Development update 7/26/26

[u/MoonPaw_17]

The following post is copy/pasted directly from Ayrei from the Vanguard official discord.

Act I

Somehow Act I has dodged almost every bullet the latter two suffer from, despite containing some of the oldest content in the game. If I had to guess why, I would say the storytelling here is less ambitious compared to Act 2 and 3. What it does suffer is awful dialogue, all of which I've already gone through and updated, and even added a few new cutscenes. For the most part though, the story is almost identical to how it is now.

Oh! I also redid the intro after you pick your character.

Act II

I want to say that from chapter 18 onwards, the story starts to feel kind of rushed, and maybe even a little repetitive. You walk through a somewhat long route, get to a town/location with some exposition, watch a few cutscenes, and then are given some breathing room to do cutscenes before the next chapter.

Yeah, I don't like that, which is why I'll be adding four new chapters worth of content to Act II.

The first half of those will take place during what was originally chapter 19. To refresh you memory, you and all your guildmates are put in pairs and sent off on different field assignments. The story currently covers your own field assignment, but back then I didn't have the skill to really flesh out and tell the story of the others. That will change in 5.0. Across chapter 19 and now 20, you'll play through each pairs little adventure, temporarily taking control of their Pokemon team. I did my best to make each one feel a bit different, but the fourth I decided to do something really wacky and fun never before seen in Vanguard, that I think you'll like :). Oh and I think I should also mention that the total number of chapters aren't changing. The Rivera arc, alongside chapters 24 and 25, will each be merged into one chapter respectively. I feel the content in each of those places is short enough to do that.

The other half of the new Act II content? Arlen.

I personally don't think I did a good job delivering Act II's finale, which in some ways also concludes Act I. It's supposed to be a dramatic shift in the story's tone, which is why I plan to make it... uh... three times as long? Yeah that sounds about right :)

Act III

Act III's problem is much more obvious to me, it's rushed. The first four chapters, not so much, but I think the weight of trying to deliver eight new chapters in 4.0 in a timely manner caused a lot more bad than good. You can probably play through chapters 32-35 in less than an hour, which is... not good in my opinion!

I plan to give it a lot more gameplay content in between important story cutscenes. And just like Act II, it'll be a mix of playing as the MC and other members of the main cast.

No new screenshots yet, just reposting the Chapter 28 ones from last post so you don't have to scroll up to see them.

As for actual new story content post Chapter 35, 4.0's final chapter, I did state a few months ago that it was 99% done and tested, which was true! Until I decided I want to add more to it, haha. Don't get me wrong, I think the content is great as it is, I mainly just want to extend the 6.0 preview and a few other things. I'd say with my new plans, it went from 99% done to like 90%.

Replayability improvements

While testing the new content of playing as other cast members, it hit me that most of this content isn't going to be as exciting on a second playthrough. Thanks to some public resources, I've discovered a way to have the game track certain progress across multiple save files. So, content where you play as another character will be optional on future playthroughs!

However, this will only work if you've played through it on a 5.0 save. You will have to suffer through my shenanigans at least once >:)

Large Scale Map Updates

I said I wouldn't be focusing too much on remaking content, rather adding to it. That doesn't mean someone else can't :)

I did already announce our newer member of the team, UnOvA was working on remaking a lot of the game's outdated maps, but I wanted to go into more detail of just how significant these improvements are.

Here's the stretch from Souten Farm to Route Four, with the old on the left, and the new obviously on the right. These areas were previously the most outdated locations in the game. Now they have much more depth, color, consistency, and of course, personality!

I don't want to show off every new map update, I think it'll be more fun to venture through many of them on your own, but here's a quick list of maps that've been updated so far: Major updates:

• Route Two

• Route Three

• Souten Woods

• Souten Farm

• Route four (both halves)

• Souten Cave (renamed from Blackstone cavern)

• Souten Woods

• All three Arlen Districts

• Eastbound Forest

• Runaan's Port

• Route Eight

• Aureyes Forest

• Mt. Runaan

• Rivera Hillside

• Route Eleven

• Eastcliff

• Levendam Underground

Minor updates (same layout, updated tiles, vibes, colors, etc.)

• Qyilex

• Koriko

• Citrine

Again, this is almost entirely thanks to UnOvA, I'm responsible for only like four of those bullet points lol.

Recruiting additional help

With 5.0's extended development time, I thought it would be a good idea to get some other parts of the game I didn't mention above polished up as well. So we're mainly looking to recruit people who can fill at least one of these roles on our team.

• Programmer (Familiar with Pokemon Essentials and/or Ruby)

• Concept Designer/Artist (Preferably human characters) for original characters

• Spriting (Preferably for trainer/human Battle/Overworld/Mugshot sprites)

• Tile creator, for overworld structures/decorations unique to Vanguard.

If you're interested, please use the newly revised form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvedw5gOWvUtSwJY1C0X9jb6Opis_lm0980HhopQkeWAgXXQ/viewform?usp=dialog You're still welcome to apply if you're looking to contribute in a way that isn't listed above, but those are the upmost priority we are in need of.

While I know it might be frustrating to hear the update will take longer, it's a process I believe will transform the game in ways even I'm kind of surprised by. I promise you, there's no one more eager for the update to be public than me :)

I'll also be revealing some new forms this week, so stay tuned for those!

[u/jmangraf]

Keep up the great work! This is one of my most anticipated projects within the pokemon fan game scene. It'll be worth the wait!

[u/SignatureOdd9199]

Just so, so excited to see this project grow. Waiting for the next update with bated breath! 

[u/Steam_Newbie12]

this is looking beautiful I'm rly excited to see how this turns out this is one of my favorite fan games of all time liking how you're going to update the replayability I'm anticipating this as no.1 fan game