Jan
patreon
Past Regrets
🕑 Added 2025-10-03 15:57:05 +0000 UTCAfter finishing up Renegade last week, I needed a BREAK from main story. Like, seriously.
So I decided to go and do some low effort fun stuff to break up the tension.
It's almost like I don't know myself. I never end up doing "low effort" work. I'm annoying.
So, what did I do?
I opened up rpgmaker. Started scrolling through the past segments and decided I didn't like how they looked and started a huge polish/texture update.
---> Tangent, I'm going to be mean for a second here:
I can already hear a [paricular users] running to the VIP channel right now and typing
"omg but jan you said"
first of all, I say a lot of things. second, I'm allowed to do what i want, and third... I'm allowed to do what I want.
We understand? Ok good. That was bit hostile, but I'm low key tired of being policed over my work, or having my past words being used against me as a gotcha. It isn't funny! It's annoying and I will start muting/banning lol. I am serious about that. Don't even say it as a joke.
---> Tangent over.
Okay, that aside:
I did a texture update! As in, I decided using the default tiles from gen 3 has really hindered the enjoyment of the past segments (amongst other things). I learned that I'm not that good at replicating the Gen 3 feel and honestly, I don't want to be. I have a style and I should stick to it. Sooo, for example:
This map, Kugearen City, is really bland and boring. Why is that? I felt hindered by my own rule by not creating anything too custom as to not detract from the gen 3 feeling. I'm over it now though.
Besides a general palette change, it doesn't look like much, but let me put the two maps side by side:
So, what was the purpose behind this? Kugearen City is supposed to be a working town. It is the "heart" of Aevium. Let's roll back a bit. At this current point in time, Aevium is extremely new. Probably only like 10 ish years of actually existing. The region is actively being built. Kugearen City is the hub of that construction. It's a town where you go to be a part of the regions development. There's a school for the children of the workers, one restaurant where they all can eat for free, and you have Blakeory Co.-- The head of it all.
Storytelling through words is fine, but with the limitations i set on myself, I was not that great at expressing environmental storytelling.
In game:
But wait... eagle eye viewers may notice that every NPC here is new...? Haha... yeah. they are!
I created a pack of past exclusive npc designs. ergo, they only exist in the past. You will never find them walking around in the future. They also all have new dialogue, because the old dialogue also tried to sound like gen 3 npcs and that just made them all be like "Pokemon are so cute!"
They will all have unique and different things to say. With some lore sprinkles here and there.
In addition to that, I have personally created new custom backgrounds for battles:
...But I also replaced the entire soundtrack. Still using the gen 3 soundfont but they are de-makes of other songs. You heard a bit of this in the intro preview.
...............But I also updated the encounters of each area to be a bit more meaningful.
Here's a small lil collage of the areas with new stuff:
I wanted to do a side by side comparison, buuutttttt I ran into some save file problems. If you open up your copy of 13.5 and run over to these areas i promise you you'll notice the differences right away lol. especially the top middle, which is where you spy on the police and gard in Kugearen Woods.
But that's pretty much it... I did this all in a week btw. π π π
I go back on my paragon bullshit next week.
Oh, and I guess there is one last thing. Those eagle eye viewers again. I need yall. If you look at the comparison between both Kugearen versions, you'll notice that there is a new area! technically.
But what is inside?
We are just going to have to discuss that next week. :)
Thank you all for reading this longer post. Have a good weekend and see you next fri/sat (idk which yet).
Comments
theoddpolyglotsealion
Really cool to see the new changes! Excited to see Chapter 9 get a glow up given that so many of the chapters before and after it had been revamped in recent updates. I feel like your work shines through a lot more when you're just doing your own thing and being creative instead of trying to conform to an existing style. I really liked the Past Route 5 rework in 13.5 and felt like it had a lot more personality compared to the previous ones. Hope you're well rested and staying healthy!
Actinion
Beautiful work as always!! I love the new tilesets; I think they're the perfect compromise for these areas. The older style is kept but there's still a lot of personality in them.
