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 What’s all this, then? Pokemon Pumpkin is a Pokemon RPG Maker XP fangame by Ekat, originally released in October of 2018 before being remade and rereleased a year later in 2019 as Pokemon Pumpkin Redux. (We’ll be playing Redux as it’s just a straight improvement in every way, but just calling it Pumpkin.) As you might be able to tell from the name and release window, it’s a Halloween themed game, and definitely has some of its own flavor. Here’s how the listing for the game explains itself: quote:The game takes place over a single day, October 31st. Being the sugar-starved child that you are, you convince your overprotective sister to let you set out on a trick-or-treating adventure across the region. Her only condition? (Beyond staying on the path, not seeking out serial killers, and looking both ways before crossing the street.) Be home before midnight. Collect candy, make some unlikely friends, and solve a few mysteries along the way! So why are you doing this? Well, I’ve actually played it myself already. This isn’t any relatively blind run. The estimated time it provides is fairly accurate; it’s a self-contained story of one Halloween night in an original small bit of the Pokemon world. There’s adventure, but it’s an easily consumable one that you can get through in a couple of days. And while it’s by no means perfect, it’s actually rather good! An enjoyable romp that blends humor, atmosphere, and occasional real spookiness. It’s not exactly well known, though, even in the Pokemon fangame community. There’s barely anything about it on YouTube, and googling it is going to turn up a couple relevant results before transforming entirely into how-to guides to carve Pikachu jack-o-lanterns. So I figure someone ought to show it off. Okay, but why now? You’re starting this in spring and it’s a Halloween game. We’re right on the opposite end of the year from Halloween and someone needs to keep the holiday spirit burning. Besides, look at the world. Time is meaningless. Audience Participation? There’ll be some! For naming purposes and team members, largely. It’s still a Pokemon game at heart, y’all know the drill. Speaking of which, this will very much assume familiarity with the Pokemon franchise. Spoilers? I’ll be honest, I expect barely anyone here to know much about this game in the first place. But in case you do and we’ve bumped into each other, if you can’t resist the urge to not chatter about details, stick talk about anything we haven’t seen yet behind tags, please. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Updates: Update 1: This Is Your Story Update 2: Ghoul About Town Jadecore fucked around with this message at 14:46 on May 4, 2021 |
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Apr 30, 2021 15:18
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| # ? May 17, 2024 22:41 |
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Update 1: This Is Your Story Music: Title Theme The title theme music track only plays on this screen before hitting confirm. As far as I know, it’s of the few original compositions for the game. Let’s dive on in. Pull out the apple cider and get cozy. Music: Sanctuary Music Box  Controls are bog standard. C to select, X to back out, arrow keys to move, etcetera. Adventure info is a thoroughly abridged version of the initial explanation. quote:It’s Halloween in your small town, and this is the first year you can go trick-or-treating on your own. Collect candy, make new friends, and solve a couple mysteries along the way.  Pokemon Center. Yes / No I’m not a masochist, just a Pokemon fan. Which is the same thing if you look at it from certain angles, but, well, y’know. Anyway, the EXP All stays on, thanks.   I appreciate the warning here. I don’t personally find the thing they refer to particularly bad, but it’s good to provide that option to not view it.  and their names were-  This little ghost is our protagonist! No canon name options, only referred to by neutral or they/them pronouns.  I’ll be going with the name Jade for the purposes of this update because that’s generally my default, but you all can decide on what the true name of our hero shall be.    And here’s our rival slash childhood friend, accompanied by a canon name! How fancy! I think the name Callisto is rather fitting for her, but it’ll be up to y’all.      Such creativity…     Dang it, Mayor Hawthorne! We were about to hear all about how absolutely spookily tonight’s gonna go! You interrupted right before anything actually happened!  Music: Breezy   Yeah, duh, Mayor. It’s Halloween!     See? Freddi and your daughter totally agree. Don’t wreck the vibe!   Freddi turns to face us.    The crew scatters. We’ll be running into them again later.  Aww.    Can we take offense on our own behalf? It’s a classic for a reason.    Ugh, fiiiiiiine, sis. Nap it is. ...After we do some poking around! We’re a curious kid who just got out of cutscenes, after all.   around your ears, you know! It’d be nice if our big sister and our best friend’s dad could get along better. But that’s the nature of local politics, I suppose.   Very holiday-appropriate books.  There’s an exit to this room on ground level, but who needs that when you can walk above everyone and peer down!   I mean, sure, it leads into the same main room of the library, but it hits different up here.   Plusle Girl knows what I’m talking about. We should probably see what the groundlings have to say too, I guess.    No idea, she’s got a whole argument going on with the mayor. Good luck, Miss Clerk!  It’s not fair! I’ve got to agree that three books per person does seem like a really low amount. Then again, Ivy Village isn’t exactly huge. Maybe it’s something to do with that.  This door to the right of the belabored Lass leads to the back room where we started. Freddi and the mayor will be arguing back there for a while. Let’s not bother them, and instead pay attention to the winding upper paths. Seems like we can go past that support beam.   Heading further down first, though, we run into where some adults seem to be hanging out. Tough books and touchy ears. The ace trainer to the right is offering to trade a Riolu for a Meinfoo, which is a pretty alright trade… though we don’t have any Pokemon at all right now, let alone the martial artist mink.   We float above this mortal coil!  pictures.  Good luck bypassing the hard words! Just gonna grab this, then head up that ladder to the next floor up.   The grammatical mechanics aren’t perfect, but they’re generally okay, and you get what’s meant. The library does seem to be really nice…  What floor of the library does this technically qualify as? Are the upper paths separate floors? Half floors? Just fixtures? It’s… probably easier to just call this the second floor regardless of split-level housing design. Anyway, the second floor of the library has some books, but is a lot more spread out for study space and offers computer access.     Follow your dreams, you two. Buuuuut you’re gonna have to figure out some sort of compromise for this project. Especially if you want to go trick or treating!   This really is the floor of the condemned, huh. Poor people.    There’s another set of upper paths to strut about on. We’ve got a potion on one side, and another ladder on the other.  ...Hello? Kinda dimly lit up here. I’d say it’s a loft, but… no storage, no books, but yes to a potted plant. Mysterious.   Score.  The Lucky Egg is the last thing to find in the library. We should probably see about that power nap.  It’s a very pretty town in the fall. The music for everywhere in Ivy Village is the same, including inside buildings like the library. There is a distinction, though: when you’re outside, occasionally you can hear Pokemon calls. It’s a nice little touch.  On the one hand, Halloween party, yeah! On the other hand, it’s Callisto’s dad hosting it, which means it’s probably more of a standard adult party. Maybe we’ll show up, but trick-or-treating is a lot more important.  This house on the left is the one we share with Freddi! It’s the one closest to the library, which makes sense, seeing how she’s the one in charge. Maybe we should go sleep now. It’s not like the town is going anywhere. Legit, nothing in town changes just by merit of you going to bed. No missing content there.     Freddi’s very much a grass type specialist. I mean, you saw the hair, right?  …let’s go upstairs.   No time for Switching things up. We should really go to bed, just for a little bit.  A clock tolls. An hour passes. Jade, time to wake up.    Oh no, the BET!   Gotta bounce, Freddi!  ...yeah, probably.     Just tonight, huh.    Harsh but kinda fair. Especially seeing as fire types definitely aren’t in her wheelhouse.     We’ll try. (And probably fail.)   there……     Don’t shake down houses without jack-o-lanterns, be home in bed at midnight. Got it.   ...you too, Freddi.  And with that, she leaves, and we’re free to go, now with our very own Pokemon! ...for the night. And we don’t get to choose a starter either. We’ve got little Litwick here. Very appropriate for Halloween.  Don’t even get to nickname them first, and the OT’s our sister. Very much emphasizing this is a loan. Still… maybe we’ll be able to have something special before the night’s over? With that, we’re done for now. What needs to be done, as it stands:
I leave some of the details to you! What is our name, is our rival’s name actually Callisto or something else, and if we happen to run into one of those Name Rater guys, what should we make Litwick’s name?
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Apr 30, 2021 15:18
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This looks good. It's about time we found some Pokemon fangames made by people who remember that they're supposed to be fun and not miserable dank edgefests that take themselves way too seriously. Let's go, little ghost protagonist, candy and spoopiness awaits us! I have no opinion on our name or our rival's name, Jade and Callisto are fine with me. But we should definitely name our lamp buddy Calcifer if we get the chance (yes, I did see she's a girl, and no, I don't care  ).
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Apr 30, 2021 15:51
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Oh man, I've never heard of this one but it seems nice so far. I'm definitely interested. The atmosphere of the game (mystery, maybe supernatural, but optimistic) made me think of Gravity Falls for some reason, so I vote our characters are Dipper and Mabel. Litwick has to be Waddles obviously.
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Apr 30, 2021 17:53
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Oh, this looks cute, and already seems to be well above the average as far as Pokemon fangames go. I've never heard of this one. Might have to give this a go at some point, but for now I'm happy to see it in LP form.Black Robe posted:I have no opinion on our name or our rival's name, Jade and Callisto are fine with me. But we should definitely name our lamp buddy Calcifer if we get the chance (yes, I did see she's a girl, and no, I don't care This sounds good to me.
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Apr 30, 2021 18:20
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I do like Jade and Callisto, but I'd name the Litwick Elinsa. And if anyone gets that reference, I'll be pretty surprised.
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Apr 30, 2021 18:35
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Blaze Dragon posted:Oh man, I've never heard of this one but it seems nice so far. I'm definitely interested. 
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May 2, 2021 03:09
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Blaze Dragon posted:Oh man, I've never heard of this one but it seems nice so far. I'm definitely interested. Put my vote down for this, too. And watch out for the Summerween Trickster!
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May 3, 2021 11:18
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name them all bogart
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May 4, 2021 05:15
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tossing in a vote for Jade and Callisto, popular media references are the boring way out
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May 4, 2021 05:44
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Update 2: Ghoul About Town Music: This Is Your Story Welcome back to the land of the pumpkins. This is the standard new game/continue screen.  You… may notice something odd here about the amount of time spent. And also a certain… coloration. Well, in restarting our adventure in order to get some higher quality screenshots, I sped things up using the built-in turbo mode (very convenient!) in order to pick things up and get home. And in the process…  Well, meet Waddles, our very best shiny Litwick friend. Due to being short and casual, the shiny rate has been notably upped in Pokemon Pumpkin so that you may very reasonably run into a few throughout the night and feel happy for the chance encounters. This is something of a surprise.   Relaxed (+Def, -Spd) isn’t exactly a top tier nature for Litwick, but it’s not really an active hindrance in anything you’d expect Litwick to be good at either, so fine by me. Infiltrator is a handy nature to have around in case anyone starts getting cute. As for the moves, we’ve got some relatively high power moves for early on, nicely compensating for the fact that Waddles doesn’t exactly have too high of a BST and might take a while to evolve. But we love and support her and she is our friend.  No alternate ending here for going back to bed and sleeping through Halloween instead. It’s just a heal now.  Time to head out on our grand trick-or-treat adventure! Although, first… we couldn’t interact with that Pokeball on the table before. Maybe now that it’s full on adventure time…   We. Are going to be. The fastest ghost who ever lived. Or died. Or whatever ghost types like Waddles count as? Point is, we’re one speedy entity transcending traditional barriers of conception.  ...When we won’t be scuffing up the floor, anyway.  Music:    WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE   EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE   EEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee  eeeeeeeeeeeee………. Okay, maybe that’s too much. And while I get safety and all, the helmet kinda messes with our spooky ambience. We can get by with running Before catching up with Callisto, maybe let’s walk around town and say hi to everyone!  Could say the same to you, buster.  The path to the left is the gate out of town. We’ll get there in a bit.    Wow, that’s a lot of catching power! But we haven’t gone trick or treating enough to get any chocolate yet… Welcome to a very notable shtick of Pokemon Pumpkin: the candy economy. There’ll be real money, sure, but all around the world, various characters for their own reason will be happy to trade specific candy for other candy, items, or sometimes even Pokemon! The game comes packaged with a little guide to all the candy trades available if you have trouble keeping track, too. We’ll keep this guy in mind for later.   It’s true! It’s a super nice place.    Wow… stay safe, ma’am! Don’t worry; we’re a benevolent ghost. Just… don’t tell anyone.   Speaking of Pokeballs like the ace just was… Music: Wild Battle!  There are wild Pokemon hanging out in the grass around Ivy Village too! Pumpkin doesn’t have the best documentation in a few places, including exact encounter rates, but I’ve got some relatively raw tables. In the grass around town, you should be able to find:
The sheer normalcy makes sense for the quiet start of the journey, and also theoretically makes for some easy very early grinding given Waddles is a ghost.  Minun Girl knows what we’re talking about just as much as Plusle Girl!      The party actually does sound way cooler than most grown-up parties, and it is an excuse to hang out at Callisto’s awesome house… but trick or treating comes first for us!  are everywhere! We’ll be a-okay, but thank you for worrying, ma’am! We’ve got our own spiritual energy. (Fun trivia bit: in the original version of Pumpkin, there was a hidden expository book in the library about Ivy Village. You may have been able to tell organically, but our hometown has a reputation for being something of a paranormal hot spot, especially with regards to ghosts. Some people think it’s just a bit for tourism, but it’s a part of local culture regardless.)   Still no chocolate… If we get enough extra, though!   ...maybe if we’re reaaaaaaaally quick, we can check if Mayor Hawthorne put out a jack-o-lantern.      Fair enough! We’ll be back later tonight.  The middle of the village is a quiet little pumpkin patch and field. Very relaxing.   A fantastic reward, you say… And a lollipop sounds pretty easy to get!   Aw, that’s unfortunate. Armor’s cool!   uhhhh        M-ma’am?  ...did she jump out the window???   way!    Ivy Village’s thriving educational sector, brought to you by the local library.   Yesssss, gooooooood…  Sorry, scared you out of it, which makes it the (unofficial) first trick-or-treat haul of the night!  Nice! I generally like the SWAT Foxes more myself, but the Ninja Squirtles are cool too.  Hot commodities out here!    Well, it does kinda look like the coast bends really nicely so this is a bit of a jutting out point… I don’t see why not! Yes! I knew someone would believe   Thank you very much, ma’am! Operation Preemptive Adventure begins in earnest now!  We’ll raise this Magikarp, but it’s y’all’s call if you want to see another long term Gyarados usage. If you do want her used, feel free to suggest nicknames. I went with Diem as a double pun. Deimos is the greek god personifying terror, and Gyarados can have Intimidate… and also, well. Carpe diem. If you’ve got better plans, we’ll change her name when we can. (Fun fact: this fisherwoman could have given us a Magikarp before we ever got Waddles! It even changes a couple bits of dialogue. If you want to play yourself, I say see for yourself. It’s pretty fun.)  You know what, sure! Sounds like fun.   This is Agent B-00. I’m in hot pursuit of the legendary vampire known as Scarlett. Time to sniff out some leads.  I’m getting a scent leading to the west end of town… I suppose we didn’t explicitly agree not to enter buildings, and Waddles took a few knocks from a Pidgey earlier. Let’s check. Music: Pokemon Center  ...It sounds like a center, but… Team Rocket Motto     Um. Yeah.   You too! ...Sorry about that. We’re really excited, but a little… nervous at the same time.    Yeah, it’s a really good costume! And it’s not like Rocket grunts are that scary. Just a little jumpy. (Shake it off, Jade.)  On still, please!  That was embarrassing. Uh… hide and seek! Right! Agent mode, re-activate!  Sniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiff… Aha!   Round 2! You can’t get away!   Here we go, special agent… the big one. Eyes wide, nose sniffing…  Hmmmm…  Sorry, it’s classified. Ghost classified.    That was fun for me too! Thanks yourself!  No pocket money yet, but should probably look in just cuz. Music: PokeMart  Wow, the redecorations went well, huh?       Not as good an impression as Joy’s, but still pretty okay.    Haha, I don’t know what that means!  Right! We’ve done a pretty good shakedown, if I do say so myself. Let’s do this thing right. Music: Bumpsy Plains DX    I won’t! That sounds like it’d be gross as well as dangerous. [ninja squirtles upstairs]    These aren’t the same Ninja Squirtles we saw in town. A number of people around the island will have wound up in duplicate costumes. You know how it goes, for every free thinker around the world like us there are twenty Magma Grunts.  Adventure ho!  We’ve got Pokemon habitats!  We’ve got fellow trainers/treaters!  And we’ve got an end of this update. For this moment in time, we’ll be training Waddles and Diem. We’ll probably be training more than six pokemon in general, given the EXP All and some flexibility for rough fights in future. But I ask you first, should Gyarados see long-term use? If so, Diem or some other name? What I ask second is, well, for the moment, we’ve got a single pokeball. We’ll be able to get more once we start facing off with other trainers and having an adventure, but for now, we should probably just pick one or two to pick up for the pumpkin patch. The options in Ivy Village and the immediate parts of Cereus Field are: Rattata, Bidoof, Sunkern, Kricketot, Pidgey, Weedle, Ekans, Meowth, and Chatot. Who should we try to catch first, and what should their name be?
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May 4, 2021 14:46
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Loving the name Diem, I appreciate you explaining your thinking behind it. I feel like I've seen enough Gyarados's in play throughs but I also don't know what Pokemon Pumpkin has in store for us so toss up for that. My vote for our one pokeball goes to Sunkern.
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May 4, 2021 16:09
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Meowth, what's Halloween without a kitty? And name it Salem if male, Sabrina if female. This whole game's vibe is just  as hell.
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May 4, 2021 16:44
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This game is adorable, I love all the shop NPCs being cosplay-Rockets. Are we going to have the time to get proper use out of a Gyarados, given you've said this is a shorter game? Seems like it could be a big pain for little payoff depending on how much game there actually is (although with the EXP share on it's pretty painless to raise, I guess).
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May 4, 2021 16:47
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A vote for ekans named Jessie if its female, James if male please
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May 4, 2021 16:56
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Explopyro posted:Are we going to have the time to get proper use out of a Gyarados, given you've said this is a shorter game? Seems like it could be a big pain for little payoff depending on how much game there actually is (although with the EXP share on it's pretty painless to raise, I guess). It's got a short overall playtime compared to most Pokemon games and fangames and experience is relatively easy to come by. There will still be... plenty of time to use a Gyarados if we want to. Jadecore fucked around with this message at 17:04 on May 4, 2021 |
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May 4, 2021 17:00
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Black Robe posted:Meowth, what's Halloween without a kitty? And name it Salem if male, Sabrina if female. This! And sure, use Diem. Lil' ghost kid and their big scary snake best friend.
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May 4, 2021 17:25
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🐸
Bogart fucked around with this message at 17:55 on May 4, 2021 |
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May 4, 2021 17:53
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No Gyarados. We will come back for the Barboach!!
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May 4, 2021 17:55
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I'm an unabashed Barboach fan. But we should defs get the Meowth. Call it Jessie and/or James.
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May 4, 2021 18:24
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I really think we need to adhere to the "Cosplay Team Rocket/ Scariest Pokémon " Team as much as possible please
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May 4, 2021 18:48
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Agreed on Meowth and Ekans. They're not very good, and that makes them good!
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May 7, 2021 11:45
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| # ? May 17, 2024 22:41 |
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Hey now. Parting Shot access with Fur Coat and Glare / Coil aren't nothin'! (Are those in the game? Probably not!)
Bogart fucked around with this message at 22:26 on May 7, 2021 |
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May 7, 2021 22:14
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