2012 was fake news tbh (part 4) (Patreon)

Aventurine Region

"boasts a calm life style" ... well there's not much lifestyle at all except nyu and the nature center which--  i guess????
to be honest all of route 1 was a lot bigger than i planned it to be. like i sketched it out and drew it (and aventurine woods at the same time) and mapped it, and only after i was done mapping it did i stop and look up like
huh.
this place is fucking huge.
oops.
I think it was just how much space the woods puzzle needed though so ok, whatever. Berserk Tauros takes care of most of the problems from that.

Aventurine Forest

Lying just north of the city, it's quick connecting route to the northern cities. 

editing pls
so this is just a flat out lie as far as in-game goes since the woods are entirely optional... but the main connection to Agate is through Route 1's open area. Probably I was considering the entire area that became Route 1  to be this forest and then split it into north woods/route/south woods after drawing it and figuring out how that puzzle would work. 

Chrysolia Cave

In a peak at the south of the forest, the Chrysolia Pass comes to an end, connecting back to the main road. 

okay so this goes back to what i was saying before; originally chyroslia pass was how the player would access aventurine but I think I just? straight forgot about this?? and it became through Tanzan instead. but this basically would have been the cave that the player emerges from after saphira walks into the club like whatsup bitches i got a big steelix

not really my most inspired area tbh... caves often aren't.

Grand Gates

just says they're not functional zzzz. this concept really wasn't very clear or exciting. if i were going to design them today I'd probably take inspiration from one of those shinto-style gates instead. 

Vanhanen Labyrinth

in contrast to route 1, this one was probably way too small. however, especially with the trick i was able to pull with walking on top of it later, i think it's okay. i did originally design it to work both ways, and i was pretty happy with how that element came out. but so tiny...

Vanhanen Castle

 The Vanhanen Castle, owned by Radomus Vanhanen, former aristocrat and adopted father of Luna, current prison inmate on account of fraudulent activities. The castle currently remains empty in his and Luna's absence. 

haha oops
so again these descriptions were written for season 2 leaders to do things,  so most of the season 1 leaders were written out of the picture at that time (still not thinking about making it a game yet after all). as for the uhhh fraudulent activities haha yeah that was a thing in the online league, oops...........

Iolia Valley

 Yet, the hardness of the stone and treachery of the cliffs has rendered any greedy travelers' atttempts to harness them futile. 

well that certainly wasn't delivered on with how the player just busts up through a cliff into there. i think the valley itself is messy but turned out all right visually. it wasn't originally going to be luna's gym though-- i think i was planning on having it be a sidequest location. nowhere else really suited her so i made them dark crystals too. this was the first field effect to be created!

Agate Town

not much said here. i've characterized agate town by now but I don't think I had done so properly at the time I drew this; it was just kind of there.
it shares a name with a town from pokemon collosseum. i would like to say that was on purpose, but i was just unaware '-' so i've made do.

Abandoned Gym

 A Gym sits in the north of the city, currently unoccupied. Formerly, this Gym belonged to the previous Normal Gym Leader, Elias. 

u wot. wait then where's hardy. idk dudes. i mentioned before i switched around various things in the end game so it's possible hardy wasn't always meant to have this gym, but uh it was definitely never elias as far as game plot goes. 

Agate Circus

 Among is attractions are the Ferris Wheel, the Mirage-Tower of Doom, Samson the Strongman, the main act under the Big Top, in which Terra works as a clown, a beautiful aerial dancer, and of course plenty of other things. 

mirage tower of doom s h i t b o i, that's clever, i totally forgot about that until just now... you can see it on the map but it's not in the game world. maybe i should add it, and have it be visible from route 3 since that's right above the circus. there isn't really room for it either way though. awkward. oh well, it would have been cool.

Fiore Mansion

 She very rarely leaves, instead choosing to stay in with her lover. 

awkward.
but also awkward because the first several times we meet her it's always in the city doing things. she really only goes back there after being injured. that said, since that point i think this feeling gets across better.

Celestinine River

 Amaria once used the river area to conduct her gym battles. 

she did what
why
i didnt remember that at all either, again that was me writing her out but ???? that sounds dangerous, let's just battle in a river by a water fall over this sheer cliff face, good plan out of 10 tbhimojs no wonder she went over the edge god damn girl get it together
well she did get it together.
what i have planned for her gym will be pretty cool, i think. ^^

Celestinine Cascade

it spills into the city, feeding the Watershed and Treatment Facility at the stem of the sewer. 

watershed?
wat
sure, okay. i guess we can say that's a part of the WTC that's never seen.
but that much of it leading to the center was apparently planned so that's nice 

Celestinine Cave 

 A large cave cut by lava and sculpted by the Celestinine River, leading back into the Carnelian Mountains and interwining with the Ametrine Tunnel. This area is a favorite training spot for Hardy. 

ok so i wasn't thinking of this as having been formed by the river going through the mountain, but the way it was mapped suits that pretty well anyway actually, so lucky me.
and i guess this is where hardy was. so there would have been an arena in there? why? tbh. ok w/e

Citrine Cave

no mention of this being a salt cave. so even though all three are connected between this the last and ametrine i wanted some way to distinguish them from each other as i was making it so basically
ametrine is ice and water, celstinine is stone and water, and citrine is salt and ice. but it seems like it being a salt cave wasn't really one of the original plans after all. from how this is written i probably didn't have anything in particular planned.

.....hmmm. it looks like the next items on the list are some places i haven't made yet, and E17 areas. i'll still comment on the latter at least, but that'll be for next time.