Touhoumon Gaiden [Milestone 1.331]

[SoulfulLex]

Note: This project has been abandoned, meaning no new updates are to be expected.

"What if Touhoumon existed in Generation 5 of Pokémon?"

Touhoumon Gaiden is an experiment, one that aims to answer the question above. It is a 1.8-based game made in Pokémon Essentials and the result of nearly a year's worth of hypothesizing and a little inspiration. Put another way, I'm the loser that decided to go ahead and make a Touhoumon fangame with my own spin of how I think it would fit into Pokémon's Gen 5 rather than keep talking about it.

At the time of writing this, the game is still a Work-In-Progress. "Milestone" is just a term I use in place of "Demo" or "Alpha / Beta / Gamma". However, I hope that it won't deter you from trying it out or from sharing your opinions.

~ Story ~

Spoiler

What story? If you're talking about the plot of the game, it's basically Pokémon Gold and Silver with Touhoumon and some maps inspired by Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Anyone that has played either should know the story, but in case you don't, you travel the region of Johto and raise a team of capable 'mons all the while beating Gyms and keeping Team Rocket out of the news, ultimately becoming strong enough to face the Elite Four and become the Champion. It's that simple.

Oh, and there are some changes to the general script for flavor, but if you've played Pokémon Gold or Silver, you know the story.

~ Gameplay ~

Spoiler

As I've mentioned above, Touhoumon Gaiden is a 1.8-based Touhoumon Game with the intent of bringing it to Generation 5's mechanics. The base of the game, Pokémon Essentials, already has Generation 5 mechanics programmed within. Touhoumon 1.8 at its core, however, and with the exception of the Physical / Special move split and some moves named after moves present in later Generations, is still Gen 3. I decided to take a few liberties in addition to the above:

• All Touhou Project characters up until Hopeless Masquerade, along with some unofficial characters, are in-game.
• More than 300 new moves, along with moves present in Generation 5, to make use of. Some puppets have had their movesets changed to make use of them.
• 49 new TMs.
• 1.8's Wind-Type has reverted to Electric.
• A new Wind-Type exists. For reference, it is super-effective against Fire, Flying, and Miasma-types, and is weak against Nature and Ice-types.
• New Puppets and shard evolutions.
• Shard evolutions now learn moves at any point rather than at the level their Chibi form naturally evolves at (i.e. cKeine naturally evolves at Level 32. If she was evolved into AKeine, she normally won't learn any level-up moves until after Level 32 unless the Move Relearner teaches her any. This game rectifies that issue).
• A toggle-able and completely optional Challenge Mode, making the game as hard as you want it to be (Not fully implemented).
• Gym Leader rematches prior to taking on the Elite Four.
• Features some added areas present in Heart Gold / Soul Silver, including Routes 47, 48, and the Safari Zone.

As for why you may not want to play this game:

• There is no Speed-Up button. Speed button is present as of Milestone 1.33
• To reflect the changes in movesets, ALMOST ALL PUPPETS have had their stat spread changed.
• Some Puppets have had their abilities switched with ones present in Generation 5 (i.e. Nazrin getting Super Luck instead of Sand Veil).
• Ten Desires cast is NOT based on Shoddy / Emerald 1.8.
• As of 1.331, the game uses the Black and White Experience Formula.
• This game is NOT finished. (Milestone 1.331 currently goes up to Ecruteak City)
• As of Milestone 1.331, only AKeine, Mimi-chan, and Ruukoto exist as Shard Evolutions. The remaining cast needs to have their movesets created.
• Challenge Mode at this time is only limited to the first time Gym Leaders are challenged.
• Games made in Pokémon Essentials can only be played on a computer.

~ Screenshots ~

Spoiler

Let's take a stroll.


Oh hey, a rival.


Do you feel lucky?


Oh hey, one of the new Puppets.


Oh hey, a Wild Battle.


Oh hey, powered up berries (good thing Incinerate and Unnerve exist now).


Oh hey, a rematch against Falkner (and failing at it).


Yes they are.


Nice postcard, bro.


The world is not so kind.

A Full Gallery of Screenshots can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/M8shS
As a sidenote, you can take your own in-game screenshots by pressing F8.

~ Known Bugs ~

Spoiler

Of course, no Work-In-Progress is without its bugs.

Major Bugs (Ones that will crash the game):

• Headbutt: When using Headbutt from the Menu as opposed to interacting with a Headbutt Tree on the map, it will crash the game. As far as I know, this is a Pokémon Essentials error, meaning that I have no real way of fixing it.

Minor Bugs (Not game-threatening, but unpleasant to look at):

• The Fairy-Catching Contest does not allow any contest puppets to be captured. Because of this, it has been disabled until further notice.

~ Downloads ~
1. Download the Game: Milestone 1.331 as of July 4th, 2014
Fixed a map error where it stops the player at Route 29.

2. Download the Audio Folder.
There is also a Minimalist Edition (Audio - Minimalist.7z) that is slightly smaller and only includes the tracks used in-game.
You will need a program like 7-zip to extract the folder.

If, for some reason, Mediafire is down, or if you cannot otherwise download from the main link, I've uploaded the files to:
Mega Mirror:

• The Game Itself
• The Audio Folder
• The Minimalist Audio Folder

ByteShot Mirror:

• The Game Itself
• The Audio Folder
• The Minimalist Audio Folder

Once again, pick one of the Audio Files to download, not both.

3. View the Gaiden Type Chart.

3A. An Alternative Type Chart was made by Elyk.

4. View the In-Game Locations Table.

5. View the Moves Table. Includes a TM List and Moves that were deleted / replaced. Note that this is valid as of Milestone 2, but should reflect most of the moves found in Milestone 1.331.

6. View Gaiden's Puppet Statistics. This spreadsheet displays the Puppet roster, their typings, stat spread, their main abilities (Hidden Abilities are not shown here), their Effort Value Yields, and their Held Items. If you'd rather not be spoiled, don't view this. Bonus points if anyone can determine where the stat spreads come from. This is also valid as of Milestone 2.

Before starting the game, make sure you extract the Audio Folder into the Game Folder (where the Readme is located). I cannot stress this enough.

[inspoiler]Fun Fact: The game itself can be played without the audio pack.[/inspoiler]
~ Obligatory Credits Section ~
Pokémon (c) Game Freak and Nintendo

Pokémon Essentials was made by Poccil and Flameguru, and is currently maintained by Maruno.
Controls Option and Show Species Intro Scripts for Essentials made by -FL-

Title Screen Song (Theme of Eastern Story) (c) ZUN

Touhoumon in general (Sprites included) made by Hemoglobin_A1C

Game Tracks were composed by the makers of Touhoumon 1.8, Pokémon Vega, Pokémon Golden Sun (Ealgrete), and Pokémon Liquid Crystal (Linkandzelda)

Many of the new moves were based on moves found in The Pokémon Factory. Some of the moves I elected to adopt are not fully functional and have thus been benched to be fixed in a later Milestone.

All other resources are credited to their respective owners.

Special thanks to DerxwnaKapsyla for the initial development of Touhoumon Essentials and subsequent inspiration, as well as the Shoddy Forum for ideas here and there.

And lastly, you the player, for taking the time to try a Touhoumon game with an updated perspective.

EDIT: Personal Webpage
I made a(nother) thing for people to access the game's info online for whatever reason. Don't expect it to have anything useful for a long time, as it will be a while before I learn how Altervista works. You can ditch the Wikia link if you've bookmarked it.

[SG-Sanae]

While having some early game problems is bothersome, but nothing that is a letdown, there's something severely wrong with the early encounters: If you decide to give out a Dream-Type starter, don't put other Dream-Types with comparable level and stats in the early routes, especially when most of the others counter that type. It makes me feel like Meiling is a terrible, redundant choice of starter.

[Yozora]

(Hello everyone, I'm new)
I've downloaded your game and, although I didn't play it a lot, it seems really promising.
However, there are several strange things :

- the starters. To put it in a nutshell : Remi > All. There is also a type problem : Remilia resists x4 dream and is x4 weak to steel, and Sakuya is neutral to dream by the virtue of her Reason typing. And, as SG-Sanae stated, you find COrange right at the beginning of the game, making the poor China somewhat redundant.

- The level curve. I like hard pokémon hacks (like TPP Emerald or Enhanced), but not absurdly broken ones. Just saying, but when the very first trainer of the game has 6 Puppets, two Potions and one Super Potions, it's just too much. (since I didn't go far in your hack, maybe I'm wrong, sorry then)

- The type chart. I like it because it's an original one, but Dream being weak to three of the most common, powerful types (Reason, Dark, Flying) seems unbalanced. Other changes are okay for me.

Finally, why don't you include DDC cast in your hack ? I want Contrary Seija and Skill Link Head Rush Sekibanki
I haven't seen any really new abilities yet, but Regenerator Yoshika and Unaware+Heart Swap Koishi anyone ?

[SoulfulLex]

- the starters. To put it in a nutshell : Remi > All. There is also a type problem : Remilia resists x4 dream and is x4 weak to steel, and Sakuya is neutral to dream by the virtue of her Reason typing. And, as SG-Sanae stated, you find COrange right at the beginning of the game, making the poor China somewhat redundant.

This was a design flaw on my part. Earlier, I told SG-Sanae that I never tried cMeiling as a starter, so I didn't know about it initially.
cMeiling's BST (Base Stat Total) is 380. cSakuya's BST is 400. cRemilia's BST: 420. In retrospect, fighting a 420 when you have a 380 is pretty stupid, especially when they resist BOTH attacks you should have after a certain point.

Most likely, I'll either move cOrange and cSara or just end up using different starters altogether.

- The level curve. I like hard pokémon hacks (like TPP Emerald or Enhanced), but not absurdly broken ones. Just saying, but when the very first trainer of the game has 6 Puppets, two Potions and one Super Potions, it's just too much. (since I didn't go far in your hack, maybe I'm wrong, sorry then)

Much of the difficulty lies in the new stat spreads. They were designed so that no Puppet in particular was outclassed after a certain point, moreso than the regular 1.8 stats.

The Breeder on Route 46 is an optional trainer to beat (he's much out of the way of the main path), but yes the Super Potion is a bit much. I'll take the item out and put an additional warning, but he stays, since there's an item you get that is pretty worthwhile after you beat him (in addition to the berries). And the first official, non-rival trainer is on Route 31 after getting the Running Shoes from Mom.

- The type chart. I like it because it's an original one, but Dream being weak to three of the most common, powerful types (Reason, Dark, Flying) seems unbalanced. Other changes are okay for me.

In my defense, I'd like to point out that it was the same for Grass in regular Pokémon (Flying, Bug, and Poison types are also pretty common). However, I agree that Dream is unbalanced in terms of weaknesses, yet a resistance to itself, Heart (also pretty common), Illusion (the Normal type in 1.8.), and Wind, in my opinion, compensates for it to some extent.

Finally, why don't you include DDC cast in your hack ? I want Contrary Seija and Skill Link Head Rush Sekibanki
I haven't seen any really new abilities yet, but Regenerator Yoshika and Unaware+Heart Swap Koishi anyone ?

Regarding the DDC cast, I don't have any acceptable sprites for them other than the icon Sprites. That and I haven't made stat spreads for all of them yet (Sekibanki, Kagerou, Yatsuhashi, Benben, Seija, Shinyomaru, and Raiko have stats. I just need Wagasagihime now.), and I don't intend to use Shoddy's stat spreads. All of the DDC cast has stat spreads and acceptable front sprites. Back sprites are still an issue, but one that can be put on the backburner for the time being.

As for new abilities, the light Fairies and Kogasa get Prankster, Seiga gets Infiltrator and Poison Heal, along with Kurumi, and etc. You'll need to progress a little further in-game to see. Koishi already has Unaware, and Yoshika has Regenerator as a Hidden Ability.

I'm still typing up Documentation. I'm also appending some changes to the game to make it easier to level up, a speed button, and the yin-yang icons (the latter two are Courtesy of DerxwnaKapsyla).

While I'm at it, I may eventually may a Gaiden version with Regular 1.8 stats...

[Yozora]

Thanks for your reply !

In my defense, I'd like to point out that it was the same for Grass in regular Pokémon (Flying, Bug, and Poison types are also pretty common). However, I agree that Dream is unbalanced in terms of weaknesses, yet a resistance to itself, Heart (also pretty common), Illusion (the Normal type in 1.8.), and Wind, in my opinion, compensates for it to some extent.

The original Pokémon type chart is completely unbalanced (lol bug, ice and grass) but I understand your point. Nevertheless, Illusion moves are barely used in TPP 1.8 apart from Pound and Draco Meteor (who uses that ?), and almost everything that learns Signal Beam has access to Mana Burst anyway (provided you didn't change its distribution). I know your game isn't made for strategic play, but it's kinda sad when you can broke the game with stupid things like 4 attacking moves Satori/AdReisen.


For Wakasagihime, I would suggest something like : 100HP, 60Atk, 80Def, 100SpAtk, 90SpDef, 60Spd, 490 BST. Pure Water or Water/Nature with Hydration/Swift Swim and Wonder Skin as an HA (cuz mermaids have wonderful scales something like that). I think you can find decent sprites on this site :
http://www.tohofes.com/news/dot_list.html
With this and shoddy's sprites, you will only lack Kagerou and Raiko (all the sprites I've found for them so far are downright horrible). There are even sprites for Futo/Tojiko/Sekibanki/Seija shard evolutions.

Speaking of which, what is Futo's typing in your hack ? Water/Faith like on Shoddy don't fit at all in my opinion, I think she is more like a Fire/Faith or Wind/Faith glass canon. Any combinaison of Water, Fire, Faith and Wind would be okay though, and it's your hack so your choice anyway.

For the starters, another problem is their start moves, because grinding Remi until she gets Leech Life is somewhat painful (Sakuya resists Scrach). And after evolution, Sakuya will be weak to Remi's STAB move, which is not good. Having new starters is cool, but the original 1.8 trio was way more balanced (unless you've changed their stats/abilities)

I've played until the first gym and I totally enjoyed the game !

PS : I hope someone will make a XY-based TPP hack, I can't wait for Gale Wing Aya and Topsy-Turvy Seija...

[SoulfulLex]

I think you can find decent sprites on this site :
http://www.tohofes.com/news/dot_list.html
With this and shoddy's sprites, you will only lack Kagerou and Raiko (all the sprites I've found for them so far are downright horrible). There are even sprites for Futo/Tojiko/Sekibanki/Seija shard evolutions.

Funny you should mention Tohofes. Much of the new Shard Evos I need to make movesets for use that site's sprites. It's also where I got Kosuzu's sprites.

Speaking of which, what is Futo's typing in your hack ? Water/Faith like on Shoddy don't fit at all in my opinion, I think she is more like a Fire/Faith or Wind/Faith glass canon. Any combinaison of Water, Fire, Faith and Wind would be okay though, and it's your hack so your choice anyway.

Futo's Chibi and Normal have Water / Wind typing, her Speed form is Fire / Wind, and her Helper Form is Wind / Faith.

For the starters, another problem is their start moves, because grinding Remi until she gets Leech Life is somewhat painful (Sakuya resists Scrach). And after evolution, Sakuya will be weak to Remi's STAB move, which is not good. Having new starters is cool, but the original 1.8 trio was way more balanced (unless you've changed their stats/abilities)

Beginning with Milestone 1.25, I am going to use the original 1.8 Starters. The only thing is that they don't learn Pound as their first move anymore. They're still Special Attackers, however, but at least all of them have 400 BST. I wanted to hold off on using them since they can be obtained as Game Corner Prizes in Goldenrod, anyway, but I understand if you want to hold off playing for now (no speed button).

That said, the game does have some strategy to it, but it's mainly later in the game that it picks up the pace. I'm glad you're enjoying it thus far in spite of the balance hiccups.

[SG-Sanae]

I would also like you to find other Gen 3 arrangements of the GSC soundtrack once you're able to (or just the HG/SS original soundtrack) - Liquid Crystal's versions of the songs are nothing short of terrible.

[Yozora]

I would also like you to find other Gen 3 arrangements of the GSC soundtrack once you're able to (or just the HG/SS original soundtrack) - Liquid Crystal's versions of the songs are nothing short of terrible.

There are GSC arrangements used for Pokémon Crystal Dust, which are quite good I think. For more info on Crystal Dust : http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=234566

Anyway, I don't really like battle animations used in Gaiden (I prefer traditionnal GBA animations), but I don't know if there is anything you can do...

[SoulfulLex]

I would also like you to find other Gen 3 arrangements of the GSC soundtrack once you're able to (or just the HG/SS original soundtrack) - Liquid Crystal's versions of the songs are nothing short of terrible.

I don't think the tracks are that bad, and not all of the tracks used are from Liquid Crystal. But, I get your point. Adding the HG/SS Soundtrack shouldn't be too hard. It's just that I don't like the arrangements of those songs (something about DS soundfonts). Call me a traditionalist, I suppose, but I'll try to include the HGSS arrangements in the next release. (I'll also need to figure out how to change it to default, like how HGSS does for GB Sounds.)

There are GSC arrangements used for Pokémon Crystal Dust, which are quite good I think. For more info on Crystal Dust : http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=234566

Anyway, I don't really like battle animations used in Gaiden (I prefer traditional GBA animations), but I don't know if there is anything you can do...

Gaiden is NOT a GBA hack. It's an RMXP Project, meaning that all of the animations have to be re-created manually in RMXP. I'm not sure if it's even possible to replicate all of the GBA animations. And even so, there are 878 moves, of which ~20% are already animated thanks to the makers of Pokémon Essentials. I'll see about animating all of the moves eventually, but right now that would be putting in more work than I am willing to do at this time. (If it's really bothering you, I think you can disable the Animations in Options.)

Don't get me wrong. I encourage feedback, but we still need to take things one step at a time.

[Elyk]

UPDATE: Get the Touhoumon Gaiden Type Chart here: http://i.imgur.com/5MsGSra.png

i was mad enough to make it readable http://i.imgur.com/Usam9wQ.png

[SoulfulLex]

Just a heads up, a new bug was discovered (courtesy of Juno). It's regarding Headbutt; if you use the move from the menu, it crashes the game. However, it works fine if you interact with a Headbutt Tree from the map.

As this is a Pokémon Essentials bug, I have no idea on how to fix it. The most I can do is disable Headbutt use from the menu so that it won't crash the game. My apologies.

[Yozora]

I don't know if the problem comes from my browser or whatever, but I can't read your google doc correctly (I can't see Hidden Abilities, Type, SpDef and Speed stats).

Just one small thing... Why doesn't Minoriko have Harvest as an ability ? It seems pretty obvious to me, since she is the goddess of harvests.

EDIT : Nevermind, I didn't realise Harvest was listed along Sap Sipper.

[SoulfulLex]

I don't know if the problem comes from my browser or whatever, but I can't read your google doc correctly (I can't see Hidden Abilities, Type, SpDef and Speed stats).

I'll try to make a web version, but like I said it would be best to view in Excel after downloading it from the site.

Just one small thing... Why doesn't Minoriko have Harvest as an ability ? It seems pretty obvious to me, since she is the goddess of harvests.

EDIT : Nevermind, I didn't realise Harvest was listed along Sap Sipper.

Harvest was originally one of Minoriko's non-Hidden Abilities in Pokemon Essentials. However, according to the wiki (and after some testing on my end), Harvest doesn't work (along with a handful of other abilities, like Analytic, Defiant, and Sheer Force). Therefore, I've included it as a Hidden Ability for the time being. If the next update of Essentials fixes that problem, I'll make Harvest a main ability again.

[ZXNova]

I still don't like the idea of dream being weak to flying, although Dream is supposed to be the fighting type of TPP, Dream is just... really vague and doesn't make a lot of sense. (I don't even know why Illusion is weak to Dream) I mean, you are introducing a new wind and hisou type, so maybe with more testing Dream will prove to be a good typing. I guess you'll find out with time. I think the best way to balance this out is to maybe have certain dream type have wind coverage. (I just realized Shoddy Kyouko would be 4x weak to flying)

I personally think Meiling, Patchy, and Sakuya should all have the same BST. That's just me though. There is no exact clarification of how strong they are up against each other (stage number does not completely translate into strength), but considering that Meiling and Sakuya consider each other of about equal level (Meiling calling Sakuya as Sakuya-san), I would say they're even, if not Sakuya a bit stronger than Meiling. Although Meiling refers to Patchouli as Patchouli-sama...

Either way, I hope you do well on this project. You had mentioned before that you were making your own TD characters, so how will they be?

Also holy crap does Nature have a lot of resistance. This is a complete turn around from Pokemon Grass type ww. Nature is the new Steel type, confirmed.

Also, why is Miasma now resistant to Dark? Seems unnecessary to me. A Nature/Miasma type (AKA Medicine) would resist Beast, Electric, Nature (4x), Water, Dark, Faith, and Heart. A whooping 8 things. Now SMedicine really will be Satan.

[ZXNova]

Sorry for the double post, but now that I'm playing the game, I notice one problem. Starting with Meiling is quite disadvantageous. You're running into cTokiko's that can use peck, from which you're weak against, cOrange's that resist your pounds, and that makes it pretty annoying to level her in the very first parts. I really believe cOrange should be moved to a later spot in the game.

I think the first puppets to show up should be changed or at least the moves should be changed. cNazrin, cOrange, and cTokiko all have sand attack, and cTokiko already having peck along with cOrange resisting cMeiling's makes it very daunting. Remove cTokiko's peck and give her tackle or something. cOrange being a dream type really shouldn't appear that early in the game, really. Especially when one of your starters is already a dream type. Also cKogasa who intimidates and is IMMUNE to your only attack.

In the short amount of time I played the game I've already fainted once and had to use a potion and I barely moved to the next time. Usually when I play Pokemon I try to level up 2-3 times in the beginning after home town, but it's very hard to do.

:EDIT: Already used up all my potions and fresh water, and the game is noticeably laggy once you leave hometown. Might be cause my PC is crappy.

EDIT2: Fainted a 2nd time. There is a big leveling inconsistency on the way to cherry... something town. Leveling ranging from 2-9. That's waaaay to big this early on. Your puppet is barely level 5-6. Not to mention you're using Meiling. If dreams weren't weak to flying maybe this wouldn't be too big of a problem, but the leveling inconsistency is real.

EDIT3: Now I'm at cherrygrove town the lag is gone. It disappeared after crossing the Poke'center.

EDIT4: Beyond cherrygrove it's a lot easier to grind. Just gotta make sure to run away from cMystia. Oh look, cMeiling finally learned Arm Thrust. Still can't use it to fight birds.

EDIT5: Did Rival Battle, managed to win with the help of Lord RNG. Used focus energy and pounded Remi like a pancake. She kept spamming leer, and even after -6, Meiling could take scratches no prob, and she has a Hardy nature! Though it did take a long time.

EDIT6: Stuff happened, Now I'm fighting trainers. 2nd trainer has a level 8 Tokiko with quick attack... Oh yeah, fun. More pain for early game Meiling choosers.