Pokémon:
The Roads Home
Playtest review
Content Tested: Full available build through Vermilion City and the SS Anne
Recording: Full playtest recorded
Overall Experience
I think the first thing worth saying is that you’ve done a really good job of capturing the general feel of Red/Blue. Given the fact you’re using the pre-existing assets, some of that comes straight out of the box, but generally you’ve captured the Red/Blue essence quite well in a lot of places, while putting your own spin on it too. There were quite a few moments where this almost felt like playing a fever dream, where I kind of knew what was coming, but it was always that bit unexpected at the same time, which I found enjoyable.
I played through the full demo, which took me roughly 2.5 hours, and while most of my enjoyment came from a place of nostalgia, I was also keen to see both your twist on different locations, and your twist on the platforming mechanics. I think the quality of some of the adaptations you made varied, with some feeling considerably more enjoyable than others. For example, Misty’s Gym, while simple from a level design POV, was probably my favourite individual section as it felt like you had actually taken the concept of the water gym and adapted it sensibly without going overboard with the platforming. In contrast, Viridian Forest didnt really feel like a forest level to me, and instead just felt like endless single spaced platforms, therefore feeling quite shallow in comparison.
I also quite liked some of the moments where you moved away from standard platforming and did something a little more bespoke. The mine cart in Mt. Moon is one example of this. I died plenty of times trying to complete that section (mostly due to my own stupidity) but I thought it was an interesting (unexpected) addition, one of which kept my interest peaked throughout. From what I have seen, I would be curious to see how you might eventually handle areas such as the Safari Zone or Team Rocket’s hideout. There are quite a few locations and mechanics from Red/Blue that you could put an interesting side-scrolling spin on.
That said, the platforming didn’t fully resonate with me throughout. A massive part of that was simply down to the controls. Not being able to remap movement to WASD threw me off a lot more than I would have anticipated and I found some of the more precise platforming incredibly awkward using the arrow keys. Even trying to account for that, however, I’m not sure the standard platforming was deep enough that it would be the reason I’d want to play more. There wasn’t really a platforming section where I thought the act of platforming itself had made being back in the Red/Blue universe more fun.
In terms of my player experience, there was no point where I reached what I would describe as frustration. The mine cart probably came closest after I had failed it a number of times and was repeatedly being sent the whole way back to the start, but even there it was more the beginning of some very mild annoyance (at my own ability) rather than frustration. I actually like that you have some sections which require a bit of skill to pass.
I think there may be a bit of balancing still to do with regard to combat, particularly around frequency of moves, and stat buffs/debuffs. Most wild Pokémon and trainers I encountered were quite easy to defeat (as expected in the early game), and Misty was the first encounter where I had to reconsider my brute force approach. This in itself was quite a welcome surprise as Red/Blue are generally quite easy to brute force with a starter pokemon (particularly Squirtle).
Overall, there’s definitely something quite charming here. I’d personally much rather play a strange new spin on Red/Blue like this than one of the latest generation Pokémon games, though its worth being clear that the nostalgia was doing a lot of heavy lifting. I'm curious to see your creative take on the story/towns but the platforming on display in the demo has yet to grip me and really draw me in as a player.
Platforming
My younger self is shedding a tear at how bad I’ve become at using the arrow keys, and unfortunately, not being able to remap the controls made the platforming far more awkward for me than I think it otherwise would have been. You’ll see at just how much of an issue this was for me. I found myself trying to make relatively simple movements across narrow platforms and struggling considerably more than I expected to.
In terms of balance, you’ve done very well with the level of difficulty in the platforming. There were numerous times I missed a platform, landed on a spike, got hit by a falling spike/boulder etc. All in all, I'd say I probably had about 10-15 deaths. Again, due to the lack of button remapping, I never felt particularly comfortable controlling the character when there was any level of precision involved. This was quite prominent in Viridian Forest. There were sections where I was moving across platforms that were effectively a single tile wide, and trying to make those jumps with the arrow keys felt incredibly awkward, and so, as a player I didn’t particularly enjoy those sections.
Jumping from rope to rope also felt a small bit awkward to me. Again, I find it difficult to completely separate how much of that came from the actual platforming mechanics and how much came from me being uncomfortable with the control scheme, which is why I think remappable controls are fairly important before drawing too many conclusions from feedback on the platforming itself.
Outside of the controls, I would still have to say that I didn’t find the standard platforming deep enough that it would be something that alone made me want to play more. There wasn’t really a platforming section where I came away thinking that jumping across those platforms had actively improved my experience compared to the original. That said, I can certainly say that it provided more challenge, and its more so the intrigue of upcoming more involved levels that would maybe lure me in further at this point.
Standard platforming aside, I enjoyed the unexpected minecart setpiece in Mt. Moon (even though I died a good few times during that section). Most of those deaths were down to my own stupidity, and I think the section is probably tricky enough that a reasonable number of people will die there several times, so it’s challenging, but beatable. I did start to feel a tiny bit of annoyance after repeatedly being sent back to the very beginning, but it never reached the point of frustration. If anything, I quite like that there are occasional sections where I can’t just mindlessly move forward. The mine cart sparked my interest in seeing what you eventually do with other areas (Team Rockets hideout, Safari Zone). I found those bespoke ideas considerably more interesting than simply jumping between platforms. I will briefly touch on double jumping. This was introduced quite late on in the demo, and there weren't enough use cases for it to really evaluate it, but functionally it worked as expected.
Combat Difficulty
For the vast majority of the demo, I found the combat quite easy, which is true of all Pokémon games really. The wild Pokémon generally didn’t cause me much trouble and neither did most of the trainers. For a large portion of the game, I could essentially continue progressing without needing to think too deeply about my party or Pokémon types, which is why I didnt really feel the need/desire to bother catching other Pokémon, and only did so to check out if it functioned differently to the original.
Even though I lost one or two battles beforehand, the battle with Misty was the first point in the game where I had to actively decide to change tactics to progress. I went into the fight initially thinking I could probably just keep using Wartortle but pretty quickly realized I needed a change of approach, which was a welcome change, as being super OP for the entire game isn’t fun. I lost to Misty twice, but I wouldn’t refer to those losses themselves as evidence that the battle is too difficult. I just found Starmie’s repeated use of Restore difficult to get past when trying to just barge on through with a water type pokemon Horsea’s frequential use of Smokescreen felt like it was being spammed. While these do feel a bit unbalanced, they were challenging, and required a bit of brain power to navigate, so if that was intentional, then you’ve done a good job.
I had a similar issue later against Gary, where his Golbat repeatedly caused confusion, over and over. This was compounded by the fact I couldn’t cobat it. I even deliberately let myself die at one point because I wanted to return to the Mart and see what I could buy, including whether there was something available for restoring PP (Ether, Elixer), and there wasn’t. Given Gary has a Golbat, and it can cause confusion, it doesnt feel fair that the demo has no item that can cure confusion.
There were quite a few times where Pokémon were using debuff attacks (eg Leer, Tailwhip etc) to pretty incredible effect. I’d be curious to know if the level of stat reduction from these attacks is intended.
A minor change you’ve made to combat that I felt drastically improved the game was increasing the speed of a battle. The battle screens flow much faster than I remember it doing in the original Red/Blue, and is a very welcome quality of life change.
Catching Pokémon
Catching Pokémon felt very easy throughout my playthrough. As far as I can remember, I didn’t have a single Pokémon fail to be caught.
Each time health was low, so its not as if that was unexpected, but the Pokémon I caught were at times at around 15-20% health, and being caught with a standard Poké ball without a single failed attempt.
I noticed that after catching a Pokémon I wasn’t given an opportunity to nickname it. Not a problem, just a noticed change from the originals.
Rival (Gary)
You’ve given Gary more personality in this demo than he had across the entire original game, however I almost feel as if it's incorrect to call Gary a rival here. I found the way you’ve written the dialogue really implies they are becoming friends as opposed to rivals. There wasn’t much gloating, competitiveness, antagonism or anything after he beat me in a battle, and when there were, there were moments of softness from him directly after. That's certainly an unexpected little twist if thats the direction you’re going. I’ve mentioned it elsewhere, but its little snippets like this that I find quite interesting throughout. That mix of characters I know, in locations I know, but with a twist, was something I was keen to see more of as a player.
In summary, the only bit of extremely pedantic feedback I’d give regarding Gary is the use of the word rival to describe the relationship. Now it's of course possible this relationship evolves beyond the demo, so I accept I’m commenting on this with a very limited frame of reference.
Story
The story is broadly in line with what's expected of early Gen pokemon games, and you’re in an interesting position where a lot of people will quite intimately know the map of your game, but not the new 2D side scrolling levels. There's an element of I know where I’m going, but I don’t know what will happen when I get there. That was intriguing to me to a point where I would say I was more interested in seeing the adaptations of the locations than the platforming. For example, the Lt. Surge twist was a good example of one of your modern twists on the original.
I thought the encounter on the SS Anne with Team Rocket was a bit odd. It felt unresolved, as if the player should rescue the pokemon, rather than let them be taken, though perhaps this comes up again outside the demo, but it felt like the player should get some resolution there. It was also a bit odd to board the SS Anne, explore it, unboard, and then be ready to backtrack, but again its not really fair of me to judge this without context of what comes next.
Writing/Tone
I think the writing and tone are, in some places, somewhat inconsistent. This could just be the millennial in me, and so do take it with a pinch of salt. There were quite a few instances where I thought the dialogue fit the Pokémon world very well. A lot of the incidental dialogue from townspeople and other NPCs felt broadly in line with the sort of thing I would expect to read in one of the older Pokémon games. Those parts generally didn’t stand out to me, which in this context is probably a compliment, meaning they felt like they belonged there. In contrast, there were other pieces of dialogue where the writing suddenly felt very obviously unlike Pokémon, which again, isn’t a problem, but I went into this with pre-existing expectations as a player.
Some of the multiple-choice dialogue for the player character stood out as having a tone that didnt really fit. The writing in these felt noticeably different to the rest of the writing. Visually and audibly you’re doing such a convincing job of bringing me back into that world. When the writing then suddenly adopts a noticeably different tone, it’s every so slightly jarring. For example, the use of the word “bastards” felt so out of place. I absolutely was not expecting that word to appear. I’m not particularly bothered by swearing and I’m not saying you can’t have it in the game. It was just tonally surprising. Up until that point I had largely been experiencing something that was doing a convincing job of recreating an older Pokémon game.
At the moment, it sometimes feels like the game is moving between the two tones (young friendly OG vibes and adult focused vibes) rather than having deliberately settled on one.
Locations
I would say that overall, I liked the majority of locations I saw in the demo. I had quite different reactions to the various locations, and I think this is probably one of the more interesting parts of the game to evaluate because adapting these familiar places is a large part of what makes the concept interesting (to me at least).
Viridian Forest
For me, Viridian Forest was probably one of the weaker areas in the demo. I don’t think the environment captured the identity of Viridian Forest as strongly as some of the later locations captured their respective predecessor versions. Visually, I expected more of a forest aesthetic, and it felt a bit more like a prototype than some of your other locations, which of course is to be expected in areas in a demo.
I struggled with the platforming here quite a bit, as you can see at , and even as I was getting through the level, it felt like a quickly hacked together bit of platforming rather than a carefully crafted level.
As a very minor bit of feedback, there was a point high up where I was hit by a spike and initially wasn’t even aware that it was a trap.
As you can see at , I was collecting a Poké Ball when I was hit by another spike while the dialogue was being displayed. I wasn’t expecting the game world to continue damaging me while the dialogue was on screen, but again, thats coming from pre-existing expectation.
Brock’s Gym
As you can see at , I had many attempts where I tried to rush through the platforming section in this gym, very much just to see if I could, and unsurprisingly, I couldn’t. I failed many times over, and I enjoyed the challenge. You’ve laid the level out in a way that felt quite intuitive, and there was a decent level of challenge here due to the boulders. I found it tricky (again at least in part due to the controls), but it was satisfying to eventually conquer. I’ll add that even after multiple deaths, I didn’t find it frustrating as you’re never really set back far enough for it to be an issue.
Brock as a whole was very easy to defeat on account of selecting Squirtle as my starter.
Mt. Moon
Again, going back to existing expectations, I was expecting Mt Moon to be very dark as per the original, and I like that you’ve changed it up in the way that you have.
The mine cart section was probably one of the most fun parts of the demo for me. It was unexpected, fast paced, challenging, and despite a few failed attempts, it stayed pretty fun. The only thing that started to become slightly annoying was repeatedly being sent back to the beginning but I appreciate the bit of challenge. I’ll briefly add that I think quite a few people will die more than once during this section.
Misty’s Gym
Misty’s Gym was probably my favourite gym/location adaptation in the demo. The rising water levels worked well. It was quite simple from a platformer POV, but it fit Misty's gym perfectly. Misty was the hardest battle of the demo. I naively tried to beat her using just Wartortle but the fact that he was only one level higher than her Starmie, which spammed Restore to no end, made it more or less impossible to get past her that way. If I were to play more, I would love to see some more difficult gym battles like this. It was refreshing to lose, and to have to rethink an approach (Bellsprout to the rescue).
There were a couple of technical issues here. At one point I spawned in the water, as you can see at . Also, on a much more minor scale, during a battle, I also saw text extend outside the intended text area as you can see in the video.
As you can see at , when I returned for my second attempt against Misty, I encountered an issue where I was pressing “E”, which you can see on my input overlay, but the conversation simply wasn’t progressing. It did then progress after a few seconds, but it was not responsive for a while.
Vermilion City
IMO, Vermilion is the strongest area in the demo with regard to its visual presentation. There was a lot of character in the parallax backgrounds, much more so than Viridian Forest for example. The art around the city and the docks surrounding the SS Anne was very pretty. That subtle use of parallax here gave a nice sense of scale and to the town.
You also got across a sense of scale on the SS Anne a lot better than they did in the original, and the design decision to not have about forty rooms onboard that the player needs to enter was another great quality of life improvement on the original.
Visuals
As far as recreating the look of Pokémon Red/Blue in a side-scrolling format goes, I think you’ve done a very good job. It's instantly obvious that it’s Pokémon, and you’ve managed to preserve the visual identity surprisingly well despite completely changing the perspective. Obviously, using the existing sprites gets you part of the way there, but the overall presentation still needs to bring those assets together convincingly in a completely different format, and I think you’ve generally managed that very well.
Audio
Either you’re using the exact sounds and music from Pokémon or you’ve gotten incredibly close to them. Either way, the audio contributes massively to the nostalgia, and fits the game. Given you’ve added a new take on the visuals, and on the dialogue/story, I would have liked to have heard some new audio snippets, ideally composed within the same limitations as the original audio. All in all, I had a nice time listening to the soundtrack as I played.
MISC
I completely forgot about Bill’s PC in the Pokémon Centre. I am well aware there is a PC in every POKE centre in the originals, but visually here it doesn't stand out from the surrounding environment, and I only activated it by accident.
There was a sentence immediately after the first time I beat Gary that wasn’t grammatically correct. That obviously isn’t a major issue in an early build, but it was noticeable enough that I wrote it down during the playthrough. As you can see at .
I noticed that sometimes when transitioning between screens my forward momentum would stop and I would need to leave go of the keys and then hold them again to move. This didn’t happen every time but it happened enough for it to be quite noticeable.
In Mt Moon, if I fell into a pit while I still had another life, the reset was so immediate that I could quite easily fall again before I had properly reoriented myself. It’s worth not having the reset be as immediate as it is to let players re-orientate after respawning.
In the original Red/Blue games, there are a good few instances of a couple being stood beside each other, and when you defeat one of them it doesnt immediately trigger a battle with the next. However due to the change in style to make it a sidescroller, you now trigger both battles immediately one after the other, and I dont think that works. I think you should have the option to move after a battle.
Bugs & Issues
I appreciate this is an early build and you specifically said you were more interested in strong positive/negative reactions than smaller bugs, so I wouldn’t consider these the main focus of my feedback but I’ll list them for you here anyway for completeness.
Forward Momentum
Sometimes transitioning between screens stopped my forward momentum.
Viridian Forest Spike
While higher up in Viridian Forest, I was hit by a spike without initially realising that what I was looking at was a trap.
Damage During Dialogue
While collecting a Poké Ball in Viridian Forest, I was hit by a spike while dialogue was still being displayed. I wasn’t expecting hazards to remain active during that interaction.
Locked House Message
After Viridian Forest, attempting to enter certain locked houses displayed:
“THE ROAD AHEAD IS BLOCKED”
That message didn’t make sense in the context of trying to enter a house.
Mt. Moon Respawn
After falling into a gap in Mt. Moon, the reset could happen so quickly that it was possible to immediately fall again.
Misty’s Gym Water Spawn
At one point I spawned in the water in Misty’s Gym.
Battle Text
During a battle in Misty’s Gym, some of the text extended outside the intended dialogue/text area.
Misty Interaction
On my second attempt against Misty, I reached a point where pressing E would not progress the conversation. My input overlay showed that the input was being pressed.
0 Health After Gary
After losing to Gary, I entered another battle with a Pokémon already on 0 health.
Bellsprout Name
Bellsprout’s name overlaps its level indicator on the Pokémon screen.
Gary Dialogue
There is a grammatical error in the dialogue immediately after first beating Gary.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I enjoyed my time with this more so for the experience of revisiting Red/Blue in a completely different format than I did for the platforming itself. I think you’ve done a good job of capturing the Pokémon aesthetic and, in quite a few places, the general tone as well.
I do feel that I was largely carried through by nostalgia, but I enjoyed snippets of something new set in this 90s Red/Blue world. I didn’t experience any major highs (beating Misty on the third attempt was maybe a minor high), but I only had some minor blips as opposed to any form of low.
The bespoke platforming parts, and new takes on some classic parts of the old games would be the selling point for me here personally. I wouldn’t be in a rush to play through the full game if the platforming didn’t evolve further.
Timestamps
The accompanying playtest video will be added here when available.