I am no video game reviewer, nor am I a masterful game developer in any way. However, pokemon entrancing wishes is an excellent little experience of a game that is worth the time investment I put in. It is a solid Pokémon game, as well as good at meeting its niches. It is a pokemon game BEFORE it is a hypnosis game, which actually adds to it immensely, making for a fun pokemon experience with a hypnosis side flavor.
The good
-Nice Pokémon selection, having more than just kanto diversifies gameplay. I used a medicham, a Pokémon I never use, to have psychic coverage.
-Hypnosis subjects are varied and not one note. While that does mean each is simple in actual usage, it is not poor quality regardless.
-Visuals add to the experience
-Story is pretty solid despite typos. It definitely has a good feel to it that keeps the player hooked.
-Unique/custom sprites are well done, really good feel.
-The subquests are almost a highlight, and really enhance the story.
-Chosen music is good and makes sense.
-Hybrids are a rather unique idea here, though maybe a few more early game wouldn’t really hurt so it feels like an established phenomenon a bit more.
The not so good
-I have not played fire red in a long while, but with sheer encounter numbers, the cleanse tag seems to not do anything at all. May be wrong. Repels almost feel necessary for some areas, especially mt moon where it felt like I was getting an encounter every 5 steps, to the point I almost just wanted a debug skip for the area to be included, or I’d just give up. Soldiered through, but wouldn’t do that twice.
-Random rocket disguise player battle sprite underwater, a bug I assume
-Going back out the museum hole after clearing the subquest softlocks you if you don’t have a teleport Pokémon or fly.
-Currently, the hypnotization system feels a little barebones. One way to add onto it is discussed below(actually discussed on the board now).
-Pokémon selection is nice but there’s a lack of early ground types that’s somewhat noticeable. I finished the fuschia city gym with a team of a comp that had no offensive options against electric types. While nidoran’s line is an option, nidoran encounter rates are low early game, leaving you to use diglet or geodude’s lines. This is not too bad an issue, but is of note.
-Having to deposit a Pokémon earlier to slot Beatrice in should actually matter once you get to the plasma base in fuchsia. I basically replaced my medicham halfway through the game available with her just for no payoff to it.
-The game does not tell the player the running shoes button just the speed up button(unless that’s suppose to be running shoes somehow?), I ended up just using the speed up button, which felt necessary for the cave areas anyways to not make the encounter rate feel as painful as it was, but still. It meant I was almost constantly at high speeds just to not go slowly through routes.
-Some story elements feel slightly rushy, as in making the player go through them too fast, not taking their time to let their hypnosis themes fully set in.
-Rival should have an extra battle post lavender pre celadon or a sidequest, maybe. She vanishes for a pretty long while. That absence is noticeable. If this gap is filled in later via story, then no need.
Overall, a 7 or 8/10 pokemon game that hypnosis fans will enjoy. While reviews are to suggest a game or not, I will include suggestions I have in the forums(was going to be here, but, story spoilers) if the creators read this, or for those who are curious, but it is not necessarily for consumer consideration.
This game is surprisingly complex, althogh generally following the pokemon original story, it has a nice and funny change in characters compared to original story and is more funny and focuses on hypno. Also the main characters are cute. Although it would be nice to have a resolution update/upscaling and more options to interact with the characters, or to have positive comments from misties friends when you restore her character.
I never expected to make my return to Pokemon games through a tf/hypnosis romhack, but you never really know where life will take you.
With that being said, this an excellent game. The original story isn't finished, but the growing conflict between you, your rival, and the apparently numerous gangs is a compelling one that is slowly building up to something big. I was a little confused by what was going on at first as some things aren't explained immediately, which is something I think is actually fine from a narrative point. There's a mystery and you have to figure things out for yourself. My one complaint with this approach is that in the version I first played, which was only 3.3 so not too long ago, my introduction to the hypnosis mechanic was talking to somebody and being presented an option to mind control them without knowing that was a possibilty at that point. Maybe I missed something, but having some kind of indicator, probably best expressed through an inner monologue, of being able to do something to the target.
Gameplay-wise, it's a Pokemon game, so it's not too different in what you can expect in that regard. What is different is that it brings in a number of Pokemon from different generations into the Kanto region, giving a greater diversity in enemy trainers and your own line-up. The game also allows acces to HMs without the need for an HM-move slave, kind of ironically considering the mind control aspect.
TF content-wise, the game is a slow burner. Things don't really start happening until Pewter City, and further mind control is spead out. What this game does right with this approach is make the TF content a reward for progressing and playing the game correctly; outside of one or two optional encounters. About halfway through the current content you get the ability to revisit prior content and see hints on how to unlock future interactions from a centralized location, a homebase; though through a mechanism that should maybe be gated until you clear that particular location's encounter, and shortly before the end of the current content you can get the ability to Fly to previously visited towns, allowing acces to your base and it's features, freely. The author has also promised tg content, and likely other kinds, in the future.
My two greatest complaints are 1) I think the game could use a stronger internal narration introducing the player to the changes in the story and directing them in using their new powers and 2) I just want more. There's a lot of ways this game can progress, and it has a lot of potential.
To sum it all up, the game is put together well and is a fun romp through Kanto that rewards you with TF content for playing the game well.
