Continuing to document the making of Princéton: Bluff Version, today I want to talk about the boss fight with Marlon Guppy, and how the design intent leads to its structure — one we'll see in each of the boss fights going forward.
The goal with Princéton as a game is to have you get through the story and also have fun with the mechanics, while feeling powerful but also like your gameplay choices do matter. So the challenge is to make it very rare for the player actually to faint (fail), so they can finish the game and story at a reasonable pace; but still make it feel worthwhile for players to level up and and make good decisions.
[SCIENTIST,Marlon Guppy]
LoseText = Yes, Melinda can go. But please, don't look at the puppet.
Pokemon = MAGNEMITE,13
Moves = VOLTSWITCH,SUPERSONIC,THUNDERWAVE,TACKLE
Pokemon = ARON,14
Moves = MUDSLAP,HEADBUTT,ROCKPOLISH,PROTECT
An Electric type Same-Type-Attack-Bonus attack from a level 13 Magnemite can do some serious damage to our Water/Fighting Keldeo (who starts at level 10)! To help balance this, there's several opportunities to accidentally level Princeton up to at least 11 or 12 by the time we reach our first boss fight, but either way the danger is defanged in a key way: instead of Thundershock or something similar, I gave Magnemites in this game Volt Switch at level 12.
This means that while Magnemite, Marlon Guppy's lead pokemon, will often lead with Volt Switch and take more than half of Keldeo's health in the process, it's impossible for him to follow up with another super effective attack in a row. We get hit for a chunk of damage, but then Magnemite automatically switches out for an Aron, who despite having pretty good stats and a higher level, has some glaring weaknesses. The trainer feels like they're on the back foot, damaged and up against a stronger enemy. The Sitrus Berry that Princeton starts with (or the Leftovers that you can pick up in the initial room) can heal Princeton while Aron durdles around, and while Protect, the accuracy loss from Mud Slap, or the flinch from Headbutt might be frustrating, they have almost 0 chance of actually affecting the fight. Again it's the feeling of a challenge; throwing the punch, but then pulling it. The stalling nature of Aron's Protect means you might Work Up a few times first against this less aggressive opponent to prepare for the rematch; a STAB 4x-effective Double Kick from Princeton rewards type knowledge and feels satisfying against a higher-level high-defense Pokemon.
Now, having had the chance to regroup, wounded but partially healed, you face Magnemite again... and you really want this win. Electric against Water! You're the underdog! But: Fighting against Steel; you have a secret advantage. There's a chance Magnemite's Supersonic can hit and confuse-lock you into a K.O., in which case you'd be in a better position if you had caught literally any wild pokemon or picked up a confuse-curing Flute for sale on the East Beach, but even if you've gone in with only Princeton by your side, it's still a 55 accuracy move and a lot of coin flips to have to not pull this off in style.
At the end of the day, you've got a legendary companion by your side in Princeton, and winning this battle on its own means you're close to the level you'd need to be to solo the Neighbor family! You ran into a challenge, but you overcame it, and that's the design of the game.
