Video Game / Pokémon Empire

Pokémon Empire is an episodically released Pokémon fan game in the vein of similarly episodic fangames such as Pokémon Reborn and Pokémon Rejuvenation. As with the previous two games, Empire is not a ROM hack, but rather a RPG Maker game.

The game takes place in the Telius region. Two years ago, King Tobias fell into insanity, sparking a region-wide civil war. A group of revolutionaries managed to usurp the king and the former nobles still loyal to the crown with help from the natives of the neighboring country Yo'ak, establishing a Council to rule over the war-torn region.

In the current day, the player returns to Telius after having fled prior to the war. They join the Telius Pokémon League Objective, a program with the goal of restoring peace and prosperity to the region. The player's goal is to journey throughout Telius, assisting the Council-appointed League Leaders with tasks to help the populace and earn the Leaders' Badges. Despite all this, it becomes very quickly clear that the Council is not everything it seems to be, and there are terrorists, criminal gangs, sinister scientific organizations, and even loyalists to the former king of Telius lurking in the shadows...

Similar to the aforementioned Reborn, Empire features 18 gyms (or at least this game's version of them), extremely high difficulty, a dark and violent storyline fraught with death and tragedy, and a field system that heavily alters how the player approaches fights. The game also rebalances nearly the entirety of the Pokémon roster, giving new evolutions, stats, abilities, moves, or just buffing the effects of old mechanics to make almost everything available viable. Nearly all Pokemon up to Gen 9 are available to catch, and there are also numerous new species native to Telius.

The game can be downloaded here.

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Tropes used in Pokémon Empire:

• Abstract Apotheosis: The Regalia are this and grant powers based on the concept they embody. Soren describes them as entities that exist in the fourth dimension manifesting in our reality than just being magical objects.
• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Unlike the main games, played absolutely straight. Pokémon Centers are no longer free and have higher costs with each new area, and several side quests or good items and Pokémon require exorbitant amounts of money that's not easy to find. The one saving grace is that healing items such as Potions and Ethers are easy to come by and inexpensive.
• Adventure Guild: The Explorer's Guild.
• Ambiguous Situation: Whatever the Toliman Test was, why it was performed, what the outcome was, and how it connects to Arthur's gym puzzle. All the player knows of it is that it was some kind of morally ambiguous program set up within the Toliman Mines to create a perfect society. The screwy nature of Toliman, along with the strange Toliman Test variable in the game's code that goes up and down to seemingly innocuous things like completing Arthur's poetry for him, don't help matters at all.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The HP bar's appearance has been edited to concretely show the 50% mark and the 'pinch' (low HP for certain berries or abilities to proc) range.
  • All starters have set high IVs and an Ability Primer to eliminate the need to reset for good stats or the ability you want.
  • After the beginning of each chapter, the player is allowed to buy consumables which raises the level of any Pokémon to five levels below the current level cap, with the option to teach any moves they would've learned during the skipped levels.
  • Pokémon's minmaxing mechanics are now a bit easier to work with. Berries that lower EVs now revert them to zero instead of increments of 10, and this game's equivalent of the Macho Brace and Ability Capsule can be bought from one of the first areas. Furthermore, there are consumables available from mining or hidden around the map that can raise IVs. By chapter 6, the player will be given access to an NPC who can change Natures.
  • There are certain candies that can change a Pokémon's gender if it's needed for a certain evolution or breeding.
• Anti-Regeneration: Is a status condition called Grievous Wounds, caused by a few new and retooled moves like Searing Shot or Needle Arm. This is to counteract the new healing-based strategies available.
• Apocalyptic Log: Implied to be the case with the journal inside the secret grotto in Serenity Springs.
• Artificial Stupidity:
  • Cheyenne during the OriGen Field Station raid will team up with you and leads with an Alcremie that loves to use Decorate, which has been buffed to increase all stats except speed. The problem? All of the fights during this section take place on the Distorted Reality field, which inverts positive stat buffs. Cheyenne clearly does not know or care about this quirk and will happily waste her turns lowering your stats. Can be averted by bringing a Pokémon that is immune to the reversed stat buffs, however.
  • The AI also struggles to recognize some immunities that aren't type-based. Taken to frustrating heights during the second battle with Ariella, where your partner Alanah's Cherrim (who potentially can be very useful in this fight, if it uses the proper moves) can and will waste turns targeting Ariella's Florges with Pixie Dust, a move that can't affect it thanks to the Symbiotic ability.
• Athletic Arena Level: Algol Arena, a stadium in the Entertainment District. It houses things like a (currently inaccessible) pool, an ice rink, a rock climbing wall and more. It's stated to be the designated arena of Flying type League Leader Gail, and it's also where you finally battle Ariella for her badge.
• Balance Buff:
  • Several moves that were previously useless now at least have one side effect, and even moves that were useful were either buffed in power or do something new. For instance, Splash, once the absolute weakest and most useless move in the entire series, now slightly lowers the target's accuracy.
  • Several Pokémon have received major movepool overhauls, type changes, stat increases, ability changes, or even new evolutions/mega evolutions to increase their power. For instance, Pokémon commonly seen as incredibly weak in the main series games like Magcargo or Unown have received significant boosts in strength on top of new evolutions that make them well worth using even to the end of the current version.
  • The Ice type gained a resistance against Water, from only resisting itself in the normal games. Additionally, Normal is now supereffective against Fairy, from having no types weak to it in the normal games.
• The Battle Didn't Count: Surprisingly averted for the first Arthur fight - if you somehow manage to win against his massively overleveled team, he will grant you his badge, TM, and a Lanturnite. You still do have to do the rest of the story events in the Toliman Enclave, but you can go up to level 40 and you do not have to do Arthur's second fight.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Every chapter features at least one random trainer with a single Pokémon that is either incredibly strong relative to the options the player has at that point or is much higher than the level cap.
• Boss-Only Level: In a sharp departure from mainline series Pokémon games, this applies to most of the arenas you will fight gym leaders on, due to 'gyms' no longer being a concept. Gym leaders will choose to fight you after you have completed the events of the story, not after you've cleared through their gyms. Only Arthur, Elise, Ashe and Sylas somewhat avert this.
• Bubblegloop Swamp: It's stated that this is what the Evernahn province is.
• Cap: Actually enforced by law. Trainers participating in the League need to earn badges to increase the levels of their Pokémon past certain points. At one point, you can even find a policeman confiscating a man's Pokemon due to not having enough badges. A student at Antares Academy, however, points out there are various ways to get around this, and this is why you will see people without the necessary number of badges having Pokémon with levels similar to or exceeding your own.
• Character Customization: There are a few different outfits the player can change into at different points in the adventure.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Guardian Barbaracle has some of its base stats in excess of 255, the series' limit, having 925 base Defense and a similarly ridiculously high 750 HP and 625 Special Defense. Its offensive stats and speed thankfully are much closer to normal Barbaracle (they're actually slightly worse). Guardian Girafarig is marginally better, with just one illegal stat (a massive 275 base Speed).
• The Con: An interesting (relatively) positive example of this, where several NPCs in Starlight's Administrative District will approach you trying to sell what are obvious scams. Buying into them all, however, allows the player to nab Swashlockler.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Guardian Pokémon, much more powerful versions of regular Pokémon, have this. It protects them from most status ailments and several other strange/debilitating moves. Interestingly, it does not block Guardian Girafarig from getting afflicted with the Field of Cinders' Curse effect, or Guardian Maushold from the Chaparral's Burn effect.
• Cool School: Antares Academy is one of these, having a widely balanced curriculum that aims at teaching the students skills to succeed at life rather than just giving them a diploma. Nearly every student you meet on the campus sings the praises of the school, and Headmaster Roland himself is a Cool Old Guy who gives both you and North valuable advice.
• Corrupt Church: Possibly the Visionaries. While they do charity work for refugees and preach good will to everyone, a side quest in Chapter 8 has the player hunt down an apostate member who cries that he will be burned at a stake if he's captured. If you believe him, you can let him go.
• Crutch Character:
  • Onix of all things manages to be one, having extremely buffed Attack complemented by a sky high defense stat and high speed for the first two chapters. Even when it begins to be outclassed by Pokémon like Rhydon, it's still decently powerful.
  • Noctowl can also end up being this. It's a very strong option versus the Psychic and Fighting Leaders of Chapters 2 and 3, and is one of the few fully evolved and overall solid Pokémon you'll have access to by early game. Most players are probably not going to be bringing it to Chapter 4 and 5's Electric and Rock Leaders, though.
• Cutscene Incompetence: Sometimes justified, other times not, but the player does have a bad habit of letting enemies run away even after defeating all of their Pokémon. Most egregious during the Bonnie and Clyde fights, where even after the player defeats the poachers, they still manage to grab the Gibles they're hunting and get away. Twice.
• Darker and Edgier: But of course, at least compared to the mainline Pokémon games.
• Deadly Gas: There is a new weather type added to the game, Smog, which primarily helps Poison types and damages all non-Poison and Steel types for a little damage each turn.
• Death Mountain: Itonda is this, being a steep, snowy alpine biome not far from Polaris.
• Defend Command: Several new moves such as Mirror Shield (damages any opponent not making direct contact) and Enforcement (confuses any opponent using an attacking move)
• Dual Boss: Ashe and Sylas are fought one after the other. Who you face first depends on certain choices.
• Eating the Enemy: The aptly named Gobble Up does this to the enemy. Expectedly learned by mons like Swalot or Wailord, less expectedly through tutor by mons like...Pansage or Joltik (the latter being the literal smallest Pokémon in existence). It isn't lethal, though, and just acts as an HP draining move.
• Earn Your Fun: The Rastaban Runs. If you want to, you can just go back to the Pokémon Center and heal after each trainer, which is what you'll probably want to do after some of the more annoying opponents such as the trainer with 6 Ghoulish FEAR Duskulls (Ghoulish being an ability that saps all the PP of the move that KO'd the mon). Beating all the trainers in a Run without losing or heading back to a Center is the only way to get the best rewards, such as a Sandacondite or Dhelmise, however.
• Eldritch Location: Parts of the Toliman Enclave, specifically the cave system where you fight Arthur the second time, the Tellurite Mines, and the Eyrie. Especially the Eyrie Core. Implied to be caused by the strange properties of Tellurite.
• Elite Mook:
  • Council soldiers tend towards this. Every Council soldier fought in the story thus far, even just the generic ones without a unique appearance, has been a boss fight.
  • In a more straightforward example, Ace Trainers, who will wield near-full teams and be on par with some of the bosses you face.
• Eternal Engine: The Industrial District has shades of this.
• Fantasy Character Classes: The Antares Dragons are based on these.
• Final Boss Preview: In Chapter 6, you briefly play as the Champion Rob Caspeare, who has a Level 100 Mewtwo.
• Final Dungeon Preview: During Chapter 10, you are summoned to Itonda for a short while at the request of Royale, which is heavily implied to be the last major area you will unlock.
• First-Name Basis: Averted hard, unlike the main games. Nearly every major character has a last name (the only exception is the player, and by extension their direct relatives) and even a lot of minor characters do as well. The last names also tend to be repeated quite a bit.
• Flashback: Very, very frequent thanks to the Sword Regalia. Not only are there flashbacks to the civil war two years ago, but you also get to see recently occurred events.
• Geo Effects: Similar to Reborn and Rejuvenation, the different environments of the world make you play by different rules. For instance, the Battle Arena field will make every Pokémon survive at 1 HP on a lethal hit just once, the Industrial Zone field will damage and swap out all non-Fire, Electric or Steel types every 3 attacks, and so on.
  • Additionally, the terrain system from the regular games has been retooled and expanded upon, adding in the Ruthless and Mundane terrains (helpful towards Dragon and Normal types, respectively).
• Global Currency Exception: Some NPCs in Starlight will ask for 'Cult Cash' and 'Retcoin' for some transactions, both cryptocurrencies. A good amount of both is necessary to complete some sidequests.
• Gray-and-Gray Morality: There are no factions in the game that are pure good or pure evil, especially the major two factions of Royale and the Council. Nearly every major character has skeletons in their closet along with genuinely good deeds to their name. Whomever the player chooses to follow and form strong relationships with ultimately depends on who you agree with most.
• Guide Dang It!: Would it be a Pokémon game without a few of these?
  • Finding Arthur initially in Toliman. The one NPC who provides a hint for where he is (telling you he's at the Serenity Springs) is blatantly wrong. Instead, you have to navigate the Tellurite Mines, a confusing cave system that can spit you out in any number of locations, to get to Calvera. That isn't enough, though - you also have to talk to a number of specific NPCs in Toliman, which is already a rather large and confusing map, who talk to you about Arthur before he shows up at the Grotto.
  • Obtaining Bisheerie. Though it doesn't require any amount of skill or running around, it is nonetheless a 2% chance that you can obtain it when reviving any fossil, without any real hint in-game that that's where you can get it or that it even exists.
  • Finding Porygon. There are two crystals inside the Toliman power plant that you can insert Crystal Cores into - upon doing so, it changes all the wild Pokémon in a nearby room into Porygon, with no indication that anything even has changed.
  • Ditto is a major pain in the ass to get, requiring the player to hunt it down across several episodes in weirdly hidden places (in Chapter 7, for instance, it's hidden as the topmost Noivern in the Toliman Eyrie) before it can be captured in Chapter 8. And of course, there's no guide or hints how to do the whole process in-game.
  • Completing each chapter's secret quest. Not only is it often difficult to tell where to start these and how to proceed with them, but even the guides for the game intentionally leave information about them out. On top of that, several of them can be inadvertently turned into Permanently Missable Content due to NPCs or items needed to start the quests becoming unavailable after the player has progressed far enough.
• Healing Shiv: Heal Pulse appears and it's been changed to healing another Pokémon by 2/3 of the user's max HP and restore their stat drops. In addition, it's learned by more Pokémon including the Deerling line and the Nacli line.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Healing Wish appears here and is now a Fairy-type move.
• Hopeless Boss Fight:
  • The first battle against Arthur. League Leaders use multiple teams as not every person takes the same journey throughout Telius, and Arthur fails to size you up properly, meaning he whips out a team of six Pokémon past level 70 when you're still hovering in the 30s, including a freaking Magearna.
  • In the same chapter, the Royale Knight Quinn. At first glance she may seem more manageable than Arthur, given it's a 12v6 battle with Soren backing you up and she has much lower levels the above fight. However, the average level of her team is still 45, a whopping 10 levels above your current level cap, and she uses multiple legendaries, Blacephalon, and even a Mega Banette, all with a team well equipped for the field.
  • Played straight in Chapter 8, against Ethyl Acquera if she fights you in the Rastaban Highlands. Not only does she sport a full team near Level 100 loaded with absurdly powerful Pokémon, in the event that you do somehow beat her she will sic Royale goons on you while she's given time to heal. This will continue indefinitely until you lose.
  • In chapter 9, during a sidequest involving Ariella, you meet Revisionary Octavius, named after the game's creator. Depending on what you do, you may end up fighting him, and he has a team of 3 Pokémon in the late 90s, including a Kyurem and a Shaymin. Your team should be around level 60 by this point.
  • In Chapter 10, you are tasked with rescuing Ariella from Club Piplup. Once you enter the room before the one she's in, you and North/Alanah (which one you get depends on who likes you more) are challenged by Slate, the club's DJ, who uses a full team with several legendaries, including Dragonite (which in Empire has been retooled into a Mythical), and Celebi, something your partner actually comments on. It's downplayed however, in that despite Slate's team being in the mid-80s compared to yours being in the mid-60s by this point, you still have access to a wide variety of mons to work with, and both Alanah and North still have very well-constructed teams to help you with, so it's not as impossible as some of the other examples.
• Human Traffickers: The focus of a particularly dark sidequest. As of the Chapter 7 secret quest, it's clear that the trafficking operation is only the tip of the iceberg for something much more sinister, and as of Chapter 9, it's implied Isaiah, who seemed to be your ally, may have ties to it.
• HP to One: Some moves have been reworked as this such as Strange Steam and Drum Beating.
• Item Crafting: Can be done at various workbenches littered throughout the region to obtain powerful items.
• Killed Off for Real: Cheyenne, and Enrico, however, you can save the latter (presumably) depending on certain choices.
• La Résistance: The Council during the civil war was one of these. Now, the remnants of the old Telian forces have coalesced into this under the name Royale.
• Luck-Based Mission: The fights on the Primordial Park field can be this, as they randomly generate buffs for both you and the opponent. All the opponent sometimes needs to sweep you is the Treasure Hoard effect to buff one of their Pokémon's offensive stats and speed, or to take out your main counter to one of their Pokémon with an unlucky Vine Snare.
  • This is also how you get the Raticite. There is a 0.02% chance of winning it as a prize at the Telius Lottery.
• Make a Wish: Wish returns, now as a Fairy-type move.
• Metropolis Level: Starlight City, with each of its major sections being comparable in size to the normal towns the player has visited previously.
• More than Mind Control: The Sword Regalia seems capable of doing this if you choose to use it over the course of Chapter 9, and those you use it on will reveal lore you wouldn't find out about otherwise, and can also point you towards some bonus rewards for doing so, like Duraludon or an Octillerite.
• Nerf: With everything in-game getting a fairly large overhaul in how they function, some nerfs were inevitable:
  • Entry hazards have now had their power cut down. Stealth Rocks deal damage in increments of 1/10 max HP as opposed to 1/8, with the availability of the move given near-exclusively to Rock-type Pokémon.
  • Several traditionally powerful Pokémon like pseudo-legendaries or Gyarados have been turned into item-based evolutions as opposed to level-based. The purpose of which is to prevent the player from gaining access to said Pokémon as of the latest update, which goes up to level 65 and would normally allow the player to have a few of said mons such as Gyarados or Salamence by this point.
  • Zig-zagged with the Fairy type, which is now weak to the incredibly common Normal type and lost its resistance to Bug, but also now resists Ghost.
  • This occasionally happens for balancing purposes between versions, if a Pokémon proves too strong in a previous episode of the game. Cradily, for instance, lost most of its healing moves including the ridiculous Strength Sap due to its ability to become a self-sustaining unstoppable defensive juggernaut.
• Never Recycle a Building: The entirety of Old Illyria was abandoned after the civil war, though it is home to a haunted mansion with some ghosts inside. Later on, however, there are plans to reconstruct it.
• The Nicknamer: Many important trainers will give their Signature Mon a nickname.
• No OSHA Compliance: The Toliman Enclave is basically a bunch of death traps. On one side, you have the mines, where getting crushed by falling rocks is a common occurrence, and on the other, there is the Molten Core, a volcanic area full of lava where it's easy to fall into a fiery death. A worker in the area notes that they have a search party looking for the last party sent to recover bodies, and workers are numb to the frequent deaths.
• Olympus Mons: It's implied that most of the League Leaders and higher-ups have at least one legendary or mythical Pokémon, with the same being true for Royale's Knights. The first Leader you fight that has one is Simon's Regirock, but you do fight others such as Soren's Zygarde-10% or Quinn's Keldeo and Type: Null earlier.
  • The player themselves can nab some of these if they've been keeping a close eye out for the secret quests. Specifically, Phione, Thermolt (a Heatran pre-evolution), Poipole, Kubfu, Calyrex, one of the Regis, and one of the Lake Trio.
• One-Man Army: The Soloist ability will buff the stats of the Pokémon that has it if it's the last active Pokémon in the party.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: When you're allowed to fight the League Leader of each area, an Ace Trainer with a high levelled team will be available to battle nearby. Not only can you refight them over and over to grind experience, but you can also test out strategies on the League Leader's field.
• Permanently Missable Content: Several unique Pokémon that can only be encountered once in the current version are this, such as Beldum or Chemera.
• Player Death Is Dramatic: The player can die in quite a few ways in this game, from being crushed by falling boulders to getting thrown into a river with weights tied to their legs. Every time it happens, the player character in-game cries and wonders if this is how it really ends, before you're sent back to the title screen.
• Pop Quiz: The subject of several teacher's classes at Antares Academy. Some can be solved by reading materials at the school. Other require the player to have paid attention throughout their journey or by guessing certain Pokémon correctly.
• Prison Break Episode: Episode 10 concludes with you going to Procyon Prison to get information from Vergil, and then invoke this as part of a plan by Royale.
• Protection from the Elements: What the player will get if they join the Brotherhood of Red Vapor, at least while navigating the Glasslands. Annoyingly Downplayed, though, as the steps the player can walk in the Glasslands before they're killed is only very slightly increased. The increase is necessary to get some things like Falinks or Ditto, though.
  • You get another boost from a guy at Algol Arena during Episode 10. This is needed to reach the Stained Tower, and by extension, the Guardian Maushold fight.
• Pun: Trop Kick is now called that as it's a mysterious drop kick and is learned by more Pokémon besides Tsareena.
• Purposefully Overpowered: Calyrex in Chapter 8, being a legendary with far more powerful stats than in vanilla on top of much stronger abilities and moves. It is deliberately kept so secret from the player, even more well hidden than the game's usual secret quests, for this very reason. While the normal secret quests can usually be solved with a bit of trial-and-error or poking around, it is nearly impossible to figure out how to obtain Calyrex without looking at the game's code.
• Sadistic Choice: This is forced on the player during their time in Illyria. The choice is to either give a limited amount of medicine to the foulmouthed and aggressive but young Davis, or the noble and kind but old Mr. Towns. Ultimately, however, it doesn't make much of a difference which one you pick, and the rewards for saving either are the same.
• Shifting Sand Land: The Rastaban Desert as a whole, though particular mention should be given to the harsh, deadly sandstorm-ridden desert of the Glasslands.
• Shout-Out:
  • Chapter 4 has a number dedicated to Dark Souls. Arthur's first fight being unwinnable is likely a reference to Seath, the names of his Pokémon are various Dark Souls bosses, his field is referred to as the Field of Cinders and KOing a Pokémon on this field leads to the attacker absorbing their soul and becoming the 'Bearer of the Curse'. Arthur's Leitmotif is even a remix of Gwyn's theme.
  • Pokémon Reborn, Pokémon Rejuvenation, Pokémon Desolation, Pokémon Uranium, Pokémon Insurgence, and Pokémon Radical Red are all mentioned in-game, usually by the regions the games take place in. There is also no shortage of references to the real games, down to the Ghost League Leader being a dead ringer for Morty.
  • Shawn and Gus appear as members of the Detectives' Guild.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Polaris Point and the surrounding areas, which notably is the first major area the player goes through when this trope is usually reserved for final or late-game areas in other Pokémon games.
  • Itonda is also partly this, and a more traditional lategame example, as it is stated to be home to one of the region's strongest Leaders.
• Solarpunk: Averted, unlike the regular games. There is an imminent climate and energy crisis on Telius's Poke-Earth, exacerbated by Telius's poor financial state after the civil war, and two NPCs will argue over nuclear versus wind and solar as a means of solving it.
• Status Effects: Works roughly the same as the normal games, with a few new ones and Freeze resembling Frostbite from Legends Arceus. Pokémon inflicted with status or certain ailments like Taunt or Heal Block are referred to as 'Compromised' which can activate certain abilities or the effects of some moves. The game also introduces the new Enchanted status condition, which reverses positive stat buffs and halves evasion.
• Stealth-Based Mission:
  • The Elgyem maze in Illyria, which gets progressively harder as the player moves through it, but only kicks the player back to the start of the maze if you're caught.
  • The trip through the Deep Crimson Forest, which combines this with Strength puzzles, enemies that move erratically, enemies that track your location, and very tight time windows for the player to sneak around the fast moving guards. At the very least, North and his men will take out some of the guards as you progress through the map.
• Story Branching: Whether you choose to join the Detectives' Guild or the Thieves' Guild will lock you entirely out of the other's sidequests and rewards, at least for now. Hinted that the player will eventually have to make a similar choice regarding the Council and Royale.
• Support Party Member: Several Pokémon such as the Nacli line and Drampa have been reworked to serve as this.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Pokémon are treated as standard weaponry in war over artillery or firearms, and for good reason: they are far more varied and powerful, and can be quickdrawn as well as any gun, as General Eberhart finds out the hard way.
  • The Yo'aki are a tribal dark-skinned people from a neighboring country that were brought in to help win the war in exchange for citizenship. Not only do their core values end up clashing hard against the native light-skinned Telians, but they're largely treated with hostility and racism.
  • This game does not shy away from discussing economic or cultural struggles in general, at least within the context of groups represented in-game. Even in a fantastic world where supernatural creatures and incredibly advanced science exist, humans are still human and would ultimately end up having most of the same problems no matter the setting.
• The Syndicate: The Sanguine Serpents. It helps that a lot of their illegal operations are supported directly by the government so as to keep smaller gangs off the street.
• Too Dumb to Live: Can apply to the player themselves a few times. Cleaning out vents (that you can easily get sucked into and killed) with your bare hands is probably not the smartest thing to do, and you'll probably end up dying a few times. Though you can get lucky and earn yourself a chance to catch Beldum for your efforts.
• Trespassing Hero: For the most part, played straight, but averted in a house in Polaris Pass, where a woman will angrily run at you and kick you out of her house for intruding. You can still break into her house via the window, though.
• Underground Level: Toliman Enclave, a cave system used both as a major power plant but also a settlement for the workers living there.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: Can occur in quite a few ways.
  • At one point, you're given money to go buy a drug from a certain vendor. The character giving you said money will outright tell you not to waste your cash — if you do, and you have no way to obtain more money, you're screwed and have to reset or go back to an older save.
  • The Explorer's Guild mission to become a Third Level Explorer can become this. You're supposed to navigate a blizzard-covered map to find a Monkey's Paw to take back to the Guild, but if you take too long, a whiteout will occur and kill the player. If you save in the middle of this and don't have enough time to get back, that's it. Again, however, you're given ample warning.
  • The Glasslands are nearly identical to the above example, only featuring deadly sandstorms instead of blizzards. If the player doesn't have an Escape Rope in their bag, the player will say to themselves that they need to be careful about saving the game.
• Unnaturally Looping Location: The Tellurite Mines.
• Useless Useful Spell:
  • Iron Dome. A priority move that maxes out defenses sounds absolutely absurd, even with the drawback that defenses lower sharply every other turn, and pairs off extremely well with moves that are calculated with defense like Fracture and Body Press. The problem? The defense lowering effect stacks with subsequent uses, meaning that defensive Pokémon who would naturally want to stay in and bulk their way through whatever threat they're sitting in front of cannot just spam the move.
  • The Ruthless Terrain in general. While it is useful for dragons getting a general power boost, it doesn't particularly help that dragons are now even more vulnerable to their own element (of which many Pokémon get as coverage in this game). The PP doubling hurts Dragon-type moves which tend to have low PP on average to justify their great power while not at all harming Ice and Fairies, and the Boomburst nerf if anything hurts Noivern more than most other mons.
• Vice City: Calvera Cove. It is overrun by crime, junkies, drugs, and lazy idiots, with most of the houses in disrepair. Despite this, most of the citizens actually enjoy the free lifestyle they can lead there and love Rose, the leader of the town, who lets them do what they want. It's to the point where the Council arresting Rose is what convinces the entire town to join Royale to help fight against the Council's soldiers.
  • A more downplayed example is the Entertainment District in Starlight. It's nowhere near as bad as Calvera, but the crime here is still noticeably more of an issue than the rest of the city.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment:
  • In several early game houses, you're given the option to steal money lying around. Steal too much, and Ezekiel will promptly whoop your ass with his massively overleveled team.
  • One sidequest has you facing off against Youngster Joey with his classic level 5 Rattata. The catch? You've been asked to fight and purposely lose to Joey by his gangster older brother, who wants to boost his bullied younger brother's spirits. Trouncing Joey with the level 40 Pokémon you have access to at this point makes him cry, but it's nothing compared to the player getting beaten and killed by the gang afterwards.
  • At the Primordial Resort, there is a house where people can enjoy the company of some Slowpoke. You can use the Sword Regalia to obtain them for yourself, but taking all 4 of them results in you getting kicked out. You'd only need 2 anyway for your dex (1 regular, 1 Galarian), as Slowbro evolves into Slowking in Empire.
  • If Ariella really hates you, she'll significantly ramp up the difficulty of her league battle, using a far more advantageous field for her (Fae Garden instead of Starless Streets), and a much stronger team, including a second legendary, Cresselia.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Elise is frequently seen as this, given that she's the first trainer with 6 Pokémon you properly fight one-on-one and her Lapras is far more powerful than any Pokémon you've seen or caught at this point (barring Onix, who of course sports a 4x weakness to its Water moves). Some earlier fights like Becket and Ezrael could also qualify.
• The Wild West: Illyria evokes this heavily. It's helped by how large and wide-open the map is, as well as the music for both the areas and fights.
• Wham Episode: The end of Chapter 7, where Soren reveals himself publicly to be the true heir of King Tobias, and is stabbed by an unknown assailant. Soren's refusal to cooperate with the Council also possibly marks the start of a new war between the Council and Royale.
  • Chapter 9's ending also qualifies. You meet up with Enrico, and after speaking for a bit, the Sword Regalia summons Vergil, who proceeds to attack Enrico, either causing him to vanish or outright killing him. Immediately after, the Council arrives and has him arrested, ousting him as an assassin for OriGen in the process, which Rob intends to confront their leader Rigel about.
  • The end of Chapter 10 involves you getting drugged by someone after completing the Procyon Prison break, causing a lot of visions that make little sense, and the game acting like it's over. Additionally, we get to see more of Zain's shady actions, putting some doubt on his benevolence, and Vergil warning you of something very bad in the future that he refuses to elaborate on.

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