Boy, oh boy, oh boy... this one was a trip. When I first discovered this game many, many years ago I was absolutely in love with it. It was one of the first Pokemon RPG Maker fangames I played, with the other being Fusion Generation of all things. At the time though I vastly preferred this game and would spend a lot more time with it, playing religiously and even dabbling in customized sprites for my player (however shitty they were, it was still cool to me). Patiently waiting for updates to come along to add more to the story, to add more content, to expand on what I was loving so much at the time... nowadays? ...yeesh I really was having a phase back then, what the hell. Either a strong 'angsty' phase or I was just enamored at the scope of the fanmade project, what with it being one of the first fanmade Pokemon games I played that wasn't a ROM hack and thus giving it a lot more room to flourish (I know ROM hacks have come a massive way since then but at the time they were quite limited despite still showing plenty of promise).

Look, I'll get this out of the way now: I don't think this game is bad on the whole. But I definitely think the positives that tend to stick with people a lot more, and that's wholly understandable because the custom content on offer here is quite frankly incredible. Bringing a TCG-only concept in Deltas to a video game form with a high number of uniquely sprited creature forms is the main selling point people will pass around with this game, and that's probably because it's something this game does do fantastically. The Deltas are handled pretty much perfectly with their unique typings and designs complimenting them incredibly well, as well as their new moves and abilities providing new leases of life for them. In addition, some Pokemon get multiple Delta variants which gives you a TON of potential options to run if you want to use a team of just these new forms. Unfortunately I feel the Delta forms suffer from a problem similar to many main series regional variants; lack of base-stat changes. Despite types, moves, and abilities making up a lot of what makes a Pokemon function it is ultimately the base stats that gives them their niches. And some of these typings do not go well with the rest of a Pokemon's kit, and can even contrast the lore given. Delta Dodrio, for example, is apparently potent and mental manipulation with its psychic abilities... and is forced into being a physical attacker because that's what OG Dodrio's stat spread leans into. Metagross has two Delta forms but they're sharing the exactly same base stat spread, except for one of them which gets a new alternate Mega form with its own stats. But that still, in my opinion, limits what you can do with it. What hurts most though is how Pokemon who previous had lackluster stats still have lackluster stats in their Delta forms, and this would be fine and dandy if this were the kind of game where you can run what you want reliably enough. But unless you play on easy, which strips this game of balancing merits given it just emulates the official games, these Pokemon will still remain as unfortunate collection-only creatures. It really, really sucks because a good amount of Deltas do function well. But then there are ones who really missed out because of the devs refusing to give them differing stats, I mean shit the whole point is that they mutated which would've been the perfect chance to give them even slight stat changes. This is on the same level as many Paradox Pokemon not getting meaningful stat changes (Iron Thorns...) and- as mentioned -many canon regional forms having barely if any stat changes to suit their new niches. Again, I want to stress a good amount of the Deltas do work and work well, but with how many there are there's undoubtedly plenty that just got left behind due to refusal to let them be improved.

Since I brought it up, may as well mention... the difficulty. It honestly isn't too bad to begin with. It feels reasonable enough at first, with the 1st gym even being pushed back a bit to adjust for the level curve. And then the 2nd gym leader has a Mega Beedrill, which is really an omen of things to come. Legendries worm their way into gym leader teams pre-postgame too... except this is a privilege even the Elite Four do not get. Even on hard mode, the Elite Four do not get legendary Pokemon, despite two of the later gym leaders having them on both normal and EASY. Now, admittedly, this isn't a Radical Red situation where the game felt fun at first and gradually steamed my kettle until I fucking hated every major fight; the difficulty spikes and dips as frequently as my bipolar self does. But this itself feels like a bit of a problem... when you go from "wow, what the fuck" to "wow, that was kinda fun" so frequently I'm just left confused? I played on normal difficulty for the record. It felt like a decently good challenge for much of the game but incidents like a 2nd gym Mega Beedrill and random-ass Cresselia in a gym battle are not a pleasant surprise. The fact that things weeble-wobble so much with the difficulty, though, is not a lot of fun.

To give points to the balancing, however, is that legendary Pokemon are typically reserved for boss fights. And given the whole thing of this game is people praising these things like the gods they arguably really are, it makes sense that you'd come across them for big encounters. In that regard I don't mind the use of legendary Pokemon. You can also actually see it coming and have ample time to prepare as a result, not to mention they aren't typically given the strongest stats/moves until later on into the game. It doesn't expect the world of you right away... all the time, anyways. As mentioned there are still a number of stupid battles in here and the constantly shifting difficulty makes the whole thing feel off. Still, credit where credit is due, they didn't do a Radical Red for most of the game.

But this game is also touted as a pinnacle of Pokemon fangame writing! It's very story-heavy after all and intends on making the most of the potential for mature themes. So, what is this supposed cornerstone of Pokemon fanfics like? ...needlessly edgy. OK I know that's an easy way to describe it but can you blame me? Considering, though, that they already had a non-edgy story toggle which had to be reworked BECAUSE the non-edgy story made less sense than the intended edgier one, I would say it's a valid point to bring up. Honestly, I don't have issues with the ideas here; people praising legendary Pokemon like a cult is a very real and very interesting idea. Considering the in-universe lore these powerful creatures are given, it's not unreasonable to think that there would be nutjobs out there that praise them and commit heinous acts in their name and the like. But it's the actual execution I'm not a big fan of. Insurgence has a pretty good setup that is quickly exchanged for edge points in the mere opening hours of the game... I understand something like a sacrifice isn't going to be squeaky-clean, exactly, but showing us this off the bat doesn't do much. The opening is already really good with given backstory and having your character needing to escape a cult's clutches after getting your memories drained, that alone is a strong opener that sets-up the antagonists well. Having ooo aaa bloody sacrifice isn't doing much else at this point in the game but making you realize how old this game is, like if it'd come later down the line when the cult is desperate? That'd still be a bit edgy, sure, but it wouldn't come off quite as forceful. Having a character call things 'edgy' honestly didn't help matters much either, given being self-aware whilst still continuing to do the thing you are calling out is fucking stupid. But most people have by now called this game's plot out on the edge, so I'll leave it alone. Because frankly being edgy isn't the story's only problem. Plot points tend to get overlooked and eventually resolved with really poor conclusions, because there is too much shit going on. Genuinely at times this feels like a Dungeon Master's first module that was heavily inspired by their anime binge (an infamously awful "I'm chaotic good" line in the game is not helping to change my mind on this) because so little of this feels satisfyingly coherent... or coherent, period. There's just so many cults to follow along with, each with multiple unique individuals that have to get screentime; said cults also have their own ideals and personal plots that we need to be informed about and follow to a degree; there's a character set-up to be a major player with an honestly interesting concept behind him that gets IGNORED until it's way too late; two rival characters that add fuck-all to the game despite one having relations to one of the cults (how they messed that up, I don't know); one of the characters we see from the start of the game doesn't do shit to try and actually present a roadblock to the player until the end of the game; there's a whole otherworldly escapade with Giratina wackos and an anime-esque boss fight; an antagonist who's meant to be sympathetic yet ends up being anything but that... there's so much junk going on and you're never given a singular goal to strive towards until the game outright tells you who the main bad guy is supposed to be and then you beat them and don't feel very satisfied because it's over about as quick as it was introduced. What the fucking shit are people smoking to say this is the best story a Pokemon fangame has and why in the hell did I used to agree with those potheads? It's a mess, it's such a massive mess. The only salvations come in select cool/interesting moments and the unintentionally funny dialogue. But as an entirety, this plot blows chunks. The edginess is honestly such a minor issue by comparison, because the edgy content exists within this massive lump of confused contrivances and threads that jump around like a frog on crack. If it were a GOOD story with edgy content that'd be one thing... but this is an incoherent story with edgy content, and as such the core of the plot is broken. It is not good, it can barely be called decent at best and that's if you're generous.

Characters do not get proper time to develop, 90% of the plot threads go basically nowhere and those that do have lame resolutions when they eventually wrap-up: The story wants to do so many things at once whilst boasting a darker tint on the Pokemon world. But because it's such a mess of wet egg noodles, the story isn't given the breathing room to develop and properly embrace the themes it sets-up; that's why is goes from 'dark yet serious' to 'ow the edge' so quickly. It is much too concerned with packing as many cool ideas into it as possible rather than creating something truly impactful and memorable, hence the comparison to DM's first D&D module earlier. Ugh... love how I wanted to keep the "lmao edgy" point alone but ended up having to bring it back to make my argument. This plot isn't unsalvageable, at least not at its concept. In it's current form, though, it would need so many changes and rewrites to make it good- nevermind excellent -that you'd be better off just making it again from the ground-up.

So... the story is total ass, the difficulty is as inconsistent as my emotional state, and the soundtrack mixes genuinely great original compositions with RPG maker defaults. What does this game have going for it, especially since I'm not giving it lower than 3-stars? The gameplay. Yes, I fucking know, I rambled about the bipolar battle difficulties, but hear me out here. The core gameplay is Pokemon... big surprise I know, but Pokemon is fun. Really fun. And this game presents you with plenty of options to build your team and take on the world around you, along with many really well-constructed locations to explore and side-quests to complete in which to get some rarer Delta species. It rewards you for going out of your way to get more involved with the world, it feels genuinely satisfying to build-up a team and see what side content will bring to the table. Whilst in a way there is a similar level of content overload akin to Radical Red here, I feel it's generally spread out enough to not feel overwhelming. There are a ton of Deltas, new Megas, armored forms, even a couple exclusive legendary Pokemon included just for this game. But it's introduced gradually enough to not feel like you're getting pushed into the deep end after a couple hours of gameplay, this despite an early bad omen in 2nd gym Mega motherfucking Beedrill. The actual GAMEPLAY of the GAME is a lot of fun and is what kept me going on this playthrough, even with the now constantly mentioned wobbly difficulty curving/spiking feeling like a sledgehammer to the face at times. But unlike Radical Red where I just wanted it to be over, I kept going because it was more fun than frustrating. The bullshit is still bullshit at the end of the day, though, and I wouldn't blame anyone for being turned away by it. Because at points I was thinking of dropping the game early... yet, again; you get so many options and get rewarded for seeking out these options that you're never really railroaded into needing a specific answer to every solution. There are times where it may feel like that and I imagine hard difficulty might make that more apparent, but for the default difficulty setting you can honestly get by mostly fine. Just don't let the bipolar difficulty spikes turn you away, because when those bags of tricks are shown off it tends to become pretty simple in overcoming them shortly afterwards.

Man oh man, this was a ride and a half... I'll be amazed if anyone reads all this, and I'll be even more amazed if anyone reads all this whilst agreeing with me. Especially in regards to my story critiques. But all-in-all, this game is a mediocre mess. It's what people exaggerate Kingdom Hearts to be like, except it actually exists. The shitty story only really exists to give you excuses to visit more and more locations with tons of stuff to do, and that doesn't excuse the piss-poor plot... but whilst not giving a shit about said plot, the fun of the gameplay loop becomes very apparent and really is what kept me going through this one. I seriously can't imagine what younger me was thinking in agreeing with the people calling this game the best Pokemon fangame, but I wouldn't blame anyone coming here just to play around with the number of new options given to you. What an incredible disaster.

I don't think there's a lot I can say about Pokemon Insurgence that hasn't already been said. This fan game is one of the most beloved darlings of the Pokemon fan games/rom hacks of the online Pokemon community, and notable because it's been around for almost a decade and has not gotten DMCA'd by Nintendo. In my opinion, all of the love this game gets and it's cult status are very well deserved (pun intended). This game is plenty worth playing nowadays, and that's primarily because of the star of this show, which is, of course, the Delta Pokemon. They are ridiculously well designed and very fun to team build with and around.

Now, onto what is probably the single aspect of this game that will probably make it hard for any new fans to get into... the story. It's gratuitously edgy and dark and not entirely well written in that sort of teenage angst phase way, which makes it kinda cringey looking back on it. If that isn't to your taste, then no harm no foul, this probably isn't the fan game for you.

...but is it kinda bad that I love it for this? I don't know, to me it feels like a similar experience to sitting down and reading My Immortal or watching the Saw movies. It's silly and a little cringe, but it feels earnest and charming, and it's best done with friends on late night discord calls while intoxicated. It feels like a teenager wanted to make a game, so they went out and freakin' made it without ever making any compromises about it's creative vision. And yes, there are soooo many plot holes, it's hard to follow, and in some ways it over stays it's welcome. But despite all of that, or maybe because of it, I had spent more time of my play through of this game having fun than I didn't.

Besides, I think there were also a lot of genuinely interesting concepts on display here even if the execution is rough. I mean, Pokemon Cults were a fantastic idea, and I have yet to really see any other big projects including them, which is a shame because the idea of a cult replacing the more corporate, evil teams works incredibly well with the original Pokemon formula. And of course the aforementioned Delta Pokemon and the Custom Megas are absolutely stunning works of character design and sprite artwork.

So, should you play Pokemon Insurgence? I'd say it depends on the kind of experience you're looking for. If you don't wanna take the plot seriously and/or need an excuse to do something fun with friends, then I'd say go for it. There are very few pieces of art that I can say I enjoyed in a post-irony sort of way, and this is one of them. But then again, this game DID burrow its' way directly into my brain and hasn't left for 8 fucking years so maybe I have some very rose tinted glasses on lol. That being said, I had fun, and that's good enough for me.