spoiler:the Labradorra Tournament]], Terra does her own version of the "man your man could smell like" commercial.
** There is a period of time between defeating the Pokemon League and the post-game during which the player character vanishes. [[{{Troll}} Julia]] decides to take the opportunity to spread a few rumors, a couple of which are references to other media.
---> '''Cal''': [Player]? You're back? But, how? I was told that you had... turned into the moon? [[Memes/AvatarTheLastAirbender And, like, that's rough, buddy.]]
---> '''Luna''': When I first returned ahead of you, Julia told me you had willingly been imprisoned on the moon. [[Franchise/{{Naruto}} Something about sealing Lin in there so humanity's negative energy could never reach her to give her power.]]

* AscendedFridgeHorror: In the canonical Pokédex, it is said that Chandelure can burn away a person's soul with its flames. [[spoiler: Team Meteor Commander [[GreaterScopeVillain Sirius]] has a Chandelure. Come [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Eclipse's]] [[HeelFaceTurn betrayal]], take a wild guess what happens.

* AscendedFridgeHorror: In the canonical Pokédex, it is said that Chandelure can burn away a person's soul with its flames. [[spoiler: Team Meteor Commander [[GreaterScopeVillain Sirius]] has a Chandelure. Come [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Eclipse's]] [[HeelFaceTurn betrayal]], take a wild guess [[KilledOffForReal what]] [[DeaderThanDead happens.]]]]

* AmbiguousGender: Ace of Team Meteor and [[spoiler:Adrienn the fairy gym leader,]] who are non-binary. Also, ZEL, [[spoiler:who is actually 2 women and a man stuck in the same body]]. You can choose to play as a non-binary protagonist, as well.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Three of the four screens in Shade's Gym show events that have yet to happen in the game (and two of which have taken place afterwards...), as well as [[spoiler: Corey's suicide]], which already took place.
** [[spoiler: Also, near the end of Episode 15, he shows up in the Water Treatment Center and gives you a cryptic poem.]]
--> '''[[spoiler:Shade:]]''' [[spoiler:Forget not: [[CallBack Four screens foretold four souls fortune forsaken]], for forsooth, from foreshadowed, only two will be taken.]]

* WakeUpCallBoss: * The first Gym Leader, Julia. She is the true introduction to how the fights in Reborn work with a full team fought on her electric terrain field. She'll use STAB and field-empowered Charge Beams to stack up Sp.Atk and sweep with any one of her Pokemon, and two of her Pokemon can [[SuicideAttack Self-Destruct]] to punish stalling. This doesn't sound ''too'' bad until you realize that the very limited selection of Pokemon encounters at this stage of the game leaves you without any access to Ground Pokemon or attacks - an Electric-type's only weakness. [[InstructiveLevelDesign This Gym teaches you to not entirely rely on type-advantages]], which is very important given that field effects (and [[LevelGrinding level cap]]) often invalidate more straightforward strategies that you would use in an official Pokemon game.

* SolveTheSoupCans: In victory road [[spoiler:to advance it is required to do four increasingly difficult gem logic puzzles where you're given statements about four types of gem and their properties and you have to move sliders to the correct values in order to open the door.]]

* ShoutOut: After [[spoiler:the Grand Stairway is destroyed]] in Northern Obsidia Ward, you can find a civilian who will [[WelcometoCorneria say]] [[Manga/AttackOnTitan "On this day, humanity received a grim reminder..."]]

* GuideDangIt: While far from the only example, the process to obtain the game's first available pseudo-legendary (at level 1 during a time when your Pokémon are likely pushing their 50s)[[labelnote: *]] It's Beldum, in case you're wondering [[/labelnote]] requires such a long series of counter intuitive actions that border on Metroid-esque SequenceBreaking levels of lateral thinking that the game itself literally calls bullshit on it once you're successful. [[labelnote: Specifically...]] To get to Beldum, first you need to get a Data Chip to Aya's Gym after a certain point in the game and put it on the healing machine. Doing so will corrupt the machine's system and cause it to malfunction, and it will begin pulling random Pokémon from all across the region. After ''that'', you need to heal in the machine and then run all the way over to Route 1 (An area ''nowhere near'' said healing machine) without using any other healing machine or Pokémon Center, defeat one of the many Bouffalants in the area so you can ride one of the Tauros, and while you're still riding it you must faint all of your Pokémon. After blacking out you will reappear in Aya's Gym while still riding the Tauros (And you'll freak out her mother, understandably since ''you crashed into her home while riding a freaking Tauros''). After ''that'', you have to exit the gym and navigate Byxbysion Wasteland while following a very specific path, since certain tiles will trigger a Venipede encounter that will scare the Tauros off, forcing you to start the entire process over, until you reach a set of ledges that you can only hop over with said Tauros. Once you complete the entire sequence, you can interact with a machine that will literally ''break down from this complete lack of logic'', and you'll get an encounter with a wild Beldum as a reward. [[/labelnote]]

** Getting Heracross and Pinsir's Mega Stones requires you to talk to Nyu with ''only'' Blue Moon Ice Cream available as a consumable treat. Nothing remotely indicates this to be the case.

* AllForNothing: By the half-way point of the [[spoiler: Magikarp]] side quest, [[spoiler:after you purchase it for two Blue shards, it gets stolen by Dashing Rouge [[MeaningfulName Corin-Rouge]], sends the player off from a wide goose chase just for them to get away from him and his ill-gotten gains, and after a few battles and some impostor shenanigans, you finally have one final showdown with him at the Tourlamine Desert, during the last battle with him in this sidequest (specifically when he's down to his ''last'' Pokémon), he reveals what the supposed Pokémon is, expecting it to be ultra-powerful... only to be confused and disappointed that he did all of this, just to get a Magikarp. He decides that, out of embarrassment, he decides to turn himself in after the battle after how much he pulled off just to get a pathetic Pokémon like Magikarp]]

** There's a kid in Spinel Town staring at a train who says "[[WebAnimation/{{asdfmovie}} I like trains."]]
---> During [[spoiler:the Labradorra Tournament]], Terra does her own version of the "man your man could smell like" commercial.

* GeoEffects: Moreso than usual in Pokémon as of Episode 13. Rollout and other rolling moves increase in power on icy fields, Cut will become a dual type Grass/Normal move in heavily wooded areas, and dozens more.

* WakeUpCallBoss: * The first Gym Leader, Julia, uses Electric-types. She is the true introduction to how the fights in Reborn work with a full team and the electric terrain field. She'll use STAB and field-empowered Charge Beams to stack up Sp.Atk and sweep with any one of her Pokemon, and two of her Pokemon can [[SuicideAttack Self-Destruct]] to punish stalling. This doesn't sound ''too'' bad until you realize that the very limited selection of Pokemon encounters at this stage of the game leaves you without any access to Ground Pokemon or attacks - an Electric-type's only weakness. [[InstructiveLevelDesign This Gym teaches you to not entirely rely on type-advantages]], which is very important given that field effects (and [[LevelGrinding level cap]]) often invalidate more straightforward strategies that you would use in an official Pokemon game.

* EarlyGameHell: The early parts of this game are where you have few good items, little money, a limited amount of Pokémon to choose from, mostly limited to ComMons, and no TMs.

The story begins in the once beautiful Reborn City which has fallen into decay. Pokémon are scarce, the lake has more poison than water, and the population rarely ventures outside of the city. The mysterious Team Meteor uses Pokemon amplified with their PULSE machines as weapons to cause great destruction. Enter our protagonist, a new Trainer hoping to take on the Reborn League, a challenge which will require fighting the very rot which seeks to destroy Reborn.

* WakeUpCallBoss: Shelly is the first Gym Leader that clearly covers her team's weaknesses, and has Rain Dance to prevent from you destroying her field so easily.

''Pokémon Reborn'' is an episodically released [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]] fan game set in the newly created Reborn region. Interestingly, ''Pokémon Reborn'' is not a ROM hack, but an UsefulNotes/RPGMaker game. Not only that, its plot and characters are based on the personas shared amoung the players of the [[RealLifeWritesThePlot now defunct Pokémon Reborn League online role-playing group.]]

The story takes place in a world struggling with the aftermath of an environmental disaster. In Reborn City, Pokémon are scarce, the lake has more poison than water, plant life consumes whole wards quickly and without warning, and the population rarely ventures outside of the city. What's more, the local villainous team already has the region in their clutches. Enter our protagonist, a new Trainer hoping to take on the Reborn League who finds themself caught up in much, much more.

The game is notable for having a mature story compared to the main ''Pokémon'' series, with a terrorist attack happening right in the intro. It's also [[NintendoHard mind-bendingly difficult]], at least in relation to the canon games. For example, a level cap is enforced by the badge system in a much more strict manner, in that you aren't allowed to LevelGrind past every leader or [[AntiGrinding the overlevelled team members begin to disobey you]]. Moreover, there are some absurdly powerful bosses almost coming [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere out of nowhere.]] They're far stronger than you'd ever expect at that point in the game, with teams and strategies straight out of the CompetitiveMultiplayer environment.