Fangasm: Pokemon Insurgence

Pokemon Insurgence
Monster Collecting RPG
1 Player
System: PC
Developer: the_suzerain
Year of Release: 2014
Played: Still playing!
Download Here

It isn't uncommon to find an unfinished Pokemon fan game. A lot of high concept ideas, grandiose plans and a general overconfidence generally lead to the downfall of many of these projects. I'm not sure if Pokemon Insurgence will follow this trend, but for the time being it seems that work is continuing at a steady pace. If you're at all familiar, this is made with Pokemon Essentials in RPG Maker XP, so certain features and appearances can seem a bit off at times. If you know what you're getting into though it isn't so bad. This game looks to add a multitude of features, many of which I welcome with open arms.

I guess the plot is a good thing to address first. While I enjoy the uniqueness of the plot and the general idea behind everything I think the execution is a tad poor. Basically there are multiple cults vying for control of the world and attempting to utilize various legendary Pokemon to achieve these goals. Meanwhile the "Augur" of the land has disappeared and some new guy forces himself in as a replacement. Certain legendaries are seeking out specific trainers to work together to save the world, presumably. You control a character who's almost tortured by a Darkrai cult, with your soul and mind being drained by a Gengar before getting killed off. Luckily Mew appears and saves you. A somewhat neat feature is that if you interact with Mew you can use his Transform ability, which allows you to hide as a cultist. Scenes play out and eventually you find yourself in the typical "collect 8 badges" nonsense alongside the larger goal of saving the world from the multiple cults. I honestly think the idea behind it is genuinely solid but the writing just falls flat, coming off a little heavy handed at times and it just fails to deliver for me personally. It's not the worst ever and it certainly hasn't stopped me from wanting to progress.

The "increased difficulty" somewhat impedes my interest though. I'll be the first to admit the official Pokemon games are far too easy and I'm all for an attempt to make the game more difficult but this fan game simply raises the level cap quickly. It doesn't sound like that bad of an idea, but it results in extra grinding, a lot of extra grinding if my experience is anything close to the norm. I spend much longer in each route, which on one hand isn't so bad as the routes are somewhat larger and have a decent variety of Pokemon. This quickly wore me down though as having to raise a few levels or more every single route really killed my progress. Maybe I'm just actually terrible at Pokemon, but I really don't think that to be the case. While this does bother, it too doesn't really hinder my enjoyment. It does make parts of the game feel like more of a slog, but that just encourages me to take breaks, or at least just play another game for a bit.

An interesting feature of the game that I've always wanted to see explored more in the main series is Delta Pokemon. In the trading card game Delta Pokemon were strange Pokemon hailing from the land of Holon where by either unique natural causes or artificial ones Pokemon had different types than usual. When I saw this card set I thought that was a really cool idea that, if explored further, could have made some really unique Pokemon available, as either in game secrets or rare event Pokemon that actually stood out. They aren't very common, but so far in my play time I've encountered a few Delta's. Your starter can be a Delta Pokemon or an Eevee, I went for the Ghost/Dragon Charmander. They have unique sprite artwork, which in my opinion isn't the best, but I appreciate the effort, hopefully they get smoothed out by the final release. The only thing I didn't really understand is that in-game there is a stigma against Delta Pokemon, when I feel like they'd be outstanding and sought out by both researchers as well as trainers in general.

I've only just obtained the first badge, and in the current version I'm playing it goes up to apparently three. So far the game has been fairly linear, routes are pretty big with lots of trainers, but ultimately its still just a straight line between towns. It is still early though so maybe things branch out more later, but so far I'm a little let down by the inability to explore. Everything looks pretty good and aside from a few graphical snafus map layouts are fine. The town with the first badge looks a little iffy though, but I'm not sure how they could have pulled off the effect better, so I can't really complain about it.

I haven't beaten this yet, and it's incomplete besides. I've mostly enjoyed my time with it, aside from some frustrating grinding, I recommend it. The plot could get interesting, and there is the possibility of the script getting tidied up before the final release. As a work in progress I'm fairly pleased with it, and if the team doesn't fall apart (after doing a bit of digging I realize this same team has already released two versions of another fan game, increasing my faith in them and this project) I can see an above average Pokemon game coming from this. Honestly, I hope this makes other people aware of Delta Pokemon enough to use them in their own fan games. I wonder if Shadow Pokemon will ever make a come back, or just Orre in general. Oh how my heart weeps for you Colosseum.