Warrior Cats: The Next Generation is a fan game created in RPG Maker by "G Wolf Studios", based on Warrior Cats franchise by Erin Hunter. It can be found here
(with a forum found here and an official Tumblr blog here). The game is the first in a planned trilogy, with the second game, Warriors: A New Dawn being currently still in development.
The game tells the story of Brass, a young kit who swims to the Clans from a far off town. Brass ends up joining RiverClan and befriending a fellow outsider, Wolfpaw. Together, the two train to become warriors. However, not all is peaceful around the lake. Blackear, deputy of ThunderClan, will do anything to become leader and make his Clan the strongest of all, while an enemy thought to have been defeated long ago is secretly planning its next move.
This game contains examples of:
- Boring, but Practical: The game gives you a variety of different attacks to use. However, it's pretty easy to fall into a strategy of just using Sweet Breath, Paw Blow, and Shout over and over, given that they don't have any MP cost and are effective against every enemy, including bosses.
- Crutch Character: At several points in the game, the player's party is joined by older, more experienced warriors, who make battles a breeze. As well, all of these characters choose their own actions rather than being controlled by the player. Specifically, they are:
- During a patrol, Sandflower, one of RiverClan's warriors, accompanies the player. Actually a subversion because at that point in the game, you can only fight enemies if you've previously done some Sequence Breaking.
- During Chapter 2, Goldenfur joins you for the battle against Blackear and his warriors on the island. She makes the battle easier due to her large amount of HP.
- At the end of Chapter 2, Azalea joins you and accompanies you home after the final battle with Blackear. Again, actually a subversion, because you have to go out of your way if you want to fight anything, and since the only other character in your party at the time leaves the party shortly after she does, she's also useless for level grinding. However, if you want to grind for prey, the game's currency, she's handy.
- At the end of Chapter 3, Hollystar and Sandstar, the leaders of RiverClan and ThunderClan, join your party to fight NightClan. Since they can use powerful magic that hits every enemy, they make the battle pretty easy.
- Decoy Protagonist: Subverted. In the first half of the game, Brass is the main character all the way through, with the other protagonists, Wolfheart and Mintleaf, joining and leaving his party repeatedly at varying points in the game. However, in the second half of the game, Brass leaves WindClan, resulting in Wolfheart and Mintleaf becoming permanent party members, and Brass not being on the team. It appears like the game will actually be Wolfheart's story from that point on. Then, Brass rejoins the party just before the final battle, and faces the Final Boss, Scourge, alone as a Duel Boss, making him the true protagonist after all.
- Disc-One Final Boss: There are several battles that seem to be the Final Boss battle before the true one happens.
- In Chapter 2, Brass faces off against Blackear, up until then the Big Bad, in a one on one battle in front of the Moonpool. This seems to be the end, but it's actually only halfway through the game. In the second half, Brass's friend Wolfheart faces off against Brass's seemingly kindly mother Azalea.
- In Chapter 3, ThunderClan, WindClan, and RiverClan team up to face the threat of NightClan, with Clan leaders Sandstar and Hollystar joining the player's party. As well, Brass is revealed to have become leader of NightClan, with the player then facing off against Brass, the Big Bad Azalea, and an army of NightClan warriors. Despite this, the story still continues on into another chapter.
- In Chapter 4, Azalea, the Big Bad, takes over RiverClan's territory. Brass returns to the player's party and with the main trio of Brass, Wolfheart, and Mintleaf assembled once more, the player faces off against Azalea one last time. Although this is also played as the end, immediately after Azalea is defeated, Brass is teleported into the Dark Forest and must face off against his evil father, Scourge, in the real final battle.
- Dual Boss:
- The first real boss battle in the game is against rogues Myna and Barley, who fight together against the player.
- In Chapter 3, although it's also a Flunky Boss, the battle against NightClan has the player facing off against both Azalea and BrassStar at the same time.
- Duel Boss: Although there's a core trio of Brass, Wolfheart, and Mintleaf, most of the climatic battle are one on one.
- The Giant Fox, the boss of Chapter 1, is fought with only Brass, because he must kill it in accordance with the prophecy.
- At the end of Chapter 2, Brass faces his Arch-Enemy, Blackear, one final time in front of the Moonpool, one on one.
- In Chapter 4, the Final Boss, Scourge, is fought in the Dark Forest with only Brass.
- Enemy Mine: In Chapter 3, to fight the threat of NightClan, ThunderClan, RiverClan, and WindClan for an alliance for a massive battle at the Little River.
- The Exile: At the end of Chapter 1, after Brass defeats the Giant Fox, Hollystar is angered that he would help ShadowClan and kicks him out of RiverClan. He then has to join WindClan.
- Fighting Your Friend: At the end of Chapter 3, Wolfheart and Mintleaf have to fight against Brass, their best friend, after he reveals himself as the leader of NightClan.
- Flunky Boss: A few bosses.
- Blackear fights you one time accompanied by two ThunderClan warriors and another accompanied by two ThunderClan warriors and two BloodClan warriors.
- During the first battle with Azalea, she ambushes you alongside two NightClan warriors. In the battle with Azalea and BrassStar, they fight you along with an army of NightClanners.
- Guest-Star Party Member: The core trio of the game is Brass, Wolfheart, and Mintleaf, but they're temporarily joined by other cats at some points in the game. In addition to the already listed Crutch Characters, Nightpaw, a RiverClan apprentice whose stats are about equal to Brass and Wolfheart at that point, joins the party for a single patrol before leaving it.
- Improbable Age: Brass and Wolfheart's feats throughout the game come off as this.
- In the first half. (Brass is four moons and Wolfheart is five moons.)
- Brass, with no warrior training, can fight Blackear, ThunderClan's deputy, and Sandstripe, a trained ThunderClan warrior, and win.
- Brass and Wolfheart, still with no training, fight off Blackear as he tries to invade RiverClan.
- Brass and Wolfheart are made apprentices. Their training begins with a fight against two RiverClan warriors, which they win.
- Brass fights and defeats a giant fox that all of ShadowClan was having trouble handling.
- Brass and Wolfheart are accepted into WindClan, and defeat four WindClan warriors.
- Brass, Wolfheart, and Mintleaf, with the help of one warrior defeat Blackear and his invasion force as he heads towards RiverClan.
- Brass fights Blackear in front of the Moonpool and defeats him.
- In the second half. (Brass is eight moons and Wolfheart is nine moons.)
- Wolfheart is made a warrior, which usually takes twelve moons of training.
- Birchstar sends Wolfheart and Mintleaf by themselves to go all the way to the mountains and confront the enemy group NightClan.
- Brass is made leader of NightClan, the Clan made from the combined BloodClan and ShadowClan. It can be partially explained by his mother, Azalea, pulling some strings, but it makes no sense why the Clan would support him.
- Brass fights and defeats Scourge, one of the deadliest enemies ever faced by the Clans, in a one on one battle.
- In the first half. (Brass is four moons and Wolfheart is five moons.)
- Make Way for the New Villains: At the end of Chapter 2 after Brass's final battle against Blackear, the Disc-One Final Boss, Azalea, the true Big Bad, shows up and kills Blackear with a single attack.
- One-Hit Kill:
- If the dogs in the Twoleg camping place catch you, they kill you in a single hit.
- All foxes have a move that one hit kills you.
- The Final Boss, Scourge, will kill you in a single hit if you use any status condition attacks on him. As well, his Signature Move, Shred, has a chance of one hit killing you.
- Point of No Return: Temporarily. In Chapter 3, you have to travel to the gorge. Once you enter Moose Forest, the first area on the way to the gorge, you can't return to the previous areas of the game until you've reached the gorge. The game warns you about this in Little River, the area right before Moose Forest.
- Recurring Boss:
- The game's villain, Blackear, is fought four times. The first time, optionally in ThunderClan camp. The second time, when he invades RiverClan in Chapter 1. The third time, on the Island, when he attempts another invasion of RiverClan in Chapter 2. The fourth and final time is a one on one battle between Brass and Blackear in front of the Moonpool.
- Azalea, the true Big Bad, is fought three times. First, during her ambush in the mountains. Second, at Little River after the Clans team up to fight NightClan. The third and final time is in RiverClan camp, after she takes it over.
- Sequence Breaking: Due to some shoddy event flags, many parts of the game can actually be skipped.
- At the very beginning of the game, you're meant to go to ThunderClan camp to meet Smoketail, who sends you to RiverClan. However, the path to RiverClan opens when you sleep in the log you start out next to, so you can skip the visit to ThunderClan and open the way to RiverClan right away by sleeping in the log at the beginning of the game.
- After joining RiverClan, you go into the Nursery and meet Wolfkit, who convinces you to sneak out to the Abandoned House on Clan territory, where you fight Myna and Barley. However, if you don't go to the Nursery, you can go and fight Myna and Barley without Wolfkit, which also lets you keep random encounters in RiverClan territory active. (Yay for level grinding!)
- You can skip most RiverClan missions by sleeping, because the event flag to trigger new missions isn't at the end of the missions, instead being entirely in the Nursery.
- When ShadowClan tasks you with defeating the giant fox, you're supposed to return to RiverClan to get the apprentice claws from the medicine cat, then return and fight the fox. You can instead fight the fox straight away, which works out fine because you don't need the apprentice claws if you skipped Wolfkit to keep random encounters enabled, and traveling back and forth between ShadowClan and RiverClan is a pain because of the One-Hit Kill dogs.
- After being ambushed by NightClan, you're supposed to talk with Birchstar, then go to ShadowClan and RiverClan, then return to Birchstar and talk to her again to start the Alliance mission. However, if you skip the visits to the other Clans and just talk with her twice, the Alliance mission is started right away. The only downside to this is that whenever you go to RiverClan camp, a message will pop up telling you to ignore a duplicate Hollystar, which is a bit of a pain.
- Time Skip: At the beginning of Chapter 3, there's four moon time jump ahead to when Wolfheart and Mintleaf are warriors.
- Villain Team-Up:
- In Chapter 2, during the battle against Blackear on the island, he has some BloodClan cats helping him. This also implies that he was Azalea's backup plan in case Brass was too weak.
- In Chapter 3, antagonist groups ShadowClan and BloodClan combine into NightClan. However, ShadowClan really weren't that villainous beforehand.
