Pokémon Blooming Beast v0.2.3 patch

Hello everyone! I’m back again with a big patch for the game! This is technically a minor patch, since it’s not adding part 3, but it’s almost definitely going to be the biggest “minor patch” the game ever sees. Here’s what’s in it:

Character portraits!

I’ve been wanting to add these for a long time! I’ve gone back through the entire game and added talksprites to dialogue for every major character. There’s over 170 of these just across the 7 characters currently in the game, spanning a wide range of different expressions. They add so much life to each scene, so even if you’ve already played an earlier version, it might be worth replaying to see these in action! If you’re not so keen on doing that, though, I’ve compiled a video of all the cutscenes in the game as of this version, which you can see here.

Climb the Astilba River

Fun fact: I originally planned for part 2 to include more of the Astilba River, but ended up removing it for time. But most of the River is still supposed to be in the Coreop Canyon (part 2’s namesake), so I’ve added it back in! This tags a new extended area to explore for about an extra 20 minutes of content, even if you’ve already completed part 2! Consider this part 2.5, though this is not going to become the norm. After this, new areas won’t be added until part 3.

(Also, for no reason in particular, I highly recommend not muting the music when climbing the river 😉)

Fodil Town cutscene overhaul

After careful consideration, I’ve decided to completely rewrite the cutscene with Max/Gabriel in Fodil Town. I really don’t like overhauling important scenes like this, but the writing here was just inexcusably bad, and no amount of fun, expressive talksprites were going to save it. It still covers all the same points the original scene did, so players who only saw the original won’t be lost when Max/Gabriel becomes relevant later on. But this is another reason you might want to replay the game or at least watch the cutscene video.

San Vitalia City redesign

This was one of my first maps ever, and it shows. I’ve made it more compact and added some more details, which makes the city feel a bit larger and more alive. No real functional changes, though.

Other changes:

Fixed a bug where the game would crash when trying to sell items.

Fixed a bug with collision in Hidden Sanctuary.

Added soft Exp caps for each gym leader; Exp gain is significantly reduced for Pokémon at or above the level of the next gym leader’s ace.

Added a small 2nd floor to East Coreop Mine.

Gave some UI to Amy’s Beast investigation dialogue.

Updated a few Pokémon menu icons.

Lowered encounter rates in caves.

HMs can now be forgotten anytime as long as the player has another Pokémon that knows the move.

Added various softlock prevention measures.

Fixed a bug that was affecting Pokémon happiness upon level up.

Updated the Enhanced UI plugin; friendship meter now appears in a Pokémon’s summary.

Added the option to immediately check a chosen starter’s summary if the game has been loaded once before.

Professor Orchid in Fodil Town now gives the player the Shiny Charm if they’ve registered 213 Pokémon, the maximum for this point in the game.

Renamed Shadow Assault to Spectral Assault.

Adjusted some trainers.

Tweaked some dialogue.

Fixed some move animations.

Added some secret sauce.

Other minor changes.